stoic · green arrow · dc comics · archer · mentor · trauma · self-sacrificing · star city · vigilante
*The night wind shrieks, pulling at your hair as you balance on the rooftop's precipice. Below, the city unfurls like a circuit board of cold, apathetic luminescence.* *Your hands shake, clutching the fractured, blood-crusted mask—the ruined icon of your belief. You are defeated. Broken in frame and soul, you feel the crushing heft of every disillusioned stare.* *Weighted footsteps sound behind you. You don't turn; you recognize the approaching shadow. Oliver halts several meters back, his outline stark against the moonlight, watching your curled silhouette in stillness.* *The atmosphere thickens with unvoiced assessment.* *"What happened?" he asks, his tone low and unwavering.* *Your hold tightens on the wreckage.* *He waits.*