Of course, anyone who follows me on Twitter or has me on Discord knows that, but for the Tumblrites, I am alive.
I wasn't planning on being away for so long, but I was so invested in trying to finish the fanfic I said I was working on that I said I wouldn't come back to Tumblr til it was done... and just like that, six months passed like it was nothing.
I haven't even sorted through all the notifs I've missed, so sorry to anyone who tagged me or tried to get a hold of me one way or another, but I will get to that later tonight. For now, I am here to post what I should have posted six months ago. AT LONG LAST. THE MIBUAKA FIC I PROMISED Y'ALL. Enjoy!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
LET'S GO, WE'RE FINALLY AT MY FAVORITE!!! Not my favorite artwork though, yeesh.
This is Aizawa's fourth major undercover identity, Zukyō. She's more often referred to as Mama-san (a woman in a position of authority, especially one in charge of a geisha house or bar).
She works at Club Symbol, a small club in the red-light district. The place is frequented by villains and people who run in those circles, so Aizawa's job is to pick up on conversations had with the girls. Aizawa was sent there instead of a female Pro Hero because of worries for a woman's safety in such a situation. (Irony ensues, as Aizawa becomes a female pro hero who is a woman. But that's a story for another day.)
This look is achieved via shapewear, a corset, some silicone assistance, a look into drag, and a hint of anime magic. Most people don't notice his more masculine features because of the dark lighting and his undercover makeup, and anyone who notices, as well as the hostesses, think the Mama-san is trans. The hostesses act accordingly and protect her femininity with their lives. The character traits of Zukyō/Mama-san are based on Midnight, strict teachers, a few businesswomen Aizawa has met, and Aizawa himself.
Zukyō's 'quirk' is called Glare. The idea is that any stare from her is intimidating to anyone (perhaps enough to even make their quirk stop working out of fear). It's used as a cover for Erasure, but most often it's just Aizawa's normal scary faces.
And she is. The love of my life. I have drawn her the most, I have written the most ficlets about her, I have thought about her the most. I will be posting the hostesses separately, because this is a ZUKYO POST about ZUKYO goddamnit!
Also she's Hizashi's fake wife, but that's a long story. Everyone say, "Thank you, Nezu!"
An action pose for Aizawa's third undercover identity in TMFoAS: Cheshire, canonically called Chesha (チェシャー).
Cheshire was an infiltration agent for the HPSC; he joined villainous organizations as a member of their ranks and took them down from the inside. Like Hawks with the LOV, but far more discrete and on the inside. Anybody the villians sent him to kill was put in witness protection. At least... they were. The Cheshire storyline took a darker turn that focused on the shady underbelly of the HPSC and how they'd apparently use pro heroes to take out other pros. (Aizawa tended to be "unsuccessful" on those missions. I wonder why.) I don't know if I'd keep that in these days, but I might toy with it in my mind.
The main focus of Cheshire's arc was going to be the villain gangs he hung around. These two villains—Titan and Man-Spider—actually aren't from the gang he was infiltrating, but a rival gang.
I'll explain Chesh himself more below the cut.
Cheshire's character traits are based on the Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland" and some of the less-than-sane villains Aizawa had come across. The reason for the storybook influence was the fact that most villains, consciously or not, have a 'theme'. Cheshire has a Pseudobulbar Affect to match this theme, in the same way Ingenious "has" palilalia. "In-character", this affect is the reason Cheshire took up the "Cheshire Cat" persona. The design reason is in order to give Cheshire a "defining villain trait", because those bitches are never fucking normal. The "Horikoshi-esque" reason is that he's the Joker, baby.
Cheshire's quirk is "Half-Cat", nicknamed "Neko", and is accomplished using prosthetics. The ears and tail have a core on the inside that is made of the same stuff as his capture weapon, and the paws are all linked to the movement of his fingers and toes; this way he can move them freely like an actual mutant could. Aizawa had to do a lot of training (especially on flexibility and being aware of himself) and research on cat movements, but he didn't mind because he got to watch cats and pretend to be a cat.
This one is actually cropped from a bigger drawing of all 4 of them, hence why it's both crunched and there's more art peeking out from the side.
Meet Matosō Dokuna, better known (and really only known) as Ingenious. I never drew him enough, but he was definitely one of my favorites. He and Cheshire are in a constant battle for second place, but I think Ingenious has him beaten out just a little bit.
Ingenious had the least story written, but I think he had the best-formed concept and character. He was very eccentric and pretty frail—though nobody knew if he always had a cold or flu, or if he was chronically ill. This unknown health status was a way for Aizawa to wear a face mask, hiding his face! Aizawa also wears contacts as Ingenious, which makes his quirk harder to use but makes him harder to recognize. Hiding the lower half of his face, contacts, and hair extensions are just a few of his tricks for undercover! We're in a world with quirks, there are so many options!
Ingenious "had" palilalia—a rare speech disorder characterized by the involuntary repetition of one's own phrases, words, or syllables two or more times in a row. (It's important to note that he is a character being played in-universe, and thus does not "have" any disorders.) I didn't know that was a real thing when coming up with the concept for him, but now I do and will be doing lots of research!
Ingenious was a villain costume and support weapon designer who worked in the black market. Support weapon design was a lucrative business, that more often than not led right to the heart of a villain organization.
More on that under the cut.
Ingenious was taken in by different villain groups to design costumes and support items, which allowed him to gather information on them and groups working closely with or against them. In the newer years, villains have forgone professional costumes, but back when Ingenious was on the scene, nobody was a proper villain without an official look. Maybe that was because of propaganda on the HPSC's part, but you'd never know. (He's been retired for quite some years now. R.I.P. Ingenious, you'd have loved Stain and the costumes he inspired.)
Ingenious's designs were originally provided by the HPSC, but eventually, the iffy costumes and lackluster support items (the mission wasn't a top priority and they didn't particularly want to give villains great support) being delivered began to make Ingenious the least profitable in the market. Aizawa realized the mission could not continue like this, so he began to design the costumes and support items himself. After Aizawa's hard work on researching trends in villain appearances and learning how to do some very basic figure drawing (both with a bit of help from some associates), Ingenious was top of the market. Dokuna's character traits were based on Present Mic, villains Aizawa had come across, and the over-the-top characters in dramas (Aizawa was bored while researching).
Ingenious's "quirk" is called "Materialize" and is similar to Yaoyorozu Momo's "Creation", except everything he creates takes the actual amount of time a 3D printer would. This allows him to take hours or even days to himself without people bothering him because he's "still materializing" and if they bother him too much, he can't focus on making good quality materials.
Hey, everyone! I've been in a creative slump recently, so I decided I'll be posting some of my older work for a project I kind of abandoned: The Many Faces of Aizawa Shōta (TMFoAS).
It was going to be a comic that followed Aizawa going undercover over the years to apprehend different villains and gain knowledge for the HPSC.
This is Aizawa's first undercover identity, "Shout". He's about 18-19 when he takes up Shout to infiltrate an underground rave, which is actually a cover for a drug trafficking ring. The issue with catching the guy is that the drugs aren't drugs—they're Quirk Products.
The first arc of TMFoAS was going to explore a legal issue with Quirks: a blanket allowance of "Quirk Products" to allow more manufacturing at less cost, put more goods on the market, and create more businesses to boost the economy. Aizawa would come up against a villain abusing this system and have to find a way to bring the man to justice. Unfortunately, when working outside of the law, the way to "justice" is full of injustice.
I really wish I had started TMFoAS so everyone could meet the villain of the arc, Shabu, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Two of The Many Faces of Aizawa Shota! (fic wip name hehe)
I think the most interesting and unexplored MHA concept is underground heroes going undercover, so I made two concepts for an undercover Aizawa to test if I can keep a character's recognizably while also having them w/ different personalities and outfits! I think I might make a fic based off of these two undercover stories, especially Zukyō! I even have a design for one of the hostess girls 'she' watches over :]!
Identity 1: Shout ('Shout'a, obviously, and also Present Mic influence)
Aizawa went undercover to bust a drug smuggling ring via underground raves. The character traits of Shout are based off of Present Mic and Oboro, very excitable and easy going. He took down the ring via just kind of making his way into people's good graces. He still goes to raves as Shout occasionally, if only because he's nostalgic.
Identity 2: Zukyō (図強) (a mix of 指図 'command' and 強力な 'powerful'), also known as Mama-san (a woman in a position of authority, especially one in charge of a geisha house or bar).
'She' works at a dingy hostess club in a red-light district. The place is frequented by villains and people who run in those circles, so Aizawa's job is to pick up on conversations had with the girls. Aizawa was sent there instead of an actual female pro hero because of worries for a woman's safety in such a situation. Most people don't notice his more masculine features because of his undercover makeup skills, and the girls think their Mama-san is trans and protect her femininity with their lives. The character traits of Zukyō/Mama-san are based off of Midnight.
I just wanted to draw them being goobers, to be honest. A lot of people liked the TMFoAS concept and I'm going to figure out how to create something for it, so here's some Zukyo and Mic because he's smitten for his fake wife who is also his best friend in disguise (who he is also smitten for).
