Vigilante Deku - Blog Posts

Update to that sketch page from awhile ago

CHAT I DON’T DO COLOR WHY IS IT WORKING

The other two pictures was me working up to fully color again😂

WIP (vigilante Deku)

(Trying to be more active here lol) IZUKU COULD NOT REMEMBER the last time he'd seen the sun. The air was thick with the scent of decay, and the cold wind bit at his exposed skin, fogging his goggles. His boots splattered on the puddled concrete soaked with rain, mud, and old blood. Though rainstorms had become a daily phenomenon, they never could wash away the stains. Death and blood polluted Japan, and it was only a matter of time before it clouded the rest of the world. Shigaraki and All for One would make sure of it.

The streets were silent. No civilians. Over the past few months, only violent protestors or petty villains dared venture out; the real threats—the monsters that had torn Tartarus apart—had vanished, slipping into the shadows once the international teams arrived. Izuku had crossed paths with a few of the new heroes, but none measured up to the legends of his childhood. Still, their efforts had been appreciated. All Might strength or not, anyone would be welcome to fight alongside the dwindling Japan remnants. There was a certain hope and strength in numbers... or so everyone believed.

It was a shame, though not a complete surprise, when most of them died.

Deku worked alone now. 

He wiped the condensation off his lenses and stared up at the gray sky, focusing on the outline of a Nomu as its wings beat against the harsh winds. An invisibility quirk. Without his specialized goggles, he wouldn’t have known it was there. For days, he’d tracked the invisible beast, waiting for it to return to its master or hint at the League's location. It never did. It just drifted, mindlessly circling the countryside with no sign of stopping.

His hand tightened around the goggles—Hatsume’s last gift before she went missing like so many others. He prayed that the mechanic and her family had successfully fled the country. It was a far better alternative to the claim that someone had seen her corpse under a collapsed building. 

At the edge of an abandoned skyscraper, Izuku paused, his gaze sweeping over what remained of Esuha city. The heart of the metropolis, which had once pulsed with life and hope, now lay in broken fragments. Across the street, Fat Gum's agency stood as little more than a hollow shell, the shackled remains of brick and stucco reaching upward like ancient ruins.

When All for One had escaped Tartarus, the agencies were the first to fall. Leftover heroes had banded together near Yuuei campus, hiding in wait for an opportunity to fight back, which of course never came.

Izuku squinted and spotted a few bodies strewn near the entrance of Fat Gum's agency, long past the point of saving. He could almost hear their desperate cries, fists pounding against the agency's sealed doors, pleading for a sanctuary that would never come. What final thoughts had passed through their minds as they realized no one would answer?

It was little wonder the people had turned their backs on the heroes. Izuku couldn’t blame them.

He barely slowed his pace as he fired off a brief, coded text to Endeavor: Bodies in Esuha center. He knew the rescue teams would handle retrieving the decomposed corpses and identifying them, passing along the news to what little family remained. That was no longer his concern. Izuku’s purpose had narrowed to a single, burning objective: destroy All for One. The dead were beyond his reach, but the living still had a chance, however slim. And so, he pressed on, trailing the Nomu like a ghost through the rain-soaked ruins.

The jagged skyline eventually flattened to sprawling neighborhoods, then to abandoned rice fields, where weeds rose like sentries from the earth. Each time the Nomu dipped lower, Izuku crouched among the tall grass, heart pounding, careful not to be caught in the creature's line of sight. He moved in a rhythm now, alternating between bursts of running and surveillance, never allowing himself the luxury of rest.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it. A response from Endeavor, no doubt. A plea for him to update his location, to inform the group about where he was going. But he could not risk communicating that way, even in code. All for One was no doubt listening, waiting for an opportunity to catch and kill the last of the resistance. One misstep, one careless message—like, I’m chasing an invisible Nomu—and everything would be snuffed out.

He liked to believe that he could go on for as long as necessary; his years of training had conditioned him to survive in extremes. But his body had its limits. Food had run out two days ago, and the Nomu showed no signs of slowing down. Izuku tried to keep an eye out for any sources—an old convenience store, an unlocked door, a tipped over trash can—but found nothing. Mere adrenaline thrummed through his veins, keeping him sharp, alert.

As rain drizzled down, Izuku tilted his head back, catching a few drops on his tongue. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

Another buzz from his pocket, just as the Nomu screeched overhead. Izuku ducked behind a shrubby tree, pulse quickening with the fear he’d been seen. But the creature, oblivious, continued its course. They were heading back towards civilization—if that word even applied anymore. In the distance, apartment rooftops broke the horizon, and something about them tugged at Izuku’s memory. A fragment of his past, perhaps. Musutafu, maybe. If it truly was his hometown, he’d have circled Japan in under a week. He couldn’t help but let a dark smile curl at the thought—what a record that would have been.

Briefly glancing up at the bird as it grazed the tips of the trees, Izuku risked a peek at his phone.

2 new messages.

He fully expected the notifications to be from Endeavor, but when he opened them, he nearly dropped his phone in surprise.

Unknown number:

Where the FUCK are you.

I stole your number from number-one hot head, so answer me before he finds out and destroys my phone.

Another buzz followed moments later.

I know you’re reading these. Call me asap. I’m deleting evidence of this conversation.

A lump lodged its way into Izuku's throat. Twilight crept across the sky, casting long shadows through the skeletal trees that offered him little protection. His breaths came quicker, his heart pounding in his ears. The Nomu circled overhead, a predator biding its time.

And for a moment, Izuku broke.

He buried his face in the crook of his arm, the sobs quiet, muffled, but unstoppable. It was startling, almost relieving, to know that he could still cry. Many of his classmates could not anymore.

Classmates. The word felt like poison on his tongue. Ochako, Tenya, Shoto, Mina, Minoru… Kacchan. Just a few of the faces he hadn’t seen in over a month. He’d erased himself from their lives, using a new phone thanks to Hatsume’s network of friends, severing every connection. He couldn’t risk being found—not again. Not after they’d dragged him back three times already, forcing him to bathe and eat and waste several days in their care.

This time, most of them stayed away on one condition: that he would direct them to All for One and Shigaraki when the time came. He was not allowed to fight by himself. Though Endeavor and Jeanist would not be able to track him, they eventually relented to his request to go alone. They would have to trust him.

After all, Deku had never failed them before.

Izuku hiccupped as he slid his back down the bark of the tree. Absently, his eyes tracked the silhouette of the Nomu, its wings slicing through the sky toward the distant city. He would catch up—he always did—but right now, steadying his breath, his heart, was the priority. Who would have thought a simple text could unravel him like this? He cursed himself for opening the phone at all. TBC (on Ao3 eventually)

"Aether" (Vigilante Izuku Midoriya AU) I love binging vigilante Izuku fics so much I started writing one. I really like this design, too. (I'll post an announcement when I finally release the first chapter on ao3.)

I just posted the last chapter of my fic on AO3. As such, I wanted to dump some of my sketches of my story with character design and scene drawings.

If you feel like reading it, you can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59395036/chapters/151471747

The vigilante and his adopted dad :) decided to do another drawing based off my fic on AO3

We Pick Up the Pieces and Make Ourselves Stronger

They're gay ur honour.

anyways this is from my viridian au, my art program keeps glitching so i decided i should post some stuff i already had saved cause why not u know?

adding more info under a readmore so people dont have to scroll past a wall of text lol. i might talk more about the actual plot of my viridian au on a diffrent post but imma foucs on the tddk for this one.

so Deku is a vigilante goes by Viridian, he meets Shoto at the sports fest and they chat, he ends up giving Shoto his phone number and they become texting buddys, Shoto is fully aware that viridian is a vigilante and like breaking the law but he gives zero fucks actually, anyways Shoto hates life cause he feels like he's had no control over anything for all of it and he eventually decides to join Viridian and ends up joining the LOV and now him and Viridian are dating, Viridian thinks he's making a horible mistake because he's a vigilante that barely sleeps and has zero self preservation instincts and will probably suck as a bf but he cares abt Shoto and he's doing his best, they are a power couple anyways <3

basically anyone with an outside view on these two assume that Shoto is being used by Viridian and the LOV, but he's not he knows exactly what is going on and he is rolling with it, Bakugou on the other hand is absolutely lost and has no clue whats happening and nobody will tell him but he pretends like he knows whats going on.

the annoying red rabbit :D

my mha au of quirkless vigilante deku with a rabbit theme, and because of that rabbit theme he gets a massive mochi hammer.

and i realise now that i havent drawn his civillain design a lot :(

edit: heres the fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41651136/chapters/104477238

Can we kill therapy-speak in fanfic?

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying your characters can’t be familiar with therapy keywords. But the use of it in fanfic is just killing off any sort of real, emotional stakes in certain fics. *cough* the my hero fandom

I’ll be real with you; I don’t want my characters to approach a situation with an acute awareness for any possible triggers or emotional responses in an attempt to build rapport with another character who has experienced severe trauma and/or abuse. And sure, let’s say that it is a professional, whose job it is to approach these situations. That doesn’t mean you have to write them like a mental health textbook vs a textbook victim of trauma.

For example; “Aizawa stepped back, not wanting to trigger any sort of trauma response from the abused teenager.”

Yeah, sure. Aizawa is a professional who, as a professional hero, probably has education in dealing with situations like this. But the way it is written is clinically detached, cold, and also way too professional from a man who has probably attended a total of one therapy session on mandate after witnessing the death of one of his best friends (which he never got over btw).

When you want to write a character who is attuned to other people’s needs and fears, try using less therapy bingo words, and be more descriptive of the emotions of the scene.

Instead; “Aizawa carefully stepped backwards, attempting to show he meant no harm. He knew how easy it was to scare a starving alley cat, you would be surprised how the same logic applied to a starving teenager.”

See? Isn’t it so much more soulful? So much easier to connect with? Sure, the first passage got the point across: Aizawa is aware that the kid he’s approaching is likely a victim of something traumatic, so he is approaching it as such. But the average human doesn’t have the dialogue of an occupational therapist, so writing situations like the characters are occupational therapists, kills off any sort of relatability for readers who don’t attend weekly therapy sessions. And even for people who do, it feels more like sitting in the armchair instead of absorbing yourself in the worlds and stories you’re trying to tell.

I’m not saying to ditch the mental health awareness altogether. Sure, having emotionally stunted characters create for interesting stories, but you can tell just as compelling of a story without having to resort to textbook wording. Instead, use that therapy foundation to build something more around your characters. Because using the therapy speak is just the same as telling, and not showing.

With that, good luck with your next hurt no comfort fic, and happy writing!