Your...hero, yes? The Flash? [ best not to discuss kissing any further, really. so she leaps topics with ease even as she invites cisco deeper into the ship. the kitchen is this way. ]
I think I saw him zipping 'round the Halloween hall. [ well. a costume of him. ]
That was mine! I mean, my costume. on Winn. Who was the Flash, for the evening. His actual suit kinda looks like that but the material is different. You know, with how fast he goes, his clothes and shoes tend to catch on fire. I mean, it's kinda hilarious in an awful way.
[ he still can't forget felicity in her bra in the middle of STAR labs, ok. ]
Admittedly, I never saw the original -- but it looked like lovely work. [ the costume, she means. ] More dignified than I ever anticipated a red jumpsuit ever being.
Mechanical engineer. That's right. [ a nod of her head is as near as she gets to returning the salute. ] Would you describe yourself as something of a futurist?
[ he snorts and then realizes that it might come off as rude. ]
Sorry. I think the concept of time are just weird on my earth, I mean.
[ how does he even begin to explain all of this. ]
I'll try and make it sound as logical as I can. Remember that particle accelerator I told you about the other day? that was the biggest project I was working on, it was years ahead of what we knew about physics at the time, literally.
[ he makes a bit of a face ]
The man who came up with it was a time traveler. We didn't know it at the time but he was from way in the future - time traveling, I know.
[ nuts. ]
But the Flash did it once, too. Innocent mistake, still. It's hard to think of myself as a futurist when my biggest project was a result of time travel, you know what I mean?
[ so! the (perhaps) would-be futurist of an engineer seems to feel as though his potential had been rerouted, and preempted, by the absurdity of time travel. she offers a cluck of her tongue -- sympathy, really, for the corner into which he's been painted. ]
It's a bit bewildering, actually, to hear someone describe time travel as an innocent mistake.
Yeah, I think it must have been super weird for him, too. He just - he's fast and I don't think we ever realized he's fast enough to tear through time but hey, the more you learn.
[ and this mistake is why he's alive today, after all. even when he does something accidentally, barry seems to save others. ]
Such power must come with considerably temptation -- [ she can already feel it in her bones: an envious desire to change time, and reorient the regrets she harbours. ]
Yeah, but he knows better. I mean, time is fragile. The time traveler we met changed our entire timeline but he lost his speed in the process and was stuck in a timeline that was way, way behind his own and well, you know - you change one thing, everything else changes too, you never know what you find out after you've gone and changed it - the universe will change, too.
[ it all used to be so very theoretical and he hates the price they had to pay in order to come to all those understandings. ]
and not always for the better. the Flash understands that.
[ a little too thoughtfully: ] I suppose -- for most of us, simply being here in the Fleet is as close as we're likely to come to travelling through time.
[ apart from those among us who get frozen in ice. ]
Yeah, you can say that. Time and space, really, since we're so far away from our universes, earths, worlds - and all of this without actually endangering the original timeline. I'm still working on the physics of it.
[ the fleet, in essence, contradicts everything he learned about the multiverse. ]
You see, usually, you'd think that if you leave, people will notice that you're, well, gone and coming back will be a mess but here - I still don't get it. The closest I got to explaining it all is that the timeline carries on with a version of us which disappears when they send us back. weird, but true and it sort of follows the theory that here are infinite versions of us in any given moment. I just don't get how they do it without harming any of the timelines.
[ there are so many, after all. ]
I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to shove them into a blender and hit 'top speed' but at the same time, I'd kill for an honest explanation of how they make it all work.
[ peggy mulls over the man's theory. she liked it -- but maybe she only liked it because it offered the thinnest glimmer of hope for her and her situation. a way to bypass the guilt of staying here, and fearing that the timeline back home ends up frayed because she's been here indulging herself. ]
You're saying we aren't unraveling future-history simply by being here? [ it's not hard to guess why that might be a concern of hers, given what she's revealed about her own timeline. ]
We definitely aren't. Our timelines would have collapsed into paradoxes if we were. I mean, people live and come back without any memories, right? which means, their timeline is operating as usual.
[ he can't really solve it by himself, which is seriously frustrating. if only professor stein was present, cisco's pretty sure that together they might have figured something out. ]
We are outside the multiverse, here. So if we stick to the theory that there are endless worlds and endless versions of is, it makes sense that it's kept safe since here we are a version of us. At home, there's another. I know it sounds weird but trust me, so is meeting yourself.
I know what you mean. I've seen my Earth going through seriously weird things because of people who messed up with time and the multiverse. I'm kinda glad me being here playing Big Brother: Space Edition isn't causing even more damage.
[ .. ]
it's this reality show, seriously bad, you're not missing anything important.
[ while she ruminates on that common ground, peggy allows herself a small smile. ]
I've had it explained to me a few times. Perils of being here, of course. So many of you 21st century individuals have such similar touchstones. [ ... ] Whatever it will be [ big brother ] it sounds dull.
[ then, with a dry laugh: ] As dull as us, I suppose.
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I think I saw him zipping 'round the Halloween hall. [ well. a costume of him. ]
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[ he still can't forget felicity in her bra in the middle of STAR labs, ok. ]
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[ a brave attempt to make a dejected, pained city welcome STAR labs back after the particle accelerator disaster. ]
But it fit what he needed.
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[ she remembers. she only wants to swing the conversation gently back to his work. ]
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[ he gives her a little salute. ]
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Sorry. I think the concept of time are just weird on my earth, I mean.
[ how does he even begin to explain all of this. ]
I'll try and make it sound as logical as I can. Remember that particle accelerator I told you about the other day? that was the biggest project I was working on, it was years ahead of what we knew about physics at the time, literally.
[ he makes a bit of a face ]
The man who came up with it was a time traveler. We didn't know it at the time but he was from way in the future - time traveling, I know.
[ nuts. ]
But the Flash did it once, too. Innocent mistake, still. It's hard to think of myself as a futurist when my biggest project was a result of time travel, you know what I mean?
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It's a bit bewildering, actually, to hear someone describe time travel as an innocent mistake.
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[ and this mistake is why he's alive today, after all. even when he does something accidentally, barry seems to save others. ]
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[ it all used to be so very theoretical and he hates the price they had to pay in order to come to all those understandings. ]
and not always for the better. the Flash understands that.
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[ apart from those among us who get frozen in ice. ]
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[ the fleet, in essence, contradicts everything he learned about the multiverse. ]
You see, usually, you'd think that if you leave, people will notice that you're, well, gone and coming back will be a mess but here - I still don't get it. The closest I got to explaining it all is that the timeline carries on with a version of us which disappears when they send us back. weird, but true and it sort of follows the theory that here are infinite versions of us in any given moment. I just don't get how they do it without harming any of the timelines.
[ there are so many, after all. ]
I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to shove them into a blender and hit 'top speed' but at the same time, I'd kill for an honest explanation of how they make it all work.
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You're saying we aren't unraveling future-history simply by being here? [ it's not hard to guess why that might be a concern of hers, given what she's revealed about her own timeline. ]
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[ he can't really solve it by himself, which is seriously frustrating. if only professor stein was present, cisco's pretty sure that together they might have figured something out. ]
We are outside the multiverse, here. So if we stick to the theory that there are endless worlds and endless versions of is, it makes sense that it's kept safe since here we are a version of us. At home, there's another. I know it sounds weird but trust me, so is meeting yourself.
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[ peggy exhales. it's an odd thing to realize, she supposes. ] As if, should it prove true, a weight would be lifted.
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[ .. ]
it's this reality show, seriously bad, you're not missing anything important.
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I've had it explained to me a few times. Perils of being here, of course. So many of you 21st century individuals have such similar touchstones. [ ... ] Whatever it will be [ big brother ] it sounds dull.
[ then, with a dry laugh: ] As dull as us, I suppose.
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[ pointing to self, represent! ]
really hot aliens, shapeshifters and apparently badass world war II ladies? no where else in the multiverse and believe me, I've seen a lot.
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-- Really hot aliens?
[ she's prepared to take that either way, cisco. maybe he means they're very good-looking. but maybe he means they run warm. she can't be certain. ]
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[ not helping. ]
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[ she's about three seconds away from telling him about her alien first mate. ]
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[ mmhmm! ]
--- not that we're a thing, we're bffs. The one I have a thing with is definitely not an alien. Witch.
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