The Hammer, in some circles (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ohhmrburnsides) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
riverviewlogs2017-08-31 05:58 pm
ohhmrburnsides) wrote in riverviewlogs2017-08-31 05:58 pm
[closed] can i roll a friendship check?
who: magnus + others (hmu!)
what: catch-all for september (and the last few days of august)
when: post-fire event thru september
where: wherever the fun is!
warnings: will update as necessary
feel free to catch me on plurk for plotting!
what: catch-all for september (and the last few days of august)
when: post-fire event thru september
where: wherever the fun is!
warnings: will update as necessary
feel free to catch me on plurk for plotting!
no subject
—but that's in the past. Remembering Taako's entirely-plagiarised book brings him back to the present, and he laughs.]
Yep, that's the one. And I can't even fault him for that. The best scam I've ever seen pulled off.
[He's unsure how to proceed regarding Lucretia. He doesn't know what the relationship is between her and Cisco, but he does know that Cisco is likely to side with Taako on issues regarding her, so he responds carefully.]
Yeah, I stopped by. Asked some questions, got some answers. [He shrugs, but it's clear through his stiff movement that he still doesn't know quite how to feel about everything.]
no subject
[ It's not hard to tell, with a guy like Magnus, when he starts considering his words really carefully. And honestly, Cisco is glad for the brevity of his answer. He wouldn't have known what to do, if Magnus started talking in great detail about that conversation, or telling Cisco how complicated, or good, or bad stuff is between himself and Lucretia right now. Cisco's pretty sure it would end up being uncomfortable for him, no matter where Magnus is at. All he'd wanted to know is whether he should avoid the mention of Lucretia altogether. The answer to that is, apparently, no. ]
Cool.
[ There's a moment of awkward silence, where Cisco considers saying something about the Lucretia situation, and decides that would absolutely be a bad idea. If Magnus needs to talk to someone about all that, he can talk to Taako or Lup, or one of his other new friends who isn't involved and won't be bringing in quite as much baggage as Cisco. Right now Cisco just... wants to stay out of it. For everybody's sake.
He takes a long drink of his beer and abruptly, brightly, decisively changes the subject. ]
So, um... tell me about this Steven dude. He sounds like a great guy.
no subject
It's a good thing that they drop the Lucretia conversation. All that would've done is make people uncomfortable. He's very happy to talk about Steven instead.]
Steven Waxmen. What a dude. He ran this place called the Hammer and Tongs and he was maybe the best carpenter I've ever met—even after getting my hundred years of memories back. So that's, like, something.
And he was a great person, too. He was kind of a community leader. There was this, uh... I guess battle? It destroyed a bunch of people's homes, so after the battle Steven and I were right there helping rebuild the town. And he wouldn't let anybody pay him for it. That's the kind of guy I wanna be like, you know? I wanna help the little guys. I wanna be a community leader.
no subject
He listens to Magnus talking about Steven, smiling faintly. It's clear just from the way Magnus speaks how much he admires the man - it shines through. And Cisco thinks that anyone who could inspire that feeling, in a guy like Magnus, must be pretty great. When Magnus recalls rebuilding that town, thinks about the way that Barry had helped to rebuild Central City after the singularity. But, well. That had been a bit different, hadn't it? He'd done it in secret, had refused assistance from anyone. Cisco had tried to help, more than once, but it hadn't been about mending the city, not really. It had been about his own guilt, that he wasn't the big hero in the end. That it had been Eddie, and Ronnie, who had saved everyone.
None of that matters, though. Barry is back in Central City, and Magnus is right here. ]
That's a really good kind of person to want to be, if you ask me. I wanna help people, too. Not as a leader, I'm not really good at that, but... as a part of the team. The one who's cheering everybody on and cheering them up and making them laugh even when stuff looks pretty hopeless.
[ Cisco looks down at his beer, half empty, now. He can feel just a hint of oncoming tipsiness - a warmth and relaxation that loosens his inhibitions just enough for him to say: ]
I hope this isn't a super weird thing to say but you kinda remind me of a guy I used to know. Ronnie. He liked helping people, too. And building stuff. He was a structural engineer, not a carpenter, but... it's sorta similar.
no subject
Magnus sees so much good intent in Cisco, and he admires it.]
I mean, you don't have to be the guy in charge to good, y'know? You just gotta lend a hand when you know you can. That's the important part.
[Magnus is pretty far through his drink too, but isn't quite as aware of his own intoxication level. But he never really is.]
I mean, if he's anything like me, he's gotta be super cool, right? [He chuckles.] Was he buff? [He takes an opportunity to flex his guns. He's gotta have his silly moments.]
no subject
[ It had taken a while to sink in for him, all that stuff they had told him when he first arrived. About why they brought people through the portals, and what everybody was doing here. For a lot of folks it seems like it's an escape or a reprieve, but for Cisco, it turned out to be a solution. Back in Central City he had wanted to help. He had done his best. But in the end... his ability to do good was in a lot of ways hampered by whether or not Barry was feeling in the mood to be a hero. Here... that doesn't matter so much.
Cisco laughs when Magnus asks that question and flexes, delighted and mildly embarrassed by it. What is Magnus talking about, Cisco never notices how buff any dude is ever, they'll never prove it. ]
Yeah, he was. Not quite as buff as you, but pretty close.
[ He rotates his glass between his palms for a moment, wondering how he can possibly summarize Ronnie to someone who had never met him. And to someone who he has just compared to him, without sounding like he's projecting anything weird onto Magnus about his dead friend. ]
He was super cool. The coolest. I was only, like... I was barely nineteen when I got hired at S.T.A.R. Labs and everybody there had a lot more experience than me, and they were all at least four or five years older than me. I was like, so scared everybody was gonna realize I didn't belong there and I was just this total imposter. So I was super nervous and whatever, but Ronnie just... acted like we were already best friends, and then. We were.
[ Cisco's smile goes a bit sad around the edges, then, and he drinks a little more of his beer. ]
He was like that. Being around him just made you feel like... things were okay. Like he had your back and it was okay to just... be you.
no subject
Sounds like a really cool dude. I wish I coulda met him.
[He figures it's probably to Cisco's benefit to not keep talking about his dead friend.]
I can relate to that. I kinda felt that way on the Starblaster for a little while. Everybody else on the ship was just so... Y'know... smart. And I'm not. [He shrugs.] But you already know I got over that.
[He takes a drink, and this drink actually finishes off his beer.] Okay, so I noticed this on the way in and now that I have a full beer in me I gotta bring it up—people on the other side of the bar are playing a sing-along game? [He points to a couple of drunks singing into a karaoke microphone.] I wanna do that.
no subject
So when Magnus asks about the karaoke, the joy and bubbliness come back to Cisco quickly and he asks, delighted: ]
A sing-along game?!
[ If he doesn't even know the word karaoke, that means he's probably never done it before, and Cisco absolutely is not going to let that stand. ]
I guess karaoke wouldn't be high on the list of things Taako had to tell you about, huh? Yeah, we can totally do that. I'm gonna need a couple shots, first, though.