July 07, 2015:
Ollie and Thea meet up at Queen Mansion. They play around and talk about SERIOUS issues.
Gotham City
Queen Mansion
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
A Dark Hold
Apocalypse: Only the Strong
Blood versus Family
Bones Of The City
Breaking the Universe
Cyberdata War: First Strike
Dangerous Esterikos Wonderous Mystikos
Dark Gods & Times
De Oppresso Liber
Demon Lord of New York
Diaz de Muertos
Don't Tell Thanos The Babysitter's Dead
Empire of Tears
Escape from Sakaar
From the Ashes
Gateway to the Stars
Genosha: Rebirth
God Of The Dead
Hacker, Sass-Mastah, Engineer, Spy
Himmel und Hölle in Bewegung Setzen
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
The gymnasium at the Queen mansion is large enough to rival that of most high schools, but it's quite a bit nicer. The floors are polished hardwood and the walls are decorated with racks of ancient weapons and various bits of art that's probably even more ancient. Other areas are set up with heavy bags and other boxing equipment, one corner is piled high with sparring gear, and there are plenty of free and fixed weights to choose from. And, of course, everyone's favorite. The salmon ladder.
Ollie has passed all of these things up in favor of a wooden striking and parrying dummy. This one is reinforced with thin strips of steel to give it a bare chance at survival. All the same, there are dents in the metal and scuffs on nearly every square inch of the assembly.
THWACK! THOK! One of the arms has given all it can. It cracks on the first hit; the second sends it flying across the room.
Thea hadn't been back to the Queen Mansion in what felt like ages, even if she had only been there a few weeks ago to check up on things. The place just didn't feel like home to her anymore after everything that had happened, even if it would always be; it was a confusing set of feelings to deal with.
Using her key to get in and entering the security code so the alarm wouldn't go off she went up to her room to gather a few things before searching around for Ollie.
Finding him in the gymnasium, she couldn't help but smile a little bit at the fond memories as she watched her brother finish his routine.
"I remember when Mom and Dad had this whole place redone so I could practice my routines…." Robert Queen would always be her father, blood or not.
"I miss them, too," Oliver replies. He gives the dummy a final open-palmed strike to the midsection before turning around. There's a sad smile on his face as he bends to pick up a towel and ruffles it through his sweaty hair. "They'd be proud of you, you know. Both of them."
He stoops again, this time to grab a water bottle. On his way back up he tosses his towel at his little sister. His smile stretches out into a roguish grin as he takes a quick sip. "Ahh. So, what brings you to my humble abode, Speedy? You in a hurry to get beat up?"
Thea catches the towel with the same sad expression on her face her brother has, "I hope so Ollie, I really do." She eyes the towel considering what to do with it, even in her mind gears were already turning, if Ollie wanted to get her to hold his dirty towel he was going to be in for a surprise.
Her hands were raised in a peaceful gesture as she stepped forward, towel still held, "I just came to get a few things from my room, I didn't even expect you to be around. I figured you would be running the family business, that's something you still do right?"
"I do. Sometimes." Oliver has the good grace to look guilty for a half-second, then he takes another drink of water. "Ahem. I had a meeting today that got a bit tense. Gave myself the rest of the day off."
The meeting must've been a while ago, because the dummy he damaged wasn't the first. Six more of them have all been placed in a line along one wall, each in varying states of disrepair. Ollie steps in front of them like a small child trying to hide his dirty bedroom. "Anyway, what are you doing here?" he asks. "I figured you be at the club or off training with Connor."
Thea notices the dummies, wondering what kind of meeting Ollie had finished with to be so annoyed, "Tense seems like an understatement Ollie, you're beating on those dummies like they tried to kill all of us. Give them a break."
As she gets closer she suddenly whips at Ollie with the towel, smirking, "I'm here now because my brother has something to get off his chest and if he doesn't tell me, I swear he's going to get so many more of those." She held the towel menacingly, ready to whip him again on bare skin!
After the first snap, Ollie retreats just far enough to bring his own weapon to bear. He points his water bottle at Thea. He pauses, looks her in the eye, and gives her a wink. Then he squeezes hard, forcing a water pistol blast out through the narrow nozzle. It takes him a couple of tries to figure out how to aim it, but he's a pretty quick study.
The dirty towel is raised like a shield in front of her, so her clothing won't get wet, not that she really cared; Thea just didn't want to let her brother win. Regardless, some of the water still manages to splash her and she continues forward towards Ollie despite the menacing water bottle, "You know you can't run from me right, I've always been so much faster than you."
She no longer cared about the water bottle and began too rope the towel up like many high school changeroom nightmares started and began lashing out at Ollie again playfully, "I can do this all day, so you better tell me what's going on with you Ollie."
Ollie's water bottle is depleted. He drops it, side steps, and hooks his toe inside a boxing glove. A lazy kick sends the glove sailing in Thea's direction. It's a warning shot, but he's already got the other glove ready and a faux-serious look on his face. He can't hold the expression for long, though. Rather than dissolve into laughter, his faux seriousness is replaced by the real thing. He keeps his eyes on the towel as he explains. "Dario Agger came to see me today. He was his usual charming self. He's planning to leverage Roxxon and use it against the American government."
He takes a breath and wiggles his toes inside the glove's elastic wristband. "He's going to try and force them to reject the Registration Act," he elaborates. "For moral reasons, he claims. He wanted me to sign his petition and jump on the bandwagon. And he was a dick about it." A small wave indicates the battered practice dummies.
Thea uses the towel to swat the errant boxing glove sailing in her direction, showing a little bit of what she has learned to her brother before smiling despite the seriousness of the situation. It was good to just play around sometimes with how serious life was, "That sounds like more fun than the island. What does he have to gain?" She wasn't big on politics or corporate business, but this issue was something that literally would have a lasting impact on the world and she had her own feelings on it.
"He says he just wants to do the right thing. That's why I'm so suspicious. Methinks the lady doth protest too much." Oliver squeezes out a half-smile at his own joke, but that's all he can manage for now. He nudges the boxing glove aside and looks Thea in the eye. "The biggest problem I have with him is that I think he's wrong. I might not ever write my name in it, but a registry would make my night job a lot easier."
Thea laughs just a tad for her brother sake before frowning a little bit, brows knitted in concern, "The right thing? Sounds like he has an agenda to me especially if he's going to use his influence and corporation as leverage, that's pretty shady." Her brother's gaze is met and she nods in agreement, "Registration could do a lot of good, especially if they actually start tracking the more dangerous offenders and then they can put a leash on some of these 'heroes' who run around like gods doing whatever they want. It's an injustice Ollie what some of them can do and still, you manage to beat so many of them."
Oliver lets out a low, rumbling laugh. He takes a step closer to Thea and loops an arm around her shoulder for a sidelong hug. "Better knock that off, otherwise me and my ego will have to start taking different limos."
He smiles, but his heart isn't in it. "Thank you, really," he continues. "From a moral standpoint I think it's just as wrong as Dario claims to. It's a violation of privacy. It's unjust. It's not particularly American. I don't care, though. A registry would be too valuable as a tool. I don't think it's an opportunity we can pass up."
He gives Thea another squeeze and lets her go. "This is where things start getting difficult. Anyone can throw a punch. It's the decisions we make that tell us who we are. Especially the hard ones."