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Quiver's eyes grew wide. Did this guy just mistake him for RAIN of all people!? He felt his face grow hot and felt steam blowing out of his ears. How could he have made such a mistake?

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He looked over at the boy laying with Zatara and knew it must be Mateo - Zatara's boyfriend. His initial instinct was to yell out very animatedly and say something about how he obviously wasn't Rain as he was clearly way stronger looking and cooler!

Instead he gave Mateo an incredibly awkward thumbs-up, grimacing.

[i][b][color=9e0b0f]....and I'm an excellent swimmer...[/color][/b][/i]

He looked back at the ocean, watching the clear blue waves crashing against the shoreline. He could smell the grill working overtime for Talos, and the sounds of his teammates splashing around having fun. As he looked at the horizon, he felt the beach quiet around him, droning to silence as Quiver let only the sounds of the waves and crying gulls above were in his ears. He could feel the cool water running over his bare feet, and felt himself sinking into the wet sand.

He closed his eyes, despite the dark glasses that shielded his vision and felt the sun on his face. Moments later, the sounds and feeling of everything around him moved to the backward, as his sense of smell suddenly took priority - that aromatic flowery smell that signaled Daphne's approach. She stood slightly off to the side, gesturing with a bottle of sunblock.

[color=Lightgreen]"I think you really need to use some of this if you're going to stand out here for a while."[/color] She said softly. 

He acknowledged her quietly, a comfortable and familiar silence. Something they were sharing a lot of recently. After the pro hero internship they all went on, Quiver's time had been a little in flux with his attentions. Between his recent new sessions with Black Canary, his frequent visits back to Star City, and a new emotional entanglement that was causing him various kinds of frustrations and concerns, he wasn't around at the base as often as usual. He wondered if Daphne noticed, and wondered if she thought maybe he was intentionally avoiding him. It was possible, if not entirely conscious. Now however, she was wearing a beautiful swim dress, again a sort of tribute to her connection to plant life. She looked ethereal standing next to him.

As she drew closer, Quiver felt himself grow tense. The flowery scent filling the air, even over the coconut-vanilla smell of the lotion. Her soft fingers against his skin raised the small hairs on the back of his neck. He felt his cheeks go red and he looked down at the sandy beach beneath his toes, trying to focus on the broken shells just out of view beneath the surface of the water. This gesture of kindness, her touch, he was grateful for both. He wondered if he could feel the violence on his skin. His time as a young Talon - a trained assassin by the Court of Owls - had subjected him to Electrum Treatment - a metallic alloy that grants it's assassins a type of light immortality that would allow them to reanimate muscle tissue and organs. Due to his low level as a trainee, he was given a primitive batch, and in his particularly damaging injuries, his scars and wounds would heal with the veins turning black in that area. Luckily they hadn't spread to any areas that weren't too noticeable. But the wound received from The Beast still had it's blackened tissue along his ribs. Not exactly the hot beach bod most teens would have wanted.

Quiver half smiled at Daphne's joke, remembering back to their first meeting. So much had happened since then, and even though she wasn't actively choking him, he was still struggling with speaking.

[color=9e0b0f][b]"Th-thanks. That's why I'm nervous, the threat of danger - definitely not the pretty girl rubbing my shoulders."[/b][/color] He screamed internally 

[i][color=9e0b0f]God damn it Ollie you are the worst possible influence[/color][/i]

[color=9e0b0f][b]"Sorry, I shouldn't make jokes like that. Things being...the way they are."[/b][/color] He looked over at Rain, who was currently judging some sort of underwater hand-stand contest between Mirage and Mateo. His brows furrowed.

[color=9e0b0f][b]"Feels like there's a lot of changes happening with us all at once. Including one of us actually having a new personality. Mirage makes it look easy, the way she feels. But with kidnappings, disappearances, and now you and - or whatever is happening with the others. I know I haven't really been...er...available to talk recently. There's just...a lot going on. Has everything been...good? Are you good? Things...good?"[/b][/color]