Post by lizity on Nov 11, 2012 19:56:19 GMT -5
Two weeks ago she’d been snug in the safety of her own home with her parents and her brother. She hadn’t had anything to worry about beyond studying for her upcoming tests in economics at UDC. Hre mother and brother had been alive and her father’s career couldn’t have been going better. That all changed the night the shadows in the house came alive. Her mother had tried to stop them but she still remembered the cold that overcame her as she was ripped into the darkness and into another world. She and her brother had been held until her mother had managed to break through those that were trying to keep her out. She’d gotten her free but Larry was still in that place and now her mother was dead from the injuries she’d sustained. She’d lived long enough to tell her exactly who and what she was. It’s not the way a girl wants to learn that she’s a princess.
Finding out she was possibly the last royal of the Land of Nightshades was as shocking as it was to learn that her abilities to manipulate the shadows had been jump started in the trip through the veil between words. She’d always had it but her mother had kept it controlled. Now she was free to flex the skill like an underused muscle. She was getting better and she had too if she ever wanted to get back to that place to find her brother again.
She hadn’t gone home after her mother had died but she had made sure that her body would be found. It was all over the news about the death of a senator’s wife and his two missing children. The fact that her mother’s body had been found hundreds of miles away was the only saving grace that kept him from being implemented. As much as she wanted to go back to her father she knew that she couldn’t. If any of those from her homeland were watching she put him at risk and she wasn’t ready to face those people yet. Not till she could face them and win and get Larry back without him getting killed in the process.
Her once blonde hair was died black now. She’d tried to change as much of herself as she could after she’d gone back home for a few minutes to take all the money in the house she could find. The money was going fast though. Hotels were expensive when you had to bribe the clerks to let you pay cash with no drivers license to show. Thankfully it was still warm in Star City and she’d already spent one night asleep in a train station when she couldn’t find a hotel.
The two ravens that had materialized out of the shadows drifted around overhead as she walked down the streets with her bag on her back, hugging her arms to her chest. She could see the world through their eyes as easily as her own which was why she knew that two men were following here. A pit opened in her stomach and panic started to crawl up her throat. It didn’t take more than half a block before she broke into a run. It took another half a block for the men to overtake her and shove her into the alley.
Scrambling back to her feet she stumbled away from them, clutching her bag tightly to her chest. It held the last of her money and the last of her things from home. If she lost that she was screwed… more than she already was. The men came at her slowly, enjoying the fear that crossed her eyes even as the shadow ravens flew overhead dipping low to ruffle the hair on the top of their heads. They weren’t afraid of shadows and she wished more than anything that she could have made them afrad.
~~
Pretty girl? Check. Morally questionable ruffians? Check Robbery in progress? Check. Looks like we have a full fledged damsel in distress situation here Roy thought to himself from the rooftop, whose lip he kneeled upon. Roy stood up, unslinging his bow and nocking an arrow to its string. He drew back, a critical eye watching them advance slowly on the girl as she backed up... That was until she hit the wall of the building behind her and found herself trapped between the concrete and the two malicious thugs.
His arrow sung as it shot from the string, cutting the air with a high pitched noise before striking one of the thugs int he back, sending him head over heals, his body shaking and jerking as electricity flower through it.
Roy dropped silently into the alley, sticking to the shadow of the building and the garbage piled beneath it.
"The fuck?!" the first thug yelled panicked, angry eyes turned towards the girl. "How'd you do that bitch?" he asked advancing menacingly upon her.
"Hey, you, yeah you, yeah gormless nitwit." Roy said from the shadows. "That was me and I'll thank you not to credit others with my handiwork." Roy stepped from the shadows, his body armor marked black and red where Oliver's was black and green. A deep hood was pulled over his head casting a dark shadow across his face. Only his jaw and mouth were visible, a cocksure smile spread across thin lips.
"You gonna stand there drooling all night, or are we gonna dance the last tango?" Roy crossed his arms casually over his chest, he was trained in several martial arts and judging from the large thugs body movements he was trained in hapless idiot style. The thug snarled and reached into his jacket.
way to bring a bow to the shoot out, Roy he told himself while diving to the side as shots rung out in the night, pounding into the wall behind where Roy had been standing a second before. he rolled on his side and came to his feet in a kneeling position drawing his boy again and let ting a series of arrows fly. All three found their mark and the thug was tossed against the wall. The air exploded from his longs as he hit it and he slid down the wall until he was sitting, slumped against it, unconscious next to the woman who was cowering in the corner.
Roy tucked the short bow back into the holster on his back and crossed the distance between them, holding out a hand to her, that he might help her back to her feet.
"You alright?" he asked as she took it, pulling her to her feet. "And what was that you did before? Looked like some kind of trick, I saw something similar once from that famous magician.." Roy snapped his fingers as he tried to recall the name. "Zatara, Zarana, something like that."
Roy dusted some loose debris off Eve's shoulder, the same confident grin on his face.
"So... Need someone to walk you home?"
~~
Back against a wall panic started to take hold on her and the shadows started to quiver. One of the men dropping to the floor getting tazored snapped her focus back and the shadows stilled before she lashed out with uncontrolled fear which was better for all of them. She stared wide eyed as the man came down, decked out in leather body armor and a bow. Not exactly the weapon she would have bought to a fight but it seemed to be serving him well enough.
When the thug pulled the gun she slid down the wall and crouched, pulling herself out of line of sight, closing her eyes and hopping. She couldn’t out of the alley since the two men were blocking it and she was most likely going to end up shot if she ran for it. She thought about trying to slip through the shadows again but her attempts where clumsy and she didn’t know where to go if she tried.
The man hit the wall beside her and she stared at him, her hands relaxing from around her head. Roy’s voice made her look up at him, blue eyes wide as she took his hand and stood, stepping away from the unconscious man. Still clinging to her bag she looked between both of them then back up at him.
“Trick?” She asked, quietly and confused. She answered by shaking her newly shortened hair. His grin didn’t exactly settle her fears but he wasn’t attacking her or trying to take her things away at the moment so she relaxed slightly.
“N-no.” She took a step away from him, toward the exit of the alley. She wasn’t exactly clean at the moment. Two days of grim on the streets plus this had left her feeling like the trash she’d been hiding behind. Letting out a heavy shy she looked back at him. “Know any hotels that don’t ask questions and take cash?”
~~
Roy have her a questioning look as she stumbled over her words. If anything, it was clear she was new tot he city, if not city life itself. Most women of Star City knew not to walk the darkened alleys at night. She needed a place to stay, that much was obvious from what she said. Roy scratched absently at his chin.
"Look, you're new here, that much is obvious and it would seem you need help beyond those two assholes" Roy said as he hiked a thumb over his shoulder at the unconscious thugs. There were siren's on the air, growing closer and closer, the gun shots had attracted someone's attention,... For once. She had seemed confused about his question, the trick, the magic, whatever you wanted to call it. It couldn't have been real, could it? He'd been hearing strange things that bordered on the supernatural and ever since teaming up with Oliver he'd seen a few things he wouldn't have believed before donning the hood.
"I know a place you can stay, clean, safe, and free. I know.. I know, it seems too good to be true, so it must be, right? Well, maybe usually, I'd agree with you, but this time, my dear, you've hit the jackpot. The question is, do you trust me?" He asked outhand. She seemed short on options really, so even if she didn't fully trust him it might be in her best interest to pretend she did.
"Look, I'm not out for anything, I know, you must think I'm crazy wandering around the city with a bow and a mask. if I were in your shoes, I'd say 'to hell with that maniac' even if he did save my life. But.. And I hope you don't take offence... But it doesn't look like you have much of a choice. It looks like you've been sleeping int he gutter for a few weeks" the last was a joke and he chuckled at it.
"You can say no and we'll part ways right here, right now, or you can let me take you somewhere where you can at the very least get a clean pair of clothes and a hot meal, 'sides" Roy said, pointing up, dark clouds were rolling overhead and deep rumble seemed to shake the bricks of the buildings flanking them. "I think it's going to rain."
~~
He was right about one thing, she was new to city life. Sure she’d lived in big cities all her life but she’d had chuffers driving her around, keeping her in the safe parts. She’d never had to live on her own or budget a limited supply of cash or worry about things like where she was going to sleep at night. She’d been spoiled her whole life.
Safe, clean and free really did seem too good to be true and it showed that she agreed with him when she looked up at him, wary. With everything that had happened over the last two weeks the flight half of her brain told her to run and not look back. The part of her that was tired to sleeping with one eye open and the lights on was telling her to take the hand he was offering again. She doubted she’d find to many kind people in the near future and he had just saved her. Though he could have been saving her for himself too.
Glancing up at the sky for a moment she closed her eyes. She could still feel the eyes of the two ravens nearby watching over head before the melted away in the darkness. She nodded to him, opening her eyes again to look at him.
“Please? I won’t stay long. I won’t be any more trouble.” More than she already had been at least she hopped. “Thank you Mister…”
~~
"Mister? My name is Roy, just Roy." He told her, before laughing "Shit, I forgot, I'm not supposed to reveal my identity. I'm really quite terrible at the secrecy side of this whole masked vigilante thing."
He couldn't quite bring himself to say hero. Roy had no delusions about what he was and why he did what he did. it wasn't for good and justice, although those were fine side effects of his real reason: the rush, adrenalin. It was like jumping out of airplane, except cheaper. people enjoyed toying with death, living on that fine edge...
"You won't be any bother" he said,waving his hands in dismissal of her concerns "Stay as long as you want. I'm hardly home, anyway. Just don't burn the place down, it's where I keep all my stuff." Roy joked as they started walking towards the end of the alley. Roy pulled his hood down and removed his black mask. There was a car waiting at the end of the alley, an elderly man dressed in a butler's uniform holding the backseat door open. Roy gestured for Eve to slide in first before following after her.
"Sir?" the butler questioned as he sldi behind the wheel "are we to have a guest?"
"Yeah, this, uh, what was your name again?" he asked. Gesturing to his Butler he said: "This is Ronald." to Eve.
~~
She arched a brow at him trying to decide if he was being serious or joking around. Shaking her head slightly she started to walk along side him. She knew she couldn’t stay long, or at least until he figured out who she was and called the cops on her to turn the missing/runaway/suspected dead, young woman over. She’d seen herself on the news through shop windows though the pictures they’d showed were of a long haired blonde girl perfectly made up into the image that made her father look good. The dirty girl with black hair standing next to him now looked hardly the ghost of that girl.
Giving a little smile to the stern faced butler she slid into the car, hopping she didn’t smell that bad considering they were about to be in a confined space.
“Eve.” She said without thinking, then nearly smacked her forehead. She was on the run, she should have come up with a fake name or something.
She stayed on the far side of the car as he got in, leaving plenty of space between them though she watched him carefully still. “So you do this often? Save random girls on the street then invite them home? You’re not going to lock me in your basement right?” Probably a little late to be asking but she did so with a little smile tugging the corner of her mouth.
Finding out she was possibly the last royal of the Land of Nightshades was as shocking as it was to learn that her abilities to manipulate the shadows had been jump started in the trip through the veil between words. She’d always had it but her mother had kept it controlled. Now she was free to flex the skill like an underused muscle. She was getting better and she had too if she ever wanted to get back to that place to find her brother again.
She hadn’t gone home after her mother had died but she had made sure that her body would be found. It was all over the news about the death of a senator’s wife and his two missing children. The fact that her mother’s body had been found hundreds of miles away was the only saving grace that kept him from being implemented. As much as she wanted to go back to her father she knew that she couldn’t. If any of those from her homeland were watching she put him at risk and she wasn’t ready to face those people yet. Not till she could face them and win and get Larry back without him getting killed in the process.
Her once blonde hair was died black now. She’d tried to change as much of herself as she could after she’d gone back home for a few minutes to take all the money in the house she could find. The money was going fast though. Hotels were expensive when you had to bribe the clerks to let you pay cash with no drivers license to show. Thankfully it was still warm in Star City and she’d already spent one night asleep in a train station when she couldn’t find a hotel.
The two ravens that had materialized out of the shadows drifted around overhead as she walked down the streets with her bag on her back, hugging her arms to her chest. She could see the world through their eyes as easily as her own which was why she knew that two men were following here. A pit opened in her stomach and panic started to crawl up her throat. It didn’t take more than half a block before she broke into a run. It took another half a block for the men to overtake her and shove her into the alley.
Scrambling back to her feet she stumbled away from them, clutching her bag tightly to her chest. It held the last of her money and the last of her things from home. If she lost that she was screwed… more than she already was. The men came at her slowly, enjoying the fear that crossed her eyes even as the shadow ravens flew overhead dipping low to ruffle the hair on the top of their heads. They weren’t afraid of shadows and she wished more than anything that she could have made them afrad.
~~
Pretty girl? Check. Morally questionable ruffians? Check Robbery in progress? Check. Looks like we have a full fledged damsel in distress situation here Roy thought to himself from the rooftop, whose lip he kneeled upon. Roy stood up, unslinging his bow and nocking an arrow to its string. He drew back, a critical eye watching them advance slowly on the girl as she backed up... That was until she hit the wall of the building behind her and found herself trapped between the concrete and the two malicious thugs.
His arrow sung as it shot from the string, cutting the air with a high pitched noise before striking one of the thugs int he back, sending him head over heals, his body shaking and jerking as electricity flower through it.
Roy dropped silently into the alley, sticking to the shadow of the building and the garbage piled beneath it.
"The fuck?!" the first thug yelled panicked, angry eyes turned towards the girl. "How'd you do that bitch?" he asked advancing menacingly upon her.
"Hey, you, yeah you, yeah gormless nitwit." Roy said from the shadows. "That was me and I'll thank you not to credit others with my handiwork." Roy stepped from the shadows, his body armor marked black and red where Oliver's was black and green. A deep hood was pulled over his head casting a dark shadow across his face. Only his jaw and mouth were visible, a cocksure smile spread across thin lips.
"You gonna stand there drooling all night, or are we gonna dance the last tango?" Roy crossed his arms casually over his chest, he was trained in several martial arts and judging from the large thugs body movements he was trained in hapless idiot style. The thug snarled and reached into his jacket.
way to bring a bow to the shoot out, Roy he told himself while diving to the side as shots rung out in the night, pounding into the wall behind where Roy had been standing a second before. he rolled on his side and came to his feet in a kneeling position drawing his boy again and let ting a series of arrows fly. All three found their mark and the thug was tossed against the wall. The air exploded from his longs as he hit it and he slid down the wall until he was sitting, slumped against it, unconscious next to the woman who was cowering in the corner.
Roy tucked the short bow back into the holster on his back and crossed the distance between them, holding out a hand to her, that he might help her back to her feet.
"You alright?" he asked as she took it, pulling her to her feet. "And what was that you did before? Looked like some kind of trick, I saw something similar once from that famous magician.." Roy snapped his fingers as he tried to recall the name. "Zatara, Zarana, something like that."
Roy dusted some loose debris off Eve's shoulder, the same confident grin on his face.
"So... Need someone to walk you home?"
~~
Back against a wall panic started to take hold on her and the shadows started to quiver. One of the men dropping to the floor getting tazored snapped her focus back and the shadows stilled before she lashed out with uncontrolled fear which was better for all of them. She stared wide eyed as the man came down, decked out in leather body armor and a bow. Not exactly the weapon she would have bought to a fight but it seemed to be serving him well enough.
When the thug pulled the gun she slid down the wall and crouched, pulling herself out of line of sight, closing her eyes and hopping. She couldn’t out of the alley since the two men were blocking it and she was most likely going to end up shot if she ran for it. She thought about trying to slip through the shadows again but her attempts where clumsy and she didn’t know where to go if she tried.
The man hit the wall beside her and she stared at him, her hands relaxing from around her head. Roy’s voice made her look up at him, blue eyes wide as she took his hand and stood, stepping away from the unconscious man. Still clinging to her bag she looked between both of them then back up at him.
“Trick?” She asked, quietly and confused. She answered by shaking her newly shortened hair. His grin didn’t exactly settle her fears but he wasn’t attacking her or trying to take her things away at the moment so she relaxed slightly.
“N-no.” She took a step away from him, toward the exit of the alley. She wasn’t exactly clean at the moment. Two days of grim on the streets plus this had left her feeling like the trash she’d been hiding behind. Letting out a heavy shy she looked back at him. “Know any hotels that don’t ask questions and take cash?”
~~
Roy have her a questioning look as she stumbled over her words. If anything, it was clear she was new tot he city, if not city life itself. Most women of Star City knew not to walk the darkened alleys at night. She needed a place to stay, that much was obvious from what she said. Roy scratched absently at his chin.
"Look, you're new here, that much is obvious and it would seem you need help beyond those two assholes" Roy said as he hiked a thumb over his shoulder at the unconscious thugs. There were siren's on the air, growing closer and closer, the gun shots had attracted someone's attention,... For once. She had seemed confused about his question, the trick, the magic, whatever you wanted to call it. It couldn't have been real, could it? He'd been hearing strange things that bordered on the supernatural and ever since teaming up with Oliver he'd seen a few things he wouldn't have believed before donning the hood.
"I know a place you can stay, clean, safe, and free. I know.. I know, it seems too good to be true, so it must be, right? Well, maybe usually, I'd agree with you, but this time, my dear, you've hit the jackpot. The question is, do you trust me?" He asked outhand. She seemed short on options really, so even if she didn't fully trust him it might be in her best interest to pretend she did.
"Look, I'm not out for anything, I know, you must think I'm crazy wandering around the city with a bow and a mask. if I were in your shoes, I'd say 'to hell with that maniac' even if he did save my life. But.. And I hope you don't take offence... But it doesn't look like you have much of a choice. It looks like you've been sleeping int he gutter for a few weeks" the last was a joke and he chuckled at it.
"You can say no and we'll part ways right here, right now, or you can let me take you somewhere where you can at the very least get a clean pair of clothes and a hot meal, 'sides" Roy said, pointing up, dark clouds were rolling overhead and deep rumble seemed to shake the bricks of the buildings flanking them. "I think it's going to rain."
~~
He was right about one thing, she was new to city life. Sure she’d lived in big cities all her life but she’d had chuffers driving her around, keeping her in the safe parts. She’d never had to live on her own or budget a limited supply of cash or worry about things like where she was going to sleep at night. She’d been spoiled her whole life.
Safe, clean and free really did seem too good to be true and it showed that she agreed with him when she looked up at him, wary. With everything that had happened over the last two weeks the flight half of her brain told her to run and not look back. The part of her that was tired to sleeping with one eye open and the lights on was telling her to take the hand he was offering again. She doubted she’d find to many kind people in the near future and he had just saved her. Though he could have been saving her for himself too.
Glancing up at the sky for a moment she closed her eyes. She could still feel the eyes of the two ravens nearby watching over head before the melted away in the darkness. She nodded to him, opening her eyes again to look at him.
“Please? I won’t stay long. I won’t be any more trouble.” More than she already had been at least she hopped. “Thank you Mister…”
~~
"Mister? My name is Roy, just Roy." He told her, before laughing "Shit, I forgot, I'm not supposed to reveal my identity. I'm really quite terrible at the secrecy side of this whole masked vigilante thing."
He couldn't quite bring himself to say hero. Roy had no delusions about what he was and why he did what he did. it wasn't for good and justice, although those were fine side effects of his real reason: the rush, adrenalin. It was like jumping out of airplane, except cheaper. people enjoyed toying with death, living on that fine edge...
"You won't be any bother" he said,waving his hands in dismissal of her concerns "Stay as long as you want. I'm hardly home, anyway. Just don't burn the place down, it's where I keep all my stuff." Roy joked as they started walking towards the end of the alley. Roy pulled his hood down and removed his black mask. There was a car waiting at the end of the alley, an elderly man dressed in a butler's uniform holding the backseat door open. Roy gestured for Eve to slide in first before following after her.
"Sir?" the butler questioned as he sldi behind the wheel "are we to have a guest?"
"Yeah, this, uh, what was your name again?" he asked. Gesturing to his Butler he said: "This is Ronald." to Eve.
~~
She arched a brow at him trying to decide if he was being serious or joking around. Shaking her head slightly she started to walk along side him. She knew she couldn’t stay long, or at least until he figured out who she was and called the cops on her to turn the missing/runaway/suspected dead, young woman over. She’d seen herself on the news through shop windows though the pictures they’d showed were of a long haired blonde girl perfectly made up into the image that made her father look good. The dirty girl with black hair standing next to him now looked hardly the ghost of that girl.
Giving a little smile to the stern faced butler she slid into the car, hopping she didn’t smell that bad considering they were about to be in a confined space.
“Eve.” She said without thinking, then nearly smacked her forehead. She was on the run, she should have come up with a fake name or something.
She stayed on the far side of the car as he got in, leaving plenty of space between them though she watched him carefully still. “So you do this often? Save random girls on the street then invite them home? You’re not going to lock me in your basement right?” Probably a little late to be asking but she did so with a little smile tugging the corner of her mouth.