eloquentness | mask or menace

Entry tags:

mask or menace | ic contact

"Hey, it's Iris. Leave a message!"
text | audio | video | in-person

[ the thing about tape recorders is if someone's savvy enough, they'll be able to pinpoint his voice. fortunately for barry over the years, the vibration of his voice — still high, still emotional, still recognisable if one was to sit and listen carefully — is enough to fool people into not tying him to the flash. he's never trusted anyone to openly record him via a recorder before, either. ]

[ he grins, big and wide, at the thought of this being old school journalism. barry nods. ] It's cool. Unless I say something stupid, then you're obligated to rewind and tape over it at least five times until I sound cool.

[ he looks to the chairs, then sits, falling into one and almost unbalancing himself immediately. most of their kismet meetings on the roof had them both standing, but given this is an interview — the interview, the one they've both been waiting for — it's best to sit down. ]

[ he suspects he's going to be here for longer than his usual two minutes. ]

Hit me.

[ somehow, iris doubts he could ever sound that stupid, but she laughs loud and clear. this is it. the interview. the one she'd promised herself she'd conduct all professional-like, with the tools she'd acquired from journalism school. ]

You're gonna be fine. Promise.

[ she could still hear her professor's voice in the back of her mind. do her research. get a solid understanding of the person she'll be profiling. sit down and compile a file (or spreadsheet) with facts, times, and places. figure out everything she possibly can before sitting down and talking to the man of the hour himself. the wise reporter is a succinct one who also makes her interviewees comfortable. iris must've practiced these techniques on her poor dad hundreds of times - and okay, maybe barry himself back when she was still in grad school. back before the particle accelerator exploded.

prior to her big discovery, the flash's file had been barebones. she vaguely guessed his eye color and height, and she sure didn't know his age or birthplace. she couldn't even begin to guess motivations for saving people, beyond her mattering to him. iris couldn't even shake anything important out of interviewing the people the flash rescued. they knew as much as she did.

(or so she'd thought.)

it feels a little weird interviewing her best friend. it feels a little weird asking him about motivations and advice when she knows she's his driving star. she's too close, too biased for this. but she nods, peering down at their intertwined hands. she thinks she knows a good new first question - one that'll bridge the gap between csi and superhero. ]

Since I've got a better idea of your powers and what you can do with them, let's talk about your motivations. The reasons you save people and make a place like Central or Heropa so much better. [ she grins, ] I know that's a lot to ask, so we'll break it down bit by bit.

What's one thing you'd wish you'd known when you became the Flash?

Edited (god i forgot about our other thread, ignore that) 2017-11-04 18:09 (UTC)

[ that's an easy answer. barry wishes he'd known about thawne, about mom, about everything which lead to the eventual discovery of gideon and that newspaper article. he wishes he had been smarter, had somehow known the man helping him wasn't a helpful man at all. the things he's responsible for — mom's death, dad's death, thawne chasing him through time, the obvious endangerment of those he cares about … ]

[ they're fleeting feelings, untouched right now by flashpoint's one consequence that's followed him here. ]

I wish I had known just how important he would be. [ it's not i. the flash may be him, and barry allen may be the flash, but he doesn't believe himself to be the man thawne hates so much he travels back in time to try and kill his defenseless eleven-year-old self. ] I mean … [ barry shrugs his shoulder, glancing away to focus on nothing in particular on the ground. ] The Flash helped save Central City, doing what the police couldn't. I get that. But the Flash ends up being something more than that — and to have someone come all the way from the future to try and kill him because of what he does or what he represents or whatever … It's pretty big.

[ if the flash was still trying to protect his identity from iris, he'd go for a more generic response — he hadn't realised how much hope he'd represent to the city at large. he never thought people would love the flash so much they'd create drinks after him and have even merchandise. but that isn't the biggest thing, and it's in iris' favour she knows who he is now. there's no secrets she needs to be protected from at the request of an overprotective and intense-loving father. ]

[ it's with a slight smile he looks at her, shaking his head. ] You don't realise how much he's going to mean to someone. It's still overwhelming.

[ for just the moment, those memories stay intact. it's almost like those ten second migraines have completely gone ... or are waiting ... ]

[ how Barry still manages to compartmentalize parts of himself, iris will never know.

He is the Flash, and the Flash is him. If he doesn’t believe that he would wield this influence, this kind of power just by being his charming, lovable self - then she’ll just have to make him believe in it. She sits up straighter, steeling herself for a probing question - ]

In what sense is it overwhelming?

[ for the time being, she’s not iris ann west, the best friend who’s hopelessly in love with him. she is, in this moment, the fearless reporter who has to set her inherent biases aside. she has to be neutral for her national audience. she also has to tell the story, while protecting his identity from the world, and act like she has no personal connection.

God, it’s a struggle and she doesn’t even have a secret identity of her own. ]

Or maybe I should rephrase... [ . . . ] What do you think “the Flash” represents to people?

[ that's the easiest question anyone's ever asked him. ]

Hope. [ with a shrug of his shoulder. ]

[ yes, the newspapers and magazines had outlined it in bold colours and blurry images repeatedly during the first year of the flash being active, but barry has seen a change in the city. he may be moving at lightning speeds, the world around him otherwise blurred, but he still notices things with sharpness. the city is better with the flash, even if, sometimes, he wonders if it'd be stronger without him. ]

[ ccpd aren't equipped to deal with the metas who flank the city. the flash, at least, can ensure a dad or a mom don't die on the streets, trying to protect the people of central city from a being that's ultimately more powerful than their muggle selves. ]

[ he smiles, ] Or confidence that you're pizza's actually going to arrive on time. No one has to wait sixty minutes ever again. [ barry allen, impatient for his pizza. if the internet tells him delivery time is an estimated fifteen minutes, he expects it in ten. ]

[ only Barry could manage to place "hope" and "pizza" in the same sentence. Iris laughs at the juxtaposition, and at the mental image of her best friend as the best pizza delivery man the universe will ever know.

she jots down that one word - hope - because it's succinct. it sums him up better than anything else she could ever say. ]

You're right on both counts, I think.

[ impartiality, out the window in 2.5 seconds. that has to be a world record. Iris stares down at that written out word - at hope and what it represents - before circling it again. ]

Central City believed in the Flash. They believed in you - and this world, this universe believes in you too. [ . . . ] I've seen it on social media. Your name's usually a trending hashtag.

[ she tilts her head, ] How does that feel, by the way? To be famous not just as the Flash but also as an imPort?

[ barry scrunches up his face. ] No way.

[ it shouldn't be surprising, given patty spivot's reaction to meeting him. but someone admiring his work is different to someone admiring … him. he's always chosen to hide in the shadows. perhaps it's what made hiding his secret identity so easy from most people … though, not all people happened to be iris. ]

[ crossing his arms against his chest, he raises his brow in a challenge. ] You're just trying to embarrass me. We're here to talk about the Flash, not Barry.

[ although, haven't they already discerned that they are one in the same? barry cannot exist without the flash … the flash cannot exist without barry. eobard thawne had travelled back in time to hurt barry allen, and thus hurt the flash. it isn't a thought that pervades him. instead, he thinks about how the flash has always come back to iris west, who has always been, without a doubt, the biggest part of his life as barry allen. ]

You want to know his favourite pizza toppings?

[ nice deflection, slowpoke. ]

If I were trying to embarrass you, I would've just brought up the time in ninth grade where -

[ Iris promptly presses her lips together, already mad at herself for stooping so low and taking the bait. Ninth grade stories were meant to be in the past, along with her inability to keep a neutral attitude and a solid, steady hand. She’s a gosh-darn professional, and professionals do not go around and embarrass their interviewees just because they feel like it!

(Though, she supposes, that's the danger in interviewing her best friend. She can't be impartial, no matter how much she wants to be.)

Iris breaks eye contact, glancing down at her interview guide and the notes she’s scribbled in the margins. “Pizza toppings” was not one of them. ]

Okay, fine. [ She sighs, though it’s certainly not of exhaustion so much as of her crushed hopes of being neutral and kind of professional towards her biggest fan and supporter. ] In an ideal world, what would the Flash put on his pizza? [ Quickly, she adds: ] Don’t you dare say pineapple.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

mask or menace | ic contact

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.

ACTION.