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ACT I, SCENE II
THERE IS A STREAK AS RED AS FIRE TWISTING FROM HIS NOSE. he bites his tongue and spits blood from his mouth, his hands ache and he presses white to his palms. spelling with pink letters & tender flesh. everything will turn to ash in his dreams, himself last of all & his mother is left to cry over their graves - if she remembers them for what they were, rather than the synthetic mask that spells out their smiles. baby brother and big sister would spite him, but the monster was so close to death. he had to. so they could all finally be happy―or some semblance of it. a foreign concept as it is.
THEY SAY THAT TOUYA TODOROKI BURNED HIMSELF TO DEATH. he's never believed that personally (he thinks he's heard his brother run, his father screaming, his brother sizzling and bloody flames licking up the walls, biggest brother could not produce flames as red as his hair). burn his sorrows and count them on all his fingers and toes. wake up & eat & dream of stardust and funeral pyre's, of burning brothers and crying sisters & repeat. monotony rings true―he's as silver as the lines of cloudlight. the leader of THE LEAGUE OF VILLAINS asks why he's so keen on killing his own father.
HE RESPONDED WITH I'M JUST RETURNING THE FAVOR. the leader does not ask again. he - white hair, silver eyes - cools anything he touches without a thought―the burning man seems to appreciate colder temperatures. it's odd for someone with the ability for fire, he looks like he's made for ice. blue-blue eyes like winter in hell and a grin with too sharp teeth and a too sharp tongue that's hidden inside. everything that was his corpse of a younger brother. but more free, no noose of control collared around his neck; no father pulling it. the burns are all there because burning man wants them, not because the devil lays claim to his skin. they say his name is dabi, that he endeavored to kill the number one, he cried. he remembers fear (he doesn't quite know for who; the monster that leaves him afraid of the night, afraid of warmth, or the patchwork of skin & sutures trying to kill it).
BLOODY GUMS AND CHIPPED TEETH. childhood memories skimmed over after soccer games are one on one without the middle man too short to be the eldest that was still born first. he cries himself yo sleep over vermillion blood and blue ashes.
HEY, NATSU-CHAN, WHAT'S YOUR VILLAIN NAME? asks the girl without one. then―she has nothing to loose.
I'LL THINK OF ONE, MAYBE SMOKE? icy? haven't really given it much thought. he decides.
WHAT ABOUT TOUSHOU? the leader of THE LEAGUE OF VILLAINS asks. frostbite. eaten by the cold and left to rot away. it would suit big sister better. nahh. he says (tastes sour and bitter all at once to look into the blue abyss and speak clear). there are people muttered about - he doesn't need a villain name. he doesn't need to be anything and they'll hold him with open arms. they're all strange (the burnt one especially, but he seems to teeter like mother did. edging on a breakdown).
WHAT ABOUT ABSOLUTE ZERO? dabi cracks in, eyes dry from the tub of holy water he cried himself dead into. skin half melted off because the salt spilling from his face is acidic, peel him back 'til there's nothing but bone and chipped teeth into the cracks―sip on champagne and pray to whatever god inhibits the stars that father doesn't come back home, 'cuz father is too warm for their eldest brother to handle. big brother melted his skin off too, in raspberry burns and icy frost leaking on top - the temperature drops whenever he walks into a room because the cold is always better than the heat. spill out blood like it's apple juice and drink it like a dehydrated sap in the desert, cry over the tearlessness in you eyes and remain as tainted as always. dabi smells like ashes and sulfur. like someone that crippled and died, a corpse held together with the goal to kill a man painted red and diamond-hard blue (dabi's got the same eyes). natsuo blinks. then―
NATSUO GRINS. sharp like a knife spread across his lips and one day he'll dance across the world without fear like the tug of skin on his face (it bares striking resemblance to the man across from him). i like it!
DABI JUST LAUGHS, LIKE IT'S AN INSIDE JOKE―NOBODY ELSE LAUGHS WITH HIM.
OH THE IRONY. the dead-not man says. oh the irony. natsuo doesn't get it―is the irony that dabi wears his scars like trophies to be gawked at. like some sort of treasure or a mockery of something personal - that natsuo tries so hard to cover his own scars in candle-wax flesh poured out and cooled over with shaky hands. that they're all so different and they all ended in tragedy; singing to the gods about how the world is full of sinners. the gods don't listen of course, for what are they if not sinners in and of themselves.
SUNDAY IS ON FIRE, BLUE STARFIRE. taste the ashes that sink into the smoggy air―gums swelled pink and ribs sprayed golden with the purity of villains. natsuo watches dabi set a man on fire. it's cruel, but it's not like the number one (the current number one, who knows about the previous one. he was kindhearted, try say) is any better.
LET'S GO, BURN! says the man with hazed eyes & bleeding skin. flammable metal caught between bloody teeth - stardust eats away at his lungs and he chokes up vapour. you're useless otherwise!
(BOY IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THIS PAIN YOU WILL BURN. TURN TO ASHES IF THAT'S ALL YOU ARE. LET'S GO, BOY, BURN EVERYTHING. IT'S YOUR DUTY, YOU'RE USELESS OTHERWISE.)
TOUYA IS DYING ALL OVER AGAIN. hey, dabi, i think he's dead. dabi grins over there body, eyes sharp & blue and dangerous. hate and haze crazed into solitude. a mystery shrouded in sutures & his ability to tie hair up, despite his being just short enough to fall out of a hair tie.
C'MON, ABSOLUTE ZERO WE'RE DONE WITH THEM. natsuo shakes, hands trembling. he wants to help, he never wanted to hurt―
YEAH, COMING. but he's not natsuo. he's absolute zero, & he's not a doctor anymore. he runs after a dead man (whose corpse does he inhibit?).
