abraxaslogs | ( open — august catchall )

( matt's pretty sure that this whole situation has been the longest time he's been still in years. he knows that it's only natural, that he needs to figure out his place here but he can't do it for very long.

he wouldn't say he's nervous when he finally slips into that other skin, tying a rag around his eyes to keep his identity to himself. he hasn't been nervous about this sort of thing in a long time but he knows that he has to be careful. this isn't new york and it's not as easy to get lost in the crowd as it might be there.

but, as the shadows draw thick over cadens, he slips out and finds himself atop one of the roofs of the taller buildings, crouched low. he's not really sure what he's looking for but he knows he'll find something. no city this size is free of crime and people who'd commit it.

it doesn't take long.

he hears the scuffle a few blocks away and he knows that it's minor, not really something that would draw attention but it brings him down the side of the building and into the night. when he gets to the sight, it's an easy thing, to pull the would be mugger away from someone who'd just been walking home from some night out.

they skitter off and matt turns back to the mugger, watching him skitter away. he stalks towards him, one foot after another until the mugger gets up and just runs away, feet skidding loudly on the street.

and that's it, it's over and done and matt takes a slow breath before he tucks himself back into the darkness to find somewhere else to be. )

Edited 2022-08-08 18:54 (UTC)

[ it hadn't taken long for frank to sense the kind of things that happen in the shadows here, the kind of things that happen in any city when no one's looking, or at least pretending not to notice. it only takes a few nights before his hands are stained red, the anger raging into something violent, until the murderer he's found is left no longer breathing.

some people would say he enjoys it, and though it isn't quite ecstasy that he finds in the kill, there's certainly something satisfying. maybe it's relief, something that comes with knowing there's one less piece of scum out there in the world.

but the taste of one is enough to draw out the acknowledgement of stepping into that role again, one that clearly hadn't been left behind in new york.

tonight, a man runs breathlessly through the back streets, anxious and desperate to get away as frank marches not far behind, an iron mallet in his hand, the metal head already stained with dry blood. though he's slow and steady, he knows what he's doing, waiting for the man to trip over his own feet, rolling onto his back before trying to kick as his feet to crawl backwards.

w-wait! he shouts. but frank doesn't listen as he catches up, walking over him and lifting the mallet high, preparing to swing it down. ]

( frank's arrival presents is unexpected. ordinarily, matt might be glad for the familiarity of home but frank castle is something that he's not sure this place is prepared for.

which means matt has to be ready for him. he doesn't think frank's going to change his ways and he wouldn't expect that to happen. he and frank have a few things in common and being so set and so ingrained in how they operate is one of them.

which is why he knows he has to listen closely, pay attention and tonight, he can hear the heavy thump of frank's boots on the ground, following someone who probably fucked up but doesn't deserve what frank's going to give him.

matt doesn't hesitate, listening to the rasping breath of frank's victim and the way his cries echo off the walls. and then he's there, close enough to use the edge of the weapon in the air, catching in the moonlight.

and matt doesn't hesitate, crossing the distance quickly and inserting himself in front of the begging man, grabbing frank's arm to stop the trajectory of the mallet and then shoving him backwards. )

What is wrong with you?

( a question matt could ask himself, too. )

[ he should have known. from the moment he'd learned that matt murdock — that the devil of hell's kitchen — was in this place, that he'd become a real pain in the ass to deal with. eventually, they'd reached a point where his persistent opponent had chosen to let him be, to deal with his own shit as frank dealt with his, and back then, he'd have assumed that might've been the end of that.

but with murdock, he should know that stubbornness governs, and in a place like this where they've been forced to come in close distance to one another again, finding themselves in this predicament was always inevitable. ]

Fucking— [ frank grits against his teeth as his swinging arm is halted, though his grip of his mallet doesn't loosen and he digs his boots to the dirt to keep from stumbling back. ] Altar boy, we ain't doing this.

[ with his other arm, he goes in for a different kind of swing, this time with a tight fist that aims directly to matt's face. ]

( on the contrary, it looks like they're very much doing this. it takes both of hands to stop the swinging of the mallet so he's forced to take the punch, stumbling backwards when it connects. but it's only a minor setback before he's putting himself in frank's face again. )

Yes, we are. What are you doing? This isn't necessary, this isn't what needs to be done. You're letting your attention be diverted by — base desires.

( or maybe it's what makes matt do the things he does. it's a buzzing under the skin that can't be ignored and a pricking at the back of your neck that reminds you of what you have to do.

and matt understands that but he's not going to let it happen like this. )

That what you're going to do here? Just leave a trail of blood and bodies until you've got the entire population of Cadens at your door? I'm sure that would go well for you.

( he swipes at his nose, scrunching his face to make sure he hadn't broken anything. )

Can't go one day without a target on your back?

[ murdock always has a way of getting knocked down and getting back up again, something that frank always makes sure to prevent when it's the kind of people he's on a mission to take out. maybe he should have gone through with killing the devil all that time ago, but even someone like him has a code, and despite his annoying persistence, matt doesn't land as someone worth killing — no matter how infuriating he might often become. ]

You think I give a shit what kind of reputation I get?

[ if he did, maybe he wouldn't have ever become the punisher in the first place, a name he never asked for to begin with.

this time, when he brings his arm in, it's to snatch matt by the collar, gripping hard as he leans in. he might be blind, but he sure as hell is going to hear the snarling bite of his words. ]

You know what that piece of shit's been doing? Huh? You seen his wife lately? Bruises all over the left side of her face? Limping from a busted knee? What's your plan? Gonna slap him on the wrist with the United States judicial system? Stuff him in a cozy jail cell? Your kid's play doesn't mean shit in this city.

You don't know what means anything in this city, Frank. You've been here five minutes.

( matt let's himself be dragged in but as soon as he's there, he grabs frank's wrist and presses his thumb against a pressure point hard enough that he knows frank'll release him.

and once he is free, he takes a few steps back and shakes his head. )

People like him, they deserve punishment. They deserve it but it doesn't have to be at the end of a gun. You don't have to kill him. Because you start here, where does it end? You gonna kill everyone that looks at you wrong? This isn't New York, you don't know what they'll do to you when they catch you.

( this place was too small for it to be obvious after awhile who was having their fun having a killing spree across cadens. )

You could break his leg, break his arm, blind him but killing —

( he shakes his head, blowing out a breath. )

I'm not going to let you.

[ frank hates it when matt insists that he knows better than him. it doesn't matter that he's been in this place longer than he has, because he'd pulled the same shit back in new york, had even tried to act like he understood war despite never having been in it at all.

it's the kind of thing that only agitates him even further.

with the pressure on his wrist, he manages to lose his hold on him, and though he doesn't go after him again, he isn't letting up on maintaining his stance. ]

The hell do I give a shit of what they'll do?

[ as if anyone could make things worse for him than they already are. ]

You just wanna beat him, huh? You wanna do a little torture, break his body into pieces, but keep him alive? Is that what lets you sleep at night, Red? Makes you think you're better than me?

I don't think I'm better than you.

( but that's not right, is it? he does think he's better than frank, deep down. he thinks he's better than a lot of people but he thinks he's worse too. it's confusing and uncertain, doubt mixing with everything else about him.

but he shoves that aside because he doesn't want to deal with that right now. this isn't about him being better or worse. it's about the fact that they don't need to be killing people in this place. )

I haven't touched anyone since I got here. I haven't needed to. But, I'll do what I need to do. What do you think this is going to do? So, you kill him. It's not going to help the person you're trying to save from him. It's not going to stop whatever else is going on. You kill that person, another takes its place. So, you just gonna go and kill everyone?

[ Steve doesn't usually have much reason to venture out at night, but having just recently moved into a new place, he finds himself restless when he tries to sleep. While he'd never intended for his room at Mag's to be a permanent fixture (and doesn't really want anything here to be permanent), he had become used to it. The creaking of the floorboards outside his room as other Summoned got up in the night to do one thing or another, the more muffled noises from people staying up late and chatting in the tavern area downstairs — now he's in a new bed, with new sounds, and it's taking some getting used to.

Sometimes, the only thing to do with insomnia is walk it off, which is how Steve ends up strolling the cobbled streets of Cadens in the middle of the night. It's honestly more pleasant now than it ever is during the day, the heat mainly have melted away, and so Steve strays further from his new townhouse than he really planned on.

He hears the scuffle, his senses allowing him to pick up on it even from a few blocks away. It still takes time for him to follow the noise to its source, and it's on his way that a young man almost crashes into him, the whites of his eyes bright with fear. Steve gets little out of him beyond some stammering that someone had saved him. After making sure that the stranger is okay, Steve lets him go and then turns the corner, where he finds a man, his face partially obscured, while another figure retreats far into the distance. ]

I thought I might help, but it looks like you had things under control.

[ This stranger doesn't seem to be part of the military. No uniform, no nothing. The fact that his eyes are covered is strange, to say the least. ]

Edited 2022-08-13 00:58 (UTC)

( steve rogers. he knows the voice immediately but he'd clocked him coming closer, a fourth set of footsteps to go along with his own and the other two men. it had been easy to figure out that he wasn't someone out here to start more trouble but matt had been prepared anyway.

and now, with steve in front of him, he remains calm, steady. only one person's pinned him as the devil of hell's kitchen without matt revealing that fact but steve rogers is...steve rogers. matt knows he has to be careful. )

I did. ( it could have been worse, could have been violent but he'd gotten lucky. he knows it won't always be like that. )

He made a stupid mistake and decided not to make it worse. It's nice that some people can make decisions with their brains.

[ There is something about all this that feels vaguely familiar, but Steve doesn't yet have enough context clues to put it all together. If he wasn't an entire universe away from everything he knows, if the news about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen wasn't over five years old for him — but for now, he's addressing what's right in front of him.

The stranger gives the thug that he'd interrupted the benefit of the doubt, calling it a "stupid" mistake rather than a malicious act. Then again, they don't know what sort of situation might have led to the attempted mugging, if it had maybe been out of desperation. ]

Still, if you hadn't been there, something really ugly could have happened. [ Steve takes a few steps closer, clearly unafraid of the masked man. He studies the lower half of his face, and resists the urge to ask the obvious (yet). ] How often are you out here doing this?

[ Steve doesn't go on midnight walks all that often, but still, he's surprised he hasn't heard tell of this masked vigilante before. ]

Often enough.

( he doesn't think it's a complete lie. while he hasn't done anything of the sort here thus far, it's not his first time overall and it definitely won't be his last. he's still unsure of what type of place cadens is, what sort of people slither out of the darkness at night but he intends to find out.

he makes sure to keep his answers quick, short. anything more and he'll possibly give something away that he doesn't want to. )

It's a big city. I go where it's needed.

[ It all sounds familiar enough. It's not so different from what Peter had done as Spider-man before Tony picked him up (and after). Steve can even understand why it's important to hide one's identity when doing this kind of thing, as it's not like this stranger is operating within the law. Or so Steve would guess. He doesn't know how Cadens feels about vigilantes.

Maybe it's time to find out. If anyone would know...

Steve crosses his arms over his chest, then glances back over his shoulder toward the mouth of the alleyway. They appear to still be alone. Good.

As he turns back: ] And the local authorities are all right with that? Or do you try to avoid them?

[ He also doesn't yet know if this person is native to this place or a Summoned, nor does he think he'll get a concrete answer if he asks. ]

( if cadens is anything like where he came from, then they'll hate it. and the unfortunate thing about that is that he doesn't have foggy here who has connections all over the place to help him out. it'll take some finesse and some practice to make sure that he doesn't come into their focus. )

We can coexist.

( can they? that remained to be seen but it's what matt's going with. )

I have no issue with what they do and I'll stay out of there way.

( maybe. )

[ That answer is a copout, and that alone tells Steve that the masked man is intent on avoiding a run-in with the law (or the military) for as long as he can manage. Still, it's probably only a matter of time before someone notices. Steve already has, and he hadn't even been looking. ]

That doesn't mean they won't stay out of yours.

[ Steve crosses his arms, frowning to himself. This one incident will probably pass without much more notice, unless the criminal who just ran off starts flapping his mouth about it. But what about the next time? Or the time after that? ]

There are people where I'm from who do things like you. They mean well, they want to help, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get them in trouble.

[ It's likely that the stranger has already considered that risk, and decided it was worth it anyway. Steve can't say he disapproves, exactly. ]

You don't need to worry about that.

( matt's well versed in the trouble that it could get him into and he's ready for it. he knows that the authorities of this world are different than where he's from but the foundation remains the same.

the only thing that'll make this place more difficult is that he doesn't have a friend on the force. or he doesn't have foggy who has a friend on the force. it'll be something to navigate around. )

I can handle anyone that decides to make my business their business. It won't be an issue.

( because he won't let it get that far. )

All right.

[ The masked man seems pretty convinced that he has everything under control. In Steve's experience, anyone who's that confident is probably in for a rude awakening. Still, he doesn't immediately disapprove of what the guy is trying to do. He won't be going to the military to rat him out, and he's said his piece, for better or worse.

Which leaves another question, one that he hadn't wanted to lead with but that he's still curious about.

He takes one step closer and tilts his head, but there's no getting around it. The guy has a piece of cloth wrapped around his eyes. ]

You fight like that?

[ Steve's seen a lot in his day. But someone who literally fights blindfolded? This is new. ]

I do.

( and the explanation, it would just give too much away. there's not too many blind people in cadens and considering how he likes to joke around about it, mentioning it not would put an even bigger spotlight on him. )

It's see through.

( which it is not but it's the first thing that comes to mind and the easiest way to explain why he wears it but can still see. his identity is concealed and he doesn't have to worry about his eyes. )

[ See through? Steve raises a skeptical eyebrow, but he also doesn't know that he wants to go so far as to call the stranger a liar. Maybe it is some sort of special or enchanted fabric that allows himself to cover that part of his face without limiting his vision, but it sounds pretty farfetched to him.

He could call him on his bluff, ask to see the mask for himself to try it out, but he doubts that would be very well-received. ]

I guess that's one way to do it. [ He gives a small shrug, studying what he can see of the mysterious man's face before he relents and gestures to the alley's closest exit. ] Well, I don't mean to keep you from your work.

You're not.

( it doesn't take a set of eyes to know that he's being examined and he knows that it's much more plausible that his identity is figured out here rather than in new york. cadens was not a big place and it might be easy to identify him if he's not careful.

he'll have to figure out what he wants to do in that situation if it happens. )

Why are you out?

[ It's a fair question, given how quiet it is by now, and Steve gives a small shrug of his shoulders. ]

Couldn't sleep, so I figured a walk might help.

[ Maybe most people wouldn't consider it a good idea to walk around such a populated city in the middle of the night, but Steve isn't most people. It's hard for much to faze him after growing up in Brooklyn, and it's not like he needs to worry about ending up in danger. He can handle himself.

After a pause, he flashes a brief smile. ] You've at least made it interesting.

( matt almost smiles at that. almost.

but, it's a good enough answer that he does nod, looking away, listening for anything else that might be amiss while they talk. )

That happen a lot? People not sleeping?

( he knows it happens to him plenty, at least. maybe he'll be seeing steve out here more often than not. )

[ Steve shrugs, not sure he could comment on the general sleeping habits of the people of this city. He could speak to the Summoned, sure, and how those nightmares have probably left a lasting mark on them all, but he still doesn't know if this stranger is one of them.

Which means he isn't inclined to share too much. ]

I couldn't speak for anyone else. But seeing how you and I aren't the only ones out here in the dead of night, that probably says something.

[ It's a big city. Surely there are at least a few others who are struggling to sleep at night. ]

Anyway, I think this has been enough excitement for one night. [ He nods to the stranger and starts to move back toward the alley's exit. ] Might as well see how I do now.

Good luck.

( it was probably better not to remain too long, talking to someone who could recognize him if matt wasn't careful. so, he doesn't try and stop steve. he just nods and turns, disappearing back into the darkness of the night. )

( open — august catchall )

( cadens — late late night — ota )

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