⚡ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪᴅᴅʟᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs sᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ ( ᴏᴘᴇɴ )

[accelero]

Who: barry allen / the flash & you, yes you
Where: all over wonderland and in the mansion
When: throughout february
Rating: pg-13 for safety
Summary: catch all for meeting barry & the flash
The Story:



( BARRY ▍when you feel like giving in, I'll believe )

[ february finds barry trying to figure out the details of the multiverse. wonderland is so far from whatever end central city might be at. it's not even earth and trying to calculate how it draws people from various multiverses is a mathematical equation that becomes so complicated he wishes he could ask cisco or professor stein.

he doesn't think of eboard thawne.

you might find barry in the library, surrounded by books of math and physics, hunching over endless calculations. it doesn't help that there aren't laptops.

other times, he'll be in the kitchen or in the diner, this time surrounded by various junk food boxes, be it burgers, pies or tacos.

remember the whole need-to-eat-about-850-tacos-to-get-through-a-day-as-the-flash? no? well it's definitely happening. he thinks the closet is pretty cruel for giving him normal granola bars instead if the Cisco'ed ones it gave him up until this week. one, because they're pretty useless two because granola bars suck.

you're welcome to join him and...grab a burger out of the five already on the table. ]

( THE FLASH ▍so lift your head high and don't give in)

[ it doesn't matter where you are, really. you could be on the roof or outside, you could be looking out the window of your room when you see it. it might look like a lightening or perhaps a flash of red but it'll be gone in less than a blink.

surely you imagined it, right? but you might come to see this red streak of lightening more and more the following days, there one moment and gone before you have the chance to squint your eyes. try to take pictures of it and catch a blur, try using any sort of binoculars and get the same result, a red blur.

those who wish to try and see it with their own eyes might have to try and guess which direction it was headed. usually it would be the beach or the forest. you might have tried walking in the same direction, got to the outskirts of the forest or to the edges of the beach when suddenly, it'll be just behind you.

and it'll be standing still. it'll appear to be a man in red but look upon it and he'll look like a blur, vibrating much too fast for a clear image.

but it is certainly a man and his voice sounds blurry too, deep and unfamiliar, masked by the quick vibrations of vocal chords. ]

You shouldn't be following me.

Comments

The Flash!

[mindbend]

[She hadn't been doing much in particular, perched on the roof and bundled up to ward against the cold, having helped herself to a spot that Billy had shown her early on during her stay. It was an ideal place to come and think, to come and try to shut out the muddled thoughts of those who lived in the mansion, to find a bit of peace for herself-- but even as inwardly-focused as she had become, there was no ignoring the that seemed to come and go within an instant, catching a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye before it's gone again.

Her heart leaps into her throat. No, it couldn't be, and yet--

She swallows hard as she pushes herself to her feet, scanning the horizon for any sign of whoever it was that had streaked past. A fast and almost frenzied thought pattern draws her attention towards the beach, a brief tug that vanishes just as quickly as the blur itself had, and yet she cannot bring herself to ignore it. She forgoes the stairs, levitating herself to the ground rather than returning inside to make her way down by more conventional means, pulling her coat closed around herself more tightly as she begins to walk towards the coastline, her strides long, purposeful.

She turns on her heel just as he stops behind her, sensing him a split-second before he speaks, and while he's too blurry to make out clearly--

It's not Pietro. Nor is it Tommy-- it's no one who belongs to her, and her heart sinks.]

If you do not want to be followed, then you should do a better job of sneaking.

[accelero]

Maybe I wasn't trying to sneak.

[ barry's voice, distant and blurred as it is, lower than his own, remains steady as he watches her. it won't be too long before he'll have to reveal the flash and barry allen to be one and the same but too many people have been hurt by their proximity to him. if zoom comes here, none of them will be safe. the same goes for thawne, as hard as it is for barry to consider the option of him finding himself in this realm. ]

Just to do a better job of learning where I am.

[mindbend]

And yet you do not want to draw attention.

['You shouldn't be following me,' he'd said, and while a desire for privacy is simple enough, there are some things that are just too much for Wanda to ignore, and the presence of someone like him is among them.]

You are fast. There are many who would not give you a second glance. Those who would not know to look-- but not all of us are confused by speed.

The Flash

[mypartnerintime]

[Max is outdoors, framing a wide landscape photo of the beach and forest in the distance. The snipping of the shutter on her Polaroid is followed by the whir of an instant photo sliding out of the machine.

And there's a big red gash across it.

That's... huh? Frustrating. What was that? She turns the camera over in her hands, checking her settings. Her flash is off, right? The day is crazy bright, her aperture isn't that small for the shot... and, right, her shutter speed is at 1/1000th of a second. Even fast flying birds shouldn't be coming out as streaks across an otherwise well composed photo at that speed.

She doesn't want to let that slide. Her natural curiosity- some would call it being nosy- takes over, and she starts walking toward where the streak seems to be going. She ends up on outskirts of the forest, the bright day showing up as dappled sunlight among the trees. For a few moments she does nothing but look around, looking for anything red. Some crazy Wonderland creature, no doubt- a red roadrunner, their newest Wonderland resident, maybe.

When he speaks behind her, she whirs around, caught by surprise at this... odd humanoid shape. It takes her a moment to find her voice and her balance after that scare.]

I was just-... [Well, she was following something.] I didn't know what you were. Or... are.

[accelero]

I didn't mean to startle you.

[ for all that he worries about letting go of the secrecy behind the flash, he never wishes himself to be someone to be feared. he had known two speedsters who have used their speed for purposes less than wholesome and barry wishes to share nothing with zoom, even less with thawne who has called himself his reverse. he stands in front of her, tilting his head. she can't see but he's smiling, he would have followed as well, in her place. before he was the flash, barry allen was a child who was willing to believe in the impossible. ]

Who you are.

[ there's a shade of amusement there, for all that his voice is blurry ]

Where I come from, they call me The Flash.

[mypartnerintime]

Who. Right. [The blur does look more and more like a person as she focuses on it. Well, no way her camera could ever get a clear image of that... err, him.]

[Believing in the impossible is something Max is really starting to learn to do. Just add this one to the list. He seems nice, though she can't help shuffling her feet a little, not having expected a conversation to be the end result of her curiosity.]

Flash sounds appropriate. [She looks sheepish as she shows him the photo she took. The red streak is light, but it stands out against the white and green of the forest in winter.] That's all I got. Uhh, are you always... blurry?

b-b-b-b-barry

[villainously]

( pirates are known for rather ravenous appetites, so perhaps it shouldn't be quite so odd to him to spot what can't be more than a teenager surrounded by an ocean of boxed food. Hook has eaten molded bread and spoiled fruit before as a sailor, he's really got no room to be so pissy about preservatives and ingredients he can't pronounce, but he looks severely Not Impressed as he passes Barry to try and get a meal for himself. )

I realize this place runs on magic but at that rate you'll eat us all out of house and home.

( must be a teenager, those always have black holes for stomachs and this place has no limit to how much food it'll hand out. distracted by a box, Hook plucks it up to glower at the label. )

Twinkies. ( even for a man from a world where people had names like Zelena and Tinker Bell, he found that one a little odd. ) You really intend on eating these?

[accelero]

Sorry - I uh, did a fair share of exercise today.

[ have an easy smile, hook. he'll stare at you for exactly one second since. well. he's getting used to the whole fairytale characters walking about thing but it sure gets him every time. ]

Hey, Twinkies are really good, don't turn them down before you tried one.

[ he gestures at the box. ]

Have that one.

[villainously]

( he's dressed fairly modernly, to be fair, but when you wear a hook instead of a hand it's apparently very easy to get taken as captain hook. for obvious reasons. )

You lot have such bizarre ideas of food.

( as if Barry is personally responsible for weird, modern cuisine. he sits slowly and almost seems offended by the process of tearing the twinkie free from its plastic with his teeth. )

Apparently so. ( he's not exactly judgmental but that's more food than his men would order after weeks of shortened rations. it's a little odd. ) What exactly were you up to? I don't find enormous draws on my attention so far. ( and he could use some. he's been having trouble sleeping... )

The Flash o/

[thecourier]

Holy shit.

[His dog doesn't like it. He has to grab the animal's collar to hold him back while he juggles a quick-drawn revolver in the other hand. Not holstering it though, not yet.]

Can't even walk my damn dog anymore.

[Okay, so he has been following this red blur. Partly from a lack of anything else substantial to do and partly because he doesn't trust suspected visual hallucinations one bit. It's only a matter of time before the amount of jet he's taken over the years and the various injuries and cybernetic implants on and in his body take their toll and he goes completely mad, so you'll have to excuse him for being a little paranoid.

Right now, though, the following wasn't active. Just walking the dog on the beach.

He pinches the bridge of his nose briefly.]

Can you stop doin' that, you're givin' me a headache.

[accelero]

Sorry, it's kind of my thing.

[ the speedster zooms back a little, stands at a distance where he can be heard but not too close as to not blur the man into a migraine. his voice is deeper than the one of the man behind the mask. well, can he really blame the people of the Mansion for following? barry allen woiuld have followed without a blink, would have gone after anything remotely supernatural thinking it could lead him to the man who haunted his dreams and had robbed him of his mother. ]

You adopted that one here or did he come with you?

[ the dog, that is ]

[thecourier]

Huh-- oh, him?

[He gives the cyberdog a pat. Now that the strangers movements are less headache-inducing he feels less inclined towards irritability. That, and the fact that he isn't going completely insane.

A guy does worry about these things.]

Adopted. He sure looks like the ones back home though.

barry

[assembles]

[ It's not like Steve has staked a claim, exactly, but he's definitely known around the diner as the guy who comes in and orders more food than anyone should physically be able to eat. The serum has done a world of good for him, but there are some unfortunate side effects, and that rapid metabolism is one of them.

So when Steve shows up in the diner on a particular February day and finds a teenage kid sitting at one of the booths with a veritable pile of cheeseburgers in front of him, color him a little surprised.

To be fair, teenage boys do have a tendency to go through food at an alarming rate. Even so, Steve has to imagine there's something more going on here, and so he steps over to chat mainly out of curiosity. ]

Are you sure your eyes weren't bigger than your stomach there?

[ He won't outright ask if the stranger is different just yet, but it's a strong suspicion. ]

[accelero]

Wha - oh. uh. not really. busy day, tons of exercising.

[ there's only so far one can run in wonderland but barry's got to get faster. when he'll find his way back to Earth-1, there will be zoom to deal with and even now, zoom might find his way across the multiverse and into wonderland and barry has to be able to win against him.

with the lack of the treadmill, he'll been running all across wonderland and when all of that is done, well.

there'll have to be about forty burgers if he wants not to pass out.

he'll wipe his hands on a napkin and offer him one. ]

Barry Allen, hi.

[assembles]

[ Tons of exercising, huh? That still doesn't explain the sheer amount of burgers that he has there. Someone probably prepared all of those, too. The closet helps, of course, but it seems like a lot of effort to put someone through if he doesn't actually plan to eat them all.

Steve raises an eyebrow, but takes the offered burger and then also takes the seat across from Barry. ]

Steve Rogers, nice to meet you.

[ He takes a bite of the cheeseburger and chews it over as he gives Barry a closer look. There's no obvious sign of there being anything special or miraculous about him, but that doesn't mean anything.

After a few moments of contemplation, Steve decides to play it casual. ] Fast metabolisms can be a real pain, can't they?

The Flash XD

[actualwizard]

[He's used to seeing speedsters. His twin is one, his uncle is one, and there are more in his world than h's probably even aware of. So when The Flash runs by him he notices the slight disturbance in the air around him and the blur that goes by. If he was thinking clearly, which he's not, he wouldn't have gotten his hopes up but thoughts of Tommy are in his mind as he tries to follow the blur with his eyes.

He gives up, knowing that route is hopeless and just uses his magic. It's easy to wish himself to the place this speedster is stopping, blinking into existence right on the edge of the Forrest. He whirls around looking and his heart drops when his eyes land on a blurX a blur that is decidedly not his brother.]

You're definitely not who I thought you were. Don't go running passed people like that if you don't wanna be followed.

[accelero]

[ it's an interesting skill and the first thought barry has when he sees a young man form into thin air in front of him is meta-human. Not the first and not the last he'll meet but some are more hostile than others.

this one seems not to be up to any trouble but he's still on edge. he met more hostile meta-humans than kind ones as of late. ]

There's only so many places to run in Wonderland.

[ and he has to practice, he must get faster, if Zoom ever finds his way here in search of the Flash - ]

You know another speedster.

The Flash

[circlejerked]

Aye yai yai, my nethers are catching a breeze!

<sub>[This exclamation at the lightning-streaked wind that gusts past him in the garden marks Anders' first encounter with The Flash.

He has to push aside the hair blown into his eyes in order to clear his vision, and by that time the red whatever-it-is is long gone, leaving him thankful he hadn't decided to hog the middle of the garden path. If that thing had clipped him, he'd expect to be thrown thirty feet or so like somebody's discarded litter. What had that been all about?

It's only after he starts muttering in the direction the thing had gone that he gets the absolutely terrible idea to find out for himself. He's already fought and lost ten rounds with Wonderland's perimeter fences today, what's the worst that could happen if he goes looking? He gets trapped in an alternate dimension called Candyland next? With no hope of picking up the trail of something moving so fast, Anders is more than a little surprised to see the same color of red hovering around the tree line by the time he catches up.

Then he blinks and it's gone again.]</sub>

Wait, where did--

_[Oh.]

And it talks! And it makes jokes. Consider me intrigued.

[accelero]

[ he could run and disappear, it'll be the simple thing. but his interest is in helping these people, fighting alongside them and eventually finding a way to take them home if they wish to go back. for that, the flash must become a person they see as good. with no Iris here to report his every move, it's down to barry trying to market himself.

obviously, it's not going very well. inwardly, he sighs. he was never the best at those things. ]

you've come a long way just to meet me.

Barry

[mourning_ghost]

[Nageki doesn't often spend time studying math and physics. His older brother, Hitori, was the one who enjoyed math. Nageki always preferred fiction. But today he wants one of the math books Barry is using.

An incredibly large mourning dove hovers nearby, waiting to see if Barry will finish with the book soon.]

[accelero]

[ you know, he had seen a lot of weird things in his life. in his own world, there is definitely a huge, psychic gorilla somewhere and in this world, he had actually seen the actual cheshire cat which.

ok, weird, you have to admit. he's still getting used to everything, he casts a look his way, maybe staring. a bit. ]

Uh. hey.

[ he looks down at the book and offers it. can a dove...take it? he doesn't even. ]

here. I think I got everything I needed outta this one.

FLASH

[krmvgivv]

[Dipper holds up a camera and tries to take a picture on the highest shutter speed his camera can manage. He won't know if it works until he tries to develop it, but he has to try. He can tell when someone doesn't want to be recognized and it makes him want to figure out who they are all the more.]

If you don't want to be followed you shouldn't go around being all superhero and mysterious where other people can see.

[He squints. The guy's taller than the only other speedster he's met had been, plus he's wearing red, not green, and Speed hadn't been so cagey about his superhero status.]

So... what's your name? Zippy? Captain Blur? Speedy?

[accelero]

Please stop.

[ with the names, dipper, they're all awful to the point of physically painful. ]

The Flash.

[ and he remembers you. he's not even half-surprised that it's you ]

even superheros need to practice and this place is sort of small. This will only show a red blur, by the way.

[ pointing at the camera ]

The Flash!

[wecandobetter]

[ He's seen the blur as it zips through the forest and along the beach on his morning flights. At first he thought he was imagining it, but as the days have gone by, he's been circling the forest, waiting for another trace.

When he sees it, he goes for it, moving fast but not quite fast enough with the wings Stark gifted him at Christmas. He lands along the beach, studying the sand for any kind of footprint when he senses someone behind him. He turns around, tense as he tries to make out the vibrating blur.]

You're actually not the first person to tell me that. [ He lowers his wings with a faint metallic whir of machinery.] You are a person, right?

[accelero]

Last I've checked. These are - really cool.

[ because he might be the flash but beneath it all, it's still barry allen being an ultimate uber-nerd and the wings are, even to a meta-human, way way awesome. ]

Do you know how far you can fly in these things? I've heard venturing too far on foot can be dangerous, I'm assuming the same goes for air?