[ he gets way too excited about being asked out for a drink by his bro, doesn't he? whatever, he's been worried sick, about cisco and the fact that maybe he's doing the wrong thing by giving the guy his space.
[ it's...oddly comforting to have Their Place in this weird space reality show routine. it's almost like having Jitters at home. Cisco will sit at the little nook away from the bar but he'll get up when he sees him ]
[ it's good, not having to go through the whole routine of figuring out where to meet - 2 texts and he can be on his way. he's so anxious about cisco, he even forgets to be afraid of the trip.
he gives a little wave as he runs up to the nook to join him. ]
Hi -- [ what does he say now? what the hell happened? too on the nose. he doesn't want cisco to feel attacked. ] it's good to see you. [ and it really is. once you find a best bro, being apart is unbearably lonely. ]
[ he sits down, the smile coming easily now that cisco addressed the - incident, yeah, feels like a good name for it! ]
Dude, that's awesome! We can game night. And I got a couple projects I need help with that have your name all over them. Specifically - superhero tech needs building.
[ nerd speak for things may be awkward right now, but you're still my bro. ]
[ winn's definitely up for it, it's good to have the game as an excuse to take a moment to think if he needs it. ]
Well, project number one I -- don't have a clue where to start and it's not the kind of thing you tinker with blindly, so -- really need your help. There's a guy who needs hearing aids, the frequencies here are messing with his old ones. Catch is - he won't ask for help so we need to work off of a picture and have it ready for when he decides he's had enough.
Probably. I'll bring it by next time I'll drop by - which I will announce beforehand this time.
[ he blames the whole Incident on him not sending a simple text to say he's coming over. it has nothing to do with it, probably but he does need something to blame it on. ]
huh.
[ he blinks for a minute before returning to the game ]
it's like a mixture of two problems by two of the most notorious jackasses I've ever met.
[ not that he wants to admit Hartley would have been better for this job since fuck that, his week has been awful already ]
Two. The first one is easier to explain than the second. Hartley Rathaway. Major Absolute Total Dick Slash Jackass. We worked together aka I worked and he was busy trying to determine how many days I'll last. His hobbies include putting down other people and kicking puppies in the street.
[ :| ]
and that's before he became Pied Piper - awesome name, I know, if he comes here and you tell him I said that I will kill myself.
[ never ever underestimate the rivalry of hartley and cisco ]
He knows a lot about hearing and frequencies but. So do I. I'll be on that job. What's the other project?
Pretty much anyone before assholes, especially bros.
[ if he shows up, he promises to hate him on principle. he wants to ask about the second, but for now he'll just answer the question. ]
OK, second project is way more developer-friendly. I'm trying to make aviators with adjustable lighting and heat signature detection. You know - wearables with a purpose.
[ it's nice and new having someone else to work with. Most days, Cisco misses Caitlin at least four times a day. Caitlin's family but now, in many ways, so is Winn. ]
we can schedule working hours assuming we wouldn't be sucked into playing this for hours.
[ it's new for winn as well. he's used to doing this part alone. it'll be fun to have someone who cares as much as he does to work with.
before kitty told him about the stalker, he would have had to debate this - but now...the blameless is clearly compromised. he doesn't want to give this person a heads up on his little ace for kate when it could mean the difference between life and death. ]
How about we start with mine for this one, and yours for the next?
[ cuz come on, you know they'll come up with another 10000 things they'd want to make together. ]
Don't worry, focusing on work - not one of my problems. [ which is why kara's already banned him from picking up new side projects. not that it...actually stops him. ]
[ he'll spend a few more seconds on the game, watching the board with a pleased smile ( it works, which, of course it does but with the new space tech any small victory feels bigger ) before sighing a bit.
it's almost as if everything is normal but the cloud above their heads won't really dissolve unless he speaks of the Incident now will it? ]
Right. the Incident.
[ he takes a sip of his beer and sighs, sitting back and leaving the game be for a moment ]
....it's a seriously, seriously long story and I'll have to go backwards for you to actually...get it. are you sure you even want to know? it gets very, very creepy at times.
[ when cisco lets go of the game, winn does the same. it's been nice - seeing how they easily they can fall back into just being themselves around each other. but it couldn't have lasted. eventually, his concern would have turned into something else. he's glad cisco isn't letting that happen. ]
You know Kara calls us 'soulmates'? I know, terrible ring to it. But it's not a bad fit. You're my friend. And I know my way around creepy.
[ he's pretty sure it can't get worse than kitty's stories. and his dad is the embodiment of creepy. he's got this. ]
...Alright. Well, I guess it all started when I got my dream job. It was in STAR labs and I've been - pining for that job for years, working for Dr. Wells. Dr. Wells was -
[ a pause. it's weird to call him Wells but he reminds himself that Harry is Harry and Wells is....well. ]
a genius. probably the most celebrated genius of our time, his contributions to physics was amazing and he hired me which was...beyond anything I could have wised for. He said he saw potential in me and for months I worked to prove to him that he was right to trust me. Back then he was - everything I wanted to be and more, a mentor. to me, to Caitlin, everyone and our project, his life-project was a particle accelerator which was supposed to be a breakthrough in everything we knew about...everything. space, time, medicine. We worked solely on this and -
[ it's weird going so far back, it's been a while since he visited these memories ]
On the night we turned it on, it exploded. Caitlin's fiance died among...many others, Wells was left in a wheelchair but also it released anti matter, dark energy, X-elements, all the good stuff all through Central City creating.....meta-humans. That night, Barry got hit by lightening and got his speed. Following, so far?
[ he nods, not wanting to interrupt the flow of the story. he's following along fine, and this has to be hard on cisco anyway, he doesn't need to be making it longer than it absolutely has to be. ]
Right so. Everything was...bad, STAR labs was shut, my - Wells was in a wheelchair and we were all grieving over Ronnie and also being the most hated people in town but then - Barry woke from his coma and became the Flash and we all became team Flash, led by Dr. Wells, he helped Barry with his speed and we helped him bring in meta-humans turned criminals and for a while it was - awesome. Thing is.
[ that it was all a lie, wasn't it? it was never meant to be ]
Barry's family was hurt when he was young by someone. He called him the man in the lightening, he killed his mom. Naturally nobody believed the story about a man wearing yellow inside of a storm of lightening but he came back and he was - seriously terrifying. He was a speedster in a yellow suit, he said he was the reverse of Barry and so we called him - you can guess that part.
The man in yellow who killed Barry's mom and was now super intent on killing Barry so all of us tried to help Barry become faster because that creep was - seriously fast. We tried to capture him which resulted in him nearly killing Dr. Wells.. He was like mega-villain, worse than any of the meta-humans but what I couldn't get at first was how he even was a thing since if he killed Barry's mom that was - years before the particle accelerator went on and yet his powers were exactly like Barry's. so.
[ he takes another sip of beer ]
I rechecked the trap and surprisingly or not things weren't adding up. The one who worked on that was Wells and I started think he might be in league with the Reverse Flash as....awful as it was since he was - the most important person in our lives except for Barry. This is where it becomes creepy. While I was investigating, Barry was trying to stop a freak storm created by a meta-human, right? so, Barry's doing that while I go down to check the force field we tried to use as a trap for the Reverse Flash, I'm tinkering with it and in the trap there appears the--- Reverse Flash except it's not him it's a mirage and it keeps repeating the same things he said when we captured him which meant we never actually captured him.
[ a sigh ]
And that's not even the creepy part. The creepy part is the walking Dr. Wells who came in a minute later.
[ he sucks in a quick breath, almost as if the story is unfolding before his eyes in real time.
and it is, in a way. in his memory. the betrayal of a father figure - or in his case, his actual father - the murder of innocents. couldn't they just be parallels in good ways? cisco doesn't deserve this. none of them do.
he finds himself filled once more with a deep seething fury at the multiverse. his fingers clench tightly around the bottle. ]
It was him.
[ quietly. he feels the betrayal as if it happened to him. and the fear - barry otherwise engaged, cisco on his own against a foe he can't hope to beat - but it doesn't sound like he's dead, right? from the way he's been talking about going home - he can't be dead. please, not again. ]
Oh yeah. It was him. The Reverse Flash or as he introduced himself, Eobard Thawne. Funny, since we all worked with a detective called Eddie Thawne which -- Wells- Thawne said was a distant relation. You'll get it in a minute. So as for the question of how the Reverse Flash nearly murdered Wells if they're the same person - speed mirage. He was moving so fast he could actually leave after-images of himself behind. As for the 'why', all he said was that he came to kill Barry all those years ago and ended up killing his mom, that he was - stuck for fifteen years and Barry's speed was going to sending him to his world and time. I - said I would help but he was - he never meant for any of that. All he said was that - I was like his son and then he - well. He was fast enough to close a fist around my heart and kill me.
[ dryly ]
and before you ask, I'm not dead. Remember? freak storm? Barry's trying to stop it by running really fast around it? well, he ran so fast that he actually ran back in time. He changed the timeline without even knowing he did. So everything - me finding out about Wells, the freak storm, Wells killing me, all were undone. But then - days after, I started remembering. the other timeline, the one Barry changed by going back. I remembered that but Wells didn't. We were closing in on who he actually was. What we found out was a secret room inside STAR labs that Wells used. Inside there was the yellow suit but also some sort of A.I system and a newspaper from 2024 citing something about the Flash being missing. Which means that Thawne, much like Barry, could travel in time which he did. He went back to try and kill Barry and stop him from being the Flash but the effort left him without his speed and stuck in a timeline he didn't belong at. He was cray before but after that he was cray and angry and he set out to create the Flash because he needed speed to go back to his timeline. Following?
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text »
right? ]
hi
still up for that drink?
text »
he texts back instantly. ]
absolutely. meet u there?
text » action;
[ it's...oddly comforting to have Their Place in this weird space reality show routine. it's almost like having Jitters at home. Cisco will sit at the little nook away from the bar but he'll get up when he sees him ]
hi - over here -
action;
he gives a little wave as he runs up to the nook to join him. ]
Hi -- [ what does he say now? what the hell happened? too on the nose. he doesn't want cisco to feel attacked. ] it's good to see you. [ and it really is. once you find a best bro, being apart is unbearably lonely. ]
action;
[ air quotes, get ]
And I'll...get to that. There is something to easily put away the awkward.
[ he reaches into his work bag and takes out a very simple looking version of this ]
.....dude. I finally got it right. a mini air hockey table.
action;
Dude, that's awesome! We can game night. And I got a couple projects I need help with that have your name all over them. Specifically - superhero tech needs building.
[ nerd speak for things may be awkward right now, but you're still my bro. ]
action;
[ he puts the little hockey puck on the middle of the board and gets his pusher ]
ok let's try this baby out.
[ it's easier to talk mid game, anyway. especially if he has to discuss the Incident. ]
hit me. what projects?
action;
[ winn's definitely up for it, it's good to have the game as an excuse to take a moment to think if he needs it. ]
Well, project number one I -- don't have a clue where to start and it's not the kind of thing you tinker with blindly, so -- really need your help. There's a guy who needs hearing aids, the frequencies here are messing with his old ones. Catch is - he won't ask for help so we need to work off of a picture and have it ready for when he decides he's had enough.
[ how's that for a challenge? ]
action;
[ he blames the whole Incident on him not sending a simple text to say he's coming over. it has nothing to do with it, probably but he does need something to blame it on. ]
huh.
[ he blinks for a minute before returning to the game ]
it's like a mixture of two problems by two of the most notorious jackasses I've ever met.
[ not that he wants to admit Hartley would have been better for this job since fuck that, his week has been awful already ]
...I can do it.
action;
[ because yes ok he's usually with kitty. ]
-- you know a lot of jackasses. [ unless it's all the same one? in which case, dude, you talk about him a lot. ]
Re: action;
[ :| ]
and that's before he became Pied Piper - awesome name, I know, if he comes here and you tell him I said that I will kill myself.
[ never ever underestimate the rivalry of hartley and cisco ]
He knows a lot about hearing and frequencies but. So do I. I'll be on that job. What's the other project?
action;
[ if he shows up, he promises to hate him on principle. he wants to ask about the second, but for now he'll just answer the question. ]
OK, second project is way more developer-friendly. I'm trying to make aviators with adjustable lighting and heat signature detection. You know - wearables with a purpose.
action;
[ he thinks about it and nods ]
Give me - two weeks. I should have some prototypes for both of these things by then.
action;
[ come on dude, don't hog the fun! ok you can take the hearing aids, he's got nothing on those. but he wants to learn how to make the glasses! ]
action;
[ it's nice and new having someone else to work with. Most days, Cisco misses Caitlin at least four times a day. Caitlin's family but now, in many ways, so is Winn. ]
we can schedule working hours assuming we wouldn't be sucked into playing this for hours.
action;
before kitty told him about the stalker, he would have had to debate this - but now...the blameless is clearly compromised. he doesn't want to give this person a heads up on his little ace for kate when it could mean the difference between life and death. ]
How about we start with mine for this one, and yours for the next?
[ cuz come on, you know they'll come up with another 10000 things they'd want to make together. ]
Don't worry, focusing on work - not one of my problems. [ which is why kara's already banned him from picking up new side projects. not that it...actually stops him. ]
action;
[ he'll spend a few more seconds on the game, watching the board with a pleased smile ( it works, which, of course it does but with the new space tech any small victory feels bigger ) before sighing a bit.
it's almost as if everything is normal but the cloud above their heads won't really dissolve unless he speaks of the Incident now will it? ]
Right. the Incident.
[ he takes a sip of his beer and sighs, sitting back and leaving the game be for a moment ]
....it's a seriously, seriously long story and I'll have to go backwards for you to actually...get it. are you sure you even want to know? it gets very, very creepy at times.
action;
You know Kara calls us 'soulmates'? I know, terrible ring to it. But it's not a bad fit. You're my friend. And I know my way around creepy.
[ he's pretty sure it can't get worse than kitty's stories. and his dad is the embodiment of creepy. he's got this. ]
action;
[ a pause. it's weird to call him Wells but he reminds himself that Harry is Harry and Wells is....well. ]
a genius. probably the most celebrated genius of our time, his contributions to physics was amazing and he hired me which was...beyond anything I could have wised for. He said he saw potential in me and for months I worked to prove to him that he was right to trust me. Back then he was - everything I wanted to be and more, a mentor. to me, to Caitlin, everyone and our project, his life-project was a particle accelerator which was supposed to be a breakthrough in everything we knew about...everything. space, time, medicine. We worked solely on this and -
[ it's weird going so far back, it's been a while since he visited these memories ]
On the night we turned it on, it exploded. Caitlin's fiance died among...many others, Wells was left in a wheelchair but also it released anti matter, dark energy, X-elements, all the good stuff all through Central City creating.....meta-humans. That night, Barry got hit by lightening and got his speed. Following, so far?
action;
action;
[ that it was all a lie, wasn't it? it was never meant to be ]
Barry's family was hurt when he was young by someone. He called him the man in the lightening, he killed his mom. Naturally nobody believed the story about a man wearing yellow inside of a storm of lightening but he came back and he was - seriously terrifying. He was a speedster in a yellow suit, he said he was the reverse of Barry and so we called him - you can guess that part.
action;
[ his voice is tight, odd to his own ears. don't any of them ever get to have a normal childhood, complete with two living and loving parents? ]
action;
[ a nod ]
The man in yellow who killed Barry's mom and was now super intent on killing Barry so all of us tried to help Barry become faster because that creep was - seriously fast. We tried to capture him which resulted in him nearly killing Dr. Wells.. He was like mega-villain, worse than any of the meta-humans but what I couldn't get at first was how he even was a thing since if he killed Barry's mom that was - years before the particle accelerator went on and yet his powers were exactly like Barry's. so.
[ he takes another sip of beer ]
I rechecked the trap and surprisingly or not things weren't adding up. The one who worked on that was Wells and I started think he might be in league with the Reverse Flash as....awful as it was since he was - the most important person in our lives except for Barry. This is where it becomes creepy. While I was investigating, Barry was trying to stop a freak storm created by a meta-human, right? so, Barry's doing that while I go down to check the force field we tried to use as a trap for the Reverse Flash, I'm tinkering with it and in the trap there appears the--- Reverse Flash except it's not him it's a mirage and it keeps repeating the same things he said when we captured him which meant we never actually captured him.
[ a sigh ]
And that's not even the creepy part. The creepy part is the walking Dr. Wells who came in a minute later.
action;
and it is, in a way. in his memory. the betrayal of a father figure - or in his case, his actual father - the murder of innocents. couldn't they just be parallels in good ways? cisco doesn't deserve this. none of them do.
he finds himself filled once more with a deep seething fury at the multiverse. his fingers clench tightly around the bottle. ]
It was him.
[ quietly. he feels the betrayal as if it happened to him. and the fear - barry otherwise engaged, cisco on his own against a foe he can't hope to beat - but it doesn't sound like he's dead, right? from the way he's been talking about going home - he can't be dead. please, not again. ]
action;
[ dryly ]
and before you ask, I'm not dead. Remember? freak storm? Barry's trying to stop it by running really fast around it? well, he ran so fast that he actually ran back in time. He changed the timeline without even knowing he did. So everything - me finding out about Wells, the freak storm, Wells killing me, all were undone. But then - days after, I started remembering. the other timeline, the one Barry changed by going back. I remembered that but Wells didn't. We were closing in on who he actually was. What we found out was a secret room inside STAR labs that Wells used. Inside there was the yellow suit but also some sort of A.I system and a newspaper from 2024 citing something about the Flash being missing. Which means that Thawne, much like Barry, could travel in time which he did. He went back to try and kill Barry and stop him from being the Flash but the effort left him without his speed and stuck in a timeline he didn't belong at. He was cray before but after that he was cray and angry and he set out to create the Flash because he needed speed to go back to his timeline. Following?
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