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#this is peak dark academia in reality

sylvanium · 10 months

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I had a phone call in the morning due to a job application. I almost cried when I learned the interview for the job was scheduled on the same day as the state exam. I apologised and said I cannot come. And now, all my hopes of getting the job are crushed.

And just an hour ago, I read my opponent's opinion regarding my thesis. I was prepared for a very, very harsh review (because my thesis is *obviously* incomplete and lacks a lot of information)… And it seems like it's the opposite of what I have expected - just how? It's considered "very good"?? Excuse me, what???

In the end, I really did cry. Because I feel like I didn't deserve it I feel overwhelmed. (And I'm scared that some stupid little devil's voice in my head will start whispering about Ph.D. and that would be the end of me.)

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inner-viper · 5 months

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New Year Reading 2024 Edition- Timeless Reading

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well! This is a general New Year’s reading so you can have a peak of what’s coming to your life! If you are interested in receiving a detailed New Year’s reading then you can purchase it here! This reading comes with an explanation of each month and the overall energy of your year! This reading is exclusive and will be discontinued after the Chinese New Year!

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NEW YEARS TAROT READING- LIMITED EDITION

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Pile 1

Dark Wood Tarot Deck:

Two of Cups, Moon, Empress, Hierophant, and Judgment in rx

There seems to be a general energy of finding the right people. You may encounter someone who will be a lover, a good friend, or a great business partner. This person may have been someone you have been trying to manifest to come into your life. They will be loyal and courageous, they hold a special place in your life. Now some people may go through uncovering many illusions and lies about the people surrounding them. Some of you have some toxic people around and this will be the year of finding out truths. I feel like some of you have been holding back on who you are, there seems to be a general energy of not being able to express who you really are! You are meant to find out more things about yourself this year, a lot of self-discovery energy is in this pile. Now, there may be a turn of events where you may end up pregnant, if that is not resonating then you may discover a new creative endeavor. This creative project will bring birth many abundances into your life! For some of you, there will be another rite of passage, like a transition from one place to another! Some of you may be physically moving and others may be moving spiritually. There will be many ups and downs but you seem to be able to get through it. Try not to be overly self-critical in your spiritual journey and in general! I am picking up the vibes that you can be overly critical.

Thank you for reading!

Pile 2

Dark Wood Tarot Deck:

Death, Seven of Cups, Page of Cups, Magician, and Devil

This pile is starting off strong, there will be a transformation at the beginning of the year. It may start off rough for some of you who have chosen this pile. I am picking up a lot of losses and it could be financial losses, what I am about to say next may not be applicable to everyone but I do see that there is a death involved. This could be a family member, friend, or someone close. It will be hard getting through this from the start. Now for the majority, there will be a death in who you are, there seems to be a general energy of you transcending the past and becoming someone better than the past before. Perhaps the past used to haunt you but you’ll be able to face it. You seem to be working on your dreams and bringing them to reality. Connecting and grounding yourself with Mother Nature. I feel like some of you this year will begin to plan big things such as business, academia, and etc. However, there seems to be a twist and turn later on. It could be that you got stuck in a negative cycle towards the end of the year. This may be some addiction of some sort. Overall, your year turned out to be very good for setting the foundations of success for 2025.

Thank you for reading!

Pile 3

Dark Wood Tarot Deck:

Page of Pentacles, Lovers in rx, Seven of Pentacles in rx, Queen of Cups, and Nine of Swords in rx

You will start off strong this year, you may have a new project that you are begging to start. You will be taking it upon yourself to set yourself up for success and abundance this year. This could be career-related! Now, later on, it seems like you may have dealt with lovers who are not good for you, there may be certain people that you end up attracting because they may think you are easy. You may have entertained it for some time but it seems like you made the decision to no longer interact with the dating scene. There will be a release in your romantic life, I do see that for some this will lead to you rejecting yourself. There seems to be a disappointment of your harvest not being ready yet, you will go through learning the lesson of patience. Patience is key this year for you! Later on in the year, you will be able to be more emotionally available to yourself and others. I am seeing that this opening of the heart will allow your fruits to be harvested. You went down only to go up! Overall, this year was a good year. Filled with many rewards and fun memories.

Thank you for reading!

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claireelizabethsblog · 6 months

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~ November's Books Reviewed ~

Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston

(418 pages)

I had wanted to read this book for AGES and I'd say it definitely lived up to my expectations - every shitty christmas romcom! And I mean that both in a bad way, and a very very good way. I unapologetically loved every second of it.

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Fateful Crossing by Tom Hindle

(449 pages)

Not bad, but also, not good. A little messy and therefore a bit confusing, especially as a murder mystery, messy plot holes etc can really detract from the story in my opinion. That being said, I read it quickly and it was an easy and enjoyable enough story for that to happen.

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Babel by R. F. Kuang

(546 pages)

Really interesting concept. I think I maybe read it a little too quickly so didn't fully appreciate it as it should have been. The commentary and insights on society and racism and xenophobia was very well done and extremely engaging which is what's going to make me say (unusually for me) that the fantasy elements were the worst bits of this book for me, and I almost felt that the same story could have been told without the "magic" and it maybe would have been even more impactful to just be commenting on language and communication in a reality that is more obviously similar to our own.

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Murder Game by Tom Hindle

(373 pages)

Better than the other Hindle book I read in my opinion, but still a little too "convenient" almost to be a fully successful and good murder mystery for me. Still obviously an easy and light read though, otherwise I wouldn't have picked it up after the first one.

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Where are the Women by Sara Sheridan

(447 pages)

I was gifted this book and it is therefore an obvious movement away from the normal sorts of books I choose to read (it is designed more similarly to a guide book or history text book). In theory, this book is extremely interesting and so so undeniably well researched. I definitely learnt a lot. However, there is a reason I don't tend to read non fiction (or fictions books like this designed to be like a guide book), and that is because I don't particularly like reading them - they always feel just like an info dump with a lack of an actual story arc to me (which I suppose is exactly what they're aiming for...)

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Secret History by Donna Tart

(559 pages)

It is clever. And I'm always going to appreciate a book that is the first of its genre or does something new for the first time. That being said, just because somethings the first, rarely means it's the best, and I've definitely read other dark academia style books that I've enjoyed more to be honest. I found myself skim reading sections which speaks to the fact that I perhaps didn't find it as engaging as other books.

I gave this book 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️🌗

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

(386 pages)

I was waring going in to this book since it has blown up, but mostly with people a little older than myself (late 30s-early 50s as far as I've seen), but I really really enjoyed this (and have now recommended it to all my reading friends my age too!)! It filled me with a righteous anger, but in a very validating way. Bits were a little predictable, but that hardly mattered when the social commentary was so much more important than the plot. I'd support a rule saying that every cis male should have to read this to be honest, it's such a peak behind the curtain at just the unintentional, but so deeply engrained micro aggressions that all us women experience, nevermind the outright moments of sexism and misogyny.

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Almond by Won Pyung Sohn

(252 pages)

A bit of a non story, but I strangely enjoyed it. I read the entire thing in less than an hour so hardly an intense read, but it was a very interesting perspective and commentary on people and their relationships with each other, and with themselves.

I gave this book 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

(398 pages)

Everything I wanted and/or needed. So wholesome. My only complaint actually is that I wanted more to be honest. All the characters are so so lovely and I loved their found family. T. J. Klune rarely disappoints.

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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shellielovesart · 10 months

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🌸Hello, I'm a koala bean but you can call me shell🌸

She/Her

Allosexual/pansexual

29 November 1993

Likes and passions:

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊

┊ ┊ ✫ ˚♡ ⋆｡ ❀

┊ ☪︎⋆

⊹

🔞18-21+

🔞Minors DNI

🍃420 friendly

🎮Cozy/Variety gamer

👾Retro Games

💭Anime

🫀Horror/Thriller content

🩸True crime

🦠Lovecraftian horror

🧁Cozy/Cute aesthetics

🍓Cottagecore/babycore/Dark Academia/Fairycore

🫧Bubblegum Witch

🍄Mushrooms/fungi

🌑The Sandman

🏩Lego

🌷Fashion

🍵Certified drink goblin

🎮Variety/cozy gamer

🖤Married to Morpheus (The sandman)

⚡Potterhead (I do not support JK Rowling or her views )

💛Hufflepuff

🌈LGBTQIA+

🛌Introvert

🌷Cozy things

🎮RPG lover

🏚️Antisocial hermit lady

🧚‍♀️LOTR

🏠Lego

👻Spooky things

☠️SCP

💀The backrooms

📗Greek mythology

💤I have a PhD in napping

😨Traumatized goblin

🐉I love dragons

🩷Pokemon

⚔️Swords

🧝Cosplay

💐Flower crowns

👑I am a fairy princess

📗Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton

🏹 fantasy

📗poetry

💚💚💚

Abuse awereness

Mental health awereness

Stigma free

pro-choice

LGBTQIA+ Ally

🍄Games🍄

👾Retro games

👾JRPGs

👾MMORPG

👾CRPGs

👾RPGs

👾Roguelike

👾Souls games

👾Horror

👾Cozy games

👾Puzzle/escape rooms

👾Otome

👾FPS

👾visual novels

👾Metroidvania

👾Indie games

Dream of the endless aka my husband

https://twitter.com/CozyLittleShell

Movies to get to know me;

🌷Harry Potter

🌷fantastic beasts

🌷LOTR

🌷The Hobbit

🌷Like minds

🌷X

🌷Pearl

🌷 Jennifer's body

🌷Till death

🌷Crimson peak

🌷Dracula

🌷Queen of the damned

🌷 Interview with a vampire

Extra: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Marie Antoinette, The Duchess, 365 days

Favorite shows:

The sandman

Good omens

AHS

Reality TV is a guilty pleasure

Horror/sci-fi/thriller related kdrama

YOU

#intro post #introduction #Spotify #cottage aesthetic #fairycore #dream of the endless #koala bear #about me #animelove #gamers of tumblr #good omens #american horror story

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creampill · 2 years

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Sorry to bother you, could I get a matchup for TFP? (Either Bot or Con is fine)

I’m Demi- pan, Queerplatonic and transmasc non binary! My fashion sense is a blend between pastel, vaporwave, and dark academia (I like the coats a lot.) I do a lot of drawing and writing in my free time, along with impulse buying games and playing them for either 30 minutes or 6 hours straight. Aside from that, I love listening to music, I do it almost all the time. Pop punk and vocaloid are my favorites, but I do enjoy other types of music from time to time.

I do my best to present myself as nice and approachable, but my voice is very loud naturally. I stutter and stumble over my words easily, and I forget to think before I say something. I also have a habit of apologizing over every little thing. I like jokes, but have a hard time understanding sarcasm and tones in peoples voices (I constantly think people are mad at me when they’re not.) Despite this, people tell me often that I’m good at comforting others. I also hyper focus on one specific interest for a few months, and bring it up at any point.

My love languages are physical affection, words of affirmation and quality time. If I could cling to someone for hours I would. If not, just being in their general vicinity still puts me in a good mood.

As for what I want in a relationship, I want someone who grounds me in reality, who pulls me out of my daydreams when needed. Someone who accepts me for my flaws, but puts things in perspective for me so that I can learn from the mistakes I make. Honestly, I’m just a golden retriever who would do anything for the people I love.

I am going to match you with Soundwave!

- tfp Soundwave is PEAK vaporwave aesthetic, you two would mesh with that

- if you need somebody to just sit near and not really talk, Soundwave is your guy!! You guys can just talk about whatever for however long you want too

- he doesn’t talk much, and when he does it’s very blunt, so there’s no need for too much confusion on whether he is mad at you or not

- he is basically like a cat. he will sit with you forever and give you love, but will not overwhelm

- Soundwave loves music (obviously) and I hc he’s a bit of a weeb, so you can enjoy vocaloid together :))

- he has the autism hyperfixation brain too so feel free to infodump!! He will happily listen (and share his own stuff every so often, but only if he really likes you)

- in general, he’s the calm, grounding energy for your nervous golden retriever energy :))

#reader insert #x reader #asks #transformers x reader #match up

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foundouthatdabiistouyatodoroki · 3 years

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BNHA Villian Creation Oc Analysis

Introduction:

All right time for my villain creation analysis guide for people who are having trouble creating Villain BNHA OCS. In light of the War arc that happened and the reveal of Dabi being Touya Todoroki, this post went through a major overhaul. I will try my best in explaining how to create my BNHA villain.

Horikoshi stated in his design process, one thing that is most important when designing a villain is the impact they make on the people’s psyche when they first see them. You don’t half make your villain OCS disgusting or terrifying but focus on how you create a type of impact upon first seeing this villain. It’s about how you wanted to create a visual impact on someone.

It’s high time to talk about how to create a villain with these characters and about these character villain designs and how it correlates to their personalities. (This post isn’t about how to create a Marvel or dc Villain from superhero shows but to design a BNHA villain by using these characters as an example.)

What is a Villain?

While you design your BNHA Villain, you need to ask yourself this question: what makes a villain?

As Stan Lee once said in the guidebook there is no such thing as a villain, they don't view themselves as villains. Villains are the heroes of their own story and they take it further in their actions by saying the ends justify the means. This rings true for characters in BNHA. You can see that villains have different ideologies and feelings that motivate their actions which lead them to clash with others. BNHA is proof that they are not evil. The villains are people who just have different views and different perspectives. There is no such thing as a villain; Horikoshi shows this by doing a villain academia arc with the villains as main characters of the arc.

Each and every villain reflects the very flaws of hero society.

Dabi and the rest of his family had been abused by his father who is a hero. Dabi faced neglect and overwhelming pain due to being ignored which eventually led to his death by Sekoto Peak driven by the very man who ignored him in favor of surpassing All Might.

Himiko was ostracized for showing interest in anything blood-related and labeled as a freak; most of her problems stem from the side effects of her blood-related quirk but instead of addressing this problem she was told to suppress it.

Spinner dealt with prejudice due to his appearance caused by his quirk.

Tomura’s abuse started due to his father’s abandonment from his grandmother, which drove him to abuse his son who showed interest in anything hero-related. His father’s abandonment causes him to lash out at Tenko and the rest of his family was hurt indirectly by the actions of a hero. After he killed his family and wandered on the streets people ignored him because of his appearance and used the excuse that a hero will save him.

As you see villains are people that are shaped by their circumstances, with every member of the LOV as an example of this. They are the shadow of hero society, the dark side that most people choose to ignore.

The reason why people ignored Tenko and did not bother to help him is that they don’t want to risk their cozy lives for a stranger in fear they would lose that comfort with the excuse that a hero is going to help to avoid taking action. They put all the responsibility on someone else and do not worry about this because someone is going to do it for them.

These thoughts feed into people’s complacency and indifference and emphasize people’s heavy reliance on heroes. It was these small acts of cruelty that created villains like Tomura. Looking at Tenko is a lot like admitting to how corrupt this system truly is. All this stems from personal neglect and responsibility. Personal neglect can end in being a disaster if left unchecked. Tomura is proof of how people avoid their responsibilities in favor of having someone else do it for them. People's avoidance can lead others to the path of villainy as seen in Tomura.

For characters like Stain and Overhaul, their extreme actions that go along with the ends justify the means show that, Unlike villains who don’t view their actions as evil, both Overhaul and Stain see their actions as evil but know it’s necessary to accomplish their goals. They both see their actions as justifiable since they believe they are fighting for a worthy cause. The only difference between the two is that what Overhaul does to accomplish is much more selfish when looked at closely. Overhaul’s actions may be driven to protect the place of belonging that gave him a purpose but in reality, he has a grudge against heroes for ending the yakuza reign and blames quirks for giving others purpose while taking his purpose away. He may think his actions were for Pops, but no, they are far from what his father wanted. Overhaul doesn’t think about what he wants and gets angered when things don’t come his way: these traits are more about himself. If him abusing Eri wasn’t a perfect example of his narcissistic attitude I don’t know what is.

Stain is more of an extremist but he has more justifiable reasons than Overhaul. We are introduced to bad heroes like Endeavor, one of the heroes he hated and hunted. Despite Stain injuring Iida’s brother and ending his hero career, that part with Endeavor is what makes him comes across as more justifiable to the audience.

As AFO puts it,

Villains are people who committed a couple of quirk-based crimes and couldn’t control their quirk. People who disrupt the balance in hero society are labeled as villains, even ones who use their quirk freely for good deeds or unintentionally cause problems with not controlling their quirks are still branded as villains.

if villains are people who have done a couple of quirk-based crimes and then the heroes are the civil servants who are allowed to use quirks, as stated by Knuckleduster: "heroes are no more than cogs in a machine that is meant to uphold societal order."

People are labeled as villains because they disrupted a machine for societal order. Heroes are only meant to apprehend villains to uphold social order just like how Knuckleduster once said heroes only exist to keep the status quo in check to prevent any disruptions towards it the same way on how heroes choose to save people, not the ones that fall through. The very same system that is never made to catch people who fall through the cracks.

Even Nagant pointed out heroes are cogs in a machine made to uphold social order and eliminate anything they deem as a threat; they sacrifice others to keep the image of peace in society running smoothly ignoring the problems growing underneath.

As AFO answers say that people who are villains are thoses that society outcasts with quirks who don’t fit in the societal standard, people who can’t fit into a tightly controlled society become excluded by others and become villains whose ranges are true if you look at the LOV.

The Villains are created in response to heroes’ societal problems who were driven to change the LOV are not just here because of some grand ideology but they’re here because of their hurt and hatred towards the hero society and desire to destroy it to make a change the LOV is driven to destroy what they hate most of their actions that they lash out where their pain got from society.

As I mentioned before, the main members of the LOV are prime examples of hero society own flaws,

For Tomura it's how the actions of heroes can indirectly hurt their loved ones and other people. People's over-idolization and overdependence on heroes causes them to neglect the growing problems that are present within.

For Dabi, it's how we don’t look at the issues regarding the heroes in favor of our security or want to see these issues within others because it would be like looking at the very same issues ourselves.

For Toga it’s in how people treat those who have issues. Instead of addressing these problems, we instead tell others to suppress them so we wouldn’t have to deal with them. Telling someone to suppress wouldn’t make it go away; instead it makes what’s suppressed stronger.

If you are going to choose a villain, think about how they become villains by using the LOV examples. How did your OC become a villain? What flaws do they reflect in society? I am going to elaborate on these there characters design and how it matches up with their characters.

Design:

Tomura Shigaraki:

Wow I mean wow. There is so much jammed-packed Tomura’s character design that I don’t know where to begin. Tomura is a pretty fascinating character that has an equally fascinating design that goes with it. There's so much that goes into it that I’m worried that I may not be able to mention it all in this post. Shape-wise Tomura has no prominent shapes to speak of but his design has a lot of visual components put into his design. Unlike Izuku’s character design Tomura’s character design changes a lot correlating to his character development in the series.

Tomura has a lot of symbols that are the main components of BNHA, one of which is hereditary. Hereditary is one of the main central components of BNHA since it’s about passing on one’s legacies to the next generation. This example of hereditary in his design is seen the most with his grandmother Nana Shimura the 7th holder of OFA and All Might's master.

Tomura resembles Nana Shimura with him inheriting most of her physical features. They have the same face shape, sharp eyes, sharp chin, even the mole beneath his lip. He’s even drawn to have many parallels to her in the series. Tomura’s relation to Nana Shimura deepens his connection with Izuku and All Might, his resemblance to her linked him closely to those who are connected with Nana through OFA. This makes him more compelling because it gives a connection with the protagonist Izuku Midoriya

Horikoshi designed him with Hero society's main flaws in mind with the first flaw being in how people can be indirectly hurt by the actions of a hero when they are not thought through.

This is highlighted by Nana’s abandonment of her son Kotaro, Nana gave him up to the foster care system to protect him from AFO’s evil clutches. Looking at this from a different angle you may think she is doing this to protect Kotaro but it could be considered selfish since she wasn’t taking Kotaro’s feelings into the equation, only her own. She never thought about what Kotaro would want; she never thought about how Kotaro felt when she did this to him. she did what she thought was best for him but not thought Kotaro would feel when she did this. It seems like she was asking something from him and not thinking how he felt.

Her choice can be considered selfish. She could have given up being a hero or not carry OFA but choosing not to Nana’s choice to have Kotaro despite the responsibility she had when given OFA only to ask something from him in return while she abandoned him is incredibly selfish on her part. Her letter sounding this is more about her than her son.

Her saying “I love you” while abandoning him than killed later was only adding more salt to his wounds

again on her not thinking about Kotaros feelings at all, only her own. She never thought any of this through when she was given OFA and the abandonment of Kotaro. Her abandonment showed that she chooses her duty of being a hero over her son’s feelings. though she only was doing this out of good attention to protect her son, good attention does not lead to good results. Nana’s abandonment and death left Kotaro deeply hurt from her actions. His pain from the abandonment makes him lash out at others and abuse tenko who showed anything interested in hero-related things. You can see how one person’s actions affected the people around that one person. Kotaro’s abuse of his son caused him to kill the rest of his family and him leading down the path of becoming a Villain the pushed further into AFO clutches. It was Nana's choice that caused all the series events to happen in the first place. Nana’s actions remind me of something like just how a hero’s actions can inspire others by doing good. They can also harm as well especially if the character harbors the same responsibility to the people around them.

There are characters from BNHA whose characters’ environments entered around their quirks. Tomura’s design is centered around his quirk decay. It is based heavily on a corpse since corpses decay after the person dies. His white hair reflects loss of pigment in the hair a corpse has when the body decays. His hair is unkempt and messy resembles in how he wasn’t taken care of and neglected to rot like a corpse as seen in his skin and his entire body is emaciated and his skin looks like it's physically rotting away his attitude in the way he was first introduced in the USJ arc looks listless like a corpse. His second appearance in the series with him donning a trench coat resembles a robe from a grim reaper again with both the corpses and grim reaper notes to how he carries the aspect of death with him emitting fear when first introduced.

Death is another factor in his design, this is seen in how he brings death and destruction to those around him seen in how he killed his family when his quirk first manifested and himself when AFO gave him a new name to say goodbye to his old self the heroes broke his pod and how he emits fear to people by just a look. People avoid talking about death, when you hear the word death most people are afraid of it and avoid mentioning it directly. In different cultures such as Japan death isn’t something that is scary but it’s dirty, the lack of care in his appearance references the dirtiness of how Japan views death. Seen in the flashback of his childhood when he was wandering the streets people noticed but looked away not looking at his appearance directly. The way people ignore Tomura in the series is just like people’s attitude towards death, something they want to avoid mentioning as a reference to death itself. Tomura's death motif is a reference to the concept that Horikoshi is trying to convey in his art.

Another way the dirtiness and emaciated-ness in Tomura’s unkempt appearance in his design note the second flaw of hero society. This second flaw is seen best in how the people around treat Tenko, who wandered the streets after he killed his family onlookers saw him but ignored him due to his scary-looking appearance by using "hero is going to help you" as an excuse to escape any responsibility.

People ignoring tenko symbolizes how they don't want to look at the ugliest side of society and go in and out of their way to avoid it with their willingness to look away from the corruption to protect the cozy lives they have. This small cruelty showed us that they don’t want to look at the ugliest side of hero society and see how corrupt the system is. People looking at Tenko would be a lot like admitting they are something wrong with the system they profit from. The real cruel reason why people didn’t help Tenko is that they cared so much about their security they don’t want to risk their cozy life for someone they just met so they use the excuse hero to escape responsibility so they don’t need to worry about it if someone else is doing it for them why would they need to? People's overreliance on heroes making them out to become overly complacent. People’s negligence and compliantly caused the rot to slowly accumulate and spill out from the injustices that others ignore.

Now for the second flaw, it’s that people's over reliance on heroes causes them to be complacent in helping others to escape responsibility for someone else to do letting their negligence create more villains.

It’s all about those hands, hands, hands it’s all about those hands that are prominent in Tomura’s character design.

According to Horikoshi, he likes drawing hands because they are the body parts most capable of showing emotion and character. This makes sense since hands are rich in symbolism in BNHA,

This is seen in how people use their quirks with their hands, as well as having agency and the ability to get things done with them. The way people use their hands symbolizes how the characters interact with the world around them. Hands are a universal symbol of reaching out to lend a helping hand to other people. Hands are symbols for heroes; hands are used in BNHA as a symbol to reach out to save people.

There are also the general meanings of hands that have been used in relationships, with sites of intimacy and connection to other people with the hands are used to touch and express affection to someone. Hands are capable of destruction and creation they can either reach out to soothe someone or strike them with violence.

The symbolism that is associated with hands are central to Tomura as a character which is in how he activates his quirk, Decay, if all five fingers touch something it disintegrates into dust.

The way Tomura’s expressionless hands are drawn reflects the emptiness and hollowness he feels constantly.

The hands that grip all over his body in his character design if you look closely it doesn’t look at all comforting. The exact opposite the hands look exactly as if they are Strangling and choking him, putting him in a suffocating death grip. The hands that grip him look like they’re controlling him like a puppet with the hands possessing him to control the person underneath this symbolizes how he is bound by the hands of AFO who is groomed to be his successor chaining Tomura down.

The image of Tomura being gripped by hands in different angles symbolize a lot of things that are,

Abuse, manipulation, exploration, control, restriction, destruction, comfort, connection

This symbolism that here is present with Tomura’s character with the “Abuse" he experienced under his father and AFO, him being exploited by AFO as a child who picked him up in the streets after he killed his family and is ignored by the civilians, control can mean he how he was only saved to be controlled by AFO, AFO’s manipulation of Tomura, Violence can mean in how he was abused by his father who hit him if he ever disobeyed the rules and how Tomura is threatened by violence from the people he comes in contact with, the destruction portion notes on how Tomura choose to utilize them because of his quirk in that wants to destroy everything since he thinks destruction is the only thing that he can do, he subconsciously holds his quirk back to the trauma of how he killed the rest of his family when his quirk first manifested, the Comfort portion is how the hands both give him comfort and disgust, his connections he has with the members of the LOV in which he accepts them in open arms. The hands also symbolize how his entire identity was molded by AFO.

Hands have a lot to do with his character arc with him in need of a helping hand since in his arc, He requires a helping hand but no one gave him helping hand Tomura was never given a genuine helping hand by others even when he was abused by his father no one in his family helped him or society ignored him when he needed help and only was saved by AFO only to manipulate him. The only hands he dealt with were people who were violent or wanted to use him.

The way Tomura uses his hands looks like he's reaching out for help. His desire to connect to seek people out for help was also what caused him to disintegrate his own family. and the only hand that reached out to him only was there to control him. The pose with Tomura reaching out symbolizes him reaching out for help.

The hands-on Tomura’s body is revealed to be his family’s hands AFO gave him his family’s hands to constantly remind him of his trauma and act as an AFO control over him. His family hands don’t give him comfort or connection to them and are there to remind him of his guilt and trauma.

As I stated before The hands around his body that both comfort him and restrict him this aspect symbolizes his complicated feelings towards the rest of his family even though Tomura loved them he hated the way they treated him. His father forced Tenko to give up his dreams of being a hero so he can keep his ideal family in line the other beat around the bush on the abuse caring about the peace of the household over Tenko’s feelings and they don’t matter and that their not important they only cared about the peace of the household over Tenko own wants and needs. He hated him for standing by and allowing the abuse to happen and completely rejected his wants and needs. He only wanted to be accepted for who he is but didn’t get it. He feels that the house only rejected him quietly. Though he felt guilty for killing his family he is glad to end the pain of the abuse.

His family’s hands make him it seem like their holding him back with his memories locking away he subconsciously keeping his quirk in check due to guilt he’s imprisoned by the death of his family in which he caused when his quirk when first manifested. The hands symbolize his past in which he is bound by from the trauma of him killing his family.

The last remaining hand that grips on Tomura’s face represents AFO’s incredible control over Tomura.

Here is another important reason: The reason why Tomura’s face is always covered with his father’s hand was to fully utilize the fear, the popular reason why most people are afraid of something means in how we don’t understand anything about it. This can mean how none of the characters can understand or relate to Tomura. Most of they see him could relate to him or understand him

The fear that Tomura is presented with is unrelatable and inhuman. Rather than being a human, he is a symbol of terror that creeps with malice and causes others to tremble in his presence. As something to be feared he wasn’t supposed to look human to others, this goes hand in hand with the dehumanization he has and how he wasn’t treated as a person by others.

The mask on Tomura’s character is a very important representation of how his identity is molded by AFO to be a villain. Tomura taking his mask off shows what he feels to Himiko and twice with him he becomes more of his person Tomura is bad at communicating his thoughts with others even if left vague this may be due to Tomura’s distorted memories he has.

The clothes Tomura wears correlates his development as a villain with his original outfit: a black shirt and slacks. His lanky posture indicate his immaturity. The long trench coat he wears while on the run and AFO arrested notes his competency as leader of the LOV.

Another interesting detail that correlates to his character development is been his competency as a villain is Tomura’s "NEETNESS" he was called a neet before by Ujiko,

His second outfit when he and the members run from the police and heroes AFO arrested is like a neet striking out on his own becoming more independent looking for employment.

Tomura final outfit a business suit when he defeated the MLA and created the paranormal liberation and that he’s now a powerful supervillain with everything at his disposal symbolizes how the neet finally got a job.

The last thing that I want to discuss in his design-wise and writing-wise is how Tomura is the foil to Izuku Midoriya. Both Izuku and Tomura are villains and hero foils in which their development correlates to each other.

With their design harboring the same red shoes to further collating them to be foils and their posture with Izuku having a straight positive posture that reflects his personality and Tomura being slouchy and lethargic citing his listlessness that is present in his personality. Another interesting thing to note is in their bios they are both seen standing straight. one with an anxious expression in the beginning before he acquired OFA and the other with confidence in being a villain, one another aspect to reference to them being foils.

Writing-wise they are very similar to each other, both are taken in as successors for Izuku to All Might the greatest hero of all time, and Tomura to AFO the greatest villain. Before meeting them, they both face opposition that prevents them from going to their dreams with Izuku being quirkless and Tomura being abused by his hero-hating father. They are both inexperienced in many ways when they were first introduced Izuku recently acquiring the quirk OFA and lack of control and Tomura lacking the means to be an effective terrifying villain as Izuku is growing in the mastery of OFA Tomura is growing ineffectiveness to be a villain.

Tomura’s bonds with the members of the LOV mirror Izuku who started with no friends due to his quirklessness until he’s enrolled in UA and gained friends Ochaco and Iida similar to how Tomura bonded with the LOV after AFO arrest. Even the hand injuries parallel to each other with Tomura’s hand injuries from his fight with ReDestro mirror Izuku’s hand scars that he received from his fight with Todoroki.

Himiko Toga:

Time for my 2nd favorite character design for the BNHA series and my second favorite villain, Himiko Toga. Himiko's design is easy because you can tell what sort of person she is in one look.

Her character design says what sort of person she is. Firstly, she’s a high school student: you can instantly see that she is a high school student because of the uniform she wears. In Japan, schools require students to wear school uniforms and Himiko is 17 years old. The blushes on her cheeks make her look like a lovesick girl also showing her insanity when first introduced to us. You can tell from her background in one look that Himiko is designed to look like a girl in love all the while telling that she’s ready to stab you. Her design is enough to know that she’s someone you need to look for and be a villain. Horikoshi is a genius when it comes to styled character design, Himiko has many design elements that go very well into her character.

Himiko has two prominent shapes in her design: a circle and a triangle. The circles are visibly seen in her face and hair buns; it tells her personality and entire character. For symbolism that goes with circles, it’s that they are feminine, cute, honest, expressive, love, youthful, likable, charismatic, emotional, cheerful, compassionate.

The youth aspect is, as said above, from how Himiko is the youngest member of the LOV being 17 years old.

The feminine can point to how she’s the only girl in the group. Himiko is the most cheerful and liveliest in the LOV and her honesty is Himiko’s best qualities. Himiko is honest about herself; she's one of the members of the LOV to speak her mind even if she honestly comes off as morbid. Characters designed with circles are expressive and emotional. Himiko wears her emotions on her sleeves and does whatever makes her feel good. An example of her being emotional is how she goes out on her own to do what she likes and how she reacted to Twice’s death and cried when talking to Ochaco. Himiko is an emotional person that acts on her emotions. Himiko is one of the most expressive members of the LOV as the symbolism for the circles implies she shows an abundance of emotions in her gestures and mannerisms her joining the LOV Villians was primarily to be herself to express herself in a way she wasn’t allowed to s a kid: you can see how she freely uses her quirk when at the LOV being the ultimate act of self-expression. The best example of this symbolism of expressiveness is seen in her hair buns, her hair bun is shaped like two circles and also carries along with the symbolism of self-expression.

In her childhood when she first discovered her quirk you can see that she wore her signature hair buns that were when she was expressing affection with the bloodied bird reinforcing the expressive symbolism.

The way she put her hair down resembled how she was forced to repress a side of herself by others being forced to hide her bloodlust all these years by other people. Her hair down symbolizes how she repressed a part of herself. In the present she is happy expressing herself with her quirk when she was with the LOV she wants to express herself when she wasn’t allowed to do for her using her quirk freely is a form of self-expression Himiko is considered cute by Giren and she loves cute things. This is seen in how her villian uniform was deeply upsetting to her as she says it’s not cute. Himiko is all about love: she falls in love with Izuku, and Ochaco and Stain to the point of wanting to be them the people she loves Himiko loves to fall in love with others as her shape implies she has no problem with showing affection even if it's considered dangerous to the people to she attracted to. Himiko is compassionate. This compassionate side is prominent when she is consoled Twice for his guilt for letting Overhaul into the hideout and killing big sis Magne and taking Mr Compress’s arm. Himiko has a likable design and is considered popular with the audience ranking 3rd in an American popularity poll.

Now for Himiko’s second shape: it’s a triangle. The symbolism for triangles is that there is a quick, nimble, agile, conniving, scary, dangerous shape reserved for villains.

You can see this in her eyes, which have a distinct triangle to them. Himiko is a villain like her shape suggests withdrawn with his shape. The symbolism notes her intelligence to how she picks someone she needs to imitate to go undercover and reflects in the way she fights being very quirk. Himiko is considered dangerous by the people she is attracted to and she was wanted at large by others before she joined the group.

Another detail is her sharp teeth, this can refer to Himiko being blunt by nature and how she always speaks her mind. She is forthright when she points out others' feelings, making her emotional perceptive a skill she picked up when she was on the run from police and heroes. This is seen in how she provoked Mimic in the Yakuza arc and comforted Twice.

Horikoshi sure loves cats, he loves incorporating cats in his characters as with Aizawa and his favorite thing being cats and the Wild Wild Pussy Cats with a cat theme. Cats go with Himiko in her design and character, too.

Himiko has cat-like features in her character design with slit iris in her eyes and the blushing under her eyes resemble whiskers on a cat along with her canines in her teeth coming from fangs stuff that is seen in a cat a lot of these traits related to cats and are very prevalent in her design. Another example of her cat motif is how Himiko styles her hair into two messy buns, if you look at the silhouette of her buns resembles the ears of a cat with the hair strands coming out of her buns that look like ear tuffs from a cat. I find another interesting fact as to why she has two buns in her design the reason why she has two messy buns is that in Japanese the word for two is ni, ni sounds like nya a sound a cat makes her putting her hair up in two buns reference to her cat motif in her hair. Her speed and agility in her abilities reference cats that includes how she stalks her victims and attacks them. It resembles how she hunts like a cat, by moving without a sound stalking her prey and waiting for her prey to let her guard down then take them out when the moment is right.

Her villain costume has many influences from DC and Marvel villains with the blood-sucking machines, for example resembling Bane’s from Batman, but it has feline teeth reinforcing her catlike appearance.

Himiko was inspired by two cat yokai in Japanese mythology: the Bakeneko and Nekomata. Cat demons that have shapeshifting powers that turn human and cause chaos, which references Himiko’s quirk and personality. Bakeneko is known to have a taste for human flesh and can transform into humans by licking their blood ingesting blood and becoming a human in disguise fits Toga’s quirk Transform which she uses blood to transform into other people. The Nekomata is a cat that can transform but is seen with a fork-shaped tail, the fork-shaped tail being the cat being able to shapeshift into two different things: a cat and a human. The Nekomata plays more into Himiko’s quirk with her two buns referencing the Nekomata with the forktail. In mythology cats are known as tricksters or creatures of deception this references her quirk transform and what might be what Himiko’s was heavily inspired from seen in Himiko’s quirk transform and her cat-like appearance.

Himiko’s bun might not only look like cat ears but are meant to represent a red spider lily. In her concept drafts, Himiko had a spider lily hairstyle. The red spider lily is a flower associated with death and is put on gravesites because it is believed it can guide souls into the afterlife. The flower symbolizes death and transformation that could strongly reference her quirk transform. Another aspect of the flower comes from two lovers who feel each other at first sight but are cursed to never be together. This is why it's considered a flower of separation hence the separation between the two lovers. This notes her relationship with Izuku how she fell in love at first sight when he was bloodied and beaten but could never be together due to being from two different sides. The separation aspect in the flower goes with how Himiko feels separated by others and can never be close to them due to her interest in blood.

A minor detail in Himiko’s design is that it’s heavily influenced by Yami kawaii, a subculture in japan that glorifies sickness and mental health being taboo subjects in japan the point of the movement is not to glorify death be to express themselves in the way they haven’t prior. This subculture goes with her character and is seen best in her home cut in her character design the same hair that you see Yami kawaii use. as someone pointed out her straight Hime cut bangs and bags under the eyes reference the bags comes from the makeup effects from a Kawai trend which emulates the sickly style. Himiko’s fascination with blood is deemed a mental illness because people don’t view blood as toga does even call it wrong or weird. Himiko’s desire to express herself by expressing a taboo feeling or emotion the idea of wanting to express a taboo feeling instead of repressing it comes from the Yami kawaii movement. The use of syringes and box cutter jewelry reference Himiko’s choice of weapons her villain costume has deployable syringes that gather blood and she has a knife as a weapon of choice with the box cutters reference her butterfly knife she uses often in her fights. her syringes that gather blood resembling the strings from the Yami kawaii movement.

Toga is a strong allusion to a vampire. Even her backstory starts in a chapter “interview with a vampire” denoted to her.

Her sharp teeth play into vampire fangs along with her quirks of bloodsucking nature. The Vampire allusion notes her quirk's blood-sucking nature and her ambiguous bisexuality; vamp in a vampire is slang for bisexuality this notes her ambiguous bisexuality as she displays interest in both Izuku and Ochaco.

Vampires are written as biting commentary towards the upper class in how it guzzles down the lower class. This can refer to how Himiko’s character makes a biting commentary on society in which I will discuss later in this down below.

Another aspect is how she expresses affection openly in the way she chooses to express reference to how affection is treated in Japan. showing affection in public is considered indecent. This can infer how she was called indecent by her parents when she carried the dead bird while smiling since it's her showing affection.

To Himiko when she sucks someone's blood it's akin to kissing someone with her making the chu noise the sound of kisses in japan,

kissing in public is considered indecent. It could be said that the people in BNHA view Himiko the same way as Japan views affection.

Next, Himiko is the Villainous foil to Ochaco, with them being the only girls in their group. Both are blunt, cheerful, and outgoing and are extremely expressive, as seen in their exaggerated mannerisms. They are also perceptive of others’ feelings, traits that they learned from others around them with Ochaco watching her parents and Himiko becoming sensitive of others around her when she was on the run from heroes and police.

They are different in how they deal with their personal feelings. Where Ochaco chooses to suppress her feelings, Himiko chooses to be open and act on her feelings.

They are both in love with Izuku,but the way they approach their feelings is different. With Himiko becoming excited at the thought of seeing him and becoming open in her affection for him, Ochaco chooses to keep her feelings down thinking that her feelings for Izuku would hinder her from becoming a hero. Ochaco's admiration towards izuku mirrors Himiko’s desire to be close to the people she loves it was Toga who made her realize her feelings towards izuku later on.

Even they have similar goals to each other in which that they want to make things easier, for Ochaco was making the money from being a hero so they can have easy life out of poverty

For Himiko, it wants to make the world an easy place for her to live in so that she wouldn’t be forced to repress herself again due to her blood-related quirk by others and live freely without having to repress herself again.

Another detail in the way they contrast each other in being foils in their designs with them having permanent blush stickers on their cheeks and how she balls up her hands much like Ochaco. This may be considered an unintentional part by Horikoshi.

In her design draft Himiko was considered to symbolize distortion by Horikoshi but in what way does she resemble distortion in her personality? The distortion aspect might have meant hero society.

This makes sense since she represents the hero society's main flaw being in how it distorts other’s views.

How Himiko’s perception of herself had been shifted and distorted by her environment this is largely due to how hero society looks at others with distorted lenses regarding quirks and judge what is normal and condemn something wrong and weird. Himiko was designed and written as a biting commentary of her society in the way it views quirks in general.

Dabi:

I am super stoked to talk about my favorite character of the series, Dabi a.k.a Touya Todoroki, it's not surprising since I have a blog dedicated to finding out his character. His character design is my favorite in the entire series. There's just so much to go over in his design there are so many things jampacked in his design, many elements that are prevalent in his character. Unlike with Himiko's by which you can tell what sort of person she is in one look, Dabi’s design carries a lot of questions such as where did you get those burn scars? He just has this mysterious vibe when he was first introduced. I loved Himiko’s character design for being easy to tell and I love Dabi design for having an enigmatic presence.

When it comes to shapes his design Dabi has one prominent shape that is visible in his design which is a triangle, His entire body is a reverse triangle. You can see the shape of a triangle in his hair and face having the same shape. Something is interesting about his eyes; it's that the shape within the eye resembles a reverse triangle. His eyes have a little bit of an upside triangle to them, again referring to his main shape.

Triangles in character designs are reserved for villains with them being lanky with the triangle in their design since they commiserate being edgy and evil. Triangles when seen on designs on characters are dangerous, devious, stubborn they show danger to warn others to watch out.

I find the symbolism fits very well into Dabi’s personality and communicates these aspects of his character well.

If there's one thing we underestimate is just how smart Dabi can be, he's very calculating, always planning his next move and acting when the moment is right. You get to see this side in action when he was put in charge of the vanguard action squid during the camp raid where he completed the mission despite having three casualties and put a dent in U.A’s reputation.

Dabi is good at reading other people; this is where his intelligence truly shines. He knows which buttons to push; this comes in handy to recharge his quirk:

You see this with Vlad and Eraserhead and know what to do to rile them up, predicting how they will react. Another example is in on how he didn’t trust hawks during their cooperation because he suspects that hawks are a spy sent to infiltrate the LOV. He always watches others in the background while he's planning his next move that comes in handy to know what he's going to do next.

Another example is how he reveals his identity as Endeavor’s long-dead son Touya Todoroki and exposes Endeavor's past on broadcast effectively ruining Endeavor’s reputation destroying peoples faith in heroes. This goes so well with the deviousness Dabi’s triangle represents. The stubbornness symbolism in triangles can infer to his tenacity in his character you can see this in how he set out his plans whether he was Touya in trying to surpass all might make his father proud and Dabi in exposing the abuse on television one of the main things about Touyas the tenacity to carry out plans in his character. For Danger, despite his appearance being shrouded in many mysteries, we know from a look that he's someone to look out for he gives off a sense of ominousness just from one look at appearance and we know that he's someone to look out for and the danger part refers to how his identity as Touya Todoroki which he can use the truth to his advantage. His presence would spell danger to not only heroes but all of society in general because of how he knows the truth of Endeavor’s abuse and the dirty side of heroes; the danger in how he has the potential to put a dent in peoples trust in heroes he lacks the sharp edges when it comes to triangles downplaying his dangerous aura. Another thing to note: triangles are attention-grabbing in warning signs and characters they scream look at me to use. This strongly corresponds to Dabi’s need for acknowledgment in his catchphrase look at me.

Dabi’s slim lanky build resembles how villains are drawn as being somewhat lanky in design but also it can be a direct call back to what I said before I said that his body is an upside-down triangle. Triangles symbolize imbalances that ties directly to Dabi in a nutshell. The imbalances aspect notes Dabi’s lack of control of his life due to his abuse and neglect from Endeavor.

The triangle notes his ill health in his body which can mean his constitution in which he has a powerful flame quirk but a body made for ice his quirk burns his skin because of the incompatibility. His quirk runs on his emotions burning him if he becomes too emotional which results in him almost dying like he did at Sekoto Hill. His quirk is dangerous to his unmatched body leaving him with burn scars all over his body.

Dabi was never in control of his life at all due to his situation. The triangles note Dabi’s constant contradictions in his character in which he acts cool and collected on the surface but deep down he's an emotional beneath. Dabi may claim he doesn’t care about the LOV only using it for his objectives but he is seen risking his life for them many times despite what he says. He follows Stain’s will but it serves only as a basis to him; in reality he is only doing this to get revenge on Endeavor for the abuse he put him through.

One thing about his eyes is that they are the most prominent features of Dabi. Dabi’s eyes say a lot about his personality: they’re almond-shaped with a downward slant to them and have a double folded eyelid; the eyelid makes him look indifferent, lethargic, aloof and detached to his surroundings giving him a sense that he's cool and indifferent. The eyes give off a sense of emptiness to others when you first see him. Dabi has a double fold in his eyelid it makes him come off as cool and aloof to others a call back to his surface exterior.

For his face, Dabi’s chin is long and narrow to indicate that he's an adult.

Like most characters in BNHA, his hair is designed based on his quirk. His flame quirk makes his hair shaped like a flame. Dabi’s hair resembles Bakugo’s but with one big difference, it's designed based on flames with the strands resembling the sparks of fire.

There is something to point out about the way his hair flows. Dabi's hair goes outward in different directions. Dabi may look cold and stoic on the surface but deep down he's emotional and is driven by his feelings. dabi is emotional and expressive with his hair going outward. He's chatty and vocal on his opinions to the point of being ill-mannered; this is seen in the way the direction of their hair flows.

Another good design example is seen in his childhood as Touya. Touya’s soft round face indicates that he's 13 years old since characters having around sort of face point to the age of juvenile characters that are not yet adults. His hair is unruly; this can note his bright energetic personality when first introduced when training endeavor His soft hair notes his innocence that was destroyed by endeavors abuse neglect. If Dabi’s hair looks like fire Touya has a candle flame shape for his hair much like the kanji in his name is spelled. This showcases his youthful innocence in his features before he becomes the villain Dabi.

Dabi’s staples that keep his burnt skin and unscared skin together symbolizes how his practical mind keeps him level headed not completely off the edge his burns note how his ice body that is unmatched for his fire quirk with his quirk slowly killing him showcasing his self-destructive tendencies. Dabi’s stitches in his skin is metaphorical in how he's barely holding his life together. The piercings on his skin together show how he becomes numb to his pain but at the same time makes him look in pain both metaphorically and literally. The staples give off this failed experiment connotation this notes he is called a failure by Endeavor since he discovered he cannot surpass all might. In Dabi’s coat, you see the combination of medical staples and stitches on his clothes emulate stables that go with skin. The staples point out that Dabi is a contradictory character in BNHA and this part in his design proves this with his skin drafts reference his constant contradictions in his personality. Dabi’s dyed hair and multiple pieces suggest Dabi has more of a rebel attitude, with his general outfit resembling a typical delinquent appearance: piercing, loose white shirt black coat. Dyed hair is usually considered a delinquent concept having dyed hair and multiple piercings frowned upon in some parts of conservative areas in conservative areas in Japanese society. Dabi rebels and acts opposite of his father by becoming a villain who opposes heroes like his father and follows Stain’s ideology the same one that despises heroes like Endeavor. Dabi’s rebellion is supposed to go against his upbringing of being raised by her father and the values he grew up within how he was raised in a traditional Japanese household. When he takes on Stain’s ideology he rebels against the system that creates heroes like Endeavors.His delinquency is how he reacted to the abuse from Endeavor by going into delinquency and lashing out. The thing I noticed about rebellions is how they always aimed to get attention from others I find this very sad since Dabi that despite his hatred he still yearns for acknowledgment from others.

Another way his dyed hair symbolizes other than concealing his identity represents him hiding his identity and feelings from others, removing his dye is how he's letting himself feel the pain instead of repressing it.

Dabi turns his hair back to his original color that symbolizes how his identity as endeavors son is out and him leaning it white to spite him.

An interesting detail is seen in his villain costume after he joined the LOV other than the stitched up aesthetic carried over to his coat but they added cuffs, His cuffs are inspired by Japanese stove burners:

When you turn on the stove blue flames appear which is likely a reference to Dabi’s blue flames, a design reference from Horikoshi.

Dabi’s animal is a snake. People often say dabi looked like a serpent when he was first introduced. This may be a bit of a stretch but if you see the recent art it might not be. Snakes are sneaky and cunning this is symbolic of his strategy and cunning with his approach to bringing down endeavor. The snake goes with the whole hell symbolism that the Todorokis have. It brings to mind the serpent from the bible the serpent in Adam and Eve is near the fruit of knowledge tempts them to eat the fruit. The snake plays into the fact that Dabi harbors knowledge on Endeavor and the abuse. Seeing Dabi’s snake form reminds me of the Japanese phrase “Ryuutou-dabi”, the Japanese phrase of a strong start but a disappointing end in sort of an anticlimax. Dabi embodies the phrase in his snake form in how as Touya he started as Endeavor’s successor with a powerful fire quirk only to be tossed aside by him and considered a failure for having a body made for ice someone deeming him incapable of surpassing All Might, someone who started with a strong beginning but ended a disappointing start.

Dabi has the entire death theme in his design a closer look at Dabi’s face you see what's left of the skin of his face looks like an upper half of a skull with his fire quirk resembles fire from a cremation. This notes his supposed death as Touya when he was almost burned to death at Sekoto Peak when he was younger. Dabi has a death theme similar to Tomura, but different because tomura represents the dirtiness of death in his design being his design based on decay. For Dabi it would come from cremation. Even his villain alias means cremation, noting on how dabi is designed to represent how the body looks after its cremated nothing but bones and ashes. Tomura’s design is based on a corpse decaying from negligence; Dabi’s is a charred corpse that was burned to death from neglect and lack of care.

Dabi is a heavy allusion to Frankenstein's monster with his patchwork skin and background. Dabi’s birth bears similarities to how the monster was created that being created through unethical means with Touya’s birth is through a quirk marriage between his parents. The monster was created through the sewn together of different corpse parts. how both Endeavor and Dabi have humongous allusions to the novel Frankenstein with on how Victor created the monster for the pursuit of scientific knowledge to discover life similar to how Endeavor created Touya because he wanted to create a powerful child that can surpass AllMight. Both Victor and Endeavor are characterized by their ambitions with both placing their ambitions above their famil;y Victor threw himself into his studies to neglect his family and his fiance, while Endeavor neglected his family's feelings. Victor's abandonment of the monster is when it first came to life: he fled in terror being disgusted by the monster's appearance, mirroring Endeavor’s neglect of Touya when he realized that he can’t surpass All Might. Frankenstein is motivated by his ambition to achieve something great when it comes at a great cost which led him to mess around with life in creating the monster; Endeavoris characterized by his ambition and want to be stronger no matter what means he has to do with it which results in him in getting in a quirk marriage to create Touya. Both Victor and Endeavor did a crime of messing around with life with both failing to recognize how their actions have repercussions and failing to learn from them. Both failed to take responsibility for their actions when it matters with Victor failing to act when learns the death of his brother under false accusations of Justine victor can act be choose not to fail to take responsibility allowing Justine’s execution and endeavor fail to take into account how his actions deeply hurt his family. Both Victor and Endeavor blamed their faults onto others running away from their responsibilities. The monster and Dabi have similarities too with the monster been shunned by society for his appearance and isolated by society mirrors Touya’s isolation from the rest of his family and feeling unseen by them as Dabi he feels unseen by others in society knowing his father the hero and how abusive he is people won’t believe them since they never see anything wrong with hero society and heroes. Another similarity between is their experience with fire with Dabi almost burned to death with he was young and the monsters first experience with it. Both Dabi and the monster serve as reminders of how Endeavor and Victor fail to take responsibility.

Dabi is the villainous foil of Shoto Todoroki. Like Shoto, he holds some Asian influence this best seen in his eyes in which as more of a downward slant to them they have many similarities in their designs to correlate to each other with having the same eyes, face, body type and height this isn’t the first time that BNHA uses hereditary in character design as I explained with Tomura. Dabi is similar to Shoto not just in his same features and positive in his design but also their personalities. With Dabi and Shoto both cool and collected in their respective groups and both suffered under endeavors abuse to be endeavors successor where Shoto was favored due to his quirk and Dabi was cast aside. Dabi harbors the same attitude and mindset as Shoto, in the beginning, they share they were cold to the people around them and viewed their flames as Endeavor’s are both cold and focused when it comes to their goals Shoto wants to be seen not as an extension of Endeavor, and Dabi wants acknowledgment from Endeavor and others. Dabi and Shoto are foils to each other and have known to have more similarities to them than differences in his design. Dabi was around Shoto’s age had a rounder sort of face like Shoto had indicating theirs simulates the way. Their hair flows is different Shoto hair goes inward refers to Shoto subdued and reserved and Dabis being an emotional person his hair goes outward it also symbolizes their dispositions regarding their abuses where Shoto is closed off to his abuse Dabi in the other hand shows it openly.

What is the flaw that Dabi represents in hero society? It's how heroes do scummy things than the villains of hero society. The people in hero society don’t question the heroes because it is a lot like how the civilians treated Tenko after they wandered the streets. They don’t see anything wrong with the heroes allowing them to get away with crimes without punishment. This is why Dabi said to stop and think he wants people to question pro heroes in the broadcast. Dabi knows there are bad heroes like Endeavor.

Epilogue

Each of the LOV is modeled after a monster in some way this can be considered intentional since it would represent how hero society can create its monster as seen with the LOV. Designed to look like monsters or maybe part of Horikoshi’s preferences since he loves pop culture references note them many times in the story. Horikoshi took inspiration from horror and slasher film genres when he designed his villains.

Horikoshi said when he designs his villains he when he creates villains he tries to bring out a sense of disgust and what sort of impression they make on the psyche of the audience like the concept behind Shigaraki was to install fear among his audience with Himiko being cute and being able to mix into society and continue living and Dabi comes as more mysterious to us readers to use readers.

The villains of BNHA are based around a flaw in hero society like with Stain and getting rid of fake heroes It tells us that there are bad heroes like endeavor and people who become heroes for money and glory rather than selfless hero work. and Nagant addresses how the hero commission uses heroes like hawks to protect their self-image then make everything and eliminate anything that is a threat to that self-image.

These two things to keep in mind when you create a villain in BNHA are in how they make an impression on someone and a flaw that hero society has.

Color:

In most media, black is the color reserved for villains since it’s a color that traditionally symbolizes evil. The LOV of villains is no exception,: black is the LOV image color. But beyond that, each one of the members of the LOV has an image color that correlates to their personalities.

Tomura Shigaraki:

Tomura Shigaraki’s image colors are both black and white. Black references him as a villain, but in actuality his main image color is white. White may seem a positive opposite to black colorwise in western cultures; however in Asian cultures white is considered bad luck, because it’s the color of death.

White is the color of death in Japanese culture. In many Asian funerals you see people wearing white; it is used as a symbol of the mourning. Funerals are a call back to his given name Tomura because it translates into mourning and the character for death is his surname.

But, white also symbolizes innocence or someone who has a blank slate; the color white is known to be dyed by any color, noting Tomura’s ability to learn and reflect and his character development.

Black is the color of evil, death, chaos, and destruction

Black is the perfect color for a character revolving around death to himself and those around him. For himself as death his old identity as Tenko Shimura the civilian with a hero lineage to Tomura Shigaraki AFO’s successor physically as seen when he was accidentally killed in the raid of the hospital caused his heart to stop. Chaos and destruction note his personality is what he wishes on hero society for rejecting him.

There’s also another aspect of him that is his hair that changed color. After he killed his family when his quirk awoke how he was left wandering the street with everyone ignoring him no one helps him because of his appearance and him being taken in by AFO name change him in those instances he was reborn as the greatest supervillain. His colors signify Tomura’s dark rebirth as Tenko civilian from a hero family to Tomura adopted son of an overlord: it's a transition from good to evil black to white Tenko’s hair being black to white is powerful.

This suits Tomura really since he is someone who is always in constant morning metaphoric, literally and figuratively and physically

Himiko Toga:

Himiko’s image color is red, as red is the color of blood. Himiko's quirk transforms in which she ingests blood to become someone else and her obsession with blood. The symbolism of Red goes with Himiko personally, red is the color of passion and emotional color that symbolizes desire, danger, instinct, impulsiveness, liveliness. Red also symbolizes love, but the deep passionate kind. Love has a lot to do with Himiko as a character. She falls in love with the person that is covered in blood. Feels it deeply so much that she wants to be the person of her affection. Desire could reference Himiko's distorted desires she has in wanting to be the people she loves via by draining them of all their blood. Red is the color of passion and emotion that goes well with Himiko; she is emotional and follows her desires and impulses when it comes to her warped desires diving headfirst not thinking about anything else. Himiko is the most morbidly cheerful and liveliest of the LOV; she is the most energetic of the group and gets excited when she sees her crush. She feels her desire deeply as she stated before in her conversation with Ochaco. The dangerous part can refer to how she's a dangerous criminal who is wanted by both police and heroes who were a subject in the blood-letting cases. Her affection is considered dangerous to those she's attracted to.

Her color scheme goes hand in hand with her cat-like features seen in her design with Himiko's pale hair and gold irises resembling colors that are seen on a cat and Her cat likes the ability to sneak and stalk her target.

Dabi:

Dabi wears darker colors. As I stated once before in my last creation meta character who wears darker colors shows a brooding, aloof and detached personality; this goes with Dabi who is seen as aloof and detached from his allies. But for image color Dabi’s main image color is blue. Blue is seen in both his eyes and his flames in contrast to the popular belief that his eyes are turquoise and blue. Blue flames are said to be the hottest flames of the spectrum. blue is not only the color of his flames but also his entire personality as a whole the color blue is very complex and contradictory which is Dabi’s character in a nutshell.

On the surface, Dabi is calm, serious, intelligent, cool, cold, like Blue. Dabi is the most serious-minded and focused when compared to the rest of LOV when it comes to missions. Blue is the color of order and rules, Dabi has his own sets of principles and ideals in contrast to LOV that he follows. He follows Stain’s ideology but albeit very differently since it goes hand in hand with his motives.

Dabi is intelligent, it has been proven many times in the story, in how he leads the vanguard action squad by using himself as bait to distract the pro heroes from the original objective and being successful in his mission despite three casualties. Dabi has a degree of emotional intelligence and he knows what makes them tick. He taunts opponents and reads their emotions then attacks at their blind spots. Dabi is good at people. He always watches his expressions in the background and has a good idea of their emotions.

How he gauges his opponent’s weakness to buy himself time to recharge his quirk and to find an opening in their defenses. This is how he makes plans: Dabi is calculating and waiting as seen in the way he makes plans watching endeavors every move to await the opportunity to publicly expose endeavor.

There’s another thing about blue that’s related to ice and water since blue is the color seen in both of them. The cold and cool of ice and water symbolism may refer to Dabi’s surface personality and constitution as having a body made for ice. His surface personality is in how he comes off to others cold, cool, and empty on the surface with him having empty eyes, he’s emotionally distinct with others and himself. He keeps a low profile and approaches with uncaring and cold indifference to others. Despite his aloof and cool exterior is passionate as I will elaborate.

Blue is a sensitive color; the same can be said with Dabi despite saying he cannot feel anything. He feels his pain so deeply and his own emotions too strongly he is just too numb to his pain emotionally and physically.

Blue may seem like a calm color on the surface but it’s a color that feels things deeply. Blue symbolizes deep emotions. It goes well with Dabi since he is deeply emotional.Dabi may seem cool and collected in the exterior he usually displays, but deep down he’s emotional. Blue being a color that feels things deeply notes the function of Dabi's quirk in that the power of his flames is linked to his emotional state.

Blue is also the color of sadness and depression. This references Dabi’s inner pain he suffered from the abusive neglect from endeavor in that he was used and discarded as a tool to endeavor ambitions and the pain he got from his quirk which burns his skin when he uses it. The definition also notes the lack of acknowledgment he was given of his pain and on how he distances himself from his emotions to prevent him from having any more pain. The sadness is noted in how he reacted to Twice’s death, but couldn’t cry since his tear ducts were burned and thinking about Snatch’s words on family while he cried tears of blood. Dabi’s inner motives regarding heroes to why he wants to bring down the hero society have a lot to do with him harboring deep emotions related to Endeavor's abusive neglect he suffered underneath. Though we only hear his voice, his making stains will, in reality, aren’t his own. In reality, his motives are exposing his father’s abusive past and making him suffer for the abuse he put Dabi under. Dabi never voices his desires due to how little he has an opinion of himself. blue is both an orderly color and emotional color. They are contradictions like Dabi himself: underneath his cold and aloof exterior he’s full of emotional turmoils.

Blue also stands for truth and idealism. The truth is referred to in how he knows the truth of Endeavor, abuse to his family, and corruption of heroes. Dabi is more truthful to what we give him credit for as seen when he introduces himself to Tomura and states that he will reveal his real name when it’s time and carry the hero killer’s will. When it comes to idealism though he has Stain’s ideology he views it differently: where Stain believes in true heroes Dabi believes that no true hero exists. Dabi is very open, honest, and true to the point of being ill-mannered by other people. He is truthful when he broadcasts Endeavor’s family abuse on television. Although Dabi himself is not straightforward like the color blue, he's honest about his goals.

Blue symbolizes commitment. This can go in how Dabi is steadfast and tenacious he refuses to give up when the goal is done. This dedication is seen in his devotion to how he follows stain ideals and commitment to his plan to publicly expose endeavor and bring down hero society. Dabi has a lot of emotional depth to his character and the blue shows this.

There’s also a lot of symbolism of black that goes with Dabi very well in his design and character.

Black is a color reserved for villains so he’s a villain with his own villain persona Dabi. Black is the color of what corpses look like when they’re burned to death the color black is reminiscent of charred corpses or cremation the color black.

Again, black means a lot of things: power, fear, mystery, and death. The mysteriousness in Dabi is noted when he was first introduced to us as someone mysterious and his motives that we don’t know until it was revealed. The black Dabi wears as his color symbolizes how he is rebelling against endeavor by becoming the villain Dabi who ignored him since dying one’s hair is an act of rebellion or change. Black symbolizes death. It shows up a lot in Dabi’s design and character to when he was Touya who burned to death at Sekoto and Dabi who killed 33 people and his ending Endeavor’s reputation.

The power symbolism in black can mean the power Dabi has over Endeavor and his position of power in terms of his quirk and position in the LOV. Dabi’s black resembles his strength and power he carries over his father that he knows about the truth of Endeavor’s abuse towards his family and Dabi displays this power when he gleefully taunts Endeavor and exposing his past to society.

Black is a dangerous color. You can note this in his design when he is first introduced that even one look can make anyone tell that he's dangerous and someone to look out for and in the way. He knows a truth that would shatter hero society to the core and weaken people’s trust in heroes and put the hero-reliant society to question their faith in their idols.

Black conceals where white reveals, this plays very well on how he conceals his identity by dying his hair black to avoid others from knowing his real identity and taking on the villain persona Dabi than at the dawn of the war arc he washes off his hair with dye remover revealing his white hair to Endeavor and Shoto. The saying black conceals where white reveals goes hand in hand with his reveal as seen with his hair.

The greatest thing he did he didn’t choose white or red but both! He subverts our expectations by saying his hair color is both colors. There one interesting thing to note it’s about how Touya’s hair color represents his mental state. Horikoshi shows Touya’s character and mental state by using his hair colors as a reference. His mental state is seen best in the color of his hair with his changing color symbolizes his deteriorating mental stability.

Touya’s original red hair color represents hopes, dreams, and passion. You see this in how he was feeling excited to be trained by Endeavor and his energetic personality admitting passion and radiance. The color red symbolizes others such as determination, strength, and anger. This regarding the red in his hair displays his determination to surpass all that might make his father proud.

Touya's changing hair color meant he was having the inkling that he was getting replaced and the process of him losing importance in Endeavor’s eyes, faith in his father and himself. as time passed every time a new sibling was born his hair became more and more white fully turning white until the birth of Shoto a reflection on how each child becoming closer and closer to being obsolete in endeavors eyes with his hair losing his fathers color entirely like a child who would take his place was born with the birth of his successor that would mean that the birth of Touya is meaningless. The red hair symbolizes Touya’s eagerness and liveliness and his white hair symbolizes his loss of purpose, becoming vulnerable to the abuse. Touya's red hair changing into white symbolizes his fire and potential was slowly put out with the whiteness of his hair is the decline of his radiant self.

The white hair represents the loss of his purpose and importance in his father’s eyes, his innocence, and the vulnerability that was brought out by Endeavor’s abusive neglect. His white hair symbolizes lifelessness and his loss of purpose by being treated as a tool for endeavors ambition when it was discovered he has a mismatched body. His hair color is the tragic implication of how he used to be an upbeat child until endeavors abuse sank in.

His hair is the ice genes he inherited from Rei as well the color of emptiness that plays heavily in Dabi dissociates himself with his feelings and that he is usually seen having empty eyes.

Quirks:

I already explain what quirks are in the BNHA section with my last creation analysis. The character's personalities complement their quirk but this is more complex with villains.

As I stated in my previous analysis, characters are influenced by their quirk in some way; their quirk in which forces them to interact with their environment can be changed based on how they view themselves and shape and shaped by that person's self-image and perception of the world.

This is true to how these quirks affect these main three, in particular, they impact mental health as seen with twice and Himiko and lead to discrimination towards someone’s based appearance leads to villainy as we see with Spinner,or pain such as Dabi and Tomura these problems could have been prevented but chosen not to it shows how society cared about a slice of itself and would rather ignore the part they take too much effort to change.

If you think about it most of the problems in my hero academia contributed to quirks. Look at how people with villain quirks are treated with gang orca’s appearance saying that he resembles a villain’s hero that looks like a villain Gang Orca is stated to have a villainous appearance even voted to be the hero that looked like a villain. Shinso’s mind control quirk is orchestrated for being a villain by his classmates Shinso’s mind control quirk is considered villainous. None of the quirks showed villainous qualities but facets of a character’s personality. This is how people react to quirks, heroes, and villains that cause other people to shun them due to how they feel. If you look closely villains are victims of their environment they are from society is another many creating villains.

Before I talk about these characters’ quirks let me clear something up first: quirks are neither good nor evil in fact quirks were originally had no meaning to them it only depends on the people behind these said quirks the quirks don’t have to be villainous to be villains look at Mr. Compress, Twice, Spinner, and Magne’s quirks.

Mr. Compress compresses things into marbles; they are a typical magician magic trick that makes sense since he’s a stage magician. Magne’s quirk shows her sexuality on how she’s attracted to men but repels women.

Twice’s double allows him to make doubles of other people and himself but it depends if he knows them well enough to measure them with their personalities. His quirk symbolizes his need for companionship and self-acceptance. Spinner’s quirk gecko allows him to stick to walls this can note an aspect of Spinner on that he is known for riding on the coat tail of someone for whom he’s passionate in like Stain and Shigaraki like sticking to walls and shows his strength as being supportive and on the side of people he cares about. That's something to keep in mind when you’re choosing a quirk for a villain oc they don’t need to be villainous just as long as you wrote them to keep their personality in mind.

Another non-villainous quirk but used for villainous means is Overhaul the quirk of Kai Chisaki. His quirk allows him to disassemble and reassemble things on command; it says something about his personality in how his quirk is a metaphor for how he treats people. In which he can disassemble and reassemble people like objects, rebuild them in a moment, and see no value in them other than their use. subordinates childhood friends and Eri treats them as all dispensable tools for their use. It highlights Chisaki’s main flaw is that he doesn’t understand people or their values; he only sees others as objects for their use. The main reason why Chisaki hates quirks is how quirks give people self-worth, believe that they are special, that they are worth something, how quirks give them purpose or self-worth.

Chisaki wants to protect the place he found a home in the place that gave him worth that’s going extinct because of quirks he hates because it brings the end of the yakuza the home be found in. He hates heroes and quirks because they took away his purpose.

As I stated before he doesn’t see value in others as people he views the people they see value in themselves based on their quirk are infected mice infatuated with their disease which is a quirk. Overhaul believes himself to be different from others because he found this realization but in reality, he doesn’t care at all about what others want or think and society in which he doesn’t care what happens to it. Him wanting to reinstate the yakuza may seem selfless on paper but it’s actually to protect his fragile sense of ego from the place he has found worth in. Heroes and quirks threaten his fragile sense of self-worth, reinstating the yakuza as his self-worth was being threatened. when his arms are taken away it is a blow to his ego it was the same way he mocked mirio for the same reason.

Tomura Shigaraki:

Tomura’s quirk is called Decay, his quirk allows him to disintegrate anything that comes in contact with all five fingers. Decay serves as a metaphor for hero society. This system is slowly decaying on the inside out from all the injustices and corruption and the people’s neglect of this causes it to accumulate and spill out. The decay happened because people ignored all their problems in front of them. Tomura is the metaphorical decay that society neglected.

His quirk Decay turns everything into dust with no hope of return. Tomura has no hope in a society that constantly rejects him for who he is and sees no hope in being saved and thinks that there's nothing else to do but destroy.

Tomura believes himself to be capable of nothing but destruction AFO and other people say the same thing and he internalizes this he believes of what others tell him Tomura defines himself that he is only useful for anything but destruction he doesn’t find identity other than destruction. We know that Shigaraki is capable of more than that. Shigaraki proved to us that he is more than what they say. He doesn’t take delight in destruction as we are led to believe in the recent arc no matter what Shigaraki destroys he's not fulfilled. He is capable of feeling genuine guilt and remorse for what he's done; he felt guilt and disgust within himself for killing his family. you know how Tomura is careful about what he touches. This detail may note how he surprises his quirk subconsciously he does that out of guilt for what he's done. Tomura’s impulse to destroy wasn’t his need for destruction but a reaction to his abusive environment and desire to be freed from it.

His itch wasn’t a destructive impulse but a reaction to his toxic environment. The reason why he destroys was no more the reaction to the abusive environment he's in, the reason why he is quick to lash out is a reaction to the abusive upbringing. The flashback shows how he was forbidden and punished for being the one thing he chooses to be. People in his family take a blind eye to his suffering and make excuses for the abuser not validating his pain being rejected by the household. being punished violently is a good reason to feel anxious and uneasy with his environment until he reaches the point of not taking it anymore. People are born with people around them as I stated people are villains by how the characters interact with their environment the same can be said with Shigaraki. He embraces but contradicts it as Tomura showed us he is capable of more than just destruction I think I have already gone over what hands mean in Shigaraki’s character design as I stated before in his design aspect hands a very important aspect in his design his hands are used to activate his quirk I stated in Tomura’s hand motif that hands symbolize connections to others since his quirk requires him using his hands it showed us his connection to others the great example of it is in his bonds with the LOV. His hands are capable of connecting with others.

His insecurity in his quirk acts as a metaphor for his complete inability to form connections with others without lashing out due to his trauma.

Himiko Toga:

Onto Himiko and her quirk transform, which allows transforms she digested blood from. In Himiko's design drafts Horikoshi was basing her on this concept of distortion. Himiko herself has distorted desires of love but he must be giving a commentary of hero society when he was designing Himiko's quirk as a social commentary on BNHA society. This is seen well in how her quirk forces her to interact with her surroundings.

Toga had her worldview shifted and her emotional tendencies distorted by the world around her, things we find wrong or weird. Instead of addressing this we brush it aside, ignoring the issues hoping they would go away when instead it only represses them; it was something they could have prevented by choosing not to. Himiko's concept is a distortion but this could not only mean herself but the distortion of society around her. The distortion was not only Himiko herself but society as a whole. Himiko is the symbol of distortion or better yet society distortion in the BNHA universe.

Himiko states in her monologue when she loves someone she sucks their blood and she makes a chu sound which is the sound of kissing to her blood is the same as kissing. In Japan kissing in public is frowned upon and displaying affection is considered indecent. She was called a deviant by her parents for expressing interest in blood. This is not only based on the Japanese attitude on affection but also her bisexuality. Though homosexuality isn’t taboo students in adolescence experience harsh bullying when students go to guardians or teachers the common thing that they are told is to act normally this sounded similar to Himiko’s background and similar to what Toga was taught.

The functions of the quirk note aspects of her personality how her digesting blood. Her quirk only changes her appearance and can note her surface-level admiration towards someone and her desire to be close to them. When Himiko loves someone she sucks their blood because her blood is the only way to get to know someone. She expresses affection by becoming the object of said affection. The way her quirk acted in changing appearances notes her surface-level admiration; this can mean she wants to be close to them on a deeper level. Her views on love and connection are considered wrong or weird because she knows they don’t view blood as she does.

Himiko wants to be close to other people but Himiko was forced to repress herself to a quirk that she has that digested blood no one knew the real her she wanted to be close to others and no one was close to her. Her real self was not accepted by others around her: Himiko wants connection but doesn’t know how. That may be what she envied Uraraka and Izuku's relationship because she is accepted and loved for who she is. She can use Uraraka's quirk is because she wants to have the same connection that Uraraka had with her loved ones. Her quirk notes that she wants to feel loved and accepted for who she is and her desire to connect.

Dabi:

Now for Dabi’s quirk. Dabi’s has a powerful flame that is incompatible with his body made for ice.

Dabi’s quirk is incompatible with his own body like Aoyama’s and using his quirk burns the skin of his body faster. His flames run on his emotional state even changed color when he hit puberty. If Dabi becomes emotional he might accidentally set himself on fire.

Dabi having a flame and ice body notes Dabi’s numerous contradictions in his personality and actions. These two things say a lot in Dabi in a nutshell as seen with his actions and personality. His ice makeup notes how Dabi is cool-headed on the surface due to his body made for ice and how he comes off to others being aloof, detached, cold, uncaring, and serious. His flames note the intense emotions he has underneath his cool exterior. Dabi is cool-headed on the surface but underneath he’s deeply emotional and he’s hiding his sithing emotions underneath his exterior.

His flames are blue a cool color yet burn hotter; as stated earlier, blue fire is the hottest of flames in being what burns bright and the strongest this represents Dabi’s deep ever so turbulent emotions.

He may act rational and sensible on the surface but His actions are fueled by his own emotions with the blue flames representing how intense his emotions are. His flames are blue which are considered the hottest and brightest, the hottest part of his flames symbolizes his need for acknowledgment from others.

Another thing Dabi dissociates himself by saying he can’t feel anything anymore but this is him trying not to get too emotional otherwise it could kill him like it did when he was younger and to not get close to others due to the pain he experienced from the abuse in his past.

Dabi uses his quirk very recklessly without any regard towards himself or others. This is seen in the way he uses his flames quirk to burn away his enemies while he burns himself. The way he uses his quirk and his quirk will burn himself refers to how little he thinks of himself and doesn’t value himself since Endeavor never valued Touya as a person but a tool as seen in the way he fights. Because he was neglected by Endeavor he neglects himself in a fight and his unhealthy mindset to how he pushes himself and not care because he feels he’s never going to be good enough this refers to Dabi’s self-destructive tendencies his intense emotions which come out as self-destructive with his body served as a reminder that he was never going to be good enough Dabi felt inferior and neglected due to the abuse. Dabi's self-destructive tendencies come from his quirk; it comes from his abusive environment. The abuse gave him an incredible shattered sense of self-worth as seen in how he uses his quirk: he doesn’t care about what happens to himself; he is a dead man walking.

His quirk reflects his character flaw perfectly in which the flames serve as a metaphor to how he cannot regulate his own emotions since he was never taught to know how.

So when you choose a quirk for your villain, have it represent their inner insecurities like these, such as Dabi’s needing validation of himself and his feelings, Himiko wanting to be herself, and having the ability to connect to someone. Twice the need for companionship and Tomura may be the most obvious need for freedom without restrictions.

Names:

Tomura Shigaraki:

Time for names,

Tomura Shigaraki’s name is packed with a lot of interesting things that are intrinsically linked to his character, quirk, and development he underwent in the story.

I will go over his original name Tenko Shimura (志村転弧) first. For the kanji in his given name “Ten” means “転, shift, curve, crescent, turn, abrupt, fall, change, revolve” and “ko” means “弧, arc” when put together it is read as "changing arc”. His given name notes his transition from civilian to villain and his character arc that develops in the story.

His given name “Shimura” when broken down goes like this with “Shi” means “志, aspirations” and “mura” means “村, village” when put together means "village of aspirations”. His surname notes his grandmother's hero lineage and connection to OFA and Tenko himself as a boy who once had dreams of being a hero but was forbidden by his father.

On to his villain name Tomura Shigaraki (死柄木弔). It is rich with so much meaning that goes very well with his character, situation, and role.

For “Tomura'' means “弔, funerals'' in Japanese but it comes from the Japanese verb “Tomura'' which means "to mourn”. His name is given to AFO to symbolize the death of his old self reborn as one who inspires fear and acts as mourning around the world. Someone who constantly is reminded of his pain by AFO.

Tomura came from “Tomura-age”, Tomura-age is the final stage of the memorial in Japanese culture

Being a completion of the rites with the spirit has been one of the kami. This alludes to AFO’s plans for Tomura to how he plans to rule using Tomura’s body and to get back OFA All the while getting revenge on All Might by using his master's grandson. Tomura’s body being taken over by AFO brings his final rite to being a villain. the one of kami and refers to how AFO is called a god to his followers, to how AFO gave his real quirk to him taking control of Tomura being one with him is similar to how one with the kami sounds. AFO named him intentionally to reference the final stages of his plans.

For his surname Shigaraki, when broken down the kanji, is comprised of “Shi” means “死, death” and “gara” means “柄, grip” in Japanese. when the first two kanji of his name is put together it means “death grip"

As I explained in his character design segment death is a core aspect of his character you can see this well with his villain name, with death grip is the literal interpretation of the function of his quirk Decay if he touches you with all five fingers you dissolve into dust. Death grip can be used in the literal sense the moment when Shigasaki grips you with his quirk. The meaning came from the term death grip which in itself for something gripped too tightly which is exported by a person in panic or fear of life and that their grip causes a death that you cannot escape from. This notes Tomura carrying this image of fear that he conjures up to the other characters signifying the definition of the literal death grip. Death Grip also means something on Tomura’s entire situation to how he is always being under someone’s control by both AFO and his family, with his family in the abuse he was put under and their hands that keep him both in check and suffocate him.

The last kanji in his surname “ki” means “木, tree”, The tree aspect can reference family tree as such as his connection to his grandmother nana Shimura 7th holder of OFA with the tree can mean how he’s tried to both all might from his mentor and a being AFO successor and surrogate son. His reference to being the symbol of terror in opposition to the symbol of peace, All-Might.

Death plays into his character well as seen with him having the kanji death in his surname as the death of Tenko his old self and the rebirth of Tomura the Villain and the successor of AFO. Tomura’s name notes his morning for his original self that was lost to the abuse of AFO.

Later we found out that Shigaraki is AFO’s surname. Shigaraki is a homophone for a town in Shiga prefecture that was once an imperial capital for a few months. This notes the AFO empire which was short-lived since it was dismantled by his little brother and All Might and the presence of OFA. when Shigaraki is revealed to be AFO surname’s it not only symbolizes AFO control over Tomura but also being his successor in his evil the translation of death symbolizes AFO having complete control over him.

Tomura Shigaraki’s name is nuanced just as his character is a character coated in death both literal and metaphorical is the Perfect transition from being a civilian to a villain.

Himiko Toga:

Now time to take about the only girl in the LOV Himiko Toga (渡我被身子) and her name.

Himiko’s entire name notes the function in which her quirk is used, with the first kanji in her name “Hi” means “被, to wear or put on” and “mi” means “身, somebody” and “ko,子 ” is a common end particle for girls in japan Her given name when put together means "to wear or put on someone else”.

For her Surname Toga when broken down into the first kanji “To” mean s “渡, cross over or migrate” and “ga” means “我, self, and ego” together with its read as "migrate one’s self”. When her entire name is spelled together you can read it as “covering up all over my body and hiding”.

Her entire name is structured to note the functions of her quirk transform which allows her to take on the physical appearance of the person she consumed blood from.

Dabi:

Last but not least, Dabi, otherwise Known as Touya Todoroki. I did several metas on his name on my blog and I explained over it again. Dabi’s name like Tomura’s carries a lot of nuance in both his character and role in the story. The meaning in his villain name is very complex and intricate, much like Dabi himself.

I am going to start with his civilian identity, Touya. His name fits the naming themes of BNHA and ties well with his personality in the story the first kanji of his name “Tou" means “燈, lamp”, The kanji both notes his flame quirk and his ice constitution that is unmatched for his fire quirk. The other definition is “the fire that illuminates the surroundings”. This definition notes how powerful the flames of his quirk are when compared to Endeavors. "燈” the old version of the common kanji. The old version in which the kanji used in his name notes how he grew up in a traditional Japanese household. The kanji "Tou" is used for saying “lanterns, torches or night lights" in Japanese. Light/torch indicates that he’s the oldest of his siblings and lanterns mean torches that can refer to how Touya has a fire in his soul lit by Endeavor. Lanterns and torches are seen at the beginning of the festivals but slowly fade out when the festival ends. The indication of a beginning like night festival notes his previously exuberant, fiery personality when he was first training with endeavor only to slowly fade in the background after he finds out that he was being replaced as Endeavor’s successor with the arrival of more children.

Lamps are used by people to help them see through their way in the darkness. This suggests Touya’s entire situation to how he needed help to see where he was going but didn’t receive help from his family. No one was that lamp to help him see through the darkness of his situation leaving him all alone in the darkness with no help. Touya needed help but the people in his family didn’t understand him. His bedtime talk with Natsuo fully incorporates the night lamp symbolism that goes with his character. The lamps used to see these ties very strongly for Touya’s need acknowledgment from others. The lamp notes his current situation has never had any help received; he is still stuck in the dark in need of a light.

The second kanji "ya" means "矢, arrow" in Japanese “ya" is a common end particle of a boy’s name.

Arrows are aimed straight to hit their target, a blatant implication on Touya's one-track mind, his arrow-like ambition to surpass all might to make his father proud. The arrow meaning in his name notes his disappearance as an object that is fired doesn’t return.

The lamps and arrows in his name are tools used by others They have no agency. This plays into the irony for Touya of how he’s seen as a tool to be used and discarded by endeavor once he realizes he cannot fulfill his ambition, another reference on how Endeavor views his children as a tool for his ambitions. Touya having no control over his situation in an abusive household with Endeavor or his body makeup notes his lack of agency seen in the tool symbolism I previously mentioned in the paragraph. His civilian name is tragic for his entire character.

Time for his villain name Dabi, Dabi is translated to “cremation” in English. His civilian name may have an obvious meaning in English but if you look closely at Dabi’s villain name in Japanese it has much more nuances to his character and design especially in how Dabi is used in Japanese culture.

If you break down the kanji in Japanese "荼, weed" in Japanese the kanji used to translate Buddhist terms borrowed from Sanskrit. The other meaning of “Da" is “suffering” The second kanji “bi" means "毘, help or save” it doesn’t mean anything in Japanese but if you put these characters together in Chinese it’s translated as “saving people's souls from their body”.

This meaning correlates to Dabi’s Buddhist religious origins where it notes the actual cremation funeral practice Dabi is the Buddhist ceremony the purpose of Buddhist cremation is to liberate the soul from the body so that the person can be reborn the ultimate purpose of cremation is rebirth since the purifying flame of cremation to separate attachment of the soul to be reincarnated again. The reason why they choose cremation in Buddhism is that Buddha was cremated so his followers would follow suit. cremation is the most common practice to bury the dead in japan.

Dabi’s villain name might reference the Japanese phrase "entrust to the flames” (Dabi ni fusu,荼毘に付す). “Entrust to the flames” is the English equivalent of "they passed away" in English. "entrust to the flames” original meaning comes from Buddhism. The Buddhists have the idea that the body is a cage and believe that cremation frees the soul from its body by freeing them from any impurities by setting its body on fire. The fire is used to burn away any worldly attachments to purify the soul for reincarnation. the part you’re putting them in better hands could come from that definition of Buddhist cremation funerals.

Now you know the entire context of what people meant by entrusting the flames and here’s the reason why. His villain notes on how his character and design are centered around death and how he uses in his flame quirk resembling fire from a cremation robbing the lives of and leaving nothing but bones and ashes seen in how he burns the thugs in the alley much like an actual cremation. and Dabi’s cremation ties back to his supposed death being burned alive at Sekoto Hill.

The Buddhist origins of Dabi of his codename represent his character and ideals. His flame quirk represents the flames of destruction but also rebirth both physical and spiritual to Touya he died from the flames of despair and reborn as Dabi the villain who revealed the truth of the corruption of hero society in the person Endeavor, who set on a mission to change society through the flames of destruction that it might be reborn anew a society without heroes.

The purifying flame of cremation symbolizes not only Touya being reborn as Dabi but in a spiritual sense symbolizing the societal change he wants to bring down hero society through his purifying flames to be born anew free from the influence of false heroes.

There are two ways to say cremation in Japanese one of which is “Kaso” 火葬" which is translated into “fire burial”. Dabi is used frequently in funerals instead of Kaso because Kaso is straightforward for the meaning of cremation and in Japan polite people avoid saying unpleasant things directly so they substitute Dabi instead to avoid bringing up death to seem less harsh.

This can refer to how no one can bring up Touya because he died in the eyes of his family. He's dead and his family avoids Talking about it directly. But the way Dabi is used in Japanese refers to Touya’s position in the abuse being the scapegoat. Where everyone in his family avoided confronting their problems and ignored them. Dabi is well aware of the circumstances in his family but no one brought it up until Dabi’s reveal as Touya Todoroki on the broadcast.

Epilogue:

In light of the war arc and the story coming to its final arc I did this all in a rush, I apologize if I forgot to add anything or left stuff out Feel free to add this post. This post is here to serve as guidelines to help others when they need help in designing their BNHA villains OC. I want to give credit to these people down below who helped me write this meta. One last thing to say is to have fun.

Here are the previous metas I did if you want to go look.

BNHA Oc Creation Analysis

BNHA Bio Creation Analysis

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MetiNotTheBadGuy/videos

https://scarletrain1724.tumblr.com/

https://linkspooky.tumblr.com/

#Dabi #touya todoroki #himiko toga #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #my meta #Character Design #meta #Thank you Hamliet~#THANK YOU SO MUCH HAMLIET!#league of villains

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joonasslut · 3 years

Note

If you had to assign an aesthetic to the boys which would it be?

Alright I basically don't know anything about these things so I'm gonna use this website to assign the boys to what I believe fits best their aesthetic .

Olli - Light Academia/Chic Modernist: the colors really remind me of him, he looks so classy and stilish, he had a pinterest moodboard, that man is a man of culture and no, education is not part of it. Olli is a cultured man no matter what.

Joonas - Urbancore but make it glam: gotta thank my bestie for the help. Joonas' style is unmatched and he's really peaking now, he's stylish but somehow still casual? He obviously makes an effort and he's succeeding at looking good and we gotta thank him for that.

Aleksi - Dazecore: big aleksi vibes here, we do know that he stays up late but this aesthetic screams Aleksi somehow, it might be the colors, the vibe, he surely seems adorable and sweet on socials but idk it feels like there's something hidden. This aesthetic seems to highlight that.

Tommi - Dark Naturalism: tommi is so mysterious to me, he seems menacing but in a good way? It might be because of that audio he had sent aleksi but still. "Casually sharpening pencils with a pocket knife" I can see him doing that.

Niko - After Hours: the moment I saw these images I thought about Niko. Is there a reason? No, it's a vibe. Don't question it. He might be loud on stage, trying to be the cool one in videos by doing his rap persona but in reality he seems a very kind and thoughtful soul which inspires calm and tranquility. A little bit of sadness too.

Joel - Bastardcore: this one was difficult. Joel seems to be a mix of aesthetics but there's not one I can pinpoint exactly. He has rockstar vibes, secretly a softie vibes, grunge vibes and all but damn this one cracked me up. "he's supposed to strike your fight or flight response" is such an accurate description of what I felt the first weeks of being a fan. First I was intimidated then I could not -jokingly- stand him. I think I did call him feral a few times.

- send asks -

#blind channel #aesthetic #olli matela #joonas porko #tommi lalli #aleksi kaunisvesi #alex mattson #niko vilhelm #joel hokka

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agent-cupcake · 3 years

Text

Garreg Mach Café Episode Two: Lucky Seven (Yuri x Reader)

The first thing you learned about him —one of the very few things you knew about him— was that he liked sugar. A lot. You didn’t work the counter most of the time, you just made the drinks. So, you didn’t know who had ordered the heart attack inducing Ruined Sky Strawberry Frappe, only that someone was looking for a cavity. Vanilla bean coffee, three pumps of vanilla syrup, and strawberry puree with ice blended and topped with whipped cream, hazelnut drizzle, strawberry drizzle, and red sprinkles.

The second thing you learned about him was his name. Or, more accurately, his lack thereof. People regularly used dumb names. It didn’t really bug you, there was no shame in entertaining someone who thought making a barista call out a drink for Phun E. Monki was the peak of modern entertainment. Not so surprisingly, you saw a lot of hipster and nerd traffic through the café so references and jokes weren’t at all unheard of. Really, this one wasn’t even that bad. Comparatively.

“Ruined Sky Strawberry Frappe for Arsène Lupin,” you called, turning around.

“That’s mine,” the waiting customer responded. Shockingly, it was not the top-hat wearing gentleman thief who stood at the counter waiting for his drink. Neither was it the dweeb you expected. Your Arsène Lupin —that is, the man standing on the other side of the glistening lacquered wood countertop— certainly wasn’t normal, but not in the way you had initially assumed.

The third thing you learned about him was that he was disarmingly beautiful. He stood casually; his arms crossed with one of his hands resting lightly on his chin as he watched with a half-smile that you would have sworn had a mischievous glint. Waiting to see if the little joke got a reaction, you figured.

Well, who were you to deny him that? Pushing down the instinctual nerves of talking to someone who belonged more in the technicolor light of your two-past-midnight Instagram escapades rather than the academia chic café, you smiled back. “Here you go, Monsieur Lupin.”

That made his lips twitch in amusement, which shouldn’t have been as gratifying as it was. “Thanks,” Arsène said warmly, wrapping his fingers around the cup. It wasn’t like you were intentionally trying to notice, but his fingers were long and thin, the nails neat and manicured. Pretty hands. Attractive hands. You wondered if they were soft, or as strong as they looked, or what they might feel like-

Nope. No. You needed God.

Or Tinder

“I hope you enjoy,” you said, trying to act like you hadn’t just committed some obscene thought crime. He was supposed to leave after that. People got their drinks and either sat down or left. But he didn’t, meeting your eyes with an even gaze. Their violet coloring was striking, drawn out by the purple eyeshadow smoked out over his pale eyelids. The makeup should have been off-putting, you were less than uninterested in the pierced hoard of e-boys that had saturated the modern alternative dating market, but it wasn’t. Not on him, at least.

“This is a cute place,” Arsène said. But he wasn’t looking around the cafe, he was staring directly at you. Which… you weren’t sure if you were to buy into your ego telling you he was flirting or your paranoia that he was laughing at you. “Is it usually this busy?”

Flirting was better, for your sanity’s sake if nothing else, so you smiled, doing a quick check to make sure you weren’t missing any customers. The guy working the register was looking at his phone under the counter.

“You know, you shouldn’t pick such an obvious pseudonym when you’re canvassing a business,” you said playfully. “Charm will only get you so far.”

That made him laugh, his appraising eyes sparkling with amusement as he stabbed a straw past the whipped cream of his drink. “In my experience, charm will get you anywhere.”

“For you, maybe,” you allowed, feeling a little more emboldened by that response. Lowering your voice slightly, you leaned in as if to conspire. “I guess the real question is what you’re stealing, Monsieur Lupin, hearts or jewels?”

“Jewels, usually,” Arsène told you without missing a beat. “I have no need to steal the hearts.” He shrugged one shoulder carelessly, casually. “I collect enough of them as it is.”

A corny, over-confident line like that should have made you laugh. Unfortunately, you kind of believed it. So you raised a skeptical eyebrow. “That goes against the spirit of being a Phantom Thief, doesn’t it?”

“Why, do you want me to steal your heart?” Arsène asked. He didn’t sound serious, exactly, but neither was the question joking enough to keep a flush from crawling up your cheeks.

“Baristas don’t have hearts,” you told him theatrically, rejecting your silly reaction. “It’s a void of caffeine, student debt, and the disappointment of our parents.”

Arsène was about to respond when you heard the door jingle open. You turned, looking over your shoulder at the customers who had stepped up to the register. “It looks like you’re needed,” he said, following your eye line.

“Yeah,” you said, feeling a strange stab of disappointment. Which was dumb. A little bit of banter with a handsome stranger was nice, but it shouldn’t have been anything else.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” Arsène said, smirking in a way that made you think he’d seen your dismayed reaction. “Thanks for the drink.”

He raised the cup like a toast goodbye, and you wished him a good day. It was completely ridiculous, but that quick and strange interaction played on loop in your head for the rest of the day. You went from embarrassed, to amused, to insecure, and back again dozens of times. By the next day, you weren’t sure what to think about it and you hated to think that you were watching for him, but-

Well, you were.

The fourth thing you learned about him was that he had a schedule, a specific time slot that seemed to be allocated to getting an overly sugary drink at your little cafe.

“Noa Fruit and Caramel Macchiato for Mr Pink,” you called, already expecting to see his smile based on the name alone. Not that the preparation did a whole lot in lessening the effects. Today Arsène, or Mr Pink, wore a dark striped button up tucked into black pants. The top buttons were undone, showing off the elegant column of his neck and the framing lines of his collarbones. His skin was so pale, like it had never seen the sun, the color perfectly even and milky.

“That’s mine,” he said. Redundantly. Of course it was his.

To think that you’d done your makeup with more care than usual today was embarrassing, but you were glad for it as you passed the drink to him. “Reservoir Dogs, right?” you asked, forcing yourself to not be flustered.

“Very good,” he said in a voice that was borderline condescending.

“You thought I wouldn’t know? I serve coffee in downtown, knowing Tarantino is practically a job requirement,” you said. Arsène laughed warmly, a sound that was somewhere between amusement and mocking, a sound that invited a mess of fluttery nerves to dance around in your stomach which you covered with a smile. “Mr Pink, though… he’s a long way off from being a gentleman thief.”

“Let’s just say that I’ve fallen from grace,” Arsène said, his smile an odd combination of mirth and mystery. “Lupin is... more of an ideal. Reality is hardly ever so romantic.”

“Cheers to that,” you said wryly.

“Although if I had to emulate one of them, I’d far prefer it to be the gentleman,” he said, dropping a few dollars in your tip jar. Cheeky. “Thanks for the treat.”

“Oh… Yeah,” you said, not even thinking to point out that it was your job. Unless he wasn’t talking about the coffee, which was even more baffling. “Have a nice day.”

After that came a lineup of sugary drink orders under the names of famous thieves. Some references you knew immediately, others you had to google later. And always, always, he just about made your heart stop with that smile.

It was… Maybe a week later? Your Arsène had become something like an expectation. Which was ridiculous. And stupid. But it was true, and he hadn’t been in the day before which affected you far more than you dared admit. Seeing the familiar purple head in the lineup of waiting customers was more relieving than it should have been.

A Vanilla Wyvern Wing Latte for Danny Ocean, this time. Unfortunately, there was a swath of customer’s orders that needed filling so you couldn’t give it to him personally, sliding it across the counter before rushing back to the blender. That kind of disappointed you, especially since you hadn’t seen him the day before, until you realized that he had taken a seat along the bar, writing something in a notebook and sipping on the creamy white latte.

Waiting for you? Pushing down the spark of excitement you felt about that, you finished up the orders. After that, you took a breath, grabbing a rag to at least seem productive as you inched towards him.

“You’re awfully far from Vegas, Mr Ocean,” you said. Although you called him that, you still thought of him as Arsène Lupin. Your Arsène.

He looked up from his notebook, the end of his pen pushed against his lip in a distracting way. They were so pink. And shapely, his top lip curved by a perfectly symmetrical cupids bow that no amount of lip kits could falsify. And… And you were staring. Again. He obviously noticed, what with the way he grinned when you forced your eyes up to his, but he gracefully didn’t point it out.

“Casinos are nothing more than a party trick,” he told you lightly, flipping his pen through his fingers before letting it drop to the paper. “I’ve got my eye on something far more valuable.” His eyes were burning into yours as he spoke.

That was the fifth thing you learned about him. Arsène could make anything sound like a double entendre. You thought of yourself as being somewhat difficult to ruffle, but even the most innocuous of comments from him could make your cheeks warm. It was the tone of his smooth, lovely voice. Always speaking under his breath, or low enough that you found yourself leaning in.

“Jewels, right?” you asked, playing it cool because you refused to fall prey to what you knew was a purposeful attempt to throw you off balance. “I heard there was an exhibit coming to town.”

“I’m not really interested in that sort of thing,” Arsène said with a little wave of his elegant hand. “You know the reprehensible means they use to get them, don’t you? So beautiful... but stained with blood. Not too dissimilar from myself, I suppose.”

That momentarily tripped you up. He sounded so genuine, even with the little quip of a joke. Most people couldn’t pull off saying something so nakedly edgy. Maybe it only worked because he was pretty, and you were a fool. So you just smiled. “You really ought to work on this whole subterfuge thing.”

Arsène’s eyes met yours. So intense. “And how would you recommend I do that?”

“Misdirection,” you told him, refocusing on wiping up the counter to avoid his gaze. “The names are bad enough. You’ve gotta at least pretend to be an upstanding member of society, right?”

“Do you think I’m not?” he asked lightly, his head falling to the side, hand braced against his cheek casually. “And here I thought I was perfectly amicable.”

“Oh,” you said. Did he sound offended? You quickly backtracked. “I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t think you are, it’s just that what you said-”

“I’m kidding,” Arsène said, the slightly concerned expression slipping from his face like an easily discarded mask.

You winced, internally kicking yourself. “Ah, sorry.”

“Don’t worry. That was cute,” Arsène said with that oddly infuriating unreadable grin and shutting his notebook to stand up.

“You’re leaving?” you asked, almost confused that he’d wait only to cut the conversation short.

“Haven’t you realized? I’m a wanted man. As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I’ve got things to do,” he said. “Speaking of that, I hope you didn’t miss me too much yesterday. This project is more difficult than I anticipated.”

“That’s fine, it’s not like I expect you to come by,” you said. You lied.

“No?” Arsène asked. He didn’t believe you, that much was obvious. “Fine, then. I’m not afraid to admit that I missed you. I’ll definitely see you tomorrow, though.”

“Can’t wait,” you said. And, despite the half-sarcastic affect you tried to put on, you meant it.

It only settled after he’d already left what he really had said. Missed you. Not for the first time, you toyed with the idea of giving him your number. Then again, maybe you were misreading the situation. After all, you didn’t even know his name.

Still, true to his word, he came around the same time the next day.

This time, it was a Cinnamon Dust Frappe for Garrett. Arsène, or Garrett, was wearing a sweater today in a nod to the rainy weather. Just like everything else he wore, it was entirely in service of his allure, a dark knit with leather elbow patches. White clips kept a section of his hair out of his face, which was curling at the ends. From the humidity? Or perhaps he usually straightened it?

“It took me a minute,” you admitted as you handed him his drink, “Garrett. That’s Thief, right? I have to be honest; you don’t really strike me as the gamer type.”

“I’m full of surprises,” he responded. After a moment, he added, “I haven’t got much time for games these days, but I have some fond memories from when I was a kid.”

“Probably why you’re a criminal,” you said.

If you weren’t mistaken, his eyes widened for a fraction of a second in something like surprise before that was composed into something else, his laughter driving it away. “You might be on to something with that. Video games do make kids violent, after all.”

“So, tomorrow, will it be Ezio? Or Corvo… He’s got a bit of thievery under his belt.”

Arsène scoffed. “I’d never do the same trick twice.”

That made you smile. “I look forward to it.”

After he left, you realized that you’d learned the sixth thing about him. It was such a small and mundane detail, but there was something charming and oddly intimate to imagine Arsène as a kid playing video games.

The next day, you were working register while helping to train the newbie in making drinks. It was cold. Slushy snow half-heartedly sprinkled down outside, and the heater was desperately trying, and failing, to keep the cafe warm. The repairman wouldn’t come until the following morning. All in all, your mood was rather poor.

Until the door opened and a familiar face stepped up to the counter.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you up here,” Arsène said.

“Desperate times,” you said with a shrug. He smiled at that, looking up at the menu contemplatively.

“I’ll have…” he said, “a Mockingbird Mocha Hot Chocolate. Medium.”

“And who might you be today?” you asked professionally, the Sharpie point poised over the side of the cardboard hot drinks cup.

“Prometheus,” he said without hesitation.

You blinked, caught off guard for a second as you tried to figure out the reference. That was… clever. The original thief. You couldn’t help but shake your head in amusement as you scribbled that on the side of the cup. The newbie already knew how to make the drink, leaving you with nothing to do. The cafe was quiet today, a rarity. It was the poor weather. People dropped in to get hot drinks, but you didn’t blame them for not sticking around. Arsène was dressed for the cold, wearing a white cape coat that was either incredibly trendy or strangely fringe. Of course, it worked perfectly on him. He looked ready to hop into a new age fashion catalog for outerwear.

“From gentleman thief to a gangster to god… Moving up in the world, are we?” you asked to fill the silence.

“On the contrary,” Arsène told you “There’s no power in being a god nobody believes in.”

“I’d definitely believe in you if you could warm it up in here,” you told him. “I’ve been freezing all day.”

“I’m sure I could think of a few ways to warm you up,” Arsène said, smirking, his eyes dancing with mischievous amusement. “After all, I’m the one who stole the first flame.”

A shaky exhale left your mouth, becoming something like an awkward laugh because he definitely had you going for a second and you knew it was on purpose but still. “That’s what you meant. Right.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“Here you go,” the newbie said with absolutely perfect timing, handing Arsène his drink. At least your blush was keeping you warm.

“Thank you,” Arsène said, meeting her eyes. You were pretty sure you saw her swoon, which made sense. That was the most practical response to him, after all. He looked back to you. “Try to keep warm, I’d hate for you to be calling in sick.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” you said. He grinned, wishing the both of you a good day. And you did warm up. By thinking of all the ways he could keep you warm. At this point, even God Himself probably couldn’t do much about your sinful thoughts.

The next day was another cold one, meaning that it was slow. Because of that, your boss had decided that only one person was needed, and you didn’t mind if that was you. Paid hours were always welcome. More than that, and you hated yourself for it, you hoped to see your Arsène. You’d been scrolling on your phone under the register when the door opened. Winter rushed in like it had been chomping at the bit for the chance, called forth with the jingling of bells. Arsène had arrived right on time, wearing that white cloak coat and tall white heeled boots. Snowflakes shined in his hair, quick to melt in the warmth of the repaired heater. By now, you should have been immune. But you weren’t.

“Alone today?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Eerie, isn’t it?” you replied, gesturing to the empty cafe. “Not that I mind, now that the heater is fixed… What will you be having today?”

“A medium Caramel Leclair Latte,” he said.

“And your name…?”

“Yuri,” he said, which you scribbled onto the cardboard.

“All right… Just gimme a second,” you said. The drink was oddly tame for him, and a lot easier to make. You were pretty sure you could whip up a latte in your sleep. He waited without saying anything, but you could feel him watching. The music was too quiet to be a distraction and you were incredibly aware that it was just the two of you which was stupid because the counter practically put you in a different realm of reality, but-

You forced your thoughts to focus on something else, considering the name he’d given you. It was oddly unassuming, at least by the standards of other names he’d given you. You couldn’t recognize it as anything in particular, either. It was Russian. Or Japanese. It being the name of a Russian thief probably made the most sense contextually, but you were drawing a blank as to the specific reference.

“I can’t figure it out,” you admitted when you finished the drink and set it on the counter between you, “who are you impersonating today?”

Arsène blinked, a second of confusion passing before his lips quirked up just a bit. “Myself, actually. I figured it was time to give you my name. You can call me Yuri. Yuri Leclerc, to be precise.”

That was the seventh thing you learned about him. Your stomach clenched. Out of nerves or excitement or happiness, you couldn’t tell. You smiled, feeling something giddy fuzz in your head. “Well... It... It’s good to meet you, Yuri Leclerc.” Yes, you liked that name. It was better than all the others, even better than Arsène.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Yuri replied smoothly.

“So… Is there a reason for this momentous revelation?” you asked.

Some of the mirth drained from his eyes as he slid two of the little coffee straws into the lid. “I’m leaving town.”

The disappointment that struck you was beyond silly, it wasn’t like you had any claim to him. You’d only just learned his name for God’s sake. “Did the police finally catch up with you?” you asked with a smile, trying to be playful.

“Not yet,” Yuri said. “I prefer to leave before they catch wise.”

“I can never tell if you’re joking or not,” you told him, shaking your head. Sure, he was smiling, but, well, he smiled a lot. It was always unreadable. Amusement at something. Life itself, maybe.

“For your own sake,” Yuri said, his eyes fixing on yours, “you should always assume I am.”

Because that really cleared it up. You decided not to worry about it too much. “But you are leaving, that’s not pretend?”

“Yeah.”

Your heart sank all over again. Stupid, stupid. At least you finally knew his name.

That made for seven things you knew about him. That was enough, wasn’t it? Lucky sevens and all that? Without thinking too hard about it, you grabbed one of the embossed café cards and a pen, scribbling your name and phone number on the back. “If you’re ever back in town or whatever, this is me,” you told him, handing it over. “Or I dunno, I get vacation time. Maybe it’d be fun to take a trip to Almyra or Albinea or wherever gentleman thieves go until the heat dies down.”

Yuri looked at the card for a long moment before tucking it into his wallet, smiling. You felt like you could read this smile, it was warm and friendly. More real than his others, the emotion catching in his eyes, too. “I wonder, do you mean that?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I might.”

“Then I do,” you said with a shrug, like it was easy as that and unsure exactly how much of what you said was strictly playful. It didn’t really matter because it made Yuri smile all over again and the look was fond enough to make your heart seize.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “Until then, do you by any chance watch the news?”

“The news?” you asked, confused by the shift in topic. “Not if I can help it.”

“Well, you should, at least for a few days.”

“Am I gonna turn it on and see your mugshot slapped all over some headline about a bank robbery or something?” you asked, mostly joking. Mostly.

“What would have ever given you the impression that I’d do something like that?” he asked, feigning a tone of offense.

“Steal something?” you asked.

“Get caught,” he corrected.

You laughed, thinking of something clever to respond with. Unfortunately, the door opened to admit a trio of bundled up students, killing the moment before you spoke.

“That’s my cue,” Yuri said, picking up his coffee. “Don’t miss me too much until we meet again, yeah?”

“Only as long as you promise not to forget me,” you told him.

“It’s a deal, then.”

“Goodbye, Yuri.”

“Goodbye,” he echoed, his eyes meeting yours and voice gentle. Intimate, almost. Then he was gone, a flash of violet and white disappearing into the winter cold.

It was silly, but you kept an eye on the news like he told you, curious to know if anything would come of it or if you’d just fallen for a cute guy’s ruse. But, no, something did happen. A huge theft. The jewel exhibit that had been about to roll out downtown had been robbed. Such a feat was meant to be impossible, there was seemingly no way it could have been done. But it had and there were no suspects, no public leads. And, not surprisingly, no mugshots.

#fire emblem three houses #fe3h #yuri leclerc #yuris leclair #fe yuri #yuri leclerc x reader #yuris leclair x reader #fe yuri x reader #YOU'VE BEEN HIT BY #YOU'VE BEEN STRUCK BY #ive had this idea in my head for so long #admittedly i'm not sure it turned out the way i wanted but i can't tell why #iS thIs a pERsoNa rEFeRenCe? yes

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vendettaviraa · 3 years

Text

goodnight

⇒ Oneshot ⇒ My Hero Academia ⇒ Hado x Reader, Nejire Hado x Reader ⇒865 words

It was late at night and you found yourself pacing up the steel stairs up to the rooftop. A swarm of thoughts consumed you until it made it impossible for you to sleep peacefully. The upcoming exams didn’t bother you. Not even hero-work bothered you. No, it was someone on your mind.

A familiar friend kept floating into the front of your mind. Lately, it’s been harder to push away the thoughts of how you feel about her and how she makes you feel. Sitting down against the cold cement, you gazed up at the dark indigo skies. From where you were, you could point out a few stars glowing and fading here and there.

You felt foolish for having Hado on your mind all the time, as she probably was focusing on becoming a hero herself. Turning your gaze out to the small city of Musutafu, Japan.

You noticed a few windows lit from apartment complexes and office buildings. The view was quite lovely. ‘She’s lovely.’ You pulled your knees to your chest and reprimanded yourself for thinking such a thing.

The heat rose to your face as you began twisting one of the several silver rings she had gifted you for one of your birthdays. You admired them greatly as any gift from her meant everything to you. The designs were simple bands with small designs alternating on each one.

The breeze picked up moving across your exposed skin as you forgot to bring a jacket up with you. Your mind began to drift, wondering if she knew. From your long stares, the way your touch seems to linger on her a bit too long, or how you can’t even form coherent thoughts around her.

You wish you could tell her, but the possibility of her liking someone else was too great of a chance for you to risk a confession. Plus, you didn’t know if she even felt that way towards you.

However, your thoughts were interrupted when the heavy door to the roof opened and Hado stepped out. She peaked around until she spotted your form leaning against the wall of the entrance. “Hey I thought you would be up here!”

She carefully jogged towards you as to not step on anything since she was barefoot and also in her pajamas. Hado sat down next to you with an ‘omph’ and she turned to you with a warm smile. Her lilac hair shined in the moonlight causing you to immediately turn away to hide your growing blush.

“What are you doing up here?” She tapped your arm to get you to turn to her. “I just needed some air,” It wasn’t that much of a lie. “Are you stressed about the exams? I am too, but I think we’ll do just fine!” She moved closer next to you, at this point you could pick up the scent of her perfume.

When you didn’t respond right away as you were lost in thought, her face was in immediate view as she moved closer. “Or are you stressed about something else?” Her deep blue eyes looked at you questioningly, awaiting a response.

“Yeah...well someone.” You began messing with your rings again trying not to think about her close proximity. “A crush?!” She grabbed your shoulders and shook you. “Why didn’t you tell me?! You know I love crushes! Do I know them?” You managed to pry her hands off your shoulders, instead of holding them in your own for a moment.

“Well...you kinda do?” While you contemplate on how to tell her, you didn’t notice how you were stroking her hand in absence of twisting your rings. She was grateful that you were zoned out as she was blushing at the contact.

Although, the idea of you liking Amajiki or Togata made her feel a certain way she couldn’t put her finger on. She could say she’s happy, and it’s mostly true but deep down she knew it wasn’t.

“Is it Amajiki or Togata? You’re around us a lot.” Hado spoke aloud, scanning your facial features for any indication that it was either of them.

“No, I...um.” You pulled your hands away from hers to feel the cold silver to ground you. Hado took your hands in hers, causing you to look her in the eyes. She seemed a bit sad. “Not that I think they’re bad people!” You immediately added, hoping she didn’t think that you hated her friends.

“So...” She urged you to finish what she was going to say. “So...I have a crush on...you.” Hado froze up, thinking she heard you wrong. ‘You having a crush on her? That can’t be right. You’re so strong and beautiful.’ You squeezed one of her hands, and she blinked back to reality. “You like me?” You nodded, hoping that she wouldn’t reject you.

She looked at the door before turning back to you and leaning closer. Her eyes became lidded as she tilted her head. It hit you then, she was going to kiss you. You closed the gap between the two of you, releasing one of her hands to cup her face. You stroked her cheek lovingly with your thumb.

The two of you parted slightly, and her smile filled you up with butterflies. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” She whispered and you nodded before pulling her into another kiss.

#hado x reader #nejire x reader #nejire hado #hado x fem reader #nejire x fem reader #kaninabunny #kanina bunny #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha x fem reader #hado x y/n #nejire x y/n

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sylvanium · 1 year

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A moment from yesterday.

A friend I haven’t seen for a while stopped by the library. We talked a little and then she asked, somehow confused: "So... are you finishing the master thesis, or is it a PhD thesis?”

And at that exact moment, I almost flipped the table, screaming: "No fucking way! I’ll never do a fucking doctorate! I fucking hate myself for doing this!”

She remained very calm and went on like: “Oh, I see. You’re like the fifth person who said that to me. Not surprised anymore.”

So this is shit academia.

#this is peak dark academia in reality #somehow it hurts being a part of this #this thesis is killing me #screaming crying throwing things #thesis #master thesis #thesis crisis #master study #student life #university student #real dark academia #dark academia #personal #Ramblings #nonsense

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vicecityhq · 3 years

Photo

██████████████]99% LOADING...SUSPECT INTO THE APD DATABASE...

WITNESS(ES) SAY HE REMINDS THEM OF: autumn, forestpunk, cottagegore, darkest academia . With a slight resemblance to PAKORN THANASRIVANITCHAI of/the ACTOR.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW ENTIRE FILE.

FULL FILE:

Last Name, First Name: Suwannarat, Briar Alias: Pan (codename for his job), Ari (more of a nickname than an alias) Realm of birth (if earth, nationality): Earth realm, Thailand Age: 29 Date of Birth: November 23rd Gender: Male Preferred Pronouns: He/Him Species: Children of the Twelve - Sagittarius Occupation: Police Detective Sexual Orientation: Homosexual

VISUAL FILE:

Skin Color: Tanned, burnt orange hue with a smattering of chocolate freckles along his face. He has the same freckles throughout his body, but has bigger white spots along his shoulders, the backs of his ears, and his outer hips. Eye color: Honey Brown Scars: None that have a significant story Piercings: None Tattoos: None Hair color: Dark chocolate brown Abnormalities: Fawn-like ears Horns/ wings/ etc: Small, stumpy antlers that stick just above his hair Transformed form: He does not have a transformation.

PERSONAL FILE:

RELIGIOUS BELIEF: Agnostic, but was raised Buddhist SINS: greed / gluttony / sloth / lust / pride / envy / wrath VIRTUES: chastity / charity / diligence / humility / kindness / patience / justice KNOWN LANGUAGES: English, Thai, Latin SECRETS: Teen romance can be rough, right? It’s like two colliding whirlwinds of emotions, hormones, and desires. One minute you’re together, the next you’re broken up for no reason. Now when that volatility is coupled with doubts about sexuality, it’s just a disaster waiting to happen. Most people didn’t accidentally melt half of their boyfriend’s face off and cause him to have to undergo grueling, expensive reconstructive surgery that would never quite make things right, though. Briar had told him the gloves had to stay on, but kids were reckless and foolishly believed in their own infallibility so it didn’t take much convincing to risk it all for some skin on skin. Then next thing they knew, Briar was babbling some half brained excuse about a science experiment gone wrong while his boyfriend’s blood curdling screams echoed in his ears. It was believably enough… until a month after - when the swelling from some of his injuries went down - his former lover was able to unintelligibly mutter “Briar did it.” Then suddenly an ‘accident’ turned into a full scale investigation of malicious intent. All Briar could do was tell the truth. He didn’t know which was more difficult - coming clean about his powers or coming out of the closet. But the officer sitting across from him and his distraught mother in the cramped interrogation room didn’t seem particularly disturbed by the confession. His bushy brows only furrowed in disappointment over the entire situation. In the end, Briar was only charged with obstruction of justice for initially lying to police, but the damage to his reputation was irreparable. His mother decided it would be best to relocate, which is how Briar came to finish his last years of high school in Agdoeg.

SAVVIES: hiking, gardening, camping, sightseeing, investigative work, problem solving, riddles and puzzles.

Powers & Abilities: Zodiac Empowerment (Sagittarius: enhanced accuracy, vision, tracking), Zodiac Physiology (see above appearance), Animal (deer) Spirit Summoning, Fthinóporokinesis (Autumn manipulation), Rot Inducement/Decaying Touch, Body Part Erosion, Luck, Evolution Manipulation, Supernatural Bowmanship.

Traits: (positive) Determined, intelligent, neat freak, health conscious, animal lover, usually down to earth, assertive, responsible, (negative) Sarcastic, impatient, untrusting, can have a temper when someone pushes him too far, distant, prioritizes work over everything else.

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Date of Birth: November 23rd

Date of Death: N/A

Crime Record: Most would assume someone has to have a clean slate to enter law enforcement, but that would leave slim pickings in a city like Agdoeg. Briar doesn’t have any outstanding criminal record, but he did have a couple of dings on his juvenile one that were expunged once he became a legal adult and, therefore, they can no longer be found in most databases.

Background/Biography

(tw miscarriage, tw immaculate conception by some strange god XD, tw domestic disputes, tw divorce)

Briar’s parents had been struggling to conceive a child for many years, since their prompt marriage right out of secondary school. These sweet hearts had longed to have a cookie cutter life and family, but fate seemed to inhibit that every step of the way. His mother have seven miscarriages due to the condition of an incompetent cervix and was told many times that she may never be able to carry a child to full term. This had been devastating news to the couple, who had no means of affording everything that went into surrogacy and were now facing the reality that they may never be able to have their own children. In spite of these odds, though, they kept trying and praying that whatever Gods that were out there might grant them a miracle.

Their prayers never seemed to be answered, though, and this put an understandable strain on their marriage. It was when his mother was thirty three and beginning to lose hope that she was plagued by a strange dream. She was floating in a vast emptiness, unable to move or even scream. This might have terrified someone else, but she somehow felt safe blanketed in the darkness. It was as if the entire universe lay bare before her, starlight dancing between her outstretched fingertips. Except she didn’t have fingers. She didn’t even have a physical body. There was a sense that she had become a part of something greater or perhaps been broken down into a form akin to what they had all been before the universe collided together in some cosmic firework show to create all that they knew. After what seemed like an eternity if time even passed in that world, the stars began to slowly take shape before her, pulled together by gravity or some other force she would never quite understand. As they converged, the light became so bright that it was nearly blinding, but she was space dust so how could she look away? She remembers trying to rationalize it with that absurd thought as the light shifted around her and the sound of harps and a heavenly chorus interrupted the sacred stillness that she’d been immersed in until then. Heralding the coming of something… or someone. The light came together at the peak of the crescendo, shapeless but she somehow got the sense of a shapely figure wrapped in a gown the longer she stared into it. This motherly figure bent over her and she recalled the warmth as its tendrils of light stroked over her cheek before urging her mouth open. In that moment, she didn’t feel any sense of unease as the being urged her to partake of its light. It traveled past her lips and through every corner of her being, rushing into her fingertips and even the ends of her hair. It was the first time since being in that plane that she had any sense of where she ended and the rest of the world began. The last thing she remembered was that light condensing, forming into its own little star in the lower part of her abdomen and radiating such soothing warmth…

Then she woke up and that was the first time she really had any sense of unease about the strange dream. As someone who had experienced how odd dreams could get during pregnancy, though, she took it as a good sign. Sure enough, when she took a test three weeks later, she was pregnant! Unlike prior, when she’d lost her children around the three month mark, this child was growing strong and without the complications she always worried about. Everything seemed to finally be falling into place. Their marriage and hope in the future was revitalized! And after nine months of perhaps the most physical and emotional pain she had ever been in in her entire life, she was welcoming a beautiful, healthy baby boy into the world and never once thought about the unsettling dream at the start of it all.

Admittedly, Briar was certainly a unique baby. His ears had always been a little odd since birth - bigger than usual - but his parents figured he would just grow into them and found it one of his most endearing traits. However, when he was three years old, that’s when his antlers started coming in. His mother found them one night when she was reading him a bedtime story and running her fingers through his unruly mop of wavy hair. Understandably, she freaked out and brought him to the doctor the next day, who took a biopsy and found the strange growths to primarily be made of calcium. It was unusual, but they decided to simply keep an eye on it since it seemed harmless enough. They only became more noticeable as the years went by, poking through his hair, and Briar recalls the Chinese Buddhists of his neighborhood always telling his mother it was a sign of good fortune. At the time, Briar had always thought it was annoying how they’d always want to lay their hands on him, but he realized as he’d gotten older that they believed the cow was Guanyin’s reincarnated father and the stubby little nubs atop his head made them think he was blessed. But horns and antlers are two different things - one being keratinous and, the other, bone - but he supposed it was easy to confuse them at first glance. Going into adolescence, those things grew like crazy. As if puberty and having velvety twigs growing on your head wasn’t stressful enough, that was when Briar first noticed his parents beginning to drift apart. One night, when coming home late from a friend’s house, he overheard a heated argument between them in the kitchen and his father’s accusations would forever be etched into his mind... “You thought you could trick me forever? I don’t know who knocked you up, but I can’t pretend that thing is my son!” The words drove through him like a knife. Yet after the initial shock subsided, Briar felt for the first time that all the little confusing pieces he’d chosen to overlook his entire life began to make sense. At first his parents had simply assumed he’d taken on more features of his mother, but his father had begun to grow distant as his otherworldly features and powers emerged. The reality was that two humans couldn’t possibly have made a half-deer-whatever-he-was and the only logical explanation was that he wasn’t his father’s at all. He only wished he’d come to that conclusion sooner instead of deluding himself and becoming foolishly attached to the man… The divorce was relatively swift. The judge didn’t even demand a paternity test when his father rebuked having to pay child support. All he had to do was look across the courtroom and he could tell that the speckled, big eared, horned child standing there wasn’t his. It was a dirty, unjust move that besmirched his mother as a disloyal wife and watching her go through that emotional rollercoaster was perhaps the toughest thing of the whole ordeal. Thirteen year old Briar comforted her through the fits of tears and had a strong upper lip when she insisted that she’d never betrayed his father… What bothered him the most was that he couldn’t believe her, but he also couldn’t be angry or blame her either. He had always been closer with his mother and he promised her in those moments of weakness that he would always take care of her. Of course, a single mother with a bad reputation was not an easy gig when trying to support a family. They were forced to move from their smaller town into the teeming metropolis of Bangkok for her to find work and Briar was honestly quite happy with leaving the past behind him. He thrived in the city with its far more diverse population. No one looked at him like he was a freak when he rode the bus or went to buy groceries. It was the first time he felt like he could truly be himself. He had his fair share of rough patches, just like any hormonal teenager, but having otherworldly powers and no one to teach you how to use them certainly caused a few catastrophic, social life obliterating faux pas. His mother thankfully was able to transfer within her company to the Agdoeg branch. It meant not only relocating in the middle of high school for Briar, but moving to an entirely new country. The level of diversity and integration of the supernatural community within Agdoeg was even better than what he’d experienced before. They were in government, owned small businesses… But not all of them were reputable or honest. Briar quickly learned that there were parts of the city that he shouldn’t venture to if he knew what was good for him. However, in spite of the seedier things going on in the underbelly, he was able to find a youth center which helped him to get a better handle on his powers and met his role model who would eventually lead him into his career as a police officer.

INTERVIEW QUESTION (para sample): “Just run us through what happened that night”. - Officer

Briar squeezed his eyes shut tight in an attempt to chase away the spots dancing across his vision from the overbearing fluorescent bulbs that bore down on the table in the center of the interrogation room. It was so intense that he could hear the hum of the electricity going to it and, somehow, he mentally processed that before the weight of the officer’s words. Words he’d uttered himself many times when the roles were flipped. Normally, this was the point a smart suspect would clam up and demand to talk to a lawyer, but clearly this was some kind of joke and he’d just missed the punchline. “Ha. Ha! Very funny.” He gruffed, devoid of amusement as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose to ward off the pounding headache settling in like someone was playing the bass drum behind his eyeballs.

The precinct had all been out drinking the night before, celebrating closing a case that had been busting their proverbial balls for the last six months, and there was a point after countless shots of tequila that Briar didn’t even know what was up and what was down, let alone why they were even there anymore. Now, he didn’t doubt that many profoundly stupid things had fallen from his lips and been done, but he hardly would have thought it would be anything illegal. Officers protected their own and someone less inebriated surely would have stopped him before he did anything he’d regret. Trying to wrack his brain, Briar bent to press his forehead to the cool metal of the table with a pitious groan. He remembered waking up in one of the cells to the sound of the door noisily being opened and before he could even get his bearings, two uniformed men were hauling him up and dragging him down the hallway toward the room he sat in now. None of it made a lick of sense.

“I’m afraid this isn’t a joke, Officer Suwannarat. Something very serious happened tonight and we need you to tell us why.”

The brutally stern voice sobered Briar up really quick and he lifted his head up from the table to narrow his eyes on the man that sat across from him, his fawn-like ears flicking in annoyance. He’d worked on the force for many years now and he wasn’t about to be hassled by some nameless rookie who was probably forced in here by his supervising officer, like a lamb being pushed into a cage with a bear. “Listen- no. What is going on?” He demanded with surprising eloquence for someone who’s tongue felt like a dried up sponge in his mouth. Drunk drought be damned. “Am I under arrest? ‘Cause if I am, you better tell me the charges or else I’m walking right out that door and finding your commanding off-”

What was likely going to be a memorable tirade was cut short as the door to the interrogation room swung open and a handful of officers poured into the small space like salmon all fighting to spawn upstream. All Briar could do was stare wide eyed where he was glued to his seat and watch with no small amount of mortification while a cake was set in front of him with messy lettering iced on top that read ‘Congrats on your Promotion! Now you’re their problem.’ Feeling the mixture of rage and bewilderment quickly begin to ebb away, the corners of Briar’s lips twitched into a crooked smile and he shook his head in exasperation. “You’re fucking kidding me. Who’s terrible idea was this?” He demanded with a mirthless laugh as he deflated back into the hard metal chair and glanced around at the familiar faces of the men and women he’d worked with for the past ten years. God, how had he survived their crazy antics and made it this far?

“What do you mean? We had to give you a memorable send-off.” His partner mounted his defense and slunk out from the crowd to give Briar an encouraging clap on the shoulder. “Besides, do you know how hard it was to carry your heavy ass into the cell to pull this off? The least you could do was say thank you. Geez. Too good for us already, Detective?”

Briar should thank him. That much he’d already mentally concluded. But shoving his partner’s smug face into the cake was also a tempting option. Instead, he reached up to gently pat the other’s hand with his gloved one. “Never.” He assured him gently before a chorus of obnoxious coos from the peanut gallery made sure to not only kill the moment but beat it once it was down. Pushing himself up from the chair, Briar swayed unsteadily and shamelessly grappled a couple of his friends for balance on his route to the door. “Ugh. Alright, get me out of this room before I literally end someone and get stuck here forever. That cake better be chocolate, I swear-”

#vcaccepted #vccivilian

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alltruedreamersdied · 4 years

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Saw someone put Physics in Light Academia..

Let me tell you that Physics is so Dark Academia, trust me, a subject where you constantly are confronted with the edges of reality, the limits of human understanding and delving into places where everything you think is normal stops working, where everything starts to become so unintuitive that it is impossible to wrap your head around it, where you can only to try and begin to understand it using the language of mathematics

From the smallest particles of the universe to the large scale structures of the cosmos, Physics just reaches the ultimate limits of time and space!

This is why I think it is peak Dark Academia

#dark academia #physics #physicsblr #astrophysics #studyblr #sorry im just really passionate about physics #physics is my life #dark academia aesthetic #mine

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lligkv · 3 years

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almost calculated to rivet the reader

I was recommended the book The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel by another editor at the publishing house I work for, who was impressed at the thought of an algorithm that could predict whether a book would be a bestseller with 72 percent accuracy.

As someone who reads “literary” novels, has a disdain for tech evangelists bordering on the visceral, and regards the development of data-driven publishing with mistrust, I expected to be annoyed by the book. But it’s ultimately not quite as offensive to those sensibilities as it might seem. Rather than a “code” to help people write novels that’ll sell, or an algorithm of some kind that might drive book acquisitions in years to come, The Bestseller Code is about exploring why bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades of Gray appeal the way they do. And it offers support, through text mining (the process by which one discovers and extracts particular textual features from a book) and machine learning (the way one might process those features by feeding them into a machine that goes on to make predictions about, say, whether a given manuscript will achieve bestseller status or not), for research that was already done by folks like the scholar Christopher Booker, who read hundreds of books over decades, the old-fashioned way, and identified seven main plots for fictional narratives that authors Jodie Archer and Matthew Jockers find are corroborated by their own data.

Granted, there’s a bit of Jennifer Weiner-type “the commercial lit popular authors write keeps getting badmouthed by critics and the Literary Establishment!” stuff in the book. There’s also one baffling moment where Archer and Jockers make a claim that “the range of existential experience was much greater in bestsellers,” and defend that claim by talking about particular verbs that appear more often in bestselling novels than in non-bestsellers: “bestselling characters ‘need’ and ‘want’ twice as often as non-bestsellers, and bestselling characters ‘miss’ and ‘love’ about 1.5 times more often than non-bestsellers.” Verbs and isolated actions do not existential experiences make! But at root, Archer and Jockers’s research is the product of curiosity about what makes mainstream bestsellers sell the way they do, and whether readers have figured something out that acquisitions editors at big houses may not have yet.

As it turns out, there’s a degree of technical sophistication in Fifty Shades of Grey or The Da Vinci Code in the way these books follow a plot arc that manages to perfectly satisfy a commercial-fiction reader’s desire to be thrilled by dramatic stories and the fantasies they play upon. Specifically, for these books, it’s the “rebirth” plot, in which a character experiences change, renewal, and transformation. Which doesn’t sound revolutionary. But if you look closely at the plot structure, and the sequence of emotional beats in both novels, you see a rollercoaster shape that’s almost calculated to rivet the reader: these peaks of high, low, a high-high, a mild low, another smaller high, a low, and a final high (unless, like Fifty Shades, you need another low to set the reader up for the sequel). Authors and readers alike seem to have stumbled on such perfect, sophisticated structures. The writers happen upon them, rather than consciously being educated in them or consciously crafting them as more literary writers often do; readers seem to hunt them out by instinct: the books that best follow one of the seven plot structures are the ones that rise to the top.

There’s also one moment in The Bestseller Code that’s genuinely affecting, in the context of a discussion of Maria Susanna Cummins’s novel The Lamplighter, which in its time was scorned by Nathaniel Hawthorne and James Joyce. As Archer and Jockers put it, bestsellers and commercial novels are set in emotional terrains, more so than public ones. That is, they’re about their characters as they feel and act, within a world that’s taken as a given, rather than what novels classified as “literary” are often about—characters having to navigate a sociopolitical world that is itself a subject for the author’s comment, or an author’s self-aware exercise of and experimentation with language. And these novels “work for huge numbers of readers not because of what they say to us but what they do to us.” As such, these novels “need no shaming”: they just exist on a separate plane from the literary ones.

In the end, I didn’t mind getting this dispatch from that plane. I make occasional trips to other such planes: sometimes I’m in the mood for, say, Joe Abercrombie’s brand of fantasy, and I’ve read all the Harry Dresden novels; I also love some books that are the literary equivalents of summer blockbusters, like the Expanse series. But I know I won’t descend to the bestseller plane very often—and I do consider it a descent. To my mind, craft and thrill alone don’t give novels the most merit. I don’t read just to be entertained or to be moved, which is what bestsellers offer. I read in order to be made to think, in precisely the ways those literary, public-terrain, sociopolitical novels make me think. And I value them because they linger. They don’t just do things to me, work on me, crash over me like a wave and then recede; they speak to me, just as Archer and Jockers say, and what they say to me lives inside me for years to come.

What’s more, I already suffer enough with the tendency to “identify” with the characters in books I read without venturing into ones that indulge or depend upon that instinct as bestsellers do.

Finally, while Archer and Jockers’s algorithm does a fine job anatomizing bestsellers in a way that speaks to the merit they do have and the function they do serve, I don’t know that I’d trust its recommendations even if I were a passionate reader of bestsellers, considering the book the algorithm picked as the absolute best representation of what it considers a bestseller is Dave Eggers’s The Circle.

Which does reinforce that what an algorithm can’t understand is context. What keeps The Circle from being a bestseller, to my mind, is that the conceit—a woman who goes to work for a tech firm and is schooled in the particular inhumanities she needs to adopt in order to succeed in that increasingly human environment—is not the most engaging. The story may be too close to a specific reality, as opposed to the everyday worlds (e.g., in John Grisham, Jodie Picoult, or Danielle Steel) or the heightened settings (e.g., in The Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades) in which bestsellers are best set. Perhaps the world in which The Circle takes place is so specific, and its concerns so urgent, that it doesn’t even need to be fictionalized to be of most interest; it seems that representation of Big Tech in memoir, like Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley, does better in the marketplace. And finally, Eggers himself is more a literary than a commercial author, something buyers of commercial fiction might be mindful of and trust less than one of the established names in the bestseller market. And he represents a different, past era in even literary fiction. We’re not in the age of the “Brooklyn Books of Wonder” anymore—the humorous triumph over adversity, the twee search for meaning and for love that characterized books of a certain time in the early 2000s. Really, all Eggers’s attempts to succeed beyond that trend—Zeitoun, What Is the What, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King—seem to me to have been tepidly received. The culture has moved on from his particular moment, and it moves in vogues an algorithm can’t always track.

I’ll also say that, seeing how Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, another book I reread recently, did so well in its day, and how it holds the fuck up—the plot and writing remain absorbing, and the atmosphere as seductive and pleasurable as ever; and that it gets namechecked so often in trends like dark academia suggest teens are exercising their beautiful prerogative to learn all the wrong lessons from that book to this day—I’ll say it’s a safe bet you can write a literary bestseller too, if you wanted to.

Anyway. Perhaps you’re reading this piece hoping to learn how to write a bestseller yourself. If so, here’s the skinny:

Keep your primary focus on two or three themes. And keep those themes basic. Archer and Jockers list ones like “kids and school”; “family time”; “money”; “crime scenes”; “domestic life”; “love”; “courtrooms and legal matters”; “maternal roles”; “modern technology”; “government and intelligence.”

Make sure your book has a central conflict—and make sure your protagonist is an active agent in that conflict and in her life generally, knowing what she needs and going for it, acting and speaking with a degree of assurance. Characters in bestselling novels grab, think, ask, tell, like see, hear, smile, reach, and do. Characters in lower-selling literary novels, on the other hand, murmur, protest, hesitate, wait, halt, drop, demand, interrupt, shout, fling, whirl, thrust, and seem.

Shape your story to fit one of the seven archetypal plotlines the authors identify:

A gradual move from difficult times to happy times

The reverse, a move from happy times to more difficult ones

A coming-of-age story or rags-to-riches plot

A “rebirth” plot in which a character experiences change, renewal, and transformation

A “voyage and return” plot in which a character is plunged into a whole new world, experiences a dark turn, and finally returns to some sort of normalcy

Another “voyage and return” plot in which the character herself voyages into the new world, fights monsters, suffers, and finally completes some sort of quest

A story in which your protagonist overcomes a villain or some threat to the culture that must be eliminated so she can change her fortunes back to the good

And make sure you time the emotional beats of your story to follow the curve of your plotline. For instance, The Da Vinci Code and Fifty Shades both follow the “rebirth” plot, and the respective authors ensure the arcs of the romances in both books match the curve of the plotline too, keeping the reader hooked in a way that’s, ultimately, structural.

Be sure to pepper your plot with scenes in which characters are intimate in casual ways. Much is made in The Bestseller Code of the intimacy reflected in a tactic John Grisham uses in a couple of his novels, which is to have his protagonist go over to a love interest’s house with wine and Chinese to just hang out and let her in on how he’s feeling.

Sex that doesn’t drive the plot forward doesn’t go over well. Avoid it. Even in romance novels (as opposed perhaps to erotica), sex is usually in service of the storyline.

Seek for a balance between features in your prose that speak to the more literary, refined style that often comes from institutions of education and letters, and the more journalistic, conversational, everyday style of writing one might intuitively associate with commercial fiction (shorter sentences, snappier prose, with more conversational and casual writing, more words like “okay” or “ugh”). These aren’t especially rigorous categories, I’m aware. Just use your best guess; you’ll probably be fine.

#books #literary #jodie archer #matthew jockers #dave eggers #anna wiener #brooklyn books of wonder #commercial fiction #e. l. james #maria susanna cummins #jennifer weiner #donna tartt

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innielove · 4 years

Text

tagged by @seungchris , thank you 💖

tagging: @hyunjinz @felixies @junjunies @realstraykids @chrisbangs @cosmic-jinnies (feel free to ignore this♡)

rules: bold the aesthetics you relate to and add twenty of your own aesthetic qualities for others to bold

soft

dark academia

edgy

seventies

preppy casual

cinanamon - steph

gold jewelry, slowdancing in the kitchen with a lover, sun on skin, red-tinted lip balm, lazy mornings, getting lost in foreign cities, scent of bakeries, high-waisted jeans, kissing someone’s neck, writing reminders on your wrist, sleeping in braids to have waves in the morning, growing an herb garden, gentle touches, sketches tucked between pages, flushed cheeks, tandem bikes, floating in a pool, vintage gold hand-mirror, deer grazing, softly singing while doing chores

jaesmintea - dia

naptimetea - helena

jeonginks

scxrlettwxtches

listening to a song and remembering the times you used to listen to it on repeat | imagining yourself living in any other life than the one you have now | crop tops and high waisted jeans | forgetting to smile but not actually being upset | nuzzling your face in the crook of their neck | back hugs when you’re stressed | turning in assignments 1 minute before they’re due | wanting a relationship but getting scared the moment you’re in one | pretending that you don’t care when inside you’re burning with doubts and fears | the sound of the evening waves as you lie on the sand | lying in your bed listening to your sad playlist | exhaustion but you can’t sleep | singing loudly when you’re the only one home | feeling safe and comfortable with that person in your life | knee high suede black boots with your black winter coat | comfort over appearance | writing essays at 2 am | creative peak from 1 am to 4 am | the one that always ends up walking in the back of a friend group

hyunsracha - sav!

lveletters

dnceracha - sydni

seungchris - tessa

innielove - vi

#listen...i have no idea #im just an anxious dumbass living on those 2 mentioned drinks #and when i say i cry easily i mean it #*tag game #really just feel free to ignore this sorry for bothering

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hyunsracha · 4 years

Text

♡ / aesthetic tag!

tagged by: @scxrlettwxtches <3

tagging: @panini-byanyothername @maaneskin @lveletters n anyone else who would be interested in this hehe

rules: bold the aesthetics you relate to and add twenty of your own aesthetic qualities for others to bold

soft

dark academia

edgy

seventies

preppy casual

cinanamon - steph

jaesmintea - dia

naptimetea - helena

jeonginks

scxrlettwxtches

hyunsracha - sav!

#tagged #this was FUN #this is very much my vibe if it makes sense to anyone HAHA

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2jiung · 4 years

Text

-ˏ͛ aesthetic tagˏ´-

tagged by @jisusgf (thank you for tagging me baby! <3) tagging @junhee-s @nctyz (you don’t have to if you don’t want to ofc! & if anyone else wants to do this, just say i tagged you !!) rules bold the aesthetics you relate to and add twenty of your own aesthetic qualities for others to bold.

soft

dark academia

edgy

seventies

preppy casual

cinanamon

jaesmintea

naptimetea

jeonginks

scxrlettwxtches

hyunsracha

maaneskin

cho1jisu — jani

mirror-mv

resting your head on someone’s shoulder | flower-shaped earrings | writing birthday letters for friends | tinted lip balm | shimmery eyeshadow | drawing little flowers on my papers during class | talking to your pets | spending hours walking around in fabric stores | letting your friends sit on your lap when there aren’t enough seats | rewatching childhood movies with your loved ones and reminiscing those times | picnic dates | paint/pencil stains on your hands and arms | sitting outside with your friends during a party and looking up at the nightsky | skipping and dancing around the house | cycling with one hand on the handlebar and the other one holding your friend’s hand

#i should socialize more on here ahh i never know who to tag ;;#this tag game is so lovely though #i loved reading everone's aesthetics #*everyone's #i really need to fix the y key on my laptop...#tag game #solcore

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