Archive of Our Own ^beta

Momo frowned at the assortment of materials on her desk, running her hands over each item in turn. It was all plastic, in some form or another. She didn’t know plastics as well as she knew metals or ceramics, but in theory it should be easier to generate. Plastic was made of oil, after all, and oil was organic matter plus time and pressure. Plus, she’d been practicing making these raw materials for the past month, ever since Kyouka gave her that cute little box of chocolates. She'd initally meant to put them together the old fashioned way, but, well, a childhood as academically rigorous as hers didn't leave much time for learning how to sew, and this was far too ambitious for a beginner project. Good thing she had her quirk to fall back on. Closing her eyes, she focused on what she wanted to create and pressed a hand to her stomach, one of the few places on her body she could use to generate something of this size. She had three, maybe four tries to get this right if she wanted to have any energy left for the rest of the day.

Inhaling deeply, she activated her quirk. Soft fabric met her palm, and she slid that hand down to support her creation from the underside. That had been a lesson she learned early on, that the generation process didn’t account for things drooping due to gravity. It only took a minute for the toy to fully form, and Momo held her breath as she felt it over with her fingers. It seemed right, she could feel the major details and none of them gave the impression of a cheap bootleg product. She cracked an eye open, and immediately slammed it shut again.

Colour. She’d been so focused on getting the features right, she’d forgotten to do the colours. Exhaling slowly, she forced herself to relax. She had the form down now, replicating it would be easy while it was still so fresh in her mind. She just had to focus on the colours she wanted it to be. Purple-black, blue-black, salmon pink and a softer peachy tone, all wrapped around soft white plush. Momo took measured breaths as she sculpted the toy, picturing the curvature of the head, the embroidered nose and small smile beneath it.

When it finally rested in her hands, she opened her eyes immediately to look at it. The marks on the cheeks were a few shades off, and she’d unthinkingly made the nose black which was incongruous with the rest of the doll. Aaand, the perfectly sized clothes didn’t have enough give to be taken off, save the jacket. Groaning, she sat back and thunked her head against the wall. How had she not thought of that? A whole month spent planning out designs and materials and every last detail, and she’d forgotten that the clothing wouldn’t fit over the oversized head.

She could fix that, though. Snaps were simple enough to make, and it wouldn’t be much of an issue at all to work them into the back of the shirt and pants. And, hell, while she was at it she could fix the little mistakes in the face. Closing her eyes again, she activated her quirk for the third time. Her stomach growled, but she pushed all thoughts of food aside. First, she had to get this right.

It was easier this time, and when she lifted the finished product it was with a grin on her face. “Perfect.” she told the stuffed bear, straightening its acrylic fringe. “She’s gonna love you.” she squished her thumbs into the bear’s cheeks, right under the triangular red marks. Ever since Kirishima’s discovery of an “I ❤ Red Riot” T-shirt on an e-store back in January, future merchandising had been a recurring topic in the dorms. Personally, Momo thought the whole thing was rather silly, but Kyouka was excited about it.

The dull boom of a not-distant-enough explosion made her startle slightly, and Momo sighed as Bakugo started yelling up the stairs about food going cold and the lot of them being ungrateful bastards. “Guess your accessories will have to wait.” she told the bear, setting it down on her pillow. Gathering up the rejects in her arms, she headed over to drop them in the trash. After a moment, though, she set the uncoloured one in the bin and walked the slightly-off-colour toy back over to her bed. She’d long since stopped sleeping with stuffed animals, and it wasn't quite perfect, but... it was cute.

She could only hope that Kyouka found the final product just as cute when Momo gave it to her tomorrow.