directed | IC Inbox - Entranceway

Oh, you know, what a snappy dresser he is or what Sex in the City character you think he's mostly like.

Or the fact he apparently died.

Well, personally I don't understand how he doesn't sweat to death wearing that many layers all the time, and without Gideon I've got no clue what Sex in the City is even supposed to be.

[Although his money is on not a book, given the source.]

As for his potential death—[and here, Rip actually does get serious. Mick deserves as much.]—you know I can't tell you about the future.

[Mick just grunts but doesn't comment on Leonard's confusing fashion choices, given he always talked about how little he minded the cold but wore a massive parka, even in a faint chill. Personally, Mick thought he was lying. Or just weird.]

I know I become Chronos. [Just throwing that out there because he hopes it'll show how fucked the timeline would be anyway.] I know my future. It's gonna change no matter what now so you may as well tell me.

[Of course he knows. Because of course, they end up in Wonderland and suddenly everyone forgets all the rules about trying to preserve time.]

Oh, well, isn't that fantastic. [Because while yes, Mick became Chronos through a terrible process and then as a result nearly killed the members of the team several times? There had also been good to come out of that particular twist of fate. Without Mick's return to the team, they wouldn't have been prepared for the Hunters, or worse, the Pilgrim. They wouldn't have escaped the Time Masters at their lowest moment, or been able to stop them from pulling the Waverider in with their tractor beam.]

Unfortunately, Mr. Rory, I do not prescribe to the philosophy of making an entirely screwed up scenario even worse by adding to it. If anything, the fact that you both know of your upcoming tenure as Chronos and are determined to change it is all the more reason why I should not inform you of anything else that might happen.

Who says I intend to change it? I won't set out to but it's gonna, right? Cause I know now, I'll know going into it. I haven't decided yet if that's worse or better.

[Apparently he went into it the first time, alone, angry and hurt, he thought he was abandoned and all he wanted was revenge. Now he understood a little better, his anger was lessened and mostly, he was just wounded right now. Pathetic and not something he loved, sure, but he was. It hurt. He wished it wouldn't impact how he was but he just knew it would.]

I guess before I could have hoped it'd get fixed or something but now I know I only almost get back to myself after all that messing in my head. Though I bet you love that, don't you? Me not being me. Once I stopped blasting your ship, I bet it played into your hand nicely.

[Sorry time-dad, they suck at respecting time rules. There's a long pause before he finally asks a serious question.] How do you even know if an event can be changed? Or is everything that happened to us just set? I'm doomed to become Boba Fett and Snart has to die.

[The silence draws out for a long moment after that, as Mick offers up something Rip hasn't yet considered. Chronos had come at them with fiery determination, not because he had been the Time Master's puppet but rather because he'd held onto himself. His rage, the seething anger at Rip and Leonard and everyone else had enabled him to hold on to that last fragment of himself.

But the near resignation Rip can hear now? If that anger has truly dulled, perhaps Mick with this knowledge wouldn't be able to overcome the induction.]

You aren't entirely wrong. [There is no good end to this, not now. As dangerous as it is to reveal too much, knowing too little might be worse, in this case.] After you return to the team, you do indeed prove your worth time and again. But that is not because of the training that made you Chronos.

[He stares into the camera, as intensely as he would if Mick were standing before him.]

It is because you have the strength to withstand the Time Masters taking everything from you. Not Chronos; you.

[Without that spark of humanity, Mick truly would have been lost. So would they all.

He gives Mick the time to let that sink in, to in turn ask what he will next. Considering all that Rip knows, the question itself is rather a loaded one.]

I've told you all many times that time wants to happen. [Certain aspects must always be, although now Rip knows so much of that had been due to the orchestration of the Time Masters and the Oculus.] You are likely right to think that you becoming Chronos is inevitable.

[But Leonard's death--that had truly been an act of free will, hadn't it? At the Oculus itself, where its manipulative effects were negated by the altered flow of time. Mick no doubt would pick up on the omission, however, leaving Rip with limited choice.]

The circumstances of the situation required the death of someone. [That much is fixed and true.] Mr. Snart elected to be that person.

[There's a long draw of silence between them again as Mick contemplates the words he'd being told. It's a strange thing, to have anyone believe he's half way competent at anything that isn't stealing and hitting things. He found the idea of himself suddenly being useful peculiar and potentially fake, in all honesty. After all, Mick didn't think he could really ever be that useful and this could be some strange pep talk Rip was trying out.

It was surprisingly sincere but he didn't didn't trust it. Rip isn't really a pep talky kind of guy, maybe that's why it felt so strange. Just the whole concept in general threw him a little. It takes a moment to process everything.]

Touching. [Mick hums slightly, it tapers off as a sort of growl in the end. Not a threatening one or an angry one, just a harmless sound of thought.] Careful, you might start sounding like you like me.

[And neither of them wanted that. Mick didn't do friends, feeling or liking and Rip was... well, British. They were always weird about everything. Repressed and awkward. Probably didn't make for a great friendship. He didn't want to deal with that, it'd be a headache.

Still, knowing he isn't a total fuck up? Not bad. At least he knows he's going to do something right.]

Of course he did. He must have known, somehow, someway. Sneaky bastard. He never does anything without planning, he would have known he was going out.

[And Mick was certain, even then, Leonard didn't tell future-Mick a thing.]

[Rip huffs out a laugh at that, well aware of just what Mick means. It seems that trait wouldn't ever change, be it here or at the Oculus, when the man saves Rip's life but cautions him that it isn't because he suddenly sees him as a friend.]

Perish the thought, Mr. Rory.

[Rip doesn't hold any illusions that they would ever be friends. But has he come to respect Mick Rory in the days after his tenure as Chronos? Certainly.]

Perhaps he did. But that is something you would need to take up with Mr. Snart. [Although of course Rip's preference would have been that Mick not learn about that particular aspect of the future, he would have hoped Leonard would be the one to dictate just how the knowledge came to light. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, he can only point Mick in the direction of his partner now.]

I guess I gotta talk to Snart.

[That was his only option but, understandably, he was stalling. He didn't know how to deal with it and he didn't want to go out there and deal with it. This was Leonard Snart. He might have been mad at him and he might hate him right now but he was his best friend. For almost thirty years now, on and off, though more on than anything, they were together. And then, just like that, one job goes wrong.

And he's gone. Forever.

It's not going to be easy but he know he has to find out, he has to know. What else could he do? Rip and Ray weren't the answers here. He needed Leonard.]

You're not very helpful, you know? Just. In general. You mostly kind of suck.

[Understandable or otherwise, in Rip's eyes it also remains inevitable. Beyond that, he suspects Leonard would hardly appreciate Rip attempting to argue his case to Mick, rather than allowing Leonard to do so himself.

On the plus side, he's rather used to such brands of insults. When Mick spits out his rather blatant observation, Rip considers it with a shrug.]

Perhaps so. [But as Mick has realized, Rip simply cannot provide what he is after.]

Good luck, Mr. Rory.

IC Inbox - Entranceway

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject