entranceway | 2 🐻 VIDEO.

( BACKDATED TO DEC. 1 )

[ it's evident barry's at the bar — or a bar, given how his phone's sort of sitting on the top of a tipped over bowl that had held peanuts — with a few empty bottles around him. his efforts to get drunk have proven fruitless, but barry allen is determined. ]

So, uh … [ barry looks a little tired, hair a slight mess, but he's not slurring his words. he wishes he was. ] What are you supposed to do when someone leaves? Does time kind of stop? Do rabbit holes appear out of nowhere for people to fall upwards out of?

[ it wasn't really covered in the pamphlet how you're supposed to react when someone just up and disappears. barry's never been good at that. he's tried running and he's almost going to catch a cold with how wet he always is. (his clothes are a little damp from running so fast and him winding up spluttering in the pool.) ]

Iris — Iris West, she went home. [ without him, but that's implied by how his tone drops and then picks up quickly, almost like barry doesn't need to take a breath. ] Can someone bring me a brownie? I kind of ate all the ones I brought with me and all I've got is peanuts. [ he flicks a shell a little too fast, a very brief flash of gold sparking. ] And maybe a broom. I kind of made a mess. Sorry ...

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[clementine can understand that. family being what one makes of it. isn't that what lee was? isn't that what happens in groups? except the groups always fall apart. people die so fast, and there's no one immune to it. she's done it again with the group from the cabin, and she just watched so many of them go down one after the other after the other.

she worries there'll come a day when she's too tired to try anymore.

she nods her understanding, and she smiles this sad aching thing to think that- to think that iris is the one that taught barry that. it makes sense. she was- is warm, good.]

Iris was starting to become part of mine. [she shakes her head, rests a hand on his arm briefly, before she swallows a bit.] You keep their lessons even when they're not around.

[that's all they can do.]

Yeah, you do. [ it sounds a little sadder than it should. briefly he thinks he should be used to it by now with dad, not quite within arm's reach with his imprisonment in iron heights, but now it feels so incredibly final in a way it hadn't when he was eleven. he should take his own advice, but of course he doesn't. he can dish it but he can't take, it especially when it comes to grief. ]

[ barry quickly sweeps that thought of dad away and breaks off a large chunk of his brownie and eats it. ] This is a good brownie. [ one thing no one will ever teach barry allen: don't speak with your mouth full. ] You should eat yours before I eat it for you.

[clementine actually laughs a little at what he says. she's shouldered, shelved, put away the pain in her chest so she can move forward, shove forward, find a way to- to navigate what lies ahead. she picks up her own brownie at long last.]

No way. You can't have mine. You're like a food vacuum. [she takes a big bite out of hers, chewing, swallowing.

it's a really terrible night (the worst since she arrived by a long shot), but at least she's not in it alone.]

[ he laughs, ] I resent that!

[ but it's true. place food in front of barry and it disappears, either within a blink of an eye or gradually. needing to consume x amount of calories a day has made the explanations he sometimes needs to dole out to be hilariously ridiculous and pathetic. so far with clementine, it doesn't seem as though he needs to prepare some sort of rambling speech about how he's a foodie and he runs so much and, really, wonderland food is different to normal food from home even though it's exactly the same in calories. ]

[ he takes another bite, leaving only a small chunk of brownie left in between his fingers. ] S'good right? [ he swallows, then clarifies: ] Me as a vacuum. I'm a good vacuum, right? Not the brownie.

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