drift fleet application

[allfight]

OUT OF CHARACTER:
Name/Handle: Shikki / Iri
Contact: fraymotif @ plurk
Reference: Akai
Other characters: None

IN-CHARACTER:
Character name: Katsuki Bakugou
Character journal: allfight
Series name: My Hero Academia
Canon notes: Chapter 168

Species: Superpowered Human

History: In a world where eighty percent of the world has superpowers and being a professional hero is a real career, Katsuki Bakugou was born to superpowered parents in a warm and loving household (though its clear he got most of his attitude from his mother)and grew up more or less without any dramatic incidents. There is zero reason why he is an angry gremlin child, other than the fact that people praised him from day one and he internalized it into a supernova of ego and developed a crippling fear of not being able to meet those expectations he has for himself.

From the day he was born, he was a leader. People were drawn to him, they listened to him, he never really had to put much effort into winning them over because he has a naturally commanding presence. He was told from the day his quirk appeared that he was destined to be a Pro Hero due to his amazing abilities, cementing the idea in his head that he was beyond everyone around him. This isn't helped by the brash and bold attitude, one he inherited from his mother, where everything that comes out of his mouth is blunt, rude, and typically full of cursewords.

Even when he was good friends with Izuku Midoriya as a child, he was incredibly nasty to him. He gives him the nickname of "Deku" which means "the one who can't achieve/do anything" and thinks it's funny because he considers it true. Things only got worse when his "quirk" developed and Izuku's did not. While they still maintained their friendship, everything fell apart when Katsuki slipped and fell into a shallow river. While their other two friends laughed and said he'd be fine, Izuku ran down to see if he was okay -- and instead of taking that as a show of genuine concern, somehow Katsuki twisted it into thinking Izuku was mocking him.

And that's about when everything went to hell for them. Bakugou went from being just a bratty kid to being a bully, attacking and demeaning his friend. Every time he did, Deku would pick himself back up and still continue trying to approach. Again, somehow he interpreted this as further mocking and lashed out in increasingly nasty ways.

All of this came to a head when he found out Izuku was planning to attend the same highschool as him. He lost his shirt and burned something incredibly precious to his former friend and mocked him for daring to have such aspirations as he still, somehow, considered this all as a personal attack and mockery. That same day as he was heading home from school, he was attacked by a villain whose power was sludge. While all the other Pro Heroes stood by and watched, afraid to do anything, powerless Izuku rushed in with tears streaming down his face and tried to free him. It didn't work, but it delayed things just long enough for the greatest Hero to leap in and save him.

The news reported on it. Katsuki was mocked for being taken prisoner like that -- but more importantly, he stopped physically harassing Deku.

And here's the rest of canon. But in summary:

- Got into UA
- Continued to be a fucking dickhead to Deku
- Realized he isn't The Single Greatest Thing Ever upon witnessing his classmates show off their powers, had a breakdown
- Doubled down and worked harder
- Survived being attacked by Actual Real Villains
- Somehow found himself with Eijiro Karishima as a friend
- Realized he isn't The Single Greatest Thing Ever, had a breakdown part two electric boogaloo. seriously when things don't go his way he basically bluescreens for a solid episode and a half
- Wins the Sports Festival but only because Todoroki didn't want to use his fire power. Was so pissed off they muzzled him and chained him during the awards ceremony in fear that he'd attack Todoroki. They had to jam the medal in his mouth.
- Interned with a super hero who desperately tried to groom him and turn him into a civilized human being. Didn't work. His best effort is still to terrify and threaten people.
- Final Exams happen, he gets teamed up with Deku. Has a shitfit, but eventually learns The Value of Teamwork for like ten seconds before reverting back to being a jerk.
- Got kidnapped, was kind of the reason his idol had to retire. started to Actually Chill Out. But only after he and Deku had a gigantic brawl and shouted their feelings, and Deku realized that Katsuki has a really weird way of looking at basic human decency directed to him.
- Failed his licensing exam by being a rude, screamy asshole and had to take remedial courses on how to connect with people.

Personality: Katsuki's personality is kind of garbage in nearly every way. If it weren't for his love of All-Might and his goals of succeeding him, there is a good chance that he'd be a villain. The epitome of a highschool bully, he's someone who lashes out at other people to feel better about himself. There are good qualities he possesses - he's good at school, has a powerful quirk, an excellent fighter, with a strong sense of loyalty and honor - but all of that is tarred by a shitty personality, a habit of lashing out, and inferiority complex. The boy's catch phrase in battle is 'JUST DIE ALREADY' for heaven's sake, which is hardly befitting of a hero. This again is largely inherited from his mother, who is just as explosive and prone to threats as he is.

Which is what wants to be: a hero. More than anything else. He's grown up being told that's exactly what his power is suited for, that he'll be the very best, that he'll be the one to rival All Might. The bar was set high before he was even aware there was a bar. All his life he's been able to excel with little actual effort, and with people constantly praising him, he developed a superiority complex even before his quirk appeared.

His entire identity is built around being the best and constantly outshining everyone around him. Which kind of goes to hell the second he starts attending UA and is face to face with other people with powers that rival his. He's determined to meet his goals by himself and views other people helping him as a personal attack, as if they're mocking him for being unable to do something on his own. He's constantly misinterpreting kindness or concern as demeaning him. And while this has gotten better recently, he still often reverts back to threats and namecalling when he feels belittled.

His sense of honor might be a little weird, but its built around proving himself to be the best by only fighting with people at their best. He's hyper-aware of his own weaknesses and works ten times harder to compensate for them -- his hero outfit was one of the few that was specifically designed to compensate for the flaws in his quirk. He grew up idolizing All Might and how magnificent he looks after a victory, adopting his habit of smiling in the face of danger -- though Katsuki's smile looks more like a serial killer's than a noble image of hope. But even in the heat of battle, with the force of bombs under his fingertips, he's careful not to hurt anyone beyond repair and is even mindful of his teammate's safety.

He doesn't pay attention to people who are weaker than him (it takes him months to learn half of his classmates names, and even longer for him to recognize their abilities) and takes anyone holding back in a fight as a personal attack. He doesn't lie or deceive, he doesn't cheat, he demands one hundred percent honesty of himself and holds himself to a higher standard than perhaps anyone around him, yet reacts violently when they don't meet what he perceives to be the lowest bar. But by the time of the Provisional Exam Arc, he's begun to trust others. His friends risked everything to save him and in doing so, they showed him what he was lacking -- the rescue sense that has to temper the urge for glory. He's willingly walking into danger in order to free his friends, trusting their abilities to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

He has zero social skills because he misinterprets most anything that isn't blind praise as people looking down on him or dismissing him. He lashes out and rips everyone down to his level in order to claw his way back up, and while he's cognizant that that's wrong, he makes no effort to stop it. Aggression is the only language he speaks with any fluency - the only person whose managed to comfortably read him is Eijiro, and even then Katsuki's go-to way of talking to him is to threaten him every other word.

Despite the lack of social skills and the way he warps everything when it comes to himself, he's good at reading people and assessing their strengths. Ochako Uraraka is one of the first people in his class he acknowledges and refuses to go easy on -- something his classmates judge him for, misinterpreting his acknowledgement of her strength as him throwing his around needlessly. Bakugou gives his all in everything he does and doesn't waste his time with people who can't take it.

For all of his overflowing ambition and desire to prove himself, he never bends who he is -- even if that means being a prickly, hostile jerk to everything that moves. He sticks to his guns, though, and does everything he can to live up to his own bragging. Where Deku is the heart of the class, Katsuki is the iron clad fist pushing everyone to be their very best.

All of this isn't to say that Bakugou doesn't have friends. He does. Eijiro Kirishima is easily his first friend and very best friend at UA, and he goes out of his way to help him out. Despite not being a very patient or nurturing person, he sits down to help him study. And as Eijiro is much more social and friendly than Bakugou, he's more or less been adopted by all of his other friends along the way. Denki Kaminari seems to be the other person closest to him and one of the few other people that can get away with teasing him.

He idolizes All Might as a hero. Albeit in a very different way than Deku does. Where Deku wants to save people by being inspirational, Bakugou wants to win every fight and stop villains in their tracks. He doesn't really care about the fame, he just wants the ability to stand head and shoulders above everyone around him. Its only recently he's begun to learn what it truly means to save people and have real friends, not just mindless minions who parrot back whatever he says. For all of his villainous tendencies, Katsuki doesn't WANT to be a villain. He's just kind of bad at everything that isn't strictly combat oriented.

At surface level there's nothing to him but rage and fire, but spend enough time around him and you'll realize that's all it is. The surface. Katsuki is incredibly smart and can think on his feet, he takes things to heart in a way he doesn't want people to know. He internalizes his guilt over All Might's retirement, feeling as though being targeted and not being strong enough to save himself was the reason for his downfall. He gets angry at the rest of the school for blaming his class for all the misfortune they've experienced, and gets angry at his classmates for thinking they owe anything to those people when they're victims in everything.

Thanks to classmates proving time and time again that they respect him despite all his sharp and stupid edges, thanks to all of the setbacks and humblings he's had to face, he's started to calm down a little. He's loyal to them, he cares about them. He can take direction. He and Deku finally punched the shit out of each other and a had a heart to heart, and that was what he needed to at least start getting over himself in a meaningful way. During the culture festival, while he tells his classmates he thinks it's stupid for them to be chasing the favor of the other departments - he gets involved. Instead of dismissing the whole thing as a waste of time, he says he wants them to do it for their sakes and not to please anyone else... in a Bakugou kind of way. He doesn't even insult the people who come to apologize for their mockery, he just smugly thinks we won. All of this comes on the heels of him passing his remedial exam by helping a cynical child to see that looking down on everyone around you only makes you conceited and lonely. It's a turning point for him to be sure.

At the end of the current arc, he's finally accepted that it's okay to walk in step with everyone else. He's still Bakugou - shouting, snarling, swearing Bakugou - but it seems he's finally accepted his place in Class 1A and is even happy to be there.

Abilities: Bakugou's Quirk (or superpower) is Explosion, which is exactly what it sounds like it is. He sweats nitroglycerin from his palms and can detonate it at will to create explosions. The kid uses it from everything from rocketing through the air, long range projectile attacks, and sometimes just straight up exploding things. He can hurt himself with the recoil of these explosions but seems to be unaffected by any of the fire they cause.

His powers also don't work well when he's cold.

Augment Skillset: Communications maybe that's a disaster waiting to happen
Sample: Test Drive!