I. ( when the shock of arrival has dulled and she stops wanting to fight literally everyone that crosses her path, she stumbles right into the festival. initially, she doesn’t want to be there. it’s loud and bright, and people are everywhere. those three reasons are also why she’s smiling because wow, this is like the glades .. only, you know, without the kill everyone not like us plan. or well, she hopes so anyway. she hopes that’s not the case here.

in the meantime, there’s ice cream. there’s so much ice cream. she’s basically going to get a sugar high here and go for seconds, don’t judge. she’s breaking off pieces of her waffle cone and popping them into her mouth on a bench, sitting cross-legged outside of the storefront. she stops chomping long enough to suggest: ) You should try the blueberry. I’m on my third scoop. You won’t regret it.

II. ( later on in the day, she winds up at koji pond, strapped into a life vest that she raises both eyebrows at because yeah, no, she’s not going to need that. she can’t blame them. they haven’t seen her balance game. it’s on point. once it’s her turn to approach the starting point, she gets a running head start and lands with a practiced precision even as the crates bob beneath her. she rights herself and keeps going like they’re nothing more than stepping stones. she makes it across on the first try.

she gets greedy and way too boastful. mia wants to make it there and back. not only does she want to win, she wants to be the best.

naturally, she gets distracted. it won't be as simple as the sun getting in her eyes but it can be almost anything else: a hot guy, a cute trick, a puppy. most likely, it'll be that someone's crossing from the opposite direction on the lobster crates and they look like they're going to fall in. the world she comes from is sink or swim, lie or be lied to. she was raised better than that. before she can think about it too hard, she's reaching out to stabilize a total stranger because those fish do not look like they want to sing a happy little tune and continue on an adventure. )

Watch it! ( she snaps. ) I'm trying to help you.

( which is a no good, very bad, incredibly dumb thing she decides when they both go for a nosedive into the pond. )

III. ( that fragile line between dreaming and waking has been blurry for far too long. she knows what happens to vigilantes in star city just as she knows what happens to star city because of vigilantes. it’s a vicious cycle, some of which she now believes is propaganda — although, not all of it. she knows now that her parents were the kind of people that did whatever they had to for the world, for their city and while it may have helped some things, it also made other things worse. all of that knowledge knocking around in her head and she still has a bow and a quiver at the ready ( the only thing she has from home ) once she starts seeing stuff.

people.

and not people.

super soldiers that run on a program her mother designed, for instance, with dna marking technology that help them predict the next move of anyone in the system. so yeah, that’s pretty spectacular. go ahead, ask her about her day. she has some scrapes and blooming bruises by the time she crosses paths with someone; her hair is loose, past her shoulders, and about as wild as her erratic behavior. )

You need to get out of here. Go. Run. ( because in about .003 seconds, that soldier utilizing the archer program is kicking in the front door. )