15203/What I Meant to Say...

What I Meant to Say...
Date of Scene:	22 June 2023
Location:	Blake House
Synopsis:	Thomas finds a repair tech for Fluffy.
Cast of Characters:	Thomas Blake, Felicity Smoak

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Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake is not the brightest bulb on the tech tree. He's great with alarms, locks, costuming, and knives. Robots, not so much. Despite it no longer being his MO, he has retained a giant robot cat because no cat gets left behind. He'd been looking for a techie to repair the left front paw for some time. He met several such people over drinks. After a lot of pondering, and drinks, he decided on Felicity Smoak who was a cute blonde with big... credits. One thing led to another. Tm brought er back to his place, he had to call an Uber, having had too good a time. He opens the door and ushers the woman in.

"S I left your boss or client whatever a text so he'd not worry." Decent of him. Except he used that burner phone by mistake. The text: <<I took Felicity. She's fine. I got some biziness with her (LOL). I wll contract you about money, its probably a lot.>>

"Come in. Siddown, uhm, don't mind the tiger. He'd probably want ear scratches. Lemme see... whiskey, bourbon, bourbon, rum... hey I knew I had some Zinfandel! Here ya go!" He pours a water glass for Felicity, and starts fixing some run for himself.

Felicity Smoak has posed:
How was it that Felicity Smoak came across an RFP to fix a robotic feline paw? Nobody knows, really. Nobody knows how Felicity comes across most of the things she does online. But, she knows people. Lots of people. And some of those people probably know that, if she was given a chance to work on a robot cat, she'd be like Road Runner trying to get there.

So, she is. She's the last appointment that Thomas had, actually. Not because she was late getting there or anything, but probably because they were booked alphabetically and her last name starts with S. Either that, or she was working so late in the.. um.. tech department of Queen Consolidated that she /had/ to take the last available appointment.

Definitely not the Arrowcave.

And so, by the time Felicity shows up, she's a little flustered from nearly running late and is her usual, awkward, lovable, geeky self through the entire thing.. with /lots/ of questions about what /exactly/ the robot cat is, and what it's for, and where he got it, and why he has it, and where can she get one?

The wine had flowed faster than she'd expected, but despite being tipsy, she was on her way to go inspect this cat. Because damnit, she wasn't going to have a whole conversation and then /not/ see the robot cat.

The mention of leaving a text, however, has her a little panicked.

"You sent Oliv--Mr. Queen.. a... huh." Crap. She should have done that. She was so used to just /doing things/ that she hadn't stopped to give much thought into how it might look if Oliver knew she had gone out for drinks with a guy that had then taken her home. It wasn't /like that/. But it sure as hell /looked/ like that.

"Maybe I should just make a quick.."

Purse.

"Have you.. seen my purse?"

She's looking around. Did he leave it in the Uber?

Then she's being handed a glass of wine, and though her instinct is to decline, that seems.. impolite. It's already poured. So, she takes it. Momentarily distracted by the mention of a..

"Thank you.. I'm sorry.. did you say tiger?"

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake ponders a moment. "Yeah, there he is now." Felicity will feel something massive bumping her leg, actually displacing her, shifting her easily. Truth be told, Rasputin is very god at sneaking up on people, all six hundred clawed and fanged pounds of him. What's the difference between a poodle wanting scritchies and a tiger? You don't ignore the tiger, even if he's a pain in the ass. As it is... his purr has every molecule of Felicity's body vibrating in harmony.

"Rasutin, this is a friend. She is not protein, understand? Okay, he's cool. He likes you." The proof of that being the technologist is alive and well. Thomas starts looking for her purse. Then he pulls his phone out and contacts Uber. He speaks in hushed tones for a moment.

"Okay, I know this driver, he's found the purse but, he's got a long haul into Jersey. He'll swing by when he can. You can finish your wine and we'll look at Fluffy. Rasputin! No jumping!"

Felicity Smoak has posed:
/There he is now./

The words don't come fast enough to temper Felicity's reaction. Maybe if she hadn't already had a few glasses of wine over the course of the meeting, it would be one thing, but she seems.. sluggish when the tiger bumps up against her legs and nearly takes them out from underneath her.

Felicity squeals.

She's half-sitting on the big beast for a moment before she gets her feet back under her, a bit of her wine sloshing out, down her sleeve in the process. She gasps, covering her mouth, and holding the glass up out of the way of the tiger's head. At least none of it /seemed/ to spill on the carpet.

"Okay-okay-okay.. that's a /real/ tiger.. not a robotic one.." Her nervous voice has gone up a half-octave, and while Thomas doesn't seem to be overly concerned about her getting eaten, she isn't so sure. She reaches a hand down tentatively to set on the tiger's head, petting.. cautiously.. while Thomas is on the phone to Uber.

By the time he's off his call, she's a /little/ more comfortable with giving actual head scritches, though her smile is still nervous.

"Thank you.. I just.. want to be clear.. that /this/?" she points a finger down. "Isn't the cat you want me to look at? This isn't some switcharoo or anything? Because.. I'm better with things that are battery operated." Beat. "Robots. I mean robots."

Thomas Blake has posed:
Thomas Blake would be like this O.o were he an emoticon. Most of the time people would say he's that eggplant emoji. He snorts, "Fluffy is a gas electric hybrid. C'mon we'll see the robot. The tiger is the final vetting process. He can tell if someone bears malice to me. He's often overworked. Uhm... I'm guessing your money and house keys are in your purse so... why don't you stay for dinner? I do a mean omelette. World's best. Also grill a pretty good steak. You can have some dinner while you wait for Faoud to get here. I also have coveralls in the garage so you don't mess yourself up further. Aaand... we're clear. You're here for the robot. The tiger's name is Rasputin." He heads outside, beckoning her to follow.