I am. Caitlin and Cisco are from yours. This isn't going to be easy. I don't know how much I can tell you safely. It took time, but I am a friend now, Barry.
well yeah you're harrison wells i don't know how this whole second earth thing works but the one from my world helped keep me alive so i'm pretty sure that makes us friends right? how did you get to earth-1 anyway
[and then a second text, shortly after. one that takes a while to come (on his part) but only seconds in reality]
i know you said you're not the wells from my earth but i haven't really known him for long either the same with cisco and caitlin i've spent maybe an hour with them so far
can we just start over? i mean i know it's harder for you than for me but i don't know i guess i was just hoping?
[There's a much longer delay on Harrison's side, at least fifteen minutes spent staring at nothing in particular and thinking.]
I want to help you. If that will help you, fine. We'll start over. I teach at the university here, and I have a lab space. Talk in person when you can.
[that fifteen minutes may as well have been a few hours, as far as he's concerned. the wait leaves him anxious, a large part of him already sure that he'd screwed things up completely with the request. so when harrison's response comes, it feels like a weight's been lifted off his chest.
well, a small part of it.]
give me a couple of hours i'll be there
[it's not the response he wants to give. but that will have to wait until he gets there]
[Working at the university is usually a better method of taking his mind off things, but recently he's been running simulations of the original breach between their worlds, trying to replicate it exactly without the original data. He might have run across someone who would be interested. It's an easy way to lose a few hours to calculations, and that's where Barry will find him, poised in front of a computer or covering a white board in marker.
What he's going to say, he has no idea, but that's something he'll figure out later. When this Barry actually arrives, and Harrison gets a sense of what he knows already. And if Barry doesn't make it that day, he'll probably be doing exactly the same thing tomorrow.]
[while he may have told harrison that he'd only be a couple of hours, it's more than double that before he finally makes his way to the lab. he'd considered stopping outside and walking in, unsure of whether or not this harrison wells is aware of what happened to him. but the idea of having to hide a part of himself that he has no reason to here, least of all around someone he's hoping to (re)build a friendship with, doesn't sit well with him.
so when he turns up, it's in a blur of color and a rush of air. but any greeting he has to give gets caught in his throat the moment he catches sight of the other man standing in front of the white board.
standing.
huh.
decked out in a star labs sweater and pants, barry forces his attention towards the board instead, squinting at the numbers with an obvious lack of understanding.]
Oh right. I got you this. ["this" being one of the two cups of coffee he's holding, fresh from the cafe caitlin had introduced him to] Hi.
[It might be a sign, when Barry whooshes in, that this Harrison Wells is very accustomed to speedster arrivals, because he doesn't even pause in finishing off a formula, only impatiently waves away a loose paper as it brushes his shoulder on the way down. Then he caps the marker and turns.
And accepts the coffee with what could be a smile, a little tight, still genuine.]
Hi.
[He shifts the coffee to his left hand and holds out his right. This is an introduction, after all.]
Harrison Wells. Harrison's fine. ...some people call me Harry. [Not that he's a fan of that, but it feels strange not to give Barry the option.]
[shaking the offered hand is automatic, though there's an amused look at the names he gives. this isn't the same man he'd met when he'd woken up from his coma, and he knows that. but between the shared face and the shared name, he can at least understand why people had opted to use a nickname instead.]
Harrison it is. [because despite all that, it's the name that's clearly favored. and besides, it's not as though barry's spent long enough with his own world's harrison wells to really have that big of a problem with it.]
So I guess I should be asking you...what do I need to know?
[That's an easy thing to let Barry believe, that the only reason he'd needed a nickname was to tell him apart from the other one. Eventually (probably, hopefully, maybe) they'll be able to explain that a little more. They'll have to.
Instead of answering right away, Harrison turns and walks back toward the white board, and just erases half the equations he'd just finished. They're only theories. And he needs the space. Because apparently, Multiverse 101 is another class he gets to teach right now.]
The real question is what can you know, let's start here. [A quick few circles later—Earth-1, Earth-2, and one labeled Eudio—and he has a diagram of the multiverse. Sort of. An absurdly simplified diagram of the known multiverse, go with that. He uses the capped marker to tap each circle.]
You're from here. I'm from here. And now you and I are both here. The number of worlds in the multiverse is incalculable but most of the time they're isolated from each other, an event on your Earth breached the space-time barrier between your world and mine and. We met. The problem. We have. Is the timeline.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
You didn't die. You're from a point in time two years behind everyone else. Not your fault.
no subject
everyone else
so all three of you are from the future
but you're also from a different world
no subject
This isn't going to be easy. I don't know how much I can tell you safely. It took time, but I am a friend now, Barry.
no subject
i don't know how this whole second earth thing works but the one from my world helped keep me alive so i'm pretty sure that makes us friends
right?
how did you get to earth-1 anyway
no subject
[And does Harrison even have the right to tell them? Shouldn't that honor go to one of his friends, the ones he already knows the names of?]
1/2.
i think i need to go check in with caitlin and cisco first
but after?
no subject
i know you said you're not the wells from my earth but i haven't really known him for long either
the same with cisco and caitlin
i've spent maybe an hour with them so far
can we just start over? i mean i know it's harder for you than for me but
i don't know
i guess i was just hoping?
no subject
I want to help you. If that will help you, fine. We'll start over. I teach at the university here, and I have a lab space. Talk in person when you can.
[Followed by the addresses for both.]
no subject
well, a small part of it.]
give me a couple of hours
i'll be there
[it's not the response he wants to give. but that will have to wait until he gets there]
text > action!
[Working at the university is usually a better method of taking his mind off things, but recently he's been running simulations of the original breach between their worlds, trying to replicate it exactly without the original data. He might have run across someone who would be interested. It's an easy way to lose a few hours to calculations, and that's where Barry will find him, poised in front of a computer or covering a white board in marker.
What he's going to say, he has no idea, but that's something he'll figure out later. When this Barry actually arrives, and Harrison gets a sense of what he knows already. And if Barry doesn't make it that day, he'll probably be doing exactly the same thing tomorrow.]
no subject
so when he turns up, it's in a blur of color and a rush of air. but any greeting he has to give gets caught in his throat the moment he catches sight of the other man standing in front of the white board.
standing.
huh.
decked out in a star labs sweater and pants, barry forces his attention towards the board instead, squinting at the numbers with an obvious lack of understanding.]
Oh right. I got you this. ["this" being one of the two cups of coffee he's holding, fresh from the cafe caitlin had introduced him to] Hi.
no subject
And accepts the coffee with what could be a smile, a little tight, still genuine.]
Hi.
[He shifts the coffee to his left hand and holds out his right. This is an introduction, after all.]
Harrison Wells. Harrison's fine. ...some people call me Harry. [Not that he's a fan of that, but it feels strange not to give Barry the option.]
no subject
Harrison it is. [because despite all that, it's the name that's clearly favored. and besides, it's not as though barry's spent long enough with his own world's harrison wells to really have that big of a problem with it.]
So I guess I should be asking you...what do I need to know?
no subject
Instead of answering right away, Harrison turns and walks back toward the white board, and just erases half the equations he'd just finished. They're only theories. And he needs the space. Because apparently, Multiverse 101 is another class he gets to teach right now.]
The real question is what can you know, let's start here. [A quick few circles later—Earth-1, Earth-2, and one labeled Eudio—and he has a diagram of the multiverse. Sort of. An absurdly simplified diagram of the known multiverse, go with that. He uses the capped marker to tap each circle.]
You're from here. I'm from here. And now you and I are both here. The number of worlds in the multiverse is incalculable but most of the time they're isolated from each other, an event on your Earth breached the space-time barrier between your world and mine and. We met. The problem. We have. Is the timeline.