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thejusticelounge2014-11-02 08:01 am
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-11-02 08:01 am
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there's no 'we' in family
Ollie stomped into Mia’s room, since her door was open, waving his phone around as if she could read what was on it. “What the everlasting hell is going on?” he demanded. “Did Roy tell you that him and Mar’i aren’t getting—”
Fortunately at this point Ollie noticed Lian happily creating deformed Sims at the computer, so he moved closer to Mia and lowered his voice. “Roy’s pissed that Mar’i and me had a conversation about him flirting with Kyle and apparently they’re not getting married now? I have no idea what the fuck is happening. Did he talk to you about breaking up with her?”
Kiki ran anxiously in behind Ollie and stood just inside the doorway, making a little pained huff of confusion.
Mia looked at Ollie, then down to Kiki, “Hey it looks like Kiki needs to potty. How about you come and help me take her out, Ollie.” She said shooing him, and Kiki out of her room and grabbing Kiki’s leash.
"Are you serious?" She asked when they were out of ear shot of her room — even if Lian wasn’t paying attention she didn’t need to accidently over hear anything. "No, he didn’t say anything to me! He said he was helping her with all whatever the hell has been going on. I mean… he did text me the other day and seemed pretty upset that Mar’i didn’t tell him, or what him to know about whatever and all the news stuff," Mia said grimacing a little. "So, I mean… unless they totally cleared all that shit up with each other, whatever bullshit they’re fighting over might not be the whole reason they’re fighting in the first place… Not that it really matters I guess."
Ollie frowned, patting the side of Kiki’s haunch as the dog pushed between him and Mia, determined to help. “Roy’s doing what now?” he repeated, at a loss to untangle this. “What, was he mad that he found out about the magazine meta attack with Mar’i from the news and not from her mouth?”
He grimaced as well. “Even if that’s the case, why would she say that he didn’t even want his ring back and he’s pissed that she didn’t ‘stand up’ against me for calling him gay, or however it is that Roy interpreted shit? How’s Roy off doing work to help Mar’i if they’re simultaneously breaking off their engagement?” Ollie looked down at Kiki, who was staring mournfully up at them, then back at Mia. “This is nonsense. Where IS Roy? I need to talk some fucking sense into him.”
Mia was aware that Ollie probably wasn’t asking her all these questions, because how the hell should she know. So she just shrugged and rolled her eyes a little because wtf. “Come on sweetie,” Mia said hooking Kiki on her leash so she didn’t get confused to why they were just standing around with her leash and not actually going outside.
At Ollie’s last statement Mia snorted and looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Do you? Do you really? When’s the last time a talk you and Roy had actually went positively and fixed things? What even happened? Why were you and Mar’i talking about Roy flirting with Kyle anyway?”
Moving to the front door to get his shoes on, Ollie leaned against the wall and made a face. “We were in the cafeteria, I was sitting with Mar’i, and I noticed Roy was being all flirty with Rayner so I mentioned it. ‘Cause it was interesting to see him being the way that I was with Hal, y’know, from the outside. Objectively.” He stood upright again, shoes on, and sighed. “Aaaaand because it was kinda funny because Roy’s always ragging me about being with Bruce and how he thinks it’s unnatural and no homo and all that shit. So yes, yes, I got a little bit of mean satisfaction from seeing /him/ be all flirty-flirty with Kyle. But it wasn’t anything serious! Except then Mar’i started talking about how she needed to leave the relationship and make room for Roy’s true destiny with Kyle, the love of his life, which was completely confusing and I have no idea where she got that from.”
They moved out into the front foyer to wait for their elevator, and Ollie continued, “—I mean, even with Hal and me, it wasn’t true love! I was with Dinah and perfectly happy! We were dumbass best friends who weren’t ready for a relationship like that /anyhow/ and got it all mixed up because we were on the road together.”
At that, Ollie fell into a grumpy silence, broken only when he announced, “And yeah, maybe you’re right about when I try to talk to Roy about things. But who else is gonna do it? You? I don’t think so.” Ollie snorted. “He’ll snap your head off before you can say boo.”
"Did she say that jokingly? Or like for realsies?" Mia asked scrunching her face a little in a confused way, and looking over at Ollie.
She let him go on about himself and Hal and how they were, or weren’t, without saying anything — though she looked mildly amused about it. The two of them walked into the Elevator after it stopped on their floor and Mia sighed a little. “I would talk to him,” She said rolling her eyes dramatically. “I’m pretty sure I could handle myself, Ollie. Some of us don’t antagonize Roy upon first glance. But I can’t because I literally have like… no idea what is going on. Like pretty much zero idea, and i’m not exaggerating. All I know is what I hear second hand and like that is ever totally right. But it sounds like both Mar’i and Roy need to pull their heads out of their asses and talk about things. Maybe they’re just looking for reasons to ruin things. Who the fuck knows, not me. But they need to figure things out because it’s not just them that shit effects, it’s Lian too.”
"Oh," Ollie said direly, "she said it for super realsies. Was absolutely dead set on moving aside so that Roy could find himself with Kyle, or whatever. Never mind that I could see Kyle leaving Zee to be with Roy the way I could see Kyle leaving Earth to become a can-can dancer on Naboo or something." As the elevator moved down, Ollie nodded, "Yeah, I know second hand speculation is hard to go on. So maybe you should ask him. Or both of ‘em. Mar’i says they’d been trying to talk things through, but I’m not sure which part of all this she was referring to. Maybe they need to try talking to people who aren’t in the relationship? I find that helps, sometimes."
He shook his head as the elevator hit the bottom floor and Kiki tugged out of it, getting eager to be outside.
"I don’t antagonize him, by the way," Ollie said, jamming his hands in his pockets as he followed his daughter and her dog. "I do my best. It’s not easy talking to somebody who’s got a hair trigger temper, gets offended if you dare to talk about his fiancee, and has literally called you ‘Bruce Wayne’s bitch’. So I do my best. Maybe you guys should scold /Roy/ once in a while when it comes to bad communication skills."
"What?" Was really all she could say in responce to that. Like… What? What the hell was even going on with these guys? She didn’t know how she was supposed to help when she couldn’t even begin to figure out where any of this was coming from. “Maybe Mar’i has been hiding the fact that in her universe Roy and Kyle are totally a thing or something?” The thought made her laugh, but it was really the only thing she could think of.
"Well, it’s good that they were talking, but what happened to make them not? Just this? Just… everything? I have no idea." Mia shook her head and sighed as they followed Kiki outside. "You’re totally getting at me going to talk to at least Roy, aren’t you? It’s not like I’m some sort of relationship expert…"
She scoffed and sent Ollie an unamused look as they exited the doors and headed down the sidewalk. “You already know what I think, because I’ve said it like fifty times. I think you’re both grown ass adults and you need to start acting like it. This is so tired. Why the hell am I the most mature one here? How does that make sense?” Mia let out a huff that blew the hair out of her face, and she smoothed down the top of her ponytail shaking her head. “I wish Connor was here. Then he could deal with you guys and I could play the sims with Lian, and hang out with my boyfriend,” She said giving a small sheepish sort of smile.
"Sure I know what you think! But you need to revise your opinion is what I’m saying, because /I’ve/ tried to change the way I talk to him and he hasn’t, and people like you and Kate insist on still acting like the fault here is 50/50!" Ollie diverted to avoid a fire hydrant, grousing, "If Connor was here, he’d wash his hands of the lot of us and insist that we all learn some nifty meditation techniques to centre ourselves before flying off the handle. Although yeah, you could still hang out with your boyfriend."
Ollie slanted a look at Mia as she trotted busily along beside him. “How’s that going, anyhow? You two still tight? Tell me something nice about your relationship, since everybody else’s relationship in this family seems to be falling apart at the seams.”
"Yeah, but Ollie I mean… you are both grown adults now but you were his mentor. You were his guardian, you were the one responsible for him. If you still don’t see why he’s always going to see it as being sort of your fault whenever things don’t go well then… I don’t know what to tell you. It’s not fair probably but that’s just the way it is. I mean all I know is If you treated me the way you treated him back in the day I would have just left. And I think it’s sad that he didn’t,” She sighed and shook her head. “Of course if he weren’t so stuck on every little bad thing that ever happened I mean, god. You’re both so freaking stubborn jesus christ.” Mia laughed a little and shook her head. “It’s no wonder Connor needs to leave every month for like a year to hang out with monks. I don’t blame him.”
She gave a little shrug, “Me and Zach are good. Our one year anniversary is on the twenty ninth. Since I had the date wrong the first time, and he’s the one who remembered it so that was funny.” Mia watched as Kiki perked up a little when they got closer to the park. “He’s quitting being a superhero. Or whatever you would call what Zach was in the first place.”
"Well I know THAT. You can’t have three — four — kids and not realize that they’re gonna blame you for it whenever things go wrong. If that’s what you’re saying, then fine, that’s a fact of life, but I don’t see how it’s my fault that he thinks everything is my fault. There’s only so much mea culpa-ing I can do for shit that I wronged him with in the past. And if that’s the way it’s gonna be forever, with everything I did wrong back in the day meaning that he’ll blame me till the day I die, then how is there anything I can even do to change it? You’re kinda giving me a fatalistic view of things here.” Ollie sighed, pushing Kiki’s butt out of his way as the dog moved sideways in front of them to try and pull towards the park. “Anyhow. You should talk to him, yeah. He’ll have a harder time blaming you.”
The news about Zach made Ollie stop in his tracks and look over at Mia, eyebrows raised. “Really?” he asked. “He wants to quit? He thinks he can just quit?” He shook his head, scratching at his beard. “I guess it’s his choice, some people consider themselves reluctant heroes at best, but it’s … I mean, what made him decide to quit at this juncture? Was it that tour with Zee that got all fucked up?”
"Maybe it’s not fatalistic, maybe it’s realistic. Anyway I never signed up for this sidekick thing to cheer you up. I signed up to keep your ass in line," Mia said smirking as they went into the park. Maybe she was going to have to talk to Roy. It sounded like the way things were going anyway. "Yeah, I guess. If he’ll even talk to me. He did tell me he was going to be out for two days, so I don’t know."
Mia laughed a little and shook her head. “I think if someone needed his help he’d probably still help, not that he’ll ever say that, or act like he wanted to, but he wants to focus on his career. I don’t think anything prompted him. I think… It’s probably always been at the back of his mind. He’s never exactly been the most enthusiastic, I mean his reasons for doing the hero thing have never been… the best reasons in the first place. It’s not really strange that he wants to quit…”
"What WERE his reasons for being in the hero gig, then?" It didn’t occur to Ollie to step around this and not ask, assuming that Zach would want to keep his reasons private. That wasn’t really Ollie’s way. He figured he might as well ask, and if people wanted him to not know, they’d just not tell him. "Was he dragged in by Zee or something? Was there some big blowout crisis that yanked him in? Was he like Michael Corleone, just when he thought he was out, we pulled him back in?"
Ollie chortled at his own crappy Pacino impersonation, then bent to pick up a stick for Kiki to fetch. "You’re /supposed/ to cheer me up, though. That’s the sidekick credo. What the hell d’you think all those Robins were around for? Not to mention all the fishkids that Arthur cycled through.”
"I’m not like five hundred percent sure but I think it sort of was like an anything Zee can do I can do better type mantra that got him into it. Plus maybe he also wanted to be closer to her, I don’t know. At least partly? I’m not totally sure. And then his friends sort of kept pulling him onto the Titans. So sort of," Mia laughed and shook her head. "He hasn’t said anything officially about leaving the Titans, or heroing, and I kind of feel like Rose isn’t going to be too happy to hear that — even if the rest of the team might be…" She sighed and let Kiki off the leash so she could play fetch.
"What do you mean all the fishkids Arthur cycled through? I thought there was like two… And maybe that was the case back in the olden days but not anymore. Not in my generation. My generation doesn’t actually have many legitimate ‘sidekicks’ left now that I think about it. So you should count yourself lucky mister. But I guess I should be… moving on from that soon… Hm.”
"Maybe I’m thinking of fishsticks and not fishkids, then," Ollie said absently. He wasn’t really thinking about the jibe at Arthur, not with what Mia was saying. "Fishkicks."
He watched Kiki for a while as she bounded happily around, chasing and tussling with other dogs, before he said, "You don’t have to move on. There’s no age limit. I mean, you’re not really a sidekick anyhow — you’re right, we did move on from that whole gig a while back. I consider you my partner, not my sidekick. And you’re more than capable of being a hero in your own right, without being attached to me.”
She nodded her head a little, “I know. I don’t even really know what I would like… go on to be after Speedy anyway. I guess I could steal another name from Roy or something. I mean I’d take Green Arrow, like you and Connor, but I’m kind of attached to yellow,” Mia let out a small sigh and shrugged. “But it’s still something to think about. I can’t be Speedy forever. I don’t want to be Speedy forever. No matter how much more I like the name than everyone else seems to… Maybe I’ll just go with Arrow like the TV show. Hey! Have they called you or anything, since like you went public. It seems like they should.”
Mia laughed and took a seat on one of the benches. “How are you doing anyway? I mean besides Roy. How’s Kate? Y’know with everything… Everything’s ok right? You did sort of say my relationship was the only one not exactly shitty. Unless that was just sort of a generalization or something…”
It took a while before Ollie could really respond to this, because hearing Mia say that she would’ve liked to take on the Green Arrow mantle was … well, if Ollie’d had to describe it, hearing that made him pretty much verklempt. “Golden Arrow’s available,” he started, but swiftly diverted into a path that would incur less derision: “You can stay being Speedy as long as you want, Mia. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the last in the line. There won’t be any others after you. Tak and Lian have already come up with names for themselves, so there’s no better use for the mantle.”
He picked up the frisbee that Kiki had brought and tossed it back out before sitting down, since its actual owner, a frantic pocket beagle, was starting to bay indignantly. “Things aren’t good, to be honest,” Ollie said, sitting next to Mia. “Kate and me are kinda … at odds right now. Things just aren’t jiving. But we’re working on it, and it’s better than how things are with Bruce, in a way. I dunno. Both situations are messy and hard to sort through, is the problem. But I’m not…” He took a breath. “Not all that optimistic, really. I wrote a breakup letter the other day. Just in case it comes to that.”
Leaning back, Ollie said wryly, “Maybe I should ask that Amell kid if he wants to swap places for a week. Let him fix things up for me, and I could do some future storyline stuff on his show for ‘im.”
"Unless Connor decides he wants a Speedy in the future." She wondered if that was ever going to happen, but kind of didn’t think it would. She couldn’t see him with a sidekick really… "Golden Arrow isn’t that bad though. I probably wouldn’t even have to change my costume." Mia conceded after a moment of watching Kiki. "Maybe a little Golden Shower-y sounding but as long as I don’t say that to anyone they’ll probably never make the connection…"
At Ollie’s next statement, Mia sent him a flat look. “Yeah, well, that’s the way shit is, Ollie. Life is messy and hard too, but you’re not writing any breakup letters to that,” she said almost in a mutter. She reached out and took a tennis ball from a yellow lab — one of Kiki’s doggy friends — that trotted over and tossed it so they could both chase it. “I’m glad you’re trying to work on it though. I guess that’s something… And for the record I’d love if you and Stephen Amell switched places — I mean, for a little while of course…” Mia smirked a little and shook her head, “Arrow could use a little help with the recasting of Saundra Hawke they clearly need to do anyway…”
"Oh god, don’t tell me," Ollie groaned. "Is she some leggy whip-thin blonde now? I don’t think I could take that. Not after the ugly kid they got for Roy."
The yellow lab and Kiki made a circuit around them, and Ollie reached out to pat the dog’s flank as she ran past. “It’s not like I’m tossing the whole thing to the wind without making an effort, Mia, c’mon. It’s a matter of them meeting me halfway. Or more like — it’s a matter of getting across what it is that’s making me unhappy. It’s not happening the way I hoped for, which is the source of frustration. I’m usually good at the whole talking thing. I guess as a unit we’re all off our games, what with Gotham and Walt and.” Ollie almost said Shado, but bit it back at the last moment, his resolution not to talk about what he’d been dealing with while Kate and Bruce were still dealing with their own troubles kicking in. “They’re going though some stuff,” was his limping conclusion instead.
Changing the subject, he reached over and wraps his hand around Mia’s ponytail, giving it a firm squeeze and saying, “Golden Arrow sounds good! There’s more than enough other meanings for it not to instantly jump to golden showers. Besides, no matter what name you choose, there’s always gonna be some smartass coming up with an insult version.”
"No, she was brunette, but definitely white. But she was only on screen for like a sec, at least way less than Sarah was in the first season. So, there is precedence for them recasting her without much of a fuss at all. Hopefully. And they only said her name was Saundra in interviews and stuff, not in the show…"
Mia listened to Ollie explain things and frowned a little, “Maybe you should all get through your stuff then. And then try to deal with things. I mean I don’t know. Like I said I’m not some relationship expert or something.” She didn’t know why anyone would listen to her about this stuff in the first place. “Maybe you should try writing things down. Because then you can revise it and stuff. I don’t know.”
After swatting his hand away from her hair she let out a laugh, “I instantly jumped to golden showers! Maybe because there was a dog peeing like five feet away from us. I don’t know. But I’m sure I’m not the only one that would… And I don’t really get any snarky speedy jokes. Not good ones anyway. I’m sure Roy had to deal with a lot more because he’s a guy and there are more jokes that can come from boys being speedy than girls.”
"And I’m not asking you for relationship advice." Ollie stood up, clapping and calling for the dog. "Kiki! Come on, girl, time to head home!" He could hear a slight whine of protest from somewhere over by a particularly exciting slippery elm tree, but didn’t bother going over — Kiki would come back to them soon enough.
"Nobody’s been able to come up with any disgusting innuendo about the name Green Arrow," he remarked. "Just throwing that out there. All’s I get is the usual Green Jeans, Jolly Green kind of thing. Which is about on par with the /fond/ nicknames, Battling Bowman and Emerald Archer." He paused, thinking for a bit. "People are weird."
Mia took her time standing up and sorting out Kiki’s leash, as much as her dog took her time to come over to them. “Well… What about… Uh… Spending time with you is certainly Green Harrowing… Huh?” She nudged him with her elbow, before she cringed a little. “Don’t tell anybody I just made a pun. So embarrassing.” She leaned down and caught Kiki on her leash before she was able to run off again and straightened up heading back out of the park. “Besides, we’re Archers and I can think of like ten innuendos on that alone. People will always think of something.”
"Another one of those awful puns and I’ll outfit you with pixie boots and scaly green short shorts," Ollie threatened. "We go more for the wry and/or bombastic repartee and invective in this fighting family, young lady. Occasionally a dirty joke, but no puns. That’s grounds for instant disbarment but since I like you, I’ll give you a freebie."
He paused at a drinks cart stationed outside the park and ordered two fresh clementine juices for them before they headed back to the apartment."Anyhow. The more tedious part of being in the family is looking out for each other, so yeah, you’ve gotta talk to Roy and see what the hell’s up with him. I mean, he only told you that he was going out on a case, so that’s something already.”
“Excuse me? You make puns way more than me! Like so much more. So, unless you’re going to rock pixie boots and green shorts than that isn’t very fair.” She grinned, but rolled her eyes, “And what do you mean occasionally a dirty joke? That’s pretty much my entire repertoire.”
Mia took the juice and shook her head a little bit. “Unless he was making an excuse as to why he wasn’t going to be talking to anyone.” Not that she was trying to be pessimistic or anything. But that was what she had assumed right away… So, maybe she was being pessimistic. “Anyway! You can’t be all like, ‘Hey family looks out for each other! Sooooooo have fun with that.’” Actually, Mia was fine with talking to Roy. She just didn’t want anyone to expect anything.
"My days of shorts and boots are long behind me," Ollie said, grinning around his straw. "Whereas they’re still a valid sartorial choice for you."
He added, “And I very much CAN be like ‘look out for your family have fun with that’! That’s the whole point of being the head of this family, is that I absolutely get that kind of unilateral authority. So I’ve delegated you to talk to Roy since you’re the one he reached out to. The end.”
By that point they’d reached back home, and Ollie paused at the door as he let Mia and Kiki into the building. “You go on up. I’m gonna go get us some pizza from that snobby place that won’t deliver.”
Fortunately at this point Ollie noticed Lian happily creating deformed Sims at the computer, so he moved closer to Mia and lowered his voice. “Roy’s pissed that Mar’i and me had a conversation about him flirting with Kyle and apparently they’re not getting married now? I have no idea what the fuck is happening. Did he talk to you about breaking up with her?”
Kiki ran anxiously in behind Ollie and stood just inside the doorway, making a little pained huff of confusion.
Mia looked at Ollie, then down to Kiki, “Hey it looks like Kiki needs to potty. How about you come and help me take her out, Ollie.” She said shooing him, and Kiki out of her room and grabbing Kiki’s leash.
"Are you serious?" She asked when they were out of ear shot of her room — even if Lian wasn’t paying attention she didn’t need to accidently over hear anything. "No, he didn’t say anything to me! He said he was helping her with all whatever the hell has been going on. I mean… he did text me the other day and seemed pretty upset that Mar’i didn’t tell him, or what him to know about whatever and all the news stuff," Mia said grimacing a little. "So, I mean… unless they totally cleared all that shit up with each other, whatever bullshit they’re fighting over might not be the whole reason they’re fighting in the first place… Not that it really matters I guess."
Ollie frowned, patting the side of Kiki’s haunch as the dog pushed between him and Mia, determined to help. “Roy’s doing what now?” he repeated, at a loss to untangle this. “What, was he mad that he found out about the magazine meta attack with Mar’i from the news and not from her mouth?”
He grimaced as well. “Even if that’s the case, why would she say that he didn’t even want his ring back and he’s pissed that she didn’t ‘stand up’ against me for calling him gay, or however it is that Roy interpreted shit? How’s Roy off doing work to help Mar’i if they’re simultaneously breaking off their engagement?” Ollie looked down at Kiki, who was staring mournfully up at them, then back at Mia. “This is nonsense. Where IS Roy? I need to talk some fucking sense into him.”
Mia was aware that Ollie probably wasn’t asking her all these questions, because how the hell should she know. So she just shrugged and rolled her eyes a little because wtf. “Come on sweetie,” Mia said hooking Kiki on her leash so she didn’t get confused to why they were just standing around with her leash and not actually going outside.
At Ollie’s last statement Mia snorted and looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “Do you? Do you really? When’s the last time a talk you and Roy had actually went positively and fixed things? What even happened? Why were you and Mar’i talking about Roy flirting with Kyle anyway?”
Moving to the front door to get his shoes on, Ollie leaned against the wall and made a face. “We were in the cafeteria, I was sitting with Mar’i, and I noticed Roy was being all flirty with Rayner so I mentioned it. ‘Cause it was interesting to see him being the way that I was with Hal, y’know, from the outside. Objectively.” He stood upright again, shoes on, and sighed. “Aaaaand because it was kinda funny because Roy’s always ragging me about being with Bruce and how he thinks it’s unnatural and no homo and all that shit. So yes, yes, I got a little bit of mean satisfaction from seeing /him/ be all flirty-flirty with Kyle. But it wasn’t anything serious! Except then Mar’i started talking about how she needed to leave the relationship and make room for Roy’s true destiny with Kyle, the love of his life, which was completely confusing and I have no idea where she got that from.”
They moved out into the front foyer to wait for their elevator, and Ollie continued, “—I mean, even with Hal and me, it wasn’t true love! I was with Dinah and perfectly happy! We were dumbass best friends who weren’t ready for a relationship like that /anyhow/ and got it all mixed up because we were on the road together.”
At that, Ollie fell into a grumpy silence, broken only when he announced, “And yeah, maybe you’re right about when I try to talk to Roy about things. But who else is gonna do it? You? I don’t think so.” Ollie snorted. “He’ll snap your head off before you can say boo.”
"Did she say that jokingly? Or like for realsies?" Mia asked scrunching her face a little in a confused way, and looking over at Ollie.
She let him go on about himself and Hal and how they were, or weren’t, without saying anything — though she looked mildly amused about it. The two of them walked into the Elevator after it stopped on their floor and Mia sighed a little. “I would talk to him,” She said rolling her eyes dramatically. “I’m pretty sure I could handle myself, Ollie. Some of us don’t antagonize Roy upon first glance. But I can’t because I literally have like… no idea what is going on. Like pretty much zero idea, and i’m not exaggerating. All I know is what I hear second hand and like that is ever totally right. But it sounds like both Mar’i and Roy need to pull their heads out of their asses and talk about things. Maybe they’re just looking for reasons to ruin things. Who the fuck knows, not me. But they need to figure things out because it’s not just them that shit effects, it’s Lian too.”
"Oh," Ollie said direly, "she said it for super realsies. Was absolutely dead set on moving aside so that Roy could find himself with Kyle, or whatever. Never mind that I could see Kyle leaving Zee to be with Roy the way I could see Kyle leaving Earth to become a can-can dancer on Naboo or something." As the elevator moved down, Ollie nodded, "Yeah, I know second hand speculation is hard to go on. So maybe you should ask him. Or both of ‘em. Mar’i says they’d been trying to talk things through, but I’m not sure which part of all this she was referring to. Maybe they need to try talking to people who aren’t in the relationship? I find that helps, sometimes."
He shook his head as the elevator hit the bottom floor and Kiki tugged out of it, getting eager to be outside.
"I don’t antagonize him, by the way," Ollie said, jamming his hands in his pockets as he followed his daughter and her dog. "I do my best. It’s not easy talking to somebody who’s got a hair trigger temper, gets offended if you dare to talk about his fiancee, and has literally called you ‘Bruce Wayne’s bitch’. So I do my best. Maybe you guys should scold /Roy/ once in a while when it comes to bad communication skills."
"What?" Was really all she could say in responce to that. Like… What? What the hell was even going on with these guys? She didn’t know how she was supposed to help when she couldn’t even begin to figure out where any of this was coming from. “Maybe Mar’i has been hiding the fact that in her universe Roy and Kyle are totally a thing or something?” The thought made her laugh, but it was really the only thing she could think of.
"Well, it’s good that they were talking, but what happened to make them not? Just this? Just… everything? I have no idea." Mia shook her head and sighed as they followed Kiki outside. "You’re totally getting at me going to talk to at least Roy, aren’t you? It’s not like I’m some sort of relationship expert…"
She scoffed and sent Ollie an unamused look as they exited the doors and headed down the sidewalk. “You already know what I think, because I’ve said it like fifty times. I think you’re both grown ass adults and you need to start acting like it. This is so tired. Why the hell am I the most mature one here? How does that make sense?” Mia let out a huff that blew the hair out of her face, and she smoothed down the top of her ponytail shaking her head. “I wish Connor was here. Then he could deal with you guys and I could play the sims with Lian, and hang out with my boyfriend,” She said giving a small sheepish sort of smile.
"Sure I know what you think! But you need to revise your opinion is what I’m saying, because /I’ve/ tried to change the way I talk to him and he hasn’t, and people like you and Kate insist on still acting like the fault here is 50/50!" Ollie diverted to avoid a fire hydrant, grousing, "If Connor was here, he’d wash his hands of the lot of us and insist that we all learn some nifty meditation techniques to centre ourselves before flying off the handle. Although yeah, you could still hang out with your boyfriend."
Ollie slanted a look at Mia as she trotted busily along beside him. “How’s that going, anyhow? You two still tight? Tell me something nice about your relationship, since everybody else’s relationship in this family seems to be falling apart at the seams.”
"Yeah, but Ollie I mean… you are both grown adults now but you were his mentor. You were his guardian, you were the one responsible for him. If you still don’t see why he’s always going to see it as being sort of your fault whenever things don’t go well then… I don’t know what to tell you. It’s not fair probably but that’s just the way it is. I mean all I know is If you treated me the way you treated him back in the day I would have just left. And I think it’s sad that he didn’t,” She sighed and shook her head. “Of course if he weren’t so stuck on every little bad thing that ever happened I mean, god. You’re both so freaking stubborn jesus christ.” Mia laughed a little and shook her head. “It’s no wonder Connor needs to leave every month for like a year to hang out with monks. I don’t blame him.”
She gave a little shrug, “Me and Zach are good. Our one year anniversary is on the twenty ninth. Since I had the date wrong the first time, and he’s the one who remembered it so that was funny.” Mia watched as Kiki perked up a little when they got closer to the park. “He’s quitting being a superhero. Or whatever you would call what Zach was in the first place.”
"Well I know THAT. You can’t have three — four — kids and not realize that they’re gonna blame you for it whenever things go wrong. If that’s what you’re saying, then fine, that’s a fact of life, but I don’t see how it’s my fault that he thinks everything is my fault. There’s only so much mea culpa-ing I can do for shit that I wronged him with in the past. And if that’s the way it’s gonna be forever, with everything I did wrong back in the day meaning that he’ll blame me till the day I die, then how is there anything I can even do to change it? You’re kinda giving me a fatalistic view of things here.” Ollie sighed, pushing Kiki’s butt out of his way as the dog moved sideways in front of them to try and pull towards the park. “Anyhow. You should talk to him, yeah. He’ll have a harder time blaming you.”
The news about Zach made Ollie stop in his tracks and look over at Mia, eyebrows raised. “Really?” he asked. “He wants to quit? He thinks he can just quit?” He shook his head, scratching at his beard. “I guess it’s his choice, some people consider themselves reluctant heroes at best, but it’s … I mean, what made him decide to quit at this juncture? Was it that tour with Zee that got all fucked up?”
"Maybe it’s not fatalistic, maybe it’s realistic. Anyway I never signed up for this sidekick thing to cheer you up. I signed up to keep your ass in line," Mia said smirking as they went into the park. Maybe she was going to have to talk to Roy. It sounded like the way things were going anyway. "Yeah, I guess. If he’ll even talk to me. He did tell me he was going to be out for two days, so I don’t know."
Mia laughed a little and shook her head. “I think if someone needed his help he’d probably still help, not that he’ll ever say that, or act like he wanted to, but he wants to focus on his career. I don’t think anything prompted him. I think… It’s probably always been at the back of his mind. He’s never exactly been the most enthusiastic, I mean his reasons for doing the hero thing have never been… the best reasons in the first place. It’s not really strange that he wants to quit…”
"What WERE his reasons for being in the hero gig, then?" It didn’t occur to Ollie to step around this and not ask, assuming that Zach would want to keep his reasons private. That wasn’t really Ollie’s way. He figured he might as well ask, and if people wanted him to not know, they’d just not tell him. "Was he dragged in by Zee or something? Was there some big blowout crisis that yanked him in? Was he like Michael Corleone, just when he thought he was out, we pulled him back in?"
Ollie chortled at his own crappy Pacino impersonation, then bent to pick up a stick for Kiki to fetch. "You’re /supposed/ to cheer me up, though. That’s the sidekick credo. What the hell d’you think all those Robins were around for? Not to mention all the fishkids that Arthur cycled through.”
"I’m not like five hundred percent sure but I think it sort of was like an anything Zee can do I can do better type mantra that got him into it. Plus maybe he also wanted to be closer to her, I don’t know. At least partly? I’m not totally sure. And then his friends sort of kept pulling him onto the Titans. So sort of," Mia laughed and shook her head. "He hasn’t said anything officially about leaving the Titans, or heroing, and I kind of feel like Rose isn’t going to be too happy to hear that — even if the rest of the team might be…" She sighed and let Kiki off the leash so she could play fetch.
"What do you mean all the fishkids Arthur cycled through? I thought there was like two… And maybe that was the case back in the olden days but not anymore. Not in my generation. My generation doesn’t actually have many legitimate ‘sidekicks’ left now that I think about it. So you should count yourself lucky mister. But I guess I should be… moving on from that soon… Hm.”
"Maybe I’m thinking of fishsticks and not fishkids, then," Ollie said absently. He wasn’t really thinking about the jibe at Arthur, not with what Mia was saying. "Fishkicks."
He watched Kiki for a while as she bounded happily around, chasing and tussling with other dogs, before he said, "You don’t have to move on. There’s no age limit. I mean, you’re not really a sidekick anyhow — you’re right, we did move on from that whole gig a while back. I consider you my partner, not my sidekick. And you’re more than capable of being a hero in your own right, without being attached to me.”
She nodded her head a little, “I know. I don’t even really know what I would like… go on to be after Speedy anyway. I guess I could steal another name from Roy or something. I mean I’d take Green Arrow, like you and Connor, but I’m kind of attached to yellow,” Mia let out a small sigh and shrugged. “But it’s still something to think about. I can’t be Speedy forever. I don’t want to be Speedy forever. No matter how much more I like the name than everyone else seems to… Maybe I’ll just go with Arrow like the TV show. Hey! Have they called you or anything, since like you went public. It seems like they should.”
Mia laughed and took a seat on one of the benches. “How are you doing anyway? I mean besides Roy. How’s Kate? Y’know with everything… Everything’s ok right? You did sort of say my relationship was the only one not exactly shitty. Unless that was just sort of a generalization or something…”
It took a while before Ollie could really respond to this, because hearing Mia say that she would’ve liked to take on the Green Arrow mantle was … well, if Ollie’d had to describe it, hearing that made him pretty much verklempt. “Golden Arrow’s available,” he started, but swiftly diverted into a path that would incur less derision: “You can stay being Speedy as long as you want, Mia. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the last in the line. There won’t be any others after you. Tak and Lian have already come up with names for themselves, so there’s no better use for the mantle.”
He picked up the frisbee that Kiki had brought and tossed it back out before sitting down, since its actual owner, a frantic pocket beagle, was starting to bay indignantly. “Things aren’t good, to be honest,” Ollie said, sitting next to Mia. “Kate and me are kinda … at odds right now. Things just aren’t jiving. But we’re working on it, and it’s better than how things are with Bruce, in a way. I dunno. Both situations are messy and hard to sort through, is the problem. But I’m not…” He took a breath. “Not all that optimistic, really. I wrote a breakup letter the other day. Just in case it comes to that.”
Leaning back, Ollie said wryly, “Maybe I should ask that Amell kid if he wants to swap places for a week. Let him fix things up for me, and I could do some future storyline stuff on his show for ‘im.”
"Unless Connor decides he wants a Speedy in the future." She wondered if that was ever going to happen, but kind of didn’t think it would. She couldn’t see him with a sidekick really… "Golden Arrow isn’t that bad though. I probably wouldn’t even have to change my costume." Mia conceded after a moment of watching Kiki. "Maybe a little Golden Shower-y sounding but as long as I don’t say that to anyone they’ll probably never make the connection…"
At Ollie’s next statement, Mia sent him a flat look. “Yeah, well, that’s the way shit is, Ollie. Life is messy and hard too, but you’re not writing any breakup letters to that,” she said almost in a mutter. She reached out and took a tennis ball from a yellow lab — one of Kiki’s doggy friends — that trotted over and tossed it so they could both chase it. “I’m glad you’re trying to work on it though. I guess that’s something… And for the record I’d love if you and Stephen Amell switched places — I mean, for a little while of course…” Mia smirked a little and shook her head, “Arrow could use a little help with the recasting of Saundra Hawke they clearly need to do anyway…”
"Oh god, don’t tell me," Ollie groaned. "Is she some leggy whip-thin blonde now? I don’t think I could take that. Not after the ugly kid they got for Roy."
The yellow lab and Kiki made a circuit around them, and Ollie reached out to pat the dog’s flank as she ran past. “It’s not like I’m tossing the whole thing to the wind without making an effort, Mia, c’mon. It’s a matter of them meeting me halfway. Or more like — it’s a matter of getting across what it is that’s making me unhappy. It’s not happening the way I hoped for, which is the source of frustration. I’m usually good at the whole talking thing. I guess as a unit we’re all off our games, what with Gotham and Walt and.” Ollie almost said Shado, but bit it back at the last moment, his resolution not to talk about what he’d been dealing with while Kate and Bruce were still dealing with their own troubles kicking in. “They’re going though some stuff,” was his limping conclusion instead.
Changing the subject, he reached over and wraps his hand around Mia’s ponytail, giving it a firm squeeze and saying, “Golden Arrow sounds good! There’s more than enough other meanings for it not to instantly jump to golden showers. Besides, no matter what name you choose, there’s always gonna be some smartass coming up with an insult version.”
"No, she was brunette, but definitely white. But she was only on screen for like a sec, at least way less than Sarah was in the first season. So, there is precedence for them recasting her without much of a fuss at all. Hopefully. And they only said her name was Saundra in interviews and stuff, not in the show…"
Mia listened to Ollie explain things and frowned a little, “Maybe you should all get through your stuff then. And then try to deal with things. I mean I don’t know. Like I said I’m not some relationship expert or something.” She didn’t know why anyone would listen to her about this stuff in the first place. “Maybe you should try writing things down. Because then you can revise it and stuff. I don’t know.”
After swatting his hand away from her hair she let out a laugh, “I instantly jumped to golden showers! Maybe because there was a dog peeing like five feet away from us. I don’t know. But I’m sure I’m not the only one that would… And I don’t really get any snarky speedy jokes. Not good ones anyway. I’m sure Roy had to deal with a lot more because he’s a guy and there are more jokes that can come from boys being speedy than girls.”
"And I’m not asking you for relationship advice." Ollie stood up, clapping and calling for the dog. "Kiki! Come on, girl, time to head home!" He could hear a slight whine of protest from somewhere over by a particularly exciting slippery elm tree, but didn’t bother going over — Kiki would come back to them soon enough.
"Nobody’s been able to come up with any disgusting innuendo about the name Green Arrow," he remarked. "Just throwing that out there. All’s I get is the usual Green Jeans, Jolly Green kind of thing. Which is about on par with the /fond/ nicknames, Battling Bowman and Emerald Archer." He paused, thinking for a bit. "People are weird."
Mia took her time standing up and sorting out Kiki’s leash, as much as her dog took her time to come over to them. “Well… What about… Uh… Spending time with you is certainly Green Harrowing… Huh?” She nudged him with her elbow, before she cringed a little. “Don’t tell anybody I just made a pun. So embarrassing.” She leaned down and caught Kiki on her leash before she was able to run off again and straightened up heading back out of the park. “Besides, we’re Archers and I can think of like ten innuendos on that alone. People will always think of something.”
"Another one of those awful puns and I’ll outfit you with pixie boots and scaly green short shorts," Ollie threatened. "We go more for the wry and/or bombastic repartee and invective in this fighting family, young lady. Occasionally a dirty joke, but no puns. That’s grounds for instant disbarment but since I like you, I’ll give you a freebie."
He paused at a drinks cart stationed outside the park and ordered two fresh clementine juices for them before they headed back to the apartment."Anyhow. The more tedious part of being in the family is looking out for each other, so yeah, you’ve gotta talk to Roy and see what the hell’s up with him. I mean, he only told you that he was going out on a case, so that’s something already.”
“Excuse me? You make puns way more than me! Like so much more. So, unless you’re going to rock pixie boots and green shorts than that isn’t very fair.” She grinned, but rolled her eyes, “And what do you mean occasionally a dirty joke? That’s pretty much my entire repertoire.”
Mia took the juice and shook her head a little bit. “Unless he was making an excuse as to why he wasn’t going to be talking to anyone.” Not that she was trying to be pessimistic or anything. But that was what she had assumed right away… So, maybe she was being pessimistic. “Anyway! You can’t be all like, ‘Hey family looks out for each other! Sooooooo have fun with that.’” Actually, Mia was fine with talking to Roy. She just didn’t want anyone to expect anything.
"My days of shorts and boots are long behind me," Ollie said, grinning around his straw. "Whereas they’re still a valid sartorial choice for you."
He added, “And I very much CAN be like ‘look out for your family have fun with that’! That’s the whole point of being the head of this family, is that I absolutely get that kind of unilateral authority. So I’ve delegated you to talk to Roy since you’re the one he reached out to. The end.”
By that point they’d reached back home, and Ollie paused at the door as he let Mia and Kiki into the building. “You go on up. I’m gonna go get us some pizza from that snobby place that won’t deliver.”