dear_mun | (no subject)

How could you?

[Yeah, she knows.]

It can be undone.

[ Not what she asked. But that discussion won't go anywhere. ]

Then why do it in the first place?

[She's upset. It's pretty obvious.]

If it had been me, if I had known too much, would you have killed me?

Edited (typos suck) 2015-03-20 02:13 (UTC)

It can be. It's not a sure thing. Nothing is.

[ Except, perhaps, the answer to her second question. ]

I cared for Cisco very much.

[ Again not what she asked, but the answer is there in his steady look. He cares for her, too — but not more than he cares for his goal. ]

[It's difficult for Caitlin, to learn that her mentor and friend was actually someone she didn't know at all. She cared for them all so damn much, that hearing this is a betrayal that rocks her very core.

It's difficult to be the strong one now.]

No, it's a sure thing that you will do anything to get what you want.

You're a great actor, I'll give you that.

[ He makes a gesture of concession. Whatever justifications and reasons he has, they won't be enough in her eyes, so he won't burden her with them. She's correct about him in every way that matters. ]

Things will change, Caitlin. And I'm sorry for what you'll go through.

[ He makes everything sound so simple. ]

[He says things, but he never really says anything. Everything is noncommittal, and it's especially frustrating to Caitlin right now.]

I trusted you. Barry trusted you. This, finding out who you really are... it's going to devastate him.

It will do what it's meant to do for Barry.

For you, and Cisco, I... tried to arrange things. [ Ronnie. ] But I ran out of time.

Something tells me that can't be good.

Arrange things? You mean keep us happy and occupied so we didn't find out what you were really doing all this time?

He may surprise you.

I was thinking more of the future. A future much like now.

My god, you really are a piece of work, aren't you?

So what was the plan? Kill Cisco, kill Caitlin, get back in the chair, feign surprise and hope no one thinks it's suspect that all your employees are suddenly dead?

[ Mildly: ]

Life isn't very much like chess, as I'm sure you understand now.

[ So that's a ... no? A maybe? Sort of? Barry did tell him about seeing another version of himself, but it's difficult to depend on timing when it comes to the inevitable rewriting the timeline. ]

[Oh well, he wasn't expecting a straight answer from him anyway. He'd still like to punch him in the throat though.]

Oh, I understand perfectly. You're awfully lucky the Flash accidentally time traveled or you'd have a lot of explaining to do.

[And because he has to know...]

Your real name is ridiculous, by the way. Are you even a real physicist or was I working for some random nutjob from the future that entire time?

Mm.

[ And non-committal, too. There's practically nothing he could say that won't antagonize Hartley, so he'll be economical about making the effort not to. ]

Hartley. Please. Can't it be both?

[ No commentary forthcoming on the state of the study of physics in the as yet unnamed number of centuries to come, apparently. ]

[Just the fact that Harrison's breathing is enough to antagonize Hartley.]

What happened to the real Harrison Wells? Did you kill him or did you make his existence up?

[Hartley's too angry to care about physics of the future at the moment. The curiosity will come eventually, but he still won't ask.]

[ He raises his eyebrows. Hartley can't possibly think he's going to get any answers. ~~Especially when the show hasn't answered them shhh~~ ]

Which would make you feel better? If I was an impostor or if the person who betrayed you never truly existed?

[ It's not that he doesn't feel real regret over what he did to Hartley. But this is also who he is. ]

Edited (htmlllll) 2015-03-20 05:33 (UTC)

[Hartley knows he won't be getting any answers ~~even after the show does answer them~~, but he still had to ask.]

The person who betrayed me most certainly exists and he's going to pay for it. I'm just not as confident that the man I once admired ever actually existed. Was anything about you real?

[~~Eobard~~ Harrison can shove his regret as far as Hartley's concerned. He's yet to hear a sincere, straightforward apology from him.]

You may have to get in line.

[ And Hartley will never hear a sincere, straightforward apology, because feeling sorry isn't the same as being sorry.

The banality of evil, etc. ]

Neither answer is very comforting, Hartley. Are you sure you want one?

Then I'll make sure I'm at the front. Maybe I'll save the space behind me for Cisco.

[Hartley's not actually convinced Harrison's capable of feeling sorry or feeling in general after what he did to Cisco. Even he thinks that was cold.]

You manipulated me and apparently everyone else, disregarded my pleas not to go forward with the particle accelerator, fired me and then ruined my life. Nothing you could ever say will comfort me. I still want to know.

I actually thought you two would be friends, once.

[ You know, for about the five minutes before they met. Best laid plans and all that.

In any case, Hartley isn't really wrong. What he feels in no way alters what he did — to both of them. If anything, it makes it worse. ]

It was real to me. And maybe you were right. Maybe killing you would have been kinder.

[ He spreads his hands in lieu of a shrug. No explanation of why he didn't. Maybe Hartley's disappearance would have been inconvenient, but he killed Stagg. Extrapolate from that, or don't: the possibilities are all awful in their own way. ]

You should have known better. Why the hell would I want to befriend my obvious replacement?

[Because it's not like Hartley got along well with anyone else at STAR Labs, why would Cisco have been the exception?

But they were both right; there's nothing comforting about this. But he wouldn't have asked if he actually wanted comfort.]

Actually, not destroying my life at all would have been preferable. Planning on trying to kill me now?

[He does think it's odd that Harrison didn't just kill him the moment he got him tossed into the Pipeline. Surely he must be aware of the possibility of Hartley doing his own investigating and plotting. Though yes, Hartley's disappearance would have been noticed and inconvenient but probably not as much as Stagg's, so what the hell?]

He was never intended to be your replacement.

[ Now, finally, he allows himself to show some weary impatience. God, fifteen years of hand-holding dead people, arranging things to grab the best and brightest, the relentless empathy, getting STAR Labs built, careful manipulations and endless machinations, and he still can't convince Hartley or Cisco of basic truths about their value to him. ~~This is why he's nicest to Caitlin. The rest of you, go to therapy!!~~

Not that their value to him is a complimentary notion anymore. ]

After all this time, you still want special treatment from me.

[ Just a casually infuriating way of not commenting further on what he has or hasn't done, as well as not answering what he plans to do. ]

It sure felt like it when you hired him. Actually, it felt like it when you killed him too.

[The crazy, time traveling murderer doesn't get to judge Hartley's insecurities, thank you very much. Especially since he ended up contributing to them in the end anyway. Thanks for giving him more abandonment issues than he started out with, jerk!]

I never asked for special treatment from you and all I want from you these days is the chance to get to watch you die a slow, agonizing death.

[He doesn't think that's asking for too much. It seems reasonable to him. He's getting sick of all the non-answers though. It's frustrating.]

Did it? I have to admit, I didn't bother to take your feelings into account when I was killing him.

[ Crazy time traveling murderer is absolutely judging Hartley's insecurities as well as his projections. None of those three descriptors are hallmarks of someone who tries to be fair. So even while it is literally all his fault, from ambiguous beginning to indeterminate end, he is still annoyed at what he perceives as Hartley co-opting Cisco's death for his own vendetta.

Which he's straight up ignoring, by the way. Hartley will definitely have to get in line for that, and there's one person who is always going to be faster than him. ]

I don't think you took anyone's feelings into account when you killed him.

[You can't be all that surprised that Hartley would find a way to make Cisco's temporary death about himself. Though it wasn't so much the death he took issue with so much as the things said before the death. Not that he approves of the whole murder thing, but well, he gets the feeling it won't stick and ~~hopefully~~ likely won't happen again. The point is, he doesn't care that Harrison's annoyed. It's better than the calm reaction he's been getting so far.

The Flash can kiss his ass. He suspects Harrison could murder the whole team and his surrogate father right in front of him and the Flash would still find a way to defend him.]

Edited 2015-03-21 05:23 (UTC)