franciscoramon | riverview ∆ ic inbox ∆ @ciscodelamancha

first of all, your planet sounded awesome.

[ Normally he'd be a-bubble with questions, but Cisco is a touch more circumspect, knowing as he does that Krypton met a tragic fate. He's still curious as hell, but he can go about it with a little bit of tact. ]

we haven't got androids, and we definitely don't have functioning ai. the earth will, in the future. barry invents one, apparently. which we know because we found it in this creepy time vault and it said so.

hell yeah it would be. to be honest i wouldn't even know where to start. i mean... i've got some ideas....

Thank you, Cisco. It means a lot to hear. See? Read. You know what I mean. Earth is pretty great, too.

( Both versions I've been seen. She appreciates it, though it's not hard to admit that both planets had and have their share of pros and cons. )

Really?! Wow! That's amazing, since somehow I thought Barry was more into biology and chemistry than engineering. Is the AI itself a creepazoid?

Like what? The DEO found a program stowed in the pod that brought me to Earth. It held an AI of my mother. Not her, but her thoughts and knowledge; living memory.

he is. something must change in the future cuz the barry i know isn't really equipped or inclined to invent an AI.

it was pretty creepy. helpful but creepy. no way around that when dr. wells had been using it to spy on us for years.

[ Cisco knows that that isn't Gideon's fault, that she's a program who obeys the commands given to her, but even so... hard not to hold the tiniest bit of a grudge. ]

wait, have you got that with you?
taking a look at it could help jump start things.
i wouldn't want to risk damaging it, obviously, but i could probably determine some things about the programming by asking a few questions.

That's the same Barry I know, too. Maybe he'll speed read the texts for an engineering major sometime? Idk.

Wait, that's new. How was it spying on you guys?

( And Dr. Wells—as in the H.R. Wells she'd met during the invasion? Kara has trouble seeing that man capable of that. That man's too... bubbly? Is that the right word?

Who knows. )

No, but my cousin has his. Yeah—there's two of us, and he said I could tell you. He said he got his through the portal, so that might happen for me, too.

I'd like that! If I'm lucky enough to get it back, you can spend all the time with her you like. Uh, I mean... whoops.

I still call it 'mom.' I don't know if that's weird. Makes me feel less alone.

must be.

[ Boy, he sure shouldn't have mentioned the spying, there's no way for this to be anything other than an overshare. ]

well... dr. wells put cameras all around star labs and at ccpd and iris' work and in joe's house and in all our apartments so he could basically monitor us 24/7 like he was trying to win some kind of award for overachieving stalkers.

as far as i could tell gideon was just organizing the footage for him and maybe scanning for certain things

oh, awesome. so your cousin like... from home, not an adopted one?

i don't think it's weird to call it that, or think about it that way. you said it's programmed with her personality or memories or whatever, right? makes sense if you ask me.

So this weirdo just made 1984 into a reality?? Uhhhh he's somewhere far away, right? From you, Barry, CCPD, Star Labs... all of you? Because that's setting off alarm bells and also makes me want to hit him really hard.

Gideon was probably altered. That happened with Kelex, the robot who typically helps out at the Fortress. Henshaw reprogrammed him to attack me on sight, and I had to, uh. Fry him. It was him or me, and it wasn't gonna be me.

Yeah, from home. His pod arrived on schedule, so he was adopted by a great family and raised among humans. I was thirteen. My pod was knocked off-course and I got stuck in the Phantom Zone, for about 24 years. he was already out there saving the day while i was in middle school. Awkward!

Memories and knowledge, yeah. Apparently not emotions. I asked her for a hug the first time I saw her and I got "I'm not programmed to do that." Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. If that program ever comes through the portal, you can take as long as you need to figure out how she works.

sort of? i mean 1984 is creepy and all but it's somehow way worse when big brother's not watching everybody, he's JUST watching you.

[ The fact that Kara already feels like she wants to punch him, just from what she knows now, makes Cisco very inclined to like her as a person. And it's pretty clear she doesn't know the story at all, so he decides to backtrack a little, fill in the details. At least, some of them. ]

oh yeah he dead. very, very dead. erased from history, actually, which means no grave to spit on, which is a little bit disappointing. and lemme tell you, i'm not usually a grave-spitting-on kind of guy.

barry didn't tell you about him, huh? i guess that's not really surprising. you were all busy saving the world, and also, he murdered barry's mom in front of him when he was a kid, and then framed his dad for it, so. yeah. alarm bells is putting it lightly.

[ He reads her story about what happened to Kelex and makes a mental note to ask what the Fortress is and who this Henshaw guy is and what was his issue, anyway. But there's only so many questions a guy can ask in one text, and for now he wants to focus on the people and things he might actually run into in this place. ]

wait, what's a phantom zone? i'm guessing there was some kind of... cryostasis or time travel because you're definitely not thirty seven.
wait, or are you? do kryptonians age differently? am i making a total ass out of myself here y/n?

[ How does he still manage to be this awkward by text? ]

you and your cousin both became heroes? that's... really incredible, actually.

[ Kara's story about the AI that looks like her mother not having emotions is just... gut-wrenchingly sad, and she tells it so simply, like it isn't a big deal. But Cisco barely knows her and he feels a little heartbroken. ]

god, that's so awful.
i'd be happy to take a look at it if it shows up.

[ He really shouldn't ask. He really should just stay in his own lane. But... ]

were you and your mom close?

Ohhhh okay, yeah, it would. UGH! What--why--I just. For Rao's sake, that's one solid case of overinvestment. He needed an actual hobby, or something.

And a good right hook. He'd go flying back at least a city block, but he'd deserve it.

( Kara and casual violence go hand in hand. though she hasn't experienced it yet, it's something her sister's girlfriend will call her out on much later down the line.

And that urge only increases as Cisco helpfully fills in the gaps. If he could see the look on her face right now, she'd look somewhere between supremely pissed off and horrified. )

No, he, uh... no. He didn't. ( There's a long pause, wherein she has to wipe her eyes because this is something she'd never wanted to have in common with Barry. Her heart twists, wrenching in her chest for him. She knows that kind of pain well. ) I don't like saying this about people if I can help it, but I'm glad he's dead.

What a scumbag! I'm disappointed he was erased from history BEFORE I could hit him. Is Barry's dad okay now, then?

( Oh Kara, you sweet summer child. She has no idea why Barry had run back in time, so she's blissfully ignorant of the fallout regarding Henry. The next question has her laughing aloud, drawing her solidly from the earlier solemnity. )

It's a region of space where time doesn't pass. Like the Well of Stars. So, sort of! I was very much still physically thirteen when I landed.
And I'm SUPPOSED to be almost fifty. But n you're def not making an ass of yourself.

( It's a gift! )

We did! He's Superman. I'm Supergirl. He left the choice up to me, though. Took me awhile to come around.

( She states it so simply because if she doesn't, she just might cry. It's been tough to accustom herself to, but she had. Any part of Alura was better to have than nothing. )

I'd really like that! I wouldn't trust anyone else. You work magic with tech.

( A long pause. )

Yeah, we were. She worked a lot, but still made time to read to me every night. I was close with her sister, too. They were twins, which on my planet was pretty rare.

[ It's always weird, on these rare instances when he talks about even a few of the things Dr. Wells had done to them, to see how black and white the situation seems to strangers. Of course, from Kara's perspective, he sounds pure evil. Because he was. She'd never known him as anything but evil. Cisco wishes sometimes there were a reset switch in his brain, so he could erase all the admiration and good memories and lingering fondness and just think of him as Creepy Murdery Stalker Guy, as the Reverse Flash. But it's not that simple. ]

it's ok to be glad. trust me, that's just the tip of the evil iceberg.

barry's dad is alright. dr. wells left behind a confession so he's out of prison finally, but he was in there for fifteen years, you know? he missed out on raising his kid and lost all his old friends and his career. that's not the kinda thing you walk off in a day.

[ Cisco makes a mental note, when he knows Kara a bit better, to buy her a mug that says 'over the hill' or some other such joke. ]

those are some badass alises. what made you decide to be a hero? i mean, did you have a big moment or was it just kind of a gradual thing?

[ Probably a good thing they're having this conversation by text, because Cisco goes a bit red in the face at that compliment. ]

she sounds really great. they both do.

[ There's really non non-awkward way to say "I'm sorry your family is dead", is there? ]

Edited (i can math) 2017-05-26 15:47 (UTC)

Ohhhh boy. Are we gonna need popcorn or drinks if you ever tell me the rest? I'm seriously torn here.

That's awful! :( I'm sure he'll bounce back though, with Barry's help and yours, and Caitlin's. You guys make a great team. I wish I'd had the chance to help my aunt out with that. My mom put her in prison (it's a LONG story) aboard Fort Roz; our version of a maximum security penitentiary. Out in the Phantom Zone, like I was. When I ended up on Earth, somehow it came with me.

She died last year. And I regret not being able to reach her.

( Kara pauses, deciding to forge ahead, since she's already kind of overshared already with the Astra stuff. )

Thanks! My adoptive dad tried telling me the world only needs my cousin. But my sister was on a plane that was going to crash, and he was taking care of something else. So I stepped up to the plate. Once I did, it kind of was impossible to step back.

( Well, she means that admiration wholeheartedly. His skill blows her away. )

Thank you.

( Not really, no. What he's said hits the right note, and she's smiling on her end. )

Did you know Taako recc'd you as someone to geek out with? Which I'd love to, btw. Anytime.

drinks. lots of drinks.

[ Privately, Cisco thinks he'd be happy to put off the day he goes over the rest of it. It's one thing, giving Kara enough information so that she realizes just what a piece of work Dr. Wells was. But he'd carefully steered clear of almost anything that actually involved himself. For now, he'd like to get to know her, for her to get to know him. To see him as the fun tech guy, not the 'mildly fucked up in the head because he got betrayed and murdered' guy. ]

so... wait, your planet's prison was in the same part of space where time doesn't pass? so the prisoners were just sentenced for, what, eternity? or did they let them go after a while and the idea was they could serve their time and then get back to their lives without interruption?

[ Because if it's the former rather than the latter... yikes. ]

oh no, i'm really sorry to hear that.

[ There's a whole mess more questions Cisco wants to ask here - why her aunt was in prison, why it was her mother specifically who sent her there, how Kara had found out her aunt didn't die along with her homeworld, how she'd passed away. But for now, he thinks, he's poked at enough scars of hers. Maybe on that day when they get those drinks, he'll get nosy. ]

well, if you ask me (and you didn't but...) two superheroes is twice as good as one.

[ The news that Taako was saying good things about him makes Cisco feel flustered, and pleased, and a little tongue-tied (or whatever the texting equivalent might be). ]

i did not know that. like at all. wow.

but i'm absolutely down for geeking out, too. any time, any place.

I wonder if the alcohol here could actually affect me. It doesn't on Earth unless it's, uh. Imported.

( Off-world style. And for the moment, she's just dandy letting the topic of Wells go. Especially because who he's talking about clearly can't be the H.R. fellow she'd met before the invasion. getting to know each other is much preferable to wondering which dimension they'd gone to to find H.R. )

Not all, no. The term depended on the crime, but my mother saw things more black and white than I've been called out on for. Fort Rozz crashed with me, how is a complicated story unto itself, but for a while I had to deal with the prisoners. They hated me because my mother sentenced them all.

One man from Starhaven told me once how one of his wives got sick after a bad storm season. He couldn't afford to look after her on his own, so he got into interplanetary drug smuggling. He was caught, and my mother gave him eighteen years out there.

Anyone who killed people were banished for life.

( Yikes, indeed. )

Thanks.

( She'd almost spilled that bit about Astra and Non just now, but the change of topic is a more pleasant one, and she seizes upon it desperately to banish the sadness threatening to overcome her. )

The more the merrier, I think. It's nice to work with a team, others like or sort of like me. That was sweet of you to say btw. ♥

( Awwwww this is actually kind of cute. )

Well I mean he's not wrong! Even if I hadn't known you before, it's plenty obvious that you're the go-to guy around here for geeking out.

How's tomorrow sound, then?

yikes. so a bunch of ex-cons were after you because your mom was in law enforcement?
that sounds like a hell of an action movie. maybe less fun in real life tho. like almost definitely less fun.

i guess eighteen years isn't terrible. not like criminal justice is perfect on earth either.

so have you got a team? i mean, apart from your cousin, and you said he lives in a different city... you're not superheroing all on your own?

[ It's not that he doubts her abilities, but he doesn't doubt Barry's, either. It's not safe to do what they do without some friends around as backup. And what's more, it's too lonely to imagine. Hell, even Oliver "taking antisocial to new levels" Queen has a team. ]

i do wear my geekery pretty loud and proud, it's true.
tomorrow sounds perfect.

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