15261/The Secret Volcano Lair

The Secret Volcano Lair
Date of Scene:	25 June 2023
Location:	Sub-Level, Queen Mansion
Synopsis:	Felicity updates Oliver about the encrypted drive they recovered, and he updates her on... Maui.
Cast of Characters:	Felicity Smoak, Green Arrow

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Felicity Smoak has posed:
The Arrowcave isn't exactly bustling at the moment. Oliver had come down to talk to Felicity about something that she hadn't yet given him a word edgewise to be able to discuss with her, because she was in the middle of lamenting the fact that the last upgrade she did just... wasn't working. Which didn't make any sense.

"Do you understand how infuriating it is that it doesn't work? It won't accept the drive because it /says/ it's not encrypted," she was saying, hip propped up against the counter in the kitchen as she stood eating mint chocolate chip ice cream out of the carton with a spoon (all while using the spoon to gesticulate and talking with her mouth full). "But that doesn't make any sense, because I /always/ use protection."

Beat.

"You know what I mean."

Another beat.

"I mean, not that you like.. /know/." Sigh. "I'm just going to go sit back down..."

Then she's at her desk, with her ice cream, having /almost/ forgotten that Oliver had specifically come to get her for some reason.

"Oh! Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

Her eyes blink up through her glasses at him.

Green Arrow has posed:
There's always a certain moment of transition for Oliver when he enters the Arrowcave, the Bunker, whatever you might choose to name it, when dressed _as_ Oliver. A moment of dissonance that's a brief mental shift of headspace to, no not another person - dissociative personalities is not a malady he suffers, but a different _perspective_ and outlook on the now and the world at large.

So the elevator opens as there's that shift as he steps through, his shift in viewpoint manifesting in a faint but noticable sobering of expression, a hardening around the eyes, even as he casually begins to unbutton the thousand dollar dress shirt hand crafted in Japan with a careless tugging at buttons on his way towards the center of the 'cave where Felicity's supposed to be finding out just what in the fuck is on the drive he found last night.

... "Protection, well.. in one fashion or the other, Felicity is _always_ something you use..or have at hand." Ollie replies, his tone dry enough that if it weren't for the glimmer of mischief in his eyes one might think he missed the innuendo the super intelligent blonde certainly didn't _mean_ to cast about the discussion.

Crossing to stand behind her at her station, hands going to the back of the chair, thumbs brushing against the back of her neck - Ollie leans over one of her shoulder and glances at the screen as he turns her back around to face it - "Talk about? Yes.. that drive, and the trip we're taking to Maui next week to finalize Queen's acquisition of that defunction US military volcanic research station there... and just what we're going to do with the extra day in between meetings my schedule says we have."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Felicity's posture straightened a bit in her chair when she felt the presence loom up behind her like a big, rich, muscular shadow. Her breath caught when his weight settled settled there against it, ever so slightly adding back pressure that just /slightly/ unbalanced her. And then there's those fingers that send a shiver that started at her ponytail and ran down the length of her body -- unintentional but uncontrollable. And noticeable.

She didn't dare say anything about it.

The drive, though! She'd nearly forgotten. Her hands were already flying over the keyboard and flashing through screens, even as she listened to Oliver's sultry voice right above her ear, straining her concentration. It was one thing to have her in her ear during an op. It was another to have the scent of him creating a kind of cloud of man musk.

"I still can't believe we're getting an underwater volcano base. You're sure /we're/ not the bad guys, right? Because if you walk in carrying a fluffy white Persian, we might have to renegotiate my contra--"

She freezes, staring at her screen. It was just a file folder, nothing particularly noteworthy.

"Did you say /we/?"

She leaned forward a little and turned to look over her shoulder at him, and he was... too close. Inside her comfort zone. /Right there/. It made her look of surprise seem even more nervous than usual.

"You're taking /me/ to Maui?" She blinks through her glasses at him again. "Shouldn't you be taking Natasha.. Natalia.. or.. whatever her name was?" Her smile thins. Was that a little flare of jealousy? It's hard to tell. Maybe the superhacker just had a bad memory for names.

Green Arrow has posed:
His hands reach forward, moving off the back of her chair to rest atop her shoulders..the size of those hands enough that one might come incredibly close to being able to wrap around the arch of her slim neck if he wished. Instead both lay on her shoulders, thumbs under her hair on either side of her spine and he _pulllls_ her back into her seat, brings her ear next to his mouth, and all too likely gives him quite the interesting downward view.

"The -drive- Felicity. I'm heading out to see if I can track down the truck that got away from Diggle - I'd _really_ like to know what's on it before I run them down. " A pause, a quirk of a smile, "Nessie, Natasha, Nicole or .. Natalie? Why would I want to do _that_? " His tone shifts slightly, cadence lightening, it's 'Ollie' speaking now - "I'm done with the N's this month..time to move on."

Beat

"No white cats. The fur'd be impossible to keep off the suit."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
The number of men not wearing white lab coats that had put their hands on her like that was not zero, but it was close. They're warm, strong hands that pull Felicity easily back against the chair back, forcing her to look forward at her screen again, even though her mind was anywhere but the screen.

"Right."

More typing, her long earrings dangling far enough to brush against his knuckles as she subtly moves her head. A few more screens flash, and a surveillance video comes up, showing the truck that Diggle is after pulling into a storage bay. It's not live, but the truck definitely lives there.

"So, they have a warehouse in the southeast side of town on Foster Street." The video's replaced by a map with a flashing dot. "I'll get you the address."

Then the map is replaced with a graph of a supply chain, nodes with names and lines. "I used their financial records and 'borrowed' some of their account information from partnering financial institutions. They're connected in a big way to the Eclipse Syndicate."

The screen changes again. More surveillance footage. This time, it's four cameras side by side. All of them showing that warehouse with guards walking around.

"Whatever's in there, they don't want anyone getting to it."

She pauses, but she doesn't turn back around.

"Did you say /Nessie/? Like the Loch Ness Monster?" There's a tinge of amusement there. "Oh, you're going alphabetically... how methodical. If you're leaving now, I'll stay here and see if I can get into the cameras on the neighboring buildings. Take a couple of the surveillance drones with you just in case?"

Green Arrow has posed:
There's a few moments of quiet as Ollie looks over Felicity's shoulder, closer than a boss should be to any employee, and apparently either oblivious to it.. or purposefully not making any big deal - as if he'd every right to be there where the warmth of his breath can be felt against the side of her face.

"Good... and better still. Send that off to the bike's computer. " A pause .. did he look down? Take advantage of that position of closeness for an intriguing view? Hmm...

"Yes, yes I did say 'we' - and I figured, given all the girls throwing themselves, or being thrown at, 'Ollie', I'd best put _some_ organization to things or I'd send the wrong signal by taking one of them out too many times too close together."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
Just A few keystrokes later, there's a notification that pops up about the data being transmitted.

"Done," Felicity says. She hadn't moved. It wasn't exactly like she wasn't used to Oliver's issues with personal space -- or maybe his non-issues with it -- but it wasn't like she tried to encourage it, either.

At his remark, though, she pulled her head to the side and turned it a fraction towards him so she could look at him without any.. accidental touching of face parts.

"..Right." With a small smile, her voice hesitant, like it might have been a live Bengal tiger looming over her. "Good thinking. You clearly don't want to send the wrong signals by taking someone to Maui when you're obviously just trying to keep up appearances."

Her hand comes up and she touches her glasses with a finger, sliding them up a little higher.

"I'll.. do some research and see if I can find a way for you to fill the holes." Her eyes widen. "In your /schedule/."

Green Arrow has posed:
With one brief squeeze of her shoulders before he stands up, Oliver takes a step back and shrugs out of his unbuttoned shirt as he starts to walk over towards where his suit's on it's stand. This, of course, leaves him bare chested, and all the signs of what he's put his body through over the last fifteen years or more is more than evident in the map of scars across his chest - front and back.

"You're mixing the causes and peoples up there a bit, Felicity.. _your_ name starts with an 'F' - I'd be all out of order that way. _You_ I want to come along because it's _you_.. and I don't want to have to be 'that' Ollie for that whole damned trip. "

He disappears behind the armor stand to the changing area there and isn't gone long before he's striding across the room, all suited up, settling his ear piece in place and putting on his mask. "Didn't you ask about getting some new drones? Wonder if we should reach out to Wayne and Stark and see what we might cook up.. err, mostly _you_..but 'we'."

Felicity Smoak has posed:
"Oh."

Grateful for the sudden ability to take a whole breath once Oliver has left 'her space,' she's instantly distracted again by watching him walk away... and take his shirt off.

She doesn't say anything else until he's out of her sight and her brain suddenly starts working again, eyes shifting back to her computer.

Drones.

Felicity clears her throat. "Well, I'm sure there's some billionaire secret handshake you'll need to do, but since I'm your people, I'll reach out to their people and take care of that part."

Her eyes lift again, gazing through her glasses at him when he comes around that partition in his suit. Some part her wondered what was going on his head. The tension between them had been present and unmistakable since the very first episo--time they met. And, she'd always /wanted/ to go to Maui. She just.. hadn't expected it to be with /him/.