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[maskormods]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place!

Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at someone else's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. Your memory might be a haze still and you might even feel frustrated or anxious by the sudden news that you are no longer in your own world and that the Porter scientists and military cannot send you back. You don't get a chance to linger long in the underground Porter lab, but something is clearly amiss; light patches on the floor indicate something else used to sit in that spot in the room. Parts of the wall, floor and the tables look recently refurbished -- something happened in here not too long ago.

You're ushered out quickly and then suddenly, you're enveloped in a faint blue blue light before you find yourself under the bright Floridian sun. Another soldier steps toward you with a smile, directing your attention to a car near a large gate. She mentions she'll be debriefing you soon, handing out a brown folder. You don't see the digital tattoo on your wrist, but it's quickly explained on your way over to the car as you realize there are other confused faces nearby, all holding files of their own.

02. The small, cheery city of Heropa is finishing some downtown construction work following an attack some months ago. There are enough construction crews still around and on break to wave and raise a cup of coffee in a salute to the most obvious imPorts. You might even be thanked for playing a role in saving the city from whatever happened.

Wherever you go, locals are pleasant and courteous enough, sometimes stepping forward to ask for a quick photo or autograph. Every now and then, however, anyone who is so obviously an imPort will find a local backing away from them nervously, pulling their child back with them before closing a door.

03. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, and though it's quieter, there are just as many citizens awed at your presence. Heavy winds have people grasping at their newspapers and constantly brushing hair out of their faces, but that doesn't distract them from crowding you in excitement if you're obviously from a different time or world, or just let it slip that you're a newcomer. Children and young teenagers are especially likely to ask for an autograph and a photo.

Some locals seem less enthused to see you. They never make an approach, but they can be overheard scoffing and muttering something about cameras. "Who do they think they are?" or "I don't like it... it reminds me of the government corruption back in the eighties." What could they be talking about?

04. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania, is just fine as always. Ask the residents about their opinions on the recent two-block space that burned in a fire or the imPorts mixed up in the incident, and the locals will shrug. They're just not interested in talking politics. Try asking the local imPort Ambassador. What's his name? Ryan? Revan? They don't offer any more information. Naturally for a big city, the people are somewhat aloof in nature. You might even notice the police are just the same, turning their heads the other way when two shady figures exchange fat wads of cash at the street corner. Did the police just drive away in their hovervehicle without bothering to observe what those two were up to? They sure did.

05. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities. It's loud, busy and there's some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement. Anyone who they come to determine an imPort is bombarded with all sorts of offers; job offers, advertising gigs, spokesperson for advocating children stay in school, etc. Anything and everything! You name it. Shops offer discounts for food and clothing, whatever they need. People flock in droves with questions, but they all say the same thing. Thank you for your service to this country, Hero. You saved a lot of lives. Wow, feels great to be a hero, doesn't it?

Comments

[tardily]

[ Barry just nods, biting his tongue to hold back the words he wants to say. Hard liquor is something Barry expects him to drink but that's him applying his thoughts on drinking preferences to someone's face and not their personality. Then again, he could peg him as a hard liquor drinker regardless.

He may think they're on the same point but the entire conversation they're having— the fact that they're having a conversation tips Barry into being almost positive they can't be. Maybe that's just his optimism talking, maybe he's really just hoping this isn't an elaborate ruse to fool him again into trusting him but he doubts it. They're not fighting so he's got to be ahead of him or he is talking to an alternate universe version of the man he knows. Well, as much as he can know. If that's the case though, that does make him wonder about his own travels when it comes to singularities and wormholes. ]

That reminds me of my first day. I stayed around the city I live in but I should have gone to the others. [ He doesn't answer right away because he made sure he didn't mention the city he lives in for obvious reasons but he doesn't quite know if it's safe to answer about how long he's been here. ] It's June so about four months. I got here in February.

[ With Caitlin his mind supplies but he's not stupid enough to tell him that right off the bat, not without telling her he's here first. ] So, long enough to get to know people since there's no one from home here. [ It's such a lie and he knows it but the fact that he can't be sure that Caitlin or Oliver is here right now means that there might just be a grain of truth to it. ]

[hsalf]

[He stays silent as Barry speaks, his arms folding on top of one another loosely against his chest, as he absorbs not only every word, but every choice too. Four months of being in this place, time which Eobard cannot properly account for because he has so little context of how this world functions right now. Yet somehow he remembers the day they were just having before coming here, so he assumes? What could that mean? Did Barry somehow not go through the wormhole properly and, as opposed to going back to the night of his mother's murder, arrived here? These are questions that slowly storm his mind, but ones he won't share. Barry has only a rudimentary understanding of how time and space function as dual constructs, which form a stable timeline and universe at that, so Eobard can't imagine he would receive a satisfying answer.

No one from home. Could be the truth, could easily be a lie. He would wager Barry has many more reasons to lie to him than to be honest, but he won't pursue it for now. If it is a lie, it's one he can uncover himself. Barry doesn't say what city he lives in either and that only further makes him believe he's being lied too. He doesn't mind, really, let Barry have his lies for now.]

I see. [He says plainly after a moment, allowing his thoughts to silently ruminate on what Barry told him.] Well, I doubt you had trouble making new friends with your sunny disposition, but I hope your stay hasn't been unpleasant aside from that. Have you told your secret to anyone -- or is that just one of those things you don't want to share with me? It's okay, I'm not offended if that's the case here.

[Because for whatever he may think of Barry, he knows he no longer is trustworthy or good in the boy's eyes. He also holds no illusion that he will ever regain trust. Barry would be foolish to truly trust him ever again and he does not take Barry to be a complete fool.]

[tardily]

[ Barry freezes in place at the question because he can lie about everything else but this is the one that can trip him up. Lying about people knowing that Barry Allen is the Flash can trip him up. People know his name here and they know the connection and between Jaime telling him there was no particle accelerator explosion in his world and seemingly everyone who isn't from his own world having a solid grasp on the connection between him and his alter ego. People know him and know other Flashes and they know the Reverse Flash maybe but it's probably different. After all, other hims have Jay as a Flash mentor and the closest Barry gets is this. ]

I just reserved this one for you. [ Barry's stalling just so he can swallow down that bitter part of him that just wants to punch Eobard. ] I didn't tell anyone, but there might be some people who know it because of another me. [ "A me that has a good mentor who doesn't betray him" is just on the tip of his tongue but he doesn't say it. He won't. ] Different universes, Thawne. I can't control what other versions of me do. And that includes not keeping a secret. Might as well share it, you can't ask about my name without people saying the Flash if they're from one of those universes.

[ Or calling you Grandpa or wishing you were their Uncle B. He might have the upper hand in knowledge and time spent here but he still feels oddly backed into a corner with things. ] Since you're from the future, I don't think I need to give a list of who might know. Not that I would but— just in case you feel like asking anyway. But I'm a little curious about who you think is here who'd know.

[hsalf]

...A lot.

[Is "a lot" a satisfying answer? He wants to say yes and let it be, but he knows the answer is no. He breathes in and lets the air out, rubbing his face for a brief rare moment of visible turmoil.]

Barry, you need to understand...the, let's call it Golden Age of Heroes, got its start in the heydays of the 21st century. The Arrow is regarded as the first human hero and you the first meta-human one. [He clacks his teeth together and props up a fisted hand under his chin as he tilts his head down in thought.] You and the Arrow, and even some of his friends like The Atom and Black Canary and so on - it's only just beginning, it's very early and still developing. I predict back in our world there will be even more popping up soon in your time, depending on certain factors. I can think of names right off the bat that are set to become visible any day now.

[He says with a gentle snap of his fingers, though like hell he's going to tell any of those names to Barry.]

Now I am running under the assumption that this world, whatever it may be, can physically pull in people from infinite times, like a wormhole that leads back to this spot. So when I say "a lot"...it's not really an exaggeration. As for the different universes thing...[he lets out a self-depreciative chuckle and shakes his head, giving Barry a bemused smile] I could literally stand here all day and not even fully cover all the intricacies of it and I really don't want to subject myself to that, not today, probably not ever.

[tardily]

A lot. I hadn't noticed that when I asked about my name to the general population.

[ A lot would only really be considered a satisfying answer if he didn't already know about Oliver and Laurel and Ray normally. Those are people he expects to know his name because they're part of what he thinks of as a sprawling team across two cities at this point. He wanted something more, something like him saying Green Lantern or Superman or anyone he's met here. He shouldn't be surprised but there's that small flicker of hope that just maybe Eobard would really be helpful in this case. Eobard has no reason to help right now, it won't mean Barry can get him home, all it means is that Barry would know something useful. ]

Certain factors. Certain factors that you might have messed up messing with the timeline like you did. Not only did you try and destroy me, you maybe ruined countless other lives.

[ He nearly repeats off the bat because he thinks that was a subtle comment about Batman. The only reason he refrains is because he honestly can't be entirely sure Batman isn't somehow in a tree spying on them— actually it'd be more accurate for Robin to be doing that, but the same principle applies. He is not about to confirm Batman being here because he does not want to invoke his wrath. There's this desire to punch him in the face because maybe Eobard's tampering with things is the reason there's no Jay in his world, the reason there might not ever be a Wally West to run by Barry's side and selfishly maybe Barry won't ever get to see a Bart Allen that's not the one here but is one that's even better because it'll really be his grandson. It's selfish to care about that but being back here after everything reminds him that he doesn't have so many things that he honestly wants. ]

It's— no, the explanation's right. It turns them into metahumans if they weren't already too. I haven't looked into it as much as I should have. [ He says it a bit guiltily before he coughs and looks down. ] I'm the first meta-human one where we come from.

[ At least this time him saying too much has a purpose. Jay isn't here so it's not like he's putting him in harms way— he's just regrettably having to use the idea of him to test the waters. Does he know about him or not? ]

[hsalf]

Well...yeah, it's more than possible the things I've done have shook up time. Almost certain even, in a number of cases. [He shrugs with a tilt of his head, like it's not even a big deal that time has been thoroughly messed with.] Way I see it, I actually improved things in a number of those cases. I don't expect you to understand how, or even believe me, but I'm going to need to ask you to practice patience on this with me.

And yes, that is what I said, you are the first one even before I altered the course of history. In fact, just for being such a good sport and not starting a fight with me - and don't think I haven't noticed that you're dying for one right now - how about I tell you something good my actions have done. [He grins toothily, almost excited to see what the look on Barry's face will be.] Originally the particle accelerator would have only been built in the year 2020. Thanks to me, it was built in 2013. I basically sped up your timeline by seven whole years.

You're welcome.

[ps: fuck jay garrick and his goddamn helmet and quit your crying over not getting to met your bff hal.]

[tardily]

Where did you get off telling me not to mess with one day when you're shrugging like that over fifteen years of my life alone and I don't know the years in between now and when you exist? [ Barry's mouth is just open in sheer annoyance. It's hard to believe that he can actually shrug about things like ruining people's lives. ]

You don't— you had a paper from 2024. You don't know that you helped some of those things. You might have helped Ronnie and Dr. Stein but— [ That's not true. He tries to keep speaking, tries to keep on with his indignation but all he ends up doing is imitating a fish out of water. Six extra years of helping people that otherwise wouldn't have been helped. It's not a bad thing but— it's not how it was supposed to go. It wasn't the natural order of things and if Barry's own time with changing one singular day was any indication there's no telling what bad things happened or will happen because of all the good he's been able to do. ]

Am I supposed to be thankful for that? For knowing that maybe I'll marry Iris before I was supposed to? For knowing that you killed a real person and the person they love to do something seven years early. [ He barks out a laugh. ] For someone who's telling me to practice patience, I think you might want to look at yourself.

[ Excuse you, he has not been crying. Hal's been the one crying. Barry's just been crying because Oliver doesn't know how awesome they are as a team. Get it right, okay? ]

I'm not saying thank you for this. Because I— [ Don't know if I'll get my family now. ] I would have been very fine with waiting for seven years to get my powers.

[hsalf]

I told you not to mess with that day because you accidentally caused a time reversion and had no idea how to work within it, Barry. You were fumbling over yourself to even keep calm until I talked to you about it, even if I knew it meant...slipping away my guise early. I cautioned you because I know first-hand the reprecussions and didn't want you to suffer.

[The reprecussions in this case were not realizing that altering Barry's past indirectly altered his past too. He still doesn't fully grasp the how or why of it all, but he knows killing Nora is what caused his powers to fluctuate and why he got stuck. He doesn't regret killing her, but he does regret not having the foresight to predict the shockwave it would create through time.

He can't say he's all that surprised at Barry's reaction, but he has no idea why he would rather wait to get those powers. How becoming the Flash faster than before can be a bad thing. Deep inside he feels a strange sensation of being irked when he considers that. This is one of the few good things he has done for Barry's life, the gift of his powers faster than before, but Barry never did understand him. Not in the future and not in the past and not in the present.

Sometimes he's aware that he wants that understanding more than he's ever willing to admit, even to himself.]

I'm not asking you to say thanks. I decided to create it faster because I didn't want to spend a good portion of my life trapped in a time not my own. I did it for myself even more than for you. Fifteen years of wait compared to twenty-two, the answer was obvious to me and would be to anyone in my place. [That and taking Harrison Wells' place also allowed him direct access to Barry's life. Something he couldn't obtain nearly as easily under the name Eobard Thawne.]

However, I do ask you not discount the good I have done. What I have done for you and even others, like Cisco and Caitlin and Ronnie and so on - I have brought you all great good. You, especially you, would not have reached the heights you have without me by your side. [He smiles tepidly and takes a step toward Barry, moving his arm to hold the fliers behind his back.] To push you, to teach you, to help you...to believe in you, even when there were others who did not.

[Because if there is anything he has learned in spending time with this younger version of his enemy, it's that he is someone who can believed in. Someone who won't stop moving, won't stop running, until he draws his last breath.]

[tardily]

I was fumbling to keep calm because you didn't even tell me that was possible. Forgive me for not being calm when I traveled back in time on accident. Because that's a normal day for everyone with superspeed. Silly me for not knowing.

[ He doesn't comment on Eobard not wanting him to suffer because that feels like such a joke even if there's a grain of truth in it. If he didn't want him to suffer he wouldn't have threatened everyone when he wouldn't let him go back. If he didn't want him to suffer he would have just asked for help. Told him that he wanted to go home and that he was sorry for murdering his mother. Maybe it would have been different because Barry could have accepted that. Stupid Barry Allen wanting to see the best in people and still having a part of him that can't separate Harrison Wells from Eobard Thawne. Because it's been Eobard helping him all along. It's been Eobard being his mentor since he woke up and coaching him through that first time he vibrated through something. It was Eobard who killed his mom and even if he built the particle accelerator for his own selfish reasons and helped Barry for his own reasons— he's still did it.

Barry tries to stop his hands from going up to his hair and neck. It's not that he's nervous, he just really was not prepared for this. In the end he can't but once he puts his hands are settled on his neck he shakes his head. ]

I wouldn't have. Not if it meant taking an advantage of someone I considered a friend. [ He spits out the word like it's poisonous. ] You've been around me long enough to know I have limits and that if that happened to me and that's what I had to do to get home I wouldn't do it.

[ Except he just might have if it meant being there for his dad and Joe and Iris. If it meant going back to fix Eddie doing what he did and he refuses to admit that. Not to him. ]

I'm— Fine, you've done good. After doing bad and not feeling sorry for it. [ It takes Barry quite a bit of self control to not back away when Eobard steps toward him but he manages even as his eyes follows his arm moves back. ] Don't. You don't get to say that. I had other people believing in me. It wasn't just you. They believed in me. Oliver believed in me. Don't act like I only had you helping me.

[ Countering with the knowledge that other versions of him were fine without him seems obvious and yet he can't manage it. ] You helped— but it wasn't just because you wanted to help me.

[ Instead he used him or knew he was going to use him in the end. This is the past for Eobard, of course he'd know that Barry Allen likes people believing in him, that he'd need a push on occasion. Even if the timeline's different he's pretty sure there's some constants when it comes to him. ]

1/2

[hsalf]

["Friend." Once upon a time he would laugh at Barry Allen calling him a friend. Even now he has to stifle a laugh from bubbling up, because it's ironic how many times Barry used that word to describe him and now it has turned around on him. Now he sees things for how they are. It feels satisfying to know he could make Barry feel so thoroughly enraged, just the same as he did for the speedster. Still has, he thinks, because he knows deep down it's there even if he may say otherwise. No matter how much he may like this younger version of his enemy, he's still an enemy. Still the man he cannot forgive and never will. It's just the matter of time that separates it.

One day Barry Allen will truly become the Flash and become that man who he wants to kill. The man he despises and loathes above all others.

Until then, it's just a young boy he's speaking with who hasn't yet made it there.]

You know, Barry...what I believe, what I've always believed - is that everyone wants something out of someone. That real alturism is an illusion. [He breathes in through his nose and turns his head over to the side to look toward the park.] No one is so pure, so enlightened, that they do not have wants and needs for themselves they want to fulfill.

[He turns his head back toward Barry, examining the boy's state of being with eyes alone. Frustrated, upset, exasperated.]

What you wanted out of me was someone to help you. You woke up and I asked you to stay at the lab for examination, but you rushed out because you didn't want or need anything from me now that you were awake. Then you realized something happened to you, something you couldn't explain, and you rushed right back looking for help. It's what you wanted and needed and you looked to me since that day for help.

I have given you that help -- [he grins and lets out a gentle laugh, shutting his eyes and shaking his head in the utter baffling amusement of it all] -- and even now, even right now, you need something from me! If you didn't, would we even truly be talking? Would you look me in the eye right now, looking like you want to explode, if there wasn't a reason for it?

Do you take me for an idiot?

[hsalf]

[He breathes in deeply and lets it out, the grin now gone. The teasing glint in his eye, the endearing way he looked at Barry, the genial atmosphere, all evaporate within a second. Suddenly there is a shift and the air feels stale and brimming with a shock of energy. If there was an open cup full of liquid, it would be rising into the air slowly and steadily.

Yet he does not move. Only let his energy discharge in a way Barry could only sense. And his voice turns cold and still when he speaks again:]

What do you need? [His mouth opens slightly and closes, his head cants slightly to the side as he stares down Barry with the assessing gaze of a hunter looking at prey. If Barry looks close enough there is the faintest glow of red entering the corners of his bright blue eyes.] Or is there something you want?

[tardily]

I kind of got that idea from your autobiography. [ His mouth twists. That's about the only thing other than he's enigmatic he got from the entire 600 page book. ] You can also guess that I think a pessimistic view and that just maybe that some people can get close to real altruism. But hey, you're right, no one's perfect and we're all human. Even you.

[ Barry has no problems admitting that even if he shouldn't because their enemies. Eobard had been watching him, seen him make mistakes and well, it can't be much of a secret that Barry isn't perfect. Why bother trying to say he is just to gain an upper hand in this conversation? He wants the upper hand as petty as it is because maybe right now he thinks he deserves it. Eobard Thawne ceased to exist and yet he standing in front of Barry right now taunting him just by existing. If there's something he can do to make this go away he's at a loss to what it is and so he has to deal with it. Deal with it in a way that doesn't involve just coming right out and saying you lost and you don't exist because that's something he'd rather die than tell him right now. Or ever, maybe. The Reverse Flash always has had a knack for burrowing under Barry's skin even before he knew who was under the mask. ]

I had just spent nine months in a coma. I hadn't seen people I loved in a long time. Not as long as you, sure, but it was pretty long for me. I came back because that's what anyone would do. You guys had kept me alive, why not go directly back to you guys when that started happening. [ His hands go right back to his head again, raking through his hair. It takes a deep breath or two before Barry can speak again. ] I don't think you're an idiot— but you did take me for one. After all, you had me go after you and I fell right into every little thing you set for me. Your fliers hit me in the face. I stop in Nonah on my way to De Chima every time I go. This conversation happening was just a coincidence.

[ But that doesn't answer his question and they both know it and Barry's about to before he feels the shift. It's so sudden it almost catches Barry off guard. Part of him deep down is still taken aback by how fast the glint goes away and how fast the endearing look just disappeared like a wisp of smoke. He wants to look around, make sure no one is in the vicinity who might catch them fighting if it comes to that or even someone who might realize that something's very wrong with this entire conversation between two people.

Eobard's grin may have gone but Barry can't help the wry one that crosses his face. ] Careful, there's no way to charge your battery here. [ The grin's gone as soon as he says that and while Barry doesn't cant his head to the opposite side he manages to just keep his eyes locked with Eobard's. Any other time and he might have been scared or back down but this time there's a flash of yellow across his own eyes and a simple answer. ] Your word that you'll behave here. I'm willing to leave you be because you're stuck here like me. And I don't want to fight with you all the time. Maybe even you helping me once and a while like you used to. You know I'm trustworthy enough to keep my word and what do you have to lose?

[hsalf]

[The flash of yellow in Barry's eyes would be enough on any other day for him to launch into attack. It was the signal for battle to begin within a storm of lightning, one only they could participate in within their shared power. Within the extra-dimensional power that made up the speedforce. Today, however, he doesn't look for a battle. He only seeks to remind Barry that it could happen in a flash, on days he least expects as much as the days he most expects it. That he could be pleasant, kind, even loving, just as much as he could be angry, vicious and brutal and that he was capable of shifting between both sides at a moments notice.

So when Barry answers his question there is only a few seconds of stillness before the air returns to normal, no longer held hostage by the thrum of energy, and his eyes lose the faint tinge of red and return to steel blue. If there was an open cup of liquid then it would drop back into place, suspended no more. Eobard's face is still and his gaze remains steady, as he tries to decide how he feels. Funny how he always knew what he felt about Barry Allen until he got to know Barry Allen.]

I never thought of you as an idiot. [He says, deciding to take this moment to clarify while he deciphers his thoughts.] You are many things, things other people may regard as unintelligent, but not...stupid. [His head does a small gentle shake, eyes still trained on Barry.] I think more highly of you than that, but I can see why you would think differently.

[He would like to think he wouldn't stake such a long vendetta on someone who wasn't intelligent. Not as smart as him, but smarter than the average person certainly. He turns around and walks over to the table he was seated at just a few feet away, putting the papers down and resting his glasses on top of them as he so mockingly suggested earlier, before turning back around to Barry. This time he keeps the distance and instead sits down - not on the proper seat, but on the wooden table surface, bringing his legs up and planting his feet on the bench on the table.

No particular reason as to why.]

I like to think, what you just summed up, is how it's been for the last several months since you woke up. [He folds his hands together, loosely lacing his fingers between the gaps. On the left hand his golden ring is visible on his middle finger and the tip of his right index finger carefully sets over it, padding on the surface of the engraved Reverse Flash symbol.] When you think about it, I only fought you once before you figured out the truth and I only did it to get the tachyon prototype from Dr. McGee. [...] That and to motivate you, so you would work harder at getting faster - I figured I myself was the best way to inspire you.

Point being: what you are asking of me...is just the way it has always been from your perspective. And if that's what you want, then I see no conflict.

[Yet what he does not say is...no matter what may come or go here, the single goal he has had in fifteen years still holds firm and true. He wants to go home and he wants it more than anything else. Any true and real "trouble" he may cause will come directly from that desire, just as it has in the last decade and a half.]