"I think a friendship noose would rock" Who: Thea and Tate Where: A coffee shop When: I THINK before the reapery thing started What: Hanging out, relating, discussing vigilante justice, friends! Rating/Warnings: Language,discussion of violence and Violet’s death, etc.
Thea and Tate had made arrangements to meet for coffee after the whole her ass getting saved by him (and Ollie, but mostly Tate) thing, and she was actually looking forward to it. She got what Tate had meant about the not wanting to get into a relationship right now. She’d kind of really hurt Gavroche and didn’t want to go that route again, though she really liked the guy, and figured they could hang out easy. He was also kinda hot, but she could respect limits and everything, so she hadn’t gone overboard on what she’d chosen to put on for this. Her oufit screamed more ‘somewhat quirky’ than ‘let’s get a room’ and she was casually stirring some honey into a latte as she waited for him to arrive.
In walked Tate, wearing totally comfy clothes that just screamed 'hanging out with a friend'. Much like what he wore in the dreams, he had on a old tan colored cardigan and concert tee, jeans with holes in the knees, and some black converse. Hitting on Ollie's sister might be bad and he knew he couldn't just dive in after all the stuff that happened with Violet. Even so...Thea? Really kinda hot. Hot in that "I know I shouldn't kill her" sort of way. And yes, that's a good thing. He learns!
He nabbed himself a mocha and sat down across from her, with a grin on his face.
"Nice outfit," he commented, "I bet you can run in those shoes, if you have to."
He briefly thought maybe she should run away from him but didn’t voice that. Instead, he’d be totally open with her about everything that happened if she wanted to know. It was better that way.
“You bet I could.” Thea agreed. “I figured, you know, even sober, probably better not to risk it. Never know when coffee pervs are going to be out and about.” What would a coffee perv look like anyway? They’d probably be really really jittery for one thing. “And thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
Not that she was gonna flirt. Really. Well maybe in the little ways that weren’t completely flirting territory, like how she leaned forward a little. “So, hey. It’s better to see you somewhere not a dark alley.”
"I would've said before that you wouldn't want to run into me in a dark alley, but hey? Shit happens and things change," Tate said with a smile. He didn't really need the coffee since he was dead, but it was the thought that counted the most and mochas smelled good, like hot chocolate. "And if some perved out coffee tweaker tried to jump you, then I'd have to punch him. No prob."
Because, really, Tate had no problem with channeling his anger into his new, constructively vigilante outlet.
“That’d be pretty awesome.” Thea told him, and meant that. “I’m not bad on the kicking and digging nails in thing, myself, but force? Not really my area.” She did kind of wonder, after all of that, if it maybe SHOULD be a little more. “Not that I really plan to claw anybody to death anymore but, you know, just in case.” She could PROBABLY take out an eyebrow.
“And hey, you were the best thing in that dark alley right at that moment. I mean, things that go bump in the night or not.”
"Yeah, that's me. Boo." His eyes widened when he said boo, before he rolled them a little bit. "You weren't half bad yourself. I wonder why Ollie never told you what he did, other than it'd ruin the whole vigilante thing...but you seem like someone he really looks out for. He was pissed. Not at you, but at that douche bag. Ok, maybe he was kinda mad at you."
Tate paused and asked, "Did you get yelled at or what?"
“He was kinda annoyed at me. I mean there’s a difference.” Thea allowed. “Mostly I got eyerolled at and asked if I really WANTED to end up back in rehab. Which, kind of stupid, since it wasn’t booze that got me there in the first place. Not like he could say much. Ollie’s track record on that kind of thing...” She just grinned. “So more along the lines of ‘My baby sister oh my god’ freaking out than actual yelling.” He’d actually yelled at her like once in her life, and that had been after he’d found out she’d snuck out of the ranch during the plague.
“There were fuckwords, sure, but I used those too.”
"Awesome, I like it when there's fuckwords flying," Tate said with a huge grin on his face. He folded his arms on the table and leaned in on them. "I used to do a metric shit ton of coke, like in my dreams and here, but I quit last year. So hey, what were you in rehab for?"
“Pain meds.” Thea figured if he was going to be honest, so could she. “Vicodin family mostly. Oh Lortab, I think I miss you most.” She added, wiping away a fake tear. I think I do a lot more in my dreams. I mean, there was one where some little friend of mine and I were playing with baggies so I’m assuming. I’m a little more fucked up there somehow. Which is weird. I thought I’d hit the brink of Thea issues when I was trying to kick out the windows of Ollie’s lexus and put us both in the ER rather than actually GO to rehab, but I guess not. Stuff’s a whole lot grittier in the dreams anyway.” She had to admit to that part anyway.
“It was fuckword upon fuckword for a while there.” She added, grinning. “I think he’s never sure what to think when I join in. I mean, no offense to Ollie or anything, it was awesome of him to help me out the way he has been but...sibling issues I guess. We were gonna have them.”
"It happens. With the sibling shit. Even if they're mentally disabled or physically fucked up or whatever." After all, his own brother and sister were. And even if his brother was living in some care facility, he still felt like he abandoned his sister with their shitty mom. Then again, if she found out what he did...she'd probably hate him too. His entire face contorted at the thought. "I never made it to rehab, though. But, wait? Did you actually break a window or was it a total fail? You shoulda keyed his car instead."
That was pretty hardcore. Tate totally appreciated that sort of thing.
“Mm, yeah, true.” Thea had to agree. “I mean, my big sister, before I even knew about Ollie, she didn’t do that but she died when I was twelve and all. I bet we would’ve ventured there before I got too much older. And well, Roy. He’s kind of more like a sibling than my nephew. WE sort of do that shit to each other. Even though he’s got...a lot of issues.”
She shook her head a little. “Sorry he’s been giving you a hard time, by the way. It’s about his abandonment thing. His parents went on vacation when he was eleven and didn’t come back. I think that’s part of why he’s so messed up and worries about Ollie leaving him, even if it’s just by having a different sidekick. I didn’t manage to get the window, no. Ollie was grabbing me and shut the car off and everything so I couldn’t drive us through the fence the way I’d planned. His hands are a LOT bigger.” She rubbed her wrists remembering that. “You know that little scar above his eyebrow though? That was from my nails that day. I mean. I freaked out. Thought it was going to be the kind of rehab you hear about online, where they mentally reprogram you and do all the culty stuff. I was at one of those once before I’d done any drugs. Scary, scary shit.” She shook her head.
“Turns out this time, it wasn’t bad though. I made a whole lot of friendship nooses at the crafts room. Kinda sucked that my parents turned me over to Ollie with just a couple months til I was eighteen but I guess they’d had enough of me and hey, biological relative and all.”
It had sucked more than Thea had admitted to herself but... she had a brother who wanted her now. It was better.
Probably.
"So that's why that dude's being emo," Tate replied, like now it made a whole lot more sense. "I dunno about Roy but Ollie seems to really care about what happens to you, even if he's a bad ass superhero. So at least he didn't put you in one of those cult places...which is bullshit. I can't imagine not being me, even if the me I am is a fucked up...fuck-up."
He shrugged a little and told her, "I think you're in safe hands being with him. And making friendship nooses."
“See, yeah.” Thea agreed. “Deep down I get I was fucked up. I’m still pretty fucked up, in the long run, but I’m still me and everything. Ollie...kinda lets me be ME and all. And the badass superhero it just adds to the whole thing. I mean, a badass superhero who gives a fuck. Sure you SEE the comic characters caring, and look at all Tony Stark does when his weddings aren’t getting messed up, but having it happen to you? It’s different. I got lucky. And definitely safe. And I’m glad you’re with us too. I’ll even make you a custom friendship noose if you tell me the color. Welcome to the gang gesture and all. I mean, I get you’re like...a ghost now but it feels kinda screwed up not to OFFER.”
"You know what? I think a friendship noose would rock." And nodded, because he would keep it too. "And it's good he gives a fuck, about the right things even. I mean, he knows where things have gone wrong too, and he wants to make it right, but...like...he's doing it on his own terms. I completely get it and get where he's coming from. Fuck, it is amazing just to have someone agree with some of the less fucked up things I think about. I think we're both lucky."
It was good just talking with her and not having a lot of doom and gloom gnawing at the edges of everything, like some looming monster just waiting to drop anvils and bombs on his head, then chew up and spit out his remains afterward. What was even better was that he totally got what she was saying and understood it. Maybe death put a better perspective on things this time, than it had, somewhere else.
“Definitely good on that point.” Thea agreed. “I mean, there’s a lot of things where...you think if you say it out loud, you’re gonna look like a freak or really disturbed at best, and at worst you get yourself evaluated by the police shrink to see if you’re potentially dangerous, at least according to the procedurals. But then Ollie..it’s like I can SHARE what’s in my head as screwed up as it is. I get that feeling with you too.” she added. “Like you’re not gonna judge and shit. And I’m not gonna judge you either, for the record. Life’s too short, and here we are, with you about to do some good and maybe I can figure that part out too. I mean, mostly I play tennis and ride horses but I could find some way to work that into some kind of skill. The superhero thing looks AWESOME.”
Talking to Tate was like talking to someone who had also been there. Like..she knew that Ollie HAD and that, according to Roy, he’d blown up a building and accidentally crashed it down onto a little kid, who’d lived but gotten hurt in the process. That was the kind of fuck up he was trying to make up for too, but Tate was the sort of person who got the bigger fuck ups, the being such a loser, the people who’d adopted you got rid of you, that you’d stolen from your boss and could have faced jailtime if she’d pressed charges, stuff like that. “It’s...really good to share this stuff somehow, and in a place not forced group therapy, you know?”
"Yeah, I know. It's like there, it's expected of you. You have to say that stuff, or else you aren't interacting and getting the most out of it, or whatever."
He looked like he was sighing, his shoulders rising and falling with the motion. Even so, he didn't look discouraged or sarcastic. Tate actually looked engaged in the conversation, and even enthusiastic about being able to say anything he wanted, no matter how terrible or dark it was.
To prove that point? Tate totally opened his mouth and came clean.
"In my dreams," he began saying, "I was one of those fucked up spree shooting assholes that shoots up his school. Oh, and I fucked Violet's mom. I mean, Violet was my girlfriend after that and technically her mom didn't know it was me...so it was rape...but, yeah, I kinda got her knocked up with a demon baby or some shit. And it killed her when she gave birth. So yeah, Violet broke up with me. And here, I had those dreams and thought I was going to lose her all over again, so I killed her and then myself...only she got to be alive again and I'm ok with being dead. Again.
"Anyway, I don't want to do that stuff ever again. Not to anyone. I thought she was gone before I hijacked Ollie like that and then...you know, I think we meshed a little too well on some levels. But I get it that shit was wrong, and I don't have the right to go...oh, that person looks miserable, so let's save them from their miserable life by sending them to heaven. I want to do something good for a change, and stop being a fucking dick that fucks up and fucks up everything, for everyone."
Tate was quick to add, "Even if it's in questionable vigilante kinda ways." He followed that statement with the sort of cherub-esque sweet smile that made it seem like he could hear no evil, see no evil, and do no evil. Bwa ha ha!
Thea nodded at that part, just listening for a while. Right now, the thing that mattered was letting him tell his story, and not judging it. And the dream world, was, well, the dream world. She got how you could get caught in it, sure, and start doing shit from it, or thinking it might happen. After all, look at how messed up Roy had gotten from what she’d heard from his own admission. Look at how screwed up the dreams had made other people on the network. The hot french medical student, his friends...
Not that Tate’s story was a happy one for her, as much as the melded with Ollie part made a lot of sense. “I think, yeah.” she finally answered. “With Ollie, there’s...this sort of dark side he doesn’t show a lot of people. I can see how you’d have melded really well there. He represses that shit, and there’s a whole lot of wrong that the guy you guys deliberately killed did. I’m not gonna say he didn’t deserve to die.” she added, given what Ollie had told her after all.
“But damn. Your dreams made all of THAT happen? I’m sorry. THat has to be a LOT to deal with. I mean...not that killing your girlfriend’s okay unless she’s hurt or killed somebody or things along that line. I’m not trying to say it IS but...I see where the dreams could lead you there and it has to be a LOT to focus on handling now. I’m glad she gets to live again. I don’t think it’s ENTIRELY your fault. Like there’s a thirty to forty percent margin where I’d say you could blame the dreams for making you paranoid that crap was going to happen. I think it’s really admirable you’re making it better now. Like...there’s no taking it away but there’s focusing on now and making sure justice happens, And if you have to go questionable vigilante...I don’t see a problem with it. People do what they’ve gotta do, you know. In my dreams, I’m a little bit luckier. Worst I’ve ever done was break and enter a store after hours to go shopping, drunk. And Ollie was PISSED. Worse than Mom. So I was a real bitch to him when he found me skipping out on being grounded. Told him he wasn’t my brother. Tried that here too.” She sighed. “That’s the one thing I’d go ahead and take back. I was a whole lot dumber not that long ago. Live and learn, I guess.”
"Well, I didn't have to let it happen or start making me all paranoid and shit. So I take responsibility for that. She totally moved on too, so, yeah, I don't want to sit around pining away for her for an eternity, like I was going to do in my dreams. Fuck that shit. I don't want to be all obsessive and stabbing people over her and stuff. And really not if she can move on in an instant too."
Tate shrugged, but he did take the brunt of that responsibility and - if anything - he was going to turn things around by using that, the dreams, and the whole posession thing as a catalyst for turning it around.
"Now you breaking an entering is funny, but I bet Ollie didn't think so. I think it's hilarious. On the flip side, I also get where Ollie's coming from and, fuck it, I don't see a problem with the way he wants to do things," he confessed. "I'm all for it. None of this total do-gooder, dinking around, oh no the bad guy got away we'll get him next time crap. They just get kicked out of jail and most of them do the same repeat offender stuff again anyway. If it's someone who's fucking rotten and who's going to get away with it, I'd be happy as hell to help Ollie by kicking their ass."
Great. Now Oliver Queen is Tate Langdon's moral compass. :D :D :D
“Obsessive’s probably not a good way to be.” Thea agreed. “Gets everybody into trouble in the end, I think. Or even if it doesn’t, it’s still kind of... Well it consumes YOU or something in the end. Like... Let’s see a good example. Patrick Stewart in Moby Dick. He was all obsessed with the whale to the point it finally ate him instead of just his leg. Oops. Spoilers.” She added, eyedarting a little, and sipping her drink for a second. “Or like...Captain Hook, maybe. His weird obsession with Peter Pan and all. Why are all of these examples ship related?” she added, laughing a little at the thought.
“And yeah, the ability to move on. That’s helpful. It keeps you going and everything. And hey, my ability to do that could use some work.” She added. “It kept me fucked up for a really long time. Not romantically but...I had a big sister, you know? My parents...ex parents, since they signed me away, adopted both of us and everything and we just...got each other cause of that, I guess. And then Liv disappeared when I was twelve and everything went to Hell. And that’s how I wound up in and out of treatment places, and ran away to California and met Ollie. He stole my corndog stick to DNA analyze the first time we actually met, since I’d had dreams about him. Weirdly, I’m not in his but...totally siblings. Anyway. If I’d been able to move past things...it’d be different now. Of course, we wouldn’t be here like this so...I think it worked out.” As far as what he was saying about the breaking and entering? Thea grinned. “Oh it WAS pretty funny. The best part is, he’d stumbled in from a night doing...I guess being a superhero actually, and looked like crap but not hungover or anything and I told him what crap he looked like while he was staring at me. Score a point for Team Thea.” she added, “The look on his face. It was priceless. And he begged Mom to ground me. Which was new. Anyway, yeah I agree on the superhero bits. I mean, some crimes, if you’ve got a super criminal... letting them live is stupid. I mean, take somebody like uh...” She paused to think for a moment, because she wasn’t really into the whole superhero thing as such. “...King Hagard.” she finally went with, in honor of the unicorn shirt and all. “I mean, you know somebody’s a serial unicorn kidnapper and let him go to keep kidnapping them again? It’s not like jail does anything to really change people who haven’t actually WANTED to reform. I think it’s a good deal, kicking their asses. They deserve it and it keeps the streets safe.”
Ollie as a moral compass. That was scary.
Tate listened to that all with wide eyes, and since he couldn't disagree with what Thea was saying there, instead opened his mouth and flat-out told her, "You're awesome. Let's hang out as much as possible, only...without you nearly getting raped and stuff."
“I’d like that.” Thea agreed, nodding. “All of those bits, really. You’re pretty damn awesome yourself. I’ve been needing somebody like you to talk with.” And it was true. “I’d say let’s make a blood oath but pretty unsanitary and everything.” And it might not be practical ghost wise. “So we should skip the blood part but still do that. You in?”
"You'd be surprised how tangible I can get, when I want to." And with the way Tate grinned, it was pretty much a great indicator what that meant. Ahem. "But yeah, I think that's a good idea. Whatever you can think up for it? I'm in."