#leopardblow

to simply utter lady shiva's name is to invite misfortune upon yourself. she is known as a terror among man, undefeated and capable of mass destruction if she so wills it. she is worshipped by some, feared by most, and for good reason. her reputation precedes her as an untouchable, unstoppable force. even cassandra has to admit how powerful she truly was, skilled enough to defeat not only batman but cass herself. she should be scared of this. of her. especially when she was the object of sandra's greatest desire - to get her daughter back. but she isn't.

truthfully, cassandra does not know what to feel when it comes to her mother. she hardly knows her and all she does know is horror and bloodshed, killing and cruelty. the more she learns of her outside of the vigilantes she surrounds herself with, however, the more conflicted she feels. for this reason, she avoids the woman like the plague. alas, fate seems to have other ideas.

" come here, cassandra. don't make me come over there and get you. " lady shiva says, her tone stern and even as ever. she notices that she doesn't sound upset by any means, but rather ... well, it's hard to make out. what she does know is that the threat is not empty and her chances of escaping were fifty fifty. cass's back stays turned to her, the only indication that she even hears the demand being a slight turn of the head.

cassandra knows how this will go if she keeps walking. she will try to goad her into fighting and succeed. neither of them will take the final shot. one will nurse the other's wounds just enough to keep them stable. sandra will try to convince her, again, to stay with her rather than the excuse of a family she's made with the bats. cass will say no. the worst of it all is that she considers it more and more every time this happens.

it's exhausting, being an outsider everywhere you go except to the woman everybody else fears. the woman everybody compares you to, never outright but in the way they act towards you. they never compare the good things, either - not the art she creates or the loving hand she puts upon you when she leads you away from the battlefield. never the way she can heal as much as she hurts. only the death, and the pain, and the bloody legacy that cassandra feels doomed to continue. it's always been enough to keep her from getting any closer to her mother, but ...

. . .  NEW INCOMING MESSAGE    🞂    SUBJECT: N/A    🞂 @leopardblow.

         has she ever mentioned how much  she hates when her mother plays games with her?  for a woman so adamant on living life to its fullest,  sandra loved to take time out of her day to tease her with something ridiculous.  cass considers ignoring the note,  she truly does,  but curiosity gets the best of her.  what if it was a clue to something they desperately needed?  she makes a beeline for the sticky note with inhuman speed,  ready for shiva's incoming interception.

     Dinah’s apartment was upstairs her flower shop, Sherwood Florist. She owned a nice balcony, giving a giant window and a fabulous view down the street. Today was a lazy Sunday for the bird, who was anything but early. The blonde hadn’t opened her eyes yet, on the verge of snoring very loudly considering her last night had been quite busy. Roaming around the city with hel and Zinda proved to be tiring, especially when you crashed back home not more than two hours ago. 

No hint that someone would break in her place without any warning, not even using the damn doorknob or a simple knock. She literally had no idea ! 

However when the door literally exploded, Dinah fell off her bed, immediately standing up with her guard ready before her, her stance firm but her eyes were so tiny that she had to squint them to realise who was in. “Shiva ?” Canary was confused, but didn’t lower down her flat hands. It sounded like troubles. A lot of troubles. 

Walking past her bedroom Shiva paused and noticed the light still on. A tender knock with the back of her knuckles alerted the girl inside to her presence before opening it. Once inside she noticed her daughter still awake and looking up at her with wide eyes. The look of fear disgusted her, but she didn’t blame Cass — quite the opposite. With a sigh she allowed herself into the child’s space, crouching down to observe what she had been doing prior to her entering. “It’s late.”, it wasn’t really a scold as much as an observation. Sandra was not a stranger to being on a nocturnal schedule, she went through periods where she preferred to live during the night and sleep during the day. It was all about what you WANTED to do, and if Cass wanted to stay up then she wasn’t about to correct her. She’ll learn, in her own time. “You like those?”, she gestured to the headphones to make sure she understood what she was talking about. There had been many gifts after her arrival, some of which she noticed Cass favored more than others. None more than a stuffed feline she had presented to her on her first night in the estate. It was an impulse buy on one of Sandra’s many trips she had walked past a toy store and it caught her eye. Cass living with her was a longing concept at that point and nowhere close to a reality — still she purchased it for the daughter she lost. In a way that room was a shrine, but seeing the child she thought dead inside — it stirred different emotions. It was different than she expected, but that didn’t mean bad. Sharp gaze shifted to the toy sat in her lap, she had become very attached to it. Even Sandra felt bad when it needed to be washed, the look of betrayal and pain was almost too much to take. The child thought she was taking it away, punishing her and there was no way to communicate that she wasn’t. They’d fix that. There was such a long way to go, but she knew they could do it. She’d make sure her daughter had the life she deserved, the life she was almost robbed of. “I can read you that story if you’d like.”, her voice was surprisingly gentle even with the lack of emotion. The world’s deadliest woman reached over and corrected the book’s direction in her daughter’s hands with a swift movement, “it’s not a very happy story though, it has a sad ending.” Not that it mattered — Cass had lived through sadder things.

        cassandra remembered the day  her new life began.  it started the same as always;  a blaring alarm,  a simple breakfast,  and her medicine.  she ate the same meals and wore the same clothes as she did each and every day.  her mentor came to bring her to the day's training and she excelled the same as always.  david made no comment and that meant she did well.  lunch was at the same time as always.  she never got to find out if she was having the same lunch that day.  

        she couldn't remember much of what happened before lunch.  only that this woman came in like a storm,  wild and violent,  and left as quickly as she came with cassandra in her arms.  david didn't follow them.  the guards,  the ones that survived anyhow,  didn't stop them.  she never found out if david survived or why she deserved to.  all she knew was that she was going with this woman whether she liked it or not.

        this did not feel like a place she belonged in.  although she was far too young to contemplate why,  she was competent enough to comprehend that this was nothing like what she grew up with.  everything was so soft,  her clothes and the bed she sat upon and the toy she held to her chest.  everything around cassandra smelled pleasantly floral rather than the stale air of rust and mildew she knew.  the house was huge and bright and open during the day.  her room was warm and inviting.  yet,  she still couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried.  

        the knock upon her door startled  cassandra enough to nearly drop the book she fruitlessly attempted to understand.  lavender bedsheets bunched beneath her as she tried to hide herself between the pillow pile behind her.  she made an attempt to look natural amongst the unfamiliar surroundings,  book held in front of her in a way that she had seen sandra do it before and the plush cat held protectively between her legs.  she did not understand what the woman was saying to her,  but she could tell that there was a sort of disappointment in the way she approached her.  that was scary.

        "  you like those?  "  sandra asked,  her voice quiet.  her eyes followed from manicured hands to the item in question,  a pair of pastel yellow headphones at her bedside table.  although words were an incredibly new concept to cassandra,  she was asked this question enough to understand what it meant.  yes,  she did like them.  they made everything quieter when she needed them to and sometimes they even played music.  that was something new for her.  she was quickly finding out how much she liked music.  her gaze travelled back to sandra and there was a moment of hesitation in telling the truth.  if she said yes,  would she take them away?  if she said no,  could she tell if she was lying?  a slow nod followed.

        sandra must have taken that as an invitation.  she came in quietly and sat at the end of the bed,  the mattress shifting with the added weight.  "  i can read you that story if you'd like.  "  cassandra's nose subtly scrunched as she tried to make out what she was saying.  her thought was cut short by the book being taken from her hands,  an action that made her heart beat quicker until it was handed right back.  false alarm,  it was not a punishment.  only a warning.  her eyes scanned the letters,  still illegible to her but more familiar now that they were right side up.  

        her low,  quiet voice continued  to speak indiscernibly to cassandra.  she paid her words little mind,  her mind was focused on what she could understand and it was her body language.  sandra's body tilted towards her in a way that was familiar despite only having known each other for a few months.  she sat close enough to look at the pages with her.  she heard her lilt drop just slightly at the end of her sentence,  something the girl had only heard from the people david spoke to while she was around.  it often made her sad.  this time,  it didn't.  she was pretty sure it made sandra sad.  

“Merry Christmas Cass!”, she smiled and is bouncing on her heels, “I have the bestest surprise ever for you.” Without a second thought she blindfolds her girlfriend and is tugging her. They walk through the chilly streets of Gotham for a little too long before Cassie stops and pulls her blindfold off. “I know we always celebrate Christmas with my mom and your dad but I thought what better gift than to celebrate Christmas Eve with your mom!” Sandra is sitting awkwardly at a booth inside the small local restaurant, she offers Cass a wave and a sigh. “She was just about to tell me how she saved a woman’s life at sea!.”, the chattering doesn’t stop as she pulls the bat inside to seat her across from her mother. This was a gift nobody else would ever think of, it was a gift Cassie didn’t even know for sure she would like. Still, she wanted Cass to spend the holidays with everyone who loved her, Sandra included. No more being alone.

the act of celebration began as a foreign concept to cassandra. though the days of abuse and loneliness were far behind her, she wasn't yet used to the traditions that came with holidays. in fact, she would avoid the wayne manor whenever these days rolled around. it wasn't until she met cassie that she would have nowhere to run. the expectations of following tradition still made her itchy but her girlfriend made the whole ordeal significantly easier to bare.

... except when she decided blindfolding her and leading her to some undisclosed location was a good idea. cassie was lucky that she loved her so much. the journey to the surprise in question was too long for cass's liking. the cold air nipping at her nose told her that it was too public for her tastes, too. still, she allowed her girlfriend to drag her through the streets until she heard the quiet chattering of a restaurant. the air was warmer than the snowy city behind them and the food smelled familiar. she's been here before. that was comforting.

what set her off again was the reveal. darkness turned to blinding light and ultimately adjusted to the all too familiar sight of her mother. ordinarily cool and collected, cassandra immediately noticed how rigid she was as she sat alone at the booth. pardon the audacity of the phrase, but was sandra nervous? her lips pressed into a thin line to hold back whatever reservations she had about the situation. this was certainly not her ideal, but she didn't have the heart to break the news to cassie. evidently, neither did her mother.

" i know we always celebrate christmas with my mom and your dad but i thought what better gift than to celebrate christmas eve with your mom! she was just about to tell me how she saved a woman’s life at sea! " the blonde chattered on as she pushed cass into the booth, unintentionally locking her into the awkward scenario that was a dinner with her girlfriend and her estranged mother. the tension in the air was utterly lost on cassie.

the rest of her prattling was geared towards sandra, forcing the woman to resume the story for the both of them. cass bobbed her head towards the wall she pressed herself against, gaze tracing the frost that covered the window. she had to admit this wasn't the worst thing in the world. she could be out there in the snow again, all on her own with nowhere to go. she could be in her apartment nursing her latest wound from the latest rendevous as batgirl. or she could be here with her girlfriend and her mother who, as much as she loathed to admit it, loved her despite her efforts to the contrary.

cass sighed and reached for her untouched menu. her eyes stayed glued to the list of appetizers as she listened in on the story sandra was telling. she hated to admit that it was interesting — her mother was interesting. the flip of a page sharply prefaced her upcoming question, the first time she chose to acknowledge sandra since arrivng. " why were you below deck? "

memes. accepting.

A rooftop was always a good point of view when it came to Metropolis - or any other city. Her black raven hair float behind her neck. Dinah noticed the way she had gotten rid of the fishnets already. Fair enough, but you shredded them Sandra.

The name of Sin was tickling her tongue, but she wouldn't mention the little girl she was protecting in front of the person she was aimed to become.

Dinah couldn't tell if Shiva was a friend or a foe, or both. The brunette woman had taken a strong interest in the blonde. Perhaps you could call it that affection, but not from Shiva. No. Respect. Yes, she had respect for her. That meant more than anything for the fighter.