🔥 @evilcontrol is being a total bitch about something
"Fire has always been a life source. People have been using it for thousands of years. Keep warm. Cook food." Shroud explained as he kept his hands behind his back. The robotic eyes of his mask studied Flambe with intrest as he continued." But what I don't get is..how a villain with the power to control such destructive abilities becomes a fucking hero."
THE STINK OF THIS SHITTY BAR is so thick it sticks to the back of Flambae's throat. villain joints are always like that, half shitter, half piss-warm grave, places where power sulks in corners and nobody asks why you're sitting alone, because everyone already knows the ugly fuckin' answer. he's hunched over the bar with a glass sweating under his palm, fire wound down so tight it's nothing more than a low hum in his bones instead of licking the air. he's uncharacteristically alone, no noise, no peacocking. just him and the drink and the echo of a name he can't stop turning over in his head.
Mecha Man. Robert. same fucking guy. same calm voice. same huge fuckin' hands. the realisation had hit like a crowbar to the teeth (a sensation he is intimately familiar with), and yeah --he'd tried to fuckin' torch him on the spot. reflex, rage snapping the leash clean off ... old wiring lighting up all at once, the familiar berserker instincts screaming burn first, think later. had it not been for Golem, there would be a pile of Robert-flavoured ash cooling on the patio at the taco joint and a whole different set of consequences to choke on. the look on his face still crawls under his skin.
so when @evilcontrol slides into his orbit, with his dead, robotic eyes drilling fuckin' holes into him, Flambae doesn't bother looking impressed. he almost laughs into his drink. (yeah, he thinks. fire also burns houses down and kills people in their sleep. versatile as fuck, depends who's holding the match.) he keeps his amber hued eyes on the glass, thumb nudging the ice, watching it melt and instantly crack. the bar thrums around him: predators circling, egos puffed up, loners pretending they're dangerous by choice. tension coils in his shoulders, fire stirring beneath his skin, nasty and impatient but contained. because that's the fucking point now, isn't it?
"--not like it's any of your fuckin' business, but I tried the villain thing already."
he says finally, jaw tightening; he knows exactly how it feels. and it felt good, --fuck, it felt amazing, unleashing it all, letting fury take the wheel, and the whole fuckin' world turn into kindling. the memory flashes hot and bright: the rush, the freedom, everything coming down to heat and motion and impact, and the illusion that nothing could touch him. but then he'd spiral, lose control, lose himself. blackouts, sirens. waking up to ash and smoke, surrounded by wreckage and people screaming, and the hollow after the high burns out.
being a hero had never been part of the plan, that's the part nobody gets. it's harder, and he fuckin' hates that it's true, but it is. it takes mastery, discipline, counting seconds instead of bodies. pulling punches when every instinct says don't. turns out that shit matters more than he ever wanted to admit. and he's got a team now, a real one. people who've got his back even when he's being a fuckin' dick. even when they piss him off, even when one of them turns out to be the absolute fuckin' loser bitch who humiliated him, took his fingers, and put him in cuffs. and still, the fucker changed his life. Flambae knows he could take most of the assholes in this bar without breaking a sweat. knows he could hold his own against Mecha Man. but he stays low on the leaderboard on purpose, sandbags his score just to stay with his team of stubborn, fucked-up losers, because winning alone stopped meaning anything a while ago.
Shroud's still there, waiting, measuring. the creepy ass fuck. the easy answer would be because I got bored, but Shroud's staring at him like he actually wants the truth. Flambae finally drains the glass, sets it down with a solid clack, lifts his head and gives him a flat look and a lazy shrug.
"nah." because the truth is louder in his head anyway: the high from doing good doesn't scream, it doesn't tear through him like wildfire. saving someone and staying in control hits deeper, like he finally aimed the fire instead of letting it aim him.
"--that shit is too fuckin' easy." Flambae admits. "you don't gotta think. don't gotta stop. and you just … let it rip." a smirk flickers, ugly and nostalgic; sometimes he misses the burn, the sheer fuckin' freedom of not giving a shit. "you don't gotta learn to control it." his mouth twists, and the fire glows in his eyes.
"--shit's weak as fuck."