Disclaimer: Green Arrow belongs to DC Comics. Arrow belongs to the CW and Greg Berlanti. The AU concept is mine. I'm making no money off of this, please don't sue.
Chapter One
Felicity didn't know why they bothered with the robes.
The alcolytes all worked shifts at the Temple of Promise on a part-time basis, and they all had REAL jobs 'outside.' In fact, the girl who passed her the Stone she would be using worked at Starbucks. In fact, Felicity was 99% sure she misspelled her name ('Felsitting') on her cup last week. Which made the drop of blood necessary for the Ritual that much harder to give.
One of the rules was that one wasn't supposed to act as if one had seen them before, however, so she ignored the recognition. Even if the judgment she saw upon declaring her age was harder to set aside.
As she was led into a small corridor in the large stone and marble monolith that was at the center of any major city, Felicity struggled not to roll her eyes.
Okay, so she was two years out from when people usually went to get Matched. And she had been in Starling City for a year. There were no hiccups with the usual checks done during Matching: she was clean financially, physically and legally. Then there was the fact that she had been single for three years.
Nothing existed that prevented her from coming in to do the ceremony.
Except... her parents' Match had gone south.
Woke up one morning, and her father was gone. Never saw him again. His name was still on her mother's Stone, so he was alive, but...
He hadn't checked on her since she was seven. So she tried not to think about him too much, either.
So her opinion on Matches wasn't that great to begin with.
When she got together with Cooper, she met someone with a similar history with the Matching system (his parents were divorced, and had been since he was two, with two more marriages between them that had also failed), and they both decided they didn't need it. They were so happy...
Then Cooper got arrested.
True, hacking into the school system to 'liberate' people from their student loans hadn't been a good idea, but watching the cops wrestle her boyfriend to the ground was traumatizing to her 19-year-old self, to say the least. Okay, so she had to be restrained by two officers at the time, but still. She thought it couldn't get any worse.
Then Cooper committed suicide while behind bars.
That pretty much killed any desire to get into another relationship, Matched or otherwise.
As the young blonde and blue-eyed professional and the other UnMatched were led into the Hall of Matches, her thoughts were brought to her mother.
She was, after all, the whole reason she was there in the first place.
Her mother, Donna Smoak (the natural blonde of the two of them), found a lump in her breast, and while Felicity was skeptical, she flew to Vegas to attend the doctor's appointment with her.
The diagnosis came back as Stage 2 cancer.
It wasn't an immediate death sentence, but... Felicity was dumbfounded. She always knew her mother would go first, but even with it being Stage 2, she knew it was the idea of death that bothered her, not the reality of it... yet.
And the doctor warned them it might spread, but... that could have been just as a precaution. Her mother had been healthy to start with, so Felicity felt this was unlikely.
Get some pills, maybe surgery to remove the lump, and it would be fine. That's what she kept telling herself.
But her mother being the way she was, she had a far worse reaction to it. Her panic made her crazy with worry, babbling and shaking and unable to function. In the end, Felicity wound up flying her back to Starling on her own return trip. Starling City had better doctors and facilities, all around.
It would ease her mother's mind, she thought.
Then her mother started fussing about Felicity being alone in the world.
Under the hood of her lavendar robe (a stark contrast to the mens' red or the aclolytes' black), Felicity fought not to roll her eyes... again.
Cancer was a lethal threat, to be sure, but she was ONLY Stage 2, and the doctors were confident they caught it in time, even with the warning. But Donna was worried, and Felicity would do anything to aid in her recovery (if only so she could go back to Vegas. Much as she loved her mother, she was best in small doses).
So she wound up at the ToP, feeling judged.
She understood, in a way. It was considered poor taste to 'make people wait' by not going through the Ritual at age 21. One got Matched, as a rule, to someone in physical proximity (Fate usually got credited for this, as the odds were astronomical, though Felicity had her doubts). So if you waited, it was considered bad form, if only because the person had been there the entire time and you chose not to acknowledge them. It was seen as basically ignoring them. And ignoring people was rude.
It was one thing if someone died; word had it that the Stone erased the Blank Space if that happened. (If there was a name in said Blank Space, it was known to fade over time. The Ritual could be performed again once it was gone.)
But... if your Match had yet to perform the Ritual, the Space remained Blank until they had done so or, as previously stated, had died. This led to many people 'waiting' for a Match they might never get.
Not something Felicity would really be bothered by normally, seeing as it held so little meaning for her, personally. The Ritual had fallen out of favor until recently and hadn't been utilized by the populace as much as it was before, and people had been adopting the practice of finding their own Matches. Not something condoned by traditionalists, but the old Matching method of Dating was becoming more popular. Since the world was no longer dying (as it had been when the Matching system was organized by ancient mages, it was said), people thought it safe to go against the grain.
Not that Felicity had availed herself of Dating, but she saw other people be very happy with it. So she thought maybe it could work for other people, even if her own attempt had ended in disaster.
Then the president happened.
It had nothing to do with his politics (though Felicity had her own issues with some aspects of them). Or anything he enacted on Congress.
No, it was his UnMatched marriage.
Or, rather, his FAILING UnMatched marriage.
The president was one of the pivotal figures in the UnMatched Marriage Movement (the UMM). People who felt the Matching system was outdated and didn't guarantee long-lasting unions any more than Dating did. His own union was held up as proof positive that it could work.
After all, both kinds of unions required actual effort in order to function properly. Felicity had been low-key supporting them, even if she wasn't actively looking for a mate.
But then... the cheating allegations started. From multiple women. Throughout his campaign. Not unlike other politicians, true (it was common to think most of their marriages were UnMatched, though it was likely only a small number, if only out of superstition), but with him being the first UnMatched president in office, the scandal did incredible damage to the Movement, and caused an upswell in legitimate Matches being made across the country.
Felicity hadn't wanted to go through any kind of Matching method, regardless. But, with all the turmoil going around, it just made the most sense to go through the Matching process and be done with it.
Besides, there was still a chance she would only wind up with a Blank Space.
She hoped.
She was in line with about 10 other UnMatched. The robes petty much covered everything, though they got people into a simple linen shift before they put them in one. The whole process was supposed to take an hour, but Felicity's was taking two, because of the number of people.
First, there was the 'purification process.' It involved 'washing the world away' in a pool blessed by the alcolytes. Felicity thought it was silly; she showered first thing that morning. Though, she admitted that having them bathe made sense; nobody wanted to be around someone who smelled, and not everyone had her common sense when it came to personal hygeiene practices.
Second, they changed into their robes. Lavender for the women, red for the men. It was supposed to make the women seem more demure and the men appear 'strong.' Felicity didn't pretend to actually UNDERSTAND this reasoning. She just put the robe on and came out, wanting to get the show on the road.
Third, they gave their information and received their Stones (rounded, flat discs big enough to display a name). Each Stone was 'fed' a drop of their blood to make it 'theirs.' (Not pleasant, but it wasn't unlike having a doctor do it, and it was done in a completely sanitary way, so...)
Fourth, they got led into the Hall, toward the dias that usually only held three sacred bowls. Due to higher demand, it now held five. Which meant they would be going through the actual ceremony twice.
Felicity would be going up with the second group.
As she watched the first five go up, Felicity wondered how many usually got names. She would estimate less than half. She was a little surprised when it turned out to be three out of the five, and they moved back, making way for her and the other four UnMatched waiting their turn.
They each took up position in front of one of the shallow bowls. They were ornate, and each had a large spoon with a small set of slits in it to both set the Stone in and take it out of the bowl.
"Remember to only look at your Stone," the female officiate said. She was slightly older than the alcolytes, dressed in gray, her long brown hair pulled over her shoulder in a ponytail, with blue eyes. "We respect privacy within these walls."
That was one of the main selling points for Felicity. The ceremony was meant to be 100% confidential. She was unclear as to what generally happened to those that violated the rule, but rumor had it that it was pretty steep.
Hopefully, that was deterrent enough for most people.
Finally, they started the ceremony.
The first officiate joined hands with the other two, and they started to say the Blessing on the Stones:
"Let the Match be revealed to the eyes,
"The name unveiled, divested of disguise.
"Let the Match be pleasing to both eye and mind,
"So that no discord they shall find.
"The union is not complete,
"Until the Intended's lips shall meet.
"With a kiss, the truth is revealed,
"And the union Matched, is sealed."
In tandem with the others (two women and two men) Felicity dipped her Stone into the water. As with the first five, a mist rose from each of the bowls. That happened whether there was a name or not, so Felicity waited. And hoped.
Finally, the mist cleared.
And she stared. In horror.
Not only was there a NAME, it was one she recognized.
How could she not?
It was that of her boss, Oliver Jonas Queen.
Oliver. Jonas. Queen.
After another moment, she fished the Stone out shakily and dried it off, moving to join the others.
Turns out, she was one of the 'lucky' ones to be Matched. Six out of 10 had received names on their Stones. A few were excitedly making plans to go talk to them as soon as possible. She was one of two still very much in shock. One of the ones who had a Blank Space was looking at it, a little forlorn.
Felicity found herself feeling rather envious of her. While the woman would have unanswered questions... at least she didn't have to deal with the awkwardness that now stared Felicity in the face as they left the Hall.
Going to the ladies' dressing room, Felicity got back into her street clothes as she stared at her Stone, sitting in the tray in her locker.
She wouldn't be able to hide it from her mother. Like other Matching Stones, the name wasn't merely written on the surface. It was engraved, and there would be no way to mimic her desired Blank Space before her mother saw it tonight.
Others had tried. Paint flaked off, marker disappeared, and putty seemed to be pushed out by some unseen force.
Swapping Stones was also out of the question. It was considered a form of identity theft, and was punished severely. Each Stone had the others' name on it, and even on the off-chance one could get away with it... Felicity shuddered. It was never worth it.
The results were never to be Googled.
As the name was literally set in Stone, there was no changing it, either. No matter what was done to it, the name remained crystal clear. They also couldn't be blown up or destroyed in a fire. Stones had been known to be found after plane crashes, house fires, and even in the aftermath of natural disasters. There were some Stones that were found in farmers' fields weeks after a tornado had hit.
Again, Felicity didn't believe in magic, but... one couldn't argue with facts, and many of the anecdotes were backed up by solid evidence.
She could (maybe) skirt her mother or get her to keep it to herself for now with some vague promise to do something about it 'later,' but... her concern lay just as much, if not more, with the man in question.
Her interactions with Oliver Queen were minimal, at best, mostly passing each other like ships in the night. But they still worked in the same building, which fact was suddenly more stress-inducing than it would normally have been. (Felicity was most comfortable keeping her head down, after what happened with Coop, and garnering the attention of the big man in charge went against that particular 'mission statement.')
Made all the worse by the fact that Felicity had chosen to do the Ritual before work. Not that she could have known she would get her boss' name on her Stone, but clearly, she could have thought it through a little better.
Maybe Oliver Queen never looked at his Stone.
Maybe he packed it away after getting a Blank Space, never to pay it any mind ever again. Rich people probably ignored their Matches, preferring to pay them off and marry someone more befitting their station, if they weren't already.
She hoped he was one of those rich people.
Taking a deep breath, Felicity picked up her Stone, slid it into her purse, and left the ToP, making sure to sign out and reluctantly acknowledge receiving a Match. It was only for their records, anyway, so there was nothing to be worried about when it came to anyone finding out.
Gripping her purse strap, she went back out into the world at large.