step out of the driving rain (open)

[viridescere]

WHO: Oliver Queen
WHERE: Throughout 7I and 6I
WHEN: early morning 22 October
OPEN TO: all
WARNINGS: none at this time

---

Ever since coming back from Lian Yu five years before (or, well, more like seven but his official story was five), Oliver had a routine that he's stuck to fairly regularly. He gets up early, trains, runs, then grabs breakfast and heads on about his day. He's found no reason to change that since arriving in this village and, besides, the run gives him time to think.

The scrubs aren't terrible to run in but the boots leave some to be desired. Back home, he's got Nike trainers that are custom-fit to his foot and his particular idiosyncrasies. Here, he's got boots that fit but not well enough, scrubs that are thin and not meant for the cold rain that comes down in streams and does just enough to melt the snow from the past two days and the peacoat is woolen and bulky. None of it is what he's used to.

Still, this is what he does. He runs. Since coming here, Felicity's been a lot more open to being together than she'd been back in Star City and he's not really sure why that is. She's explained bits and pieces of it, yes, but none of it seems to come together seamlessly in the way he'd like. He runs with that thought in his head, stops in at the Inn to spend a few moments drying off with a cup of tea, and then heads back out for the run home to the other side of the settlement.

The run back is quiet too. Not many people or animals out this early or in this kind of weather and Oliver can't say he blames them. It's cold even if it's not snowing and it's dark and gloomy besides.

Comments

[theoldlie]

"There was a little bit of time difference," he admits, not sure that Diana had told him the truth, but if she had, then it hadn't been too long between her arriving and his being there. "Maybe a month, five weeks? Well, I mean..." It's awkward and not his story to tell, but he thinks he can gel over the more complicated aspects. "There were years between us, but she turned up and I was here five weeks later."

"I'm not even sure I can call her my girlfriend," Steve admits, struck by that. "We didn't even really have a proper dating period before here. Maybe I should be working on that."

[viridescere]

Oliver laughs lightly and shakes his head.

“Finally, someone worse at this than I am. I think she’s probably your girlfriend but considering I’m still calling my ex my ex when she’s really more like my...current girlfriend, I’m not one to talk.”

He scrubs a little of the water out of his hair with a flat palm and gives Steve a sheepish look. “I guess I could do you the decency of going inside the Inn instead of standing out here in the rain. Want to see what they have that passes for tea?”

[theoldlie]

"I mean, we had one night together and we fought a war campaign before things went bad," Steve says, which is a nice way of saying that he died, but it's as matter of fact as he can put it. Then again, the idea of Diana being his girlfriend is a possibility that he almost can't believe for how good it is and he grins, completely aware of how damn lucky he'd be if she agreed.

"She's the boss, though," he says. "We should definitely get inside. I really am never going to appreciate rain," he notes darkly.

[viridescere]

"Where I'm from, rain comes with the package," Oliver says. He stamps the mud off his boots before opening the door to the Inn and he's instantly greeted with the warmth of a fire-warmed room and the smells of breakfast. That's better than being out in the cold and wet by far.

"Pacific Northwest," he adds. "It rains...pretty much all the time. I get used to living my life under gray clouds and drizzle."

[theoldlie]

Steve barely remembers the last time he'd been in the US, but he's been under the impression that thanks to the climate, they're back there somehow, even if he really doesn't remember a plane or a boat, but then, he did find an island full of Amazons randomly in the middle of nowhere. "You think we're back there?"

He doesn't want to think about France and Belgium, all the places he's been that have clouds of their own, but manmade ones. "I mean, it definitely feels like it's been raining and cloudy a lot."

[viridescere]

"The trees fit with it," Oliver admits. "Most of what we have in the woods where I'm from are evergreens and that's what I've seen here. I don't know much about the wildlife but everything seems to line up with what I know from home."

He steps into the Inn, goes to check the kitchen to see if there's a kettle already with hot water; sometimes there's one kept warm on rainy days like this one and he's in luck.

"I can't seem to find a way out of here, though. No roads, not even a footpath out of this canyon."

[theoldlie]

Steve isn't sure what he'd expect out of here. He's still operating on the core belief that this is some place that's after life, in some form or another. Maybe he can remember dying and others can't, maybe they're brought back to a time in their lives that are special, or maybe it's meant to be some kind of torture.

"I heard there were pods," he says, having delved into all the background and history of this place he could. "Could someone have arrived in one of those?"

[viridescere]

"Maybe. I heard about those too," Oliver admits. "But I haven't been out there to check any of them out. From what I understand, anything from the pods can't be brought back down here to be researched."

That, in and of itself, is a huge red flag for Oliver. He's not keen on the idea of being watched and, when someone gets to the watchtower, can't bring anything back with them. It reeks of government oversight in some strange way. It reeks of ARGUS.

[theoldlie]

"This is all crazy," Steve feels compelled to point out the obvious, but then, he's still the man who wants to be practical about the situations he's in. Give him a goddess to love, and he still had been wary about what she'd been saying until he'd seen it with his very own eyes.

He also doesn't know why it's so restricted, so strange. "Has anyone ever come out and said what they want?" Most hostage or prisoner situations always comes with some kind of ultimatum, in his experience.

[viridescere]

"No, not in the time I've been here. No idea who is holding us or why. No demands have been made and no concessions have been given," Oliver says. All of it makes no damned sense and it doesn't fit with any of the criminal groups that he's familiar with. It fits more with a government, somehow, but Oliver has no idea what government it might be.

"I've been a prisoner before," he explains. "And this doesn't feel like that. There's no forced labor and there's no torture. This place is almost eerily calm other than the natural disasters."

[theoldlie]

"You'd think they'd at least be asking for something." That's the part that rankles Steve the most. At least if there's a demand in play, he can somehow reason through that, try and figure out what's behind it. Instead, they're just left with suspicions and hypotheticals.

"So what's it for?" he asks, running a hand through his damp hair to try and tame it. "We're here for some reason, but if it's not prison, then what?"

[viridescere]

"No idea. If it was an experiment, wouldn't we be seeing results somehow? I don't see anything that lends itself to that," Oliver says. He dismisses this idea in favor of prison, solely because he hasn't seen who's holding them.

"I think we ought to form an expedition party and try to find out, though. There has to be a way to find where the captors are, where the watchers are."

[theoldlie]

"I'm in," Steve guarantees, because he's seen enough out of Oliver to know that he's a good ally to have at his side, and one that he's more than willing to go with when it comes to them needing to figure this out. "I'd love to start expanding my map of the place. The ones here are great, but I like having my own points of references and notes that I can glean," he admits.

It's just an old habit that's hard to shake, but Steve can't imagine anyone will see reason to stop him.

[viridescere]

"Surveying is probably a good idea. We can make points of reference," Oliver agrees. He has done a little amateur mapmaking in his day and while this isn't Lian Yu, he thinks he can take those skills honed on the island and apply them here. He's going to have to, if he's going to keep himself and Felicity safe.

"We should probably get started on it before the weather turns off too cold," he adds. "I think it probably snows here, from the feel of it and we already had that one snowstorm. Later on we might get one that isn't going to melt until spring."

[theoldlie]

"I came from cold weather, it'll be just like going back to that," Steve says, knowing that no matter what's going to happen, he wants to start getting on top of things, if only even to know what's out there. "Let's head out tomorrow or a few days from now," he says, not bothering to put this off for even a week.

It needs to happen, Steve knows, and he's willing to do anything to make that happen now.

[viridescere]

"Yeah, let's. If we go ahead and get some ground covered before the snows come, it might help us in the long run."

Steve, at least, is someone that Oliver feels comfortable enough to call an ally and he doesn't feel like it's much of a risk to go out surveying with him.

[theoldlie]

"Anyone else we should be taking?" He's thinking that he ought to run this by Diana, because he can only imagine that she'll want to get in on this, knowing her tendency to take her problems by force and head-on (which he does love about her, even if it's a little frustrating, coping with the consequences of such a brash approach).

"I know I should tell Diana," he says aloud. "Maybe give it a day? Then we can head out?"

[viridescere]

"I'll want to tell Felicity and give her the chance to come along, if she wants. She's probably going to want to," Oliver says, laughing awkwardly. "She can hold her own, though. I'm probably the only thing that's holding her back and that's just because I don't want her to get hurt."

He thinks about Steve's timeline and nods once in confirmation. "A day's enough time for me to talk to Felicity and prepare. Meet you here at the Inn, you think?"

[theoldlie]

"I'll gather as many tracking and recording supplies as people will give me and meet you back here," he agrees with a nod of his head, already standing up a little straighter, like he's just been given mission paramatres that he needs to follow.

"It was good to see you again," he says, extending out a hand to shake. "Really," he adds, "I've been dying for something to do, this is more than perfect."

[viridescere]

"I've been dying for something to do other than run," Oliver admits conspiratorially. "But don't ever, ever tell my girlfriend Felicity that. She'll never let me hear the end of it."