Roy Harper has both arms (redarrow_harper) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-24 00:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, candy quackenbush, roy harper (red arrow) |
Who: Roy Harper and Candy Quackenbush + Lian Harper
What: Babysitting Interview
Where: A Park somewhere in Huntington Beach
When: Backdated: Thursday, August 15th. Afternoon
Rating: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
While Roy had set up a babysitting through the agency that one guy on the Network had given him, he kind of wanted someone he would be able to, not only get in contact with easily, but someone who he’d be able to check up on with other people and someone from Valarnet seemed the best idea since it appeared that almost everyone knew everyone else there. And then there was the fact that Candy appeared to have known the other Roy. It was still strange that there had been another him or at least another person with the same name as him, but after talking to Oliver, he no longer felt like everyone was in on some big joke against him. When Oliver had shown him the pictures he’d brought with him that day they’d met up, there was no denying the fact that the other Roy had looked exactly like he did when he was twenty one. Sure, he was only twenty six now, but a lot could change in six years. Oliver had said he was going to look into a few things, so Roy was hopeful that they’d get to the bottom of this soon.
For now, Roy and Candy had made plans for her to meet him and Lian at a park in Huntington Beach so that they could talk and she could meet Lian and vice versa. While he waited, Roy sat on a nearby bench while Lian ran around with some other kids in the playground.
Candy had flown over to the park. Driving was for people who couldn’t make flying ships out of pure light and make themselves invisible. When she landed just behind the table where Roy was sitting (the hair was hard to miss), she sat for a moment. It was Roy, but not her Roy. It was something to keep in mind, and she took a few breaths before letting the craft dissolve back into non-substantial light. After a few steps, she reversed the invisibility spell and cleared her throat. “Roy?”
Roy turned at the sound of his name and stood up, smiling, “Hi, you must be Candy.” After all, who else would it have been? Well, it could have been someone else who thought he was the other Roy, which okay, Candy was, but she already knew he wasn’t the other Roy. “It’s nice to meet you.” He extended a hand towards her.
“Nice to meet you too.” She smiled at him, taking his hand and shaking it. She was dressed casually, since she was planning on playing on the playground too. Jeans, a tank top, with her leather jacket over it, and jeans. She just hoped this Roy wouldn’t get upset about her scars. Her mismatched eyes scanned over him, and she smiled again. “Which one’s Lian?”
Roy only noticed the visible scars around her clavicle and while he could be a little tactless every now and then, there were some things even he wouldn’t bring up unless the other person brought it up first. Besides, a couple of scars didn’t mean Candy wouldn’t make a good babysitter. At the question, he glanced back towards the playground, green eyes searching for his daughter, “The one with the black hair and purple shorts on the jungle gym.” With his red hair and green eyes and Lian’s black hair and blue eyes, people didn’t usually realize he was her father at first. When she was a one and two years old, people used to ask if he was her babysitter when they were out. As she’d gotten older some of her features had begun to resemble Roy’s, but she still had the same jet black hair that Jade did.
Candy grinned. “She’s gorgeous. I was the littlest sister, so I babysat a lot back in Minnesota where I grew up.” She’d never say ‘back home’, since it wasn’t home to her, never had been. It was easy enough to see how much Roy loved her daughter, how different Roy was from the younger Roy she’d known. “She’s seven, eight?”
“Eight.” Roy nodded and smiled at the compliment, “And thanks. She’s got her mother’s looks,” Not a day went by when Roy didn’t wonder where Jade was and if she ever thought about him and Lian. If she ever wanted to find them. To find Lian.
“I’m sorry.” Candy could hear some sadness there. She hopped up on the picnic table and shrugged out of her jacket. “She looks happy, that’s what matters.”
Roy had accepted the fact that Jade hadn’t been ready a long time ago, but it still hurt when he thought about how she’d just left Lian at the hospital the way she had. “She is. It hasn’t always been easy, but she’s my life so I’ve done everything I can for her.” Roy would give his own life for Lian, “Do you have any references around here? Anyone you’ve babysat for?”
Candy shook her head. “Not as such, but I do work with the kids at Urdnot Ranch sometimes, Wrex and Shepard there will give me references. I’m CPR certified, and I can heal a little if she gets a booboo.” Magic trumped Band-Aids any day.
Wrex was one of the people who had been shocked to see his first post back when he’d first joined Valarnet, so he made a mental note to check in at the ranch, but honestly Candy seemed like a really nice girl who he would be able to leave Lian with. Sure, they’d just met, but Roy was usually a good judge of character. “You can heal?” Roy had heard about the dreams from Oliver when they’d met up, so he wasn’t completely lost there.
Candy nodded, glad that Roy hadn’t commented on the curly-q scars that wound up her arms from wrist to shoulder and over her clavicle. There were some on the back as well, but her tank top covered those up.
“Yeah, a little. I’m kind of the Swiss Army knife of magic powers.” She smiled, waving at a little boy who ran by her and Roy’s table.
“Wow. So not only do people find out there were people who looked exactly like them, but people wind up with magic powers here?” Of course Roy had seen on the net that people somehow inherited things from their dreams, but he didn’t really understand how it worked.
“Some of them.” Candy shrugged, smiling at the kids. “Some people don’t. It’s really random.”
“Random is one word for it,” Roy said, running a hand through his red hair as he glanced back towards Lian. Now that he’d talked to Candy and he felt that he didn’t have anything to worry about with her, he figured he should see how Lian got along with her, “Lian!” As he called her name, the girl looked towards him then ran over.
“Is this the girl you came to meet?” Roy had told Lian that he was going to be meeting a girl at the park to talk to her about babysitting and he nodded in response.
“This is Candy.” He said glancing from Lian to Candy then back.
Candy waved. “Hi, Lian, it’s nice to meet you.” She couldn’t help but grin.
Lian cocked her head to the side as she looked Candy over then glanced up at Roy for a moment before turning back to Candy and smiling, “It’s nice to meet you too. I like your name.”
Roy smiled, relieved that Lian appeared to like Candy. Then again, she’d had very few babysitters that she hadn’t liked.
“Oh, thanks! My mom named me after her favorite food. I’m lucky I didn’t end up named meatloaf.” Candy made a silly face before laughing. It was a true story, after all.
Roy laughed as well, “Unless you’re a short, kind of chubby guy, I don’t think meatloaf would suit you,” He didn’t know if she’d get the reference, but Roy made references to things that people didn’t always get all the time and it never really bothered him if they didn’t get it. “But you’re lucky I didn’t name you after my favorite food, otherwise you’d be named pizza.” He said, smirking down at Lian.
“I would do anything for love, but I wouldn’t be named Meatloaf,” she laughed. Candy beamed when she heard Lian liked pizza. “What toppings do you like? I like pepperoni and sausage. Oh, and extra cheese.”
“Extra cheese is my favorite. Daddy likes hawaiian, but fruit on pizza is gross.” Lian told Candy as Roy mussed her hair.
“Hawaiian pizza is awesome, thank you very much.” Honestly, Roy could never win.
“Fruit on pizza is gross.” Candy reached her hand out for a high five from Lian. “So at least we know if I babysit you and your dad lets you get pizza, we can do extra cheese and be okay.” She grinned. “Or we could make pizza.”
Lian’s eyes got wide when Candy suggested making pizza and Roy laughed, happy that Lian and Candy appeared to get a long. “I used to make pizza with my grandpa, but now that we moved we’re too far away from them.” That was one thing Roy had worried about with the move, Lian not getting to see his parents as often, but it wasn’t as if they were drastically far away; they were still in the same state. Just not the same city anymore.
“Just as long as you guys promise the kitchen will still be there when I get home, you can cook anything you want.” Roy said, still smiling.
“I made pizza with my grandpa too. Grandpappy O’Donnell was his name, and he said it was the only way to get the crust right.” She grinned, liking the little girl already. Crap. She was only nineteen, she was too young to have a biological clock start ticking, dammit.
“Sounds like we’re gonna have to get some pizza pans and a pizza cutter to keep around,” He smiled down at Lian and ruffled her hair as she scrunched up her nose and tried to move away, fixing it as she did so. Lian might have only been eight, but she hated when Roy messed up her hair. She could run around all day and roll around in the dirt and get leaves and twigs and what not stuck in there, but as soon as Roy messed it up, she whined and told him to stop. Yeah, he would never understand it, so he didn’t try.
Candy laughed. “Which thing on the playground do you like best? I always liked the monkey bars, but that’s because I was good at hanging upside down.”
“I like doing that too. And jumping off the swings.” Lian said, smiling up at Candy as she continued to try and fix her hair.
“Yeah, jumping off swings when she’s as high as possible and scaring the crap out of me.” Roy said, quirking a brow at Lian then looking back at Candy, “She was five and I was pushing her on the swing and all of a sudden she gets it in her head to jump off. If you’ve ever wondered how hospitals treat a twenty three year old guy who brings a five year old in with a broken arm, stop because you don’t want to know.”
“Oh, god, I’ve done that too. I only twisted my ankle, though.” She smiled at Lian, hopping up. “Do you do gymnastics or anything?” Candy did a cartwheel, grinning.
Lian shook her head as she watched Candy and Roy was pretty sure that after this he was going to hear about how cool Candy was and how Lian wanted to do gymnastics now. Roy wasn’t opposed to the idea really, because it meant she’d be able to wear off all the excess energy she had.
“Can you teach me that?” Lian asked.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea today.” And there it was. Did Roy call it or what?
“It takes a while to learn, so maybe next time we see each other?” Candy smiled, reaching out to hug the little girl. “I think your dad might let me babysit you, so I was hoping we could be friends.”
Lian seemed to accept that answer and hugged Candy back, smiling. It was clear that she liked Candy already and Roy felt like he could trust her.
“Just give me your number,” Roy said, taking out his phone, “I’ll give you a call later and we can work out any other details.”
Candy nodded, taking his phone and handed hers over. “If a guy answers mine, that’s just my husband and all that means is that I’m in the bathroom and he’s gotten sick of the ringtone.” Candy couldn’t help but chuckle. She was already excited to look after Lian.