thenewoutsiders | Enter: Connor Hawke

Amusement Mile, 91 Sorkin Avenue. Gotham City.

Home.

You knew it was going to be hard, making a clean start for yourself far away from the Arrow Clan. You didn’t think it was going to be this hard. But with most of your boxes unpacked, and tenants displaced by a gentrified Burnside filing into this once abandoned entertainment district- thanks to your generous, rent controlled prices- you’re finally back in the landlording game.

At least this was a cheap get. Even with all the gentrification going on in this neighborhood, for some reason the buildings down this part of Sorkin Avenue were priced to move. You figure it’s just Gotham- people get scared and leave town all the time. Fortunately for your tenants, they’ve got a superhero for a landlord.

There’s still a lot to do. There’s that zen garden you want to put up on the roof, that isn’t even close to finished. The Bailey family on the second floor still isn’t getting water in their kids’ bathroom. Not to mention—

You’re interrupted from meditating in your spartan spare bedroom by the ring of a doorbell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

newoutsiders

Seeing a solution to all your problems, you dial the 24 hour hotline number for Suncast to order up some internet for the building. You're a 21st century landlord, you think. Time to run a 21st century apartment.

You spend 10 minutes navigating their automated menus. You spend 20 minutes on hold. Finally, getting hold of a live representative, you ask for some internet. You spend 15 minutes being pitched a variety of packages you don't understand. You ask another few questions. You've been on hold again for 25 minutes. You now know all the lyrics to Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts."

Edited Date: 2014-10-10 09:24 pm (UTC)

From:

not_easy_being_green

After another few rounds of questions and entirely too much staticky musak, Connor manages to get his apartment signed up for a $720/month plan. A man will be here to install it Monday, between 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM.

Connor sighs. Well, at least that's that taken care of. But it's not going to do him any good here. Looks like he'll be stopping by that tenant's place after all.

Edited Date: 2014-10-10 09:41 pm (UTC)

From:

newoutsiders

You knock on the door muffling some thrashy electric guitar music from Apartment 302. A young dude with greasy black hair, bloodshot eyes, and an open button down shirt over a POISON IDEA tee answers your knock, cracking the door open. It looks kind of smokey in there, and there's a weird smell.

That's Lemmy, all right.

"Oh, hey Mr. Hawke," he says groggily. "You get the WiFi up yet?"

Edited Date: 2014-10-10 09:47 pm (UTC)

From:

not_easy_being_green

"Yeah, I just got off the phone with Suncast. The guy should be here to install it Monday - we're just going to have to make do until then."

"Uh, actually, on that subject - I needed to get online and was wondering if you knew any place nearby with, uh, WiFi that I could use for now?"

From:

newoutsiders

He laughs.

"Oh, sure. Yeah, okay. Uh... hold on..."

He mulls over for a bit.

"...I'm sorry. What was the question? ...Oh! Oh. Yeah, WiFi. I dunno, man. Check a Starbucks, maybe? I've been using my phone. Parents still pay for my 4G, so no big."

"Hey, Lem!" another guy calls from inside. "Is that the pizza?"

"We didn't order pizza!"

"Why the fuck not!?"

"Sorry," Lemmy says weakly. "I'm, uh. Entertaining. Know what I mean."

From:

not_easy_being_green

"Right. I kind of - lost my cellphone. I'll just... hit a coffeeshop. Thanks for the advice."

"Uh, sure. Just... be careful of the smoke alarm, okay guys?" He gives an awkward wave and turns to leave. Not too long afterwards, he's sitting with a cup of overpriced tea and a granola bar at the table of the nearest Sundollars, laptop in front of him.

Edited Date: 2014-10-10 10:41 pm (UTC)

From:

newoutsiders

"Later." Lemmy waves you off, and shuts the door.

At Sundollars, you do a search for "missing persons amusement mile". You get a series of Gotham Gazette articles, all from the last two months: Kathleen Elba, a psychiatric patient who was released from Arkham to make more room for criminals. Perry Veto, a former small time Central City gangster, time served. Sal Handy, nephew of a once-successful kitchen appliance magnate who went into deep gambling debt, had a horrible divorce, and got cut off from his family. All three reported missing by their landlords, and eventually found slumped over, dead in their apartments a few days later. No apparent forced entry. In all three cases, no family came to claim them. All three bodies were eventually claimed by Gotham County.

You also find a piece written by- get this- one Lemmy Mason, on his white text on black background website "urbanghosts.info". There, he claims he tracked down some previous tenants, who were, landlords included, spooked out by sounds of the deceased milling about the buildings and running water in their old rooms. Some even reported sightings.

The site's most recent entry is an announcement that one of the buildings had just been bought- and that he intends to solve this mystery firsthand, by renting a place himself.

From:

not_easy_being_green

Well, at least it's a lead. It leaves Connor with a bit of a quandary, though - namely, how to approach Lemmy about this, if at all? He could always try to make friendly chatter as Connor, or approach him as Green Arrow - before, realistically, being found out as Connor anyway.

Well, he supposes he can at least try to chat with Lemmy once he's done... "entertaining." Connor jots down the names of some of the previous owners to make calls at home, finishes his tea and packs up.

From:

newoutsiders

You're about halfway back to the apartment building, attempting to parse your Lemmy strategy, when the relative quiet of Amusement Mile at night is shattered by a screeching young girl, hurtling towards you.

"-ENGEAAAAAAANCE!"

Before you can even process where she came from, she tackles you to the ground.

"...You're not a truck."

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 05:06 am (UTC)

From:

not_easy_being_green

It's a good thing Connor's training has pushed restraint as much as reaction time. As is, he manages to catch himself before he's done anything more than put a hand on each of the newcomer's shoulders, pushing her away gently as he pushes himself up.

"I am not a truck," he agrees. He takes in her outfit. "And you're not either of the Batgirls I'm used to."

From:

newoutsiders

"And you're..."

She gets a good look at you for the first time, still in your arms.

"Oh. My. God. Ohmigod! You're Connor Hawke! Dreamy Green Arrow! I've seen all your videos!"

From:

not_easy_being_green

"I - what?" Videos? There are videos? Oh God...

From:

newoutsiders

She looks at you, surprised.

"...You mean, you don't know? They're all over the hero fandom! You're a celebrity! You've got, like, twenty times more followers than I do! Or, uh, whoever's running your account I guess. Man, they're verified and everything. This is gonna be a *scandal!* Ooh, wait 'til I tell Steph-"

She stops mid-sentence.

"Steph! Right! DGA! There's an orange tanker coming up from the harbor! It's driving like nuts, and is probably stolen, or has some crazy stuff inside! We gotta team up and stop it!"

You can tell she got a little giddy at that last bit there.

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 05:34 am (UTC)

From:

not_easy_being_green

"Verified? What? I don't have any accounts on -"

He is, at least, not so easily sidetracked. Once Misfit breaks off, he switches to hero mode immediately. "What? Where is it?" He stands. "Tell me everything you know."

From:

newoutsiders

"There's a truck! It's suspicious! Some guy had a bomb, but another Batgirl and me dealt with that! Kind of! Whatever, not important! It's coming up Broome Street, fast! We gotta hustle!"

She pulls you by the arm towards what she assumes is Broome Street, until you watch her realize she has no idea where she is. She gingerly releases your arm.

"Uhh. Lead the way?"

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 06:30 am (UTC)

From:

not_easy_being_green

"It's this way." He gestures, and takes off running, backpack over his back. "Did you get a look at the driver? Do you have any idea what's in it?"

From:

newoutsiders

"No, and... well, it was one of those cylinder things, so probably liquid? That could be super dangerous, right?"

She stops running as they get to an intersection.

"Oh my god, we're all the way uptown. How did I overshoot by that much? I guess... you have some time to get changed, get out your gear? Make it fast though! It doesn't count as a team up with Green Arrow if he's not in uniform!"

From:

not_easy_being_green

"Uh, right." He hefts his backpack. "I'll be right back, then." Connor heads over to his apartment to change and grab his gear. Good thing he's already tested the fire escape by the window for coming and going.

From:

newoutsiders

You successfully suit up and meet up with this strange, new Batgirl on Broome Street, hands on her knees, panting.

"So not used to running that far... on foot."

She looks up at you. "We got some time. It's going fast... but it's far. I'm... *gasp*... Charlie."

From:

not_easy_being_green

"Charlie. Good to meet you. Guess you already know my name." He shoulders his bow. He really needs to learn to drive - it'd be much easier to go intercept the truck if he had a bow. "Have you put out an alert on the truck?"

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 08:08 pm (UTC)

From:

newoutsiders

"Yeah," she says. "Batgirl put in the call. Not me. Another Batgirl. There's three of us now."

She takes out her phone, taps something in, and shows it to you. "That's me. BurnsideBatgirl. You're GreenArrowV2."

She plays a Vine of her doing some parkour and kicking down a cardboard cutout of a bad guy with a gun.

"DAAAAARK VENGEANCE," squeals the video.

"Heh. That's my catchphrase."

From:

not_easy_being_green

"That's - great. Sorry, can I see the account that's supposed to be me?"

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 09:29 pm (UTC)

From:

newoutsiders

"Oh! Uh, sure. Of course."

She types in your address, and hands you the phone. There's lots of archived footage of you, with a bunch of hits. Taking down street crime, jumping across rooftops, firing arrows. The second most popular video in your feed is your fight with Silver Monkey for the monastery a while ago. The most:

Some shaky phone camera of you and Kyle Rayner, in New York. Oh, god. Not this. Your entire body feels like it's burning up from the inside. You know what this is going to be.

In the video, you lean over and kiss him on the mouth.

"CONNOR!" Kyle shouts. The video ends.

View Count: 163,839.

From:

not_easy_being_green

Connor is shaking with the violated embarassment. He's turned a shade of brilliant red, flushing impressively for his skin tone. "That - that was private! I don't -" He feels the urge to throw the phone away, but of course doesn't. "I can't believe this! How could they post this??"

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 10:44 pm (UTC)

From:

newoutsiders

Charlie winces. She obviously didn't mean to upset you, and is visibly shaken by your reaction.

"We all thought it was you! You- or whoever, I guess- put it up with a winky face! We thought maybe a fan took the video, sent it to you, and you put it up! I swear, I don't know anything! I'm sorry!"

Her eyes get a little watery. She fights to keep them dry.

Edited Date: 2014-10-11 10:55 pm (UTC)