One Year Later: Happy Anniversary for the 3000th Time

[nation_citizens]

Storytelling takes place before March 2009.It took him years of research and dead ends to find this place, but he's finally here. After Funky Flashman's death at the hands of Poison Ivy awhile back there's been a vacuum in the underworld collections market. To make himself stand out he needed something big, something with some history

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[nation_jsa]

"That would involve being in two places at once, Mr. Sexy." Because she's in a bad mood and it's the truth. Why not share? "Plus, he's potentially right and it involves both Hawkman and potentially your wife." Her tone softens a few degrees. "You watch the professor. I drop these clowns off at the nearest park ranger, and then I come back and explain everything, okay?" then she adds something a Hawk has probably never said to an Arrow without sarcasm. "Please?"

[arsenal_arrow]

Roy sighs. He's always had a hard time saying no to a pretty face. And Kendra's a pretty everything. Damnit, no. What Killswitch showed him was not them-- not him, or her, not this time or world.

"Fine," he says, grabbing the professor to escort him forward. "I've got a campsite less than a quarter mile up that left hill. C'mon, Indiana Jones..."

[nation_jsa]

"I'll find you." After she settles thing here a little. I'll rebury you. It's going to be okay. That calms the rumbling she can feel tugging at her. she picks up the guys and flies off. By the time she gets back it's dark. He has a fire going and it's very obvious -

"You've been here awhile."

[arsenal_arrow]

What, was that supposed to be his cue to explain himself? Roy motions at the pack cooler next to her. "There's food over there and in the pack if you're hungry."

It does occur to him he's being incredibly rude, to someone who, in actuality, has done nothing to him. Still, it's the matter that it had to be her, like the universe is still laughing at him. "Look, I came up here to get away from things for a while. I'm sorry I've taken it out on you, I'm-- I'm really in no shape to be doing anything like this right now. So, glad to have helped, but if you could get through making yourself comfy, and take your guy, and go do whatever you're gonna do, that'd be great."

[nation_jsa]

She unpacks. "I brought vodka, chips, and hot dogs," she says tossing the food towards him. The booze she keeps.

"Least I could do for being rude." She folds herself down by him and the fire. "I'm perpetually rude. The artifact probably shouldn't be approached right now." Which reminds her to open the bottle and swig. "The Egyptians believed during the night a demon would try to swallow the sun. As a result, I've found a lot of Car - Hawkman's things get nastier to deal with at night. As it stands I..." It kills her to admit. "I need help and my teams would only drive me more nuts." She takes a hot dog and puts it on a stick and then massages her neck. "I can almost promise you'll get to hit things."

[arsenal_arrow]

"So you want to stay here? Tonight? And drink?" Every question sounds more and more incredulous.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I just found out for the past fourteen years or so, I've had a maniac in my head that wanted to destroy the universe. My daughter wound up in battle, my wife is pregnant and I'm not sure it's mine, and she might be divorcing me. Besides that I went through a pretty fun mental ringer. I am a liability, you do not want me."

[nation_jsa]

"Nope. I'd like -" She stops and puts down the bottle and doesn't look at him. "I just want to get some sleep. Nights like this, the vodka helps." She sighs. Damn the lack of sleep, now she's got this wet stuff coming from her eyes. She throws a hand through her short hair. "I have the most brilliant timing and luck in the world to drop in from the sky. I'm sorry."

As she puts back on her helmet she keeps talking. "For the record though, I have to say, that beats my last 7 years. That's a feat."

[arsenal_arrow]

Roy sighs and stares after her. She looks tired, and if he does this, he's a Grade-A asshole.

"It's not your fault. I shouldn't be taking this out on you," he says quietly. "You can have the sleeping bag. I've got some extra blankets."

He goes for some of the chips, holding up the bag momentarily. "Thanks. So you need to go into the tomb and retrieve something?"

[nation_jsa]

"I don't need that. Just some warmth." And not to sleep around it all. She's folded up into herself and when she takes off the wings and helmet she looks very much like what she is, a 24 year old that got lost a long, long time ago.

"I shouldn't be dragging you into it, except...Thank you. It's my daughter's birthday today and that's always hard and I'm -" She holds her fingers close together. "This close to getting Carter back, but he's all in pieces and they all bite." She barely stops to breath before she continues. "I'm supposed to be rescuing my 'great love' or something and it all feels like utter crap. All I know is that I'm supposed to be running into some forgotten underworld place somewhere on sheer supposed former life instinct to find something I don't know about until I find it, because I can't even die right."

[arsenal_arrow]

He listens to her and then thinks about that for a minute or two. He looks back at her, smirks, looks away, and does his best to suppress laughter. It's not going very well, and before long, he's laughing heartily and wiping his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he says when he can finally catch his breath. "Just... listening to the both of us. We need some cheese with our whine."

Roy swallows a swig of water from a nearby bottle, and shakes his head. "It's been a really weird few years, and yet nothing seems weird anymore. I laughed because all of that sounded perfectly normal, and I can't remember when that happened. We'll find whatever you need to find, peach. 'Great love' rarely makes sense and it wouldn't be so great if it didn't drive you so crazy."

[nation_jsa]

She nervously chuckling too. "No doubt." She puts the bottle of vodka between them as an open invitation. "Yeah, I imagine Teen Titan-dom gets you a whole new idea for normal." She shakes her head. "I don't believe in love." She reclaims her hot dog. "It's all hormones. If you have hormones with with someone that has hormones back and you don't kill each other long enough you get married and have kids that start the whole stupid thing over. After which, you die and then there's a big white light with people you used to care about." She stares at her hot dog intently. "If you're in this business, you then get yanked out of bed and told to get back to work."

[arsenal_arrow]

He looks sadly at Kendra, then rolls his eyes and starts to get settled in by the fire. "I don't think that's true. And anyway, if it is, what're you doing this for?"