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| Walk Like a Man; 5/27-(Veil, Frank) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 27 2015, 10:14 PM (96 Views) | |
| Constrictor | Mar 19 2015, 10:03 PM Post #16 |
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There you go again, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn.
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Nah, enough of Veil changing the subject on him. He could do that too, and Frank knew where to lead it back to, on top of that. Little mouthy bit of pretty boy that was her best friend, that seemed like a sure bet. Sure, he might be capable of dressing himself like she’d said, but what the fuck else might he be doing now, right? Was she really trying to tell him that that kid couldn’t find himself some kind of trouble to get into if she’d left him alone this long? That tack didn’t really work, though, more was the pity. Only earned him another look, and a sigh to go with it, like she was getting tired of having to point things out to him. “He likes being in trouble. It's a Julian thing. He's good at it. Not his mom,” she declared, a fact that Frank met with silence, and a pair of raised eyebrows. No, she wasn’t. Had to think it might have helped the little brat if he had had someone like Veil as his mother, but… hell, who the hell was he to have an opinion about that topic? Didn’t matter the next second, anyway, because Veil switched the topic again - right out from under his feet this time - abruptly asking if she could… godammit. If she could could go with him? Because he ‘shouldn’t go by himself’. Goddamn fucking hell. Only one thing he could do, which was to shake his head, and deny that as flatly as he could make the gesture and the words come. No. Only way he should be doing this was by himself - he’d been a fucking idiot to think differently last night, talking with Rach. The thought of letting her, or Veil, or any of them come face to face with that part of him, the part he knew was the plain truth but they apparently wanted to pretend didn’t exist… no. No, he couldn’t let that happen, not while he had any kind of choice about it. He’d just… leave the note he’d written for Rach, and tell Veil the truth, such as it was. That what he was doing wouldn’t be any fucking better for an audience, and he’d… …get fucking trapped, the second he looked back and happened to catch the pair of green eyes that was halfway to boring into him. “I don't like that you're leaving," she told him, looking up at his face. Just like that, and because it was nearly the simplest fucking statement in the world, the metaphorical sucker punch it delivered was all the fucking worse. Frank tried, but he couldn’t keep holding her gaze with his eyes. He looked away, doing his best to save that by pointing his gaze at the door, like he was focused on that. “And I don't want you to and I don't think you should, and I don't care why or if you don't wanna tell me. I just think you're really wrong.” She did, did she? Who the hell knew? There was a whole goddamn weak piece of him that wanted her to be right about that, too, Frank knew. Something that wanted to let love and hope get the best of cold sense and a clear-eyed view of the world, and of himself, and just say that somehow it’d all be better to do the thing he wanted to do. Then there’d still be the rest of him, though. The part that remembered that everything he’d ever touched had turned to shit, and that he couldn’t do that to another set of people he actually cared about. The part that knew it was better to walk out now, before anyone’d get hurt that much. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first,” he muttered, hauling that part to the forefront of his mind again, he forced a rough, dissmissive shrug, and made himself look back at Veil for a second. “I still gotta do it, though.” No way around that. Mia came first now. The way she should have all along. And… …goddammit. He needed to just be leaving. Just walking out of here, not a backward glance, because it felt like that might be what it took to make sure Veil knew what she ought to know about him, and guys like him. Only here he was, still standing just inside the fucking doorway, not even moving. Looking back over at her, and her pretty, pretty dress again, and hesitating. “And I need you to do something for me,” Frank told her then, the words coming from fuck knew where, except it was probably someplace idiotic, that was going to get him in trouble. But… fuck, he couldn’t just leave. Much as he needed to do exactly that. “You go to that wedding,” he continued, serious as a fucking grave, “and you enjoy the hell out of yourself in that pretty dress. You’ve earned that, Darling.” She definitely didn’t deserve having her night spoiled by him and his bullshit, or by anything the fuck else that might come up. And no reason not to think that she couldn’t, or wouldn’t. “You haven’t ever tried to take a hit on the goddamned groom, so nothing wrong with you being there,” he added. Seemed like it might be a kinda important point. Frank did manage to get himself to turn away then, pointing out the doorway, and squaring his shoulders to make a move. Second later though, he found himself looking back over his shoulder. “Look after Melati,” he cautioned. “Make sure she doesn’t try to eat someone for looking at her wrong.” Mera might do that too, of course. But Melati would probably feel bad afterward, and… goddamn. Thinking about it wasn’t helping any of this. |
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| Veil | Mar 22 2015, 06:46 PM Post #17 |
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Floppy-Haired White Boy Whisperer
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Veil sigh. Again. Sighing of all the sighs as she looked at Frank and...uggh. No. All the no, too, because she did not like this. That he was leaving. Especially that he was leaving all by himself and propping up notes to what looked like Rachel (who wouldn't need notes if he'd actually talked to her about this, right?) and being all 'alone is how I have to do it'. Because alone? Sucked. A lot. He was Frank, he should know that. And she didn't want him to go and didn't think he should and, nope, didn't care why or if he wanted to tell her or not. He was wrong. The redhead thought he was really, really wrong about this...whatever it was that was making him take off. Wrong, wrong, wrong. They'd won and lived and stuff and this wasn't how it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be better, not all with the randomly leaving. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first,” Frank was sorta muttering and making her wonder if people kept telling him that why he hadn't started listening a little. He wasn't, though, he was just shrugging and looking back at her like somebody was making him do this, beside him. “I still gotta do it, though.” More skeptical face happened, but it wasn't as much as before. Since Veil was sure at this point it wasn't gonna do any good and he wasn't gonna listen (nobody ever really did, did they?) no matter what she said or did or how many ways she looked at him. He hadn't just ran out the door or whatever, so that was something she guessed. Maybe? “And I need you to do something for me,” Frank told her then, and she added some skeptical to the suspicious. Wasn't that what people told you when they were trying to distract you? “You go to that wedding,” he continued, serious as a fucking grave, “and you enjoy the hell out of yourself in that pretty dress. You’ve earned that, Darling.” Yeah, well, so had he but he wasn't going. “You haven’t ever tried to take a hit on the goddamned groom, so nothing wrong with you being there,” he added, and okay, now there was eyerolling and a pointed look for Frank. "You know we're taking 'Mera, right? And Blanche?" And a Juggernaut and the woman in too much white with the weird accent she was pretty sure used to be a bad guy. Kinda thinking they were ignoring the 'I might've tried to kill you once or twice' thing for this. Like a wedding related pardon or something. It was Captain America, he could probably do that. He turned toward the door and her shoulders kinda slumped a little. This really, really sucked a lot. Did he know how much this sucked? It always sucked, but it kinda especially sucked when you really didn't expect it. “Look after Melati,” he cautioned, looking back over his shoulder as she gave up doing anything but kinda frowning. Sad frowning. “Make sure she doesn’t try to eat someone for looking at her wrong.” And he, what? Thought this was gonna make that easier? Veil nodded, though. A little. Uncrossed her arms and took the few steps across the space to where he was standing. "She's not gonna like this either. Melati won't like it a lot," she reminded him ('cause he had to know that already) quietly, looking up at Frank. "But I'll watch out for her. It's what we're supposed to do anyway." Mouth turning down at the corners, the teenager just kinda hugged him then, with his weird normal clothes and his bag and his stupid cap that he shouldn't be wearing. 'Cause she didn't want him to leave without that no matter how much she didn't like the leaving part. "Who's gonna look after you?" she asked, doing that kinda quietly, too. He probably didn't think he needed anybody to, but he so did. |
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| Constrictor | Mar 25 2015, 12:08 AM Post #18 |
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There you go again, giving a fuck when it ain't your turn.
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Yeah, probably no reason to expect she’d take hearing that this was what he had to do better than she’d taken any of the other things he’d said. Didn’t believe him, probably. Frank wasn’t sure he blamed her for that. Hell, course he didn’t blame her. Who the hell would believe him right now? Fucked up, shuffling loser in crappy clothes, hightailing his way out of there with no reason offered. Deserved all the goddamn skeptical looks in the world, though probably it’d have been better for both of them right now if Veil had jumped past those and just rolled her eyes and left him for the fucked up no-hoper she might be learning he was. She didn’t, though, and he couldn’t even get the stones together to turn his back and walk out the door on her. Instead, he found himself talking. Fucking talking to her again. Telling - well, asking - her to do something for him. Go to that wedding. She’d earned it. She hadn’t unearned it by working a contract to kill the fucking groom, either. That kind of thing counted. Though apparently not to little redhaired teenage girls. Goddamn… what was she doing now? Rolling her eyes? Giving him another of those looks? She was way too young and bright-eyed to be trying the ex-wife stare on him, but… hell, that was what she’d fixed on him now, wasn’t it? “You know we're taking 'Mera, right? And Blanche?” Goddamn. Constrictor didn’t answer. A muscle in his jaw might have twitched, sure, but he didn’t offer up an answer. What the hell could he say to that, that’d explain any of it? She was fucking right, wasn’t she? Except that she wasn’t, because it was different, because it was all tangled up in Rach, and in the way that blonde flagpole had seen through him in a glance, and the way he wouldn’t get it right. Couldn’t get it right. Never had fucking got it right, any time he’d tried. Yeah. Yeah, he had to remember that. And the fact that of all the things he’d fucked up in his life, all that long list, there was one thing back nearer the start of it that he needed to try to fix before he did anything else. Mia, that was the thing. He couldn’t prance around, going to weddings, acting like he was someone that had some kind of right to be there, someone who people might think they wanted to be around, knowing that she was out there, and she might be in trouble. That time, with that in mind, he got as far as turning to head through the door before his goddamn weak shit that passed for a brain got in the way again to have him looking back over his shoulder, telling Veil to look out for Melati. At the wedding that was - he’d get in touch wit her afterward, Frank told himself, but didn’t more than quarter believe it even in his head - make sure she didn’t try to eat anyone. Any of that. Veil’d know by now what that was, she’d been there Thursday, even if it had been a better few days since. Melati, she was in as good a place as she’d been since he’d ever found her. She had friends, she had people who were letting her back in a lab - even encouraging her to do it, by the sound of whatever the hell she’d been barrelling on about Mr Fantastic this morning - she even seemed to have decided that blonde kid wasn’t a dino-nip toy to play with before she ate, though Frank still wasn’t sure he totally believed that. She had Rach, too. She’d be okay. She’d be okay. Veil appeared at his shoulder then, having covered the distance he didn’t even fucking know how, because he hadn’t been looking. He had the presence of mind to keep on not looking too, and was grateful as hell that he had, because he could feel the heat of another of those looks on the back of his neck. “She’s not gonna like this either. Melati won't like it a lot," she reminded him. Yeah, he knew. Still not turning around to get an eyeful of that look though, however much the hairs on his neck might be prickling. Goddamn. Didn’t change a thing, though, how much she wouldn’t like it. He’d get in touch with her. After he was clear, and in Boston. ”But I'll watch out for her. It's what we're supposed to do anyway.” See. Something so simple a goddamned fifteen year old could get it, but it was the exact fucking thing he’d been fucking up his entire life. Another reason why none of them’d need him; they already had this. “Yeah,” Frank agreed, feeling the gravel in his throat on the word. “Probably tr-.” Never finished that goddamned word though, because Veil attacked him- wait, no. That wasn’t that, that was a hug. The hell? It was quick though, and it was enough of a surprise that Frank didn’t even get a chance to clamp down on his goddamn idiot reactions before they’d responded by wrapping his arms back around her and crushing her and her pretty dress for a second, like that wouldn’t just make it all worse anyway. Goddamn tiny little thing. But she was tough. She’d already showed that. It’d be alright. It’d be better this way, even if it didn’t feel like it right now. “Who’s gonna look after you?" she asked, quietly, as Frank came back to his senses and gruffly and awkwardly disengaged from the hug, stepping away to give himself arms lenght, and then another half step of distance between them. Who was going to look after him? Hell, there was a question. It had an answer though, one that he took the time to meet her eyes for a second before answering. “Same person who always has, darling.” Everything that had come and gone, all his life, that was one thing he’d always been able to do. Look after himself, see it through to the next day. Even when he hadn’t much wanted to, that had still happened. That thought in his mind, Frank turned away once and for all, and set his eyes on the end of the corridor, and got on with walking away. Looking after himself, that just seemed to happen. Never had been able to say the same for people who thought they could depend on him, that was all. So… yeah. He’d do what he could. And right now, that was going to have to be walking the hell away. Simple as that. |
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| Veil | Mar 25 2015, 03:02 PM Post #19 |
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Floppy-Haired White Boy Whisperer
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Melati so wasn't gonna like this. He knew that, right? Frank kinda had to know that. Melati was not gonna like this a lot. Veil would watch out for her, though. Just like she knew Melati would look out for her or Rachel. Frank, too. 'Cause it was what they were supposed to do. Even if this all really, really sucked and she still didn't like it. At all. “Yeah,” Frank agreed, but she didn't care. Didn't care whatever other thing he was gonna say to try to make her think this was all okay. It wasn't. It wasn't okay at all. “Probably tr-.” but she wasn't listening. She was just hugging him, because she didn't want him to leave without that. Even if he was leaving without everything else when he shouldn't be. He kinda squished her back and she just hugged him a little tighter. Who was gonna look after him, huh? When he was going and not taking anybody with him and he really needed somebody to do that whether he thought he did or not. Everybody needed that and she so didn't understand why he thought he had to leave it when it was something he already had. The hugging was kinda over then and he moved back, and...sigh. All the sighs. All of them as he looked down at her, all stubborn and not listening still. “Same person who always has, darling.” Yeah, well, if he meant him, he was kinda failing at it. A lot. 'Cause this wasn't how you looked after yourself. Even she knew that and she was fifteen! He'd probably keep himself alive, but it wasn't the same thing. He should absolutely, totally know that, because he was Frank. Except he didn't. He just turned around and started out the door as the teenager stood there and watched him, mouth still turned down at the corners. "Maddie," she said, though she didn't know if he heard her or not. Maybe it didn't matter. "My name is Maddie." Not 'darling' or Veil, even if nobody else knew that. But, if he heard, he'd remember more or something. She didn't know. She just watched him leave and then thought maybe she should go find Melati. Except... Veil looked over at the note. The one Frank had left on the desk. For Rachel. Who'd probably be back soon and then she'd find it and that was gonna suck, because she was pretty sure now that Frank hadn't told her he was leaving already. Okay, so, she'd just wait, and the redhead went back and sat down on the bed. She'd wait for Rachel to get here and read whatever was in that note, since she didn't think that was something she needed to be by herself for. Then she'd find Melati. And they'd figure out what the heck to do about this. [cont'd for Veil probably at the wedding reception, when that gets going.] |
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3:32 AM Jul 11