3935/Owner Of A Lonely Heart

Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Date of Scene:	25 October 2020
Location:	The Glades
Synopsis:	Cupid catches Oliver during a stakeout. She realizes that she can't have his love until his current interest is removed from the equation. (She might be a little cray-cray.)
Cast of Characters:	Vanessa Carlysle, Oliver Queen

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Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
There has not been any activity at the remaining people in the Glades who are on the sex offender registry and whom Green Arrow had a hand in their arrest. The members of Team Arrow have been taking turns keeping an eye on them, trying to stop Cupid before she strikes again.

Tonight Oliver's assigned person is Ronald Currant. Ronald was a college senior at a fraternity that had some alumni involved in demonic worship, and Ronald was following in their footsteps when Green Arrow busted up one of their rituals after a number of happenings drew his attention. That was eight years ago though, and Ronald has since gotten out of jail and is working for a shipping company now.

At least Oliver has a good spot for observing him from. A building just up the road, not the best rooftop to watch from, for there is another that is closer. But this one is taller and has a view of that better location, making it a good spot to try to catch Cupid from.

Oliver Queen has posed:
Where it comes to hunting Cupid it's all about trying to predict where she may be at. Oliver had her encounters with the woman quite a few times in the past so he believes he knows her well enough. Of course that a long time has gone by. Who knows what tricks she may have learned? But what he knows is that she being back isn't good news for anyone...

Oliver is down on one knee, perched on that high building, using the cover of night and a nearby billboard to provide enough shadow to be mostly unnoticed, those green leathers also helping in keeping him mostly out of sight.

He has a pair of nightsight goggles on, using them to follow more easily what goes by both on that other building but also on Ronald. "So far, so good." he speaks quietly on comms to Diggle who was at the Arrowcave, coordinating the rest of Team Arrow as they kept an eye on their assignments. Some company for the night was always good. "I wonder if they do food deliveries atop buildings." he muses, perhaps in an attempt to ease the tension. He has done this for years. But some of his enemies just had a way to unnerve him.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Others are watching the other locations tonight, while it's Vanessa's turn to have the night off. She mentioned she was debating whether to go up to New Lots and look in on a gang she was 'discouraging' from operating in one of the neighborhoods there. John replies over comms, << Sounds like a quiet night all around. I'll see if I can't find someone willing to deliver you a large pepperoni,>> he offers.

The first footfall that Oliver hears is already right up close behind him as he's looking down at the area below. Night visions goggles, great for seeing things that thing being in the dark is enough to hide them, but also cuts down on peripheral vision to next to nothing.

"Thought I'd steal a moment with you, lover," the feminine voice says from behind him. A pair of arms slide around Oliver's shoulders, the gloves those of an archer to protect the hand but leave the fingers free. The coloring of the gloves and sleeves so similar to Green Arrow's own costume. The curves of the woman press up against his back and a warm breath is exhaled over the back of his neck and then his ear in a tantalizing way.

Oliver Queen has posed:
<< Maybe deliver by drone. It's a thing these days. >> Oliver replies to his old friend, then letting out a sigh. << Sometimes I wonder if the world isn't moving too fast for the likes of us, mmm? >> and of course that's right when Cupid decides to move in. Just his luck! But then again she has always been the type to find his weaknesses way too easily.

He is up on his feet immediately but then those arms are felt about him. He has been caught, but at least there isn't a dagger on his back ..., yet. One hand moves up to remove his goggles. Bad idea it was..

The hood swivels and he attempts to cast a look over his shoulder at the form. He is tense, ready for a fight but ..., she does seem familiar. "Thought you were taking the night off." he finally offers. His shoulders do ease some of the tension even if he is still alert. An exhale comes after, one hand moving up to curl about the woman's, squeezing it so.

"Can't say I don't enjoy the surprise though."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
The leather body armor in their costumes might stop Oliver from feeling the warmth of the body behind him, but not for lack of her trying. "Mmm, I do like surprising you," she murmurs into his ear. "But I was right about her being your lover wasn't I? I thought maybe the one in red at first," the woman behind Oliver says, and then she leans her mouth down and bites down on his shoulder where it joins the neck and is exposed by his costume. Hard enough it should leave quite a mark while not breaking the skin.

Cupid pulls her hood back and tugs the brown wig off, dropping it to the ground and letting her red hair flow as she shakes her head to let it out. "She doesn't have what it takes to be your woman. I'm making your city a better place," she tells him.

Oliver Queen has posed:
At first the man seems to be at ease but then as she continues to speak the tension again returns. Something isn't right.. Oliver feels the bite down on the shoulder and grimaces. He curses inwardly, knowing he shouldn't had let his guard down. There is a brief struggle and he attempts to use his strength to get out of the woman's hold.

"Cupid.." He says, tone having shifted to quite the colder one. "What are you doing back here? Thought I had been clear last time you were in Starling that you shouldn't bother trying." he tells her. Though it's not as if obsession is something that can be rationalized with.

"You are killing men which are serving their sentences." His tone dry.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Cupid rests her hands on her hips. She really is a rather striking looking woman. Beautiful red hair, and now that Oliver can see that costume she made to look like Quiver's, he can tell she made it to be quite a bit more melding to her curves than Vanessa's does.

"They are a pox on your city. And so I'm helping you clean them up. It's ok, I realized you stopped using such a final solution with people like this. And that's ok. That's what I can give you that these other women in your life can't. Because I love you, Green Arrow. I love you enough to kill for you to protect what's important," she tells him.

She waves a hand off towards the home of the man that Oliver has been protecting. "You know what he did at that ritual. You were the one who broke it up. Do you think those women have ever stopped paying for what he put them through? Why should he get off so easily?" she asks. "Let me do this for you," she tells him, moving a little bit closer again. She tries to rest her hand on his chest. "We can be so good together. Surely you must see that?" she tells him.

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver finally turns to look at Cupid, one of his hands reaching up to rest on his shoulder where she bit him and brushing it slowly, some of the pain still there. Even if the larger pain is to have been caught unaware by the woman.

He regards her more fully now. She has always been a beautiful woman, true. And if only she wasn't completely crazy who knows how things could had been? But as it turned out ..., wasn't exactly as any of them imagined. He watches her now as if he was looking at a viper, one ready to strike at anytime. "I did not ask you to do this. I stopped killing for a reason. It's not worth the cost, the gradual loss of your soul. There are other ways." it was what the rest of his team had taught him, being tempered in his ways even if sometimes ..., the feeling was still there. The vengeance and the anger.

"All I see is a deluded woman." He lets the hand rest on his chest, just the better to have her close to him so he can reach out, hand swift to try and capture hers as it rests there. Not that he will try to twist or otherwise take her down, but simply resting his hand there in a firm manner. "Killing him will only make us murderers. We are not supposed to be judge jury and executioner." he says in a quiet tone.

He lets a pregnant pause to prolong for a few moments until he finally offers. "I can help you." to mend her ways that is.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
As Green Arrow rests his hand on Cupid's, she moves back in closer to him. "Loving you isn't deluded. It's the most beautiful thing in the world," she tells him. She reaches up with her other hand, wanting to caress his face. "Let me show you how good we'd be together. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Your soul and mine were meant to be together," she tells him, her green eyes flashing at him with a fervent light.

Her fingers brush along his cheek. "We can help each other," she tells him. "I'll help you to be everything that you've always wanted. Before these other groupie archers got their claws into you and tried to get you to change. I know what you're really like inside. I won't judge you. Never you," she promises him.

She leans in a little closer, standing there on the rooftop, both of them with bows and a quiver of arrows, but it could be an intimate rendezvous from appearances. "I have a place nearby. Why don't we go there together? You'll be with me, so he's safe," she says with a glance towards the man Oliver has been guarding. "Turn off your radio and just spend the night with me. I'll make you forget all the rest of them, I promise."

Oliver Queen has posed:
The Arrow allows the touch for a moment, his jaw set tight while he watches the readhead, taking in that feverish gaze, the fixation and obsession. "No." it's a rather simple response, but said with the weight of his determination beneath it. He was set in a path, and nothing was going to stray him aside. He owed that much to those that relied on him. Family, friends, his lover. And himself.

His other hand comes up, taking her other as it was caressing his cheek. Indeed their sillouette is that of a couple, so intimate together even if the truth could not be so far apart. "I already am what I want to be. I will not go back to be who I was in the past. Never again." in a way he sometimes even felt guilty, as if he had been the one to create her.

"I will not let you continue with what you are doing." his hand slides down her arm to rest on a shoulder, firmly, to keep her in place, deep blue eyes fully on her, unblinking. "I will give you one chance to leave town. Stop the killing, start anew. That much I owe you. But no more."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
A bit of emotion flares in Cupid's eyes as Green Arrow tells her no. "You just don't understand yet," she tells him. Her fingernail slides across his cheek, digging in enough to give him a little scratch as if expressing what she's feeling Just a small thing that will barely bleed, or for more than a few dozen seconds at most.

"But you will. I understand now. Our love is like a building. We can't build it on top of the tumbled debris of your current life. We need to sweep that way," the lovely redhead tells Oliver.

Despite the cool late October night, it's starting to feel kind of warm to Oliver. And his balance seems to be getting a little unsteady. Cupid's eyes are still on him intently. "But don't worry my love. I'll remove the last stumbling block to us being together," she says to him.

Oliver's vision is starting to swim and his muscles are starting to feel weak. "Once she's gone, nothing will stand in the way of our love. As it should be," she tells Oliver. And then Cupid leans forward and presses a deep, sultry kiss to his lips.

Oliver Queen has posed:
Turns out that letting go of her other hand was a mistake. Oliver is learning that Cupid has learned quite a few new tricks since last they met. Deadly ones. "That's enough." he says, a frown starting to appear and he ready for a fight until that feeling of dizziness comes, the nausea. He staggers, barely able to keep his precarious balance atop that tall building. "What did you do..." he murmurs, trying to push back and away from her but too weak for it.

He is caught by her instead, feeling the warm kiss on his lips, one that mingles with the poison running through his veins. And perhaps just as venomous.

"I won't let you.." he tells her, weakly once the kiss is broken. His hand comes up to his earpiece, attempting to call on Diggle's attention.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
<<Oliver!? Oliver!? What's going on? Is she there? Does anyone have a response from Green Arrow?>> Diggle says over comms, the voice starting to recede the same as the rest of the world is.

Everything starts to go dark as Oliver feels himself being gently laid down onto the roof. "It's ok. I know it isn't your fault," Cupid's voice says, the sound distorted like the rest of his senses are. "Soon she won't be in our way any longer..."

And then the world goes dark and Oliver Queen sleeps, while his team frantically scramble to reach him, unaware what is going on.

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver falls to one knee, both Diggle's voice and Cupid's a distorted mix, he barely making sense of the words. He does sense the danger though, the urgency. He needs to warn someone but now.., he can't help himself. Sleep comes and he falls down on that roof, lost to the world...

---- Hours later ----

What is it with this headache? And ..., where is he? He slowly begins to wake up to the world again. He is .., somewhere familiar, at least that much he can discern through his blurred gaze, just seeing shapes so far. But he can recognize the inside of the Arrowcave, the sound of the computer servers nearby.. He lifts one hand but then lets it fall again, still too exhausted to do anything.

"I need .. Is anyone here?" he asks, breathless.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Two figures are standing not too far away from the bed where Oliver lays. Their faces difficult to make out at first with Oliver's vision a bit blurry still. But the voices are recognizable enough.

"I'm more worried that she was able to get it into him," Vanessa's voice can be heard saying. "It looks like a mild paralytic, just something to knock him out. Oliver encountered a similar formula once before in Russia," she says.

Diggle's voice answers her. "One of these days you're going to have to tell me how you've learned so much about Oliver's life. Even if I don't know that story," he tells her.

They hear him call and Vanessa is at his side quickly enough that Barry Allen might have been impressed. "We're here Oliver. You're ok. Diggle found and brought you back to the cave," she tells him. Vanessa's warm hand reaches out to take his own, holding it with a tightness that suggests she's been worrying. "Do you remember much?"

Oliver Queen has posed:
One hand comes up, rubbing at his eyes and then at his face where he was scratched. It still stings, some remnants of that burning feeling of earlier there on the skin still. He tries to sit up again but doesn't seem able to, a frustrated look appearing on his features. "Yes, she got an upper hand on me." he murmurs, again re-opening his eyes and finally able to see their faces somewhat better. Recognizing Vanessa's brings a relief to him. His thoughts are still muddied but he remembers the urgency of wanting to reach her, warn her.

"You are alright." He says, his hand squeezing the woman's in return. "I recall being on lookout. She ambushed me." he explains. "I tried to deter her from continuing this, but it was a mistake trying to bring her to reason."

A glance to Diggle and then to Vanessa. "She is determined in making you disappear, Vanessa." which may explain his initial worry when he woke up.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa Carlysle spots that worry easily enough, if not quite understanding the why of it until Oliver gives the explanation. She settles down on the bed beside him, and gently pulls over over to rest against her in her arms.

"Well. She's not allowed to make me disappear. So. That shouldn't be a problem then," she says, making the words sound determined and matter-of-fact. "She used something on to just knock you out. You should be fine in another couple of hours, just a little weak until then," she tells him.

Diggle comes over and looks down at Oliver. "You really know how to pick them, Oliver. Worst I get is a mean post on my MyFace page," he jokes. Which also causes Vanessa to look at Diggle as she says, "Hey!? He picked /me/ remember?" she says, though she's just giving Diggle a hard time.

Vanessa looks back to Oliver and lets out a little sigh. "So she realized we're together I guess? And now I'm the competition to make go away. Well. At least this might mean she's turning away from the men in the Glades to focus on me. So they are hopefully safe."