Frank Castle was not made by God. (punishes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-09 19:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, dutch velders, frank castle (the punisher) |
Who: Dutch Velders and Frank Castle
What: Dutch meets Chuck the Dog
Where: The Park
When: June 16th, after work
Warnings: PG-ish for discussion of their less-than-family-friendly dreams.
Status: Complete when posted
Dutch arrived at the park first. She found herself a spot on a bench and sat down, carrying with her just one item. It was that silly looking rubber squeaky hamburger that she meant to give to Chuck. Every now and then she gave the thing a squeeze, letting out a whispy squeak. Boss, her parents’ dog, loved every toy he owned with a squeaker inside of it. Dutch knew every dog was different, but she thought maybe Chuck might like the toy, too.
Truthfully, Dutch was a little jealous of Frank. Her gifts from the Dreams had been great, of course, but she’d always wanted a dog of her own. Now with her job at Bass Industries keeping her busy, though, she wasn’t certain that it would be fair to the dog in question. Would she have enough time to take him or her on walks? Oh, she’d love him or her, of course. There was no question there at all. Dutch would let it shower her with puppy kisses and let it sleep in her bed with her when there was room. Time was the issue. She had just enough doubt to keep her from visiting the shelter.
She sighed, watching some kids play frisbee in a field as she waited for Frank and Chuck to show up.
As far as dream gifts go, Frank was pretty okay with getting the dog. He’d grown attached to it pretty quickly as far as dreams went. He liked dogs in general, and this one was about as sweet as they came. And, yeah, Frank liked showing him off, so meeting Dutch at the park wasn’t going to be a hardship.
With Chuck on his leash (Frank was in the process of teaching the dog how to go unleashed, but that would be a bit of work), the two made their way down. Frank caught sight of Dutch pretty quick. “Is that frisbee giving you anxiety or something? You’re looking a bit pensive.”
Dutch broke her gaze with the frisbee-playing kids and looked over to Frank, grinning. “You caught me in the middle of thinking about dogs.” She leaned back on the bench, relaxing a little and moving over slightly so that there was room for him to sit. “Ever since my parents adopted Boss I’ve been thinking of adopting one of my own and now you’ve got a super adorable four-legged companion… I can’t help but think I’m missing out on something.” Dutch shrugged her shoulders.
She leaned forward once more, first holding out her hand so that Chuck could sniff it and then, once he’d examined her good and proper with his nose, she scratched him behind his ear. “Good boy,” A big grin spread across her face. Dutch held out the hamburger toy and squeaked it a few times, trying to see if Chuck was interested at all in the thing.
“You get bread, I get a dog,” Frank said, sitting down in the vacant spot. He watched as Chuck happily sniffed at Dutch, then give a lick and bark of approval. For a mob dog, he was a pretty friendly pooch. Wanted to make all the friends. Frank snorted at the squeaking toy, rolling his eyes when Chuck tried to tug it away from Dutch’s hold.
“Shit, now he’s gonna keep me up all night with that thing.” Not that Frank sounded put out by it. If anything, he sounded amused, and the hint of a smirk on his lips seemed to cement that fact.
She let out an amused huff of breath. “That bread truck is pretty fantastic.” A tiny smile spread across her face as she played tug-of-war with Chuck, pulling as gently as she could with the toy. Eventually she just let him have the hamburger to squeak or chew on as he saw fit. It was enough to get a chuckle out of her. Chuck was more animated than her parents’ dog and therefore a little more fun. Boss was a subdued pup. Huge, but subdued.
“Sorry, I didn’t take the noise into consideration.” Dutch winced. “If you want I could try to tug it off of him again? Go buy him a, uhh…” She nodded off to a cart selling ice cream off in the distance. “Cone or something as a substitute gift.” There was a pause and she laughed again. “God, I’m like that annoying relative that spoils the hell out of the kid every time they visit.”
“Nah.” Frank shrugged, giving her and the dog an amused look. “It’s all right. He’s a good dog, listens to me. If I tell him to knock it off, he will. Huh?” He leaned over to give Chuck a ruffle behind his ears. To say Frank was fond of the animal was an understatement.
“Probably just about the best thing I can get from the dreams, huh? My dreams, anyway. Can’t imagine what sort of shit I could wake up with.” Well. The guns would be pretty good. “He was a mob dog. Shot up a meeting of them and find him in the back room. Felt bad, clipped him in the ear somehow. So I took him home and bandaged him up.”
Dutch couldn’t help but grin. It was sweet the bond Frank already had with his dog and she was glad that the two of them had found each other. They’d undoubtedly be good for one another. It was often that way with dogs and their owners. “Some tale you’ve got there. More action than most dog rescue stories.”
“I don’t know. Maybe one of these days I’ll stop by a shelter and find a four-legged soulmate of my own. Seems like it would be a nice thing to come home to.” She smiled down at Chuck then looked back up to Frank. “I’m sure he’ll make for a great friend.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty glad he showed up.” Frank huffed out a laugh. He meant it, though. His dreams weren’t all that great - no one’s were, sure, but having a distraction was nice. Something good to come from the dreams besides just death and chaos. He unhooked Chuck’s leash and tossed the little hamburger, watching the dog run for it.
“How’s things with you? Dreams and otherwise?”
Chuck ran off after the hamburger and Dutch grinned, watching him, then turned to Frank. “Oh, you know, same old. The Dreams have stopped for a bit which would be nice if they didn’t leave me hanging. Some kind of closure would have been preferred, but you know what they say about gift horses.” She smirked.
“As for the waking world, I’ve got nothing to complain about, really. The workplace is still rocky, but Bass always takes my side in disputes so I’m pretty much safe, there.” A sigh escaped her lips. “How about you? How’s life in the Dreams and in the waking world for you, Frank?”
“Life in the dreams is pretty much the same. Shooting people up. A lot of gangs in Hell’s Kitchen. A lot of people need to be put down.” Frank’s brow furrowed at the thought. He wouldn’t come out and say that doing it brought a sense of calm over his dream counterpart, that it was the only thing that made sense in a world that was too chaotic and too loud. Absently, his finger tapped at his thigh. “Waking world? Pretty much the same. Less mass murder.”
Dutch hesitated a moment. “Do you get a sense of purpose from it? That’s how it is for me with the vampires.” It was funny to her how she often felt more like she was meant to be fighting vampires than sitting behind a computer when she’d been doing the latter for most of her life and the former only in her sleep. “I probably sound crazy…” She sighed, looking off into the distance.
The question made Frank pause. It wasn’t like it was really his life, he shouldn’t have a reason to not want to talk about it, but he still felt an odd hesitance. He wasn’t really a sharing type either way. Dutch, though, was someone he knew he’d be fine saying whatever he wanted to. “Not purpose, no. I don’t know if it’ll ever feel that way. I do what I do because I made the choice to, so I do it. It’s not gonna make a difference in the long run but when that trigger gets pulled and I hear the shot fire, everything gets calm. The world stops being so loud for a few minutes and it makes sense again.” He shifted his eyes over to her. “You’re not crazy.”
Nodding, Dutch put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. She wasn’t sure if it was crossing a line or not, but she was always affectionate with her friends. If he didn’t like it she was sure he’d tell her to back off. She smiled a little at him. “If it brings you any kind of peace or calm at all, then do it. You might not be making a very big dent in the scheme of things, but you are doing good.” It made her a little sad, knowing what his dream self had been through. No one should go through all that shit, let alone a good person like Frank. Life never seemed to discriminate between good and bad people, though. Shit happened to everyone.