when it rains, it pours

[speedy_queen]

Thea Queen hasn't had the best time of it in, well, years. First her brother and father were missing and presumed dead and then Ollie pulled a Lazarus and showed back up with a bunch of scars and a badass attitude and Thea hardly knew who he was anymore. A vigilante has been saving/terrorizing the city for the better part of a year and the father of the guy she's crushed on forever tried to bury half the city under rubble.

Oh, and, she's actually the daughter of that maniac and not her actual dad and she only found this out after her mom barely escaped prison time. It's been a hell of a ride. She's been kidnapped, cheated on and just about everything in between and while she's a rich girl, she's by no means sheltered. Any and everything that could happen to a person before the age of twenty has happened to her and Thea isn't sure if she wants to deal with it anymore. That's why she decides to go with Malcolm Merlyn. She's not doing that great in Starling so she might as well take a chance on something different, right? Thea Queen isn't working out for her so well so maybe being someone new is the right way to go. Maybe disappearing and turning into someone else is the best thing for her right now.

As she pulls open the car door, a strange thing happens. Instead of crawling into the backseat of a car to sleep while she escapes to God knows where, she tumbles into a closet and hits her head on a doorknob. That's...weird. What else is weird is that when she tugs open the closet, she's inside what looks like a hotel lobby instead of anywhere she recognizes.

"What the hell is going on?" Thea is aware this is rhetorical and, frankly, not even a really good rhetorical question. She basically lost her skills to make witty quips along with shooting her biological father and discovering that everyone important to her in her life has lied to her so she isn't really running on all cylinders. She's running on...less than half. It's not ideal.

"Anyone?" While part of her hopes she's in Starling so she has a chance to orient herself another part of her hopes that she's not in Starling and, instead, she's somewhere that she can get a blank slate. Thea wants to be anyone but Thea Queen right now and she thinks if she's outside of her old stomping grounds, she might just have a chance to start over new again.

Comments

[lianyu]

Oliver's return to the hotel proved to be anti-climactic, in a way. While it was startling to return to the hotel with Felicity and suddenly regain his memories of the place, it was easy to fall back into the same routine he'd held before. His room was still his, as though he'd been gone for only a few days, not a few months, and there were still the same familiar faces around.

Though it was warm out, Oliver was still covered in cuts and bruises from his fight with Slade, and he jogged in his usual sweatshirt and pants (both had been in his room along with all the other clothes he'd acquired during his stay). Sweat had the material clinging to his skin as he walked back into the lobby and his ribs burned every time he breathed in, but he felt good. He'd always found an odd joy in the pain that followed a fight, knowing that he could still feel it because he was alive.

He'd only made it a few steps into the lobby before he noticed what was out of place, and his heart stopped. Roy had told him about Thea's disappearing act, and while Oliver had been glad she'd run from the city and out of harm's way, he had no clue where she was or if she was even still alive.

"Thea!" She may have been angry at him before she left, but she was the only family he had left, and his throat burned as he covered the length of the lobby in long strides to get to her.

[speedy_queen]

Thea's natural reaction is to be angry. Ollie, along with everyone else, has lied to her and kept things from her. Still, she's in a place she doesn't recognize full of people she doesn't recognize and at the end of the day, he's still her brother even if he's only half.

So she meets him halfway. Well, more like a quarter of the way since Ollie's strides are a lot longer than hers but Queens are Queens and she's glad to see him even if every emotion she has is bubbling and brewing in a complicated mess just beneath the surface.

"Where are we?"

[lianyu]

God knew Thea had questions that needed answering, but Oliver ignored her in favor of pulling her into a hug. She'd probably push him away and give him that angry, betrayed look that had become all too painfully familiar, but for now...she was right here and she was fine and Oliver had never been happier to see her since his return to Starling.

"Are you okay?" He asked when he pulled away, hands on Thea's shoulders as he looked her over for any sign of injury.

[speedy_queen]

"Are we talking physically or emotionally? Because I've got enough fodder to keep every therapist in Starling in business from now until the end of time," Thea says, shrugging a little. It still feels good to have Ollie close again and she isn't exactly willing to push him away yet. Not when she's this thrown off balance.

"I don't have any internal bleeding or missing organs, though, so I think we're good in the injuries department."

[lianyu]

Oliver did his best not to sigh. Most of Thea's problems were his and their mother's fault, but Thea was talking to him, and he was going to take that as a small victory.

"I'm glad you're okay. I was worried." He had a million questions to ask about her departure from Starling and subsequent severing of all her ties to the people who loved her, but that was a wound Oliver wasn't willing to poke. Not when some crazy alternate dimension of a hotel had Thea talking to him again. "And I will answer any questions I can about this place."

[speedy_queen]

"We can start with where? Because I'm not really recognizing this particular hotel lobby but I'm guessing you're more familiar with those than I am," she says, watching him carefully. Thea isn't really sure what to do with Ollie right now because while she loves him, there's a part of her that feels betrayed still.

"You know. Given your recreational activities and all that. How did I end up in here?"

[lianyu]

Oliver blinked at Thea's (very true, at one time) insinuation, and took a deep breath before he worked up the words to respond to her question.

"That part, I couldn't tell you. Seems like you go through a door and end up somewhere in this hotel." He glanced toward the main doors, and wondered if a few minutes into her arrival was too soon to show Thea the spectacular view outside. "No idea how to get home, either. Felicity and I have been here for a little while." It was a short stay so far, compared to the months Oliver had spent in the hotel the first time he'd been around.

[speedy_queen]

"I know you have a penchant for the whole off the grid thing but you mean to tell me that you and your assistant have been holed up here and none of us noticed? I'm young but I'm not stupid, Ollie."

Thea has begun to realize over the past several months that she really doesn't know her brother. Those five years on the island changed him in a way she can't touch and, in exchange, she got changed too. She isn't the idealistic little girl who hung on her older brother's every word. She's grown up and she's changed and now Thea is just a little bit jaded.

"And how are we stuck exactly? Can't we just take a cab home?"

[oneguyinaunitard]

Peter is skateboarding lazily down the hallway when he hears a girl asking for 'anyone'. He comes to a stop, flips his board up and grabs it by one of the cross bars before he continues down the hall, turning a corner to see a pretty brunette looking utterly confused. He waves a little as he approaches her.

"I'm guessing you're new here."

[speedy_queen]

"Yeah, just a little." This guy looks more or less her age but that is neither a comfort or a threat. Thea has absolutely no idea where she is or who he is but she does need information.

"So, where is here exactly?"

[oneguyinaunitard]

He's seventeen, so a little bit younger, but not by much. He tries to keep his body language as non-threatening as possible, the skateboard hanging by his side, his other hand in the pocket of his hoody, relaxed and open.

"Nexus Hotel. I'm not entirely sure where, but I'm banking on another dimension." He takes his hand out of his pocket slowly, holding it out. "I'm Peter Parker."

[speedy_queen]

Thea shakes his hand but the look on her face is incredulous. "Another dimension? That's a little too sci-fi for me. We can't actually be in another dimension."

There's been a lot of weird in her life over the past year or so but Thea draws the line at other dimensions. That's bordering into insanity territory.

[oneguyinaunitard]

Yeah, he gets that. Of course, he'd been more excited than incredulous. "It's a lot sci-fi," he admits, uncertain as to how to prove this to her. After a moment, he holds up a hand and beckons her. "Come with me. I'll show the garden outside. I think you'll be swayed."

Since, from the garden, it's obvious that the hotel is an island floating in the middle of space.

[speedy_queen]

Thea has been in a lot of gardens in her day and she's not really sure how this particular one is going to sway her opinion that this is some wacky hotel in another dimension versus some place she ended up after a bender.

"All right, I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a minute or two. Lead the way, Sci-Fi Boy."

[oneguyinaunitard]

"Sci-Fi Boy?" He grins at the nickname. "All right. I guess I can deal with that one. Right this way," he says as he leads her toward the nearest door outside. "Peter Parker, by the way, in case Sci-Fi Boy isn't quite enough for you."

[speedy_queen]

"Thea Queen," she exchanges in kind. "I don't know, Sci-Fi Boy has a ring to it. Still, Peter Parker it is. Where are you from?"

It's like some weird version of a blind date or a frosh mixer and Thea decides she will just go with it. When she steps outside the doors, her jaw drops. What the hell? "Are we in...space?"

[oneguyinaunitard]

"New York City," Peter answers as they walk down the hallways.

That's one way to look at it. Honestly, whatever helps keep her sane. Peter watches her, his hands tucked in his pockets, weight shifted back slightly on his heels. "Yeah, something like that. I'm not exactly sure how it works. Like I said, another dimension."

[three_two_one]

Thankfully, for whoever or whatever, ran this place, Felicity had found her room just the way she left it. All her notes and equipment were just where she'd left them months ago. Well, it felt like months. For the creepy hotel, it was as if only a few days had passed. Another weird in a long line of it.

Still, she was settling back into being here and picking up her research where she left off. It was with that in mind that she headed out of her room with her ancient laptop in one hand, checking the mapping program she'd written. If she could figure out how big the place was, that was a start. Or something.

She didn't look up until she heard a familiar voice call out.

"Thea?" she answered back.

[speedy_queen]

Thea isn't sure why her brother's personal assistant is in this weird hotel lobby but she is someone from Starling and a friendly face at that. Thea isn't about to turn that down.

"Felicity? Where is this place? I was getting into a car to leave town and I showed up here."

[three_two_one]

"Now there's a question that I'd love to be able to answer," Felicity snorted out, "but can't because no matter how hard I look, I can't find it anywhere. And believe me, I've looked."

She gave the laptop a little shake, frowned at it, then set it down. "Okay, near as we can tell it's some kind of confluence area that pulls people in from all sorts of alternate universes and timeline. We're here from ours, some are from places that sound like Starling but aren't, some from different times, some from really different places, you name it. But here we all stay until whatever runs this place, spits us back out again."

[speedy_queen]

"Okay, you're going to have to slow way down and explain things on a not so honors classes level. I cut most of my classes senior year," Thea says, trying to parse all that with very little success. It makes no sense whatsoever.

"Alternate universes? That's not even possible."

[three_two_one]

"Yeah, well," Felicity shrugged and held her hands out to the side to indicate the hotel around them. "You tell me how we're in a place that's also home to a few vampires, a couple of Norse gods and Ichabod Crane? Not to mention a few battle-weary place from some kind of future that scares me green, if the tech they came with is anything to go by. If you've got another way to describe it, I'm all ears."

[speedy_queen]

Thea hasn't encountered any Norse gods or fictional characters and while Felicity is a little high strung, she's never thought she was crazy. Thea frowns a little.

"None of what you're saying makes sense. Are you sure you didn't get turned around at a comic convention or something?"

[three_two_one]

"Okay. Hang out a the bar for a few days and you'll see what I mean. I had to try and teach Jordan Baker how to use a cell phone. Believe me, that wasn't even the weirdest thing to happen to me here."

Felicity broke that tirade for a second and then looked closer at Thea. "What's the last thing you remember from home before you arrived here?"

[speedy_queen]

"You mean, after my mother's funeral, being held hostage and discovering I'm actually Malcolm Merlyn's daughter? No, that's about it," Thea says, feeling more than a little unsettled by all of this. Some weird world where fictional characters rub elbows with flesh and blood? It's all a little Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to her.

"Ring any bells?"