#about her learning to kind of grift a little? drawing on her mother

[princesssarcastia]

Arrow Meta Fix-It

so uhhhh.  yeah.  here it is; part of it, anyway.  more to come!  also I started this months and months ago, so you can kind of see that progression throughout.

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So I got hooked on arrow fic in the last two weeks, god knows why, and like— its great.  The whole writing side of this fandom has great ideas and I love them.

But uh. Now I have ideas. Or actually, one idea, singular, but it’s a fucking enormous job and idk if im up for that, so instead imma throw it out here for shits and giggles and see if it can motivate me to actually start it.

Within the initial premise for each of the three core characters lies what I think could be a much better story than canon:

We have one disillusioned son of the one percent who, after five years of hell and survival mode, returns to a life of wealth with a list of other one percenters who use their wealth and influence to put down the rest of the city in order to straight up murder them.

We have one disillusioned veteran who served in the Middle East at the behest of warlords, now forced to provide the same services to one percenters because that’s the sum of his skill set after two tours, even though it’s not the sum of his personhood.

And, we have one ex-hacker who’s underpaid, underappreciated, and who spent their college years trying to start the digital revolution against the capitalist system.

Like.  Look at that setup for a second. 

All I can think when I look at this is how fucking amazing it would have been if they went ham on the robin hood angle. 

A story where Oliver doesn’t murder the body guards and then give the big bosses a “chance to do the right thing,” lol, but instead trusts his father’s list and recognizes that the people working for his targets don’t actually deserve to die most of the time. He just goes straight for the people who failed his city, divests them of their funds in order to compensate their victims, and then kills them instead of their hired help.

A story where when Diggle says Oliver can do more for this city, he doesn’t mean beating on more common criminals than the investment bankers Oliver likes to kill; he means addressing the roots of poverty and crime in the city using the wealth he used to take for granted, but is now so uncomfortable with.  Where Diggle wants to help the little people, not just hurt the big ones.

A story where Felicity helps Oliver when he comes to her not just to find Walter, but because his mission, and the stuff he’s been doing—look, its not like she’s comfortable with murder! Murder is bad! But god, all of this reminds her so much of what she and Cooper thought they could accomplish together.  If she helps Oliver here and now with his mission against the corrupt one percent of Starling, she can do a lot of good.  And she’s come a long way in her coding from the girl who only got caught, mind you, after Cooper had cleared out millions of dollars of debt.

I’m thinking, like, Leverage with murder instead of grifting.

Oliver comes home and he’s visibly uncomfortable with the huge displays of wealth surrounding his family and their entire lifestyle.  No, he didn’t actually spend five years on an island, but this is still completely foreign to him, now.  Eating regularly and nutritiously sends his system into shock; his bed is too soft; formal wear is stifling and doesn’t provide nearly enough places to stash weapons.

(More than that, I’d be interested in seeing how his PTSD/social anxiety clashes with the lifestyle his family just wants him to slide right back into.  People want to stand in peripheral vision and ask his opinions on things and touch his back to get him to move and hug him and sleep with him, wtf no get out don’t touch me.  Actually, I would love to write read something where tender physical intimacy feels completely foreign and honestly threatening to Oliver, after years of every touch being dangerous.  That to me feels more realistic than him jumping into bed with like twelve different women)

Oliver who would much rather live feral in the rafters of his new hidey hole in the old steel factory, sustaining off protein bars and the salmon ladder and never seeing the light of day again.  Instead, he has to pretend to be a normal human being and play off the last five years of horror as “cold,” so he doesn’t upset Thea and Tommy (and his mother, but less her than the first two).

Oliver who tries to use the playboy card to live ferally anyway, just show up for meals at home and then back to the rafters he goes, but then his mother has to go assign him a fucking bodyguard who follows him everywhere.  And he’s good at it, too.

Diggle comes into the job expecting basically another rich brat, with maybe some mild PTSD.  Instead he gets this scary ass man who looks like he could take Dig in a fight, can turn emotionally on a dime the second someone normal comes up but then goes back to deadpan brooding the second they’re gone, regularly escapes (fucking escapes! What the fuck) from Diggle’s protection to do…god knows what, but definitely not sleep with women, given the way his shoulders tighten every time someone touches him.

He does not get paid enough to deal with this shit.

Felicity catches Adam Hunt’s murder on the nightly news and does a little fist pump; right on, hood guy, eat the rich, because murder in the abstract is easier to support than said murderer asking her to help him murder more people.  Just because she works for QC and got a dye job doesn’t mean she supports the system, no siree bob.  She just has to live in it.

Oliver seethes as his mother uses him as a pretty prop for photo-ops, nothing to see here our family is picture perfect! Mom, daughter, son, husband (not father, never father). He is—he is so much more than this.  Oh, Oliver’s self-worth is shit, but the shallow emptiness of this lifestyle grates.  And even thinking his life is worth nothing, Oliver recognizes his skills and tactical ability make him a very valuable asset (fuck you Amanda waller); maybe if his mother had him assassinating her rivals, he’d be happier, because at least then he’d actual be useful.

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@absentlyabbie you liked my tag-blogging about this, so.  here it is

[wundcrlust]

BUCKETLIST:: WILHELMINA BERGMANN ‘ 𝕚𝕟 𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕒𝕟𝕪𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 ’  the words are blocked, neatly placed on the top of the page. matter of fact, like stating the sky is blue. it’s at the back of an old sketch notebook she grifted from moritz. there are her own doodles strewn about the pages of her list, not nearly as good as his but decent enough. warped spots mark teardrops from years before. next to the cleanly written bullet points are notes, explanations to some invisible person she seems to be defending her choices to. no one has laid eyes on this secret document.

Stop caring what mother thinks.  she’s not in charge of you anymore. you’re an adult. so why do her words hurt you so much, hm? you can be your own person now. it’s okay. 

Forget about him.  you had to give him up. what were you going to do? live on your own, you and the little one, that’s ridiculous. he’s better off without you. stop thinking you could have done better, you couldn’t have.

Visit home, without any obligation. Bring Ilse, Moritz, and Melchior with you. Make new, happier memories.  we deserve it. 

Start yoga.  they say it’s good for the soul. god knows your soul needs it. 

Get Moritz to teach you how to draw.  or art of any kind. god, he’s so talented. if i could just draw on one ounce of his talent...

Tell Melchior. 

Talk to Melchior.  

 Melchior. you know. one day, just tell him.

And then just...Get over Melchior.  like, really do it. friendships are more important than some childhood crush. you deserve someone to love you, he doesn’t. stop ruining relationships because you have some childish dream. don’t fuck this up too. 

Apologize to Moritz he needed you. you weren’t there. you could have called, written. but you were so consumed in your own problems you didn’t. you owe it to him one day. you could have saved him, right? 

Find Ilse.  D O N E do whatever it takes. 

Learn cursive.  again. seriously, how did we forget that? 

Start a home for girls in need.  you needed it. when we have enough money, just do it. 

Save enough money to do above. 

Do more things for you  at least just a little bit.

See a therapist.  *cough* you need it, you psycho 

Make your own family.  so, childhood sucked. no one loved you. your parents were the worst ( okay not the worst but they weren’t great ) so make your own with some stupid boy who will treat you nice. we might not be able to give him everything...but we can be enough. right? 

Try sushi, finally  get over the fear of raw fish

Go to the beach. stop being afraid of sand and the ocean. nothing’s going to suck you into it.

Listen more, talk less. 

Kiss someone on New Years 

Join a food eating contest.  we might lose, but it would be fun. 

Visit every continent, at least once.