MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

[runningstart]

WALLY WEST
"You've reached the personal voice mail of the Wall-man. The honor is yours! Leave your deets, I'll holla back atcha."
[ BEEP. ]

KID FLASH
"This is the contact for Kid Flash. If it's an emergency, call Robin; he'll know where I am. Otherwise, leave your info and I'll get you back ASAP."
[ BEEP. ]


[ voice | text | email | action ]

( Please specify in tag subject line if the contact is for Wally West or Kid Flash! )

Comments

[runningstart]

Obviously an even bigger idiot. [Wally sighs and thunks his head back against the fence post.]

[performance]

[ a beat, as he glances down at the ground, one hand toying with a small rock. ]

I won't run anymore, okay? And I'll talk, if you want. Not when you're still my ride home, but... sometime. Live up to my own standards and everything.

[runningstart]

[Wally sighs, turning his eyes up to the stars overhead. It's dumb to think that maybe they're more visible because they're higher up, and he knows it's more a matter of a lack of light pollution than it is altitude but there's no denying that the sky is nicer out here than it is in Heropa.]

It's fine, dude. I know you. You don't have to change a thing.

[performance]

[ Dick goes quiet, a sweet, spreading ache in his chest. He's really, really lucky to have found someone who can put up with him at all, much less someone who'd say something like that. He feels like a mess sometimes — like if anyone ever found out all the crazy, awful things he bottles up and hides deep down inside, they'd leave for greener, more well-adjusted pastures.

He doesn't want to drag anyone down with him. But he hopes Wally would stay. ]

Maybe that's why I want to.

[runningstart]

[Wally mimes something shooting over his head.] Whoosh. You lost me.

[performance]

Nnghh— I mean you make me want to be a better person or whatever, okay?

[ hope you like getting punched in the knee GOD WALLY HE'S TRYING TO BE COOL AND MYSTERIOUS ]

... That sounded so lame.

[runningstart]

Dude.

That was straight-up romance novel. Like, the kind my mom reads when she thinks I'm not paying attention. [the kind that wally grabs and starts reading aloud from the backseat when they go on family trips and make his mom all embarrassed when he gets to the dirty parts]

[performance]

Y-yeah, well!

[ This is why he doesn't talk about his own feelings. ]

... Better than your lines, [ he mutters despairingly, burying his way too hot face in his hands. Which wasn't less embarrassing at all. ]

[runningstart]

My lines are cream of the crop, sure-fire date winners, dude. Don't even get on my bottomless well of charm. You know how much positive female attention I've gotten here? More than I know what to do with.

[performance]

[ ... Dick lifts his head. Lowers his hands. Blinks, flatly, at Wally. ]

Right.

Obviously you should coach me.

[runningstart]

[There he is.]

Sorry dude, this is 95% genetic. Can't be taught.

[performance]

You haven't been dating anyone here, dude. I'd know. You'd rent one of those banner-flying airplanes.

[runningstart]

I don't have that kind of money. Trust me, if I did I'd probably get stock in the company, I'd be using it so often.

[performance]

I want to live in your universe, dude. It sounds amazing.

[ Maybe it's because he wants to smooth over the verbal beatdown he gave Wally earlier, or maybe it's just because he wants to get it off his chest, even if it's just in a roundabout way. And if he talks about it like it's another one of his elaborate secret identity games, it's almost actually easy to say. He's a pro at this stuff. ]

Real talk, though: sources tell me that at least one actual flesh-and-blood being totally has a thing for you. If that helps you sleep at night.

[runningstart]

Whoa, seriously?! I mean I expected this, naturally, but who? [He sits cross-legged and rests his elbows on his knees.] And is it me or is it KF? I'm cool with either.

[performance]

I can't tell you who! [ Gentle elbow to the ribs. ] That's like the first rule of these things, jeez.

... and it's Wally West, not Kid Flash.

[runningstart]

No kidding. [Wally's all grins right now. Sure, yeah, he's fairly self-confident and doesn't suffer from any crippling bouts of insecurity, but Wally West has never been the main attraction anywhere. Not at school, not with girls, nowhere. Everything he has, he's gotten through being KF.

It's kind of nice to think about someone liking him and not knowing about the hero.]

How do you already have sources? You're such a Bat.

[performance]

Hey, I get around. I talk to people. About you.

[runningstart]

Has anyone ever told you that your form of friendship is sometimes a little stalker-y?

[performance]

Don't you mean "thank you"?

[runningstart]

Thhhhhank you for stalking me?

[performance]

Is this what I get for passing on tips? Sheesh.

[runningstart]

Tell you what, I'll forgive you for stalking me if you tell me who it is. I might want to date her! [please please please let it be someone really cute, he's been talking to a LOT of cute girls lately]

[performance]

That's almost the worst bribe I've ever heard.