closed; dad smells like hangovers and 65 years of bitterness.

[gaits]

featuring: David, Frank, Jessica, and Akira. (others may be added as needed!)
what's happening?: After discovering that Frank has been Kilgraved, David makes a plan to keep him away from everyone by knocking him out and confining him. He ends up asking Akira to use his clinic as a makeshift holding cell for Frank while him and Jessica figure out how to proceed.
day: Night of the 23rd!
content warnings: nah

[ it takes david a few days to plan, secure a location and the necessary materials, and most importantly, figure out a way to actually keep frank there. it's not the best plan and definitely not foolproof -- he didn't want to involve any more people in this, but their choices are limited and time is running out.

by late evening, david has frank meet him at the clinic where he knocks him out and takes him further inside, tying him down to a cot with as much rope and blankets he could grab. he confiscates frank's device just in case, though he knows that if frank is determined to leave it may not hold him for very long. they'll have to figure out something else as soon as possible.

he sends a message to jessica with their location and at least has the sense to leave a couple of hot dogs and coffee for akira and company for all the trouble he's caused -- it's not much of a peace offering, but it's the best he's got. from there, there's nothing else for him to do except to wait and hope for the best. ]

Comments

[underachievement]

[ He's upset but he's not frenzied so they must have some time left. It makes sense that Frank would be tasked with the night shift seeing as he's already established unusual hours for himself. Part of Jess prods her with the possibility that he's been given to them as bait, that Frank intuited Micro's plan days ago and told Kilgrave, got a whole script every morning that he's supposed to deliver in this very instance, but fuck, what does it matter. ]

Keep it warm. [ Jess nods to the cot and his predicament thereon. Any overt threatening of Kilgrave could set him off and they don't need the bonds loosened before she straps in the toothpick-limbed asshole that truly deserves to be there. She swallows, taking in how he lies prone, clenched in fear, then averting her eyes as she tries to remember the silly French names of the streets she lives on in this hellhole. ]

[oorah]

[ stay here. stay here... act normal? he blinks at micro, confused. his brain feels like soup, lukewarm and chunky. there's a pressing anxiety that keeps threatening to bubble to the surface, but he tells himself not yet. not yet-- the sun has only just gone down. frank takes a deep breath, trying to ground himself in any way he can. when he closes his eyes, he sees his kids. they're waiting for him.

when he blinks his eyes back open, his expression takes on an eerie calm, and he fixes it confidently to jessica for the first time. plainly, he states: ] This is all your fault.

[gaits]

Christ. [ david scrubs a hand over his face, sucks in his lips and looks away from frank. they're not going to get anywhere with this, and the longer they drag this out the sooner frank will get it in his head to break free. ]

It's not her fault, Frank. [ it's no one's fault except kilgrave's, but he doesn't say it. he looks at jessica instead, shaking his head. ] I don't think you'll be able to get a lot out of this.

[ they wouldn't be able to beat it out of him too, not that david even wants to consider it. he still remembers rawlins at the safe house, frank barely breathing and lying in a pool of blood by the time they finally got to him. ]

[underachievement]

[ Yeah, yeah. She knows he's just quoting with the conviction of a cult member and his opinion of her has mattered on exactly zero occasions, besides. She rolls her eyes towards Micro, turning her back to Frank. ] You think?

[ Rhetorical. So, so obviously. Jess lowers her voice to a whisper that slices itself out of her mouth on sibilant rasps. ] Does this place have any guard dogs of its own? He'll get worse, the closer it is to check-in. [ And she can't stick around all night. Someone's got to cover his shift. (❁ ˵-‿-˵) ]

[oorah]

[ frank grits his teeth, snapping his wrists up into the ties once, his expression boiling over. he has to get out of here, she's going to kill kilgrave. he has to protect kilgrave. ]

I'll kill anyone who gets in his way. [ a raspy promise, slowly -- almost reluctantly turning the brunt of his wild gaze on david. he doesn't want to hurt david. david is his brother. but he will. maybe it's a warning in the end, but these ropes can't hold him for long once he starts really trying to get out. so what are they going to do? a part of him wants to stay put, because micro told him to. because somewhere even in his scrambled psyche he knows it's the right answer. but right now he just needs to get to kilgrave, he needs to know that he's alright. ]

[gaits]

[ it's not an empty threat and david doesn't take it as one. he's not afraid of dying either (maybe this is the universe telling him to finally cough it up; he faked his death twice and now they're coming to collect), but he's more concerned about frank leaving the clinic and going back to kilgrave's side. ]

Yeah. Another guy, Akechi, and one of the androids.

[ neither of them he's really close with at all, but he's hoping that akira would be able to get them to help if things get dicey. ]

We could probably hold him off when time's up. [ it sounds shaky even to him, but they don't have any other option. ] We'll manage.

[underachievement]

"Probably." [ She has more confidence in the rope he scrounged up than in Micro himself and that doesn't sound like it's going to hold, the way the grain scrapes when Frank tests it. Jess glances to the plywood on the table, Micro's laptop, the linoleum surface; she cranes her head to get a look at the metal legs. Stepping past him, she saddles him with the plank and with his computer, then puts the table onto its side and wrenches the frame off.

One set of table legs is yanked apart until she has three hollow steel rods, two straight and one curved with plastic caps at the ends, which should be enough for one regular if pissed off guy. She returns to Frank, relocates his trauma blankets to the floor and tosses the two straight rods onto the padded pile. Crouching beside the cot, she slips the curved bar between his tied wrist and the cot frame, then twists it around until the circle closes twice. Plucking the rod for his second backup restraint, she's careful in leaning over him to shackle his wrist, and anything he says or spits at her barely registers. ]

[oorah]

[ he's starting to get annoyed with them talking like he isn't in the room. restless, too. and when jessica starts to dismantle furniture, he knows he doesn't have enough time. and there's certainly no time to be subtle about trying to break away anymore, grunting with the effort as he breaks through enough of one tie with his wrist to slip free, not registering that he's bleeding even as she comes toward him with the table legs. ] You can't-- you can't do this, it'll just start all over again. [ his cries become more desperate and maybe it's just the brainwashing finally doing him in, or the blow to the head; any of it. whether he's on her side or kilgrave's doesn't matter, he just wants this to stop. he almost has his other wrist free when she catches his flailing arms and straps him down again. ] You can't stop this. Haven't you done enough damage?

[ his words are accusatory but soft, and he doesn't fight her in the end. she's so much stronger than he is and there's something transfixing about the way her slim fingers wrap around his meaty wrist not that he's conscious of thinking so. are you romantically interested in jessica? frank's eyes narrow, trying to shake the memory away. he'll be no help to his master now, and jess will hate him. great job, genius. ]

[gaits]

[ david's left holding his laptop and the plank while jessica rips the table apart, and the whole thing is a little surreal even as he watches it happening right in front of him. he swallows when he sees the blood on frank's wrist and the steel wrapped around it, remembering the gauze and the antiseptic he'd found in the cabinets along the wall. not that he'd be able to really use it, but it keeps his mind off of it until jessica is finished. ]

Are you gonna find him now? [ it's hushed, head turned away from frank. he may have gotten an arm free, but david doesn't think he'll be able to get away as quickly now. he wants to ask her what she'll need but he stops himself, knowing he'll end up getting in the way. ] Will you bring him here?

[underachievement]

[ So this time after she kills him she'll rip his tongue out. Sew his lips shut. What other very helpful suggestions did the network make to her when she first warned them? Locking him up. It's the least violent and the hardest to stomach. Who will feed him? Clean out his cell? Care for him? She'll light herself on fire first. (To which sitting down with Kilgrave for a civil chat will be a sufficient approximation.) ]

I'm gonna kill him first. [ Jess answers flatly, moving down the cot to lash one of Frank's legs down: the one closest to the wall so that if his roped leg breaks free, he can't kick it to splinters. She shouldn't have to explain that the only way to thwart Kevin's control is to put him down. She has yet to see him without his computer and he must have found her from the warning she posted to the network. That might be the only good it did. ]

[oorah]

[ and there it is. frank starts thrashing wildly, trying to get his legs free and with no regard for injury to himself or jessica. ] You can't do that. You can't do that!! [ his voice crackles from lack of use, but the panic behind it carries easily. he has to protect kilgrave from jessica. he has to kill jessica jones. ]

[gaits]

[ she doesn't have to explain and david doesn't bother to try to dissuade her either. he knows enough about kilgrave before even getting to reims and it's funny how that stuff out of all that other shit follows you even to another universe entirely. it's only because of that post she made earlier that he was able to get to this point, and he only hopes that they'll be able to wash their hands of this soon.

he spares frank a glance when he starts thrashing harder, setting down his laptop to help hold frank in place while jessica secures him. by yourself? he almost wants to ask, but he literally watched her rip apart a metal table with her bare hands, if anyone has a shot at killing him, it'd be her. ]

How did you become immune? [ he's assuming kilgrave can't control her like he can with frank, or she wouldn't be going after him herself. ]

[underachievement]

[ Unsurprisingly her candour has set Frank off. Once he's reasonable secured, the rest of his body straining like he needs an exorcism, she rounds to the top of the cot and kneels behind his head. Jess winds her arm around his neck, easily ushering him into a sleeper hold despite his destructive flailing. As he starts to quiet, she glances up at Micro and answers casually, ] Exposure. Lots of it.

[ They don't have time for that and who knows how it works between different physiologies and with his amped up transmission. Letting him have the run of the town as nature does or doesn't work its course is not an option. ]