The loft had never been so quiet. Iris hadn't been so cognizant of her every footstep, or how her breath hitched when she heard the door unlock. Somehow, against all hope, she had believed that Barry had fought the Force and run right back to her.
But she glances up, realizing that it's Cisco. A welcome and familiar face, certainly, but not her Bear. It's weird. After the first couple of weeks, she thought this would get easier. She could throw herself into her work and be the best journalist the world had ever known. She poured over scientific journals, forcing herself to understand how the human body worked under pressure, how the act of running depleted calcium reserves – but she was no scientist. Issues of the Lancet might as well have been a foreign language.
("You're looking for a ghost,” Linda had patiently told her, before prying her off and forcing her to go home. “Trust me, Iris. He's gonna find his way back to you.”)
She forces herself up. In a rare moment for her, she's dressed plainly in sweats and a hideously oversized t-shirt (one of Barry's, because it still smells like him).
“Hey,” she says, managing the faintest of smiles. “I hope you brought ice cream.”
It breaks his heart a little, every time he comes in the door and he sees that look on Iris's face, unmistakable even when she's on the complete other end of the loft. He's come to know it well, that tiny sinking of her shoulders, that look of faint disappointment. It'd be enough to hurt a guy's feelings, if he didn't know what it was. Every time, she was hoping he was Barry, back from the Speedforce and ready to scoop her up in his arms and declare everything okay again.
But everything's not okay, of course. Barry has been gone long enough for the shock to wear off and for the dull ache of missing him every day to start to sink in. Cisco's feeling it, too. Not in the same way as Iris, of course, but enough. Which is why he's here. If the two of them are going to be hurting and lonely, they might as well do it in each other's company.
When she asks if he's brought ice cream, Cisco makes a tsscchh sound, adds a sarcastic, "Girl, please," as he hefts up what he's holding - a plastic grocery bag with no less than three different flavors of ice cream in pint containers. Despite his heavy thoughts, his voice is light, playful, and he smiles a little as he makes his way over to the couch, flopping down onto it and setting the bag down on the coffee table.
Misery certainly loves her company - even moreso when he brings her favorite kinds of ice cream. Iris knows, deep down, that the pain of losing Barry has taken its toll on Cisco too. It's been rough on all of them, in big and small ways.
Her empty loft is the biggest one. With Cisco, it feels lighter, more like home - but only for those brief moments, and then it gains an awkward, heavy silence that's more than she can bear. It would've been one thing were Barry off to save another universe, or even if his job as a CSI had taken him outside of Central City. It's another to not know when (because it has to be when) he'll run back to her.
"There's only one proper way to drown our sorrows," Iris insists, adopting that same playful tone and forcing herself to smile. The sugar rush'll make it real soon enough. "And that's with a ton of ice cream and Netflix bingeing."
Parks and Rec, maybe? Or whatever new comedy catches their eye? She doesn't know, but she wraps her blanket tighter around her as she rushes to the kitchen for spoons.
Cisco turns on the couch, watching Iris as she goes into the kitchen, his smile dimming slightly. It... worries him, sometimes. How well she's been handling Barry being gone - or more accurately, the fact that she keeps acting like she is handling it well, whenever people are around. It can't be good for her, not having an outlet, keeping it all inside, putting up a strong front for everybody. And it can't last forever. There's going to be a crash, one of these days. And he just hopes that when that happens, she'll know she can turn to him.
But they will cross that bridge when they come to it. For now, all he can do is try to bring a little brightness, try to add something genuine into her smiles.
So he picks up the remote and starts to scroll through the options on Netflix. Some of these are obviously remnants of when Barry lived here, because of course, there's no part of this place that isn't littered with reminders of his presence. Cisco calls over into the kitchen as he hears her clattering the silverware:
"Oh, goodie, Star Trek marathon it is..."
He puts selects the thumbnail for the show, makes a big production of slowly lowering his finger towards the 'enter' button, waiting for the objection he is sure will be coming.
When she'd given Cisco free rein, she hadn't expected him to indulge in all things nerd. Iris had never counted herself among them - even though she'd grown up with Dad and Barry, even though she'd been dragged along to Central City's Comic-Con, and even though she watches way more Sailor Moon than she cares to admit. (Loving Serena doesn't make her a nerd! It just doesn't!!)
For perhaps the first time in months, she's rushing back towards the couch, holding out those spoons as if they're a deadly weapon. There's actual life behind her expression, and not the kind she's been faking every single time he steps through the door.
"Cisco Ramon, if you press play on that whole series..." She lets out a huge, dramatic sigh that's somehow totally genuine and yet overdone at the same time, "I swear, I will hide all the spoons in this apartment."
Cisco breaks into giggles as Iris comes hurrying back, brandishing spoons at him, looking aggravated, in a friendly sort of way, which was exactly the response he'd been hoping to provoke. He halts the slow progress of his finger towards the remote, but only so he can point it at her and say, eyebrows raising, "Try me. I will open a breach directly into a CVS and be back with 100 plastic spoons faster than you can say 'make it so'."
But when he turns his attention back to the TV, grinning from ear to ear, he moves on, scrolling through the options there and trying to find something that will actually entertain the both of them. They have some ground rules - a few unspoken, others explicit. No sob fests. No documentaries. Nothing with time travel. Nothing about drunk drivers.
Cisco sees something that gives him pause, looks up at Iris to ask, "Jumanji?"
"Cheater." Iris can't even find the energy to be truly mad, even as she's swinging two of those spoons like they're silver spoons. Of all the metahuman powers she's witnessed, Barry's and Cisco's truly were gamebreakers. Capable of rewriting time and space... or manipulating the mundane to get them whatever they needed.
She flops down beside him, setting down the spoons before she tightens her bun. It's hard to feel listless around him - and honestly, she thinks he needs her company too.
"Sure?" She shrugs. "Fair warning, since I know the remake's coming up soon: I've actually never seen it."
She has, however, seen that spiritual successor Zathura, and Jumanji can't be that different, right?
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Seriously? Like, never? I can't believe I didn't know that. Well. Now it's obviously gotta be Jumanji. This just changed from movie night to mandatory cultural education night."
Cisco hits the button to start the movie, and then reaches forward to open the different flavors of ice cream. He arranges them along the low table, and then grabs the coffee flavored one, digging in as the opening scene begins. The couch is huge, but Cisco pulls his feet up and leans so that his shoulder is resting against Iris's.
"I was raised on this movie - and yes, before you even say it, I know, probably explains a whole lot."
This is how the two of them usually are - never watching things silently, but chatting their way through them. It had sometimes driven Barry up the wall, when Cisco would do that. But he's found that Iris doesn't mind.
"You best brace yourself for some serious 1990s special effects."
😶 wait hold up for real i thought you were just saying there was some new mall goth graphic designer or something or some lestat looking dude are you telling me there is a person actually saying she's a vampire???
[ It had to happen eventually: a day at S.T.A.R Labs where only Iris and Cisco were able to call out of work. Barry and Joe were still at the courthouse. Mundane testimony had become an all-out affair, thanks to a couple of witnesses committing perjury - and of course, as the main CSI on the case, Barry had to testify about the crime scene. And the state of the victim's body. And just about everything the prosecutor and defense needed.
Iris couldn't blame Barry. For once, his supertardiness wasn't his fault. When the justice system called, Barry, Joe, and Cecile had answered the call. None of them knew exactly when (or how) that trial was going to end.
As for Caitlin? Well, no matter how many times Iris rang her phone, their fellow medical expert wasn't picking up. Iris bites on her lower lip, staring at Cisco before glancing down to the traffic cams. ]
You think we should go on without her? [ It doesn't seem to be a question at this point. ] I know Barry and Dad are at work, but she picked a great time for her phone to die, I'm just saying.
[ Iris is handling this whole crisis situation with a whole lot more dignity and chill than Cisco - which is pretty standard, honestly. It's one of the reasons why she makes such a great leader. In a time of crisis, Cisco's mind is spinning out a thousand different possible solutions - creative and inventive, yes, and it's how he's managed to invent so much life-saving tech on the fly - rather than focusing on just one.
So when Iris asks if they should go on without Caitlin, Cisco knows that they should, and he gives a nod, jaw set. He shouldn't waste time breaching around trying to find her, and of course, there's nothing to be done about Barry and Joe. pushing his vibe goggles up onto the top of his head, he stops pacing and comes over to where Iris is standing by the monitor, asks: ]
We can't wait. People could get hurt.
[ Why isn't Caitlin answering, though? The question gnaws at him, sour and unsettling in the pit of his stomach. He thinks of how secretive and evasive she was at the bar when he first went to bring her back into the fold. He thinks about other small incidents since - moments when she said strange things that didn't quite add up. Is there something going on, something more than just an uncharged phone...
[ Unfortunately, Cisco's right. No matter how much she may want to wait for Dr. Snow, she also knows that Snow's late for a very important date - and innocent lives are at stake. Whatever Caitlin's up to, Iris just hopes it's worth the absence.
(She doubts it. If she were truly pressed to admit it, Caitlin feels off. Like she's carrying a heavier weight, and everyone else's just trying to pretend otherwise.) ]
You'll have to open a breach on the corner of 7th and 21st. [ Iris pinches the monitor, zooming into the area noted on the map. ] It looks like no one's hurt just yet, but there's a crazy amount of energy. Fire, ice, and lightning? Somehow?
[ hopefully there weren't multiple metas. Iris could barely handle one at a time; three would be asking for trouble. ]
Anyway, the cams aren't giving me much, so you'll have to assess the situation when you get there.
[ He gives a brief nod, putting on his vibe goggles decisively. ]
On it.
[ Cisco takes three steps away, just enough to put some distance between himself, and Iris and the sensitive expensive equipment, before he punches a breach into the air and jumps through it. One thing had to be said about Barry's whole sabbatical in the Speed Force: it had thrown Cisco into the deep end, when it comes to creating breaches at very specific locations, quickly and without fuss.
He comes out the other side to see complete chaos. Civilians running to and fro, an unusually large amount of them. Busy afternoon out in Central City. The intersection is in the middle of a busy, classy shopping district, and there are all sorts of people - families with kids, elderly people out enjoying a walk in the brisk fall air. None of them seem to want any part of what is happening between the few uniformed police officers who have arrived and the meta who is causing the fuss.
Except, as Cisco rushes over, he sees that... maybe it's not a meta, after all. The guy is wielding something - almost like a staff. A weapon? A device to channel his powers? It's hard to tell, because he keeps moving it so quickly, bringing down lightning and small, but terrifying explosions of fire. Cisco says over the comms: ]
Not sure this one's a meta. Think he might have some kinda tech on him. Getting in for a closer look.
[ He vaults the low wall blocking the street from the sidewalk and calls out loudly: ]
Whoa there, dude! Hold up! Wanna ease it up with the explosions, a little bit?!
[ This has to be the weirdest day ever. First his best friends (+ adoptive parents in all but name) Terra and Aqua leave him, then he stows away to Central City to find them, and now? Well, his bus had been weird. His bus had also experienced something weird, and some guy named Mr. Devoe promised he'd make it all better.
He'd turned Ven's favorite key into a weapon, and managed to imbed real, live magic into its keychains. Equip one, get fire. Equip another, get thunder. Equip a third, get both, and so on. In exchange, Mr. Devoe only wanted him to get a few things.
If Ven helped him, then Ven would finally make some friends of his own! And get a bus ticket back home!! Who could turn down such a kindly old man? And his super pretty assistant? Not Ven, that's for sure.
A few Fira's and Thundara's should do the trick - break that nice, strong glass for Mr. Devoe, and then snatch that weird giant circuit-thing. (Tech wasn't Ven's strong suit. But Mr. Devoe'd showed him a picture, and that was more than enough.) He's just about to reach out for it when -
When someone's calling out to him. Ven can't help turning around to get a better look. ]
They're not explosions. [ Um, yeah. They totally are. ] They're magic! Like spells? Come on, doesn't this city have 'em too?
Okay, whatever! Spellsplosions, then! Whatever you wanna call 'em, you're gonna hurt somebody, look around you!
[ Cisco gestures, with a broad sweep of his arm, at their surroundings. There is panic and frenzy in the bystanders. The crowd is thinning but slowly - there aren't many good ways for people to get away, and there is a lot of pushing and shoving, the sounds of people crying out for loved ones they've misplaced.
He takes a few steps further, and there's no mistaking the evidence of his eyes and ears: this is a kid. A young kid. Which changes things. He doesn't attack right away, or try to flee, or worst - take hostages. There's a flicker of hope in Cisco's chest. Maybe they can resolve this without any fighting.
He holds his arms up, a gesture that seems to say 'calm down' and 'I'm unarmed' - though for Cisco, having his hands forward is the equivalent to having his finger on the trigger - and says: ]
[ Now that stops him firmly in his tracks. Ven swallows, glancing around at the thinning crowd and the broken windows and the pile of rubbish he'd created in his haste to nab that circuit.
He didn't want to hurt anyone. He also didn't want to make this hard on anyone, but he made a promise. He had to keep it until the bitter end. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
post-barry
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But she glances up, realizing that it's Cisco. A welcome and familiar face, certainly, but not her Bear. It's weird. After the first couple of weeks, she thought this would get easier. She could throw herself into her work and be the best journalist the world had ever known. She poured over scientific journals, forcing herself to understand how the human body worked under pressure, how the act of running depleted calcium reserves – but she was no scientist. Issues of the Lancet might as well have been a foreign language.
("You're looking for a ghost,” Linda had patiently told her, before prying her off and forcing her to go home. “Trust me, Iris. He's gonna find his way back to you.”)
She forces herself up. In a rare moment for her, she's dressed plainly in sweats and a hideously oversized t-shirt (one of Barry's, because it still smells like him).
“Hey,” she says, managing the faintest of smiles. “I hope you brought ice cream.”
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But everything's not okay, of course. Barry has been gone long enough for the shock to wear off and for the dull ache of missing him every day to start to sink in. Cisco's feeling it, too. Not in the same way as Iris, of course, but enough. Which is why he's here. If the two of them are going to be hurting and lonely, they might as well do it in each other's company.
When she asks if he's brought ice cream, Cisco makes a tsscchh sound, adds a sarcastic, "Girl, please," as he hefts up what he's holding - a plastic grocery bag with no less than three different flavors of ice cream in pint containers. Despite his heavy thoughts, his voice is light, playful, and he smiles a little as he makes his way over to the couch, flopping down onto it and setting the bag down on the coffee table.
"It's like you don't even know me."
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Her empty loft is the biggest one. With Cisco, it feels lighter, more like home - but only for those brief moments, and then it gains an awkward, heavy silence that's more than she can bear. It would've been one thing were Barry off to save another universe, or even if his job as a CSI had taken him outside of Central City. It's another to not know when (because it has to be when) he'll run back to her.
"There's only one proper way to drown our sorrows," Iris insists, adopting that same playful tone and forcing herself to smile. The sugar rush'll make it real soon enough. "And that's with a ton of ice cream and Netflix bingeing."
Parks and Rec, maybe? Or whatever new comedy catches their eye? She doesn't know, but she wraps her blanket tighter around her as she rushes to the kitchen for spoons.
"Your choice, since you brought the eats."
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But they will cross that bridge when they come to it. For now, all he can do is try to bring a little brightness, try to add something genuine into her smiles.
So he picks up the remote and starts to scroll through the options on Netflix. Some of these are obviously remnants of when Barry lived here, because of course, there's no part of this place that isn't littered with reminders of his presence. Cisco calls over into the kitchen as he hears her clattering the silverware:
"Oh, goodie, Star Trek marathon it is..."
He puts selects the thumbnail for the show, makes a big production of slowly lowering his finger towards the 'enter' button, waiting for the objection he is sure will be coming.
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When she'd given Cisco free rein, she hadn't expected him to indulge in all things nerd. Iris had never counted herself among them - even though she'd grown up with Dad and Barry, even though she'd been dragged along to Central City's Comic-Con, and even though she watches way more Sailor Moon than she cares to admit. (Loving Serena doesn't make her a nerd! It just doesn't!!)
For perhaps the first time in months, she's rushing back towards the couch, holding out those spoons as if they're a deadly weapon. There's actual life behind her expression, and not the kind she's been faking every single time he steps through the door.
"Cisco Ramon, if you press play on that whole series..." She lets out a huge, dramatic sigh that's somehow totally genuine and yet overdone at the same time, "I swear, I will hide all the spoons in this apartment."
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But when he turns his attention back to the TV, grinning from ear to ear, he moves on, scrolling through the options there and trying to find something that will actually entertain the both of them. They have some ground rules - a few unspoken, others explicit. No sob fests. No documentaries. Nothing with time travel. Nothing about drunk drivers.
Cisco sees something that gives him pause, looks up at Iris to ask, "Jumanji?"
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She flops down beside him, setting down the spoons before she tightens her bun. It's hard to feel listless around him - and honestly, she thinks he needs her company too.
"Sure?" She shrugs. "Fair warning, since I know the remake's coming up soon: I've actually never seen it."
She has, however, seen that spiritual successor Zathura, and Jumanji can't be that different, right?
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Cisco hits the button to start the movie, and then reaches forward to open the different flavors of ice cream. He arranges them along the low table, and then grabs the coffee flavored one, digging in as the opening scene begins. The couch is huge, but Cisco pulls his feet up and leans so that his shoulder is resting against Iris's.
"I was raised on this movie - and yes, before you even say it, I know, probably explains a whole lot."
This is how the two of them usually are - never watching things silently, but chatting their way through them. It had sometimes driven Barry up the wall, when Cisco would do that. But he's found that Iris doesn't mind.
"You best brace yourself for some serious 1990s special effects."
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assorted shenanigans
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[ that's it, that's the text. No pleasantries this time! ]
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[ Cisco is assuming this is just a joke about someone's fashion sense. ]
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They're always the first to snap, Cisco 😩
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wait hold up for real
i thought you were just saying there was some new mall goth graphic designer or something
or some lestat looking dude
are you telling me there is a person actually saying she's a vampire???
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Tbf she didn't say she was a vampire so much as I caught her in the act.
Never going to a CCPN blood drive again.
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i demand details
was she just sipping out of a bag like it was a capri sun????
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She was classy. Had a little straw and everything.
But who tf sips blood?? In the middle of the day???
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contemporary canon
Iris couldn't blame Barry. For once, his supertardiness wasn't his fault. When the justice system called, Barry, Joe, and Cecile had answered the call. None of them knew exactly when (or how) that trial was going to end.
As for Caitlin? Well, no matter how many times Iris rang her phone, their fellow medical expert wasn't picking up. Iris bites on her lower lip, staring at Cisco before glancing down to the traffic cams. ]
You think we should go on without her? [ It doesn't seem to be a question at this point. ] I know Barry and Dad are at work, but she picked a great time for her phone to die, I'm just saying.
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So when Iris asks if they should go on without Caitlin, Cisco knows that they should, and he gives a nod, jaw set. He shouldn't waste time breaching around trying to find her, and of course, there's nothing to be done about Barry and Joe. pushing his vibe goggles up onto the top of his head, he stops pacing and comes over to where Iris is standing by the monitor, asks: ]
We can't wait. People could get hurt.
[ Why isn't Caitlin answering, though? The question gnaws at him, sour and unsettling in the pit of his stomach. He thinks of how secretive and evasive she was at the bar when he first went to bring her back into the fold. He thinks about other small incidents since - moments when she said strange things that didn't quite add up. Is there something going on, something more than just an uncharged phone...
But no time to think of that. ]
What's the play, boss?
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(She doubts it. If she were truly pressed to admit it, Caitlin feels off. Like she's carrying a heavier weight, and everyone else's just trying to pretend otherwise.) ]
You'll have to open a breach on the corner of 7th and 21st. [ Iris pinches the monitor, zooming into the area noted on the map. ] It looks like no one's hurt just yet, but there's a crazy amount of energy. Fire, ice, and lightning? Somehow?
[ hopefully there weren't multiple metas. Iris could barely handle one at a time; three would be asking for trouble. ]
Anyway, the cams aren't giving me much, so you'll have to assess the situation when you get there.
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On it.
[ Cisco takes three steps away, just enough to put some distance between himself, and Iris and the sensitive expensive equipment, before he punches a breach into the air and jumps through it. One thing had to be said about Barry's whole sabbatical in the Speed Force: it had thrown Cisco into the deep end, when it comes to creating breaches at very specific locations, quickly and without fuss.
He comes out the other side to see complete chaos. Civilians running to and fro, an unusually large amount of them. Busy afternoon out in Central City. The intersection is in the middle of a busy, classy shopping district, and there are all sorts of people - families with kids, elderly people out enjoying a walk in the brisk fall air. None of them seem to want any part of what is happening between the few uniformed police officers who have arrived and the meta who is causing the fuss.
Except, as Cisco rushes over, he sees that... maybe it's not a meta, after all. The guy is wielding something - almost like a staff. A weapon? A device to channel his powers? It's hard to tell, because he keeps moving it so quickly, bringing down lightning and small, but terrifying explosions of fire. Cisco says over the comms: ]
Not sure this one's a meta. Think he might have some kinda tech on him. Getting in for a closer look.
[ He vaults the low wall blocking the street from the sidewalk and calls out loudly: ]
Whoa there, dude! Hold up! Wanna ease it up with the explosions, a little bit?!
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He'd turned Ven's favorite key into a weapon, and managed to imbed real, live magic into its keychains. Equip one, get fire. Equip another, get thunder. Equip a third, get both, and so on. In exchange, Mr. Devoe only wanted him to get a few things.
If Ven helped him, then Ven would finally make some friends of his own! And get a bus ticket back home!! Who could turn down such a kindly old man? And his super pretty assistant? Not Ven, that's for sure.
A few Fira's and Thundara's should do the trick - break that nice, strong glass for Mr. Devoe, and then snatch that weird giant circuit-thing. (Tech wasn't Ven's strong suit. But Mr. Devoe'd showed him a picture, and that was more than enough.) He's just about to reach out for it when -
When someone's calling out to him. Ven can't help turning around to get a better look. ]
They're not explosions. [ Um, yeah. They totally are. ] They're magic! Like spells? Come on, doesn't this city have 'em too?
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[ Cisco gestures, with a broad sweep of his arm, at their surroundings. There is panic and frenzy in the bystanders. The crowd is thinning but slowly - there aren't many good ways for people to get away, and there is a lot of pushing and shoving, the sounds of people crying out for loved ones they've misplaced.
He takes a few steps further, and there's no mistaking the evidence of his eyes and ears: this is a kid. A young kid. Which changes things. He doesn't attack right away, or try to flee, or worst - take hostages. There's a flicker of hope in Cisco's chest. Maybe they can resolve this without any fighting.
He holds his arms up, a gesture that seems to say 'calm down' and 'I'm unarmed' - though for Cisco, having his hands forward is the equivalent to having his finger on the trigger - and says: ]
What's your name, kid?
1/2
[ Now that stops him firmly in his tracks. Ven swallows, glancing around at the thinning crowd and the broken windows and the pile of rubbish he'd created in his haste to nab that circuit.
He didn't want to hurt anyone. He also didn't want to make this hard on anyone, but he made a promise. He had to keep it until the bitter end. ]
Oh, um - I'm Ven. [ Secret identities? What're those? ] What's yours, mister?
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Vibe, how old is this meta?
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