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The invitation said costumes were required. You didn’t know how to feel about being bossed around by a piece of paper, but the try-hard in you begged to conform. Which is why you were piling your cart full of wire, fabric, and felt. And to throw it all together, a jar of googly eyes. The cashier smiled at your approach.
“Oh are you making your own Halloween costume?” she asked, scanning your items.
“Yes it’s for a party.”
She made an “Oo” sound.
“Oh that’s so cool! Wish I could make my own costume, I’m not very crafty myself.” She smiled shyly and for some reason the craft store got..craftier.
“It be like that.” You say and she hums in agreement. As the receipt started printing she spoke again.
“Oh! What’s your costume?” Immediately you cringe. She doesn’t seem to notice as she hands you your stuff cheerily. Explanations run through your head like a pack of furries. “War criminal”, “Mass Murderer”, “Evil Mastermind”. None of these are socially acceptable to say, but you settle on,
“Fast food mascot.”
It’s late, but the party is tomorrow. You just have to finish a bit of sewing, some applying, wig styling, pulling your Steve Jobs’ cosplay from the closet..annd done. Your costume is finished. Now to see if your friends could take a joke.
Surprisingly they could! A few of them muttered their dissent, but most of them laughed or called you “edgy”. You could take edgy better than a weirdo any day. Now you leaned against a column to spectate the party.
Everyone else had dressed up as their favorite pros. Just now a group of All Mights ran past you screaming “We are here!”. You vaguely wondered if All Might would’ve been a better costume choice. Certainly you didn’t have the muscles for it, but at least you wouldn’t have had to make poseable hands like you did for your costume. Speaking of, your wig had gone askew. You find a mirror on the opposite wall. You walk closer to fix the wig and see the Leader of the League of Villains staring back at you..if he had sold himself out to Hamburger Helper™ .
That’s right, you were dressed up as Shigaraki Tomura, with the Hamburger Helper’s mascot, Lefty, plastered all over your body. You don’t know how the hell Shigaraki saw out of his hands, but then again he didn’t have a mitten molesting his face. You fix your wig and head back to the party.
The thing about cosplaying as a super villain is no one talks to you, but they do look at you and laugh. It was very reminiscent of your youth. Any other time you would have left, but the mass of people kept you pressed to the walls. This was a huge safety concern.
A safety concern at this prestigious charity event that the halloween party was taking place in. As you shoved the All Mights to keep moving, it occurred to you that it’d really suck if someone decided to attack the charity event at this moment.
Everything was carrying on normally. And then the wall exploded and the League of Villains flooded in. The explosion itself started the screaming, but when it was clear the LOV was here, the screaming grew into a wail. Everyone began running with no clear direction. The mob of people shoved you into the wall, stunning you on impact.You clung to the wall in a daze. A screamy, halloweeny headache seized you.
It was because you were dazed that you didn’t notice the figure behind you till they slapped you on the shoulder.
“Heya boss! Did you get caught by the crowd? Hah! That’s pretty lame—you should’ve dusted them.” The figure spun you around with a laugh that rattled your brain. When they saw you they went quiet. It took you a second to meet this person’s amber eyes, but when you did, they gave a fangy grin. And then they started cackling.
“Oh my god!! I need to show Shiggy this.” It became all too clear that this was one of the LOV’s members, Himiko Toga. Your fear made her cackle again. She pulled you into her arms and began to drag you to another part of the building. All you could do was saddle up for the ride; she was really strong!
As Toga dragged you, she began to talk about anything and everything. And that included trashing on her teammates.
“Honestly, Dabi and Shiggy are soo pissy because of their crusty ass skin! I tried to get them to put some vaseline on, but they won’t listen to me! I think I’ll try and put it on them when they’re asleep hehe..,” Toga paused,“Why are you so quiet??”
“ I’m trying not to piss myself.” Oh fuck that actually came out? Toga stopped walking altogether and giggled into your ear.
“Wow..what a piss baby. Just don’t pee on me or I’ll stab ya~” You decide then to shut your ass up.
A couple more minutes of dragging and Toga’s idle chatter bring you both deep within the building. ‘Shit, fuck, holy shit fuck’ are your current thoughts. Ahead of you is the rest of the LOV gathered menacingly. Their names flash rapidly through your head ‘Dabi, Twice, Mr. Compress, and yes, Shigaraki Tomura’. They were deep in discussion when you were thrown to their feet. You landed on your stomach with an ‘oof’.
“Hey Shiggy! Look, I found your twin!” Toga exclaimed. You raise your head and a pair of red sneakers come into your vision.
“Toga..what the hell is this?” The rasp of Shigaraki’s voice sends a shiver up your spine. You look up and see Shigaraki glaring down at you. The news reports don’t do him justice. He is terrifying. And kinda hot. You can make out the veins in his handy outfit, and through the slits between fingers his crimson eyes narrow. You try for a roguish smile. Four of Shigaraki’s finger close around your throat and your roguish smile becomes a grimace. You’re lifted from the ground in a chokehold, eye to eye with a notorious villain. Your fingers pull at his grasp, but he has a firm hold over you. You struggle to breathe.
“I should just kill you for this obvious slander,” he sneers as one of the googly eyes jiggle,“Convince me not to take your life right now.” It must’ve been the fear or the lack of oxygen that made you croak out the stupidest fucking—
“Choke me harder daddy.”
Shigaraki’s face morphs from surprise to pissed off in a nanosecond. His pinkie (which was previously raised) smacks onto your neck like a mousetrap. There’s a moment where you go into maximum panic—your entire life flashes before your eyes and then..!
Shigaraki is still holding you by the neck. Everyone is dumbfounded by this new advancement. Shigaraki was frozen in place looking at you intensely. You could see the gears stopping in his head. Twice is the first to respond.
“Woah!! What the fuck!” As if awoken, Shigaraki immediately throws you away from him. You skid across the floor and scrabble to your feet. You breathed in precious air while locked in a staring match with the League. Toga looks like she had miscalculated the situation entirely. Dabi’s eyebrows are raised past his hairline. Twice is cheering and then booing. And oh god
Mr. Compress...is wearing a mask, hiding his expression, duh. What really catches your eye is the way Shigaraki is looking at you. Behind his glare is the look of complete..vulnerability. Why? You have no idea. You finally catch your breath and somehow muster the bravado to look Shigaraki straight in the eyes. His irises shine.
“The perk of having a quirk that cancels out other people’s quirks.. you can’t kill me that easily.”
A beat of silence. And then you run like a bat out of hell.