entrancelogs | may old acquaintance be forgot

[peter tilts his head to the side as he looks at him, and he wishes it was that easy to think of it that way. his uncle's last words stay with him always. there's a smile in the tone of his voice even if he still has the mask on, and he doesn't even want to know why. maybe because taking off the mask, it makes it all real.

it makes it too real.]

There are, but if I'm not doing all I can since I have the power to do that good, I'm sorta responsible at least a little if I'm not using those powers.

[or that is the way that it feels.] I get what you mean though.

I haven't really figured out how to balance the super powered thing with being me... outside the mask.

Trust me, when I say you never will, I don't mean it in a bad way. [ he shakes his head. what he's about to do is dole out advice he needs to take; it's easier to give it than to listen to it. but the thing barry has accepted is this: barry allen is the flash, and the flash is barry allen. it makes life easier to not try and separate them so much he can't quite function at all. ]

[ but perhaps it makes it easier to believe the two are the same when barry allen also bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, much like atlas. ]

The Arrow once gave me some great advice I never listen to because I hate that he's right and he can be a bit of a dick sometimes. When you approach a new environment, you've got to case every inch of it. Never go in blind. [ but he never does, because he's too fast. he doesn't think to tell spider-man that, suspecting he'll lose his point if he does. spiders may be fast at times when they sway in the wind, but his powers and where he's blindsided may not be the same as his friend's. ]

You cased Wonderland. You know there's other people like you. You gotta let them do their thing, man, and not take it on. I'm the fastest man alive back home, and I'm still late to things. Serious things, too. Like this one time J — [ oe. good save, bear. ] Well, this one time I was late and I didn't get to eat any of my favourite food and I'd been psyching myself up for it all day.

[ grandma esther's food is not the point here. ]

But what I mean is that you're running blind, every time you think it's your job to be everywhere at once. You're a spider. Spiders aren't everywhere. They're where they need to be when you don't want them around. [ he narrows his eyes, then waves his hand awkwardly. ] ... No offense.

...none taken. It's pretty accurate. Not like I want the bad guys to want me around. I should be the biggest pest they've ever dealt with.

[peter is surprised by how well the advice applies to him, but he lets it settle in his head. he has cased every inch of this place when he started actually patrolling from the corners to the ceilings to the outside too so he could know it like the back of his hand, so if something happened he'd be able to hear it and know where it was instinctively.

it's always more difficult to actually take that advice and apply it, but he's- he's determined to do that too, because it's exhausting trying to be everywhere all at once.]

It's good advice, Flash. Maybe that's one of your super powers. Doling out much-needed advice. [he shifts on his feet, still in the spandex, shifting between the mask of spider-man and the reality of being peter parker, because the advice reaches peter.

it's peter who feels the guilt, the responsibility, and he ties it into why he is spider-man.]

Anyway, I don't really keep the whole secret identity thing a secret here. Name's Peter Parker. You ever need someone to back you up, you contact me even if you have to do so anonymously. I get wanting to keep that secret for a lot of reasons.

[ credit for his advice goes to joe west, and mom and dad, and sometimes wells ... barry doesn't feel the need to inform spider-man of that, because the bit of advice joe and wells would give him is one spider-peter blows right out of the water. ]

[ never let anyone know who you are beneath the mask. barry's learned that the hard way, if thawne coming back and doing a villain monologue of his origins story is anything to go by. keeping "barry allen is the flash" under wraps is supposed to save his skin, and something older him, the future him, had been smart enough to do. ]

[ but, then again, spider-man may have rational fans. ]

[ the name slowly phases through the thick walls of his ever-quick working mind. ]

[ peter ... parker ... ]

Peter Parker? [ he sounds incredulous. of course, barry allen can believe in anything, and does. the impossible is possible, and the possible is never impossible. peter parker being a superhero doesn't really throw him; what does is his ease in revealing his identity. ] For real?

[back where he's from, peter would never reveal it. he's seen what happens when a villain figures out who he is. they come after the people he cares about. they know where to find him. in wonderland, he doesn't have villains specifically out to get him. in wonderland, there are people who have read comic books and movies, which let them know who spider-man is long before they've ever even met him.

it's weird, but it means revealing the whole super powered bit comes out far easier than it would back in new york city where he can't tell anyone else.]

...yeah? I mean, yeah! I wouldn't joke about this. I'd joke about a lot of things, but, y'know, me being Peter Parker isn't one, because I am.

[he sounds completely confident, right? man, his wit fails when he admits to being who he is. gotta hang on to that secret identity just to maintain the cool witty confident moments.]

Do you know me already?

[ this is a crossroads, one that's so very defining of how he's similar or different to the barry allen of the future. how many times does he need to think of his future self, of the comments thawne has made, for him to feel like that person is a complete stranger, a separate person to who he is? smart and strategic, quick-thinking and possibly not emotionally-driven, the barry of the future is someone who wouldn't feel his name almost slip off the tip of his tongue just because someone he knows confessed to their own secret identity. ]

[ but that future barry allen trusts his gut. he has to, if he's chasing reverse flash to the past, turning his past self away from saving mom, slipping himself out of that living room, entrusting iris west-allen's safe ten years from now. he has to learn that lesson now and make it stronger as the years trickle by if he's to come anywhere close to being that person. ]

[ it's not a long pause, but given he's the fastest man alive, it sure does feel like one. that echo to his voice drops when he says, ] Yeah.

[ his hand reaches for the base of his mask, and he pulls it over his head, hair a bird's nest. it's barry allen standing in his flash suit, looking slightly sheepish. ] I do. Hey, Peter.

[peter stares at him, shakes his head like he can't quite process it. it's different. other super powered people here, he knew they were super powered when he met them, but barry gave him pizza when he was struggling. he met him outside in a hallway when peter was trying to balance out what he'd let happen versus what he shouldn't have any control over, and he gave him good, solid advice regardless of peter's ability to take it like he's doing now too.

regardless of peter's ability to learn it. responsibility has been so drilled into his head for so long.]

...Barry?

Woah. Hey. [he waves and then reaches up to slide off his own mask with an awkward, half smile tugging across his face.] Small world, huh?

[ he smiles, a little sheepish. the last time he'd pulled he mask off, linda had looked at him in the same manner, but had made a comment about their relationship that was completely different to peter's. after all, he hasn't made out with peter. ]

[ how is he meant to react when it's a friend beneath the mask? peter's not a speedster who wants his speed. if anything, he doesn't behave in the same way thawne and hunter had, almost knowing him instantly. perhaps this is how it's supposed to be, meeting people like him: completely and utterly innocent. barry likes feeling this good. ]

Yeah. [ he gives him a shrug, smile widening. then he breaks out of the awkwardness, now settling as he acknowledges to himself that revealing himself hasn't been a bad decision at all. he becomes more animated, ] I can't believe you got bitten by a spider. Dude. That's insane! Can you do the whole web thing? Do you eat bugs? [ his hands make a movement, as if his fingers are knitting needles. ] Wrap them up in web cocoons?

[peter snorts in amusement, waving a gloved hand abruptly to quickly dispel any notions or thoughts about webs or bugs or any-of-the-above tbh.]

No. Definitely no to the bugs. Well, right after I got bitten, there was this one moment where I caught a fly mid air, and y'know- Let's just not talk about that one moment. I let it go. It's fine. No other gross bug urges. That was just a very intense time right after first getting my powers when they were hard to control. I mean, you didn't know how to use yours straight off the bat, did you?

[he waves a hand like it's totally a casual thing to almost eat a freaking fly, and then he slides out one of the web shooters to show it off.]

And uh, for webs, I just made my own web shooters. I'm really grateful no webbing comes out of my body, cause yeah. Awkward.

[ if his brows could catapult off his face, they'd possibly be tangled up in peter's web shooters right now. ]

You're not, you know, a little disappointed? About the lack of natural web thing. [ he moves his fingers, as though that's where peter's indicated the webs shoot out from. he does wonder where they'd come from if he could make them naturally. perhaps that's a question to run by cisco one of these days. ] It's kind of gross, but it's also kind of awesome to think about?

[ this, coming from the guy who's set the shirts of two women on fire. is he afraid of his ability to set his company on fire? he should be. ]

may old acquaintance be forgot

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero

they say, I'm a sometimes hero, sometimes zero