Kuno's Writing Blog

Bundling by ElectroDragonfly

Third year students Shouto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu would just like some time alone while Momo’s laundry is running. Apparently, even this is too much to ask. Crosspost from FFN account.

Words: 1997, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Todoroki Shouto, Yaoyorozu Momo, Shuuzenji Chiyo | Recovery Girl

Relationships: Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo, Todoroki Shouto & Yaoyorozu Momo

Additional Tags: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, One Shot, Established Relationship

But while there are some crappy and entitled readers, there are also many brilliant ones and I’m so grateful for them. The huge response to this post made me go back and skim through the comments on my old stories, and comments like the one below are about half the reason some of those stories got finished, even if it was months later. 

Comments like these are so rare, but when they do come up, they leave me staring at my computer screen, drumming my fingers on the keyboard, struggling to convey my feelings about how their words have touched my heart. These are the comments that take the longest amount of time to respond to and the ones that cause me to wear out my backspace key the fastest. 

It’s easy to complain, but it’s literally just as easy to praise, so I just wanted to take a moment to recognize all those dear and dedicated readers who have propped me up when I wanted to quit. Readers like you are why I keep writing, and why I even feel honored to do it on rare occasion. 

And fellow writers, keep your heads up if you can. :) 

inspired by @haik-choo

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POLITE: Todoroki is not polite. Not even a little bit. It’s canon that his personality is not far off from Bakugou (who is outwardly abrasive and rude). Keep that in mind. Todoroki is not nice, especially to people he doesn’t like - he won’t outwardly say it unless someone asks him, though. A good way to think of it is, Todoroki is just as mean as Bakugou except he’s passive about it.

FORMAL: It’s canon in the manga that Todoroki doesn’t speak formally, out of pure disrespect for his father. The way he talks is very casual, and you won’t ever see him use typical Japanese formalities. Don’t be afraid to write him spitting out cusses either, as it’s also canon that he cusses like a sailor.

SHY: I understand how Todoroki may come off as shy, and I understand how this idea of him has spread throughout the fandom - but, alas, I am here to crush this character trait under my boot. He’s not shy - he’s introverted. He doesn’t go out of his way to talk to people, not because he’s scared of talking to people, but because he genuinely doesn’t feel the need to. He’s not afraid of coming off as awkward while speaking - in fact, in most scenes where he has dialogue comes off as really awkward, but he never cares. Todoroki isn’t afraid/nervous to talk, he literally just doesn’t want to.

RULE FOLLOWER: This isn’t a trait I see pinned to his character a lot, but I feel like it ties into the whole entire polite/formal notion that Todoroki has stuck to his back - and I want to address it. This boy goes out of his way to break rules - he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about authoritative figures. This has been shown multiple times throughout both the manga and anime (him not listening to his dad’s wishes regarding his quirk and him proposing the idea to rescue Bakugou). He also doesn’t care much for punishments. In conclusion, this boy is not the voice of reason in any situation ever - stop writing him out to be responsible!

EMOTIONLESS: Todoroki was abused his whole childhood. He’s not stoic in the sense that he doesn’t like the people that surround him - he’s stoic in the sense that he doesn’t know social queues, or how “normal” teenagers interact. He’s casual when he’s talking, but that doesn’t mean he knows what teenage slang is. He’s not a rule follower, but that doesn’t mean he understands the concept of “normal” teenage rebellion (drinking, smoking, partying, etc.). It’s really important to comprehend this part of his character because this part of him shines through the most. He’s not cold-hearted, he just doesn’t know how to interact with people correctly because all he’s known his whole life is a horrendous cycle of abuse. He doesn’t know how to empathize with others, and he also doesn’t know how to express himself properly. 

HUMOR: This isn’t a mischaracterization of him, but I do want to bring special attention to his sense of humor - as he is easily one of the funniest characters in the show. Todoroki and Bakugou share the same sense of humor, in certain aspects. Their sense of humor is dry, and they really like sarcasm. Todoroki also loves poking fun at Bakugou, by going out of his way to say/do certain things to provoke the hothead. A few good examples of this are: when the class is discussing their hero studies, and Todoroki keeps repeating that both Bakugou and him are falling behind in class eventually leading to Bakugou screaming in frustration. A second example is when Todoroki introduces Bakugou as his friend in the manga, completely disregarding the blond’s loud protesting. In general, Todoroki thinks picking on people is fun.

Overall, I think Todoroki’s character is approached incorrectly throughout the majority of fanfics written. He is a very hard character to capture, to understand - but once you delve into the type of person he is, and pay attention to the small details of his personality he is very fun to write. 

Everyone else:

me: that’s right

my future employer: may i see your contribution

 Don’t have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. Many people don’t even think of this as sad (note that this can still work if you have enough of the other factors).

 Leave one of their major goals unfinished. The more enthusiastic they are about completing the goal, the sadder.

 Give them strong relationships with other characters.

 Make them fight against whatever is causing their death. Their ultimate loss is sadder if they struggle.

 Kill them in the middle of their character arc.

10. have their loved one, broken hearted, tell the team to stop fighting because “its over.” 

11. have their pet come looking for them. 

12. have their loved one perform a popular song at their funeral so it makes the fans cry whenever it’s played.

13. family witnessing the death and/or blaming themselves.

14. kill the character in the middle of making a joke, smiling, or expressing/experiencing joy/happiness.

15. make the character’s death slow and painful, but make them unable to call out for help even though they can literally see the other characters nearby.

16. after killing the character, have others think the character had betrayed them so they’d always hate them and remember them as traitors and never say nice things about them… Give your readers no chance to have group-therapy with other characters by making them the only ones who know the truth.

17. right before their death, show a side of them nobody has seen. (someone who is always tough and brave being genuinely scared of dying alone; someone who is always laughing being in tears before dying, etc.)

18. make them the only person who knows a big important secret that would help other characters in the story.

19. have them being lied to before dying. (thinking they’ve been betrayed; thinking they weren’t loved; thinking they’ve lost their loved ones, etc)

20. make the character very enthusiastic/passionate about a certain goal, constantly put stress on their goal, have them die unexpectedly before they can reach their goal. 

and the best one…

21. have another beloved character kill them–better be a close friend to your character, one that absolutely nobody suspects, one that everyone can’t help but love, one who is always enthusiastic about things and encourages your character. THEN

reveal the truth only later when it’s too late and the a-hole character has already escaped.

have a cowardly character know the truth and never tell anyone else

have another character find out the truth and have them die before revealing it to others. 

have the said character ^ not actually die, but go through something so they’d forget the friend of the deceased character is actually an asshole. 

This way only your readers will know the truth, thus the frustration would be… most enjoyable for you.

Leave the physical shell walking and talking, but strip out everything that made that person who they were.  Make them forget all about their loved ones, themselves, their experiences and past, their skills, and have them have to start over completely from scratch.  Physical and mental disabilities bonus points.

30. Make it happen after an argument. Make them die before they had a chance to make amends. Cripple the surviving character with guilt over what turned out to be their last words to each other, now to be left unresolved forever.

31. Give the other characters survivor’s guilt.