party ♔ ding-dong the dick's dead

[recruited]

WHO || Everyone. Everyone come if you're not on a mission.
WHAT || A party to celebrate Dimitris Sarandis sleeping with the fishes.
WHERE || Knights HQ. The fancy ballroom.
WHEN || Mid-March 2016.
HOW || Prose or actionspam welcome.

Cordelia and Steve have gotten together to plan a rather fun party to celebrate Sarandis being taken down. Abbie even managed to grab them a rather awesome band to entertain the guests and everything else was hand picked and decided on by Cordy and Steve. It's not as fancy as a squiring after party, but it's just as fun. The ballroom has been "dressed down" a little to match the relaxed atmosphere. Enjoy yourselves!

Comments

[allmydreams]

[Yeah, Felicity's not convinced.]

Head injuries are still super serious. Brain damage doesn't fix itself, and your non-lethal damage could have had way more lasting consequences. But that isn't my point. My point is that sometimes people do things they can't take back because they think it's what they have to do to protect their team. Placing the blame solely on Archer isn't going to solve any problems because he isn't the only one at fault.

And at the same time, they also have to live with that. It's not as easy as it sounds, or ... how they can make it out to be.

[recruited]

[ He doesn't respond to the first bit because there's still a massive difference. Steve feels bad about having to stop those men. Archer didn't feel remorse. Felicity wasn't there to witness him screaming "fuck the police" and looking like he was having the time of his life. That's what worries Steve. ]

I've done plenty and made plenty of calls. But you did not see how excited he was to be wielding fire at those cops. I just don't buy that he felt bad about any of it.

[allmydreams]

[She purses her lips for a moment, because she knows some people are pretty good at lying, even to themselves.]

And he's not required to show you that he does.

[She sighs.]

Look, maybe he doesn't see it as a bad call now. Maybe he will later. But trying to force him to feel remorse about it isn't going to fix the problem. Besides, the person he was accountable to in that room was Wynn, not you, and Wynn responded accordingly. If you had waited five minutes before storming out, you would have seen that.

[recruited]

If we're team then I have to feel like I can trust him. I don't feel like I can.

[ He heard about the fire table incident. The part that really makes Steve angry is that he blew up like that with actual babies in the meeting. ]

Couldn't be in the same room as him. I'm not going to apologize for that. [ Though technically he already did apologize to Wynn about leaving so abruptly. ]

[allmydreams]

[She nods.]

Okay. I get that. He's not part of the team anymore. But that doesn't mean other members of the team aren't going to make mistakes.

[recruited]

Mistakes are different from blatantly not caring who you hurt.

[ At least that's how Steve gets it. ]

[allmydreams]

What about caring about who does get hurt?

[recruited]

I'm standing right here because I care.

[ He's never going to get on board with what happened out there. Steve's old and stubborn. ]

[allmydreams]

[She shakes her head.]

I don't mean them out there. I mean us, your team. Because while I agree, I don't think innocent people should be hurt, but I also don't want our team members to get shot to death by cops either.

[recruited]

This whole damn thing started because Archer couldn't control his reactions. What happened with that first cop--didn't have to end like that. I'm not saying don't protect your people, but that--wasn't the same and you know it.

[allmydreams]

Also, the whole damn thing probably started because Kat and Des knocked out two innocent paramedics so we could steal their ambulance.

[Otherwise, the cops wouldn't have even known to look for them.]

[recruited]

Yeah and they probably regret that decision because it brought the cops down on them. Archer was yelling at the cops like it was a game.

[ Steve rubs the back of his head. ]

[allmydreams]

[She takes a deep breath.]

Yeah. I get it, I get it.

[There's a pause as she glances around to make sure no one was looking to join them, before shrugging.]

But I've also been that person who's made extreme choices on a mission. So I get where he was coming from.

[She didn't do it quite as gleefully, but she's been that person with blood on her hands.]

[recruited]

[ Steve's lost teammates. He's lost civilians. He's had to make not great calls. He had the government breathing down his throat about a lot of things. You do the right thing because it's the right thing. Not because you get thanked or a medal. ]

You're not like Archer, Felicity.

[allmydreams]

[She pauses before shaking her head.]

You don't have to be Archer to make a shaky or ... extreme call.

[She pauses for a moment.]

I had been with the knights about six months when I got sent on his mission to Germany. One of Andrew's hacker friends had gone missing and we got rolled out to see if we could track her down.

[recruited]

[ He's always going to see a distinct difference between Felicity and Archer no matter what she tells him. Well, unless she says she murdered some people doing their jobs and then screamed out the window at them very pleased. Maybe then. ]

And I'm guessing innocent people died?

[allmydreams]

[She nods.]

We found his friend in a ghoul's nest in Essen. We kept following her leads though, and we found this ... breeding farm for genetically engineered psionics. There were all these pregnant women that were drugged and being used as incubators, and they were being protected by these two children - a boy and a girl. Couldn't have been more than seven years-old. One of them took control of Andrew, and cast a fear spell on me, and I had my gun out to try and scare her.

[There's a beat as she looks down.]

But the spell spooked me, and I shot her in the head.

[recruited]

That's different than what happened with Archer and somewhere you have to know that, Felicity. [ Because these two children--seem to have been well aware of what they were doing. Guarding these women used to make psionics. ] There's a fine line between someone who is hired to do their job and someone happy to do something evil.

[allmydreams]

It was a six year-old girl, and I wasn't ordered to kill anyone.

[There's a beat.]

But it's a slippery slope from me to Archer, and as far as Archer was concerned, that was the job he was hired to do.

[recruited]

I mean the little girl, Felicity. She wasn't hired to do that? Forced? She was there guarding those people and keeping them captive of her own free will?

[allmydreams]

I don't think she knew any better. It was what she was taught to do. Or ... possibly programmed. There were robotics in the remains.

[recruited]

I'm not saying it's not a gray area, but I do not and will never lump you in with what Archer did out there.

[allmydreams]

[She nods once.]

I get it. But I also think that sometimes you have to bend. And that might involve a more extreme approach for the good of the team.

[She holds up a hand.]

Just ... something to think about.

[recruited]

I just--if I go with the extreme approach. Then am I any better than the people I used to fight back home?

[allmydreams]

[She shrugs for a moment.]

I don't know. I guess that depends on you.