9789/Using the Relaxation Arrow

Using the Relaxation Arrow
Date of Scene:	23 January 2022
Location:	Queen Mansion
Synopsis:	A lazy afternoon watching football ends up interrupted by an emergency.
Cast of Characters:	Oliver Queen, Roy Harper, Felicity Smoak

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Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen is attempting something resembling leisure. His life use to be nothing but leisure, except when he was young, his leisure was chasing women, stealing boats and doing *redacted* amounts of cocaine. Now, it's having ordered enough hot wings and pizza for seven people (hey, he needs his carbs, he lives an energy-consuming lifestyle and it's cheat day anyway) and watching the football playoffs. Has he watched the regular season at all? No. Does he know who any of these players are? Also no. But he is comfortable picking his favorites based on mascot and you should be to.

Plus, he met that Tom Brady guy at a party once and what a self-centered jerkhole. So of course he's winning.

"Royyyyyyyyyyyy, the pretty boy is winning, you should probably see it, it'll improve your self-esteem." he calls.

Roy Harper has posed:
From upstairs, Roy comes padding barefoot into the room. He's wearing dark blue New England Patriots trainer shorts and a brown T-shirt that has about a dozen pictures of little birds of the Paridae family with the caption above the pictures: "Nice Tits." Nerd humor is nerdy.

"I don't have self-esteem. Don't believe in it." He flops down on the couch and puts his feet up on a coffee table that probably costs more than some people's cars. "I didn't even know you knew where this room was. I don't think I've ever seen you chill before."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Football?

Football?

MIT didn't have a team; at least not to her knowledge. And, she wasn't 'cool' enough to be part of either the band OR the cheerleaders, so...

And that means that Felicity has accepted the invitation, dressed down casually, but not too.. form fitting knit dark colored turtleneck with her 'chai' necklace hanging on the outside on a medium-length chain. She's wearing a comfortable pair of slacks with canvas shoes- a nod to the fact she took a taxi and didn't walk. Blonde hair is up in a pony-tail and her makeup is set as 'natural' behind the rimmed glasses.

She's already there, having brought the popcorn, because.. isn't that what one brings?

Turning her head to watch Roy's progression downstairs, her expression is one of tight-lipped humor. "Nice shirt. What are you again? Twelve?"

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen is wearing a pair of relaxed fit jeans, a forest green sweater and a pair of novelty socks that feature Tweety Bird on them. He takes a sip of his soda, having purged the house of beer and wine in deference to Roy's recovery. That hadn't been his particular problem, but Ollie rarely drank much anyway. Not these days.

"How dare you. He's a husky boy's 15," Ollie says. "And still growing. Make sure to get some milk for youself out of the fridge. You're going to need those strong bones," he says, wincing as someone gets tackled hard on screen. "Oh god, that's a concussion. Maybe i need a helmet...nah."

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy sticks his tongue out at Felicity at the comment about being twelve. He peers down at his thin frame. "What about me is husky?" He lifts his shirt revealing some kind of stupid 16-pack or something, and a lean, tight build. Oliver, of course, hit a nerve. Young gay men don't like the suggestion that they might be putting on weight. True, he probably eats about eight to ten thousand calories a day, but look at his lifestyle. Olympic swimmers are just taking it easy by comparison.

"This is why I don't hang out with you two," Roy retorts, though his tone indicates good humor. "It becomes National Pick On Roy Day." He grabs two slices of pizza and folds one over the other so the two topping sides are mashed together like a sandwich and takes a huge bite.

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"I don't know..." Felicity begins slowly and somewhat theatrically. "I'll have to check on that." To underscore her words, she reaches to pull out her ever present cellphone from the bag/purse that she'd brought with.

With Oliver's exclamation at the play on the screen, Felicity's head whips around to look at the television before narrowing blue eyes to see if she can discern anything that she might actually understand, other than, 'Ouch, that probably hurt'.

"They've got hard heads." She pauses a moment before side-eyeing Oliver, "Sorta like you. And like you, they'll just go back in and do it some more." That gives the computer geek a moment, "You //sure// you didn't play football in school?"

Felicity has the bag of popcorn out and on the table, and she's ready to lean in to grab a handful. "See? Oliver's turn now."

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen shrugs, "Look, I can't tease Thea. One, she's not here, two, she'd cut me. And I can't tease Felicity, I am her employer and her friend and she's way too attractive. All of my passive-aggressive fraternal energy has to go towards you, my bouncing baby Roy. But it's all love, I assure you," he says.

He shakes his head at Felicity's question, "I played baseball. Pitcher, of course. Don't," he says, pointing his finger pre-emptively before Roy can make a remark. "I got pro-scouted, but my inability to do things like show up for team meetings and going to Tijuana during the playoffs kind of cooled off my stock."

Roy Harper has posed:
"Ethnw mmdrph imhwrrrg em dmunth!" Roy says emphatically in response to Oliver's pitcher comment, silencing finger or no silencing finger. Of course his mouth was so epically stuffed with pizza who the hell even knows what he said. Based on his expression, apparently it was very witty.

He finally manages to chew and swallow that mouthful without, you know, dying. He cracks open a can of Coke and empties it in one long swig.

"Burn," he says, green eyes sparkling with humor and energy, as he still rides the high of whatever the heck it was he said.

At least he was able to drink the entire Coke without a burp...oh, no, there it is. He belches a four or five second belch.

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity feeds herself a couple of popped corn as she sits back on the couch, a weathered eye at the screen to determine if she was right or not. Yup.. the player is headed back into play, and it's game on! She looks pleased with herself as one leg is pulled up and tucked under her, her words a stage-whisper, "There goes the bro-code..". Though, did he just actually call her.. what?

She stares at Oliver for a long moment, ostensibly to listen to his story about being a baseball pitcher.. and she rolls her head back, coming forward in a slow nod. "Right. Spring training would probably have been a 'miss' too."

Returning her attention to Roy, between the shirt, the talking with wads of pizza in his mouth, AND the burps after downing an entire can of coke, she shakes her head and looks at the pizza with a touch of disgust. "I'll.. pass."

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen makes sure that he is looking over at Roy attentively the entire time that Felicity looks in his direction. He has no idea what she's thinking about. He doesn't hear the question and he won't acknowledge it.

"Spring training happens during spring break. It's not my fault they're a natural conflict," he says. He raises an eyebrow at Roy, "Be careful you don't do that before you head out on patrol. I'd hate for you to get shot because some gangbanger heard your small intestine gurgling like a potbelly pig," he says. His face does get a bit more serious, though, as he adds, "Maybe see if any of your Gotham friends need some support, by the way? Blackgate Prison just blew up yesterday, they're probably a little stressed."

Roy Harper has posed:
Roy cants his head a bit in one direction. "Blackgate blew up? ..the fuck? I didn't hear anything about it. I've had my head up my ass in Metropolis for the past week patrolling the refugee camps. There's so much crime and victimization going on there it's not even funny. There are jackasses who aren't even displaced prowling the camps just so they can prey on the vulnerable. Honestly, this is the first time I've sat down and relaxed in like a week. I probably should have stopped by the Roost."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity points at Oliver, a 'snap point' sans 'snap', "Exactly.

"And Roy? Please don't ever do that again while I'm around? Please?" She has a smile on her face, but it's not quite //all// there, even if it does reflect on her face. She pushes up her glasses with a back of her hand, and finishes the last couple of kernels as Oliver continues.

"Wait.. what?" She's been watching Starling, tracking the black market auction goods/buyers. "Things blow up all the time in Gotham, right? The Prison, though?" That's not good. "Maybe we should give them a hand?" A normal looking cellphone is waved in a delicate hand, but within it is more computing power than most computers both because of what she has in there and who the user is. "I could try and get something of a CCTV network up if you and Roy want to shoot some camera arrows around? I mean, it doesn't have to be fancy. Just something I could use to track."

Roy Harper has posed:
"Well I better get to the Roost and check in in case some shit's going down," Roy says. He hopes up and jogs up the stairs to go get changed.

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen shakes his head, "I didn't catch much on the news. Doesn't seem like the whole thing blew up. They had a riot and a few cell blocks and walls got blown up. They estimated escapees at around 100. Still kind of chaotic," he says.

He watches Roy run off and sighs, "Guess I probably should've lead with that," he says. "More pizza for me." he says, taking ab ite. "Generally speaking, if Batman needs help, he'll say so. I'm not encroaching on his turf without being asked. But Roy's got an in with the kiddos so I can kind of offer some assistance on the downlow without Big Daddy getting involved."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"Probably should have led with that, yes," Felicity agrees. "But the football with the concussions wasn't a bad starter."

With Roy going to check in with the 'Roost', Felicity waves and looks back to Oliver. "Well, we do work with the Justice League. Batman's kind of a big deal. I'm sure a phone call would work. I mean," and she scrunches up her face thoughtfully, "100 isn't anything to sneeze at. That's kind of a lot." Maybe... "I think maybe I'll shore up what I have around Starling. Make sure nothing spills over. 100 means they'll be falling over each other, and there isn't enough room to give them all a 'place'."

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen nods, "Make the calls, sure," he says. Maybe he wasn't as intent as he should've been, or as others expected. He had been doing a lot of deep thinking lately. The kind that comes when you've been pushing yourself as hard as you can for as long as he has. Even taking some of that meditation stuff he used to blow off to heart.

"I imagine you'll have the names of everybody who escaped within about eight hours and then can locate half of them electronically before tomorrow's over. Does save the rest of us on legwork," he says.

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Bwah.. whah? Felicity's expression says exactly //that//.

"Wait. Me? Call Batman? He's your friend. I think I've seen him.. what? Once? Twice?"

That other bit, however, allows her to regain her center, as it were. "That's easy. I can get a list, cross reference, then-" and she turns blue eyes to Oliver before she offers a self-deprecating smile, "Right. You don't care. I can do it. I could probably do it in the morning." She bites at the inside of her cheek and sucks a little bit of air in, "Ooooor, sure, not doing anything. Could do that tonight. I'll just be late going into work tomorrow, but Evans is running the hardware meeting." Felicity. Queen Consolidated IT Girl by day.

"But you?" Tones turn a little softer, a little more personal. It loses that teasing edge, "You need to slow down, take care of yourself. Let us help. Thea, me, John, Roy.. it's okay."

Oliver Queen has posed:
Oliver Queen narrows his eyes a little, "I'm not entirely sure if you're teasing me or not. But you're right. I have been pushing too hard. And paying the price for it," he says. "Easy to forget we don't have superpowers, unlike a lot of others in this line. God knows Roy doesn't want to be reminded," he says.

He softens his own tone, "I would appreciate you doing what you can to add support. You're right, I can call Batman. I just don't know if he'll bother to answer. Like I said, he's not exactly a people person."

He kind of regrets not having that beer now. Oh well. Sacrifices must be made.

"Think I'll go do that now. Thanks for coming, seriously. We almost had a moment to relax there. Almost."