deercountry | [Open] 🚬 September Flames

Entry tags:

[Open] 🚬 September Flames

Who: Dabi & others
What: September Catch-All
When: September
Where: Various

Content Warnings: Potential mentions of domestic/child abuse, potential mentions of murder, violence, adult language/subjects

Notes: General and specific starters and event prompts are found below. Contact under cut.

If you want to hit me up for ideas on prompts or plots, feel free to comment on Dabi's CR meme post or his Event plotting post, hit me up on my contacts – Plurk (

StarSeed69) / Discord (StarSeed#3572) – shoot me a PM, or drop an ooc comment down below, and we’ll hash it out. I'm down to write a unique starter for our threads if you prefer.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[final explosion. final flame. smoke and light and everything goes up in ash. they're not there to witness the finale of that clash between pride and stubbornness. when explosion and blueflame render all around them into momentary nothingness. a cacophony heard around the city, rocking the streets to the core and wiping out the walls around that point. ground zero. hell fire. leaving only the glowing crater that illuminates the surrounding world with orange and blue amid the billowing smoke.

yeah... it's always easiest at the end. because it doesn't matter anymore. survival gone. just... just this sensation of drifting as a film rises against his chest, all the way to his neck, before dragging downward and peeling from his skin. a liquid metronome using his body as its back and forth pendulum, waves eternally keeping time with gravity's rhythm. back and forth, reaching his neck again... and drifting back out. no... no he can feel that at least. cool water. no pain. steady breathing of the waves going wahooossshh... wahooossshh...

just... give him a bit... he'll come around in a few after being washed ashore like a piece of grilled driftwood on the black beach.]

Edited 2022-09-20 21:47 (UTC)

[Being a squid is actually pretty great. No pain, no attachments. Guilt free jet propulsion under water and the natural cycle of being a creature in the sea. Eating, moving, eating, so on. As a squid, he doesn't know this. Katsuki will only remember how serene it was later, and a small part of him might long for it once again when he has to face the reality of what got him here in the first place.

Serenity like that can't last forever, and the call to return to shore and himself eventually takes over. By the time he makes it there, Katsuki is fully formed with only one thing on his mind. Get out of this freezing fucking water! It hasn't hit him yet, why he is in the water... what got him there. Just that he is, and it fucking sucks all around. His equilibrium is way off, everything is hazy and slow. Swimming like that is extremely difficult and likewise dragging himself across the sand takes far more effort than it has any right to, being who he is. Once out of the water, all that can be afforded for a couple minutes is laying on his back, staring up at the sky as he pants for air, chasing oxygen like it's out of fucking style. It's even colder out of the water, he finds, and once he's gotten his heart rate down to a relatively normal thump... thump... thump, the blond is pushing himself up to sit. Wrapping his arms around himself in a senseless gesture of trying to preserve body heat, his brows knit hard as he looks around to figure out... what the fuck. To the right, first, slowly because it makes him feel dizzy to turn too fast. There's nothing but open beach on this side, and that just makes the downturn of his mouth pull further. Trying to wrack his brain, force it to provide the right information to him.

What the fuck happened?

Slowly, turning to the left, at first there's nothing except for his grenadier bracers... weirdly placed just near as if they've been waiting for him, but something compels the teen to crane his head even further and that's when he sees him. In the sand.

And it all floods back, stopping his breath in his chest like a direct punch to it. Fire. Burning. Dabi's face, eyes wide and bloodshot, fucking crazy with his damaged, broken jaw hanging unnaturally, tongue lolling. Burning. Boiling. His arm. His fucking arm, burnt through skin and muscle, they were practically melded together. The sizzling of his own flesh, the pain. The fucking pain. Katsuki doesn't even realize that he's unfolded his arms and taken the one that was damaged into his other hand, until he's pressing and feeling it to make sure he's fucking whole still. There's a sensation, tingling, just where Dabi had grabbed him, but otherwise he feels whole... and that's good enough for him. Too much work, when that bastard is nearby and he's suddenly fighting the urge to turn and vomit into the sand. They killed each other. He tried to beat him to death. He blew his fucking skull up like a goddamn melon, because he refused to give the eldest Todoroki the full satisfaction.

Fuck!

Tense, wide crimson eyes never leave Dabi's form, moving or not, even as he feels himself out. No fucking way. He's ready, if he has to be... but god fucking dammit, you psychotic piece of shit. It's fucking pointless! No more. When you pull your crazy ass together, leave it at that!]

[it sucks. the endless monotony of a life without purpose other than survival. no goals to reach for, no enjoyment to feel or satisfaction over accomplishments. merely a beast with no higher functions. all things that aren't going through his mind, but will probably haunt him later after waking up. at which point dabi would instantly do his damnest to forget. he rejects all things squid!life in his mind. as best he can. cause it's stupid.

cold doesn't bother him. the wetness, however, does. yet he can't... seem to move his limbs yet. reaching out with his senses, it takes a tremendous effort just to open his eyes, dragging lead-like lids open as if it's the worst garage door. wouldn't be surprised if rust fell into his pupils. rust might've been better, since even the dull light of a cloudy sky is enough to skewer his retinas and slam his eyes shut with a hard wince. ah shit, that hurt. yeah, a pain he can actually feel. cause it's not exactly 'physical' like getting stabbed or burned. fine, leave his eyes for a bit. they can flutter every now and then to start adjusting to the light. what else works... finger... he can feel a finger. tendons pull, muscles clench, and a marked success leaves him able to twitch the tip in the sand. one... two... a third one... and abruptly spasms hard enough to sink those fingers into the sand in a vicious clawing motion to crush the grains into his palm. fuck! he's alive! sucking in air--gargling for a second--nope, spitting up water in a quiet choke and cough. oh gross... but each spit propels life into his limbs as if trading the water out of his lungs.

good enough. he dares to sit up, uncoordinated and shaky as he digs his palms into the sand and uses his arms like stilts. bones creak, his muscles whine, and his head wobbles on his neck in a broken marionette style. ugh... know what hurts most right now? his face. yeah. feels like someone punched it into the back of his skull. his jaw pops once or twice, wiggling side to side. but it's coming back. the feeling in his nerves, a bit more coordination in his body, a headache eager to sweep his bra-

oh that son of a bitch. like a dyke bursting, what had been nothing more than "what happened?" rapidly fills in with details. every single blow slamming into his face. katsuki's arm hauling back covered in sweat as his flesh boiled the rest out of his pores. he remembers seeing his own blackened skin coming off on the kid's hand, always coming back to that rage-filled face slathered in fury, desperation, and an blinking presence of pain each time he didn't push past it. fucker was beating him to death, right for his head. after crushing his shoulder. right... katsuki killed him. before he could immolate himself and the hero on his own terms, that bombastic brat plunged a grenade into his face and pulled the proverbial pin.

no wonder his head's killing him now. hn hn hn... bastard. suck part is, the memories at least trail long enough to realize this was all because of some damn event that pushed the blonde into acting out of his ordinary ways. dabi slogs his head forward and drops it between his shoulders, one hand twitching in effort to reach for it, but failing because it doesn't wanna move properly right now. still thinking that shoulder's ripped out of socket apparently. a miracle he didn't collapse as he sat up on it. at least he catches sight of those metal cuffs sitting beside him. temperature regulators. only real piece of "tech" he's got on him. maybe the rest of his stuff is nearby.

... nope, not his stuff, but someone is. he'd recognize that blonde explosion of hair anywhere. is it not enough they killed each other, but the place deems it necessary to wash them up on shore together? there's ironic, and then there's being a piece of shit for the hell of it. the satisfaction of murdering the hero is muted by the emotions and frustrations he felt during the fight, as well as a now-cleared mind realizing how much it'd been influenced and triggered by outside machinations. regret it? nope! hate being used like that? hell yes.

oh, he's awake. katsuki's moving. dabi watches him from the corner of his eyes, white hair hanging down in front of his face to shadow the turquoise gaze. well, guess the blonde's getting a full view of just how damaged touya's body is, purple scar tissue running from his thighs all the way down to an ankle on one side and mid-foot on the other. swathes on his torso expanding over his stomach and back. both arms wearing scarred sleeves with one pausing around his shoulder, though the other flows unforgiving into his collar and scorched neck and lower face. chest less than 40% good flesh by now. guy's lost a ton of his epidermis real estate... and katsuki's over there sitting pretty with whatever scant number of scars he's got.

jealous? not really. unamused? very. since katsuki's gonna stare at him, touya's gonna watch right back, not bothering to move more than tenting his legs at the knees and resting his arms atop them. they're back. they're alive. this prick's not gonna start something; he knows that well enough by now.]

Seems we're even.

[It's a sentiment shared between the two of them, that's for sure. It ain't fucking funny, not even a little bit, to have to join the world all over again with the motherfucker who was so determined to take him out of it in the first place. Fuck Trench. Fuck this place. Katsuki can't even say that he blames Dabi for what he did, because he wouldn't have done it if it weren't for him starting the whole thing. Against his goddamn will. It pisses him off. So much. He gets to sit and try not to eject his stomach's contents into the sand because the vivid memory of fucking burning alive is so fresh, and the burden of responsibility for that doesn't go fucking anywhere. Except on himself. Too weak to resist the pull of this place. Not thinking straight, causing casualties with his own bad decisions. Punching him. Over and over and over again with so much killing intent. His call. The only call, but still his own.

Everything feels horrible. Everything. His skin. His arm. His fucking bones. His head feels like he's just stepped off of one of those insanely fast spinning rides you'd find at some shitty festival. There's no more holding it back, not between his physical condition and with how his mind keeps racing over everything that happened. The blond tears his gaze away, boots dragging up in the sand to draw his legs up and out of the way. Bowing inward because he doesn't have the energy or give a shit to move far, he retches and heaves, ejecting all of the salt water he'd swallowed while struggling to swim his way back to shore, right on the sand between his own legs.

Ugh. Fucking hell.

He just sits like that for a long moment, spitting and panting all over again. Waiting to decide if he's done. Eventually Katsuki brings his hand up to wipe at his mouth, head turning to cast his dark gaze back on the villain just a stone's throw away. Hard not to look at the damage that Todoroki Touya has done to himself over time, honestly, and having experienced exactly what it takes to get to looking that way? He can't help but have some respect for the fortitude it would take to do that over and over again.

Still. Fuck you, Dabi.

No, he isn't going to start something. And Katsuki fucking hopes that Dabi won't either, but he can't be sure... and so they stare at each other. Tense, at least on his end, unwavering all the way up to Dabi's voice finally cutting through the ambient sound of waves.

Seems we're even.

All of that... and that's the fucking line he gets. Didn't really want anything else, but it still leaves a bad taste in his mouth to hear it come out of him so casually. Like they didn't just brutally, painfully murder each other for no real reason at all. Katsuki scoffs darkly and just lets his body do what it wants at that point. Absolutely nothing. Dropping back to lay in the sand, one arm laying at his side while the other hand comes up to press the heel of his palm into his forehead like that might help steady it.] You crazy sonovabitch... [It ain't defeat that has little bite in his tone. He's just fucking tired, on all levels. He just wants to go home and lick his wounds in peace.] Are we? Y'get that pointless bullshit fully outta your system, then?

[speak for yourself, asshat. you tried to take him out of the world first. you just sucked at finishing it. but it's not a pleasant experience either way and dabi's keen to sit here on the shore with his butt in the sand and glower about it for a while. similarly, he's finding it annoying to "blame" katsuki for the row since he knows it's trench's manipulations. for as aggressive and death-spitting as the kid is, he doesn't have the guts to kill someone even on his worst day. there's no concern from this side of the party regarding the blonde's current state. it's a sensation he'll get used to over time... the memory of burning to death. dabi still finds himself waking at night in a sweat, the sensations crawling across his skin in his mind only, and occasionally checks himself in the mirror to make sure he's not burning his flesh off while he sleeps. frustrated with himself for falling into a similar sway here. it's not like he hasn't fucked around with the other heroes. that floating bitch still hates him and the green kid's wary of him as ever, even if he's a bleeding heart who'll work with him. shouto's shouto, so no comment. but those had been his own choice, acting off the heroes' current mental states and influences. this one... hmph, this one felt good at the time, and now it's got this gross feeling of being used.

ah well. nothing he can't toss over his shoulder and ignore. he's good at that. not really big on "feelings" anymore, as he told shouto during the war. even if those "feelings" are in different categories. shit he has to sift through on his own... and now he gets to listen to katsuki puke up a small tide pool between his legs. could've done that when he was only semi-conscious. he had the courtesy to do so and he's a dirty villain. he lets his eyes drift back out to the water, focusing on the waves instead of the unpleasantries going on over there. maybe it's symbolic in a way, getting this out of their system. or maybe someone swallowed too much seawater and this is the natural result... and why the hell is he thinking so much about this kid retching?

right. because the rest he can think about is a weight of frustration, irritation, and mild confusion. so now where does this leave them? it wouldn't be "easy" to reach over and blast the cretin into a pile of ashes. dabi's not even sure he can aim right, much less trigger his quirk without some interfering blowback. his arms are supported by his knees because one of them barely wants to function and the other one's still numb, if he's honest with his current state. not a good time to get into a fight with katsuki.

feeling eyes on him again, he rolls them back the other hero. it's a strange stalemate, wondering if the other's going to do anything and whether he should make the first move to prevent it, but also realizing both of them are fucked up right now. a single wrong move or mistake, a jump to assumption, one shot fired hit or miss... so he makes the first move and opens his mouth.

tch, what'd he want? a heartfelt apology or some offering to analyze what the fuck just happened between them? no. they're even. katsuki tried to kill him and failed, dabi tried to kill katsuki and succeeded. they don't need a repeat of the event. this is as simple an acknowledgment of what happened without either of them having to get into the fact they were influenced by this place like idiots, and a proverbial olive branch to offer a truce without having to voice it and come across a weakling. plus dabi doesn't want to talk much right now; his mouth and jaw really fucking hurt.]

Urusei, asshole. [if he could drag that "shut up" harder through the sand, he would. but it'd take effort he don't have right now. of course katsuki's gonna question him. an exhausted scoff drifts out his mouth. don't make him talk right now, dammit. he needs a cigarette. and a drink. or both. damage control alone.] Ain't gonna waste my time on this crap again.

[Oh you fucking baby. Cry more. It's just puke. Try living with someone who's body has tried to make that a living for her. And to the earlier narrative point, you can shove that shit right up your ass too. It isn't that he sucked at taking you out, it's that he got interrupted and the so-called spell was broken. If weren't for your blatant suicidal streak and obvious desire to die, Katsuki'd call you fucking lucky in that regard. The hero version of Toga saved your ass, whether you wanna like that shit or not. He had every intention of doing exactly what he wound up doing in this fight. Blasting that fucking skull into pieces. Doesn't have the guts... you deluded motherfucker. He had the guts, twice, he just doesn't feel even remotely good about having the spine for it.

He refuses to feel good about it. To feel okay with himself. About killing, about attempting to kill. Any of it. It's like he said to Shigaraki... someone who can walk around after making a call like that and feel nothing--or worse, pride and euphoria... they're broken. Something is fucked up within them. Maybe it ain't necessarily their faults, maybe it's just the circumstance that's made 'em completely fucking insane... he's seen a lot of that in these villains, point and case. Katsuki has come to accept that reality, between home, Nippon and now here in Trench. Nothing is black and white. But it doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it justified. Killing is wrong, and it should feel wrong, even if he has to do it.

And y'know? Maybe that's screwed up too. Maybe he is just shackling himself to misery for no real reason at all, tethering himself to a broken system, but fuck you. Fuck no. He chooses to be different than that. Than to roll over and give into baser natures, to not give a shit and just say hey. The universe is fucked up, people are fucked up, so lets just light it all on fire. He chooses to fight to be better and do better, for himself. For the people around him. For the world around him, whichever fucking one it is. Katsuki picked his path because he believed in it, and he still fucking does. Even now, even if he's screwed up and done horrible shit. Even if it's not everything that his starry-eyed child self thought it was, because no matter what a kid can see on TV or hear, they can't just absorb and know how dark it actually gets. Doesn't matter. It's who he is, and who he's gonna be, and any outside opinions on that mean nothing to him.

So fuck you. Eat shit.]

Tch! Like I'm the goddamn asshole for all of this. Y'deluded prick! [There's still just very little bite to his words. Seriously, no energy for it and it's clear that Dabi is feeling the same. He's barely moved. Katsuki doesn't say anything further right away, letting the sound of waves take over for a few minutes as he digs deep to try to find the will to move again. Eventually though, he decides he's had more than his fill of this cold ass beach and with being anywhere near this fucking guy. He wants to go home. He wants to go home to Ochako, get into bed with her and stay there for a goddamn week. Maybe more. There's the aftermath to deal with, of course, he can't even imagine how bad it's been... and he ain't gonna. He can't. Not til he's there. For right now, in this very second, he'll focus on what doesn't make him feel like a garbage human being. Just long enough to get himself there.

The teen groans and pulls himself up to sitting once more. From there, a steeling breath and a hard lined scowl, before he twists to his hands and knees and then slowly uses what little strength he has to push to his feet. The sway he gets as he straightens out, two unsteady steps to the side like a fucking weighed down drunk or a dumbass baby deer just learning to walk, would be aggravatingly embarrassing... if he gave two shits about anything but getting home. All it takes is stopping there and getting used to the feeling of solid ground for a second, and then he's free to make his way over to his gear and pick 'em up. One gets put on, but the other stays in hand as Katsuki finally turns his gaze back onto Dabi and addresses him for the last time, tone dead serious.] Ain't fuckin' worth it. Never was. 'm done.

[That's as close to offering the word 'truce' as he's gonna get. He means what he says, Katsuki is done. With the entire thing. So Dabi doesn't get anything else from him. He just starts towards the the boardwalk.]

[oy, he ain't the one over here throwing himself a pity party out of guilt and not-as-bruised pride. and you can choke up and die on that bitch's quirk making her puke. try living with a quirk that fucking kills you for using it. then come and bitch to him about a little bit of vomit. (totally sucked at taking him out. so suck it. he's gonna be immature about it too, ya brat.) look at his life and call him "lucky" again, you pampered shit. still not going to admit that toga (the other-way crazy one) had a hand in saving him, even if dabi tells himself he would've immolated them both if it came down to dying at katsuki's hands. similar to how it just played out two and a half days ago. which is now turning out to be a pain in the not so proverbial ass. damn, if coming back to life feels like this every time, he'd rather skip it. anyways, glad to know ya got the spine for murder somewhere in your glass pride, you abusive egotistical maniac.

there's a lot in their world, any world, that isn't "right" if you look at it one way or another. it's not right to kill, but apparently it's right to deprive someone of their chance at living a decent way. it's not right to abuse, but so many of them went through that abuse and no one came to help. even hawks has that story in his background, but he's one of the lucky ones that escaped. dabi's seen some of the heroes here, particularly katsuki and ochako, and realized they've come from experiences that made them accept that grim reality: sometimes, there's no avoiding death. but ultimately, katsuki's right. as far as touya goes, he's broken beyond repair. and both of them know who's responsible for it too. death no longer matters to him, so long as he can bring it to endeavor before his own life goes out like the pathetic star his father always wanted him to be.

thing is, dabi doesn't give a shit about "life" in general. he's lost that part of himself, burned away a long time ago by the flames he was supposed to control. stain's ideology of a better world with better heroes. shigaraki's plans to wipe away everything out of blind hatred. even all for one's... whatever his ever-changing goal is. he doesn't care about any of that. they're simply a means to an end. an end that refuses to see anyone or anything else get in the way of. there's nothing else for him, only one single path he'll claw his damn fingers off to drag himself along if that's what it takes to get to the end. he lit the fire under him and it consumed him, drenched in the desire to be everything endeavor wanted. only to be discarded, emptied out, reamed and hulled until his own existence became worthless. in a way, touya and katsuki have similar focuses, refusing to allow anyone outside them swerve their paths or change their minds. but beyond that... their paths are so very different.]

Ugh. Ya talk too much. [he drops his head between his shoulders, letting it dangle bonelessly on his neck. each word from that mouth over there pounds into his skull, interrupting the at-least-rhythmic cresting of the waves. not helping this headache, brat. and he's the one who gave it to him. via that bomb to the face. can't wait to get back to his place. collapse in the darkness alone with no one around to witness this pathetic state he's in. seriously... killed by a goddamn hero. by katsuki of all people. never should've let him get close. should've kept him outside and torched him to death from afar. when he's not feeling like a piece of shit, dabi'll review the battle, as much as he remembers, and kick it into his training. but that's for future him. who has way more energy and drive than present him, who feels like driftwood puked out on the shore.

okay. there's movement over there and like hell is he gonna let that shit get to his feet while he's down. rolling his legs to the side, he digs his knees into the sand, hands pressing into the shore, and then works on getting one leg up, then the other. balance threatens to put him right back down, but he bites the vertigo back and straightens his legs, glaring at himself through tired eyes. move... you can break down later. you've moved all this time. and you'll continue to move until that last endeavor. up! god it feels like he breaks his back just to rise like that, but he does, ignoring the way his head turns into an invisible fishbowl that threatens to stagger him around in a clownish way. he is... not going the direction katsuki is. the complete opposite, further out into the beach. away from him, away from them, away from this.

he has his own shit to look for on this damn shore. katsuki's words come after him, over his shoulder, into his ear. glad they both agree this wasn't worth doing again. might argue the blonde being "done" anytime soon, but that's a pettiness he doesn't have the strength for right now. all dabi bothers to give... is lifting his hand and flicking the young hero off. even spits a blue flame out the tip of it to be extra dickish.

go die. dabi's had enough of him for the while. leaving katsuki to his traipse, the villain slow walks out into the beach, mind as heavy and weary as his body. he has no intention of repeating this blasted burn.

ain't worth it.]