#and this freaking script has been my white whale ever since

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Risk”

Welcome back, everyone! I have a lot of mixed, complicated feelings about today's episode and I'm already sure this recap will miss a great deal that should be said. There's a lot to digest, we need some time to do that, so until things have settled I think that the one, entirely confident claim I can make here is that our writers weren't BSing the fandom on twitter. The last few days have seen a number of big claims made regarding "Risk" —

— and whatever else we might have to say about the episode, it certainly delivered in terms of shocking content. From confessions to reveals to a new plan in place, there's a lot to unpack. 

So let's get started.

Our first shot is a problem. 

I don't want it to be! But I've got to work with what I've got. We open on Salem's flying monkeys — or gorillas, if we're being technical — and my immediate thought is where in the world they came from. I mean, obviously I know where. We ended Volume 6 with the post-credit scene of Salem adding wings to an army of Beringels, Hazel commenting that she'll lead the invasion herself. When Salem arrived at the end of Volume 7 and we picked up where we'd left off in Volume 8, the fandom was obviously expecting an attack led primarily by flying, transformed grimm. That didn't happen. For ten episodes the plot forgot that the Beringels existed, focusing instead of the Hound, the grimm soup, then the Whale, then the ground grimm the Whale was producing. Months back I encountered a number of posts asking, "What happened to the resource we know Salem brought to this fight?" and those questions are partly what inspired the "Introducing new grimm that are then quickly abandoned" spot on the bingo board. Now, suddenly, the Beringels have re-appeared and that is a good thing. Though it's too little, too late, as is so often the case with RWBY. Getting something you expect has a sour taste when it arrives months past when it was needed, especially when that something only exists for a second on screen. 

This is doubly true given that we saw Oscar eliminate the grimm last episode.

At least, I thought he had? Pretty much everyone I've spoken to thought he had. This last week's discussions have centered around RWBY nerfing the stakes, taking out a whole army of grimm in one, magical blast. That's far from great. Yet now we see that we were apparently wrong. Atlas remains overrun with grimm, this problem remains a problem... so, yay? But we're once left with a tradeoff. RWBY has no longer eliminated the stakes with a deus ex machina as we had originally thought, but in its place we're left with a badly executed scene last episode and an assumed problem that is "fixed" with an enemy we should have been dealing with since the start of the volume. The road to the Beringels has been messy indeed and all they've done so far is fly across the screen.

Which reminds me: if this army of grimm still exists — and absolutely existed prior to Oscar's blast — how come not a single one is attacking the Schnee manor? This opening is in Atlas, the skies are overrun, we've seen a few grimm show up to help out the Hound, yet miraculously nothing bothers the group while they freak out at the dining table, or freak out as Penny tries to leave. That's a whole lot of grimm and a whole lot of negativity... yet somehow these two things never meet in a way that would inconvenience our characters. While from a writing standpoint I can understand not wanting to interrupt all these conversations and feel good moments, the show can't simply ignore the rules of its world whenever it's convenient. If anything, given that Atlas' population is currently hidden beneath the city, Schnee manor should be even more of a hot-spot than it normally would be. There is one (1) group of people out in the open for them to target. 

Yeah, we're a single shot into this episode. It's a doozy.

Moving right along, those Atlas citizens (and, let's not forget, a large number of Mantle evacuees too) are still huddled in the tunnels, listening to Ironwood's insane broadcast. They're obviously terrified, as are those down in Mantle who are staring execution in the face. Fiona bursts into tears.

It makes me wonder why we didn't get the airship subplot now. As I've mentioned extensively in the past, that decision didn't make much sense and I think the writers knew it didn't make much sense because they chose not to reveal what Ruby and co. planned to do with the citizens once they were on board. The point was never to come up with a feasible plan, something the audience would put to the test, but rather to just make it seem like the group was doing something Smart and Heroic before Ironwood inevitably derailed it. Don't look too closely at the man behind the curtain. Normally, I'd comment that yes, it's damn hard to come up with a brilliant plan to save others in a situation like this — our characters can only be as smart as our authors! — yet that sympathy dissipates when we hit this episode and are given a scenario where airships would have been great. Ironwood has threatened to nuke Mantle. Suddenly, it is imperative that the civilians leave the safety of the crater as soon as possible (whereas before it was not). So Whitley remembers that they have access to these ships and the group hatches a plan to sneak them down while Ironwood is distracted, get everyone up into Atlas so he can't use Mantle as a bargaining chip anymore. Then they're spotted, the plan revealed, and Ironwood shoots their ships down, leaving them devastated that their attempt to help the citizens has literally gone up in flames. We're still left with the problem of why Ironwood wouldn't just allow a continued evacuation now that Salem is briefly out of the mix and the Schnees have provided extra resources — the writing really took a sledgehammer to his characterization — but the group trying to get people to Atlas to avoid death by bomb at least makes more sense than them trying to move the citizens to an undisclosed location, for unestablished reasons, when they were already relatively safe. The bomb is what makes those airships a necessity.

It really makes me wonder how much editing goes on and how much time the writers have before they finalize scripts.

Regardless, we cut from terrified people to Ironwood himself, accompanied by Winter. The animation has some nice parallels going on here, what with the same black, white, and blue color scheme, hands behind their backs, the need for robotic accommodations, and steps perfectly in synch. As we're about to see though, Winter is very good at looking the part of a loyal soldier while actually bending the rules.

However, are we really going to ignore that she betrayed Ironwood last episode? Betrayal from his perspective, that is. Winter was given a direct order, disobeyed that order, pissed off Harriet in the process, and wasn't able to give a good explanation for her actions — she was too busy being creeped out by Ironwood's reaction. For all intents and purposes she should be considered disloyal right now. Or at least under suspicion, yet Ironwood acts as if everything is fine. We've skipped over any meaningful fallout between them, or a reason why Ironwood would dismiss her betrayal. This ties into something I'll bring up later in the episode: namely, that RWBY introduces too much too quickly and doesn't have time to satisfyingly tackle — or tackle at all — the plot points they've introduced, simply because there's always a new one to focus on. We dropped the "Winter went against Ironwood at great personal risk" plotline to make room for the new "Ironwood has randomly threatened Mantle" plotline, which likewise doesn't do Ironwood's characterization any favors. I don't just mean the obvious "Omg he's willing to murder a whole city now" issue. Ironwood used to be smart, yet his unfounded trust in others makes him look foolish now: first trusting Watts, now Winter. Alongside that, the story and fandom have both pushed the idea that Ironwood is paranoid, yet that "paranoia" has only ever been attached to justified threats. If he were actually paranoid then Winter's actions would have caused him to mistrust all of the Ace Ops now, labeling everyone near him a disloyal enemy, despite evidence to the contrary (especially when it comes to Harriet). Yet across two volumes Ironwood has continually been "paranoid" only in regards to things like Cinder and Salem — proven threats — while simultaneously trusting known villains and ignoring when his subordinates straight up say, "She let our enemies go free." There’s little rhyme or reason to any of his decisions here. 

Still! A nice, meaningful shot lol.

As Ironwood and Winter get closer we see the Ace Ops discussing the threat. "Of course he's not going to do it," to which Marrow pushes back with, "So what? He's bluffing with a whole city?" This is a really, really important moment that I don't think the writers realize is important. See, everyone is shocked when Ironwood reveals that he intends to go through with the threat. The Ace Ops, Winter, Robyn, our heroes... everyone grapples with the idea that this is actually happening. Everyone has some moment of, "It's just a bluff, yeah?" and I don't think that's just denial. The characters' shock tells us that Ironwood normally wouldn't be a man who'd do something like this. Ever. That shock has to stem from something, such as an ingrained understanding that Ironwood is a protector, not a murderer. Note the difference between the fandom and the characters' reactions. Whereas a good chunk of the fandom went, "Of course Ironwood means it. We all saw this coming! Remember how he..." and then proceed to list various things — persuasive or otherwise — that prove he was always a bad guy in the making. Yet no one in the RWBY world is inclined to use those moments as evidence. Winter doesn't go, "He's not bluffing. I saw him shoot the councilman just for speaking up" and the Ace Ops don't go, "Oh, he'll do it. This is the man who destroyed his arm to take down Watts. He'll stop at nothing." After everything they've seen — the same things we've seen — there's still some instinctual, nebulous knowledge that goes, "No. Ironwood wouldn't. He's one of the good guys." We can certainly talk about real life people getting swept up in horrible institutions, unwilling to admit how bad things actually are until they hit a specific line they can't cross... but I think this is less a comment on some sort of bystander effect (RWBY isn't that deliberately nuanced lol) and more an unintentional acknowledgement that until the very sudden and entirely unexpected shooting of Oscar, Ironwood actually wouldn't have done this. The Ace Ops are reacting to a man who absolutely existed until the writing erased him and they believe the core of that man still exists. To my mind, he should, but because our show can't actually have Salem as the main villain right now, she's conveniently blown up and Ironwood takes her place.

So we've got some loaded implications there, as well as Vine's comment that he hopes "the kids" see sense now. I am begging RWBY to pick a lane already. Are they kids, or are they adults? Because that answer makes a big difference and we can't continue to have it both ways.

Ironwood and Winter arrive were Ironwood orders that she prep drones with the "payload." That's the moment Winter and the others realize he's serious. Cue that shock all around. The revelation is the last straw for Marrow, prompting him to start yelling some excellent points about how Ironwood is doing Salem's job for her. See, this accusation works. Telling a guy threatening to blow up a city that he's as bad as their villain is accurate. Having Oscar tell that same guy that he's as bad as their villain because he wants to save a city full of people... is ridiculous. Totally different setup here and RWBY got it right this time. The only line that didn't work for me was Marrow asking the Ace Ops if they believe in anything. Uh... yeah. They believe in saving Atlas + all the Mantle evacuees they got. That's pretty well established. I swear,  most RWBY speeches are padded with generic, heroic-sounding lines that don't actually mean anything, or are outright falsehoods we’re meant to ignore. 

We'll see more of that with renora.

Marrow attempts to leave and his eyes go wide as he hears the click of Ironwood's gun. Remember I said that Winter is good at playing the obedient soldier? It's after Ironwood aims that she tackles Marrow. 

On the surface it looks only like she violently disarmed him, but in reality she got him out of the bullet's path and kept Ironwood from firing at all. She saved his life, choosing to play up how she'll “take this traitor to the brig” where he belongs, rather than watching him die. A really nice moment in terms of strategy and one of the few lately where I've actually felt like I'm watching smart characters.

However, I cannot deny the uncomfortable implications in this scene. Smart or not, necessary or not, it hasn't escaped anyone's notice that one of our darkest characters was a) nearly killed by a white man and b) beat up by a white woman. To say nothing of Marrow's status as a faunus. I was cringing during his line about loyalty: “I used to wear this rank with pride. Now I see it for what it really is: a collar." 

Honestly, I don't have the qualifications to unpack all that, so let's just acknowledge that the scene, while good in some respects, was massively insulting in others. I’ll let others in the fandom defend or damn it as they see fit. 

We get a shot of how shocked the Ace Ops are that they nearly watched their team member get executed for speaking up against a bomb threat. It once again highlight's RWBY's strange depiction of violence and when it's deemed appropriate. Harriet has threatened people a couple of times now — here telling Marrow she'll shut him up herself — yet her reaction tells us that she never would have killed him as Ironwood nearly did. Threats, then, mean little... unless Ironwood is making an exaggerated comment about shooting Qrow. Then it's evidence of evil intent that's bound to come to the surface eventually. So does that mean Harriet will be trying to bomb cities herself someday? If so, it once again leaves our heroes in an awkward position, considering that Ruby started the fight Harriet wouldn't, Weiss stuck her weapon in Whitley's face, etc. If it says something awful that Winter would punch a minority — even to save his life — what does it say about Qrow that he would punch a child in anger? Outside of the easy to label actions like Ironwood's bomb threat and shootings, there exists this gray space that asks, “When are you justified to use violence? When is a threat forgivable?” The problem is, the show keeps coming up with contradictory answers. I bring this up not because Winter's punch or Harriet's threat are the most significant examples of this that we've seen, but because the themes of forgiveness and violence take center stage at the episode's end... and RWBY completely drops the ball. Keep these complications in mind. 

Before that though, the group is crowded into the dining room and no matter what else "Risk" might give us, I'm reminded that I really like the design of the Schnee manor. I'm glad the episode found an excuse to show us this room again.

My initial thought upon entering the scene was, "Are we going to talk about Penny's hack? The silver-eyed grimm? Ozpin's return?" and to RWBY's credit it touches on all of these, though I stand by my point about plotlines coming too quickly. Any one of these should have been given the space to grow, not fighting for space against the potential destruction of Mantle. If you don't acknowledge these things in "Risk" you've lost your chance (much like how "Oscar is kidnapped" replaced "Oscar has to deal with Ozpin's return," resulting in a scene where Oscar was just... randomly okay with Ozpin again. We lost the chance to deal with the first conflict introduced because we barreled into the second), yet if you do spend episode time on these issues, it feels like the characters aren't dealing with the immediate threat. Questions of silver eyes, what to do about Penny, and Ozpin's return needed to be given their due before there was an hour time limit resulting in thousands of deaths. Now, you have to wonder why Yang and Ruby are talking about their mother when a city's safety is ticking away. Where were these questions and reassurances years ago?

I think this is why this episode — maybe even this whole volume — simultaneously feels too full and too boring. We're being introduced to lots of Big Things, but then putting them off to focus on other, smaller stuff, and by the time we circle back around it's no longer the right time. We're constantly focusing on the least interesting, least important thing in the room. Why is the group sitting around with their tea when we could have moved the Hound plotline up and started this groundwork earlier? Which means we're doing that work now instead of worrying about Mantle or Penny. All of which is connected to Salem herself being here, yet Ironwood is our villain instead... We're just introducing new idea after new idea, dropping each to focus on something else when the viewer is already emotionally invested in the last conflict. It makes the show feel overly packed with problems we don't have time for while simultaneously having too much time in which the characters do nothing of importance. We're never dealing with these issues at the right time. Talking about a silver-eyed grimm while Salem is here feels like Too Much and having the girls unpack that now, with Mantle’s life on the line, feels like Too Little. Stop sitting around while you've got less than an hour to save half a kingdom! We needed this conversation in a different episode, one not already driven by a problem that’s objectively more important. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We're in the dining room and the group is listing all the stuff that has gone wrong lately. Blake mentions that Qrow and Robyn are still in custody, because we definitely want Blake remembering that Qrow exists, not one of his nieces. Ruby, meanwhile, is having a meltdown. "So then it's impossible!" she yells, head in her hands. 

Emerald sneaks in an insult: “See? If Ms. Hero here with all the answers doesn’t have one..." and the others, of course, jump to Ruby's aid. But Emerald is right! It's entirely Ruby's fault that Atlas didn't get the chance to escape with those they had. Her actions and lack of a plan led to where they are now. I'm not saying she's responsible for Ironwood's insane decisions — that's like saying he's responsible for Qrow's in relation to Clover — but Ruby indeed played the part of the hero who had all the answers... without actually having any answers. Now that things are worse than how they started, her only answer is to say it's all "impossible" and throw up her hands. Ruby is an absolutely terrible leader right now and someone should indeed be calling her out on that, it's just too bad it's Emerald, someone technically still presented as an untrustworthy figure for the next couple of minutes. (More on that later.) Any and every criticism of Ruby is dismissed out of hand. Don't believe Ironwood because he's crazy now. The Ace Ops? His boot lickers. Yang has things to say, but once Ren agrees with her she does a 180. Now Ren is heading towards an extra special apology for daring to doubt Ruby. May calls her out, only to also change her opinion the next episode. Now here's one more person, but she's a bad guy. The show has never once encouraged us to treat these criticisms seriously — never allowed them to stick, let alone lead to change — and at this point I'm done with everyone falling over themselves to absolve and praise Ruby. By making Emerald the criticizer and having Ruby throw herself a pity party, the writing ensures that the conversation goes from, "Yeah. You messed up big time and now have a responsibility to fix things" to "Aww, don't be so hard on yourself! We won't let mean Emerald insult you anymore."

Ruby makes herself the victim here. She gets so upset and acts so defeated that all anyone can do is reassure her. The focus turns towards her, a focus centered around hiding against the table, or cowering on a staircase, so that it feels cruel to call her out on her deadly mistakes when she's so clearly upset. But they still should have, especially since cowering and tears have never protected anyone else from the group's criticism. Ozpin is proof of that.

What I'm getting at is that Ruby runs away. She's faced with the consequences of her actions, is informed she needs to help come up with a solution, and instead of braving that decides it's "impossible" and literally runs from the room. While they're on a time limit. Keep this moment in mind for just a bit longer. These choices become doubly important later.

So Ruby can't handle the responsibility she violently ripped from others and the group goes out of their way to comfort her in this. Especially since the writing again decides to conflate Emerald and Ozpin through a comment of Oscar's, demonstrating that it still has no decent sense of what "responsibility" or "villainous acts" means. These scenes are three years in the making and every step getting here was dogged with problems, so the fact that the end result is a mess isn't exactly surprising.

We (thankfully) leave Ruby for a bit and instead turn to Jaune. He's amplifying Nora's aura, but admits that he can't get the scars to go away. That makes sense. After all, they're scars. His semblance helps people heal, but at this point Nora has already healed. Those scars are the result of that.

She says it was “Just another ditzy move from Nora” and I'm glad we're acknowledging that, even if it is all framed through the lens of Nora being incorrect in that assumption. Once again, the writing continually makes statements about characters, but fails to have their actions reflect that. Nora wanted to do more than just hit things with her hammer without thinking them through... and we showed that by having her hit a door with her hammer without thinking it through. Was it heroic? Absolutely. Did it lead to any growth? No. I'd much rather someone acknowledge that yeah, she did the same thing she always does, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nora's impulsivity is a part of her and, given the talk of teammates here, she could have gotten reassurance that she'll always have people around to help her temper those impulses. Instead, we're (again) told that she shouldn't do A anymore, watch her do A anyway, the writing presents it like it’s B, Nora admits that she did A, and everyone rushes to assure her it was actually B. Just let these characters make mistakes for once, especially mistakes made in an effort to help someone. This should be the easiest and kindest way to criticize the group and RWBY can’t even manage that. 

Which brings us to Ren. Ren, I am so sorry. You deserved better than this. Nora rips into him, saying, “We were supposed to be a team, but that didn’t matter to you! You shove people out so you don’t have to feel things that are hard!" and again we have RWBY making grand statements that are meaningless. Did Ren keep things bottled up in Volume 7? Yes... and no one tried to help him with that. Instead, Nora decided to bypass his problems completely and try to kiss it better. When that (shockingly) didn't work, Ren was finally forced to open up at Yang's insistence and was abandoned for his perspective. That's what that was, literally and metaphorically: they walked away from him and made it clear that so long as he believes these things, he's not welcome. What were those things? We've made mistakes, Ruby made mistakes, we're not ready for this stuff. That's it! "We were supposed to be a team" makes it sound like Ren betrayed them in the worst possible way, when in reality all he did was acknowledge that they're imperfect and that things are a mess right now. But of course, that is the ultimate betrayal for this group: acknowledgement that they’re not perfect. Everyone can call themselves out to generate sympathy — Nora does it, Ruby does it  — but as soon as someone else agrees and implies that they should make changes, they’re dismissed. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the refusal to question Ruby makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Is this as bad as Ironwood shooting someone who questions him? Of course not, but that doesn't make it good. The group has made it clear from Ozpin to Ren that if you put a toe out of line, that's it. You're gone. You are not a part of the group until you are willing to back the group 100%, no matter what horrible things they might be up to. That Nora yells at Ren for questioning and Ren learns to keep his mouth shut, apologizing to both her and Jaune for speaking his mind is... well, it's horrible. That's not friendship. I know the fandom doesn't want to hear that given how much we otherwise love these relationships, but it's not. If you can't question and voice concerns without about serious topics like this without the threat of abandonment — literal or otherwise — then that's not a friend group you should be sticking with. Ren’s "biggest failing as a teammate and a partner" is that he didn't agree with the others and didn’t immediately change his mind when they demanded it. There are awful implications attached to that, especially since Ren’s perspective was a good one. He’s not out here slinging horrific views like, I don’t know, homophobia at the bee’s non-relationship. He just went “We made mistakes” and the group responded “Absolutely not. Absurd. Fuck you.” They didn’t even consider that position, which speaks to both a lack of respect for Ren and a level of arrogance that keeps getting them into trouble. But these issues are easily overlooked given everything else that surrounds them. Outside of Ren's apology, I quite liked the renora moment. We got a detail about Nora's backstory! She called Ren pretty! We got an "I love you"! He booped her nose!! It's all very cute and wholesome... and soured by the knowledge of what Ren had to do to get here.

Outside of these generalized responses, there are three other points I wanted to make about this scene:

Yes, more obligatory humor to ruin an otherwise serious moment. Jaune could have just smiled softly and slipped out. Or have him leave before the conversation started (because Ren shouldn't have been apologizing to him in the first place...) Instead, we got multiple seconds of him being awkward, including a bunch of funny sound effects.

I'm legitimately happy we got that "I love you" — outside of the problems since arriving in Atlas, I've always enjoyed the ship — but coming on the heels of last week's episode, it makes the bee's forehead touch look even worse. Renora has been confirmed multiple times at this point, but we still can't get something overt for our one, queer ship.

On the one hand, I really like that Nora set a boundary here — a surprisingly mature conversation for RWBY — but I'm confused as to what exactly the boundary is. She says she needs to figure out who she is without Ren, but what does that translate to on a practical, day-to-day basis? Normally, when a couple needs to figure out who they are they separate, but renora can't do that. They're still on the same team, stuck in the same war, presumably off to do the same things they've always done together. It sounds great on paper to say that Nora is going to discover who she is without Ren, but unless they separate again I don't see how that can happen. More likely, we'll get a volume or two of them looking and acting exactly as they always have, but when it comes time for relationship drama again, Nora will insist she's a different person who is now ready to be with him. That she's changed. But change requires, you know, making a change, so is renora actually going to look any different moving forward?

While these two confess their love but also decide to be separate (is that what happened?), Qrow and Robyn have knocked out some guards and retrieved their weapons. Robyn watches four security feeds, whispering, "He's... really gonna do it." See? Even Robyn, someone who never liked Ironwood and considered him dangerous from the start, is in shock that he would go this far. Qrow doesn't want to talk moral downfalls though, he's all action: "Not if we stop him first."

You know, at least Qrow is doing something. What he's doing is stupid, particularly given his motivations, but with the volume we've had I give him props for coming up with a plan and sticking to it. That's more than many of the others have done.

Yet then, suddenly, Robyn doesn't want to kill Ironwood. ...Since when? Robyn has been the most trigger happy of the lot while Qrow initially wanted to talk. Now they've switched places for no reason I can see, with Qrow all murder happy and Robyn cautioning restraint. Which admittedly isn't uncommon. Remember how Nora was all about protecting Mantle and then randomly decided to help with Amity instead? Remember how Yang was critical of Ruby and then decided to defend her to Ren? Remember how Hazel was pro-Salem until he saw a blue naked lady and decided to defect? At this point, characters just do things at random.

Robyn says that Qrow isn't trying to kill Ironwood because that's the right thing to do, only because he wants revenge. A true enough assessment. But then she follows it up by claiming that Qrow is a better huntsmen than Clover because he does the right thing. Without rehashing all my arguments regarding how Clover was not the devil incarnate for refusing to let two potential criminals walk free — especially after they attacked him — we're really playing the dead guy card now? Clover was murdered. Robyn and Qrow were participants in that murder. Now Robyn is making sweeping claims about who is the better person when Clover quite obviously isn't here to defend himself? That's all kinds of messed up.

Before they can bash the dead guy anymore though the elevator arrives. We see Qrow and Robyn's shocked expressions at whoever is behind the doors, presumably Winter and Marrow. It seems likely that Winter didn't really intend to take him to the brig. They're defecting and have now found two more allies to help them. Robyn wants a plan other than run upstairs and stab Ironwood? Winter will likely provide one.

We return to Ruby who, as established, is wallowing in the most dramatic position on the staircase. Obviously things are legitimately horrible right now and if Ruby had been given a storyline different from what we've seen since Volume 6, I'd feel sorry for her. As it stands, it's just frustrating to watch her look like the maiden of a Victorian novel while Mantle's time ticks away. 

The conversation between her and Yang is great though. At least, it is for the first few sentences. I love that the show remembered they're sisters and have them talking again. I love that Yang tries to cheer Ruby up by saying she outshines her big sis in regards to the Hound. I love that she nevertheless acknowledges that the Schnees were a part of that defeat, giving them their due rather than putting all the praise on Ruby. We establish that Yang has learned what the Hound really was. This conversation is going strong...

...but then.

"That's what happened to mom."

Really? Really? In eight episodes we went from, "Lol just because the Hound spoke doesn't mean Summer was secretly made into a grimm. That’s a crazy theory" to "Summer was absolutely turned into a grimm. That's canon now!" Except because it was made canon by Ruby just announcing it one day, we can expect for an even bigger "twist" in the future: Summer is still alive. Why wouldn't she be? The Hound was untouchable outside of silver eyes, so we have little reason to think anyone has defeated her in the last 14 odd years.

I'll admit the timeline works out better than expected (I think) with Salem killing SEWs during Maria's time before switching to experimentation, but there's no emotional weight to this. I just don't care and frankly I don't think the fandom cares either. Oh, there's plenty of excitement over the reveal, but that's all for the version of Summer Rose people have built up in their minds for the last eight years, not anything that exists in the show. If you strip away all the headcanons and fics, Summer isn't interesting because she barely exists. We know nothing about her as a person and therefore we have no reason to care that she's likely another Hound. Worse — because maybe this could be smoothed over if we just care since Ruby cares — everything else surrounding this reveal was badly done. Summer, as said, has been a non-character for this whole series. Yang only just remembered two episodes ago that Summer is her mom too. The only evidence of experimentation we've seen is on other grimm, not people. There was more mystery surrounding why Tyrian was interested in Jaune, not why he'd kidnap Ruby (Big Bads always want to kidnap heroes). We have no idea who this silver eyed faunus was. We have no idea why Salem would randomly start experimenting when she doesn't need additional weapons. We don't know why she would keep these weapons to the sidelines when she’s apparently had them for over a decade. I don't even buy that Ruby, someone who we never see thinking about or questioning any of this, suddenly put all these pieces together to hit on the revelation. 

None of this adds up because it wasn't planned. Summer was dead, added to the series purely because having a dead mom is interesting, and she was treated as dead for seven years. Not just by the characters, by the show. Then, suddenly, the narrative raced to remind everyone that she's supposedly a Very Important Character so we could get this twist. It’s awful. Not because the idea itself is horrible, but because it was shoved into a story that wasn't prepared for it and certainly doesn't need it. The group has Salem herself attacking the kingdom, Ironwood threatening destruction, three Relics still to discover, not to mention all the other personal conflicts going on — Emerald walking around the mansion, Ozpin is back, Penny is being controlled, Oscar has finite magic now, Nora is still recovering — but we're going to introduce another subplot to deal with? RWBY acts like it's terrified that if it doesn't add something new and flashy every third episode, its viewers will jump ship. Despite its hiccups, there's a reason why the arcs of Volume 4 worked well overall: characters were given the time to explore specific problems, like Yang's PTSD and the destruction of Ren's village. Now, in episode 11 of 14, RWBY reveals that two of the characters' mom was turned into a literal monster, but there's only time for a tiny bit of comfort because Penny is escaping and they have less than an hour now to save Mantle. There is way too much going on and we're not devoting enough time to any of it.

Hell, even the conversation can't afford to stay on the Summer reveal for more than a few sentences. Ruby segues back to her self-chastisement, saying that she wasted time on Amity. She did, but not because people didn't come. She never should have made that terrifying, nonsensical announcement to begin with. But just like Ruby never thought through the pros and cons of telling the world about Salem, she apparently never thought about the logistics of getting help. She's written the world off now — so you just know help will appear in the finale — yet she never considered how long all this would take. Our timeline is (supposedly) two days, so how long would it take a kingdom to digest the information she gave them, decide on a course of action, get people and resources together, then fly all the way to Atlas? After Ruby used most of the first day just to send the message? As I and others have pointed out, the answer is “way longer than the group has.” It shouldn't be possible, yet neither Ruby nor Yang realizes basic facts like, "What's the flight time between Vacuo and Atlas?" Like Qrow blaming his semblance rather than his decision to team up with Tyrian, Ruby blames the world for abandoning them rather than her terribly thought out plan. Both have reached the right emotion — regret — but not for the right reasons.

Also, Ruby says that Amity fell. Are Pietro and Maria okay??

Yang talks about blind optimism vs. no optimism at all, something I could really get behind if the group hadn't been governed by blind optimism this whole time. Also if what the rest of what Yang said made sense. She fires back with, “And in case you didn’t notice, my plan for Mantle didn’t work either." Uh... what plan? As far as I recall there was no plan. They just went down to do any tasks that needed doing: supply runs and grimm killings. What plan is Yang talking about?

This conversation is a disaster. We circle back around to Summer with Yang saying she also took a risk (the title is very obvious this episode) but "she's still my hero." Is she? Because the only thing you've ever said about Summer is that she baked great cookies. Regardless, Yang lays her head on Ruby's shoulder and they cry some more.

Then Jaune hurries down the steps because Penny has woken up and broken through a window.

Again: how were they planning to deal with this? Did anyone discuss it? Because it looks like Klein said, "Hey, that friend of yours powered up and could have hurt us," Nora said, "Hey, Penny was fighting some sort of control," and Whitely said, "Yeah, she wanted to open the vault and then self destruct" and everyone just left her alone in some room, deciding they'd worry about that later. If Penny had just snuck out a little more quietly the group would have been screwed.

What I do like though is the teamwork to keep Penny from flying off. It feels like we get so little teamwork nowadays, which makes everyone piling on others' range weapons, or Jaune boosting Weiss' glyphs, really enjoyable. Even Emerald gets in on the action because apparently they gave her her weapons back! 

We're going to talk about this nonsense in a second.

For now, Ruby implores Penny to fight it, which is exactly what I said we'd get. Penny insists Ruby kill her though, saying that if she does she'll ensure that the power passes to her. I find this to be a weird priority. Does the group really care about who gets the Maiden powers right now? The threat here is that Penny will successfully open the vault — which shouldn't even be that much of a worry. Just let Ironwood leave instead of trying to destroy Mantle! Keeping him here has made things worse! — and that Penny will self-destruct. That feels like the biggest worry: that Penny will die. So they're going to prevent her death by... killing her themselves? Priorities and motivations really feel shaky this week.

Luckily, Ruby remembers that Penny is A Real Person and tells Jaune to amplify her aura. The fact that she has a soul keeps the virus from overtaking her. Hurray!

That's like saying my sense of self will beat off rabies. Just believe that you're your own person and nothing can touch you. They go so far as to say, “That’s who you are. Our friend, not a machine” and that feels like such an erasure to me. Penny is a machine. She is! And that was great back when this was accepted as a good thing, not something to ignore. Remember this?

You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?

Here, Ruby acknowledges Penny's difference and reaffirms that she still has worth. Now, the group denies Penny's difference in order to prove that she has worth. She has worth because she's supposedly not a machine and supposedly can't be controlled like one... even though she is a machine and is being controlled. It's only Jaune's semblance that keeps her from going under again. The concept of Penny's personhood is now connected to her ability to resist a machine-based virus and she has failed to do that. This doesn't confirm Penny's humanity, it tells Penny (and us) that humanity is distinct from the machine parts of her, rather than a concept that includes it, and the moment she is too influenced by that machinery she ceases to be a person. The group isn't accepting her here, they're encouraging Penny to ignore and deny the parts that make her Penny.

If you want an example of how to do an arc like this far, far better, go watch The Next Generation with Data. He's what Penny could have been.

Regardless, the virus has been held at bay, at least so long as Jaune has aura. Which seems to be endless given that he was exhausting himself in the whale, but is now boosting Nora, Weiss, and Penny without any difficulty.

At least that's a minor concern in the grand scheme of things. What we're about to get? Not so much. Honestly, I'm 7k into this recap and I just don't have the energy that these two scenes deserve. Which scenes? The one where Emerald is welcomed into the fold with laughter and Ozpin has to grovel for forgiveness.

Emerald first. Last week I said:

“However this fight ends, we could really use someone like you, [Emerald.]” That’s it then. Discussion over. We knew as soon as it started that blindly trusting her was being presented as the “right” thing to do and now here we are, deciding that conclusively, despite Jaune and Yang’s complaints. By the time the group reaches the mansion, Oscar is defending Emerald from Ruby. We’re supposed to just accept that she’s a part of the group now, only minimal pushback allowed.

and I was right. Over the course of the last week I spoke with a number of friends, many of them working under the belief that this was just the start of an arc for Emerald. Obviously the show wouldn't instantly have the group trust her after all this. They'll need to warm up to her first. She'll need to prove herself. Well, I was far more pessimistic, arguing instead that I thought this was it. She was already being presented as a perfectly trustworthy figure. I'd briefly thought I'd been mistaken when the group turned on Emerald for her comment to Ruby, but then suddenly she's been given her weapons back. It's not even a matter of "You should be able to defend yourself, but you're still not trustworthy" (which would still have problems, but). No, she makes a comment about "switching sides" and that's it, trust achieved. That's all it took — nothing at all.

Now, some shows do function on a second chance policy. We can name hundred of stories where heroes instantly forgive antagonists and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that RWBY is very much not that show. In the exact same scene Ozpin apologizes to the group and begs that they try to trust him again:

“I’ve failed all of you. I should have trusted you with the truth and I should never have run the day you discovered it."

This is complete and utter bullshit. Sorry, I'm not mincing words for this one. Two years we waiting for the group to come around, hoping that there would be apologies on both sides, but there wasn't. The group doesn't physically or verbally hurt Ozpin anymore — they do accept his request — but it's done with expressions that say this is what they are owed. You’d better apologize.

I could rehash all the arguments I've already made about how atrociously they treated him, how Ozpin had no reason to trust a bunch of teenagers, how important it was that both sides admit their mistakes, but if you're reading this recap you're likely already familiar with all that. Rather, what I want to emphasize here is that our opinions on Ozpin don't even matter here. Even those who take his apology at face value — fully believing he did fail them, he should have told them everything from the start, and that him leaving was "running away" rather than being driven off — even if we accept for just a moment that Ozpin is as guilty as the show says and heinous as the fandom claims... surely he's not as bad as Emerald? In roughly chronological order she has:

Tried to ally herself with Adam along with Cinder and Mercury

Helped to attack Amber, resulting in injuries that would have killed her if Cinder hadn't gotten to her first

Helped kill Tukson

Pretended to be a transfer student and Ruby's friend for the rest of the semester (that’s a lie that would breed mistrust)

Tricked the world into thinking that Yang had attacked Mercury unprovoked

Uses her semblance on Pyrrha, causing her to unintentionally kill Penny

All of this was in service of the Fall of Beacon, an event that destroyed a school, killed an unknown number of students, killed Pyrrha, and lost Yang her arm

Participated in the attack on Haven which, beyond the intent to further Salem's goals, nearly got Weiss killed

Came to Atlas to assist in the next attack

Went after Penny, Pietro, and Maria — two of whom might still be in trouble depending on if Amity literally fell out of the sky 

Listened to Oscar being tortured, hemming and hawing for a while before realizing that, if the whole world is in danger, she's in danger too

Finally jumped ship

Emerald is one of the bad guys. All the sad looks over the years doesn't change that. Yet somehow an antagonist we've had since Volume 1 is considered more trustworthy than Ozpin, a man who hasn't intentionally helped kill their friends and who has been helping and apologizing for months now.

Yang "Aww"s when Emerald speaks. Just sit with that for a second. The woman who went through all of that horror because of Emerald, who just last episode was correctly saying they can't expect her to forget all that, is going "Aww" after... Emerald helped hold Penny for two seconds? This is ridiculous. These are the faces of the group when talking about Emerald's trust

whereas these are their expressions when talking about Ozpin's

It’s not a matter of who deserves trust or not, here it’s purely a matter of comparison. Emerald should not be more quickly forgiven than Ozpin. 

Now toss in the story Ozpin tells. Unsurprisingly, it's another fairy tale — we've gotten a little heavy-handed lately — about a young girl who flees the consequences of a choice and, having never learned from her initial failure, spreads even more trouble. That's Ruby. That is Ruby to a T in this episode and the last three volumes. She is literally a young girl who has caused staggering consequences, literally ran away from the conversation about those consequences, and is now poised to continue making those mistakes because everyone keeps reinforcing her flaws. That's Ruby, yet somehow the show thinks it's Ozpin. He positions himself as the young girl here, as if he didn't face his consequences generations ago when he left the cabin, didn't learn from his mistakes by keeping Salem's secret, and hadn't been driven away by the very people he's asking for a second chance. This scene has everything backwards and while normally I'd grab hold of the possibility that maybe things will right themselves later on... we're done. This is the ending of that arc. After two years of saying, "Maybe, maybe, maybe," Ozpin has been taken back into the fold after begging his way back in. There's no more time to correct things. RWBY missed its chance. Weiss says that "Trust is a risk" and that's how Ozpin is forgiven. They have taken the risk of trusting him again after months of reflection, life-saving actions, and apologies. Emerald is granted the risk of trust in under an hour. I’ve heard so many people say they’re dropping RWBY this volume and scenes like this are precisely why. 

Ugh. Heavy stuff, folks! I feel like I need to lighten the mood. Here, let's take a moment to acknowledge that the Schnees and Klein only marginally know what's happening.

Someone help them.

That is, to all intents and purposes, the end of our episode. Ruby has some sort of epiphany about actually handing Penny over — "That's actually a risk we haven't considered" — and Ironwood will no doubt fall for whatever plan they've concocted because he's stupid now. He receives a call from Ruby saying they agree to his terms, Watts is attempting to get communication of his own up and running, and Neo arrives to do... whatever she intends to do. Idk, I have assumed she wanted Ruby, but Cinder obviously doesn't have her yet for a trade off. Regardless, Neo is ready for a fight while Cinder just smiles. Team up 2.0?

As for bingo, I'm using my free space for "Worst redemption arc I've ever seen," with an honorary nod to Hazel too, and Ozpin's square gets blacked out in exes because that was just #bad.

This bingo board is a mess. Appropriate lol 

Three more weeks, everyone. Hang in there! 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby risk #mymetas #rwby recaps

[comicswithcate2020]

Connor’s Collection of Comics

Imagine being seven years old, sitting in a movie theater and watching Toby McGuire on the big screen wearing the iconic blue and red suit. Imagine leaving the theater speechless and wondering what other adventures and stories Spiderman has to offer. That’s exactly when 25 year old Connor O’Keefe decided he wanted to try comic books. Connor has been collecting comic books for almost 15 years. Growing up in Medford, MA, Connor was influenced by his parents and the pop culture that surrounded  him. Between the cartoons that he used to watch and growing up with comic book movies originally starting to come out, Connor became hooked. It was after the third Sam Rani Spiderman movie that Connor officially got into comics. He became a collector of all things Venom and Venom related. Although Connor's collection isn’t just limited to Marvel, as he also collects a lot of Star Wars merchandise. He specifically likes General Grievous- he recently completed a General Grievous model. To complete the model, he painted it by hand to make it look more realistic. A peek into his bedroom can show you just how much he has collected throughout the years.

His walls are adorned with quite a few posters, his shelf is filled with comics, posters and frames that have yet to be hung sitting in a pile on the floor. A lot of these frames were gathered at Comic Cons- when he got old enough, he started going to Boston Comic Con with his father and has been known to go for at least one out of the three days every year. He has autographed headshots of different characters, like Bane from Batman. Yet to be hung up is a Venom shadow box filled with different cut outs of Venom’s different art styles throughout the years. Funko Pops adorn his shelves and his TV stand, ranging with characters from The Big Bang Theory to Smuag from Lord of the Rings. Everywhere you look in his room, you can find something comic related- whether it is DC, Marvel, Star Wars, or even select video games.

Growing up in Medford, Connor would go to shop at Harrison's Comics, found in The Meadow Glen Mall. When he was 14, his family moved to Reading, MA and Connor realized he needed to find a new store. He happened upon Comically Speaking and has been going there ever since.

Q: How were you introduced to comic books?

A: They were just there. I was born in 95’ so I had my adolescence and early adulthood molded by the comic book movies. As we know them today, they started really in 1998 with Blade. That's kind of when they started taking off, because then they had the Sam Raimi SpiderMan movies, the original X-Men trilogy, and so on. I grew up watching these movies and watching the cartoons and eventually, I think it was after SpiderMan 3 came out, I was in fifth grade, I thought, ‘yeah, I want to read the material that inspired these movies that I liked so much.’ I was living in Medford at the time, so there was a comic book store, Harrison’s, that was in the Meadow Glen Mall, which is no longer a thing in Medford. But I went there and I picked up a couple of back issues of comics and I have been reading comics consistently since then. It's a month to month thing, but the movies basically got me into it. Well, the movies and the cartoons.

Q: Who is your favorite character and why?

A: My favorite character is Venom, specifically Eddie Brock as Venom. There have been a couple of different characters that have had that title. Eddie is my favorite character because first of all, his visual design is very good. It's very crisp- you immediately know when you're looking at when you see him. He’s super edgy and I really like that kind of thing. I like Eddie because he's had a very long transformation over the course of the 30 years he's been around. At first he was just trying to kill SpiderMan and then he had an arc where he realizes that Spiderman isn't such a bad guy. And then he was sick with cancer and he realized, ‘Hey, I have kind of been doing some terrible stuff’ and he gets better from the cancer and he decides he's going to take this new lease on life and become a better person and be a hero. When I first started reading comics, they were in the middle of the cancer arc. So while I've been reading comics, I only know Eddie Brock as a hero. So in my mind, Venom is a superhero because that's what he's been for 20 of the 30 years he's existed.

Q: What type(s) of comic related things do you collect?

A: I do collect back issues, starting when I was in fifth grade, so I am 25 now. I take great pride in the fact that I have amassed, I don't want to say all of them cause I'm sure there's an odd issue here or there that I might've missed. But every single issue that Eddie Brock has appeared in, with the exception of his first and second appearances, which are like massively expensive, $200-300 issues. Those are the great white whales. But I have just about every single issue of comic book that he's ever appeared in over the course of 30 years. I kind of take some pride in that. That's taken a while to amass. Obviously that's ever expanding because he has a current ongoing book. In terms of other things I collect,  I am trying to build a physical collection of the movies. Personally I enjoy streaming content but at the same time I realize that I don't want to be left without a particular film, if a company decides that they want to pull an individual move from a service. A little while ago they almost pulled Friends from Netflix and people started freaking out, everyone was losing their minds about it. And I'm like, ‘Hey, buy the physical copy, no one's taken that away from you.’ So I collect the movies. I think out of the 20 Marvel Studios movies, I have about 17 of them in some capacity or another.  I don't necessarily collect games, there haven't been too many comic book games lately. But I do play them when they come out.

Q: Which is your most treasured comic?

A: My most treasured comic is the first mini series of comics I ever got. It's a series of six issues that came out in 94’, called Venom: Lethal Protector. It was Eddie Brock's first standalone story where he was trying to prove his worth as a hero and they were kind of hard to track down. I had to track them down over the course of two years. I started collecting them when I was in fifth grade. It was before the internet really took off, and before online ordering was a thing. So I was tracking 20 year old comics down at brick and mortar stores, which is kind of a tall order. Especially when you're 10 years old and you can't get anywhere yourself. So I have all six of those. They're in packages, they're propped up and they're preserved. I don't read them, I have different means of reading the story if I ever want to revisit it. But those are probably my most treasured thing in my comic collection.

Q: Which comic book related movie is your favorite and least favorite?

A: I'm going to sound like a bit of a broken record, but the Venom movie that came out, the other year has a very special place in my heart even though it's not necessarily one-to-one with the character. That movie was in production, since SpiderMan 3 came out in 2007. It's been in production a very long time and people have been trying to get it off the ground for many, many years and I was following it day by day. When that finally came out, I had this big party, I basically went through my contacts and got a bunch of people that I knew over the course of that 10 year span. And I'm like, ‘Hey, you remember that Venom movie I always talked about? Uh, it's finally coming out. You guys want to go see it?’ It was this big thing. I have pictures from that day. We all went to Dick's Last Resort in Boston, we went out to dinner beforehand and we all just had a great time with it. That movie, even though it's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, it holds a very special place in my heart.

Q: Are there any movies that you think goes against a character completely?

A: This is a slightly controversial opinion. I don't think Marvel Spiderman, like the current Spiderman, Tom Holland is good. I enjoy the movies and I think Tom Holland's great. But Spiderman- he's supposed to be his own man. In the new Marvel movies that come out, he's presented as Iron Man's sidekick. He has not had a solo movie where he's dealing with one of his own villains. Every villain that Spiderman has so far is somebody who's pissed off at Iron Man. So Spiderman has to spend his solo movies, cleaning up Iron Man's messes. I think that it's really unfortunate that they used Iron Man as Spiderman's jumping off point because Spiderman has, out of all the characters, some of the richest individual stories he can tell. Every character has their big stories, but Spiderman has the most. He is that company's flagship character and has been for so many years before Iron Man blew up. It's especially unfortunate that Iron Man has taken the place of Uncle Ben in the current Spiderman movies. Uncle Ben is the reason Spiderman does what he does in every single medium across the board. So, slightly controversial take on that one. But yeah, Tom Holland Spiderman, while enjoyable to watch is definitely not the Spiderman I would have liked to have seen on the big screen. I still think Toby Maguire is probably the most accurate Spiderman.

Q: Can you touch upon the movie script that you wrote for Venom when you were younger?

A: I was 10 or 11 years old and I had written a script for the Venom movie that was 20 pages long because I had no concept of how that would translate to the screen. I still have it by the way, it's up in my room on my desk. It's terrible and it's cringy and it's everything you would expect a 10 year old to write. But I got to say, I wrote a fight scene in that movie and that fight scene is a banger. I would love to see that translate to the big screen. 10 year old Connor could choreograph fights. All this crazy stuff was going to happen, they're really beating the life out of each other. Lampposts were flying, it was great. I want somebody, if you're reading this, give me a call. We can work something out.

Q: How did you find out about Comically Speaking?

A: A couple of years after I started getting into comics, my family moved from Medford to Reading. Granted this was not the thing that really drove me to Comically Speaking. The thing that drove me to Comically Speaking was Harrison's shuttered their doors like a year or so before we made the move. So when we ended up in Reading, I knew I needed to find a new place to do comics stuff . So I  just Googled places for comics near me and Comically Speaking came up and I went there and I've been going there pretty consistently since we moved to Reading about 11 years ago.

Q: What were your first impressions of the store?

A: My first impression of the store was that I felt a little overwhelmed. They have a lot more than Harrison's did, in terms of their selection of books. You got to remember also at the time, I was like 13 and they like to think that they know everything and when they are presented with something that they do not know, they refuse to admit that they do not know it. So I spent about 40 minutes in that store just wandering around like a dumb ass, searchng for what I was looking for. Eventually I figured it out, It was the preteen equivalent to when they change stuff around at the grocery store and you get angry that you can't find it. But yes, I was very overwhelmed and I was too full of myself to accept anyone's help.

Q: You’ve been to other stores that sell comics, chain stores and whatnot, how does Comically Speaking compare?

A: I’m struggling to remember what the Harrison's in Medford was like because that was  a lifetime and a half ago. There’s one in Salem, it’s pretty easy to navigate. They have stuff like manga, the Japanese comics. Harrison's is all right, I prefer Comically Speaking myself,it's my home store. Newbury Comics they're less of a comic store, you'll go into Newbury Comics and you can get a lot of stuff there, but you walk in there like, ‘Hey, I'm looking for comics’ and they have this tiny itty bitty rack in the corner with like only like 10 of the most recent comics of the most from the most popular books. And it's just like, 50% of your name is complete bullshit Newbury Comics. You're selling like 10 comics in this store. Comically Speaking, for me, is where I want to go and get some books. I'm gonna get some books and with the downstairs area I can go down there and get collectibles now. I only go to Harrison's or Newbury if I'm completely out of the area, those were my go to while I was at school in Beverley. But if I'm here and I have the time and money, I'm definitely going to be in Comically Speaking at least once a month, picking up the books that I read.

Q: What do you think about Comically Speaking as a whole?

A: It's my store. There's a lot of concern right now, I don't know how familiar you are with the actual comics industry, but one of their big shipping companies, Diamond, shut their doors for the minute because of the coronavirus. So DC and Marvel can't get their books out if Diamond isn't actually moving them. The Corona virus is going to be hitting the comics industry a lot harder than most industries. I am a little concerned about it because the locally owned stores are going to be the ones hit by it. I'm hoping that everything works out once this wears off and things are stable again. I'll definitely be going in there and helping out, spending some time. I like the store, it’s a good homey environment. That's the other thing about Newbury, I walk into Newbury Comics and I get the trendy geek vibe. When you go into Comically Speaking, I never get that vibe. It's just very down to earth and it doesn't feel  pretentious. It's always like these people like what they're doing, they like comics. If I walked into a Newbury Comics and I asked them what they thought of a particular artist, they wouldn't know. I don’t know, there's more genuineness there to the people and the environment. Everything about Comically Speaking, I feel like I'm with my people there.

Q: What do comics mean to you?

A: They entertain me. I like reading the stories. I think most of the characters are pretty good. There are more characters you can count with comics. I could sit here for hours and I probably wouldn't even scratch the surface. They’re really good to convey things about who we are as a people and what we hold dear. If you exist on this earth, if you have a pulse, there's a comic book character that you can connect with in some way. Or you can look at this character and say, ‘Hey, I understand what that person is going through. I want to read more about that person and I want to see what kind of adventures they go on’. You can connect with that and I think that's what gives any type of medium; comics, movies, TV shows. That's what gives mediums their strength. When you can look at characters and see characters who you are inside, or  you know someone like that. I think that's what gives a story their legs. Comics for me are filled with characters like that.

[itsclydebitches]

Summary:

“Good things come to those who wait… provided they know what they’re waiting for.”

Moments in Barry and Cisco’s lives as they slowly and surely fall in love. It’s simultaneously the easiest and most complicated thing they’ve ever done.

(Part of the “Worth the Wait” series.)

Fandom: The Flash (TV show)

Words: 18,392 (so far) 

Warnings: None

Pairings: Barry/Cisco

This Section: Cisco deals with the fact that trivia might not be the only competition he’s entering tonight... 

Where to Read it: Below the cut or on AO3 (AO3 recommended for formatting)

Fierce Competition

Cisco recalled with the abruptness of a car crash that he really wasn’t the wooing type.

Let’s face it, in the obligatory ranking system that was life he wasn’t exactly on the top ten Soulmate list. Or twenty. Fifty. Cisco wasn’t even in the freaking running. He was a Puerto Rican American with too long hair, too short a body, and absolutely no muscles to speak of. (He still hadn’t forgiven Barry for just waking up with abs, that bastard). His family had always been too poor, too brown... and Cisco had always been too smart for the rest of them. It had been made abundantly clear to him in school that being a nerd—even a genius nerd—would never score him any points. Working at STAR Labs should have been the revelation. Here they are! My people! Revealed to me at last! But even those people turned out to be assholes (Hartley), or snobs (Ryan in bio-tech), or just incapable of getting over the fact that the world’s foremost mechanical-engineer might choose to wear novelty t-shirts on a daily basis (literally everyone Cisco had ever met, with the exception of Dr. Wells. He could appreciate the man’s simple attire even if it was perpetually stuck in an emo-teen stage.) The point was he’d never been a catch and Cisco saw no reason why that would change now. Especially for someone like Barry.

It wasn’t like he was luring in small fish here. He was going after the goddamn white whale.

You know, minus the leg eating, murderous intentions.

“This analogy isn’t working,” Cisco muttered. “I’m losing my mind.”

He’d been losing a lot more than that. After his weird-ass (yet surprisingly uplifting) conversation with Dr. Wells, Cisco had gone to hide out in his workroom instead, under the guise of being productive. Rather, he was really just pacing between the door and his Sleep Depravation Cot, pulling at his hair and reciting an endless stream of, “Oh holy fuck, dude, what have you gotten yourself into” because honestly, what the hell was he supposed to do now? Be himself?

“Ha!” Cisco finger gunned an imaginary audience. “Like that’s ever worked.”

The only other option then was to be better. To somehow be more for Barry.

Cisco thought he could do that.

He just needed a little help.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he whispered even as he sat his butt down in the chair and jabbed at his laptop until it decided to cooperate. Info was just a few keystrokes away, even if Cisco did cringe at his own search choices.

In for a penny though, and all that crap.

“Hey there, Cosmopolitan. For the love of God please help me.”

***

Primp before going out and keep on the cool side. Confidence is practically catnip to men!

***

Barry was practically jumping out of his skin.

He knew he’d always looked a bit like a caffeinated junkie (if they had a thing for soft sweaters and the occasional bowtie), but it had gotten so much worse since the accident. He hadn’t known how to describe it until Cisco gave him the words: “Things didn’t slow down, dude. You were just going so fast that it only looked like everyone else froze.” And that’s how it was now, twenty-four seven. He might not always be using his superspeed, but Barry was constantly aware of just how slow everyone was. People walked at a molasses pace, car rides were pure torture (even more than they’d been before), he could stretch a blink into a five minute performance and oh my god just do it, just do it already.

Barry’s life was a Shia LaBeouf meme and it resulted in a lot of fidgeting. Sure, there was a lot going on in Jitters already—colorful decorations, people milling around in costumes, mounds of company-approved snacks, a judges table loaded with prizes—but even amongst all that Barry felt like he stuck out. He was currently rattling the table slightly with his bouncing knee.

Eddie leaned and caught his eye across the table. “Easy there, Allen. You okay?”

“Oh yeah, fine. Just excited.” Barry got a smile going because, well, that was true enough, wasn’t it? He was excited.

Eddie grimaced though. “I’m not. Did I tell you guys I’m not much of a trivia person?”

“Yep. Over nine-thousand times!”

Eddie stared. “I just missed some reference, didn’t I?”

“Yep again. Check out Dragon Ball Z sometime.”

“...I’ll be sure to do that.” His tone made it very clear that Eddie was going to do nothing of the kind and Barry chuckled. He had to admit, Eddie was a pretty chill guy once you got to know him, a lot more relaxed than Barry had first assumed. They could be friends. If only there wasn’t that pesky little problem of—

“There she is.”

Barry recognized that tone as well. Sure enough he turned as Iris walked through the front, somehow managing to make Jitter’s sticky floors look like a runway. She wasn’t in anything out of the ordinary—jeans, lightweight sweater, nothing, Barry hadn’t seen her in a million times before—but each time he did it might as well have been a new experience. That pesky thing about everything seeming too slow? Yeah, Iris slowed things down to the max... but Barry didn’t mind in the least. She was glorious to watch. She was everything he’d ever wanted.

Everything Eddie wanted too.

Barry tried not to grimace at the kiss they shared—and he largely succeeded. Iris hugged him and that, at least, felt familiar.

He’d missed this while he was in his coma. He couldn’t remember that he’d missed it, of course, but Barry knew he had.

“Look at this place,” Iris said. She raised her arms only to let them drop heavily, seemingly overwhelmed by the coffee shop’s transformation. “Can you believe they got this all set up in a few hours? If Becca put half as much effort into serving people as she did decorating she might actually make a half-decent waitress.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Eddie stage whispered and the three of them craned necks over the crowd to get a good look at Becca. Tall, stocky, and with a permanent ‘resting bitch face,’ she looked more like ex-special forces than someone who served up coffee every day. Iris and Eddie exchanged exaggerated looks of horror while Barry chucked a pretzel at them.

“She’s nice,” he insisted.

Iris pulled a face. “You think everyone’s nice.”

“She gives me free blueberry muffins!”

“Because no-one else wants them, Barry. They’re awful.”

“Are not,” he said petulantly, tracing his finger over the tabletop. It pulled a laugh out of Iris, just like Barry knew it would, and he grinned in triumph.

Score one for him. That’s right, it didn’t even matter who Iris dated because Eddie would never have this, the intimate, easy-going conversation of those who’d known each other for forever. A part of Barry felt guilty about starting up a ‘competition’... a larger part of him really didn’t care. He’d dated others after all, a fair number actually, and none of them were Iris. Besides, didn’t he deserve something good for once? His mom, his dad, missing out on the particle accelerator launch (which had honestly been a tragedy at the time), getting struck by lighting of all things, and now he was giving himself to the city not just as an forensic scientist, but as a freaking superhero too. It wasn’t like he was asking for a reward exactly... just something. A karmic IOU maybe.

Barry looked at Iris’ enraptured expression and thought that maybe the universe was actually looking out for him now.

Or not. Turns out she wasn’t looking at him.

“Wow,” Iris breathed.

Barry wrenched in his seat and then very nearly fell out of it. Because Cisco stood in the doorway and he, he…

...‘wow’ was right. Barry had never seen Cisco looking like that before.

Words like “vision” and “unexpected” were warring in his head. Cisco wore pressed black slacks and slick shoes that made him look taller than he actually was (Barry was sure). Cisco still had one of his trademark graphic tees on (reading “Got Trivia?” in curled, fancy script) but it was accompanied by a grey, tailored jacket that probably cost more than two months of Barry’s rent. Cisco had clearly just shaved—he could smell faint traces of the cream from here, like cedar-wood and eucalyptus fused together—and his hair had the fluffy look of a recent wash, braided neatly and hanging over one shoulder. Barry’s hands twitched in his lap.

He wanted to touch Cisco’s hair. More than that, he wanted to actively run his hands through it, like some sap in a rom-com, because Barry was sure that it would be soft and tangle free and look absolutely fantastic if it was a mussed up a bit.

Which was a crazy thought all around. Not because Barry was wrong about the look—Cisco would be stunning with some well-crafted bedhead—but the fact that he was thinking about this at all. Barry couldn’t remember the last time he’d thought about a guy like that, even briefly. It had probably been back in college, the four years he’d been separated from Iris and actively aware of what it meant to ‘experiment.’ Not that it had been experimentation for long. Not that coming out as bisexual had made him love Iris any less. It was just another aspect of his identity—alongside “scientist” and “son” and ironically “brother.” As far as Barry was concerned that attraction was a dead end because who could he want but Iris? She was already his everything.

So. This was just a simple, entirely objective analysis that Cisco Ramon looked stunningly hot in that outfit. Barry could deal.

“Barry.”

He jerked, the world speeding up and suddenly Cisco wasn’t across the room, he was there. Right there in front of Barry, close enough that the cedar-wood was overwhelming and he could see the tiny, decorative stitches on that jacket. Somehow Iris had gotten a hand on his shoulder, shaking Barry to try and grab his attention and wait, when exactly had all this happened? The three of them were staring at him like he’d lost his mind—which maybe he had—because a good chunk of time had obviously passed without Barry noticing. He clacked his teeth together and realized with dawning horror that his mouth had been hanging open for god only knew how long. There was a bit of drool on his chin.

Barry hastily wiped it away. He sat back so he was leaning against the table, his whole body feeling jittery. Right. Objective observation:

The world had slowed down for Cisco too.

Shit.

“Heeeey,” he said. “You look... good. Really good.”

Cisco started to smile, that bright grin that Barry was beginning to associate with the lab and candy-colored lips, until it suddenly slipped away. Barry blinked, feeling oddly bereft. In its place was a smirk that crawled onto Cisco’s face, settling there unnaturally. He raised a hand flippantly.

“Duh. You don’t really think I always wear crap t-shirts and jeans, do you?”

“Um, no?”

“Exactly.”

Cisco cast Barry a look he couldn’t quite decipher and slid onto his stool. It might have been a suave move if he hadn’t sat so fast, over balancing and nearly toppling to the floor. Eddie caught him at the last second, keeping Cisco upright by grabbing him by the lapels. Barry couldn’t help it: he laughed at the comical look of horror on Cisco’s face. He noticed and shoved Eddie off him, too rough.

“I’m fine,” he snapped and sat up straight. Cisco folded his arms over the table, then in his lap, before finally resting his chin on one hand and tapping the fingers of his other along his knee. Cisco stared out over their heads while Barry and Iris exchanged concerned glances. Eddie just looked pissed.

“You’re welcome,” he said. Cisco ignored him.

“Hey, we’re super glad you could make it. Here,” Iris grabbed hold of the tiny chalk-board with their team name on it, shoving it towards Cisco. “Maybe you can make sense of this nerd nonsense. Help us non-geniuses out. E = MC Hammer?”

Barry groaned. “C’mon, Iris. Because E = MC squared. And MC Hammer. And can’t touch this. I’ll have you know it’s brilliant and the hour I spent coming up with it was well spent.”

Eddie’s smile was coming back—and his eyebrows were reaching his hairline. “I’m really not sure it is. Brilliant, I mean. Or worth it.”

“Exactly.” Iris nodded seriously. “I mean, how ‘brilliant’ can something be if no one gets it?”

“I get it!”

“You’re not normal, Barry.”

“Okay, fair, but Cisco gets it too, right Cisco?”

Barry had been watching him from the corner of his eye and Cisco definitely got it. His eyes had lit up the second he’d seen the board and he’d bitten down hard on his lip, clearly stifling a laugh. Barry had known that he of all people would appreciate the pun... but the second he asked it was like Cisco disappeared. Barry watched, a little stunned, as the bright-eyed amusement was snuffed out and Cisco adopted that stiff manner again. It was weird. Like he couldn’t remember how to sit right. Cisco gave the board a disdainful once-over and shrugged.

“It’s fine I guess,” was all he said.

“...alright then,” Eddie muttered and hid behind his coffee.

Barry felt that tone. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but the initial punch of seeing Cisco all dolled up was fading, replaced by the worry that he didn’t actually want to be here. After all, he looked bored as hell and a little grumpy to boot. Five minutes in and Cisco was just... sitting there, not commenting on the decorations or asking about the competition. While Iris tried to strike up another innocuous conversation with Eddie Barry leaned a bit to the right, into Cisco’s space.

He placed a hand on Cisco’s arm and felt him jump. Barry’s fingers tightened. “You okay?” he whispered. A quick glance confirmed that Eddie and Iris were otherwise engaged. Or at least good at faking it. Cisco was just staring at Barry’s hand though and he snapped it back, suddenly self-conscious. “Look, do you want to leave?”

“With you?” Cisco blurted.

What?

“What?”

At Barry’s puzzled look Cisco’s cheeks developed a warm glow and with his hair pulled back Barry could see the tips of his ears turning red. He wasn’t sure why, but Barry felt his own body reacting in sympathy, making what was apparently now an awkward situation ten times worse. The only difference was he was pale as milk and had the fire truck coloring to match. This happened whenever things got weird. Barry was sure he looked like an idiot now.

He didn’t want Cisco to think he was weird. Of course, Barry was, but that was kind of beside the point. Bad weird. Creepy weird. The kind of weird you gave a side-eyed look at before hastily crossing the street. He really didn’t want that from Cisco and holy shit he was spiraling, what even was the conversation again?

“You can go,” Barry clarified. That didn’t seem to make things better. “I mean, I kind of pressured you into this? Maybe? So if you want to take off I’m not gonna be like, upset or anything. You just look...”

“I look...?” Cisco echoed, leaning in just a bit. The t-shirt beneath his jacket was a little large and it dipped, giving Barry a fucking wonderful glimpse of Cisco’s chest.

‘Hot,’ his brain supplied and Barry mentally shrieked, stabbing at it with an imaginary fork.

“...bored,” he finally said. Barry’s mouth had gone dry and it was with the courage of the Assuredly Doomed that he reached back up to pat Cisco’s shoulder. It was warm, firm, and stupidly soft from that jacket. Barry kept patting him like a loon. “You look bored, man.”

Cisco stared. “I’m not.”

“No?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“I’m... sure, Barry.”

“Okay. Um, glad to hear it?”

“Oh thank god!”

The four of them jumped out of their skin, Barry catching the guilty look that flit across Iris’ face (oh hell, had she been listening? Of course she was listening they were right there) when Felicity flew into view, heels clacking and her arms coming up to smoosh Cisco hard against her chest. Barry could still make out the tight black dress she was in though, complimented by some fine, silver jewelry. Cisco floundered in the embrace as Felicity dug her chin into his head.

“I thought I was the only one,” she whispered. “Oh, Cisco, you are a life safer. I got here and thought, ‘Wow, Felicity. Great work! Way to totally overdress for this, you loser,’ but now look at you.” She pulled back to indeed look at him, giving Cisco such a sultry once-over that Eddie choked. “You look great.”

“...Thanks.”

Except Cisco didn’t sound very happy about the compliment. One would think he’d be thrilled with a woman like Felicity giving him her stamp of approval... or if he wasn’t into that (was Cisco into that?) Barry would have bet on an, ‘aw shucks’ grin and a fistpump in thanks, because this was Felicity Smoak, hacker extraordinaire giving him a compliment—who cared what the compliment was about? Cisco just looked sullen though and when he took in Felicity’s own outfit his expression soured even more.

“Ten minutes, folks!” Becca was standing at the back of the shop where a judges’ panel had been staged, complete with prizes for the champion as well as first and second runner up. Barry had his eye on that card for a free month at Jitters. Not that he needed it—Dr. Wells was footing all food expenses nowadays and Barry really had to thank him again for that—but he could bring a whole mound of coffee and donuts into the precinct tomorrow, maybe get Singh back on his good side for once. Barry looked around at all the other teams: stereotypical nerdy types, some decked out in cosplay, a sole group of business men who seemed to have gotten dragged here as a team building exercise... not that any of it mattered. They had two of the greatest scientific minds on their team, Barry was no slouch when it came to science or nerd-dom, Iris was the binge queen of TV, and Eddie...

...well, Barry wasn’t sure what Eddie brought. A detective’s instincts? Maybe.

“Plus you’ve got Wells on speed dial, don’t you?” Felicity said. She’d scooted in on Barry’s left, across from Iris, and he gapped a little at the mind reading skills. She just shrugged. “No big. You’re meeting the woman who invented the ‘size-you-up’ look. C’mon, you do have Wells’ number, don’t you?”

“He does,” Iris confirmed.

“That is so cool.”

“It’s listed under ‘My BFF Forever’”

Barry reached across the table to smack her as Eddie and Felicity laughed. “Okay one, you’re a liar. Two, you just basically said ‘best friend forever forever’ which is stupid.”

“But accurate,” Eddie drawled.

“And three, we are not cheating with Wells.”

Felicity pouted. “Just a quick little text? I bet he’d love this sort of thing.”

“We’re winning this fair and square people.” Barry pounded the table with his fist. “...and we’ll drag Dr. Wells along with us next time.”

“Yes. I’m totally flying back for that.”

“Don’t bother.”

They were small words, muttered soft and clearly not intended for the rest of them, but Jitters wasn’t that loud. Four heads swiveled to stare at Cisco who adopted a very deer-in-the-headlights expression.

“I—I just meant it’s a long shot, yeah? Wells isn’t really going to come out for this...”

A lame excuse and Barry was surprised by how much it hurt him. He was about to say something when Iris’ hand shot out, landing squarely on Cisco’s arm.

“Let’s grab coffee for the table, Cisco. Before the contest starts.”

“Uh...”

Cisco was staring at Iris’ hand like it was a massive, dangerous spider. Her suggestion, while innocuous, was said in such a sickly sweet voice that it sent the hairs on the back of Barry’s neck rising up and when Eddie opened his mouth—no doubt to point out that most of them already had coffee—the whole table shook as Iris kicked him.

“C’mon,” Iris bared her teeth and Cisco nearly fell again in his desperation to follow her. You didn’t argue with a tone like that. Barry watched them go, mouth hanging open.

“What the hell is going on?” he whispered.

Felicity pet him on the head. “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. Now, tell me what I need to do to demolish these nerds.”

***

“What the hell are you doing?”

Cisco made the most un-masculine ‘eep!’ noise as Iris practically threw him into Jitter’s supply closet. He landed on a box of napkins, found a rag left in the corner, and starting wringing it for all it was worth. It wasn’t much of a shield, but anything was better than facing Iris’ ire entirely defenseless. Cisco tried to scooch back as she inched closer and realized he had absolutely nowhere to go.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Dude, chill out yeah? I don’t know—”

“Francisco Ramon heaven help me, if you say ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ I will personally make it my mission to embarrass you in front of Barry until you can never look him in the eye again.” Iris’ gaze softened slightly even as Cisco gapped. “Because this is about Barry, isn’t it?”

“Um...”

“Cisco.”

“It’s not entirely...”

“Cisco.”

“Okay! Okay! Put your hand down already! God you’re terrifying.” Cisco wasn’t trying to butter her up, but Iris seemed to take that as a compliment. She nodded regally, lowered the hand that looked like it was about to start tickling him (no), and sat herself down on the box next to him. She kicked Cisco lightly in the shin.

“Spill.”

He grimaced. “Well, since you bring up embarrassment...” Reaching into his jacket pocket Cisco pulled out the crumpled sheet of paper he’d printed off earlier. He handed it over and Iris only needed one look at the heading to start laughing her head off.

“Yeah, yeah,” Cisco muttered. “Get it out of your system.”

“Cosmo?” she choked. “Oh no, Cisco, please don’t tell me you...”

He just gestured vaguely, telling Iris to read the highlighted sections. She only got through “primping” and “confidence” before she set the paper back down, giving Cisco a pitying look so strong that he kind of felt like he was melting.

Goddamn. If this was love it could go hang. Screw this.

“You dressed up for him,” Iris stated, not bothering to let him get in a confirmation. “Then you acted like a dick because supposedly that’s ‘cool.’”

“I didn’t—” Cisco cut himself off at Iris’ look. “Okay yeah. Total tool out there. I just...” he muttered something too soft to hear.

Iris leaned in closer. “What was that?”

“...wanted to be like James Bond,” Cisco muttered.

“Oh my god.”

“I don’t know, okay!” He threw up his hands. “I just wanted to be...be something more tonight. Something other than nerdy Cisco Ramon.” Cisco gripped his hair briefly, mussing up the braid. “Wait, c’mon, how do you even know this? Please don’t tell me I’m that obvious.”

Iris snorted. “You’re obvious alright. To a girl. Eddie doesn’t have a clue, bless him.”

“Dr. Wells knew,” Cisco said thoughtfully.

“Geniuses don’t count.”

“Barry is a genius.”

“Barry is a moron. I don’t care how much science mumbo jumbo you two manage to spout together, he lacks a little thing called common sense.” This condemnation was said with so much fondness that Cisco felt his heart ache. “If it makes you feel any better Felicity is a genius and a girl, so I’m sure she gets it. She’ll forgive you for being a massive ass back there,” Iris bumped his shoulder to take the sting out of her words.

Cisco nodded, drawing in a massive breath. Then he plunged in. “You’re taking this well.”

“Mmm.” Iris smiled. “I’m not your competition, Cisco.”

Oh c’mon. He immediately wanted to rile against that. How was she not? Except Cisco took one look at Iris’ expression and promptly snapped his mouth shut.

“Funny how no one considers that there are two people involved in this nonsense,” she drawled. Then Iris sighed. She took the rag out of Cisco’s hand and started it wringing it herself. All at once he could see the toll this was taking. “Look. Full disclosure?”

“Full disclosure,” Cisco agreed. His mouth felt stupidly dry.

“I love Barry. Barry loves me... but we’ve never loved each other in the same way.”

Iris looked down, scuffing her boot on the floor. “I thought things would get easier once we split into different classes in High School. Then when he went off to college—I know he dated a lot there. Then I thought, ‘Hey, he’s got his own job now. Maybe a co-worker?’ but no. Barry keeps... keeps coming back to me. Even now. With Eddie.” Iris smiled, a little wistfully. “Barry gets caught up in doing whatever he set out to do, no excuses. Normally that’s great. Triple major in four years? Done. Youngest tech to work at the CCPD? Easy. Hell, he even met Wells like he promised, though he went about it in a crazy enough manner.”

Cisco huffed. “Tell me about it.”

“Uh huh. Barry is optimistic, to the point of stubbornness, and now I’m starting to think to self-delusion too.” Iris shrugged, a very ‘what are you going to do?’ gesture. “I’m his best friend. His sister. I love him, but not in the way he wants me too, and I never will. You, however,” Iris pressed a fist into Cisco’s arm, making his squirm. “I wouldn’t mind having you as part of the family.”

Cisco could feel his eyes widening. He heard a startled, awkward laugh and realized that was him. "I would?"

"Uh, yeah. No shit, Sherlock. I've seen you and Barry together. Its been, what? A few weeks? And you two are already thick as thieves. You're brilliant, caring—I mean, c'mon. How many guys in Barry's life would keep him company through seven months of coma nonsense? Did you forget that I was there, Cisco? You did everything for him."

He ducked his head. "Dr. Wells—"

"Hired you to keep Barry breathing," Iris interrupted. "Not make him playlists of all his favorite music. Or spend your Friday nights watching movies with him. Or reading every last coma-related article you could get your hands on even though that's obviously Caitlyn's field, not yours. Yes, I saw the folder on your desktop. That's amazing, okay?”

It was weird to say the least. First Caitlyn, giving Cisco an obvious amount of space with Barry, both before and after he woke up from his coma. Then Dr. Wells freaking dragging him for being a lovesick fool. Now Iris, who Cisco had thought was both rival and Big Sister Barrier, all but shoving him at Barry with a 'GO CISCO' sign held up in her arms. It was super weird. More nuts than a squirrel's winter pantry. Cisco leaned back into Iris' shoulder, half expecting the contact to wake him up from some fevered dream.

It didn't.

"Full disclosure?" he asked again. Iris nodded. "I'm sort of freaking out here a bit."

Iris' lips twitched. "You look pretty calm."

"Oh, that's just my normal, handsome facade. Trust me, there is some full, boiling panic going on in here."

"Don't panic," Iris whispered.

"Easy for you to say."

"Keep calm and carry on."

"Oh my god."

"Seriously, we'd better get back before they think we're making out in here."

It was such a startling, ridiculous image that Cisco laughed. Iris nodded, grinning, standing, and offering him a hand to help Cisco to his feet. He swayed there, a little overwhelmed. Iris steadied him and then seemed to hesitate.

She finally drew in a massive breath. “Okay, also, it’s not my place to say why… but you don’t need to worry about Felicity either. None of us are competition. This isn’t some stupid teen drama, Cisco. We’re family.”

Cisco felt like he’d finally found some kind of footing. He ducked his head so Iris wouldn’t see how stupidly bright his eyes had gotten. "That’s great, yeah," he said, a little choked. "But what exactly do I do?"

Iris pinned him with a serious look. "First? Drop the 'cool guy' act. You don't need it. Barry likes you, and I think he can learn to like you even more… if you follow this advice instead..." Iris unfolded the wrinkled piece of paper, pointing to another highlighted section of the text.

"Right," Cisco breathed.

Iris quickly leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "Not all of their suggestions are trash."

***

Get him talking about something he’s really passionate about. After a while he’ll start associating those good feelings with you!

***

"Did they get lost?" Barry asked, pushing off the table to try and get a look over the crowd. He seemed to be the only one concerned with Iris and Cisco's disappearance. Eddie had given in and fished out his phone, texting someone rapidly. Felicity fiddled with a straw and absently pat Barry on the back.

"It's fine," she said, not for the first time. "They'll be back in a sec. Iris is just handling a Situation. Don't worry about it."

Barry shot her a massively confused look. "What are you talking about?”

"Surely your massive brain can understand the meaning of 'don't worry about it’?"

Felicity's grin was cheeky, she was begging for some sort of retribution, but at that moment Becca took the microphone and—after some initial, ear splitting feedback—announced that the games were underway. Eyes drawn to the back of Jitters, Barry caught the exact moment Cisco and Iris came back into view, with Cisco looking more... Cisco-ish.

As in, he'd mussed up his braid enough that little tufts were poking out, like they would if he'd been hard at work on a project—and it did look amazing. The sleeves of his nice jacket has been rolled, revealing grease stains and a faded note in green sharpie down near his wrist. Cisco suddenly looked more natural, carefree….but more than this he was glowing, walking confidently back to their table with a real smile on his face. Idly, in the back of his mind, Barry wondered when he'd started paying such close attention to the little details that made Cisco Cisco. That little voice was drowned out by the flood of relief though. Things had felt wrong before.

Now, somehow, they were right.

"Hey," Cisco breathed it, scooting right back into Barry's space. He leaned to catch Felicity's eye. After a second Cisco included Eddie in the look too. "Sorry. Wasn't at my best back there. Can we rewind by like fifteen minutes and start again?"

Eddie had an unfathomable look on his face though Felicity immediately made a whirring noise like an old VCR, essentially erasing those fifteen minutes as asked. Iris smiled and Eddie shrugged and honestly, Barry still didn't know what was going on, but then Cisco clapped a hand on his shoulder and that hardly mattered at all.

"E = MC Hammer together. You ready to kick some ass?"

"Yes—" Barry began but then the game was underway.

It was exactly as he'd remembered it. Though he and Iris had never participated before (their friend group never had enough nerds, according to Iris), they'd watched plenty of times over the years, enjoying the quick-paced, almost cut-throat nature of the game. The first half was always a free-for-all, with Becca reading off a question ("No answers until I'm done!") and then calling on the first team to buzz in. Even Barry was surprised when the little light on their table lit up first try, Eddie's thumb still depressing the buzzer.

"Cop's reflexes," he whispered. "I don't even know who Jar Jar Binks is though, let alone what movie he first appeared in."

Barry and Cisco exchanged a look. It was glorious in its simplicity: who the hell is this fool and why is he friends with us? They looked to Iris and Felicity only out of courtesy.

"I'm a Star Trek girl," Felicity said, completely unrepentant. Iris just nodded for the two of them to go ahead, seeming to get a strange amount of satisfaction in their teaming up. Barry grinned.

"Phantom Menace," they answered in unison—and so it began.

The questions, of course, got harder as the game went on, though they quickly realized that Eddie's speed wasn't just a fluke. He got them first dibs on most of the questions, struggling only against the group of Star Wars cosplayers (who were understandably disgusted about how the first question had gone down). Felicity, for reasons Barry couldn’t fathom, moved to sit beside Iris instead and the two of them seemed more than happy to let the boys run the show, sipping coffee and occasionally whispering in one another's ear. Alright then. Great, even. Barry and Cisco easily led the team and as they did Barry discovered a natural, warm camaraderie he wouldn't have expected to find on an otherwise normal Saturday night. Not to say that he and Cisco hadn't been friends before, of course they were, but it hadn't been like this. They hadn't been on such an exact wave-link, so to speak; easy agreement and teamwork all around, the sense that they just fit together, in ways outside of fighting crime. Like they could really be buds, not just close-knit colleagues.

They could be something.

Most people laughed at competitions like this and they would have howled at Barry's thoughts, the ones about 'fitting together' and 'complimenting one another,’ the ultimate sappiness of it all... but it was true. Cisco pulled out all the Sci Fi and dystopian knowledge that Barry had avoided over the years ("It's just all so sad,") and Barry knew dated shit like what U.S. soap opera first aired in 1956 (and he didn't get any heat from Cisco when As the World Turns flew a little too quickly from his lips). They took turns shouting out the answers, passed the bowl of pretzels without being asked, Cisco had his arm around Barry's shoulders for most of it. It was a comforting weight, just reminding Barry that he was there and they were having fun. Together

However, when they finally embodied the cliché of Barry finishing Cisco's sentence, he had to stop, because one fully-fledged thought had torn through his head like a wrecking ball:

I thought I only had this with Iris.

She was bent close to Felicity, the two of them hunched over their score sheet and gleefully tallying the points. Eddie had turned in his stool and was leaning against Iris' shoulder, his buzzer held faithfully in hand. Barry noted, in a shocked sort of way, that their physical comfort with one another looked like how his and Cisco's felt. And, with a pang, he realized that he'd basically forgotten that the others were even here.

"It's 'Freed' right?"

Barry startled, coming back to himself. Cisco still had one arm warped around his shoulders, the other pointing insistently towards the stage.

"Huh?"

"The book, dude." Cisco tightened his grip in slight panic. "Look, I promise to judge you later for any love you might have for that shitty, abusive series, but we've got fifteen seconds to answer—" His hand waving got more intense, garnering only an eye-roll from Eddie. "It's Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades...?"

Barry would always update his dad on the latest book craze when he'd go to visit, so yeah, he'd entertained him with James' fiasco too. Amidst the drab interior, in an appreciated moment of playfulness, his dad had commented that it was a good thing those texts hadn't been published twenty years ago, otherwise Barry might have ended up with an unexpected sibling. His reaction had been something between a squeal and a shriek.

Now though... totally different context. Barry's brain grafted 'erotic romance' onto 'Cisco' and started heating up like an ancient laptop, sparking and letting out clouds of smoke.

"Y-yeah," Barry cleared his throat. "That's right."

Cisco shouted their answer over the tops of thoroughly aggravated heads and Barry could only stare, wondering when things had gotten so complicated. It had happened in less than an hour, right? He'd gone from simplicity, complete understanding of what he wanted and needed... to this. Barry wasn't even sure what 'this' was. Except it had come on fast and was already taking room within him. It didn't want to leave.

Barry watched the dimpling in Cisco's cheeks as he smiled and cheered. Or maybe, he thought, it started when I got struck by lighting.

(Wasn’t that a metaphor for love?)

They'd made plans after this. A movie. Barry had supposed it would be at the Labs.

But maybe...

"Hey!" Barry had to practically shout over all the commotion—it was now clear who'd be winning and the other teams felt no need to keep their displeasure quiet. "Hey, Cisco!"

"What's up?"

"Want to catch that movie at my place?"

Cisco froze, his expression sobering, and for one horrible second Barry thought he'd made a colossal mistake. Then a new smile came. It wasn't manic or exuberant like the others, it wasn't even very big, but it felt massive and Barry was a little off kilter just looking at it.

"Yeah?" Cisco breathed.

"Yeah."

"...well alright then."

Barry didn't catch the look Iris and Felicity shared, or the over-exaggerated yawn that Eddie let loose. He was focused solely on Cisco, the world slowing down once more until Barry could see every crease in his face, every path his hair took as it fell over his shoulder. The only thing that permeated was sound—Becca yelling some joke about clear winners.

Not that Barry cared. Inexplicitly, he felt like they'd already won.

***

Get him to do something daring. Push him to try new things... you never know what that could translate to in a relationship ;)

#Flash #The Flash #Barry/Cisco #Barry Allen #Cisco Ramon #flashfic