#Where did she even get the money?

[kermdoeswriting]

"I wanna hire you"

Every last Friday of the month Jason, Kori and Roy partake in a small tradition.

They meet up for dinner in their respective cities, costume or not, and just catch up on the others respective lives.

It was a dumb tradition Roy had suggested when the Outlaws split up the first time, not wanting to let the others go with little communication in between them ever again. So here they were, New Years Eve being the last Friday of the month before ringing in the new year.

Lian was off hanging out with her friends for the holiday, choosing not to join them on their tradition this year which Roy was only slightly thankful for. Especially since it was Jason's turn this time which meant they'd be having dinner at his usual spot in Gotham.

Roy shed his coat the second he walked through the doorway of Joe's Diner. He was tired but not any more so than usual.

New Years Eve was always a harder day for Gotham. The crime rate always went up for the holidays rather than down, so it gave almost every vigilante here extra work to do alongside their usual duties.

But being able to visit was still the best part of making it to the end of the year.

"Happy New Year, Joe."

Joe, the owner way to used to the Outlaws shenanigans, just smiled back at him as he walked in. He had the usual to-go coffee cups in his hands.

"Happy New Year, Arse"

The two met up at the nearest table, Roy sliding into the booth as Joe handed him his own cup before turning around to the countertop to make his usual go to order.

"Any signs of Big Bat today?"

"Nothing nearby," He took a sip of his coffee as Joe continued on with his thought, still working on his sandwich order behind the counter. "But I'd reckon he's pretty busy considering the holiday"

Roy hummed in agreement while taking another swig of his drink. He honestly figured Jason would be late again, typical for him during the Holidays, and Kori would probably be over in a few minutes.

It wouldn't be a long wait.

He sighed and laid back against the booth chair contentedly, eyes shut to try and get some kind of rest before either of the 2 showed up. Roy tried to ignore the way he felt someone's eyes on him as he did so, hoping silently that whoever it was would just be a curious civilian and not anything crazy he would have to deal with.

But hope meant basically nothing in Gotham.

The person slowly approached him and Roy heard them harshly shove a backpack onto the table before he eventually opened his eyes lazily to look at the person intruding his peace.

It was a kid.

A very tiny looking girl, no more than 12 years old, hiding underneath a tattered looking Nasa hoodie that was basically swallowing her whole. Roy looked at her with curiosity as she seemed to examen him thoroughly, a hand still clutching her bag despite it being on HIS table.

"Are you Arsenal?" She eventually spit out bluntly, making Roy sit up sharply.

It was rare a real kid, one who wasn't a trained threat like Damian or any of the Titans, actually approached him and simply knew who he was. So her knowing him, despite being in costume, put him on edge a little bit.

"Well?" The girl snarked at his silence, looking more annoyed at the lack of response. Roy could feel his grey hairs getting longer by the second.

"Are you really Arsenal?"

She still had her sea-blue eyes trained on him between half hidden bangs and her hoodie as she asked. Roy just sighed into his cup of coffee quietly and nodded, watching as the girl brightened slightly and slide into Jason's usual booth seat.

"What's up kid? Isn't it a little late for you to be out in Gotham?"

The girl huffed at that comment, pulling her hood off of her head to truly look over at him. She seemed exhausted and much younger than he had originally assumed her to be. In a strange, heartbreaking way looking at her only reminded him of Lian when she had been that small.

"I'm not a kid." She snorted with a roll of her eyes before taking a sip of the hot cocoa Joe had silently passed to her with a ruffle of her hair.

"You look younger then 10. That makes you a kid, kid."

The girl huffed again before reaching into the torn bag Roy hadn't seen her pull off the table, digging as quickly as she could.

"Whatever, my age isn't the point. The point is I need to hire you to do something."

Roy almost choked on his coffee at that declaration, finally putting his cup down on the table. "I'm sorry what? What could you possibly need to hire me for? How did you even FIND out you could do that? You're like 10-"

"13" She interrupted, stopping her own search through her bag, unphased.

"Sure kid, 13 then. But still-"

The girl just groaned loudly to interrupt him again, kicking his legs harshly from underneath the table to shut him up officially. She took her attention back to her backpack while huffing and muttering under her breath in annoyance.

Eventually she finally seemed to grab whatever she'd been looking for, grinning again before turning to look back at him and slapping something onto the table. Roy looked down to see whatever it had been hesitantly, worried only a bit it'd be some kind of child concoction she had with her.

Instead he was met with 2 wads of cash, all 100 dollars, wrapped in what looked like glittery green rubber bands. Startled, he looked at the very obviously NOT 13 year old with money she also obviously did NOT usually have for any explanation.

The girl shrugged at his reaction.

"I also don't wanna just hire you." She responded pointedly between his shock as if it was obvious, taking a sip of her hot cocoa. "I want to hire the Outlaws."

Roy sighed and just tried not to give any answer just yet considering the situation. The girl took it as a sign of rejection and pushed the baggy of cash closer to him while slapping another wad of cash baggy towards him.

"Kid-"

"Not a kid."

"Okay, Not-a-kid then," Roy watched as the girl glowered at him before continuing. "What do you even need the Outlaws for that the police can't do?"

At that question the girl went quiet and slowly shrunk into herself against the booth seat, eyes trained everywhere but him. Roy immediately felt regret but didn't voice it.

"My siblings are missing." She eventually responds, her free hand brushing some of her bangs out of her face while sliding the money bags closer to her side again with the other hand. "They've been gone since Christmas Eve and I've tried everything to find them but no ones even tried helping me."

She sniffles slightly and Roy feels his heart breaks slightly as he watches her wipe her nose against the tattered hoodie sleeve.

"Everything?" Roy asks and he watches her nod, still not looking at him.

"The GCPD are too swamped with cases because of the holidays and we don't have any adults in our lives to help."

"What about Batman?"

Roy felt slight self justification at the way the girls face turned from crying into an angry scowl. As if he had just suggested her to take a swim in the Gotham Harbor.

"Fuck Batman"

He couldn't help but let out a choked out snort as he filed that tidbit away for later. Jason would like this kid.

"Got it. No Batman," Roy reassured her with a grin before continuing. "So what exactly made you choose us to find them?"

At that question the girl seemed to hide again, more so out of embarrassment this time rather then anything else, her cheeks tinged slightly pink.

"Red Hood's my favorite hero but he's hard to ask for help from and everyone knows that you work with him..."

Roy sighed again and felt his face pinch into a grimace. Of course it would be Jason's fault kids were approaching him for help with things. As much as Jason denied he was a helpful force to Gotham, it was pretty obvious to anyone who looked at the way he cared for Crime Alley that he was.

"Alright kid. Put the cash away, okay?" The girl eyed him suspiciously before doing as Roy said and sliding both bags back into her tattered backpack.

"Starfire and Red Hood are supposed to be here in a bit and when they get here we'll try and see how we can help you, okay?" Roy almost smiled again when he watched her eyes widen in surprise at him agreeing before going back to her neutral expression.

"Anything more you wanna tell me?"

The girl hesitated before nodding and speaking again.

"Me and my siblings are on the run from people who want us for... being different. If you help me find them, you have to promise we won't get caught by Batman or any one with some kind of government access." She spits out quickly, making sure to look Roy directly in the eyes as she talks about her conditions.

"If you try and turn us over to either of them, I will make sure you and the others don't have a grave to be laid to rest in."

Roy shivered slightly as she spoke the last part, her eyes flashing a bright green he didn't recognize as she tried to show him she was a true threat. He gripped his coffee mug, trying his best to not get worried over it since he knew she was just trying to protect herself and her missing siblings.

"Got it, you have my word. Any chance I can get a name for you?"

The girl looked him over again, her eyes having returned to the sea-green color they were before, eventually nodding in agreement to his request.

"You can call me Ellie. Most people do"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or basically,

Ellie stumbles upon Arsenal at a diner late at night where she tries to hire him and the Outlaws into finding her siblings who went missing on Christmas Eve. Roy is just concerned this very obvious 8 year old wants to hire the Outlaws at all.

[pine-needle-scuffle]

i wish finding people was easier

[koivoid]

it's so liweiover.

[regular-lord-reckoner]

so i took my car in today because i thought it might just need some more brake fluid and although i tried to just look at it myself i couldn't for the life of me figure out which part under the hood was the brake fluid reservoir without having to lean all over my car and get all dirty, so i figured i might just have to pay a service fee and whatever for the fluid itself...

turns out i need all new brake pads !!

ahaha

haha

ha

yay

[voidimp]

i need more piercings right now immediately ←has to wait until after surgery

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Can I say its kinda funny how in Girl Meets World when they had Farkle get ganged up on by Riley, Lucas and Corey as they tried to force their god and belief's onto him- I say their god since this show did not acknowledge other religions in this episode and tried to act like their god was the god basically- , Corey went for, "the air you breath is god's making", when like...if the writers wanted Farkle to be the atheist character who uses science as his logic, he could have brought up what the air is made up off and what science says explains it??? Let alone then proceeded to have the science/smart atheist not just respond with uh homes/people/animals when asked by the trio what's in those buildings and instead have him go he cant see in them so he doesn't know, giving the religious trio a chance to one up him???? That's not even a science atheist response, that's just a normal one he could have said while wondering why they treating him like he's stupid or why the teacher who gave them a religious discussion topic for class is showing bias when it comes to favoring religion seriously I know its outside of school this scene happened but Corey is still Farkle's teacher and last I checked teachers aren't allowed to force belief's onto students-

[mustangs-flames]

Finally watched The Batman 2022. It was extremely good (it only took me this long to get around to it bc I was so burned out on Batman ngl)

[bmpmp3]

my inability to play mobile games nowadays is also a source of suffering as a person who loves rhythm games. i miss her (SIF1).....

[ilkkawhat]

just when i was celebrating not having to go to work tonight..........now i might have to go in. at 10pm. i just wanted to fucking drink tonight 😭😭😭

[green-mountain-goose]

why're things so fucked upppppp~

[izzy-b-hands]

today should be a t break day

bc I'll need it to be more effective in the coming days if we see family, and then I'll have the survey shifts

but since late last night i keep randomly nearly breaking into tears and thinking abt the stupidest shit that needs to stay in the box in my brain

so idk. maybe it will be. it is thus far. but I'm not leaving my room without a container of some edible or another in my pocket either

[ouellette]

i feel like there is something fundamentally wrong with me and every day i pray that its just the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and not more mental illness that will continue to prevent me from forming meaningful relationships with people as i grow older and more alone

[rubiatinctorum]

unrelatable annoying text post incoming but i feel like it is a red flag to me when i see jewelry stores with frequent staff turnover. not because the people working there are likely learning, which i think is fine and good. instead, it is because it reads as the workplace being either fucking terrible and people are quitting, or management is firing people/laying people off way too fucking often. but the people are more annoying in these stores as well. the ones with the highest turnover seem to attract only commission-vultures to remain that won't let you fucking glance at anything without breaking your 'i'm just looking today, thank you' request of silence by going SO YOU WANT TO BUY THAT? no i was giving it the side eye because i know how long that plating is going to last, leave me alone.

[theood]

Video I'm watching just made such a low blow comment of comparison. I hate to sound snobby but like, it's really rich coming from a YouTuber that "and Gen Z and Millennials aren't exempt from criticism because none of them want to work!" Like, I know that you know you chose the WORST possible choice. You know as well as I do it's not ugh these new kids aging into the workforce are SO entitled and #lazy

[cuntrytaylor]

the more i think about it my last roommate really was the devil

[the-letter-s]

man the violent cognitive dissonance between "I need to do everything in my power to get out of this house because my abusive fathers mental health is clearly declining which will make things Worse" vs "If I take advantage of my moms offers to help me get the fuck out of here I am Abusing My Class Privilege And Therefore Should Suffer The Fate Of Die"