UP IS DOWN AND BLACK IS WHITE.

𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐅𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖, confusion has gaze turn his way wondering if his words were meant to strike a blow against her.  His aim was deadly and precise.  A man like him knew how to pull the trigger on anything and hit its mark.  But clarification follows after.  She gives a low laugh, corners of lips lift into subtlest of smiles, but there was no pleasure behind it.

The woman in red, a bringer of death, nothing more than a former weapon of the Hand destined to take over the cult group one day.  Deadly as she was beautiful, cold and unforgiving …  a woman like her had no room to let words cut deep.  She’d endured worse things in this life and the last. 

Despite it all she felt the sharp sting of words.  Felt the penetrative gaze of terrified eyes that gazed upon her, still managing to cling to judgement of her.  How could a woman like her become the monster she was now?

〝   You and I cannot afford to let the words of others linger in our thoughts,   〞  The smile fades from her lips as she watches him clean the blood from his hands.  〝   Do you also think I’m some cold and heartless she-devil?   〞

    that’s when he casts a glance toward her, as if he senses a threat in her tone in the same way the air tingles before a lightning strikes. yes, of course, he’s is a force of nature, but he knows better than to think of himself as an immovable object in elektra’s wake. he’s not. you can dehumanize yourself as much as you want, but it doesn’t remove you from mortality, even if frank’s seems increasingly out of grasp and not for lack of trying. 

    “not what i meant.” 

   “ah.”   he’s fine at getting the job done when it needs to be done, and that’s what matters, scars be damned. they’d only join the patchwork of scar tissue mottled on his skin already, and he already knows he ain’t much of a sight to behold. still,  though,  he squints at the way his fingers come back red when he presses them against the palm of his other hand,  where he’d been slashed with a knife.  it stings at the pressure,  deep but not deep enough to need sutures.  evidently,  though,  it needs more attention.  

   first things first  ----  frank rinses his hand of blood in the industrial sink in what was once the kitchen area of the now abandoned boys and girls club. it’s been taken over as a temporary home base of sorts, until he needs to move again. lucky enough, there’s hot water in the place, too. 

you are ruined by fury.

you are angry. you are angry and everyone knows it. the fire within you will not die, cannot die. for if it dies, you wont have a reason to burn. your rage simmers close to your chest, it boils near something you wont touch. you are angry because it is easier than anything else. you are angry because you choose it over pain. you are ruined because you cannot feel anything but your own ire.

not to project onto frank, but - i think abt this re: frank a lot. he definitely has intrusive thoughts, whether it’s of his wife and kids, and he goes out of his way to avoid central park despite the fact that some of his happiest memories of his family are there. most of bruce springsteen’s music reminds him of maria so he can’t even listen to any of his music anymore, etc. it’s also pretty significant to me that in all iterations of frank’s character he’s destroyed his family’s home and didn’t take any sentimental belongings with him. while it can be argued it’s so people wouldn’t make a spectacle of the place, i do think it has to do with the fact that he can’t take the idea that it even exists anymore in the first place because how could his home exist at a standstill, as if they would come home at any minute, when the rest of the world has moved on? it’s his way of trying to move on. it’s also reflective of the fact that he cannot divorce the memories of maria and his children from the way they died and how they did it while he was unable to physically help them, save them, or even put himself in the line of fire (i haven’t combed through the details of how i imagine the day went---but i do imagine frank was shot in the head and was awake and aware while he watched maria and the kids die, at the very least, and gained enough strength to hold lisa’s body before becoming losing consciousness).