#based a fair amount on Cheshire and Red Arrow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

turesti · 1 year

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Doing Something Unholy

Nessian assassin AU. Unedited rough draft & preview. Wrote this super quickly on my phone, but just wanted to at least get a preview of it out before I try writing more

Present

It’s been 457 days since they last saw her. The last time there was a confirmed sighting left 49 dead, 123 injured, and the person that they were detailed to protect spewing blood all over the carpet. The amount of money spent by whoever bought such a massacre made bile rise up Cassian’s throat. Even worse was remembering how easily she had slipped out of his fingers.

Lady Death

The Hellcat

For a while he and the team believed that they were separate people, apparently she answered to both names easily. He had punched a wall so hard it left a dent coming back from that disaster of a peace summit that almost started a second war between the two polarized countries,. He was so close. And yet she would always be just out of his reach.

Three Years Ago

The base of nightclub’s song reverberated in his ears even as he breathed in the cold air as he stood outside the building. His head was already somewhere else when Cassian first entered the club, now it was still nowhere to be found but with a migraine too. The deep breaths had lingered in the chill in front of him. Of all the times he had actually stuck to his resolution to quit smoking. He was supposed to be clearing his head tonight, blowing off steam from another failure. His failure. None of his friends would ever say that to him, but it was the truth. It was his lead. He lost the targets. They got away.

The anger had him clenching his jaw so hard, it worsened the already skull splitting ache in his temples. He needed a better distraction. He needed to be alone from the people he loved, but honestly couldn’t help him in this moment at all. Cassian did enjoy going out dancing with friends, his family, but tonight wasn’t working. It had been the five year anniversary of when Feyre’s sister had went off the radar, Cassian knew that they had a fraught relationship to begin with, but Feyre and Elain had taken it hard when the eldest Archeron just slipped out when night and never came back home. Apparently it’s what she was good at, disappearing without leaving a trace. Rhys did everything money could buy to find her, even though he cared more about a snail than the sister who caused Feyre’s sadness, he would find her for Feyre. Nothing ever came up. Not even Azriel could find a hint of a trail that could lead up to her. She was just gone. A ghost was all that was left of Nesta Archeron.

Tensions were fraught tonight. The main two reasons being the reminder of a missing sister and a failed operation. It seemed like going out and carrying on how they usually did was the bandaid that was supposed to ease everyone. Cassian just didn’t have it in him to pretend to be jovial. He was frustrated and angry at himself, faking a smile in strobe lights was the last thing he wanted to do. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to Az asking to rely the message not to wait up for him, he knew out of everyone Az would understand that he needed to find peace of mind on his own tonight, without being talked out of it. Pocketing his phone back into his jeans and hands inside the worn leather jacket that kept even the dampest colds out, he made his way down the street.

The dive bar where he was currently occupying a bar stool was not the most welcoming place to be. It was also not a huge deterrent either. A perfect in between nice enough and seedy to be comfortable in. The seats didn’t have some unknown sticky residue, but it wasn’t nearly nice enough for it to be a date night spot. There was a decent enough amount of people here. He felt like goldy locks, a bar that was just right. He was nursing a simple liquor drink, he doubt this place would even honor the request a mixed cocktail no matter how much you wanted a margarita, when he saw a flash of brilliant and cold blue.

If part of him was being honest, a large he wanted to ignore, Cassian in part couldn’t stop thinking about this morning because of how beautiful those cold eyes were. It coated his stomach in an oily feeling, but it was bare truth. The girl’s eyes were stunning. She had taken off the outer mask she normally wore, leaving a solid black half mask that covered just over her nose and conceal the rest of her face. The black mask just enhanced the brilliance of her eyes, making it difficult to look away. It was also one of the only identifiers he had of the assassin that was part the group that royally kicked their asses. He had seen her in various scuffles before, but never fully close enough for him. He wanted to take her down. Lady Death. The Hellcat. Two hours before the first bomb went off at the museum, Az was able to finally prove that Lady Death and The Hellcat were one and the same. An assassin and a thief. Whatever paid the exuberant bills he supposed. She wore a uniform at every sighting, kept virtually every noticeable feature of hers hidden, even layered masks for fucks sake. Her new nickname should have something involving ghost in it, since there was nothing tangible about her. No DNA traces, no finer details to describe her; all they had to reference her was her build, her signature masks, the hood that covered her hair, and her damn eyes. Those eyes were looking at him from across the other side of the bar now.

#based a fair amount on Cheshire and Red Arrow #not sure how long this will be #no real plan just vibes #nessian #Nesta Archeron #cassian #acosf #acotar

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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Green Arrow #19 Holds Major Rebirth Ramifications for Arsenal

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from “Green Arrow” #19 by Ben Percy, Eleonora Carlini and Mirka Andolfo

The latest issue of DC Comics’ “Green Arrow” marked the second installment of the story arc “The Return Of Roy Harper” and, as you may have guessed, the story has been about, well…the return of Roy Harper.

Surprise!

But really, as much as the arc is about the literal reintroduction of Roy into Ollie Queen’s life for the first time since Rebirth, it’s also doing a considerable amount of leg work in rebuilding some important narrative themes from the “Green Arrow” stories of the pre-Flashpoint universe — brick by self-destructive brick.

They’ve Got Issues

“The Return of Roy Harper” has been anything but a smooth sailing reunion for Green Arrow and Speedy. Instead, it’s laser focused on the rocky, enabling, and sometimes dangerous ways their lives had been entangled in the past, while simultaneously telling a story in the present about a transparent Dakota Access Pipeline analogue that fits right into the social justice focus of the “Green Arrow” book as a whole.

Roy, in a return to an origin more in keeping with his pre-Flashpoint self, reveals that he was raised on a Native American reservation before a mysterious incident resulted in the death of his adoptive father. His adoptive brother, an indigenous man named Bird, blames Roy for their father’s death and Roy — likely care of his substance abuse problems — is unable to refute the claims with any clarity. All he knows is that he was drunk, there was some sort of conflict, and then his adoptive father was dead with an arrow protruding from his chest. Naturally, Bird isn’t eager to forgive Roy, nor is he looking too intently for any other potential culprits.

This, unsurprisingly, drove Roy out of the reservation and into the streets of Seattle, where he lived as a vagrant until he connected with Ollie after pickpocketing him in a mall. Ollie, thanks to his perpetually bleeding heart, takes Roy in, giving him a place to stay and a hot meal (chili, of course.) It doesn’t take long (seriously, it takes, like, a few hours max) for Roy to deduce Ollie’s vigilante secret identity, and from there, they’re off to the races.

At this point the story continues to deviate from its New 52 incarnation by positing that Roy was more than just the Green Arrow’s “tech guy” and, in fact, actually made a career as his sidekick, Speedy — a point of some contention during the New 52, and a necessary update to make Roy’s on-panel history fall a bit more in line with the occasionally discussed version of his past presented in the Rebirth prelude “Titans Hunt,” and the currently ongoing “Titans.”

From there, however, the story begins to take a few more of its New 52 cues. Flashbacks in Issue #19 establish the rapid decline of Roy and Ollie’s partnership, as Roy’s addictive tendencies spiraled out of control. A secret house party in Ollie’s penthouse goes awry, and Roy gets caught. He’s drunk, belligerent, and has no short supply of property damage on his resume.

The ensuing fight between the boys lands Roy back on the street and, eventually, leads him to fall even further into his self destruction by becoming addicted to heroin.

Rock Bottom and Beyond

Roy’s struggles with addiction have been narrative staples of the “Green Arrow” world since back in 1971, after Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” arc of “Green Lantern/Green Arrow.” The story, as part of O’Neil and Adams’ ongoing effort to modernize Green Arrow and Green Lantern away from their Golden Age roots, was about Ollie coming to realize that his focus on society’s problems at large had allowed him to be completely blind to the problems unfolding right in front of him.

It’s a heavy handed parable, with an even heavier handed (now iconic) cover of Roy literally shooting up as Ollie bursts into the room proclaiming “My ward, Speedy, is a junkie!”

Wrapped up in a tight two issues, the arc provided a thematic pivot point that would go on to effect Roy’s place within the DCU at large for decades to come. From there, all bets were off as far as Roy and his vices were concerned. He became the poster child for consequences in superhero narratives; a perpetually re-told cautionary tale.

Roy and Connor have a heart to heart in the pre-Flashpoint DCU

Eventually, in the pre-“Flashpoint” continuity, these parables lead into a story that landed him a daughter via a torrid, morally dubious affair with a League of Assassins villain named Cheshire. With his daughter, his patchwork past, and his not-so-great decision making track record in tow, Roy’s existence in “Green Arrow” stories became rife with potential for any number of themes, ranging from the on-again-off-again bad blood between he and Ollie, to jilted relationship between himself and Ollie’s biological son, Connor Hawke; to the occasionally near-parental bond between he and Dinah Lance.

These sorts of stories would continue to weave in and out of “Green Arrow” proper, upping the personal stakes for Ollie’s involvement in the corners of the DCU outside of Star City, wherever Roy decided to show up, both before his death and after his resurrection.

In the post-“Flashpoint” world, Roy’s vices were “scaled back” to alcoholism. His time spent as a junkie, his affair with Cheshire, and his daughter, were removed — though a potential connection between Cheshire and Roy was half heartedly teased at several points during the “New 52” version of “Red Hood and the Outlaws.”

Despite the relative downgrade, the focus on Roy’s persistent ability to screw up was otherwise not all that changed. The duration of the “New 52” featured no shortage of stories about the explosively bad relationship between himself and Ollie, a strange turn with suicidal depression (that eventually landed him in Alcoholics Anonymous with Killer Croc as his sponsor. No, really.) And a few comedically bad get-rich-quick style business ventures.

What was largely missing was any real reaction or connection between these screw-up stories and Green Arrow. Save for a handful of flashbacks, one or two brief cameos, and maybe a dozen or so offhanded mentions, Roy and Ollie spent the full five years time of the New 52 scarcely having anything to do with one another, leaving Roy’s readily tapped penchant for making a mess mostly relegated to one or two note throwaways.

Returning to the Fold

With the reformation of Roy’s tumultuous past in conjunction with his time spent as Green Arrow’s sidekick, “The Return Of Roy Harper” is planting the seeds of a “rebirth” for the entire “Green Arrow” focused corner of the DCU. Though the story on the surface is directly in keeping with the creative team’s Rebirth mission statement of focusing on social justice zeitgeist plots, it’s also the first major attempt since the renewal of Ollie and Dinah’s romance in the “DC Universe: Rebirth” one shot from nearly a year ago to rebuild some of what the New 52 stripped away from the “Green Arrow” mythology.

Since it’s inception, this new run of “Green Arrow” has been consistently strong, arguably one of Rebirth’s most successful returns to a character’s base DNA. That said, these successes seem to have come at the cost of sequestering Ollie into his own pocket of the larger shared universe. Thus far, in it’s 19 issues, the only major character that’s been allowed to participate in other stories has been Black Canary (who, in fairness, has been pretty busy across “Birds of Prey” and the new “Justice League of America” titles.)

“The Return Of Roy Harper”, and the subsequent solidification of Roy’s ambiguous post “Rebirth” history, represents a major step in the triumphant return of “Green Arrow” to a status quo that will actually allow for participation and communication between it and other books. And, with the next arc’s title solicited as “The Rise of Star City,” it looks like this is a path that the “Green Arrow” team is very eager to continue down.

The post Green Arrow #19 Holds Major Rebirth Ramifications for Arsenal appeared first on CBR.

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