crowded streets are cleared away, one by one

[circlejerked]

Who: Anders (circlejerked) and Barry Allen (accelerate).
Where: Tea room to start. (Pity party at the bar TBD.)
When: Aug. 9th.
Rating: PG for now?
Summary: Thanks to the depowering, a mage loses his magic and a speedster loses his speed. Being normal sucks, man. It just sucks.
The Story:



Oh, come on. Why aren't you working?

_{[For a hot second, Anders had been overjoyed when the brainwashing of the last few days' had broken. A sure sign the event's power was starting to wan, he'd thought. The words "thank the Maker, it's over!" might have been used. Wrong. He should've known the worst was yet to come.]}

Work. Come on, work. Pretty please? I know you want to work, so just do it. Please? For me?

<sub>[Who is Anders begging with such heartfelt wheedling? It's more of a what. Sitting in front of him on one of the tea room's tables is a glass of water. More specifically, he's trying to coax his mana, which he's been trying to do for the past hour.

Freeze the water. It's a simple manipulation of the elements, a trick any child with magical aptitude could do. Freeze the water. Face scrunched in concentration, Anders leans in, close enough to see his distorted reflection in the glass.

He taps it with a finger. The water sloshes, mocking him.]</sub>

Augh!

_{[Throwing himself back in his chair, he puts his arm over his eyes with a groan of absolute frustration. The empty, unresponsive core of mana somewhere deep in his being hadn't scared him... for maybe the first fifteen minutes. Now it's starting to. Now he's starting to wonder if he's going to be stuck with this hollowed out feeling forever.]}

Comments

[accelerate]

[ barry crashes into the tea room. ]

[ barry allen, the mutant, had almost been a dancer on his feet. able to balance himself on the tips of his toes, rock on the balls of his shoes, keep his heels pressed firmly against the ground, the mutant flash could easily soar from one end of the island to the other, run circles around its circumference to generate enough wind to secure genosha in a safe flash-made funnel. ]

[ the meta-human flash was still getting his bearings with his abilities, even a year into the show of wearing red and being commended for his great efforts to save his city. but only twice has he ever felt this weak. once, when wells had leeched him of his speed, and again when zoom had taken all of it. ]

[ barry allen of both universes refuses to give up. though those mutant memories are now merely a fictional story he's more than well-aware of, he refrains from allowing himself to simply succumb to how slow he is. unable to reach forth and grab the speed force, he catapults himself into doing so. ]

[ and literally, too. ]

[ running through the halls at breakneck speed, he's been slowing down greatly over the last few hours. he can feel it, how the sparks of electricity buzzing inside of him began to slowly dissipate, how they dropped from curling warmly around his bones and seemed to have disappeared into the void. ]

[ when he crashes into the tea room, he's a mess of limbs and hair and converse shoes that don't smell of smoke. for the last hour, he's been trying his best to work his body up into tapping into the speed force once more, and he's finding himself so cold without it. a few hours ago, barry had his speed, able to phase through walls, jump over large clusters of trees, set his own shoes alight — now, there's nothing. ]

[ flopping over onto his back, he rests his hands against his chest and sighs. tipping his gaze backward, he realises he's looking up at anders — and he's not wearing a ridiculous cat costume this time. he's managed to trip and fall before anders, right by his toes, slightly sheltered by the table he's thrown himself away from in his own fit of annoyance. shifting his head, barry's gaze moves from anders' face to his shoes. ] Hey, nice shoes.