video; un: SPEED (i'm two quarters and a heart down)

[expeditiousness]

['sup quarantine, today y'all get +1 very bored teen speedster sighing and rolling his eyes in a highly dramatic fashion, phone balanced on his knee to film as he's lounging on the couch in his apartment.]

Please tell me I'm not the only one here who feels like puking over this holiday thing. It's like Valentine's Day on steroids! Ugh! [he shudders to highlight his disgust.] I mean, why do we need a whole big thing for romaaaantic loooove anyway? And soulmates? Psh! I mean, if that's your thing, go for it, but those of us who're a little more sane oughta stick together, right? Maybe have our own anti-holiday or something. Who's with me?

Comments

[expeditiousness]

[congrats, wally, you have now given tommy A Serious Thought. he's had plenty of time to get used to being lonely; his parents didn't have much to do with him before he landed in juvie, and after the young avengers broke him out and he joined up with them? well, tommy knows how to make friends, because he's not a complete social reject, but did any of them really keep in touch after the young avengers broke up and tommy took off? nah. he's not even super close with billy - he suddenly got four years older, left tommy in the proverbial dust, and that feels like an even bigger space of separation between them now.

tommy always figured that's just how things are for him. he hasn't really considered that maybe that's how things are because of how he is - until now.

and this is exactly why he doesn't do feelings. ugh.]

So what's the whole "more to life than going fast" thing that you found?

private

[otherflash]

[ Wally is all too happy to be able to take advantage of the nifty private function because this conversation is going in a direction he'd rather not share with the network at-large. ]

I found a purpose outside of the costume. Knowledge that no matter how far I ran or how lost I got, I would always be able to find my way home — that I would even have a home to return to at the end of the day.

[ His thoughts drifting towards Linda and everything they had together before it was stolen from them as a result of the timeline being manipulated back home causes him to swallow and look away from the camera. He doesn't dwell on a past that no longer exists as much as he used to, but it's something that he will never fully get over. ]

I just... found a place where it felt like it was okay to be me.

private

[expeditiousness]

[oh, right. private messaging is a thing, isn’t it. tommy listens carefully to what wally has to say, frowning in thought as he considers a scenario like what the other speedster describes.]

That ... sounds like it must be really nice, man. I’m guessing your world’s a little more tolerant about people with abilities? See, I’m a mutant, and where I’m from, mutants aren’t really well-liked, even if they are using their powers for good. Not many places where it’s OK to be me, y’know?

[tommy doesn’t dislike being a mutant, and he wouldn’t give up his abilities to live a more normal life, but being a mutant comes with a fair share of challenges.]

Putting on the suit is what gave me a purpose. Before I started doing superhero stuff - I was kind of a screwup, I admit it. I was locked up in “juvie” - [he rolls his eyes and makes finger quotes] - when my old team found me, broke me out. I was in a pretty bad place, though - juvie wasn’t just juvie, it was also a place where the government had been experimenting on me, trying to turn me into some kind of living weapon. And they almost got what they were looking for, ‘cause when I got free, all I wanted was to hurt everyone there who’d hurt me.

[not his finest moment, he knows that. and he’s grateful to the young avengers for helping him course correct.]

I could’ve really easily gone full villain, but my team, they gave me a choice. And I chose them, and what they stood for, fighting all the bad guys out there. Even when they all quit, I kept going. I guess ... hero stuff’s really all I have.

[tommy doesn’t normally slow down enough to think about this sort of thing, and it strikes him as he’s admitting this to wally that it’s maybe a little bit pathetic.]

Sounds kinda depressing when I put it that way, huh? Maybe I need to get my own place, if I’m starting to sound like Wiccan.

private

[otherflash]

Yeah, I heard a little bit about how rough things can be for mutants from John and Clarice when they were here. It's definitely not like that for us back home. [ Where heroes are pretty much treated like rock stars. ] And I'm sorry for what happened to you at juvie. That shit is seriously fucked up.

[ Wally can't say he is too surprised, though, even with the government being involved. People with powers will always be seen as a hot commodity for those trying to control the world no matter the universe which is why the likes of HIVE try to manufacture their own meta-humans when they can't get their hands on those who come by it naturally.

He's silent for a long moment as he tries to figure out just how much of his own story he wants to share with the younger speedster. ]

But I know what it's like for the hero stuff to be the only thing in your life that makes sense. That place I mentioned? It doesn't exist anymore. It's a long and complicated story, but I've lost pretty much everything. Before I got here, I had been doing the hero thing non-stop since it's all I had left. So if it's depressing, then I'm right there with you.

[ Even when using his powers was killing him, he couldn't stop running because he knew he'd have to confront things about himself and his life that he didn't want to once he did. ]

Things have been better here, though. Only because I've been forced to slow down and actually think about things. It isn't fun. [ His lips quirk up into a wry smile. ] There's a reason why I try not to do it. But it was a necessary step, you know. It's really the only way I can move forward with my life.

[ Wally isn't going to pretend he knows what the younger speedster's deal is or tell him how he should handle things, but he thinks he might understand things in a way others don't. ]