[open] cancel your reservations

[franciscoramon]

who: cisco + anyone!
what: catch-all, amnesia event
when: august
where: anywhere; if you want a starter, please hit me up!
warnings: discussion of murder, use of alcohol to cope, will add more as needed

i. pre-amnesia (august 5-10)

[ Cisco knows that he is probably opening himself up to a world of headaches and unnecessary trouble, but there have been plenty of new arrivals, and more and more he is noticing that people who show up from non-technologically advanced worlds simply have no support system to really teach them all the cool things they can do even with their phones, not to mention other machines and devices. So, one day when there's a lull between projects for the RPD and other emergency services, he goes to a print shop and has flyers made:

TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE SHOCK??? NEED LESSONS ON HOW TO USE YOUR PHONE, LAPTOP, OR OTHER ELECTRONIC GADGET??? STOP BY THE ADDRESS BELOW FOR A FREE INFORMAL LESSON!!!

Normally it's the kind of announcement he would make over the network, but what if someone is really struggling and can't even get on there? No, flyers seem like the way to go for this crowd. Cisco adds some fine print at the bottom, below the address for his workshop, but all it says is:

*NO HIDDEN AGENDA JUST A HELPFUL DUDE WANTING TO SHARE THE WONDERS OF TECHNOLOGY, LESSONS ARE FREE BUT TRIBUTE PAID IN CANDY IS ALWAYS ACCEPTED]

ii. amnesia (august 12-19)

[ The changes in Cisco are not, at first, as obvious as they may be in other people. He remembers Riverview, and everyone he has met here, and all the details of his life in this place. He remembers his name, all the movies and video games that he loves, all the technical skills and scientific know-how necessary for his job. He even remembers most stuff about his own past - that he worked at S.T.A.R. Labs, that he's a member of Team Flash and friend to Barry Allen. That he is a metahuman, with various abilities tied to manipulating multidimensional energy.

The only thing that has been carved away from his memory is, in fact, Eobard Thawne. Cisco doesn't remember his mentor's betrayal, or being murdered, or the circumstances that surrounded him discovering his powers. All of the shame and dread he's been carrying about his powers, because of Eobard and the things he'd said and done, has just vanished. In addition, Cisco's trauma over that whole experience is, for the moment, covered over. To anyone who knows him even a little he will seem inexplicably younger. Quicker to smile and laugh, volumes more trusting, and also a lot more inclined to talk about some guy named Dr. Wells in a positive, even devoted manner.

Cisco will spend this week doing what he usually does - working at his workshop (still offering those lessons), trying out new restaurants, shopping for graphic tees and games and movies, exploring the safe parts of the city a little - but with an extra spring in his step. If you've wanted your character to find out about him being a metahuman, now would be a good time for it! ]

iii. post-amnesia (august 20-31)

[ The not-remembering? Had been good. But when that's done, and all of Cisco's memories are restored to him, the transition is... rough. Putting it mildly. Back when all of it had happened, there had been so much going on - one life-or-death situation after the other - that he hadn't had time to linger too much on how he was changing, being shaped into an older, sadder, more broken version of himself.

Now, though, there is no big crisis, no distraction to divert his attention. One minute he is the old, sunny Cisco - the one he still thinks of as the person he was supposed to be - and the next, it all comes rushing back. The contrast is stark, and it's kind of fucking him up a little. Or, rather, a lot.

He goes back to having nightmares almost as often as he did in those first weeks after his death, which means he isn't getting a whole lot of sleep, and it shows in the dark circles under his eyes. Cisco withdraws somewhat - not enough to worry that he's abandoning anyone, but he takes longer to answer texts, doesn't reach out to people first, doesn't go out and about in the evenings. He is quieter, with considerably more strain behind his smiles. He throws himself into his work, staying in his workshop long hours, sometimes falling asleep there, for a few fitful hours. When he can't work any more, he spends a little more time than he should in some nearby bars, drinking a little more than he ought to, trying not to think about the person he is now compared to the person he was the week before. ]

iv. misc

[ Come plot something! ]

Comments

[wingedman]

Huh. Yeah, we got about...ten in my world. Although, like you said, might be that there's more people who're just living everyday lives that nobody knows about. Things sorta started with Captain America in my world - he was a science experiment back during World War II. The Army wanted to make a new kind of soldier - a super-soldier - but the Nazis sabotaged the program just after they succeeded on one soldier, and the formula for the serum was lost. Scientists spent decades trying to recreate it.

...although, hell, you've probably met at least one of the Steves here. They don't get around as much as Tony does, but not many people do.

Supposedly the other universes like mine have a ton of people with powers just doing...whatever. [He gestures vaguely. Honestly, he can't imagine it. The world had lost its shit over just a handful of Avengers; he's been told that theirs was fairly tame compared to what had happened in other worlds.]

You got any weird alternate universe shenanigans? 'Cause apparently the multiverse I'm from has numbers and I'm just from the world that's too damn dumb to figure out other universes exist.

[franciscoramon]

[ He has heard parts of this story before, but only bits of it, and never so directly and clearly. It's fascinating, honestly, and Cisco kind of wants to ask Sam a million questions about superhero history in his world, now. But he approaches it cautiously, not wanting to seem like he's prying. He's too accustomed to thinking of this stuff as very secret. ]

You know, I haven't actually met him. But I know about him, which sounds weird when I say it out loud. I know Peggy a little? She works at the police department and I make tech for them. And Tony, 'cause... engineers. I mean, um, I know one of 'em.

[ It's always weird reminding himself that there are multiple Tonys in this place; he's just very used to the one he's befriended. ]

A few alternate universe shenanigans. We got an Earth-1 and an Earth-2. Most of our shenanigans are time travel related, not multiverse related.

[ He says it like it's a joke, and it kind of is - but it's also the truth. The weird weird truth. ]

[wingedman]

Better to just stick to one Stark. [Sam nods sagely, the sign of a man who is burdened with Too Many Starks.] You know the tall one, the short one, or the sad one? The short one's from my world.

[Although height is probably relative if he hasn't met any other Tonys.]

Short one's about as tall as I am.

[NOT THAT SAM'S SHORT. ...okay, he's short. And, really, he doesn't mind answering questions and talking about these things. God knows he's spent enough time asking the people from his own alternate universe questions about things.]

Alternate universe version of me has actual superpowers. You know what I got? Nothing. [Which isn't strictly true these days, but that's thanks to being in the Quarantine.] I mean, I'm not sure what kind of superpower communicating with birds is, but it sounds cool. Not as cool as lifting a tank or something, but I'm okay with that.

Can't say I've heard anyone talk much about time travel. My friend Stephen, he does magic and shit, and he talks a lot about hopping from one dimension to another. But I guess time travel's harder without a DeLorean, you know?

[franciscoramon]

[ Once Sam tells him their relative sizes, Cisco nods, amused that there are different epithets for the various Tony Starks in this place. ]

Yeah, I know the one from your world for sure.

[ Seems wrong somehow to call him the short one, when he still had an inch or two on Cisco. It pleases him in some obscure way, though, that he happens to know the same Tony who comes from Sam's world. This multiverse stuff can get pretty confusing, and that just seems simpler, neater somehow. ]

Wait, he's a meta? Or- y'know, whatever they call people with powers over there? [ Then Sam says what his powers are, and a little smile tugs at the corner of Cisco's mouth. ] He's a bird whisperer?

[ Cisco has a sudden mental image of Sam - a different Sam, maybe with a pair of glasses and hair a bit longer - letting out some horrible honks and then siccing some angry geese on a bank robber. How is he supposed to not smile, thinking of that? And it feels good to smile, after the week he's been having. ]

Still better than some of the powers I've come across working with the Flash.

[ Cisco shakes his head a little, amused by the reference (it really is nice talking to people with similar cultural touchstones), but also a little hesitant to get into the question of time travel in too much depth. After all, there isn't much in the world he wants to think about less right now than one time traveler in particular. So he gives a little shrug and says. ]

I wish DeLoreans were involved. Instead it's just dudes running really, really, really, really fast.

[wingedman]

That's what everyone's told me. Which, hey, if you're in New York, probably isn't a bad gig. Just cover a dude in pigeons till he can't move, you know?

[Sam laughs, shaking his head. He still hasn't found an especially practical application for it, but he hasn't really been trying much. And, to be fair, he can only talk to big birds right now - eagles and the like - which are mostly out in the jungle.]

Yeah? A friend of mine had a brother like that. Never met him, so I don't know if he could time travel. [And he's not about to ask Wanda anything like that, for obvious reasons.] It's the kind of thing that sounds cool, but I bet it ends up being a huge damn mess.