2014.01.17 - Targeted

Dinah Laurel Lance's apartment was especially messy, and she really didn't care. Her living room unintentionally looked almost like Dia de los Muertos funeral alter--photographs and a variety of flowers peppered the landscape like a display. She was anxious, upset, and twitchy. Objectively, it's probably not the best time to be pruning flowers, and Dinah rarely brought contents of the flower shop, The Sherwood Florist, up to the apartment. But today she just couldn't handle it--the shop was closed. She'd spent the morning full of a strange mix of tearfulness and rage, and working on these flowers was the only thing calming her nerves. Snip, snip, snip... leaves falling everywhere. Dozens of roses, tulips, nasturtiums had been plowed through. She was relieved that Roy called an hour ago--she was sick of reveling in her own wayward worries.
Thinking about his arrival, she took a moment to realize the condition of the room for the first time, seeing how crazy the scene looked. From the moment she woke up, she'd been haunted by the photographs she found stuffed in her mail slot last night. About thirty images lining the couch, the table, the chairs. Headshots of people that seemed to span the last twenty-five years. Perhaps only known to Dinah--and whatever mystery person sent this to her--these were all people that Dinah knew throughout her life. People she cared about. Across every single face on every single photo, someone had taken the time to draw cross-heirs in bright red marker. Some fucker had been studying her, profiling her, and was now sending her a message that people she knew were a potential target. The final photo in the stack was Oliver Queen, in his Green Arrow costume.
Dinah wasn't sure yet how to deal with this threat. She thought of contacting Barbara, or Bat-Man, was reflex. With so little information to work with at this point, she was weary of dragging others into this. She was thankful to hear Roy's knock at the door, and she moved towards the door, stopping for a second to check herself in the mirror. Yeah, it was obvious she'd been crying. Too late to fix that now. She opened the door and was surprised to see Kate with him. She smiled awkwardly. "Come on in," she said, gesturing inside. "I got some tea up, if you want."
It'd been a relatively long evening chasing egg-throwers. Roy was ready to collapse, and so was Kate. And yet when the phone call, extremely late at night, hits Roy's call, it was plain to see that something had -happened- to Dinah. That he was going to check on the Canary was never in question; more to his surprise, though, Kate Bishop had insisted on accompanying him. 
"Dinah," Roy greets, clad in civilian guise with the trucker hat safely tucked away due to threats of not being allowed ANYWHERE in Kate Bishop's presence with that thing on. "Um... you know Kate. We were checking in after... work. You ok?" So Roy was never -good- at that sort of touchy feely diplomacy. Which is what would usually earn him an elbow in the ribs from others. 
Yes, Kate knows Dinah. Not as well as she'd like, but she knows her. And well... After how Ollie made her 'part of the family' and all that... What can be said? What can be done? All it took was Roy even hinting that something may have been wrong with Dinah to get the usual purple clad archer to tag along. Even if now, she is out of costume and in civies (albeit expensive designer civies).
Of course as they can get a glance at the area around the female martial artist, not to mention the Canary herself, Ms. Bishop does bite her lip, if only for a moment, but she more or less remains silent. For now anyways.
Dinah forced another smile as she drifted into the kitchen, looking over the counter. She poured herself some tea, and the steam rose up around her for a moment. "You like my art project?" she said with dour-toned sarcastic quip. She slid the tea up and stepped back into the living room and looked at the two. "I'm glad to have company. I do hate closing the shop, but things've gotten 'real' pretty quick around here. And I'm exhausted,"--something Dinah almost never admitted.
Running his hand though his hair, combing down the 'hat hair' he had, the archer wrinkles his nose at the area. Walking over to look at the various pictures, Roy raises an eyebrow. 
"I really hope you're doing some profiling work, because ... I dunno, where did all this stuff come from?" The tone in Dinah's voice, however, causes Roy to look up. And if Kate didn't beat him to it, he'd go step over and hug Dinah. 
The fact that anyone in the cape and costume business is willing to even admit to feeling 'exhausted', at least in Kate's opinion, just shows how bad off they probably are. Hence why she can't help but frown slightly, then nod once, before her gaze flickers to Roy for a moment or two. After all, how he reacts to Dinah admitting to that is probably her best way to judge if this is as bad as it sounds.
On the other hand, the socialite does /NOT/ move over to hug Dinah. Not even if Roy does. Instead, she sort of adjusts a plastic shopping bag she's holding, reaching into it and pulling out a jumbo 'I didn't know they made them that big' half gallon sized container of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Ice Cream, which gets set in the open not far from her idol.
"At least you're doing this, which is better than the alternatives."
Dinah received the hug with her usual paradoxical appreciative tenseness, while nodding to Kate. She'd tried to hone the delicate balance of being 'soft' and 'tough' at the same time over the years. Then, in a twitch of realization, she saw that there wasn't any room for either Roy or Kate to sit down. She quickly addressed this by putting down her tea and gathering up various flowers and photographs and bunching them up into two piles on the table, and followed-up by gesturing towards the furniture for them to sit. After a quick pause, she finally addressed the crazy images, and looked at them both: "The profiling work was about me. These photos were in my mailbox last night," she began, "Someone's been working hard to freak me out." She thought for a moment, and the concluded, "I guess it fucking worked."
Nodding, Roy reaches for his archer's gloves, putting them on so that he can pick up things carefully to study them. After a moment of hmming, Roy looks up with a start. "Some of these I don't know, but there's some pictures of us in here. Are they..." He exchanges a look with Kate as she pushes the ice cream forward, before standing up. "Uh... I think I'll get some spoons for the ice cream. Be back in a minute." And give Kate a moment to do that, well... WOMAN to WOMAN thing... 
And here's where Roy gets a glare from Kate. "No. You stay. I'll get the spoons." Why's that? Because her glare indicates that this is a /FAMILY/ thing, and if anything, she's still a bit of an outsider here. All though as she hears what set this off, there's a long, hard glare out the window, before she tries to help move that stuff as well, /before she takes off to get those spoons.
Dinah glances over to an action-scene photograph with various of Ollie's archer crew, heads marked. She pointed to one photo next to her, "Sandy Denning, my best friend in grade school." She looked to her left, on one of the chairs, and gestures, "Franklin Rose, my soccer coach from high school. It's like someone could see in my mind--" she interrupted herself, knowing full well that she did walk in a world with telepathy, but brushed the thought off, "--everyone here matters to me. And most of them are so.. vulnerable." More words quivered on her lips, but she hesitated to go on.
That glare from Kate forces Roy to sit back down, looking ill-at-ease about it. Still, though, Dinah had been there for the darkest moments, and with a resigned nod to Kate, Roy settles in, looking through the different pictures, before he looks up towards the blonde martial artist. "I could get security for some people, but... I don't know about all of them. How many...?" He starts sorting through the photos...
"Forty-six people," Dinah quickly responds. She'd already counted the heads, shaking her own angrily. "I don't think this is Reginald Witney's work--" Dinah began, referring to the serial killer she'd spent most of yesterday tracking and apprehending, "It's not his M.O.--and he didn't know I was onto him. But I've had my fill on heartless monsters," she commented, looking away for a moment. Her eyes landed on the photograph with the archers again. "You guys are part of this, I think, but I don't think we can realistically guard so many people."
And as Kate starts to stand up, she glances at Roy, then at Dinah.
"If you can give us a list of who you think they're after, between Roy and I, we probably could get security taken care of for most of them." Then there's almost a smile at the Canary. "And if you can get our mutual spooky voice over a comlink friend to help, who knows how many more we could protect."
When it comes to feeling vulnerable, Kate knows what that feels like. And if she can help in this case, even if it means breaking one of her big rules... So be it. But with that said, she goes to get spoons.
And while Kate chickens out and tricked Roy into cleaning up the emotional mess that is Dinah - which by the way is TOTALLY understandable - that means they are still without spoons. And while Dinah is explaining her suspicions and concerns to Roy, and the red headed man is nodding his head absently while silently doing his male thing of...oO( Whatever happens, don't cry, please don't cry, no teaaaarrrrs, waaaaaa!!!! ) Alright, maybe Arrowette expanded that in her mind because it made her giggle in this intense situation, not that she really realizes what is truly going on yet. Nope, not yet!
Right now, Arrowette is hanging from a grapple line, and her hood having fallen back to reveal her long blonde hair and she is currently making faces through the window at none other than Roy Harper, with Dinah's back to her. Wait...is that a camel face?!
That Arrowette could read that expression as 'whatever you do please don't cry' from that distance wasn't terribly impressive - Roy had broadcast that face JUST about every time Kate, Mia, Lian, or Dinah were making with the -sad-. 
"Um... well, yeah, we could..." And Roy just happens to look away and towards the window in an attempt to be looking elsewhere when she started crying. And wait... an Arrowette. "Uh, Dinah... I think we're going to need to discuss tightening up security around here. Especially considering how easy it is for -someone- to be peeking into the windows doing her impression of a flying kissing fish," Roy says, nodding his head towards the shop's window. "I'm going to close down the shop." Grabbing proffered spoons from Kate as she stands in the doorway, pausing momentarily to make a face at her for just standing OUT of the way and leaving Roy to deal, Roy crosses the shop, putting his hands on his hips, before making a 'get in here' motion with a thumb, and then pulling the curtains down.
Dinah is at once struck with her vulnerability. It's a nervous place for her--she's usually one to make space for others to have it, but rarely accepts her own. It suddenly strikes her as pathetic, and her anger pushes the sadness out, metaphorically giving it a swift kick--if only for the moment. In a rushed, sudden movement, she starts cleaning up the living room, first by picking up the photos and stacking them. "Here's the envelope they came in," she says, revealing a bright red, full-size envelope, lacking postmark. She places the pile together, shifting her face away from Roy's to hide one final twinge of feeling. She hated that she was feeling so much about this--she needed to get cold, analytical. Detached. Whoever sent this was counting on it shaking her up, and she wouldn't let them have it. Not anymore. She moved to pick up all the flowers laying everywhere.
Arrowette acutally doesn't try to get into the window thankfully, and finishes dropping down to the early morning - it is early morning right? - street, and jerks her grapple line free so the arrow falls and she catches it. She then heads to the front door of the shop to be let in by Roy, and upstairs.
Poor Roy gets bounced by Dinah pretty quick, "Umm...I accidentally stepped into something I likely shouldn't have, haven't I?" Her expression through the black half cowl actually looks apologetic to Dinah. She wants to ask the woman if she's alright, give her a hug, or...something! She looks kinda manic, like her mom when she has a panic attack. Guilt? Arrowette isn't sure what Dinah is displaying, it's conflicting though intense. Still, idily she does start to wound her grapple line back up into the grapple arrow so it can be re-used later.
"Mmmm hmmm, Cissie," Roy replies as he distractedly studies the envelope. "This is Dinah Lance, by the way. Dinah, meet Arrowette, she's a superhero in training, and needs more pointers. I meant to bring her by to see if you could help, but it looks like she's been working on her sneaking skills." 
Dinah spent the next two minutes considering in her head the idea of closing the shop--it was a thought that'd popped into her head numerous times over the last few years. Despite it being a source of income, and a means of grounding Dinah back into 'the non-superhero world', it was always a funny balancing act, trying to run the shop and work with Barbara's generally unscheduled assignments. Most of her customers were loyal, as strangers in the neighborhood had already gotten used to, and given up on, the shop's inconsistent open hours. She'd taken away the 'STORE HOURS' sign long ago. Her eyebrow shot up reflexively as she caught sight of Cissie, now at the door. Gazing at her gear, she dragged her eyes to Roy's, looking curious.
"You have predictable taste in women, Roy," she mused, somehow looking both coy and guarded. She offered Cissie some tea.
Arrowette stiffens at the use of her name, "Don't...call me that." There is a paleness beneath her mask. She will interrogate Roy later with how he found out, but the fear of someone coming after her mom next...makes her blood run cold. Even if her mom is totally cool with that type of danger. Roy..but it doens't matter, "I'm not anything to him," Arrowette says. "I was just was tracking him to get information on new trick arrows." And Roy really should wear a mask, totally, or glasses! Glasses ALWAYS work in the comics!
Arrowette's blue eyes glance about, nervousness. "I'm just starting out, so my gear isn't too great, and Arsenal mentioned this place, so stopped by to check it out. I didn't mean to crash anything," she says much more quietly. There is a shyness and nervousness about Arrowette.
The warning from Arrowette is met with a wry half-grin as Roy suddenly realizes what he'd called her. "Sorry, kiddo..." he says, before arching an eyebrow at Dinah. "Predicta... oh no, no, Dinah, you got it wrong," Roy replies with a wave of his hands. "Her mom was Miss Arrowette, and... well, there's a long story. And weren't you supposed to get your own new trick arrows? You got the money, use it!" 
Pausing, Roy regards Cissie curiously, before he looks towards Dinah. "Sorry, Dinah. Just bad timing. Although..." 
Shuffling through the pictures, Roy double-checks. Nope, no Cissie in these pictures. Too new. Which meant... "You know, Dinah... if we need someone to help hunt down our stalker, I say, we set a stalker to catch a stalker." His eyes shifts towards Cissie, now speculative. 
Dinah responds with a surprising warmness towards Arrowette's openness, happy to have the distraction. With Roy's suggestion of her participation, she is both amused and worried, somehow. 
"Have a seat then," she says, gesturing to one of the chairs, ignoring the fact that all the furniture is covered in leaves and flower cuttings. She sits down herself, and looks up with a friendly look, "People like yourself are welcome here, If you need a place to be safe." She stops for a second, wondering if she sounds like a cultist, quickly laughing off the thought. "So, what kind of work've you been doing, exactly? Has Roy really explained to you what you're up against?"--after saying this, Dinah thought these words ominous, despite their truth. In early her own 'hero career', and witnessing her mother's life, that she became of how powerful some dark forces of this world really were. It's part of why she'd spent what seemed like infitite hours training--why she'd become the hand-to-hand fighter she was.
"I MAKE my own trick arrows. Can't buy supplies to make things I don't know how to make," Arrowette comes back at Roy. "Do you always do such things half assed?" Look who is talking! Yes, she's about to start an argument with Roy, that's what girls do with him! Or...something else that make Cissie turn beat red. "And I'm not a stalker!"
But then Arrowette quiets real fast. And when she moves, it's toward the photos that caught her attention, the ones piled up with bulls-eyes on them. She starts going through the rapidly, and if she could pale more, she would. "These....," and her head whips toward Dinah. "Are you being stalked?" It's a serious question, and there is something heavy held behind it. Arrowette's blue eyes are a mixture of fear and compassion...understanding. Then more quietly, "It doesn't matter if I know what I'm up against. If I do nothing, people will get hurt, people will die. Pretending the past or evil people don't exist doesn't magically make the world a safe place, it doesn't save lives."
Taking a deep breath, Roy nods distractedly at Arrowette's rant in a 'yes, yes' way that men do when they're not really -listening-. Instead, his attention shifts towards Dinah. "It wouldn't be a bad idea - if his attention's on the rest of us, and he hasn't seen Arrowette here yet, we could turn the books on him. Everything she said, we could do something about. And uh... I did some checking into Arrowette here, so I think I can say whatever she's up to, she's not connected to your situation." 
Arrowette's words struck Dinah as wonderfully brave, and for a fleeting moment, she felt as if she was looking at a younger version of herself, her own determination and will reflected back. This memory brought back the flashback of her teenage life--her mother, the famous superhero, completely oblivious to the impression she was making. The first time she used her Canary Cry, completely by accident, and the anxiety it caused her mother, not wanting her daughter to emulate her path, knowing it was inevitable. Now her mother's photo lay amoungst the stack of photographs that Cissie skimmed through.
"People from my past. Yes, someone knows a lot about me." She gave a quick but heavy sigh, "I was thinking Oracle might be able to analyse the photographs for trace substances. Clues."
Arrowette sets them down, "I'll help," she states, "However I can," steel in her voice Roy likely hasn't heard before. "I...know what it's like to have someone you love targetted and...," taken from you. "Anyway," and she looks seriously at Dinah. "I'll do whatever I can. I understand the risks." Yes...she does. And she will punch Roy later for those distracted nods, oh yes, yes, she will!
That look on Cissie's face? Not unlike Dinah's, and Roy semi-consciously shifts away from Arrowette and closer towards the Canary. "Well, it'd have to be someone with a lot of access to your records. Though it'd be easier if all of us weren't on public records." A glance at Kate (who has been eye-rolling at Roy) and then Cissie. "You two excepted." 
Dinah looked towards the window, seeing the closed blinds, and then back towards the photos. Dinah's voice, in a moment of collecting herself and sounding re-determined, seemed less shaken than any other point through the interaction, as she turned to Roy.
"I was a young fool," she said, "To think that not making efforts to conceal who I am wouldn't eventually come back to bite me." She stepped towards the kitchen but turned around, now facing all three of her guests, "All the enemies I've made... this could go in so many directions," she sounded thoughtful but determined. "But--hell, I've been through worse situations. And we'll get through this one, too," she said, clearly trying to convince herself.
"You aren't alone," Arrowette promises Dinah. And so she asks to be updated on what information the two have, and actually introduces herself as Arrowette to Dinah...she doesn't know who Dinah is anyway! And if there is another spoon, she will so be indulging in some of that ice cream too!
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