tushanshu | fourteen : taken away to the dark side [video]

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fourteen : taken away to the dark side [video]

[The room is dark and Hayley's face is only vaguely visible, lit only by the glow of the console's screen. She sounds tired, posting in the middle of the night. Someone paying really, really close attention might notice the Flash pajama bottoms she's wearing or the Superman cape, courtesy of Jor-El, strung about her shoulders like a blanket.]

I don't know if someone else already said this, but in case they didn't? Bart Allen and Kon-El are both gone. Back home, not missing.

[A beat.] Will someone bring me some food? I haven't really eaten for awhile.

[ooc: Assume Hayley's been ~~angsting~~ avoiding everyone for a few weeks. Feel free to assume check-ins or other interactions. I was hiatused a lot and am still slow, sorry!]

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You might be surprised by what I consider precious.

[Quietly, and without shifting his gaze. But he does lean forward, elbows on his knees, to regard her for quite a while without speaking. When he finally does it's measured and very controlled.]

When I was fourteen I lost my father, my only family. His death resulted in my inheritance being stolen from me and my being turned out onto the street. I could have given up. I could have run away, hidden, pretended that there was nothing of the world I wished to explore. I could have pretended I wasn't someone. I didn't. Why? Because I was someone to him, and I did not want his faith in me to be meaningless.

[Maybe there were some white lies in there. Maybe it was boiling a complicated circumstance down to something simplistic. Maybe it was conflating the struggles of four centuries. Right now, that didn't particularly matter in comparison to the point Solomon needed to make.]

[Solomon's seeming candor and honesty surprise her. Hayley leans forward to mirror him, first listening and then mulling over his words. It doesn't take long. His story is nearly impossible for her to relate to and, for the first time, she's all too willing to be blunt about that fact.]

I lost my dad a few years ago. My mom was present, but never there, if you know what I mean. His death? Was the best thing that ever happened to me. Being homeless sucks and I'm not trying to say your life was all sunshine and rainbows or whatever, but I wasn't anyone to anyone until stupid Bart and look how that turned out.

[Her brows twist and contort into an expression of anger and she turns to glance at the food. In petulant impulse, she shoves a hand out, sending the bowl tumbling away from the table toward the floor and the porridge within cascading across the carpet.]

I don't want your sympathy and I don't want your food. So, fine. We made a deal, right? Teach me. I'll do the homework and I'll practice and everything else so I can learn to do it right. But that's it. I'm your student. Not your kid or your charity case or some stray you have to take care of. Got it?

[Solomon watches the food go spinning with an impassive expression. For all Hayley's sudden violence it's still a better response than the sullen denial. Now they were getting somewhere. Now she could actually focus on something other than missing people no longer present. That sort of grief took time to ease, true; but it never did so when it took all one's attention.]

Yet you were still someone to someone. That should be worth enough to you to keep being so, regardless whether they're still here or not.

[He straightens up, sitting back and speaking calmly.]

Of course. That's all I asked.

[He holds out his hand and the sphere dissolves and materialises in his hand. He concentrates a moment, adding a little more density to the sphere--as well as a command. He tosses it back to Hayley.]

The sphere will prod you three times a day for attention. It will subside after a good concentrated half-hour of work on it. I'll be by every second evening to review your progress and answer any questions you might have, or teach you a new trick.

[And make sure she'd eaten. She disdained being a 'stray'--but Solomon could counter that with needing to make sure his student was up to healthy academic standard.]

[The girl bristles when he mentions being someone to someone, the memory of Bart and all her neglect of him too fresh in her mind. That thing about not knowing what you have until it's gone seems relevant. It's only Solomon's choice to quickly move on to other subjects that distracts her from her anger.

Except then he's explaining his patronizing baby steps to her and the constant reminders and Hayley finds herself frustrated all over again just in time to catch the shadow. While she understands why he's doing it and might admit that someone keeping an eye isn't always such a bad thing, it feels condescending and she hates him for that.]

The sphere can remind me once a day and you can come by twice a week. No offense, but I really don't need to see that much of you and I want more time to practice - on my own, without being reminded. Oh and no more of that fucking creepy stepping out of the shadows in my bedroom thing. Come out downstairs and then knock like a normal person.

[Because stepping out of shadows in the living room is so normal.]

I will concede to using the door in future, but as to the rest, I am afraid you no longer have any say in how your learning occurs.

[Now he sounds stern.]

I gave you the leeway to learn in your own time. Frankly, the months you had were far more time than I would usually offer my students unsupervised, and apparently they did very little. If I feel you've made sufficient progress, then I'll cut back on my frequency of supervision; but it will be at my discretion, not yours.

[Hayley's brows drop into anger again. Without speaking, she lifts a hand and makes a quick gesture in the air. Without warning, the magic Sabriel has taught her surges forward, attempting to knock Solomon back as if he'd just been physically pressed by a solid object. As he's already sitting on the chair, it's only mean to disorient him and not to knock him off entirely. The girl's out to make a point, not to hurt him.]

You're not my only teacher and shadows aren't the only thing I'm studying. Honor student, remember? [She drops her hand and gives him an arrogant smirk, eyes narrowing a fraction.] So let's make a deal. You give me three days to break the orb. If I do it, then you agree to only meeting twice a week unless some special event comes up or whatever. If I don't, then your little ball can send reminders and you can show up at my doorstep every day.

[The unexpected push makes him grunt and he catches himself with shadows before the chair falls, using them to reorient his chair without much in the way of overt manipulation. He does, however, raise an eyebrow. And then he smiles. It's amused, but while he is amused his eyes are warning.]

Learning the art of negotiation, are we? Very well; I agree to your terms. But make no mistake, Hayley--honour student or not, you are still under my authority in as far as your studies reach. You may not like it; but as long as you want to learn from me you will tolerate it, and you will afford me the same basic respect you demand in turn.

[He smiles then and it's friendly, as if there hadn't been anything warning in his voice at all. If she hates him, then she hates him; and that emotion would still be better than pining, as long as he can engage her far enough to move past the grief.]

Still hungry? I can get you something else, if you'd like.

[Hayley believes Solomon. She believes that he means every word and that, if she's not careful, he'll be all too happy to take control of her life completely. There's no fear or intimidation, however. Only caution. Having trained with the likes of Bruce Banner and Batman, having dealt with the repercussions of nearly killing Superman with Kryptonite, having dated Bart, Solomon's warnings fall mostly on deaf ears. Really, his accepting her terms in any way puts her ahead in her mind.

The girl has a knack for getting in over her head.]

Authority? Sure. Respect? That might be a little harder. It's not you. It's me. I'm not great at respecting people. [There's some truth to that.] I'm not saying no, I'm just saying you might have to tell me when I'm being disrespectful, you know?

[Solomon is experienced enough to let people think they have the upper hand. Where Hayley's concerned, the arrogance is going to drive the girl deeper if she isn't careful. Yet at the same time, the lack of fear only proves she's worth his time, irritating though the insolence is.]

I just did.

[He says it simply, and rises. There really isn't much else to say, if she doesn't want any food and doesn't realise obvious things a young lady of her intelligence ought to. In some ways, that sort of stubbornness was quite blinding.]

I'll check on you in three days, then.

Okay. [She replies, lifting her chin to display all the arrogance in the world. There's no doubt in her mind she can break it by then - at least in this moment, before she's had time to think about it, consumed by the competition and wanting to win.

Hayley falters ever so slightly when she realizes that he means to leave. Although she doesn't want the gross cardboard-like substance Solomon is trying to pass off as food and doesn't want to hear another lecture, she appreciates the company. She and Bart spent half their time arguing, truth be told, but the presence of someone else to disagree with was comforting in a way that her forced isolation had failed to relieve her of.]

Wait.

[Solomon pauses, letting the shadows he'd begun to summon dissolve.]

Yes?

[There's no good reason to ask him to stay, Hayley realizes, as she watches him there. Her only options are to admit her weakness directly or to quickly come up with some thinly veiled plea which they would both know the truth of. Eager for company or not, the girl knows in her heart that Solomon is not the person to seek out.]

Never mind. [She waves him away, offering a delicately crafted smile, mischievous in nature. As if her asking him to wait was only a test instead of an actual need.] Don't forget about the whole knocking thing, okay?

[He sees right through her, of course. But Solomon isn't good at comfort; he's good at providing impetus. She got a few responses on the network, and he's done his part--one of them would be far better at continued comfort than him. So he just smiles back, one as mischievous as hers but far more experienced.]

Of course not, my dear. I am a gentleman.

[With that he bows and as he straightens the shadows surround him and his laughing face, and he's gone.]

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fourteen : taken away to the dark side [video]

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