lek

9th popularity poll color art is a Toriyama tribute.

Some surprises:

I expected Dabi in, but omg he jumped to 4th? Wow, the 11th place boost worked!

Shoji in Top 10 instead of Toga, Tokoyami or All Might is somewhat surprising. But congrats for him being one of the only heteromorphs to make it

the realism of Ed is so painfully wonderful- this is a fifteen year old child. Remember what you were like when you were fifteen? Yeah? Fifteen is so young. This is a child who's had to grow up WAY too fast and has been through so many unspeakable things, but he's still a kid and he actually ACTS like it. He gets irritable over small things and acts "childish" when he's excited and has that touch of arrogance a teen gets when they know they're important.

Ed gets scared. He's not like a lot of your "unshakable" shounen protagonists, who, when faced with something shocking in a fight, eyes only widen and mouth only frowns and they only worry a little and maybe ask for an explanation. No, Ed is a kid and he gets scared. Sometimes he handles fights well, but sometimes he freezes. When Scar found him and Al, when he hurt Al and tore out Ed's arm and pursued relentlessly in the rain, standing over Ed as Ed writhed on the ground, Ed screamed for his brother and froze in his fear and thought he was about to die then.

He's so fifteen in everything- in his anger and his arrogance, in his fear, in his trauma, in his reverence of life. Ed is at the age when your eyes truly start to open to reality and society, though given his past he probably started earlier. But he holds life so preciously, so closely, cradles it in his arms and declares over and over again that it is one thing he will not trample, will not hurt. That fifteen-year-old conviction and the leftover naivety from childhood, paired with the newer discovery of just how sacred, how beautiful and important life is.

He's fifteen in his love. You ever been around teenagers, especially today's teenagers, and you know they do everything fiercely, most things boldly, and Ed screams it in his love. In his protection of Al, his absolute dedication and protection to the one person he has left, can hold close. He's a teenager in their banter but such an eldest sibling in every way- in his drive to protect Al from anything, everything he can, in his leadership, in his fear of losing his sibling.

Ed is such a real person, such a real kid. He's incredibly mortal, unlike a lot of op shounen protagonists. He hits his head and it bleeds. He gets impaled and struggles to stand at all. Every time he's injured we see him recovering in the hospital after. He has nightmares from his fear of failure, about Al and his mother and Nina. He's smart but not indestructible. He's incredibly earnest about his convictions, earnest about the beauty of life, just like a teen.

Since it’s been literally years since I’ve posted, I have no idea whether I have any followers. Nonetheless, after a complete life upheaval, I’ve started reading fanfiction again and wanted to start with my comfort food, which is TDBK. I recently read two fics that I think are worthy of more attention, but warning: they are both difficult reads for different reasons. Mind the tags and keep yourself safe.

Two and a Half Broken Promises (T, 80,311K) by @beefjerkyoff

Shouto abruptly returned his attention to the road, the tiredness that had ebbed from seeing Katsuki creeping back with a soreness behind his eyes. He scrunched his nose, trying to itch away the stuffiness, cleared his throat, and said in a best attempt at his trademark monotone.

“Pop quiz: so you’ve broken out of a hospital. Where’s the first place you go?”

There was no hesitation in Katsuki’s response.

“You know that street vendor down the block from my old high school?”

Shouto hummed an affirmative. He was very familiar with the only food joint in the entire city that Katsuki had determined made their food ‘spicy enough’ upon request. It was a level of spicy Shouto was personally affronted by. He thought no normal human being could ever consume food that aggressive, on a regular basis, and not succumb to it.

Katsuki, though, had never been classified as ‘normal,’ and the only thing that could take him out was a greater power above or an extremely aggressive terminal illness.

Katsuki has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and there is nothing Shouto can do but stay by his side.

This is a story about Love, and Grief, and Recovery.

Okay, I don’t think it’s ruining the story to say that this is an MCD fic that I would normally avoid like the plague. But @beefjerkyoff does a great job showing the aftermath of grief rather than just ending with the death.

Serendipity (G, 80.2K) by muytiene

“Shouto holds his hand out, catching a bit of the sun in his palm. His skin is glowy in the golden lighting, and he squeezes his fist closed. It makes him feel… it makes him feel. Shouto opens his hand back up, and then it is snatched away from him.

A void grows inside of Shouto when Dabi speaks to him, the words enter Shouto’s brain but they don’t resonate with him. He is disappearing again, starting with the wrist that Dabi is holding, all the way down to his knees, and the old torn sneakers Dabi gave him. Shouto looks Dabi in the eye. He is angry. Shouto tenses, and the world dissolves, crumbling away at the edges.”

Or,

Shouto’s only ever known darkness. Change ensues.