voice

[projected]

Seems once again I've been dropped off here. I tried to look back using our device to see how far long I was gone - about a month, I think. Interesting really... I was gone for about five months in my perspective. Some of the most eventful of my life.

[Considering he's dead, again, that's saying something.]

A question, for anyone who deigns to answer me: is there something you want badly enough that you would risk everything for it? A common theory about risk taking is that the greater the reward, the greater the risk to achieve it. Usually it's just applied to stocks and bonds, but it's true for all things. Therefore if you choose to risk everything for a single thing... what you want must be worth more than everything you risk.

I know my answer already, and I suppose I wonder if there are people like me. It's trite to think I'm the "only one" but no one ever seems willing to own up to the benefits of ambition. Ambition isn't a bad thing, but being humble seems... pretty pathetic honestly.

Comments

[projected]

Mine is... an odd case. I don't know what exactly happened to me. All I know is I put everything on the line, and lost. High reward only at a high risk, as I said.

[Which still simmers inside him, but it's a lower anger now. And considering this is the second time it's happened, he doesn't know what to think of it.]

I actually saw you before I came here. Though not quite "you" as you are.

[catchacold]

Not you as I am.

[There's an emphasis, but then, that's also just how he talks. Hard to make much of it.]

Past version of me?

[Fine. It's just deduction. There's no future for him, after all.]

[projected]

Yes. If you feel like hearing more about it, you'll need to seek me out in person - it's not a conversation to be had over a device.

[He snerks a little.]

Not that much happened. You were a pain in the ass though. I decided to graciously forgive you.

[catchacold]

I'd apologise, but I've never been sorry for being a pain in the ass. When you know how to do something, do it well.

[Tick tock, what's the smart choice and does he really care?]

Where are you in person?

[projected]

I can relate. I'm currently in my room, but... you would take too long to get there. I can come to you faster.

[catchacold]

Duh.

[That doesn't even count as bragging, coming from a speedster. Still, it means that Leonard gets up to lock his door. A speedster can faze through and he doesn't need any children, idiots or captains stumbling inside.]

I'm in my room. Second floor, twenty-seven.

action

[projected]

[Eobard doesnt bother responding. As soon as Leonard finishes telling him the floor and room, Eobard cuts the feed and runs there. Not even two seconds and he's there, phasing through the door as Leonard predicted.]

I would say "good to see you" but the last time I saw you wasn't on great terms.

[Not that this feeling is exclusive toward him - Damien and Malcolm betrayed him in the same way. The price of working with men who have egos to match their abilities.]

[catchacold]

Here I was going to tell you what a sight you are for sore eyes.

[Leonard, not so surprisingly, leans against his desk, leg across his thigh, one hand behind him and the other wrapped around his upper arm. About standard for him, even if it doesn't look like it could possibly be comfortable.

The room is fairly minimalistic, scorch-marks on white walls, bed, desk and a shelf filled with books. Nothing very noteworthy or he may have been more hesitant to invite a potential enemy.]

What did I do to you?

[projected]

Tried to kill me. Not that you were the only one - I pissed off everyone.

[Not that he sounds particularly sorry about this. It was a group effort, those three together betraying him to get the spear. He wonders if Damien purposefully suggested Leonard in order to tip a greater balance. Snart doesn't have the assassn training of the other two, but the cold gun was created to combat speedsters.

He walks across the room and takes a seat on Leonard's bed, sitting with both legs slightly apart from each other firmly on the ground. Hands folded in his lap he looks to Len as he speaks.]

We were on the same side though. For a time.

[catchacold]

That seems to be a special talent of yours, given all I've heard.

[Not something he's particularly concerned about. It's funny how easy it is to be nonchalant when one is dead and the world has ceased making a whole lot of sense.

On the same side. It's not that surprising, especially with any version of him from the past.]

What was in it for me?

[projected]

[He snorts.]

See if I told you, it may run the risk of you getting pissed. But come on - you're smart. You can probably put two and two together.

[catchacold]

It's a simple one. I'm a survivor.

[He lifts one shoulder in a shrug, not feeling that the sentence is at odds coming from someone who sacrificed himself. But, perhaps, one adjustment.]

Was.

[projected]

Are. [He readjusts for him.] I told you about the sacrifice you were scheduled to make. You didn't take it very well.

[catchacold]

Hard to get to a conclusion without development.

[He looks past him for a few moments, then lifts his head again.]

You missed a fun event this is reminding me off. Tears opening up, windows showing what if scenarios of our worlds.

[projected]

That sounds like the oppsite of fun.

[catchacold]

Sorry, I don't have my sarcasm flag out.

[It doesn't help that everything he says sounds vaguely sarcastic, but that just comes with the territory.]

I'm not into the concept of fate. I like free will. But that's why I died.

My own intentions are hard to avoid.

[projected]

"Fate" has a tricky definition. [He stretches his neck to the side.] What we know as fate is only the sum of people's decisions, including your own. The tricky part is your decisions don't exist in a bubble - what you choose affects others, in ways you can't predict.

Free will is what allows you to make the choices that lead to fate. They're not separate, Mr. Snart.

[catchacold]

According to the time masters, fate was something very concrete. But I'm told you know all about that. [He's only gotten bits and pieces of information from Rip and Eobard, but enough to put together that Eobard evidently knew what Leonard had died for.]

The thing is, circumstances can line up differently, the world can be different, so can I, so can everyone in it. But any version of events the Tears showed me that lined up remotely with what happened ended the same for me.

Very fatalistic.

[projected]

[He rolls his eyes a little.]

The Time Masters are -- were nothing but a cult of sad little men wanting to grasp power for themselves. They kidnapped orphans off the streets and groomed them to be their foot soldiers, serving only the "purpose" and nothing else. They defined fate on their terms alone, to benefit themselves alone.

Your fate is fatalistic because you throw yourself into that role. I think you've been taking too many lessons from another speedster on that frankly.

[catchacold]

The Flash.

[Obviously they both know exactly who they're talking about, but Leonard wanted to say it anyway, smiling as he shrugs.]

I don't know about that. Maybe part of it. Probably wouldn't have gone on the mission without that push. But the sacrifice?

That was all on my terms.

Fucking over the Time Masters was a huge bonus.

[projected]

Free will at its finest. If you were being controlled, I assure you that death would not have come. [After all, what good is a piece that gets taken off the board?] In any case, I took you out of the timeline at a point prior to when Rip Hunter did so. I imagine you experienced the few months you were beside me, but they must have wiped your memories afterward.

[catchacold]

Possible. Depends on whether I'm the chicken or the egg. [Meaning that at some point there must have been a version of him that hadn't been through all that yet, but what difference does it really make? Give or take a few months.]

When Mick stops seeing my ghost, I'll ask him.

[projected]

Your "ghost"? [He raises his eyebrows momentarily, not sure at all what that means.] What, does he think you're haunting him?

[catchacold]

Hallucination, technically. I guess.

[He's not sure what to make of it on the whole, but hallucination seems to be what they've all agreed it is.]

Surprised me too.

[projected]

...Ok. [He rolls his eyes a little, giving an impolite shrug alongside it.] You and him didn't seem to be on good terms from what I saw. Guess he expected different.

[Not that Eobard cares personally - he got what he wanted one way or another.]