Team Bonding, AMA

[the_civilian]

[ Tadashi is reclining in a bed in medical, wearing the beatific smile of the enlightened and the well and truly stoned. ]

I love biology. Well, no, I'm enthusiastic about biology, I don't love it. I love programming and engineering and my family and helping people. Not in that order. Maybe in that order in regards to science. Except programming and engineering are the tools I use to help people, but I do love them too.

[ He stares off into space for a moment, then shakes himself and focuses back on the camera again. ]

But, you know, the thing about biology that's so cool is that we don't understand it all the way. Sometimes biological interactions happen unexpectedly. Like, these painkillers. I don't have an example of them to show you; they're already in my system and the medical staff won't give me more of them because they make me really loopy. Which is cool, because it's not an allergic reaction or a result of a miscalculated dose, it's just a reaction that happens sometimes to some people. Which is cool! Even almost a thousand years in the future of an alternate universe -- which has seriously weird rules, oh my god you guys I wish I loved biology and philosophy and physics more so I could study how weird this place is, I could write so many papers -- people still don't really know how our bodies work and why they react to certain things the way they do. Reality is amazing and I am so happy it exists!

[ He beams at the camera, but his smile eventually fades into confusion. Then he gasps in apparent surprise. ]

Oh yeah! Anyway, I'm super bored right now and I can't concentrate enough to read anything longer than a few sentences. And I've kind of been focused on dealing with my own stuff and not lighting things on fire when I shouldn't to get to know people, so I was thinking I should get off my ass and do that. Metaphorically, not literally, because the medical staff has confined to this bed until I metabolize the painkillers.

I was thinking we could do a...thingy. That thing people sometimes-- AMA! Ask Me Anything, that thing! We could do that, but just for Legionnaires. Not that I don't love the staffers here, I do, but I was thinking it could be a team bonding thing and some people here are more private than others. But I'd need one of the scary computer ladies to lock it down for me, because I can't figure out how to do that right now.

[ His eyes widen suddenly. ]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that like "scary computers who are women", that would be rude, I meant it like "scary women who are good with computers". Computer programming has a long history of ignoring the contributions of the women who are it's backbone, and we have a lot of women here who area really good at what they do and they deserve to be afforded all the respect due to them as people and as badasses. The patriarchy sucks like the vacuum abhorred by nature.

...I think this got away from me. What was I talking about?

Comments

[rushing_by]

Or Krypton never existed in the first place.

But yeah, pretty often. Some of my closest friends come from alternate realities, and my best friend has the power to open up doorways to them.

[mirror_soldier]

Or best case scenario, it was never destroyed.

[He'd never heard of a hero capable of just creating doorways to other dimensions. At least not one closely associated with the Flash. This world really was different from his own.]

Who's that? Your best friend, I mean?

[rushing_by]

Cisco Ramon. Don't know if you've ever heard of him, but he goes by Vibe.

[mirror_soldier]

I have heard of him. Though not much. Only that he was part of the Justice League stationed in Detroit.

[There's a pause before he finally dived in to want he wanted to ask about from the outset.]

Have you ever encountered the Thawne's in your universe.

[rushing_by]

Twice. Eddie was a good friend. Eobard is not someone I like talking about.

[mirror_soldier]

Eddie? I've never heard of an Eddie Thawne.

[And he'd studied all of them. At least, all of the ones who had encounters with Barry Allen.]

Were they related?

[rushing_by]

It's possible he didn't exist in this universe? But it mine he was detective with Central City PD who transferred from Keystone a while before I got my powers.

Eobard was Eddie's direct descendant, apparently.

[mirror_soldier]

Maybe.

[Though that was odd. Malcolm should have been the only Thawne with a direct lineage to Eobard at Barry's current age. Unless time travel was involved. Unless Barry had lost two twin brothers he lost to the Thawnes.]

Or maybe he's your universes version on Malcolm. I always liked Malcolm.

What is Eddie like?

[rushing_by]

[Barry sort of wants to ask about Malcolm, but decides that's something best left for another time.]

Kind. Caring. A genuinely decent guy. Willing to do anything to protect the people he cared about. He...sacrificed himself to erase Eobard from existence.

[Eddie might have stooped Eobard from killing Barry and the others, but for too great a cost, in Barry's mind.]

[mirror_soldier]

[Theres a long pause before Barry gets another answer. The news that two of his ancestors were dead in this universe, and that one had killed himself in order to destroy the other, hit him like a sake of bricks. As the fact slowly sunk in that this meant their entire line (including both he had Bart) had likely been wiped out with them, it made him feel strangely sick.

It wasn't his universe, it shouldn't have mattered to him, but for some reason it really did.]

He killed himself and destroyed his entire line to save you?

[Even after everything he had heard about Eobard, and his own growing disdain for most of the people from his own lineage, it was still hard to believe that anyone in their family would do something like that for Barry of all people. ]

[rushing_by]

If it had just been me, I don't know if he would have. But Eobard promised that, after he killed me, he'd go after everyone I cared about. Including Iris. She and Eddie were engaged. If there was a single reason for why, that was it.

[mirror_soldier]

Iris West?

[He'd never been particularly fond of Iris, at least not the one from his universe. She saw him as a monster plain and simple; she'd made that very clear both in her book and in person. And he'd been all too happy to meet that expectation. Why disappoint?]

[But he was aware of Eobard's supposed obsession with her, with either being with her or killing her. If this Eddie really had been engaged to Iris, he supposed it would make sense he would be willing to do that for her.]

[He still didn't get it exactly, he hardly ever really understood any of the emotions or actions that came with caring for someone that much, but if Bart's actions inside the speedforce were anything to go by, he supposed it made sense.]

I'm sorry to hear that happened.

[That was the kind of thing you said in this situation, right? It felt false and flat.]