So I did this once before as a writing project using the Metallica Black Album to create a screenplay. So I thought I would try it with Arrow and my favorite band since I was in High School Linkin Park, especially since their new album is called "Hunting Part" I thought the Arrow theme just fit.
Rules:
I must go in order of the album and I must use every track on the album even if it isn't a song.
I don't have to extract lyrics I can basically go with the themes if I want.
Story does not have to follow cannon but I will probably go in and out of that.
Of course: I own none of the Arrow characters that I'm going to use.
The first song on the track is called, "Keys to the Kingdom", it's a song filled with angst as much of Linkin Park's material is that way. The lyric that I used for this theme is "I'm my own casualty, I fuck up everything I see fighting with futility." This fits perfectly into Oliver's self-guilt. Then I thought, what's the Kingdom, and I thought his only place that he feels in control of everything is Lian Yu, whether he wants to believe it or not Lian Yu is Oliver's Kingdom it is his domain, so putting the self-guilt and Lian Yu together I thought that this could be about Oliver's return to Lian Yu after the Undertaking.
The boat takes me to as close to the shore line as it is comfortable with, Lian Yu has a death grip on anyone that gets near its shores, so I don't blame the fisherman when they make me board the dingy for the last half-mile of the journey. Unlike my previous trip this time I came prepared. Along with my chest, I also have brought duffels of clothes, toiletries, and enough food and water to last me until I'm situated. I've also brought a GPS location device, I don't plan on staying in purgatory forever, just long enough to atone for my sins.
Five hundred and three of them to be exact, five hundred and three people had to die because I failed, I failed my city. My father sent me on a quest to right his wrongs, and I was too stupid, too foolish not to see the real wrongs he was talking about. The list, my quest, was all for nothing, I failed my father, I failed him because I didn't see past the names in the book, I just saw the names and did what this island taught me to do, to kill, to scare, to punish. Instead I needed to see beyond the list, my father wanted me to see why those names were on that list, and why they needed special ink to keep their names invisible, because they were planning for the deaths of thousands, I never saw this, until it was too late, so five hundred and three people had to die because of my mistake. In order to cleanse myself, to do my best at ridding myself of this guilt, I must punish myself. Not with some extraneous workout until I forget, but with solitude to the only place that would truly punish me for my failure.
I row the final half mile until I finally reach the rocky shoreline of Lian Yu. Immediately my self-awareness returns, my vision expands, my hearing becomes more sensitive, my brain that was in Starling City is trying to tell me that this island is no longer inhabited, that Lian Yu is now a well-known place on the Chinese map because a billionaire playboy survived there for five years. Though my brain that works on this island knows that you take nothing for granted, so my first job is to scope the island before making camp, I pull my things off the dingy and then pull the dingy to shore and flip the dingy over my things using it as a canopy for the unpredictable rains, afterwards the wood could be useful after it dries.
I open my chest and pull out my bow and quiver, along a few herbs just in case I don't identify what's around me fast enough. I finally sling a canteen, and small pack of food around my neck before making my way off the beach and into the forest. My brain easily adjusts to life back on the island and as if I never left I remember all the routes to get to the highest places, I remember to avoid the valleys before the hills because that's where most of the mines are located. I also make sure to leave the southwest corner for last remembering that the wild boars like to rummage in that area. It takes three days to encircle the Island and luckily for me no one is here. On this encircling of the island I visit Edward Fyers' camp, the cave where Yao Fei taught me about survival, how to kill, and then finally to the fuselage where I spent much of my time learning to fight and how to use my bow. After examining the fusel lodge I decide that it is still suitable enough for me as living quarters.
With hunger starting to ravage I make my his last stop to the southwest corner to shoot a boar through the eyes. I drag the boar to the dingy and flip the boar, along with my supplies into the dingy. After attaching a rope to the dingy, I begin to drag the heavily weighted dingy to the hangar. It was nightfall by the time I reach the hangar, the dead boar starts to attract flies, and I fear that it could attract other predators who smell the blood as well, I understand that if I don't start preparing this boar fast enough I may become the meal along with it. I pull out my combat knife and begin to carve around the skin of the animal pulling the skin from the carcass as quickly as possible, I can feel the flies attempting to burrow in my ear and I hope that they aren't laying eggs because I really don't feel like spending the next week pulling maggots out of my ears. After removing the skin I carve another inch off the entire boar and drop it a few hundred feet away from the hangar. Not only would this keep the flies away, but the predators as well. I drip some of the pig fat onto some moss and use it as fuel to start a fire. Within minutes I remember how to make a strong enough spit and start to roast the boar over the flames. Knowing that my hunger isn't going to wait for me to fully cook this boar, I carve the cooked outer meat with my combat knife and slip the piece into my mouth and then follow that with a swig of water.
I then pull out my wallet, the last time I was on this island a small photograph of Laurel is what motivated me to stay alive, yes my father's quest provided my purpose, but that picture, that chance to seek forgiveness was what motivated me when signs were telling me that death was a more pleasant experience than survival. This time the photograph is of Tommy. My best friend, the one that I betrayed the most, his out of all the five hundred and three, his death consumes me with the most guilt. I should have been there to save Laurel, it was me that should have had that rebar poking out through my chest, it should have been me asking Tommy for forgiveness as life began to fade. Instead it was Tommy who had to suffer, and it was all my fault, because I couldn't figure out the Undertaking quick enough.
What hurts most of all is that Tommy died not seeing the true purpose of what I was doing, instead he only saw the body count. He saw me as a liar, a cheat, and worst of all, a murderer, and while he died he only spoke to me while he was dying out of pity. Tommy is my real reason for my penance, for I didn't know all the five hundred and three people who died in the Glades that night, but I did know my best friend, and the five hundred and three days I will spend on this island will be for him, it is the only thing I could think to do that would be worthy of Tommy's forgiveness.
Oh I realize that Thea would think that I am abandoning her while our mother is in prison awaiting trial. That Digg will think that I left because I couldn't handle to pain of staying there, and I know that Felicity, the woman that has the purest soul, the woman that was nearly crushed underneath the foundation of my club because of my failure, will probably spend every free moment tracking me down. I realize that it's unfair to them for me to just leave without warning, but I need this, I need this pain, I need to feel the loneliness, the hopelessness again, I need to punish myself for my failure, and remaining in Starling City wouldn't provide the pain that I need to repent for my sins.
Once full, I lift the boar off the spit and deposit it for the flies a mile away from the camp. As I renters my old now new again home, I feel one with the Island, like the Island misses my presence, I makes four tally marks on a non-vine-covered portion of the fuselage to signify my fourth full day of my refuge on Lian Yu, but somehow my guilt doesn't feel four souls less.