A WORLD YOU'VE GROWN

  If you dance with the devil then you haven’t got a clue. For you think you’ll change the ↣ { devil } but the { devil } changes you ↢   Francesca "Frankie" Rose ; 24 ; one of the Remaining

[epicwrites]

“I mean, you could be doin’ more than just staring at the wall,” Axel suggested, eyeing one of the nearby walls that was riddled with cracks, threatening to collapse at any moment. There was cleaning and clearing to be done, rebuilding. Not that Axel was doing much more than sitting nearby with his feet propped up, hoping the swelling in his ankle and knee would reduce sooner rather than later.  But then again, he wasn’t the one complaining.

[fighterfrankiearchive]

“You’re right, the possibilities are fuckin’ endless.” She drawled, letting the sword slip from her fingers and clatter to the ground. After a couple more seconds of pacing and cradling her left arm, she gave up and sat next to him, glancing at his leg. Frankie paid no attention to the collapsing wall or the fact that the whole building was caving in on them. Her mind was more preoccupied with the fact that despite everything, she was most likely going to die because a rock was going to fall on her. 

“Have to admit, though, I would rather take a bum shoulder than a fucked up leg.” Of course she had to be stuck with him on top of it all.

[fighterfrankiearchive]

“You know, you really never get to appreciate art until you have to fucking stare at it for a couple of fucking hours.” Frankie says as she twirls the ancient, probably priceless, sword around. Could you blame her? She was getting fucking restless.

[sergeantjhart]

“Ah,” He hummed faintly, watching as she stepped further forward and stood solidly in his way. His head tipped curiously to the side and considered Frankie as she went on, still brushing crumbs from his fingertips. To be fair he would have thought it to be differently as well - he had been insane with guilt and worry when they didn’t know what had happened to both Frankie and Liam shortly after this whole infection began. But maybe he never really thought anything bad would happen to her. Maybe he knew her well enough to know that she did know the right thing to do and how to take care of herself - even with some of her bad decisions of the past. 

“Well in that case…” Jesse murmured before stepping forward to wrap one arm around her waist, the other tugging behind her knees. In one fell sweep he pulled her off her feet, twisting her around to throw her easily over his shoulder. One arm remained hooked firmly around the back of her knees as he began carrying her down the hall, the hitch in his step just slightly more defined with the added weight. “Do you always have to make things more complicated?”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

It wasn’t often that men swept Frankie right off of her feet. Jesse, however, was the only one who did it and managed to do it consistently. Honestly, the young brunette should have known better than to think that she could get away with trying to intimidate and stand up to him.  It hadn’t worked when she was younger and it certainly didn’t seem to be working with her right now. In fact, it tended to get her in situations like this. “Jesse Michael Hart!”  She shrieked as she felt herself being thrown over his shoulder. The view that she got was nice, but it would have been nicer if she weren’t hanging upside down. “Put me down right fucking now before I kick your fucking ass!” An indignant huff escaped the tenacious girl as she crossed her arms as well as she could manage. 

“I’m not twelve anymore. You can’t do this to me. I am a fucking grown ass woman in case you didn’t look long enough to notice.” There was a pout set onto her features as she hung like a sack off flour off of his shoulder. She would count to ten and if he didn’t put her down then she would have to take drastic measures. If he was going to make a fool of her like this, then that meant there were no holds barred. Frankie didn’t care if she fought dirty of not. “You have exactly ten seconds to put me down or you’re going to regret this.”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

where there’s smoke... || fraxel

[epicwrites]

Axel couldn’t help but let his eyes roll in response to her attitude. This was just like her, wasn’t it? Stubborn, unyielding. He hadn’t desired to play this game, but he also hadn’t thought he’d have to fall to his knees and express his gratitude to see her alive for her to even give him a smile, either. If she wasn’t going to budge the slightest bit, neither would he. Yeah, he missed her, but he sure as hell didn’t miss this. 

“Oh,” Axel mumbled, the sting almost tangible in his voice. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. They were supposed to be excited, happy to see one another, hugging, kissing. She wasn’t supposed to be liquored up and aggressive, she wasn’t supposed to want him gone. 

But that appeared how she liked it and he didn’t have it in him to fight her. So he let her awkwardly clamber to her feet and stand before him, lifting a hand to brush strands of hair from her face, trail the backs of his fingers briefly down her cheek - a quick motion, so that she couldn’t stop him. “Fine, love,” he stated simply. “I’ll leave. Enjoy the bloody liquor as your company.” 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

Fucking God she hated the fact that the liquor did nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to stop the color rising to her cheeks because of a simple affectionate touch. She should have walked out the moment that he came into the room, she should have known that he would never admit that he missed her. That was partly the reason why she had liked him so much; he was just as hard headed and stubborn as she was. He had matched her step for step and while some might have thought that finding your other half was boring, she had found it exhilarating. 

She still did.

The moment he let his hand drop, she stopped him. It happened slowly, the buzz fading to the back of her mind, the tangle of her fingers with his. A slow breath in and a slow breath out steadied her as she looked up at him, her jaw setting. “Don’t fucking tell me what to do right now, McKinnon.” She slowly untangled her fingers from his as she practically forced the two words out of her mouth. “I’m sorry. Okay? I’m fucking sorry I’m being such a fucking asshole but excuse me for being angry that you just strolled right up in here when I was 100 fucking percent sure that you had probably died.” The words came out quietly, a low growl hidden behind each and every one.

“You have the fucking nerve to stroll in here casually as hell with that stupid fucking...fucking smolder on your stupid fucking face.”

[liamhart-blog]

It remained to be seen how long Frankie was planning on using him as a human donkey, but Liam wasn’t counting on her hopping down anytime soon. She was just lucky she was Frankie, or she would probably already have been dumped on the ground. And he still kind of wanted to, when she went and poked a giant hole in his very exciting theory of blowing up infected. She was right, of course. The sound was a problem that could not be ignored, though it was a shame. That was never something that was considered a problem in all the video games he’d played. “You’re no fun,” he complained without any real irritation, craning his neck so he could pull a face at her. “I guess you’re gonna rule out flamethrowers too, huh? Maybe I’ll just chuck you at the zombies, they’ll see your face and start running.” He flashed her a cheeky grin, far too amused by himself and already braced for some sort of retaliation. 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

Instead of letting him off easy and loosening her grip, she continued to cling to him like a monkey to a tree. Frankie was small and instead of being ashamed and angry of her short stature, she used it to her advantage and always tried to push the limits to see how much she could get away with. With Liam, she could get away with practically anyway and the same could be said for him. All he had to do was bat those eyelashes her way and she’d give in with little more than an irritable huff. Since she was a younger sibling she knew every trick in the book. But since Liam was like her younger sibling she would let him get away with nearly every trick in the book. In response to his complaints, she stuck her tongue out in an equally childish manner. “Hey! You little shit!” A flick on the back of his head punctuated her indignant outburst. “At least I can actually strike fear into the fuckin’ living and dead alike. Where as you would probably have them on runnin’ ‘cause you stink so fuckin’ much!”

[sergeantjhart]

H   A   R   T   R   O   S   E { @liam-hart @fighterfrankie @deluccaa }

                      Family don’t end with blood.

[sergeantjhart]

Thinking back on it Jesse had realized that while there had been many times when they were separated there had been far more times for her to be worried about him than vice versa. He had left home to go out on the war front where death was a distinct possibility. Jesse had seen things no man should ever have to see, had had bullets buried in flesh on more than one occasion and a near death experience that stole a limb and ended his career. Frankie had had a handful of reasons to worry about him over the years and up until now Jesse had had few to worry about her. Sure he’d been concerned when she’d left Chicago to pursue her dreams, but it wasn’t as if she was throwing herself into the middle of a raging battle or anything of that sort (not to say he didn’t worry, he just had less of a reason to do so). 

It wasn’t until this apocalypse occurred and she had managed to get separated from him that he actually felt a genuine fear for her life, that he actually thought that he might not see her again. Any time the thought had crossed his mind over the past few weeks he felt a pang in his chest, a physical ache that couldn’t be soothed without seeing her standing before him in one piece again. He knew Frankie was a fighter and could take care of herself (probably even better than he or Luca could care for themselves, all things considered), but that didn’t stop him from worrying about her. It would never stop him from worrying about her. 

“Differently?” Jesse mused around the Twinkie he was finishing, a slight grin on his face as he watched her attempt to remove the white creme from the tip of her nose, “Why would you think that?” He brushed off his hands on his pants before shaking his head and taking a step or two forward, pointing a finger down the hall. “Nah, no. I think we could go without a punishment. There’s important apocalypse things to be tended to, we don’t have time for that…” 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

She didn’t realize how much she had missed him. Talking to him, teasing him, making him smile and smiling in turn. She had missed all of it. Even the annoying fact that he always seemed to guide her toward the wiser direction. Whenever Luca had tried to lecture her and counsel her -- ha, she had laughed in his face so many times -- he would eventually just give up because he knew she wouldn’t listen. But the moment Jesse walked into the room to call her on her bullshit she would actually grow angry because he had been right. Each and every time he had been right, which is what had made her so angry. He had told her not to hang out with the bastard who broke her heart, he had told her to stay away that he would bring nothing but trouble into her life. So more often than not she tended to storm out of the room shouting at him for trying to take care of her, that she could take care of herself, that she didn’t need Luca and she most certain-fucking-ly did not need him. 

           But she was wrong. 

                         Frankie did need him. 

She had always needed him to watch out for her. He would always need her to watch out for him too because she knew him. Jesse tended to give pieces of himself away like Oprah doing a giveaway promo. That was probably why she had trusted him to take care of Luca when they went on tour together. Frankie hadn’t blamed him for the way Luca turned out. Frankie knew Luca better than he thought, she saw that certain things broke certain people. Luca’s ‘certain thing’ had been war. He had always been such a gentle soul, an actual rose while she seemed to be the thorns that protected it from fingers that broke the stem. The moment Luca picked up that bottle was the moment she saw his stem break, watched his petals start to fall off. There was a pause as Frankie realized how she was getting carried away in her own thoughts. Then she looked up and realized that Jesse had been talking and taken two steps forward, probably waiting for her to move aside. 

“Fuck off,” she said with a laugh as she braced her feet apart, effectively blocking his path. “My own thoughts are my own. But, you know, I might have thought that maybe you might have been so overcome with a fuckload of emotion that you swept me into your arms and promised to never let me go.” Damn it, she hated the fact that she had to tilt her head up to look at him. But she refused to move from the path to the hallway. “You aren’t leaving here till I’ve exacted my rightful vengeance.”

[taeil--park-blog]

Twinkie Queen? Frankly, it wasn’t the first time the South Korean heard someone self-proclaiming the title. While the sweet treat was such a classic adored by many people, not a lot liked it that much to roll their sleeves and shamelessly incorporate the brand with their personal moniker in others’ presence.

Truth was, back in the day, there had been this user on a mainstream MMORPG he’d used to play who went by the exact alias when they’d first met — although later on, he’d figured that the person had also known for several different names, depending on which character they’d logged on to at that time. The two had grown close and still kept in touch until the very last day their worlds had been connected by the internet.

Taeil wasn’t sure if his online buddy was a girl, however, for the way they’d spoken had always indicated masculinity. Now that he thought about it, though, the brunette herself didn’t sound too feminine in those few lines she had thrown his way up to this point — so who knew. The snack remained the highlight of their conversation anyway; additional questions would have to wait until he could recharge his blood glucose level.

“T-that’s fine with me,” the former high school student shrugged and nodded repeatedly. “O-or you can have it all, I don’t mind. I think I still have a tin o-of shredded beef jerky in my bag, I’ll survive.”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

T-that’s fine with me. Frankie rolled her eyes endearingly and took matters into her own hands. She unwrapped the delightful treat from its plastic and split it, then handed one piece to him. The guy was much too sweet for her own good and if she was a worse person than she would have taken full advantage of it. But instead she felt the need to protect it for a bit longer, not let the world ruin what gentleness he had. It was amusing because he was the exact opposite of her. Had she encountered him in any other circumstances she would undoubtedly had taught him to not be so easily fooled. But the apocalypse changed people and she wasn’t going to be an exception.

“You know, you may survive for now but keep this sort of thing up and you won’t be surviving for long.” It wasn’t quite a scolding, but it was more of a matter-of-fact tone that she took on. Just another lesson for him to learn. “Trust me buddy, you might wanna learn this now instead of the hard way.”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

where there’s smoke... || fraxel

[epicwrites]

Axel had never been a very touchy-feely, spill out all your emotions type of person. He preferred to keep that part of him private, locked up, out of sight of others and maintain an air of nonchalance at all other occasions. It was easier in a way; made it less likely that he would be the one who ended up hurt if he acted as if nothing hurt him to begin with. Though in the end it didn’t really work as well as it wanted it to. After all, it was all an act. 

“Don’t twist my words, sweetheart,” Axel scoffed, eyes rolling to her comments, “I came in here to see you and you’re the one that brushed me off. Don’t act like I have to bend to your will or something because I ain’t gunna fuckin’ do that.” 

He paused, eyes shifting to look her over, “I thought you were dead.” 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

“Don’t sweetheart me.” She practically growled, not a moment of hesitation between them. He wasn’t allowed to call her sweetheart, not when he didn’t mean it. How did she know he didn’t mean it? Well...she assumed he didn’t because they’d been apart for a long while. She turned away from him, a scowl set onto her features as she listened to him knowing that he was right but refusing to accept it. If he wanted to play this game and stick needles under her skin, then fine. She wasn’t going to turn her other cheek. That simply wasn’t her way of doing things. 

“You know, right now I wish I was dead.” Partly the alcohol and partly the truth. Frankie would rather be six feet under than experiencing this bitterness and pain. No, that was wrong. I don’t feel a damn thing. Not for him.  

There was a pause as she stared at him, her scowl growing deeper and deeper. She shouldn’t be feeling as angry as she did, but that was his fault. Her body started moving before she made the decision to leave. Frankie tottered onto her feet, swaying slightly and then glared at him. “If you won’t leave, I will.”

[liamhart-blog]

“Wha - ?” Maybe he should have seen it coming, but Liam was in no way prepared for Frankie to pounce on him for a second time, and he let out a surprised groan at the sudden weight on his back. Frankie was pretty small, but Liam was also considerably scrawny despite his height, and he stooped over slightly, opening his mouth to protest but cut off by her swat on his shoulder. “You’re such a pain,” he grumbled at her, but his arms looped around her legs all the same in quiet acceptance; he was never really bothered by Frankie, he just couldn’t tell her that. A snort of laughter met her conclusion that they not blow the place up, and as much as he wanted to refute that claim – she probably had a point. “Okay, fine, no cooking for us. Although…” he mused, suddenly intrigued, “Blowing up zombies doesn’t sound like a bad plan, does it?”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

His grumbles and complaints were kindly ignored by the rambunctious brunette. She acted very much oblivious to the fact that he was obviously struggling to carry her weight. Hell, she was letting him do weight training. He should be thanking her for helping him build up his stamina. But instead of reminding him to respect his elders and all that they do for him, she allowed him to hem and haw. She was quiet as he mulled over the idea of blowing up the infected, which was good in theory except for the fact that...”The noise would attract more infected. The only things that are really worth blowing up are bloaters but it’s only because we waste so much fucking ammunition trying to take them down.” A sigh escaped her as she remembered her multiple experiences with bloaters and how much alcohol had been wasted on the stupid fucking Molotov cocktails. “Trust me, blowing up zombies sounds cool but it is a lot messier than its worth.”

[hellcheerful]

I’ve got a potty mouth, absolutely. It doesn’t sound very ladylike. I call it the Thunder Bay accent.

[ravxnqueen]

i will shatter this world

                                 because i am a hurricane and i am not meant to be still.

[sergeantjhart]

“Is that news?” Jesse raised a brow in her direction, head shaking the slightest bit. If anything Jesse worried just as much as Luca about Frankie; he’d known her since they were children, grown up watching after her and Liam, watching as she grew and went on her own reckless paths. Frankie was his family and he always wanted what was best for her - and with that came worry.

Jesse always worried about her, unless she was standing beside him in perfectly good condition, like now. 

“Of course I was worried about you,” he paused, taking another bite of the Twinkie before swiping a bit of creme on his finger and dabbing it playfully on the tip of her nose, “now stop with the sentimental shtick.” 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

A mullish smile pressed onto her lips as her pointed the question at her. Frankie should have known better than to question the fact that he cared about her. Questioning that was like questioning whether or not they needed oxygen to survive. She probably would have been offended if anyone had asked her if she cared about him. Although it was hard for her to think about the times when she went past worried and had cried herself to sleep once or twice thinking about life without Luca and Jesse. Thinking about life without Luca. Thinking about life without Jesse...but that was the past. This was now and right now he was standing in front of her, eating a Twinkie just like the old days.

"I’m only being sentimental because I thought maybe might have die--” she stopped when realized that there was creme on her nose. “You know, I thought our whole reunion would have gone a lot more differently than this.” For a couple of seconds she tried to lick the creme off of it, but then gave up once she realized it was all in vain. 

“You know...I don’t think I can let you get away with this...I have to exact a punishment now. The only question is: should I have mercy on your fucked ass?”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

where there’s smoke... || fraxel

[epicwrites]

“Right now, yes.” His reply was simple despite her attempt to infuse her words with a seething bitterness. She was shooing him away, that much seemed clear now; but why? When he’d saw her through the doorway he had come in because he desired her company - very much so. But the reverse hardly seemed true; If anything it seemed she wanted him less than the gum smashed on the soul of her shoe right now.

So he would, of course, cover any sort of emotion with an exuding ego because it was easier that way, because if he ignored the emotions then he wouldn’t feel the hurt that could be associated with them — but he missed her and he wasn’t wiling to just get up and be brushed off quite that easily. 

“Well looks like ya got it anyway, Francesca Rose,” Axel answered simply, “long time no see and this is the ‘miss you’ I get? Ouch.” 

[fighterfrankiearchive]

All she could do was stare at him, wait for him to do something. His seemingly dismissive tone did nothing but frustrate her even more as she watched him, waited him to say those three words. I missed you. But they didn’t come so all she did was set her jaw and glance away from him, placing her head between her hands and rubbing at her temples as if she could rub the desire to hug him away. Hug him. Touch his face with her fingers. Check him over to make sure he really was alright. The heady buzz that was filling her tiny frame wasn’t helping in the least to make that desire go away. “Glad to know I mean nothing more than a fucking television to you.”

Frankie leaned against the wall, her mouth setting into a thin line as she refused to meet his eyes. “Not like you’ve given me much of a ‘I miss you’ either. So it seems like we’re pretty much equal in that fucking category.”

[darkkstr-blog]

Blue eyes moved to scan the young woman who had spoken, it wasn’t like he didn’t expect people to talk back to him. In all honesty he had partially been speaking to himself, that’s what you got when you lived most of your life alone and had nothing but yourself to talk to. Sure he had friends, or at least, people he spent time with but ever since his sister died back in Ireland Lance never took the chance to allow anyone in– to let himself get attached to any one person, it was dangerous. He’d already had everything taken from him, knowing his luck, things would end up going wrong for him anyways, that was always how it was. Call it the bad luck of the Irish. 

The world going to hell, or at least a greater version of hell than it already was, didn’t really surprise Lance. Perhaps he was still in shock, but he was one of those that hadn’t had anyone to lose, no person to see die in this horrid place. He probably should have given up, just let himself die away, after all he was just destined for disaster, it was in his blood. 

“Aye, ye ‘ave a point t’ere, I t’ink I will mark it off– ‘owever, I don’t need a badge, ‘avin’ yer congratulations s’all I really need.” He was being sarcastic, of course, he couldn’t help but reply with it in this situation. Most of the time he was able to hold his tongue and be far less of an ass but the apocalypse had done nothing but give him beautiful opportunities to be that little shit his mum always used to call him– at least, when he wasn’t protecting her from his father. “Who shat in yer cereal t’is mornin’?” It was a rhetorical question and Lance did not at all expect her to answer with anything less than a snarky whip of the tongue.

[fighterfrankiearchive]

She had hoped that her comment would be enough to make him roll his eyes and move away. Perhaps he would just shut up when confronted with her annoyance at his voiced thoughts. Confrontation seemed to always work with Frankie -- it hadn’t failed her yet so perhaps she was merely hitting a wall with this guy. Or maybe he was just as eager to get into it as she was. Putting down the sad excuse for a sandwich that she had in her hand, she slid the plate away from her and turned to him. Now he would have her undivided attention. Her hazel hues met his bright blue ones as the question passed from his lips, the rough lilt of his accent distracting her slightly. 

As a child, Frankie hadn’t been exposed to people that much different than herself. The only other accents she had heard ranged from Rich Prep Kid to Inner City Street Squatter. Axel being the exception, she didn’t often hear an accent that was so authentic that she had trouble understanding what the person was saying. Hell, he probably thought she sounded boring as fuck with her flat, blunt Chicago Street tone. Try as she might to change it, she gave up once she realized that the thing that was making her so crass sounding was the cuss words that spewed from her mouth like  water from Niagara Falls. But after awhile Frankie stopped giving a fuck and just embraced it. She thought it added character. 

“You were wanna know what’s got my panties in a twist, St. Patrick?” There was no hiding the challenge in her voice and she took no care to smother the cocky smirk on her lips. “I’ve been cooped up in this god damn fuckin’ shit hole for longer than I like. So, to be frank, I’m itching for a fight because I respond to situations like these with physical aggression.” She stared at him, then went back to eating her a sandwich. “If you really wanna fuck with me then by all means, continue to voice your completely useless thoughts.”

[taeil--park-blog]

“Really??? B-but I thought it also had my name on the other side!” the South Korean nervously glanced at the sweet treat in his hand, turning it around before showing the supporting evidence of his statement and gazing back into pools of hazel. “See?”

[fighterfrankiearchive]

“Yeah, but as the Twinkie Queen I think I have the authority to declare your claim to that treat null and void.” The poor guy looked so nervous about the prospect of confrontation that she couldn’t help but laugh a bit. While she may be something of a bully, Frankie wasn’t so bad as to make this poor kid shit his pants. “How about this?” Her bright hues turned to his own darker ones. “We compromise by splitting it in half.”

[sergeantjhart]

When was the last time Jesse had consumed a Twinkie? He had never been overly fond of the spongy yellow, creme filled cake, but Frankie always had - and there had been more than one time he’d stolen one at the Rose house. It was the principle of the matter more than anything. Just because it would annoy Frankie, usually. 

“Cheers,” He repeated as she handed him the second half of the cake, taking a bite and mulling over her question as he chewed. “Luca’s good. He was worried about you, shouldn’t’ve done that too him.” To them.

[fighterfrankiearchive]

Frankie watched him eat, a slight smile on her face as she reminisced. It was as if there were back home and talking casually, one of those rare moments when she was able to spend time with Jesse alone. When she was younger she had always treasured them -- the moments where it was just the two of them. The ever present smirk on her lips softened into a smile as she wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb, trying to clean it of any stray crumbs. 

“Huh,” she grunted indifferently. She knew that she had probably worried him -- but it probably wasn’t like the panic that she had felt. Alone. “Were you worried about me? I mean, Luca being worried isn’t anything new. You being worried about me though...that would be news to me.” That was Frankie: always going for the offense.