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π‘π‘’π‘Žπ‘Ÿπ‘‘ π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘Ÿπ‘‘π‘¦ ([personal profile] terrorisms) wrote in [community profile] diademlogs2026-04-10 08:17 pm
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π‘Šβ„Žπ‘’π‘Ÿπ‘’ π‘›π‘œ π‘œπ‘›π‘’ π‘˜π‘›π‘œπ‘€π‘  π‘šπ‘¦ π‘›π‘Žπ‘šπ‘’ ( closed )

Who: Frank Castle, Nashua Whelan, Furiosa, Clint Barton, Matt Murdock, Amy Bendix
Where: Panorama, The Fringes
When: Last Week of April
What: A catch-all for one specific incident - RIP Nash.

Warnings: Player Character Death.



π‘ β„Žπ‘’ π‘ π‘Žπ‘–π‘‘
"𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 π‘”π‘œ π‘‘π‘œ π΅π‘œπ‘ π‘‘π‘œπ‘›, 𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 π‘ π‘‘π‘Žπ‘Ÿπ‘‘ π‘Ž 𝑛𝑒𝑀 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒
𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 π‘ π‘‘π‘Žπ‘Ÿπ‘‘ 𝑖𝑑 π‘œπ‘£π‘’π‘Ÿ, π‘€β„Žπ‘’π‘Ÿπ‘’ π‘›π‘œ π‘œπ‘›π‘’ π‘˜π‘›π‘œπ‘€π‘  π‘šπ‘¦ π‘›π‘Žπ‘šπ‘’
𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑒𝑑 π‘œπ‘’π‘‘ π‘œπ‘“ πΆπ‘Žπ‘™π‘–π‘“π‘œπ‘Ÿπ‘›π‘–π‘Ž, 𝐼'π‘š π‘‘π‘–π‘Ÿπ‘’π‘‘ π‘œπ‘“ π‘‘β„Žπ‘’ π‘€π‘’π‘Žπ‘‘β„Žπ‘’π‘Ÿ
𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑒𝑑 π‘Ž π‘™π‘œπ‘£π‘’π‘Ÿ π‘Žπ‘›π‘‘ 𝑓𝑙𝑦 'π‘’π‘š π‘œπ‘’π‘‘ π‘‘π‘œ π‘†π‘π‘Žπ‘–π‘›"
π‘‚β„Ž π‘¦π‘’π‘Žβ„Ž, π‘Žπ‘›π‘‘ 𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 π‘”π‘œ π‘‘π‘œ π΅π‘œπ‘ π‘‘π‘œπ‘›, 𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ π‘‘β„Žπ‘Žπ‘‘ 𝐼 π‘€π‘Žπ‘  π‘‘π‘–π‘Ÿπ‘’π‘‘
𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 π‘Ž 𝑛𝑒𝑀 π‘‘π‘œπ‘€π‘› π‘‘π‘œ π‘™π‘’π‘Žπ‘£π‘’ π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘  π‘Žπ‘™π‘™ π‘π‘’β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘‘
𝐼 π‘‘β„Žπ‘–π‘›π‘˜ 𝐼 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 π‘Ž π‘ π‘’π‘›π‘Ÿπ‘–π‘ π‘’, 𝐼'π‘š π‘‘π‘–π‘Ÿπ‘’π‘‘ π‘œπ‘“ π‘Ž 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑑
𝐼 β„Žπ‘’π‘Žπ‘Ÿ 𝑖𝑑'𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 π‘‘β„Žπ‘’ π‘ π‘’π‘šπ‘šπ‘’π‘Ÿ, π‘ π‘œπ‘šπ‘’ π‘ π‘›π‘œπ‘€ π‘€π‘œπ‘’π‘™π‘‘ 𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑒.
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sine_metu: ([matt] altar)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-11 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The shove makes Matt sway but it's not the throw from before. He can keep his feet planted and face Frank's anger.

The last of the bruises from that are almost healed. He's kind of relieved it's a normal shove and not the super powered kind. He really didn't want to find out if Frank could put him through a metal wall. ]

It's not your mess! [ Matt gets right in his face, shouts right back. Immovable object. Unstoppable force. ] You brought us in on this! You decided you needed help with it. That your one man army bullshit wasn't enough! Nothing's changed.

[ Frank's pissed and he's hurt and he's drowning in guilt but nothing has really changed about the situation except an innocent girl is dead. ]

So, no you don't get to bury yourself alive. You want to finish this? You come up with a fucking plan for us to finish this. Who's going to die next if your get your ass killed trying to avenger her?
terrorisms: (frank-punisher-102)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-11 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
( He knows the answer to that question: nobody. Nobody else is going to get killed, because they're not going to be able to track Frank back to anybody. They're not gonna be able to follow him home, see who he cares about, see who he loves. They're never gonna know, because from now on there's gonna be nobody.

But he doesn't need to explain that to Matt. He's not trying to reason with Matt.

In this moment, right here, right now, livid and full of pain and grief and miserable loneliness, all he wants to do is lash out and hurt Matt β€” really hurt him. Not throw a punch, no, the man can take a punch all god damn day. No, this is how he knows to hurt him: )

I'll do a better job avenging her than you did for Foggy, that's for damn sure.

( Matt never told him who, or how, or why. Only that he's dead, that somebody killed him. Frank's banking every assumption he's got on Matt doing what he always does: refusing to pull the trigger on whoever that was, and instead gently shepherding them into a comfy, cozy little jail cell. )
sine_metu: ([ba] grief)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-11 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Oh, that's a low blow. The mention of Foggy's name sends a spike of grief and rage through Matt. His jaw tightens. He barely swallows the rage down, his whole body tense as one of the tripwires outside. The right amount of force and he'll exploded. ]

He told you about that.

[ The other Matt. The one who came before. ]

Guess he didn't tell you I pushed Dex off the roof. [ Matt's smile is tight and brittle.

Maybe God made it so Matt didn't have to live with killing someone. But the knowledge is still there. Matt wanted Dex to die. He had hoped for it. Maybe even prayed. He's never wanted it as badly as he did that night listening to the last beats of Foggy's heart.

A part of him still wants it. Frank wouldn't have brought up the idea of revenge if he'd known Matt had meant to kill. ]
terrorisms: (frank-punisher-075)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-11 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
( Well, that disrupts his momentum a little. Catches him off guard. Matt can't see his expression, but maybe that pregnant pause of awkward silence answers the question for him.

No. He hadn't mentioned that part.

The name Dex gets filed away in the back of his mind, something to look into later. He's not gonna dig for details on that right now.

Instead, voice low, he'll out right ask the question. )

You kill him?

( Because that would reorient a few very significant things about his understanding of Matt. Things they've been contentious about from the very first moment. )
sine_metu: ([ba] over shoulder)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-11 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
No, he somehow survived the fall. [ That many stories, that many injuries, Matt doesn't know how he survived but he did. Maybe it was God saving him from himself. ] And no, I didn't try again. But I did try. I did want it.

[ The last time he unsettled Frank like this was in a basement hide out very similar to this. When he openly broke down over Foggy's death because it was still destroying him.

It still is. It hasn't stopped.

Frank's right. Matt failed Foggy in just about every way possible. Didn't stop him from getting shot. Couldn't save his life. Tried to kill the man that killed him which Foggy would never forgive him for.

The guilt, the self-loathing, and the shame Matt understands all of it. He knows how Frank feels and Frank knows it too. ]

This ends faster with help. It might even help them too.
terrorisms: (frank-punisher-102)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-11 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
( -he somehow survived the fall; Frank scoffs audibly, irreverently. Of course he did, and of course Murdock had no god damn follow-through. Of course he pussied out of pulling the trigger at the last second. Frank's world doesn't need to reorient itself around the concept of a Matt Murdock willing to take lives. It's disappointing, but almost comforting in its familiarity.

A week ago, he'd have been willing to fill Matt in on everything. A week ago, he'd wanted to. Wanted to let him get his bearings first, then get him all up to speed on everything, because at the end of the day Matt's ability to track people is invaluable.

A week ago he'd have laid it all out there patiently and thoroughly, and while they might've had another spat about how things were ultimately supposed to end for the cultists, at least they'd both be aligned on the fact that right now, the most important thing is finding them and stopping them before they got their hands on more innocent civilians.

A week ago, Frank was a reasonable person. More reasonable than Matt's ever seen him be, probably, because he had a partner who loved him, and a best friend who put up with him, and a stable job at a gun range, and a kid he was providing for, and Nash to watch over. It's as close to sane and productive and healthy as Frank's been in years.

But that shit burned to the ground a couple days ago, and he hasn't even begun to acknowledge the grief properly yet, let alone process it. Frank isn't a reasonable person right now.

He enunciates every word clearly and deliberately: )

I do not need your help.

( He turns his back on Matt, pacing away, putting up some distance β€” as far as he can go across the small width of the room, to post up against his desk again, arms folded over his chest. )

I don't need your sympathy, or your pity, or your friendship. I don't need your self-righteous bullshit, and I don't need you slowing me down. Hell, if it weren't for you, the other three assholes from the bar that night would already be taken care of. You're the reason they're still out there doing this shit to other people. The next time someone turns up dead because of them, you can own that.
sine_metu: ([ba] down)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-11 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I own that every time I let you go.

[ Should he? Probably not.

Frank's choices are not Matt's fault. Matt's not responsible for Frank's continued killing just because he can't convince him to stop and he hasn't put him in jail in awhile. Logically, he knows that.

Personally, he feels like it's his responsibility. That's why he stepped in between Frank and those assholes at the bar. He didn't want to own more of that. ]

The past me was willing to help you. I'm sure you two argued about the eventual end for these people but whatever it was, the details, he saw something that needed to end. I saw something that needed to end that night in the bar.

[ He looks away from Frank and then back to him, drawing himself as he faces the choice he's going to make. ]

Let me help you and the others find them... and then I'll get out of your way.

[ Matt isn't sure he can actually do that. Even now saying it he feels a sense of guilt eating at him. ]

The rest of you can take care of them. Because they need to be dealt with and there's no law here to do it.
terrorisms: (a-jbta88)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-11 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
( A thoughtful, contemplative quiet follows for a long moment.

It's the closest thing they're ever going to get to being aligned. It's the best compromise Matt could possibly offer him, short of finally deciding to spontaneously man up and start putting killers in the ground where they belong. Even despite his irrational temper β€” aided in absolutely no way whatsoever by faulty emotional regulation from a traumatic brain injury that time he took a bullet to the head β€” he can see the offer for what it is.

He can see the value in it. The strategic efficiency.

Matt picked up the scent of those other three that night at the bar. The sounds of their heartbeats, or whatever else he uses to track people.

Without him, it's more driving around the fringes blind, hoping the intel he's gotten is valid, riding on a whim and a prayer it actually leads him to anywhere useful.

God damn it.

He exhales a short, frustrated huff β€” and then drags his chair out, wearily dropping into it. Another long, petulant second spent scrubbing his face with his hand, and finally, he relents. )

There's a raider cult that's been operating out of the fringes. They send scouts to Diffusion Zones to wait out drifters and storm chasers, let them do all the looting and the scavenging, and then they jump 'em on the way out. Take their shit, take their cars, leave them for dead β€” if they're lucky. Play with them a while first if they're not.

( Shut up and listen, because he's only going through all this once. )

Me and Clint started tracking 'em first, until we realized how big their group was. They recruit by the dozen. Get new members high on the kool-aid. Brand them with a symbol. Make 'em loyal. We brought you and the other two in after that. Cap and his pal were supposed to be looking into the recruiters, seeing if they could infiltrate that way, while me and Clint kept their attention on us as their primary targets. Their leader moves around. Safehouse to safehouse, we can never keep up, can't get a lock on 'em. But... the other night, we managed to bag one of his right-hand men. Asshole sang like a bird. We got a name, we got a list of locations...

But I guess that was the final straw. They must've followed us back. Found us at the bar.

( And then...

Nash. To make a point. )
sine_metu: ([daredevil] roof)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-11 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Raider cult implies some sort of religious angle but zealotry probably does well out here. Unite to a common cause and a common belief. The need to survive can push people to do a lot of terrible things.

Matt listens, head tilted slightly in Frank's direction. He understands why his previous self wanted to be involved. The torture is enough for him to understand the why. How much was the previous Matt willing to give up of himself to stop this?

But there's no legal system for Matt to bring these people to for justice. What there is... it's corrupt and weak. Even if he hung this raider leader by his ankles outside whatever counted as a court house here with a list of his crimes there's a good chance he'd be cut down and apologized to.

Matt is basically powerless in this world because he refuses to kill. The Devil in him is deeply furious over it. ]

You and I can go through those locations. I can tell you how many people are there, what sort of weapons or traps they might have. I can eavesdrop. Tell you if the leader's there. Once we find him, I can track him if he moves.

[ Frank's own personal bloodhound. Matt's really not proud of that. ]

Then we make a plan.
terrorisms: (a-jbta304)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-11 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
( That's exactly the sticking point Matt had run into before β€” the lawlessness of this place. The sense of having his hands tied over the outcome. The knowledge of what the only real, permanent solution to it all could possibly be. Every conversation they had about it had an unsatisfying, unresolved ending, but the implied conclusion is the same one Matt comes to again now: that he doesn't have to be the one that does the killing, and he doesn't have to like it, but it does need to end. Even Captain America was willing to step up and make that call.

They are reluctantly, unbelievably, perhaps begrudgingly, on the same page.

And this suggestion of Matt's is exactly the kind of reason why Frank brought him into this in the first place. It's smart. It makes sense. It just works as a plan, and it works better than anything Frank and Clint have been doing so far β€” essentially, ramming their heads into these locations face-first half-blind hoping for the best, looking for a ghost, only to have them shuffle locations around as a direct response to the attack.

With Matt, they can do it smart. They can work down the list of locations without kicking the beehive.

It's gonna take time. It's gonna mean long hours of staking shit out, sitting on his hands while Matt acts like a police scanner. But it'll work. )

Fine. ( A concession is the best Matt's going to get from him right now. Not happiness, not enthusiasm, not gratitude. Just concession. ) We start tomorrow. We go one by one. If you're not here by eight, I'm leaving without you.
sine_metu: ([daredevil] unmasked)

[personal profile] sine_metu 2026-04-12 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ Matt can't kill but he makes an excellent stakeout partner. ]

Good, I'll let the others know.

[ If Frank thought Matt would let that particular bone go, he was mistaken. He's going to keep the others informed of what they're doing and how they're doing it. Frank won't.

While he's gotten him to move forward, to be smart about this fucking thing and not get himself killed like it's some sort of penance for what happened, Matt knows he hasn't pried Frank from his bunker and his isolation.

Frank still needs to lick his metaphorical wounds. Matt's not the one that can help heal those and he knows it. Whatever tentative understanding they have here it's not enough to repair what that girl's death broke.

That he will have to leave to Frank's friends. The best Matt can do for him is provide a plan and a way forward that will keep him alive for those friends to help. ]
terrorisms: (a-jbta45)

[personal profile] terrorisms 2026-04-12 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
( The only answer Matt receives is a short, annoyed grunt. He's right β€” Frank has absolutely no intention to tell anyone anything anymore. Whatever gumption he'd had about taking some initiative and getting this whole thing going, it died with Nash.

That's all he's likely to get out of Frank today.

Eight a.m. the next morning comes early, but it comes especially early for Matt, who has to get his ass all the way to the outskirts of the city before the clock strikes the hour. By the time he arrives, Frank's already in the driver's seat of his minivan, impatiently waiting with a thermos of coffee he's sipping on.

The only greeting Matt gets is a grumpy mutter of: )

About time.

( Once he's securely in the passenger's seat, they hit the road, heading deeper into the fringes. )
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