[Open] 🚬 April Flames

[burnitblack]

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

Content Warnings: Scenes and mentions of domestic / child abuse, some body horor and monstrous transformations, violence, adult language, topics of patricide and fratricide

Notes: General and specific starters will be below. Contact under cut.

If you want to hit me up for ideas on prompts or plots, feel free to comment on Dabi's 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.

Comments

[burnitblack]

He would've got a wry face if he tried to be polite. Really, some kids these days. Dabi's not about to give him something he doesn't feel like giving. Besides, the green kid's smart; he'll figure it out through process of elimination. It's not like there are that many of his little friends around. Let him stand and think. That's the price of caring about other people; it clouds the mind and distracts from the immediate surroundings and self.

"Yeah yeah. Keep braggin about gettin your zombie world survival badge early." With that, Dabi checks out the rift's dimensions and then brazenly shoves his entire head inside. Like passing through the surface of a mirror or the opening of a window, but nothing coming out on the other side. Ugh, why do these rifts like to open up in the stupidest places on the other side? Simple enough floating tear against a wall or out on the street on the Trench side, but on the other side, it's crammed behind the damn shelving unit. He has to wriggle his way between the shelves, shoulders and upper body knocking some of the display boxes to the ground. But it only takes a few rough seconds to cram himself through the slats and spill out onto the store floor. Dark in here. That's good.

Of course he's not trying to encourage Midoriya to steal out of some sense of kindness. It's a mutual team up for getting the most out of the current situation. Two people can collect more than one. And if the kid's complicit in the crime, he has no reason to bother trying to stop Dabi from doing it. Jeeze, he attacked your class a long ass time ago; get over it, brat. Done a lot worse since then.

Midoriya's voice carries through the rift and a few seconds later, things start to pop out of the rift. Mostly medical supplies, like bandages, painkillers, antiseptic sprays, bacterial wipes. Starting to work on clearing out the medical shelves of the convenience store. "Really." Calling out from his work, words coming through the rift fairly easily. "And how many people have ya stripped in the name of "necessity", kid?" Hell yeah he's mocking him. But still curious enough to keep the conversation going while he works.

[wannasmash]

Midoriya tends to explain things about himself guilelessly and without bravado. It shouldn't hurt, that directionless jab about bragging, but it does. He wouldn't brag about seeing his friends in pain and what he endured to try to protect them. He wouldn't brag about clutching the dead body of a dear friend, limbs angled like a fallen bird's. Not being able to save someone is the one thing heroes are taught to hate the most. Midoriya always had that instinct to begin with.

The first jab deadens the second. Small mercies. His face pinches, unexpectedly self-conscious, unseen by the rangy thief rifling through stock. But Midoriya is focused on keeping a lookout. It's what he said he'd do, and he keeps his word. Just like he doesn't fool around during sparring exercises, he keeps Dabi, the portals, and the street under surveillance.

What a jerk...

He can't feel enough animosity to find stronger words silently or dignify that with an answer out loud. He's always been lax about insults directed at him. While Dabi is out of sight, he chances moving to a better vantage point with his Quirk, jumping and alighting on top of a nearby broken street lamp. Here, he can see beyond what the outer edge of Danger Sense can pick up. In the dark, he's a crouched shadow with a tattered cloak and large glinting eyes, gargoyle-like, but his voice calls out in a definite tone, revealing his position as a show of... not trust, but at least goodwill.

"All clear."

Here he is, keeping an eye out for someone who's a wanted villain back home. Midoriya can think of several heroes who would object to this, but what is he going to do? Not keep a person safe?

"I found it more sustainable to ease into what's used locally." That sure is a lot of packages... "Are you checking the expiration dates? Uh, against whatever date it is in there?"

[burnitblack]

Opening your mouth and offering anything is inciting the potential for mockery. Dabi isn't actively going after Midoriya to hurt him, but more tossing that disparaging statement simply because he's a hero who thought it was a good time to spill some hero talk about his accomplishments. That said, the villain takes what the boy notes and stores it away for later use. What someone else has done to survive here tips him off on what to expect from this world. Yet listing many accomplishments in one breath is going to be seen as bragging regardless of intent behind it. Makes for an easy target.

As with his first excursion into the portals earlier, Dabi sets out gathering what he can use to carry things in. Meaning after a period of radio silence, the first of many items punches through the portal. In this case, a cheap backpack, stuffed to the brim with unseen items housed behind the zipper line. First area of attack is the medicine shelves, stripping the racks of over-the-counter pills, vitamin supplements, bandages and tapes, anti-inflammatory creams, antibacterial sprays, and whatever else is there to grab. Stuffed into whatever he can get to carry it before getting shoved through the portal out onto the ground again.

Midoriya's "all clear" comment is a welcome status quo. What would the kid do if someone did come along? On the one hand, he could alert Dabi and the villain might stay in the portal until the stranger left. But on the other, the hero could try to dissuade the stranger from coming nearby due to Dabi's presence. And the very obvious fact the villain wouldn't hesitate to kill someone who came to cash in on his growing haul. Something he's sure the green kid's aware of. Which might end up putting the two of them at odds and ignite a battle. Something he'd prefer to avoid if at all possible... He's strong, yes, but would rather not go against someone who could slam toe-to-toe with Shigaraki. Especially if the kid's trained with that old geezer who knocked Dabi out with one kick to the damn head. No thanks.

Yeah well, lucky you he's not a wanted villain in Trench. For now. If there's even a legal system here at all.

"Ya got a point." Making do with what's available and adapting is a villain's life back in Japan. "But anyone ever tell ya to take advantage where ya can?" These portals aren't going to last forever and once they're gone, so too goes the opportunity. Perhaps just to drive the point home, Dabi's burned arm ejects from the portal, holding a few packages of batteries, one of which might contain the sort of batteries needed for that emergency flashlight he'd noticed Deku using earlier. Even if shit here ran on "moon power", there's something to be said for what's familiar from home... *pl-clatter-thump* All three packs land on the growing pile below the rift. Temptation? ... maybe.

"Not gonna be picky about dates. I'll sort them out later." Another backpack and this time, Dabi worms his way out of the portal once more, easier since he'd moved the shelves on the other side out of the way. He crouches down to take stock of what he's got, then glances around to find a place to store them while he goes back inside. "I heard you can find a lot of stuff in the marketplace. They really mean "everything" or just the local Trench version of "everything"?"