See You After

Sideblog for "See You After" (a BNHA epistolary fanfic). TodoBaku. Writing notes. Mental health reminders. Various ephemera. Main: @AdventureOfTheDancingGirl (same on AO3)

[seeyouafter]

Welcome

This space was created to collect thoughts and various ephemera related to the epistolary fanfic, "See You After" by @adventureofthedancinggirl (Fandom: BNHA, Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto, Also featuring: TodoFam and Class 1A)

Among other things, this blog will include: writing updates, extended author's notes, BNHA content, mental health reminders and encouragement.

Important Notes & Tag Index:

[tag links currently under construction. Thank you for your patience]

💡Please Read:

1) Spoilers

There are manga spoilers in the fic and on this blog. Anything prior to Ch. 390 might not be tagged. Spoilers for later chapters will be noted and any spoiler content will be below the cut of the individual post . I will usually tag the manga chapter number as bnha xxx but sometimes I won't on original posts if I don't want to risk being dragged into discourse.

2) Asks

Asks are open if you want to chat. Give me an excuse to talk about my writing notes or headcanons and I'll love you forever. Anon is usually on but be kind. There is a real human on the other side of the screen.

3) Ships & Fandom Focus

The fanfic, "See You After" (and as a result, this blog) is centered around the Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto pairing in the My Hero Academia fandom. If you are opposed to seeing content about this pairing, kindly move along. There will also be a decent amount of TodoFam and Class 1-A content as well.

4) Trigger warnings and mental health

I will occasionally reblog mental health reminders and encouragement posts but these are in no way meant as a substitute for therapy or other IRL support. If you are struggling, please reach out and ask for help.

The fic is ultimately one of hope and healing but deals with heavier topics including injury, trauma, and depression, and canon-typical abuse. Content warnings are given on specific chapters of the fic and are tagged in any posts on this blog that explore these topics in-depth.

*If you would like me to tag a specific trigger so you can block it, you can send me a message and I will do my best to add them when I post (please check the list of existing content warnings tags in the "mental health" section of the tag index below before messaging me)

🏷️Tag Index:

Content related to "See You After" and my writing

dancing girl writes - my personal writing tag, includes chapter updates and general thoughts on the writing process

see you after fic - any original posts related directly to the fic

SYA extended notes - thoughts that I wanted to share that were too long or personal for the chapter endnotes on AO3

SYA story arc tags - posts relating to a specific arc of the fic are tagged accordingly (sya: letters, sya: bridges, etc). Things in the story arc tags include my own notes as well as inspiration and things that fit with the mood or theme of the arc. See the SYA Series Index for easier navigation and an overview of the fic/series

SYA Playlist - a collection of songs that fit the mood of various scenes in the fic (sometimes with added commentary in the post)

BNHA content

Images: fanart, manga, anime, edits

Frequently used character tags: Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki, tdbk, TodoFam, Class 1A, (other characters tagged by name)

Manga chapters tagged as bnha xxx

General mental health, reminders, and encouragement

general: mental health, reminders, encouragement, thoughts, beautiful things, reasons to smile

content warning tags: depression, trauma

💭Other thoughts:

I've never made a blog for a specific work before. This is purely a passion project that was originally intended just for my own reference so please be kind!

For general fandom things and other thoughts find me on my main: @adventureofthedancinggirl

[seeyouafter]

Song rec for See You After Chapter 56

Eye of the Storm by Caleb Hearn

I'm fine, but I realize That the worse is to gone When the storm is calm And I try to recognize That it's all in my head now But lately I've been feeling tired But I can't sleep My head is running miles But I can't breathe Will, I ever get my mind under control? I don't know Cause I'm in the eye of the storm And I've never been here before All of my thoughts screaming loud Saying that I'll never make it out Cause I'm falling deeper and deeper into my head And I'm scared that I can't see the light at the end Oh no... I'm in the eye I'm in the eye of the storm

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

See You After - Part III: No one told us (that winning the war would be the easy part)

Chapter 56 of "See You After" is posted.

Chapter 56 concludes Part III: "No one told us (that winning the war would be the easy part)".

Part IV: "Heroes are also Human" begins in Chapter 57.

Preview of things to come in Part IV below the cut (spoilers for Ch. 56):

Not going to put too many specifics here but Part IV is mainly going to be focused on Katsuki's visit to Shouto so there will be more long-form scenes than the epistolary format of the rest of this fic, though those elements will still be present when relevant. There will also be glimpses of what's going on with the rest of Class A and the world around them.

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 55: Sep. 15-29: Katsuki’s Texts, Training Log, Encounter, and Conversations

Chapter Summary: Shouto's absence becomes more noticeable. An unexpected encounter, followed by a conversation with a friend, forces Katsuki to admit that he's not actually 'fine'.

[seeyouafter]

Since I'm on here, a quick note:

I was originally hoping to get back to updating this month and finish the current section by the end of the year but I'm going to take a longer break for a couple of reasons.

1) It's angst hours in the the fic right now and I don't feel like immersing myself in that during the holidays.

2) I have a few other (hopefully) short fics that I want to finish before the end of the year that are somewhat time-sensitive.

Don't worry, there's still much more to the story that I'm planning to tell. See you after (the new year). 🫶

[seeyouafter]

Fun fact: all of these songs on my playlist for See You After made into my top 100 songs of 2024

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 52: Aug 30: Security Footage Transcript, Letter to Katsuki

Chapter Summary: Shouto, Fuyumi, and Natsuo visit Touya.

[seeyouafter]

SYA Ch. 51 Extended Notes

Notes for "See You After" Chapter 51: Aug 18-21 Recent News, Class A Group Chat, Katsuki's Texts

First off, if you’re following this in real time, sorry for the long delay!

This chapter ended up being the longest so far, with a lot going on. Most of it is self-explanatory, but here are a few thoughts I wanted to share.

Originally, the Daily Mail part of this chapter was supposed to take place about a month earlier in-universe, but there were other things to explore, so I ended up pushing it back. 

I think it did work out better for the way I wanted to tell the story, but the fact that the canon epilogue was happening while I was editing and adding some additional sections for this chapter was...weird. (Honestly, that's probably one reason this chapter was delayed for so long. The other reason is that real life has been busy.)

While there are a few things that ended up being canon in the manga that I had already decided would happen in the universe of this fic, there are other things in the canon epilogue that I find frustrating and will continue to ignore.

(Though there is one specific detail from the epilogue that will be referenced later.)

Other random things that I asked myself while editing:

Why isn't Shouto on the list of trending topics? He probably is on the list, just a bit further down. I only included 5 main topics because 10 was too many. The in-universe explanation is that there were already a lot of articles about the Todoroki family previously so it's not something people are suddenly searching more than usual, unlike the other kids. But another reason is that, as the writer, I didn't see the point of making Shouto deal with that again in this chapter.

Why is Shouto's name still "Half and Half" in Katsuki's phone? Because Katsuki isn't ready to change it yet. It'll happen eventually.

Touya? Yes, Touya. That section was a last minute addition because I wanted a better transition into the next part of the story. Sorry for the semi-cliffhanger.

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a fix-it fic, but in some ways, I’m starting to think it might count as one.

Also, now that the in-fic dates have caught up to real-time, I wonder if I can make the dates continue to align (though the days of the week will be off because I based them on the 2023 calendar).

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 50: Aug 10-17: Shouto's Journal

Shouto's feelings about fall term, conversations with his friends, and some thoughts about family.

or: Shouto's therapist asks him to track his mood (emotions are hard to quantify)

[seeyouafter]

See You After - notes on canon divergence

I decided to make this post after ch 422 of the manga because even though I stopped trying to keep this fic canon-compliant a long time ago, recent events in canon are so far from what I decided on for the universe of "See You After" that I felt the need to make an easy reference guide.

⚠️spoilers for canon endgame⚠️

Basically, this fic is canon-compliant until ch. 404, with the main relevant points being:

Shouto and his family save Touya. While I like the idea that he would rejoin the battle later if it was done well, for the purposes of this fic, his last action in the war was saving Touya in Ch. 390. No, it's not very satisfying, but that's the headspace I was in when I started writing this fic. (My first notes for this were written two days after 390 was released.)

Katsuki wakes up in time to save All Might, but Edgeshot does not survive as a noodle/worm. After everything is over, Katsuki has to deal with the guilt of learning what was sacrificed for him to survive. At the time when I was writing Part I (Hospital Letters), I assumed that he would wake up and do something big before the end of the battle. After his return in canon, I left it open to interpretation as to whether he does anything after saving All Might, but the canon endgame beyond that point can be ignored for this fic.

Izuku saves Shigaraki/Shimura and loses OFA in the process. How? Idk. Use your imagination. Izuku's canon endgame has little relevance in this fic. I love him but he's not the main focus here.

All of the villains (except AFO) survive. This includes Touya, Toga, Shigaraki, and Kurogiri/Shirakumo. They are all alive in the universe of SYA and in the process of (physically) recovering. Truly saving them, however, is a longer process. (The only one that's really relevant in SYA is Touya, but it's important to me that the others survive as well.)

Also, it's not that I have anything against the big Class 1A teamup at the end (it's something I was really looking forward to originally), it just didn't fit with a lot of what I had planned for the fic so I'm ignoring it for the most part.

Last updated 05/26/2024 (following manga ch 422, SYA ch 49)

[seeyouafter]

SYA Ch. 49 Extended Notes

Notes for "See You After" Chapter 49: Aug 10-15: Recent News Articles, Aizawa’s Home Visit Notes

If you follow my main account, it's not a secret that I've been frustrated with a lot of things that have happened in the canon endgame. I'm not going to go into that here, but I did add a few things to this chapter specifically because I wanted to make it very clear where this fic diverges from canon. I made a separate post with the significant points of canon-divergence that are most relevant.

Additional commentary on things in this chapter (Aizawa's home visit notes and the various news articles) below the cut:

Aizawa's texts & home visit notes

This was a nice way to include an external POV, which I thought was important because although Shouto and Katsuki are both getting better, they're definitely not "fine" as they keep insisting.

I wasn't originally going to include Izuku's conference notes, since he's not the main focus of this story. However, after the recent manga chapters, I felt the need to make it clear what happened to him in the universe of this fic, since I previously kept it more ambiguous in case I felt like following canon. This felt like a good way to do it without writing an annoyingly long author's note.

Again, not going too deep into Aizawa/Rooftop squad lore in this fic, but in my head, Shirakumo is alive (in some capacity). Midnight's death was also never properly explored, which is a shame after their interactions in Vigilantes, and I think Aizawa and Present Mic would still be coming to terms with that loss.

The izakaya that Aizawa and Mic visit is a reference to "Midnight Diner" (yes, I know they're there before midnight but shhh...) If you're into slice of life, character-driven shows that feature food, I highly recommend it.

Article Notes:

Article 1: Surge in travel expected for this year's Obon season

Not sure why, but at some point, I got stuck on the idea of what Obon would be like in the aftermath of a war. It's more of a general worldbuilding thing than something that's super important to the plot, but it is a major cultural event, and it does come up in a couple of conversations, so I decided to include an article about it.

Article 2: The failings of foreign aid groups

Yes, this is a jab at that pointless panel of the US President in ch 422 of the manga. But also, there's unfortunately a lot of similarities to the real world, in which foreign aid arrives far too late for the people who need it most. The structure of this article was based off of a real news article I read recently with a similar sentiment.

Article 3: HPSC under criticism for involvement of underage students in the war

I mean...at some point, we have to address the fact that they fought in a war despite being literal children, right? At the same time, that comment at the end of the previous article about how they sort of had to use the hero students because they were out of options, is a valid point (in fiction obviously, not in real life).

Article 4: Has Hawks flown the coop?

Puns aside, I find Hawks' canon storyline fascinating, and I think there are a lot of interesting things to explore with him in regards to hero society. That's all I'll say for now.

Other Daily Mail article titles:

More than it seams? (Untangling the threads of Best Jeanist and Edgeshot’s friendship)

10 popular theories about All Might: Were any of them true?

History’s Greatest Villain or victim of a broken system: Who is Shigaraki Tomura?

Heroes with ‘villainous’ quirks and how they use them for good

Equity or Unfair Advantage: to what extent should support items be allowed in hero training?

Mostly, these were just a way for me to point out some of the "hot topics" in the media and maybe add a little worldbuilding.

I wanted to mention something about Edgeshot, since his death is something that's still on Katsuki's mind with the impending return to Best Jeanist's agency for his work study (also, the bad fabric related puns 😅 sorry, not sorry)

The Shigaraki article is meant to be titled similarly to the one about Toga that was in Ch. 38 (I'd imagine they did some speculation pieces on each of the main villains)

The article about equity and support items ties into the idea of quirkless heroes. Given the real life arguments about equity being unfair that some people with privilege like to make, it's something that would likely come up in regards to support items, which are essentially "accommodations" for heroes.

[quotemadness]

But just because you’re strong and resilient doesn’t mean you never need someone to be there for you, to take care of you.

Tammara Webber

[wheresmybubble]

Your feelings matter.

My book, Quiet Girl in a Noisy World, is out now: http://debbietung.com/books

[seeyouafter]

SYA Ch. 47 Extended Notes

Notes for "See You After" Chapter 47: Aug 7-9: Katsuki - Recent Texts, Journal, Letter to Shouto

First off, I wasn't expecting so many of these little pieces to be in this chapter, but I like how the puzzle of this part of the story is coming together.

Second, I had a little too much fun with the images I made for this chapter.

This isn't so much an informative note, as it is my random thoughts about things in the chapter:

I really want good homemade tonkotsu ramen after having Katsuki make it. I don't have the patience to do it myself, but here's a recipe that looks pretty good if anyone wants to try😅

The circle exercise is similar to something I've done before personally, but I was reminded of it when I read Stephanie Foo's memoir, "What My Bones Know," earlier this year. (It's an excellent book, but has some pretty major trigger warnings)

Sometimes I feel like I'm just telling these characters things I wish people had told me when I was their age. Not that I went through anything nearly as traumatic as they did, but like that quote Hound Dog sent Katsuki says, trauma isn't a competition.

I once made a list of stupid affirmations that I was annoyed by and I feel like Katsuki would do something similar

Apparently, I enjoy having other characters notice and comment on Shouto & Katsuki's developing relationship.

Another chapter where the fact that this fic stopped being canon a while ago becomes relevant again.

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 46 includes:

A letter from Shouto to Katsuki

Todoroki siblings text thread

This is also the start of Part III: No one told us (that winning the war would be the easy part)

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

See You After - Part II: Rebuilding the bridges that were burned

Chapter 45 of "See You After" is posted

This chapter concludes Part II: "Rebuilding the bridges that were burned".

Part III: "No one told us (that winning the war would be the easy part)" begins in Chapter 46.

Some of my personal favorite parts to write in Part II were:

Koi pond scene (Ch. 28)

"Calm" app text thread (Ch. 33)

Conversations about identity and names (Ch. 35, 36, 39, 40)

Rei & Shouto scene (Ch. 39)

Bakusquad birthdays text thread (Ch. 42)

Unsent Letter (Ch. 44)

I also had way too much fun writing the news articles (which appear in Ch. 26, 38, 43, 45)

Preview of things to come in Part III:

The long road to recovery (as individuals and as a society)

The downside of being known (Hero Daily News returns)

Supportive friends, Class 1A interactions (and speculations)

Training (searching for purpose, re-learning how to fly)

The highs and lows of being a real family

Touya

Questions about what it means to be a hero

As I mentioned last time, the "slow burn" tag is there for a reason, but there will be lots of moments between Shouto and Katsuki in letters, texts, and other conversations.

Another thing to keep in mind: healing isn't linear.

[seeyouafter]

SYA Extended Notes Ch. 45

Notes for "See You After"

Chapter 45: July 27-Aug 6: Hero News Network, Shouto's Texts

The texts in this chapter were a last minute addition that more than doubled the chapter's wordcount. Some of it was supposed to be in a later chapter but I moved things around because I didn't want another chapter with only news articles so close to the previous one.

Of course, I do have notes on the articles again if anyone is interested. Or, if you're just here for additional context about Touya, skip to the very end of this post.

Articles notes

Article 1: UA to hold official graduation ceremony at newly-restored campus location

BNHA 359: Place of Learning

Tamaki's comment about wanting a graduation ceremony might seem like a small thing, but I really liked this small detail in the manga, which showed that even though they're fighting a war, they're still kids. Graduation is a huge milestone, one that they've been working toward for their whole lives, and it's sad that they had that taken away from them. (Honestly reminded me of the kids I worked with in 2020/2021 who didn't get their graduation or the other typical senior year experiences)

I like the idea of them getting to have that celebration after the fact, which would also be a sign that the world is starting to move forward again.

Article 2: Okuto Island Aquarium receives green light for rebuilding

BNHA 345: Division & 347: Inflation

The amount of rebuilding that would need to take place after the war is kind of hard to imagine, but I like to think that once the essential repairs are mostly completed, people would see the value in rebuilding a place that's not essential, but that brings people joy.

I like the idea that the civilians would step up to help as well instead of putting all of the responsibility on the heroes, as they've done in the past.

(plus, Shouto and Katsuki need somewhere to go for their penguin date when Shouto gets home)

Article 3: Is there a future for quirkless heroes?

(warning: spoilers up to manga ch. 416 below)

This article was longer than I intended, but there were a bunch of things that I decided I needed to include after recent chapters, especially Izuku ending up quirkless.

I've liked this theory for a while because it makes sense thematically, and now that the manga is actually going for it (unless HK pulls some bs out of nowhere), I decided to add it since it works really well with the upcoming section. I don't feel like writing a whole meta on this right now but here's some relevant canon scenes:

BNHA 1: Izuku Midoriya: Origin, 412: History's Maddest Hero

It would be interesting to see how the public reacts to the idea of quirkless heroes after the war, and I like the idea of Izuku continuing to be a hero with support gear and a shifting emphasis on teamwork rather than individuals with all-powerful abilities,

BNHA 386: I am here

However, I think there would definitely be concerns about making something like All Might's mech suit a go-to solution for a large number of heroes.

I think it would be interesting to see society grapple with the balance between providing support items to allow more people to become heroes, while also shifting away from the current hero system toward seeing the value of everyday acts of heroism from ordinary civilians that the story has been trying to point out in the background during the current arc.

BNHA 96: Home Visits, 340: the story of how we all became heroes pt. 3

I also think it would be interesting to see how the world continues to react to the heroes who lost their quirks. We've already seen that Ragdoll was still able to help even after she lost her quirk, and now that Hawks has lost his as well, he'll need to figure out how he's going to move forward (I guess he is actually making an appearance in this fic after all)

410: Farewell, All For One, 416: Wrench it open, Midoriya Izuku

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I like that quirks can't be returned so easily and that rewind can't be used to fix everything. But I'd imagine that some people wouldn't accept that so easily and would try to find a way to return everything to the status quo. And we already know the HPSC isn't above using children with useful quirks for the "greater good".

Article 4: Debate over Villains' Fate Continues

I'm not going to say much about this one other than that the fate of the villains an ongoing uncertainty in at this point in the narrative. Even though Shouto, Izuku and Ochako "saved" them, I can't imagine that the rest of society would be as ready to forgive. (for the purposes of this fic I'm assuming they all live, obviously)

Shouto's texts with his friends

This was a nice chance to add some commentary/context on the articles and what's happening in the world, and to show the kids supporting each other.

The first set of texts on 7/27 are a couple of days after the Todofam scene in Ch. 39, which is why Shouto wasn’t being super active in the group chat the previous week, as Izuku pointed out in their text conversation. Also, he didn’t answer the first group chat because he was at his therapy appointment (referenced in the text thread with Katsuki in Ch. 41)

The second set of texts (about game night) are after Shouto’s unsent letter in Ch. 44, so he’s doing a little better at that point.

I really enjoyed writing Shouto's second conversation with Izuku in particular. (Izuku’s nervous rambling was fun to write.)

Notice of Prisoner Transfer

Y'all knew this was coming, right? Can't have a Todofam healing subplot without adding fuel to the fire.

We'll be seeing more of Touya in Part III 😉

Also, the official reasoning for having him on quirk suppressants is mostly an excuse to give everyone peace of mind, knowing that he can't use his quirk. Way back in in Chapter 9, the article about quirk suppressants says that they're only approved for medical use and forcing prisoners to take a relatively new drug against their will would be questionable from an ethics standpoint, but I'm sure the prisons would find ways around that in the case of villains with certain quirks.