no good.

elektra natchios. waking up from a dirt nap.

[mattelektras]

i still wish we never left that room.

[heirapparenthale-blog]

“Don’t tell me the most rural place you’ve been in a long time was Central Park?” he teased. Magnolia was rural, not by his standards, but then again, his family home growing up had been in the middle of a preserve. For good reason, but nonetheless, he’d spent just as many hour under trees as roofs. “As for finding something you like - I guess that depends on what you like. If you’re still determined to find a nightclub, you might have one hell of a time.”

[e-lektra-blog]

Over the past few months, rural was most of what Elektra had seen, but she never stayed in any of those places for long. Magnolia was the one place she’d decided to relocate, permanently. She laughed easily, playing into his assumptions. “You might say that.” For Elektra, fun was something she made happen with money and murder. Although she was still on alert for the Hand mysteriously reappearing, running wasn’t what she wanted anymore if she could help it. And she wasn’t an assassin anymore. She gave him a smile. “I suppose I’ll have to find new forms of entertainment. What do you do for fun in this town?”

[heirapparenthale-blog]

“I couldn’t really say…” he said slowly, rubbing over his stubbled jaw with his hand. “She’s also been extraordinarily lucky at times, so who knows. Maybe things only happen for her in extremes.” He laughed a little at the woman’s comment about free parking. “It really is a privilege afforded to either the extremely rich or the people who don’t live in cities.” Somehow it felt like what she said about everything coming with a price went beyond just nickles and dimes in a meter. “Tell me about it.”

[e-lektra-blog]

“That seems to be the case. I’ve met a few people like that.” She actually couldn’t imagine someone who wasn’t like that. Everyone she knew was active, combative, daring -- sometimes those risks paid off beautifully and sometimes they were fatal. “I admit I’ve never lived in a suburb before, let alone somewhere this...remote. But free parking is a nice way to ease into it. I’ve been a bit worried I wouldn’t find anything to like here.” Bad things usually happened when she was bored -- she just had to constantly remind herself all she had at stake if she couldn’t suck it up and try to live as normally as she could.

[huntcrclary]

Clary sighed as she looked down at the drawing on her paper. “Well, this isn’t working.” She says, ripping the paper out of the notebook and crumbling it up.

[e-lektra-blog]

The paper ball hit Elektra’s foot as she walked past, nearly stepping on it. She bent down to grab the discarded paper and offered it back to the redhead sitting nearby. “Have you ever heard of a recycling bin? Or perhaps a trashcan?”

[heirapparenthale-blog]

“As far as I’m aware, yeah,” he said, “but I can’t promise there aren’t any. My girlfriend was mugged one time when we were out for dinner, and she was assaulted at the bar I work out, so do please be careful.” The way the woman carried herself, though, hinted at either a tremendous amount of financial and social power, or a certain amount of assurance that she would be find regardless of what - or who - came at her. “That’s true,” Derek agreed with an easy nod, “and the parking spots downtown aren’t even metered. It’s refreshing.”

[e-lektra-blog]

“Sounds to me like your girlfriend is prone to bad luck.” She had no idea whether that was an offensive sentiment or not, nor did she particularly care. Petty crime like that wasn’t anything to Elektra. If someone tried to mug her, she wouldn’t mean to kill them, but she still didn’t know whether she had any better control than she did before death. “Isn’t that just amazing? I can’t remember the last time I parked for free. Everything seems to come with a price these days.”

[ofdevils-blog]

She was real, alright. Very real. And for multiple reasons, that fact should not have come as such a heavy shock to him…but it did. Matt wasn’t someone who was prone to good fortune– and yeah, maybe a ( cold-blooded? ) killer sticking around wasn’t the most traditional example of ‘good fortune’. She was bad news, at least ninety-nine percent of the time. But he was better with her around, even when they weren’t on the same side. Even in the years of her absence, with so much time he had spent loathing her, resenting her… even then, the world remained a less cold place with Elektra in it.  What they had– the rivalry, the teamwork, the intimacy– whatever it was, it all defied logic, contradicted every value he’d ever stood by. Yet, in some convoluted, twisted way ( everything was always twisted, with her ) it worked. Or at least, he found himself wanting it to work. Matt didn’t allow himself to want too many things– so when he did, it said a great deal about his line of thinking. And in her final moments, in their final moments, he’d found himself wanting exactly that: one last fight alongside her, one more day, even an extra hour just to test what they were capable of. For the city, but mostly, for each other.  He could sense the fear that ran rampant in her veins at the sight of him. After all, his own concerns mirrored hers – there were endless questions to be addressed. Starting with the obvious; how had she escaped death? How had the two of them both managed to find their way here, and what did it mean for them? Not to mention what had transpired in each of their lives in the recent months…but they could discuss all of those things later. Right now, he didn’t want to be the man in the mask anymore. He wanted to be Matthew– ( her Matthew, though he would never admit that out-loud ). He wanted to calm her, to ease those worries that were stirring within her. To let her know they were okay.  His fingers fell from her face far too soon, clutching his walking stick to avoid fidgeting or else pulling her against his chest right there, out in the open. He was bursting with affection for her, and he would attempt to downplay it for now ( like he always did ) but Elektra knew him better than that. He could only hide from himself, and her, for so long. ❝ It would’ve been nice to know you were still breathing, but… I do understand. ❞ It was so Elektra of her to distance herself again after everything, but it wouldn’t be fair for him to give her a hard time about keeping secrets…he of all people knew what it was like to lay low in order to protect someone.  With Foggy still not speaking to him, and Karen ( rightfully ) disappointed in him, it was refreshing to run into someone who genuinely liked him and ( hopefully? ) wanted to be around him… So instead of lecturing her any further, he nodded in the direction of his apartment. ❝ I was going to make grilled cheese…something tells me dying has the tendency to magnify an appetite… ❞  ( not that hers wasn’t already ravenous enough ). ❝ Hungry? ❞  He wanted her to go with him, even if it was for the best that they continue to distance themselves. He didn’t care about that, not right now. He wanted her to go with him, to talk it all out, to celebrate the notion that she was still alive…to figure out what, if anything, came next.  

[e-lektra-blog]

He was right, before, when he’d said she had lied to him countless times. That was months ago, for her a lifetime ago, it felt. But even before she’d decided to remove herself from the equation, she had stopped lying to him. They both knew it, him better than her, sometimes. He’d gotten her to admit that their meeting wasn’t the chance of fate that she’d liked to pretend. After the turn their relationship had taken, she wanted so much for it to be that simple, maybe a little bit special in the way chance meetings are. The entire foundation of their relationship in college had been based on lies, and even then she’d understood his extra sensory abilities better than anyone. Except for Stick. He was the reason they’d met, of course, but she hated crediting him for that. Falling for Matt, staying with him -- that was all on her. She would never claim that she had saved his life in exchange for hers. He wouldn’t have been on the roof if it wasn’t for her. But that didn’t mean she regretted her choices. When she’d turned up unexpectedly in his home, seeing him again wasn’t supposed to stir up old feelings, at least not in her. Elektra knew he wouldn’t want to see her again, knew also that he’d give in eventually if she kept pushing. Did she push too hard? Yes, probably, she always did. She prided herself on not keeping anyone close, making it easier for her to remain on the front lines of the war against the Hand. That was before she knew how much she had at stake.

At least she’d gone out with a bang. It was exactly the kind of death she’d always wanted, in the rare moments where she allowed doubt to seep in. She was supposed to be the killer, not the killed. Vanquisher, not vanquished. It would be easy enough to say she’d died to keep the Black Sky away from the Hand, but that wasn’t entirely true. She wanted to keep a weapon of that magnitude away from Matt, away from the city he loved with ever fiber of his being. Her...he could get over her. He had done it before. It would only be worse for them both if she had been captured and used in ways neither of them wanted. If she was to live, she wanted to live as the person he thought she could be. Matt could teach even the worst of them to be good, she had seen it with her own eyes. She had felt it.

“Well, now you know.” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for dramatic effect. When she opened them again, she gave him a smile, one of the better ones she had managed in recent days. “Breathing. And how nice that the air here is so clean.” It wasn’t so much a jab at New York, because nobody ever uttered the phrase “just smell that clean New York City air.” He knew it just as well as she did that the corruption and crime in Hell’s Kitchen was just one of its many problems. But when Matt loved something, he tried to fix it. Like Hell’s Kitchen, Elektra had proven herself time and time again to be something he couldn’t fix.

Despite how confident she behaved, and in fact was, it was still a relief when he invited her in. He just as easily could have told her he wasn’t involved in problems of her kind anymore -- after all, why else was he here and not back home? Perhaps he’d given up the mantle, no more Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. No matter his reasoning, she was glad he was here. That they might have the chance to work on all of those promises he’d made her. She still wasn’t getting her hopes up. After all, emotions were heightened, adrenaline pumping, eminent death awaiting one or the pair of them. He had said it, it didn’t mean he meant it. “I actually have found myself craving the oddest things. Grilled cheese is one of them.” 

Elektra took him by the arm, something she normally wouldn’t do, and turned him back towards apartment unit. “I think we can handle the big bad stairs together.” While she was probably one of the only people who would find Matt Murdock tripping over a stair step amusing considering all she knew of his abilities, she wanted to help him keep up appearances, if nothing else.

[skywalkerlesbian-archive]

→ the vigilantes of hell’s kitchen

[kadyxanne-blog-deactivated20200]

Visit Original Link

Angus and Julia Stone - Draw Your Swords

[heirapparenthale-blog]

Derek huffed a bemused breath, shaking his head a little. “No brains, no knives… you’ve really got some New Yorker levels of standards here,” he said. “Next thing you know, you’ll be needing to make sure they’re doing things like breathing and not taking up all the good parking spots.” It felt so… strange to be discussing the topic with a stranger, rather than someone in the pack. It was liberating, really. 

[e-lektra-blog]

“There are less muggers here, I assume? That’s all a city girl can really ask for.” Anywhere in the whole wide world would be just fine with her as long as nobody who wanted to use her was there. She had picked Magnolia for a number of reasons, but primarily because she didn’t anticipate being found. Now that she had seen a number of familiar faces, she wasn’t sure how to justify staying. Perhaps because the wrong people hadn’t come to town yet. “That’s the beautiful thing about the apartment complexes here: assigned parking spots.”

[e-lektra-blog]

text | billy & elektra

billy: so I might need help lol

elektra: might? that's not very convincing.

[chewvbacca]

Warrior. Ninja. Assassin. 

[heirapparenthale-blog]

It took him by surprise, the way she responded to his reaction. She definitely was the kind of person who knew things she looked like she shouldn’t, and Derek wanted to find out exactly what those things were. She wasn’t a wolf, he could tell that much, but something was definitely off, especially if she wasn’t ‘fussy’ about dead people walking out and about after years in the ground. “It’s not so much scaring people away as it is a civic duty to inform them what they’re getting into. But it doesn’t seem like that’s much to you.”

[e-lektra-blog]

In a town so supposedly off, she would expect those who lived there to be used to it. If he was willing to accept the dead returning, then clearly he had some secrets of his own. She was beginning to believe that everyone in Magnolia was hiding something. Perhaps it wasn’t the best place to hide after all -- even though she was trying to keep a low profile (by her standards) it seemed only logical to assume she was here for abnormal reasons like the rest of them. But until she had a better plan, this would have to do. “As long as these undead townspeople aren’t attempting to throw knives at me, I’m sure we can get along.”

[ofdevils-blog]

❝ Elektra?… ❞ Her heartbeat was unmistakably fast. He’d recognize it, not to mention that voice, just about anywhere. There was a casualness in her tone as she made the statement– the composure, the kind of calmness in a hectic situation that only she had ever been capable of. Matt knew it instantly, and yet it was impossible– his senses were clearly failing him. ( They rarely did, but hallucinations were not outside the realm of possibility with all the hell he had endured lately ). Still, he had to take the bait. Even if there was only the slightest chance that she was real– he had to know. He had to. Right hand raising slowly, just enough so that his fingertips could graze the bottom of her chin. ❝ Never can stay away too long, can you? ❞

[e-lektra-blog]

After running into Karen and Frank, she really shouldn’t have been surprised to see Matt. And yet, surprised was the overarching feeling, though it was quickly pushed aside by relief, fear, but ultimately, happiness. Elektra’s smile widened, fighting back the concern that trouble had followed after him. She trusted him -- he was the only person in the world she trusted, actually. And it was usually Matt who ran headfirst into the danger. It didn’t find him unless he wanted it to. So maybe this odd little town could be a safe haven for them, if only temporarily. She wasn’t sure how this whole thing worked yet, this coming back to life thing. It wasn’t the fact of life itself that scared her. It was how she had managed to take another breath, strong enough even after death to fight off her revivers and make her escape. If she died, if she ran away before the Hand could use her as a weapon, was she still the Black Sky? The swelling in her chest at laying eyes on Matt again argued there was something good in her after all. “It seems there are people who want me around in this world -- flattering, though not surprising.” Her voice lost its confident timbre, softening as she let the fact that he was touching her face again wash over her. In some morbid way, she had liked that her last moments of life had been spent in his arms, but this was much, much better. “I hope this time you’ll believe that I’ve missed you, Matthew. And not dropping in on you unexpectedly was...difficult.” To say the least. “But you of all people will understand when I say it was only to make sure I didn’t endanger you again.” For once, she wasn’t dragging him into the fray. It wasn’t worth it. She wasn’t worth it.

[e-lektra-blog]

we’re drinking beer out of coffee mugs right now and this feels like one of the most college things i’ve done

sadly i’m doing it with my mother but

[heirapparenthale-blog]

Derek did his best to remain neutral and the woman’s neutrality, but his expression flickered confusion and concern when she seemed… completely unaffected by the news. Something told her she wasn’t just some New Yorker looking for a holiday to get away from some bad relationships or debt. Funny that she was running away from there when Derek had run to it. He raised his eyebrows when she informed him that the phenomenon wasn’t unusual. “As far as I know, no brains,” he said, laughing slightly despite the macabre nature of the topic.

[e-lektra-blog]

Now she smiled, in some way pleased by his lack of understanding in her acceptance of this new piece of information. True, perhaps it would have been smarter of her to act as if such things were unusual in her life, but it seemed he had encountered many odd things here. She would just be another for him to add to the list. “Then I’ll stay. I’m not too fussy.” Elektra still hadn’t spoken to many of the people in town, but he seemed to be warning her off rather than welcoming her to Magnolia. “Do you always try to scare the new residents away?”

[ofdevils-blog]

❝ Those stairs might take some getting used to… ❞

[e-lektra-blog]

“You might try asking for some assistance.”

[heirapparenthale-blog]

Derek gave the woman a questioning look. “Okay, but what if I told you that this town’s version of ‘strange’ meant people coming back from the dead?” He raised his brows. “I mean, people who have been dead for years.” He wasn’t trying to scare her off, by any means, but he felt that if someone thought they knew what ‘strange’ meant, they should really know what they were signing up for. “And that’s not hearsay. I’ve seen it firsthand. So if that’s not something you’re ready to handle, there’s lots of other places in the state that… y’know, don’t boast that particular feature.”

[e-lektra-blog]

Elektra kept her expression neutral, but she felt a sharp prick of surprise at the knowledge that she wasn’t a special case. Granted, if there were those here who had returned to life, they hadn’t done so through the same means she had experienced. “That particular brand of strange can be found in many more places than you think. But if you’re suggesting that there are undead here who survive off of brains or something similar, then perhaps I should go elsewhere.”