[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/rlyp4kH.jpg?1[/img][/center]
[sub][hr][/sub][COLOR=seagreen][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][i]Warehouse Rooftop, Star City - Night[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]Queen's Heir #1.02: Partners[/b] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][I][/I][/COLOR][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][color=seagreen][sub][B]Interaction(s):[/B] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][I]None[/I][/COLOR][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Previously:[/b] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4895318][COLOR=#bbbbbb][I]Queen's Heir #1.01: First Night[/I][/COLOR][/url][/right][/SUP][/color][/indent]

[center][sup]“This exquisite state of unconcerned immersion in oneself is not, unfortunately, of long duration. It is liable to be disturbed from inside..."[/sup][/center]


[hider=Mundane half of Connor's day, mostly internal thoughts, plot starts at 10:30]
[b]4:30 AM[/b]

The familiar echoing wooden gonging of the [i]han[/i] woke Connor from too-shallow sleep. He had crept back to the monastery on the outskirts of Star City late last night, another small-time but successful week of vigilantism completed. If the Abbot or other monks here had taken note of Connor's late nights, they hadn't said anything yet. It was a super awkward possibility that they thought he was another teen out late indulging in transient, worldly pleasures and would be sending Master Jansen and Abbot Takuan disapproving letters about his behavior.

The idea bothered Connor as he made his way down to morning meditation, but then again that was kind of the point of why he was here instead  of his own monastery, right? Experience the outside world on a wider level, reconnect with his identity and give him a taste of ordinary teenage life before deciding whether or not he wanted to take vows as a real member of the sangha. Master Jensen [i]probably[/i] didn't intend for Connor's reconnected identity to involve pinning petty thugs to walls with arrows, but after seeing the sort of mess Star City was turning into without his father around...well, he had to do [b]something[/b], right?

Well, no. 

It was attachment, desire, the idea that he could stop suffering solely through violent or charitable action, that the answer was controlling and influencing others, not himself. The satisfaction that he felt after stopping a mugging or leaving some of Brick's thugs incapacitated for the police to find or redistributing stolen goods back to their owners was an illusion. 

So why did it still feel right, no matter how much he thought about it or tried to center himself?

These thoughts swirled through his head endlessly during morning meditation, when he should have been clearing his mind or reflecting on the sutras or the occasional words of the head monk. He still nailed all the words in the chants by heart, and it wasn't like he was disruptive.

Everything was just...off.

[hr]

[b]9:30[/b]

After meditation, the morning meal, cleaning and finally basic chores Connor was set free from any normal obligations or routine. He wasn't a true member of the Sangha here, or one of those laypeople who came here for a while to find dollar store enlightenment or a sincere part-time retreat from temporal life. He was basically just lodging there as a favor to Master Jensen. The monks here were different anyway, part of a more orthodox sect, no zen archery or martial arts meditation, to Connor's disappointment.

So he did what he normally did during the day: Pack up his gear in a cello case and catch the bus into the city proper. He found public buses crowded and sometimes weird for sure, but nothing too challenging compared to fighting off armed thugs. Well, once somebody brought a live goat onboard and Connor still didn't know what was up with that, but the bus driver had just rolled with it with all the same detachment of Connor's most unfazed Zen instructors, so he'd assumed all sorts of oddness was just normal in his father's city.

[hr]

[b]10:00[/b]

The walk from his bus stop to the Star City Public Library was normally pretty safe even without Green Arrow, since  the streets were still kinda controlled outside the Triangle and the Glades. But there was something about the way people huddled into themselves and stared at him, even in the safest part of the city. Something about how the overcast weather and shroud of grayness felt extra heavy. Every once in a while walking down the street he'd see someone staring into a phone with a look of despair he'd slowly learned was the inevitable result of scrolling through the local news.

The whole city'd been gut-punched by Green Arrow and Oliver Queen disappearing at the same time. Connor realized the degenerating state of Star City was about more than criminals not being kept in check by Green Arrow. Oliver Queen's presence as a constant philanthropist and advocate on important social issues was gone from the city too.

[color=seagreen] [i]Too bad he didn't care about his son half as much as his pet causes, or I might actually know what to do about it all.[/i][/color]

He almost winced, surprised at his own anger and bitterness, but then again all the meditative training in the world couldn't turn his heart to stone, right? He tried to focus, forgive himself and Oliver, breathe the anger and tension out of his body.

Before he could really confront his thoughts he realized he was already at the library. Well 'distraction from your emotional problems with vigilante problems' wasn't the most Buddha-like solution, but it'd do for now.

[hr]

[/hider]

[b]10:30[/b]

Connor liked the Star City Public Library. It had the same sort of gentle quietness as his home monastery, broken mainly by younger schoolkids on trips and hushed or inconsiderate conversation. He wasn't always huge on books but thanks to a very generous, very plaque-adorned donation from one Oliver Queen, QCore computers were free to use and through them so were a lot of news subscriptions and archives. So he spent a lot of his free, non-masked time here. Mostly he was looking up the latest criminal activities he'd missed (a lot), binge-reading older news articles on Green Arrow cases and his father's public works and persona (amazing and a mix of inspiring and embarrassing or irritating, respectively) and trying to gauge public opinion on his new Green Arrow identity (who again?).

That last part made it ultra-weird when a black screen suddenly popped up with the words:

[code]sup GA ur a real tough guy to get a hold of.[/code]

typed out on it.

Connor almost fell out of his chair, none of this made sense! Once he recovered though, he noticed there was a text box for him to use at the bottom.

[code]What the hell! How do you know who I am and how are you doing this? I'm not even in a chat right now![/code]

[code]...[/code]
[code]Well lets just say if it has QCore Tech or an internet connection, I cn make it dance. That's a lotta stuff in this city. How I know isnt the point, but I know u need info, and I cn help. If ur tired of getting tips on muggings from hobos, theres a QPhone and a linked earpiece wedged in the back left booth's cushions at the B3 on the corner. Take it and wait for my call.[/code] 

Well, it was that or read another article speculating on his father's love life.

Nooooot really much of a choice.

[hr]

[b]10:45[/b]

The smell of the Big Belly Burger's interior was both curious and a little gross. Connor had to admit he liked french fries, and since Big Belly Burger's weren't done up in beef fat or anything it well, [i]technically[/i] wasn't sacrilegious to eat them, except maybe from an over-indulgence perspective.

But no time for that right now, at least the phone was in the promised cushion crack even if he'd probably looked like he was scrounging for change digging through the first few wrong picks for 'back left'. The phone was shiny, high-tech and new-looking, done up in a dark green, maybe-waterpoof-looking phone case with the same Green Arrow logo certain tongue-in-cheek vigilante merch sites used on t-shirts and the Halloween costume he'd been mix-and-matching from at night. The earpiece had similar detailing, except tiny enough to fit in one ear. Maybe it was some sort of in-joke from his new 'friend'. Either way as he sat there staring at them the the young would-be-monk couldn't help thinking they were both nicer and probably more expensive than anything he had ever owned.

As if his thought summoned the hacker, Connor's new acquisition blared out an [url=https://youtu.be/rG_EDVG-Kks] obnoxiously loud, bombastic ringtone.[/url]

[color=silver]"Sorry about the typos, I was multi-tasking. But seriously, no phone, no computer, no social media, you're almost completely off the grid. What's up with that?"[/color]

The voice on the other end was distorted to be crazy deep, but the rising and falling tone still made Connor guess at feminine. The question made him feel a little defensive, no internet access at the monastery.

[color=seagreen]"Yeah well, I have my reasons! If I'm so hard to track how did you manage it?"[/color] Connor tried to make himself sound casual, like secret phone meetings with mysterious voices who knew his secret identity were an everyday thing. 

Too bad his voice cracked under the stress.

[color=silver]"Ha, well that goes a long way toward my theory on your age. Anyways, you didn't make it easy for me, but I pulled security camera footage from a couple of your adventures and started cross-referencing them against footage from around the city using QCore facial and gait-pattern recognition software. the gait-pattern stuff is still being tested but I managed to get it working okay. That mask isn't doing you any favors, is it store bought? Pretty sure it's store bought. I Pulled up hits for you at a couple of places in the public parks, a homelesss shelter and the SCPL. You use that same computer you were sitting at every day and it makes the same searches, all for topics related to 'Green Arrow old cases' 'New Green Arrow' and for some reason 'Oliver Queen'? Fun connections there. To confirm it I [i]may[/i] have remotely activated the camera on that desktop and sneaked a peek at your face. Cute in a sort of 'lost puppy' way. Wouldn't expect you to spend nights beating down criminals. Also-"[/color]

[color=seagreen]"I get it already! You're some kinda super-hacker and maybe I got sloppy!"[/color] Between the fear of being found out and embarrassment at the voice's...other comment, He said it a little louder than he'd meant. He sneaked a glance around to see if anyone'd overheard, but they were in that weird minutes-long lull between the breakfast menu and the all-day menu and nobody was paying attention to the kid in the back on his phone. He followed up half-whispering [color=seagreen]"But what do you actually want?"[/color]

[color=silver]"Super-hacker huh? I like it. I was gonna go with 'hacktivist' or maybe 'cyber-vigilante' but super-hacker sounds good too. Oh, right! Sorry, not great with voice-to-voice talk. Anyway! Well, we're gonna team up! See, you've got your crazy kid archer ninja skills but you're missing the big picture and I've got my whole 'super-hacker' eyes-and-ears everywhere thing but there's a lot I can't stop without feet on the ground. I mean I could drain criminals' bank accounts, publish their internal memos or send footage to the cops I guess and sometimes I do but if I do too much the FBI or the SCPD's cybercrimes unit or SHIELD's cybersec division will come down on me hard trust me and- er, well anyway I want you to be those feet, helping me kick crime in the face! That...admittedly sounded cooler in my head but-"[/color]

[color=seagreen]"No no it's fine trust me, still working on my witty quip game too..."[/color] Connor's head was spinning from all this, and not just because his new potential 'partner' apparently had super-speed rambling for a power. [color=seagreen]"But I'm in. Like you said, only so much info you can get out of crime trends and free lunches for the homeless."[/color] Not that it'd stop him from giving anyways, after lunch-meals were against his principles.

[color=seagreen]"What do I call you though? 'Mysterious voice' probably isn't gonna cut it."[/color]

[color=silver]"Oh, I've actually been giving this a lot of thought! Call me...Overwatch."[/color]

[color=seagreen]"Nice! So 'partner', where do we start?"[/color]