accelerate | ( ENTRANCEWAY INBOX )

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.

[ when the speed force had said that, it hadn't been unsettling. perhaps it'd been because it was the very thing pushing him forward, giving him the confidence to do what he thought was impossible. snart is nothing like thawne, but he has a feeling he's not being entirely encouraging as the speed force had been. ]

[ it's not a motto he wants to be hearing, not when his head's still stuck in that living room and imagining himself saving nora allen from eobard thawne. ]

Wonderland can't be broken. That's what we tell everyone, and that's what we believe.

It literally patches itself up. All the time. Every time.

It's a cage. But every cage has a weak spot. You should know this. You're break into heavily secured buildings all the time. You're breaking timelines yourself, and they're supposed to be untouchable.

[More sarcastic than encouraging, but not secretly a speed and Barry-obsessed fanboy either, so it could be worse.]

I never broke a timeline, not really. Just blew up some time masters and their means of manipulation.

But if I had to make a guess? Mirror-side.

I'm going to try and learn everything I can, and get over there. Get us out of here.

[ and break a world in the meantime, perhaps. it's just another tuesday, isn't it? but barry has to believe in the impossible, and he has to channel that desperate energy somewhere. ]

BTW, I've never broken a timeline. I don't think they snap so easily.

Down the rabbit hole, far as I know. I want to hop over myself some time. Though before you try to break this world, maybe you should see what people really want.

[As far as he knows - and given he exploded that is very conclusive - he is very much done for. But in spite of having had to plan for dying, he likes living. Even in a place as bizarre as this.]

Making decisions for everyone else, just for what you think is the best? Kinda selfish.

[ his hackles are up, and he knows exactly why. what snart's telling him is what he's been running away from in his own thoughts. he knows what he wants to do is selfish. he knows that he hadn't asked what his friends thought he should do, even though he sometimes writes it off as already having asked them over a year ago. he knows that it's not cool, but it's all he can think to do. ]

[ there'd been a question some of the police officers had asked him once at ccpd. would you save a sibling or save a group of strangers? barry knows he'd save that one person in order to protect the world. ]

There are people here trying to find a way out. Maybe I can help.

Alice didn't help the Mad Hatter when he was stuck at that table waiting for tea-time because he didn't want her help. I can be like Alice. I'm sure there's a door out there waiting for us to find it.

Right.

What makes someone a hero, Barry?

[This being in person, Leonard would know for a fact that he'd hit on a nerve, but even so he gets an inkling of it, even if all he's doing is texting from his room.

Also, he's not calling him Alice, no weird vibes needed.]

Someone who's willing to sacrifice for the greater good.

[ hasn't he sacrificed enough? it's a thought that's come to him many times over, and only on the rare occasion has he let it settle in his bones and make him angry. it'd been what had propelled him to go to that night in 2000 to try and rescue mom, and he knows that anger had ebbed away so quickly once he realised why he was there. he'd gone there to provide her comfort and to make sure she died in peace, instead of afraid and alone in the cold. ]

[ she'd always protected him from the dark, and it was his turn to repay the favour. ]

[ but it's a thought he's had since dad died, and barry knows it's not the right question to ask. ]

But I'm sure you'd disagree.

I'm no hero, Barry.

[And by that rule, he would be.]

You are.

[ his message is so simple and concise, and yet it's enough to stir something inside of barry. if he puts his finger on it, he'll know it's a sense of foreboding. he doesn't want to disappoint snart. he doesn't understand why he doesn't want to disappoint snart, except he does. ]

[ he's one of the only few people to know his identity, and, as a result, believe in him. what would he say if he knew the person he thought was such a hero has never been one to begin with? ]

Why are you so keen to paint me as a hero all the time, Snart? I'm not one.

Why are you so sure that I mean something positive by calling you a hero?

Also, you've painted yourself. I just roll with the punches.

[Gracefully.]

Then what do you mean by it? I know you definitely don't think I'm anything like you.

[ how to be like snart: be dangerous, cool, uncaring, hard, soft gooey centre, capable of making the tough decisions, sticking to your guns, never aspiring to be anybody in particular. but by doing all that, snart had become a hero. ]

[ the good kind. the kind barry actually admires and aspires to be. ]

We have one thing in common.

You're driven.

[Is that the thing they have in common? What is it even supposed to mean? He's leaving that open to interpretation, evidently.]

[ that's a good and bad thing, isn't it? snart's driven to the point of getting things done. his goals are always met. but sometimes that drive sends him spiralling. what would snart have done if lisa had been left by herself and hadn't been back at the lab with cisco? ]

[ drive can be a good thing, but barry knows it can make someone incredibly single-minded. he'd know; that's how he's being at the moment. ]

Is that why you don't like being called a hero for what you did? Heroes aren't good in your books?

I think that heroes want to be good. Mostly they want to be seen as good too.

Ray and you, sure. Me?

I'll settle for being a legend.

[Roll end credits.]

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