accelerate | ( ENTRANCEWAY INBOX )

Because timelines aren't just your personal playtoy.

Some things are inevitable.

[It may sound as if he's guessed at more than he has, but no. He just learned that Barry can apparently travel through time in some way and where time travel is concerned, where watching the entire time stream is concerned, where fighting the Time Masters is concerned? Len is an expert.]

[ and he'd come to the conclusion nora allen dying was a fixed point in his timeline, even if he wonders if there's one out there in the multiverse where he lives his life as the flash but with her in his peripherals. it's the one world he wants to see exist. is mere curiosity considered selfish? ]

[ he knows it is. but can one selfish action cancel out another? thawne had come back in time to kill barry allen for the sake of fulfilling his own destiny, and so does barry allen going back in time to rectify that choice negate all the selfishness that exists? ]

Don't know what you're talking about, Snart. I don't think anything's my play toy.

[ but the timelines have become something he can fiddle with, and barry knows on some level he's been using it as a way to avoid what he's always run away from. ]

You're someone who wants to change the world and who actually has the power to do so, of course you see things as your play toy. It's a fun game, too. The problem is that when you think you're the one making the rules, it's easy to break them.

There's a reason I have a code.

[Time lines. Has to be that, based on all he knows. He doesn't need Barry to admit it. Confront him, that's a different matter.]

I recently had the chance to kill my father, before he ever laid hand on anyone that matters. Didn't do it.

[ it feels like a trap, looks like a trap, and sure as hell moves like a trap. but barry has to take the bait. change their situations around, and they're identical. swap eobard thawne for lewis snart, and it's the same storyline, just featuring two different protagonists. ]

[ his responses have been lightning fast, even if barry had taken a normal amount of time (to him) to reply. this one may feel more like snart's talking to someone who isn't a meta-human with the ability to process and react as quickly as the flash. ]

Why?

Because Lisa wasn't born yet.

[He does note the relative slowness. It's proof, as much as anything, that he's on to something.

What does he know about Barry Allen's life and priorities? More than one might think.]

Matters more.

[ unsurprisingly, that's an answer he suspects would make snart pause anything he's determined to follow through with. if lisa's in trouble, he'll do what he can to get her out of it. if lisa will be harmed, he'll throw himself under his father's thumb to ensure her safety. snart had trusted him with his most precious possession, and barry doesn't think he'll ever forget it. ]

You could've jumped further along to when she was alive and do it. Couldn't?

Maybe. Not at the time. I tried to give him a chance. I gave him the jewel he was after when he got arrested the first time. Before that...

He was never father of the year, but he never raised his hand to my mother or anyone.

[And it's not easy, pulling that trigger.]

Turns out the idiot just got arrested selling the jewel instead.

[ barry has to think about it. does he give eobard thawne a chance to not go back in time and alter what was supposed to be his life? the newspaper from 2024 doesn't quite make much sense on its own. without thawne's provided context, barry doesn't know if it's him or the one who originally existed before thawne had wiped him from the timeline by altering one moment in his life that turned out to be so pivotal in shaping him. ]

[ he doesn't know if he'd even give thawne that chance. ]

[ it sounds like to barry it was meant to happen. lewis snart was meant to be given that jewel by his son, and end up thrown into a cell for it. maybe that's snart's revenge, in some way. ]

[ again, his response is just a little slow, noticeable enough to anyone who knows barry's rapid fire responses are him taking his time in reading a message. ]

Zoom killed my dad.

You want to know what I'm holding back? It's that.

[ half of what he's holding back. ]

[Leonard had meant to give his father the jewel so he'd not get caught stealing it. So he'd not end up in jail and become the monster he grew up with, the monster that hurt his sister. He gave him the jewel to save them all. But it had changed nothing.]

Condolences.

So that made you change the timeline? Wanting both your parents alive.

[All of what he's holding back? It's an educated guess still, but he feels well educated. A combination of getting information from multiple sources and being who he is. Rhymes with smart for a reason.]

You're risking a lot. Without anyone's consent.

I haven't changed the timeline.

[ yet. ]

[ henry being killed had been the straw that broke the camel's back. henry dying by a speedster in that living room had been what had propelled barry into believing he could achieve the impossible. when thawne had given him the opportunity to go back in time and save nora, he'd come to the conclusion he was happy. but he wasn't content to have people keep dying because they were tied to him. ]

[ but he's beginning to wonder if bliss and freedom from that particular poltergeist will ever be found if he changes the timeline and puts it back in place. ]

You asked me what I was holding back, you've got it. Wells said not to give out spoilers like they're candy.

[ and barry's honestly not a sharer when it comes to this. ]

Fair enough. That's worth running from.

Condolences, as I've said before.

[From what he gathers, dying father might be a different emotional deal for Barry than it has been for him.]

Wells, Snow, West. They're from before then?

Wells and Caitlin are behind. Iris remembers what I remember.

[ but, of course, not what he remembers doing. the flash may be poor at keeping his identity a secret when there's a few people in the flash headquarters, but barry allen's always been skilled at keeping his cards close to his chest. ]

Wells has been afraid of disrupting the timeline. But the timeline can't be altered here.

So you're keeping each other in the dark? Sounds reasonable.

[Or really dumb, but can he really judge? On the other hand, him and Raymond are on the same page now. As much as they could ever be on the same page, given vastly different reading styles.]

Doesn't look like we can really alter anything back home here.

[ a part of him wants to stick up for wells' argument, but he lets it be. there's both positives and negatives to keeping someone in the dark. he's experienced it all first hand with iris and dad and all of his friends; sometimes it was best to protect them from how dangerous the world had become, and most of the time, it was stupid to keep himself without his proper armour. if he had iris on his team earlier, perhaps he would've had someone watching his back when he'd left it bare. ]

[ lesson learnt. except now it's made him walk as though there's bits of the timelines on the floor instead of eggshells. ]

I would've noticed if they were gone from home. It's weird. Wonderland doesn't work like Earth-2 did, or how time travel does. You'd think you'd know something happened. Your memory should change. Caitlin and Wells never disappeared randomly, or else I'd know.

I'm dead, Barry. This place doesn't follow any kind of logic. No rules, time travel or otherwise, at least none that I can figure out.

[And he is good at figuring things out. He is good at plotting and seeing through plots. But this? More like someone has lost the plot.]

There's always the possibility you're not.

[ barry allen, the believer in the impossible, and a speedster with a few tricks up his sleeve. he may only know ray to be in snart's group of atm robbers, but he doesn't doubt if he has a team that can travel through space and time that they'd sit idle while a team mate dies. ]

[ barry wouldn't. ]

You never know, your friends might actually save you.

No. I planned for it. They can't, they couldn't, they won't, they haven't.

I'd made up my mind. Discuss it with Raymond if you want to, he's upset at me for mourning wrong.

[Such a Ray thing to feel. But whatever the case, that isn't his point here.]

I just meant, this place doesn't seem to interfere with our timelines or even the time stream of our universe.

[ what barry doesn't want to accept: none of this is real. hadn't that been the entire point to the book? alice fell asleep, and dreamed a dream of the impossible. it's much like how barry often falls asleep and wakes up in his bed, waddles downstairs, and finds mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table. that's a dream he's had since he was eleven years old, and he still has it at twenty-six. ]

Or nothing's been powerful enough to puncture it yet.

[ or fast enough. ]

Gonna outrun reality again, Scarlet?

[ when snart says scarlet this time, he's not quite sure if it's meant as a term of endearment. barry allen always runs away from reality; it's the only way he's found he copes. ]

I'm just going to run out of the rabbit hole, Snart. You're welcome to join me.

What are you planning?

[ what's he planning? to do exactly what snart accused him of doing, and thus disappointing his coolest fan. ]

A Wonderland break.

Thinking of calling it Barry's 11.

Interesting thought.

Have you considered anything with that idea that doesn't amount to you doing something really, really fast? What's the plan?

Run really, really, really fast.

Run, Barry, run.

Maybe do some research before breaking the world.

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