EUDIO: IC INBOX

[harrisonwells]

"This is Dr. Harrison Wells. Leave a message. A relevant message."

text | voice | video | network un: starlabs

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text.

[harrisonwells]

[The buzz of his phone on the table behind the couch wakes Harrison with a start, and a groan as he shifts his stiff neck. Fallen asleep on the couch again, what's, who's calling him—]

I first saw her at a conference, delivering a paper much too intelligent for that particular conference.
Is there a lot of sun where you are? It's three in the morning on my section of the beach.

[malingerer]

Talked to her afterwards?
Same time zone still. So no.

[ evidently he’s not in the city. ]

[harrisonwells]

[Well, that gets his attention.]

Not for another eight months, you've left?

[malingerer]

Another conference?
Hardly, so I would discourage complacency.

[harrisonwells]

You think I'd take you at your word even if you had said you were gone.

Another conference. My paper this time. She came over to disagree with me.

[malingerer]

Probably not. If only because if I left in earnest they’d likely shut off my phone service.
They were more often in accord than debate. Not much of a difference, though. Just a nuance.

[harrisonwells]

I would assume. It's an efficient bureaucracy here. Terrifying.

Well, she was right. Luckily. I used it as a transparent ruse to ask her to dinner as a thank-you. Our debates usually built to an accord, but sometimes it took a while.

[malingerer]

A real sword of Damocles for ne’er-do-wells.
Their first impressions were … more harmonious than dissonant. He made her laugh. Tender times from the outset.

[harrisonwells]

[The answer takes time. Maybe enough time that Eobard has decided Harrison has given up on this bizarre late night/early morning conversation.]

I thought talking about Tess wasn't a good idea. What changed your mind?

[malingerer]

[ there’s a long pause of his own. ]

It’s still not a good idea.

[ and another. ]

But if all my ideas were good, I wouldn’t be dead.

[harrisonwells]

I suppose that would give you a new perspective.

What are you doing out there?

[malingerer]

After a fashion. Humans adapt. People, on the other hand, don’t change.
Hiking.

[harrisonwells]

Uh huh. Nice night for it.
Tess liked hiking, but in the winter. We'd drive north for it.

[malingerer]

I thought so as well.
Something she liked about the snow?

[harrisonwells]

She liked the stars. The way they were sharper and clearer on winter nights. She didn't like the cold, but she'd stand outside for hours. I used to wrap her in my coat.

[malingerer]

Do you still make the drive?

[harrisonwells]

When Jesse is with her mother's family, the week after Christmas. Every year.

[malingerer]

[ another long pause, then: ]

Good to know Central City’s light pollution is a multiversal constant.

[ the dryness practically audible, like in the ashes of sentiment eobard latches too quickly to dry humor. ]

[harrisonwells]

Worse at home. Our light is different. I can actually see a few stars from STAR Labs on your Earth.

[And then, almost as an afterthought, tentatively coming a few seconds later:]

Is it a problem in the future?

[malingerer]

It was, for a time. Pitch black and worse at night.
But human ingenuity prevailed over itself eventually. City ordinances and construction codes. Innovations in street light technology. All for a glimpse of something that had never gone anywhere.

[harrisonwells]

We like to enjoy our conveniences as we see a sky full of stars and imagine this must have been what it was like for our ancestors.

[Another long pause.]

I have so many questions.

[malingerer]

Better times to ask them than four in the morning. Don’t you think.

[harrisonwells]

Oh I'm sorry, which of us started this at three in the morning? Remind me.

[malingerer]

[ somewhere, on a beach with a total station set up nearby, eobard thawne sits back on one hand, lets his head loll back up skyward in thought. ]

Touché.
Go on. One question. I don’t intend to be transactional; you must know, instinctively and intellectually, that time isn’t to be trifled with. Can’t have you running home with some theory of quantum gravity you didn’t rightfully earn.

[harrisonwells]

My Earth stabilized CFL quark matter years ago. My Earth is doing fine, I'm sure we'll stumble into all your advancements eventually.

[In his rented house, still pitch black except for the light from his phone for the last hour, Harrison taps his glasses against his lips and slips them back on.]

Who are you going back to when you leave?