[closed] Eat Me (Shorts)

[catchacold]

Who: Leonard Snart and Ray Palmer
Where: on the floor, just after arriving
When: 6/27
Rating: Nothing raunchy, I'm guessing.
Summary: Leonard just arrived and is a little dazed, due to *spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow in here*

Ever since he could remember, Leonard had been very aware of time. His schemes tended to be thought out to the second, recognising patterns, shifts and then counting down. Just as he was always planning, time was usually a factor, down to the second. He used it as a way to know what would happen, to arrange for things to go down the way he needed them to. A way to be in control.

Then he’d found out about the Oculus and the realisation that his movements, his actions, perhaps his every thought had been manipulated by an outside force hit him like a ton of bricks, a weight that made it hard to breathe and hard to think clearly. Events had left him no choice but to play along until the very moment when suddenly there was clarity again.

It all happened quickly in the end. Telling Mick to forgive him and knocking him out. Sara-- Sara, who understood what he was doing and who didn't question him. His gun and their ring was with Mick and once they were safe, Leonard said his last words and it all exploded around him.

There were no strings on him. There was nothing on him at all any more until suddenly he was somewhere and he wasn't dead. At least he could still think and, after a moment, breathe. The gleaming light of the explosion had blinded him and while that wore off he stayed on the ground, eyes shut. Only tentatively did he feel around with his hands, feeling the wooden floor under his fingertips. All he knew for sure is that he thought he'd be dead. Expected to be gone.

Welcome to Wonderland.

Comments

[catchacold]

What does Captain Cold's room look like? How could the room of someone who hardly seems at ease with himself look?

The bed is big enough for two. The walls are barren, safe for some burn marks. It's really nothing special, because Leonard has never needed anything special, other than sometimes the people getting through to him. So the room is very empty now and very cold.

He looks at the mirror and then back at Ray, arching his eyebrows. "It reforms in an hour? Never mind the reforming, why an hour?" What was up with that, who timed it? With a shake of his head he finally looks around himself, stepping up to the wall and reaching out to trace one of the burn marks. It looks like nothing much, but apparently Leonard recognises it.

"So. The rooms do it too?" Just like the closets.

[shrinkage]

There's a lot of shrugging but Ray being tiny means these are very tiny shrugs, so instead Ray sighs.

"Magic. Or, if you prefer, extremely advanced science that looks like magic. I've been a little distracted from trying to figure Wonderland out, sorry." As the resident science nerd in this room, Ray's defensiveness is definitely borne out of some guilt.

"You know, memories get eaten and the place turns upside-down every couple of weeks but your every need is cared-for." Was that too bitter? Normally, Ray tries to exemplify optimism-- but Snart isn't a normal resident. He's ... a Legend.

[catchacold]

That is enough to make Leonard frown and look at Ray, because while the words themselves might not exactly be extra-ordinary or worth noting, that bitterness in combination very much is, especially given the source. He supposes with Ray brought down to size and this place being as randomly taxing as one would expect, it's not too surprising that even the eternal Ray of sunshine is just a little dimmed these days.

"Any of your memories gotten eaten yet?" That's something Ray hasn't mentioned before, so he has to ask. And also, quieter: "You're getting out of here."

Maybe a promise, maybe a way to reassure him. There's a future waiting. For one of them.

[shrinkage]

"Not yet. Then again I haven't tried to deal with the vendors out back, either. I mean, I won't lie, I thought about trying to get the Waverider, because-- if anything could get out of here, it might do the trick but..."

For all the things Ray's willing to ramble on about, and all the acquaintances he's made in Wonderland, he still can be a very private person. His hands work around each other in front of him as he mechanically works backward to redirect the tone he's taken this conversation into.

"Well, I figure something that big would take a lot of memories, and it's not going to help if I have the Waverider but forget who I am and what I should be doing with it, right?" Back into logic, now, Ray puts a smile on his face and laughs off the stupid wayward plan. The plan he didn't follow through with for more than the reasons he just stated.

"But once I get back to normal it'll be easier for me to start trying to get out." Because he's the scientist. This is a problem he can handle. Maybe.

[catchacold]

"If you ever need something like that, you ought to let me take care of it. I figure I have more memories I'd not mind losing than you." But Ray is transparent, especially for someone who's known him for a while and especially for someone who is as good at reading people as Len is.

He nods though, letting the fake smile pass and accepting it. For now. "Tiny Ray not so good with the big problems, eh?"

Now he wonders, thinking about everything he does know about Ray and the conclusions that brings him to. He wonders indeed. "Shame. It's a good look on you."

[shrinkage]

Something about Snart's offer to sell his own memories wriggles itself into Ray's brain, but it doesn't find its way back out just yet. Not with the way he's choosing to focus on the superficial, to get through this whole awkward new situation between the two of them.

Even the focus shifting to his own shortcomings should rile Ray's ego, but it only serves to help him feel a modicum of control. It's a subject he can choose to get upset over, or to examine and use to push through, to lean in.

"Haha, I definitely prefer more manageable pieces. And plenty of better people have failed to get out over the years, it seems." It doesn't hurt that Kendra isn't here for Ray to show off to, and Dr. Stein's absence creates a vacuum where Ray's need to impress gains no momentum. He's been starved for familiarity; despite the arrival of people from Central City, Ray's needed this. He might not be prepared to handle brutal truth yet, but this is a step in the right direction.

The direction being away from denial.

[catchacold]

"So what do you do here, when you're just preparing for failure? Because that really shouldn't take so long." Especially not for someone with that much experience with it. Not that Leonard hasn't accumulated quite a lot himself, a lot of it admittedly together on a team with Ray. But he keeps that teasing to himself, because the team works that way. It's part of it all and he knows by now that there was a lot more behind that than anyone's incompetence. Ray had been the one that was meant to die.

Leonard wonders if he had done the same for Ray, would it have come down to that instead of Mick. He's not sure, but he almost thinks that, yes, he would have. It's a strange realisation and he puts the thought back. "Doesn't seem like it's my kind of place."

[shrinkage]

"Yeah, not exactly any reason to steal stuff in this place." Ray can't help himself, but he moves on after what he thinks was a pretty good jab.

"Well, honestly most of my time has been working on the suit, getting this quantum manifold built and calibrated, and monitoring for arrivals from our world." So, yeah-- super scintillating stuff, Len!

[catchacold]

"Precisely." Maybe Ray thinks it's a jab, but that's no joke to Len. He really does hate that there isn't anything to steal. At least not just yet, he's sure he'll find a way to work around that eventually.

He doesn't bother asking about the quantum manifold, since he doubts it's of much interest to him, so instead he focuses on something else. "So who else is here, from our world?"

[shrinkage]

"A bunch of your hometown heroes, actually. Barry Allen, Iris West, Dr. Caitlin Snow, Dr. Harrison Wells, and apparently another Dr. Wells from a different dimension's earth. I'm still curious about how that mirror situation works, actually..." And completely oblivious to the whole not-actually-Wells flavor of Dr. Wells.

And to how grumpy they both are.

[catchacold]

"So a bunch of people that are none too fond of me." Leonard thought about that statement for a second, then added. "And Barry."

Because he could say about the Flash what he wanted - and he did, although frequently that just amounted to 'cute' and other variants of the word - but he would have to lie if he denied that the hero had some sort of inexplicable fondness for him.

He liked him too.

[shrinkage]

"They'll come around! Do you want me to talk to them?" It's true Ray isn't Len's biggest fan, but he believes in second chances, and he's seen Snart do things that heroes do yet.

He may not be redeemed yet (somebody tell Ray the issues with thinking this way someday?) but he's doing good work. That's worth something.

[catchacold]

"That's fine, Raymond. I'll survive even if the popular kids don't like me. You'll still play with me, won't you?" With a roll of his eyes, Len looks at the mirror again, ever so suspicious of it. He already knows that he'll smash it again if it really fixes itself the way Ray has said.

wanna wrap?

[shrinkage]

There's something to be said for the way Ray just resigns himself to a chuckle and a mumbled "yeah" in response to Snart's sarcasm. Having been in Wonderland alone for so long really has done a number on him.

"Besides, maybe we can figure out a plan to break outta here."