#THROWING herself into the drums in Dead Sara

[idontwantthisbull]

One of these days her intrusive thoughts will win. And Colin and his drums won’t stand a chance

[kayr0ss]

Dancing Queen

[Family, Diakko, Diakko baby!, kinda sad at first, but ends happy!]

Summary: Diana remembers being four, dancing with her mother at home. She remembers it all falling apart. Now she's the mother to a lovely little girl - and she's surprised to be dancing again. 

---

“You can dance!”

Diana giggled, arm reaching up towards the warmth of her mother. Their hands connected, their feet barely on-time while they swayed to the beat of one of the world’s most recognizable dance songs. “You can jive!” Bernadette twirled her in place—they were having the time of their lives.

In all her four years of existence, nothing ever felt as right as moments like these.

“Mother!” She giggled out, standing at the tips of her toes with a radiant grin so wide her sparkling blue eyes had creased around the corners in mirth. She wanted to be carried, and her mother would always oblige; in the same way she had indulged Diana when she knocked on her office door in the middle of the workday because she missed her.

Diana was hoisted upwards—the room was filled with music and laughter.

“There’s my little dancing queen!”

Her mother always had the most charming smile.

“I’m just a princess!” Diana pouted. “You’re the queen!”

--

Diana switched off the speakers’ power source so sharply that Hannah and Barbara reeled.

“Is something wrong?” Hannah tilted her head, looking a little miffed at her roommate’s behavior. “It was a good song.”

“It was distracting me from studying,” Diana replied coolly. “Apologies. Midterms are tomorrow and I must insist.”

“Loosen up.” Hannah grumbled. Barbara had only shrugged, but they dropped the subject, choosing to bury themselves back into their notes with a curtain of heaviness falling on the room’s atmosphere.

The memory was burned into her mind; something sore, and raw, and mocking in how happy it had all seemed. Diana bit down at the end of her pen—a habit from her childhood, one that she had outgrown except for when the troubles that plagued her were from her childhood as well.

But this was a temporary discomfort. She would take a moment to collect herself and begin her nearly perfected art of compartmentalizing emotions.

She didn’t have a mother; but it shouldn’t matter.

There was nothing that could be done anymore. Accept it. Compartmentalize it. And carry on. Doing so was easier when one had duties and responsibilities to attend to, so she would throw herself back into her work.

The radio stayed quiet. The feelings died away at the sound of silence.

--

“Next up on deck is a beloved ABBA classic!”

The radio jock’s voice was booming, and Diana immediately felt the pit of her stomach twist into itself and sink. She reached forward with the intention of turning the volume knob of Akko’s old-style boom boxed until it ‘clicked’ off, but her hand was swatted away (“Hey!”) by the bull-headed brunette.

“—everyone get ready to dance and jive!”

The song intro was a downwards glissando that she knew by heart. Make it stop, she clenched her jaw, reaching for the volume until it was back to dead silence quicker than Akko could intervene.

“I love this song!” the younger witch whined, pushing herself up from where she laid down on her dormitory bed, staring up at Diana who sat beside her. Sucy and Lotte were elsewhere, so they were studying together. Akko liked the music from a certain throw-back radio station that was near enough for Luna Nova to have reception of them. In true Akko fashion, she had narrowed her eyes towards Diana in a challenge, reaching towards the radio on her desk and turning it back on until music filled the room—

—and her heart.

She couldn’t tell if it was in a good way or bad way; but it was always too much. It was a suffocating tightness that wrapped around her chest. She nearly flinched when the first verse rolled in—warmth was so familiar, but so far away. Gone. It slipped through her fingers like wispy memories beginning to fade—but the thought of forgetting them forever terrified her just the same.

It was too much. Diana missed her too much. Almost on reflex, she closed the music again.

Akko was quiet.

“Dia?”

There was a tentative hand that settled above hers, and Diana looked up. Akko had forgotten all about her homework, the music, the radio. The brunette took her hand, her red eyes were wide, searching, and… worried?

“Why are you crying?”

---

“They’ll love having you around for a whole week!” Akko grinned, reaching over to hold Diana’s hand while they weaved through the traffic of Tokyo’s streets. To everyone’s surprise Atsuko Kagari wasn’t as bad a driver as they had expected. “We’re still in for a long drive, my family home is at the outskirts of the city, along the suburbs.”

“We’ve been dating five years, since before graduation.” Diana muttered. “I remember where your house is.” Was she nervous? Quite a bit, if she were to be honest. Akko’s parents were wonderful people who had all but accepted her as their own. But at most, their meetings were dinners and parties; not a whole seven-day stay in the family home Akko had grown up in.

And never before had the agenda been asking for their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Not that said daughter knew it yet.

Akko’s head was bobbing excitedly, her fingers drumming along the steering while to the tune of a boppy Japanese song from the eighties that was foreign to her. By the time they escaped the deadlock of traffic along one of the main thoroughfares, the song had faded out. There was banter among the radio jocks, one of them began speaking loudly. Diana wasn’t listening in, but it sounded as though he was announcing the next song and—

“Akko?” She blinked. Her girlfriend had moved so quickly, switching the station to something else. “What were they saying?”

“Nah. Nothing.” Akko smiled. It was a little sad, and there was something suspicious about the way the brunette’s gaze had lingered on own, and how softly Akko reached out to hold her hand. It was firm, secure.

“I just didn’t like the next song coming up.”

---

Everyone was a little wine drunk and having a good time.

That alone was the criteria by which Akko decided that their wedding reception was a “booming success!”

Diana, of course, rolled her eyes, straightened out the wrinkles on her wife’s after-party dress and looked around to make sure that the party was carrying on with no incident.

“You’re not supposed to play school prefect on your wedding day, honey.” Akko scrunched her nose while Diana lightly dusted off the shorter woman’s shoulders.

“I wouldn’t have to if I hadn’t married such a troublemaker.” Diana smiled sweetly, leaning downwards when Akko moved in closer for a quick peck on the lips.

“This troublemaker didn’t force this marriage upon you, y’know!”

“That’s still up in the air.” Diana teased, holding Akko by the waist when the latter draped her arms around Diana’s shoulders. They were by the dancefloor—Amanda had dragged them to join everyone else once formalities were finished and the DJ took over the booth.

It was a cruel twist of fate when a certain song began to roll in.

A timeless tune, one that artists never dared to touch with tacky remixes or remasters. The same glissando from her memories of twenty-two years ago marked the start of the song.

The dancefloor erupted into cheers. Of course it would—it was a crowd favorite. A small group nearby heckled for the newlyweds to dance together, but Akko had smiled politely, pulling her wife towards the side for some space. The ballroom was dimly lit at this point in the evening, much to their relief.

“Want me to ask them to change the song?” Akko tilted her head, her eyes betraying softness and care. The sight of it soothed the dull ache beginning to take hold of Diana’s chest.

“No.” Diana shook her head. “It’s quite alright. The guests are enjoying.”

Akko chewed on her lip tentatively. “Do you miss her?”

“I wish she were here today, yes.”

“I wonder if she’d have liked me!” The brunette offered an unsure grin, trying to coax a smile back from Diana with a bit of humor. “I’d have probably said something stupid to her, like, thirty times by now, I think.” Akko narrowed her eyes in thought. It was adorable. “Hm. Yeah. Maybe forty.”

Diana chuckled. It worked. She brushed back Akko’s hair, smiling in a way that left a bittersweet taste in her mouth.

“My beautiful wife,” the blonde started tenderly. “She would have loved you so much.”

---

Diana sighed, dropping her glasses onto her desk while she leaned back and gave her shoulders a roll. It was only six in the evening; did people get backaches from overworking as early as thirty? She spared a glance towards her work, there was quite a bit left to finish, but Akko would have words to say if she missed dinner for work again.

There was a little knock on her door.

“Come in,” she called. Curious. It was too light to be Akko’s. Therefore…

“Mum?”

The way her lips quirked into a smile was nearly involuntary. “Yes, Sara, darling?”

She was timid the first time she peaked her head through the doorway, but upon her mother’s invitation, Sara grinned (identical with Akko’s) and all but ran into Diana’s studio. Her mop of light brown hair was wavy and pulled up into a ponytail, her bangs were similar to Diana’s own blonde ones, framing the sides of her adorable, four-year-old face. In her hands was…

“Where did you get that?” Diana blinked.

“I was looking around the storerooms!” Sara gave a toothy grin.

“Honey, I told you it isn’t safe to go through boxes alon—”

“Ka-san was with me!” Sara pouted. “We found this. Then she told me to bring it to you and fetch you for dinner. What is it, mum? Why is it flat?”

Diana leaned forward, feeling breathless at the sight of a memento from long ago. “It’s a… vinyl record.”

The cover was yellowed and thin, almost falling apart at the edges if it hadn’t been so well-kept. Four foreign faces were photographed in a square frame, outlined by white. The rest of the cover was black. It was from her mother’s collection.

ABBA (1976) | Dancing Queen

She ran her fingers along the record’s front. There was no dust. Either Akko or Sara had wiped it down, and the thought of them taking care of something so precious to her warmed her heart. She took a breath, realizing how similar her studio looked to that of her mother’s.

“Mum?” Sara chirped, eyes wide and curious and so familiarly red. “Can we play it?”

--

It only took a few minutes. They had finally set the needle down, and the record began to spin. Diana braced herself for the sting of longing, and fading memories, but—

“Mum!” Sara was gasping. “Dance with me!”

She wasn’t given a moment to respond. The little girl had taken her by the hands, pulling her upwards from the chair in a fit of giggles while awkwardly jumping. Diana felt a swell of pride to see that Sara was on-beat. She took after Akko. Sara raised her hand. “Spin!”

“Spin?”

“Like in the movies!” Sara pulled on her arm and—ah—she wanted to be twirled.

How could she say no?

She didn’t even realize she was grinning, ecstatic at the sight of Sara’s lounge dress flaring outwards while she twirled on her heel. “You’ll get dizzy,” Diana hummed, taking both of her daughter’s hands to keep her steady upright.

But Sara just laughed.

The sound of her laugh warmed her up so profoundly that it drove away bitterness and melancholy.

The void in her heart so filled—there was no space for longing.

“You know this song well, mum?”

Diana tilted her head in question.

“You’re singing it!”

She was? She didn’t even realize.

“Your grandmother would dance this with me, when I was around your age.”

Red eyes widened into saucers full of childish awe and boundless wonder. “You and grandma?”

Diana nodded, eyes glistening while she smiled. She sharply realized that now she was the mother—and she was dancing with her daughter.

She wondered, did her mother feel as wonderful as this during those dances? She didn’t know she could love so deeply, so unconditionally.

I was loved like this too, she breathlessly remembered the feeling of Bernadette’s hand on her own, always within reach and making sure she didn’t fall when she spun too quickly, too hard. It left her in awe. Sara was so carefree, and Diana saw the same four-year-old girl she had shut away in the smile of her daughter.

Why did she ever want to forget that feeling?

Why did she want to stop hearing this song?

Sara was a breathless mess of Akko’s energy and her own finesse, but all the dancing and laughing had tired out her legs.

“Take it easy, my little dancing queen.” Diana cooed.

“I’m just a princess!” Sara pouted, holding out her arms for her mother to carry her.

Diana’s eyes had widened; and then immediately began to sting and water. She smiled, lovingly, amazed at how her daughter—in so few words—repaired something that was broken for so many years.

She was now a mother—and it meant everything to hear the very words she had once said:

“You’re the queen!”

 -

 Having the time of her life

See that girl?

Watch that scene—

Digging the Dancing Queen

-

fin

-

A/N: Hey guys! Holy  sh*t, this is my 30th uploaded Diakko fanfic (on AO3)! Damn! This is (obviously) inspired by ABBA's super classic song Dancing Queen. It would be cool if you guys had a listen to visualize the last part. :)

I hope you enjoy this. Hammered it out at an ungoldy hour in the morning, but I wanted some feelings!Diana and in case it isn't obvious, songs are a really strong motivator and source of inspiration for me when writing. Thanks to everyone who has read, left kudos, shared wonderful, wonderful comments that honestly give me life, drive, and motivation LMAO on all the short stories I've shared thus far. Can't wait to share more!

*Insert turtle copulation noises* *cries in Appointments update*

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Suspiria remake review from a shitty movie-goer

(this review is posted too late so excuse me for some timing inaccuracies I couldn’t be arsed to edit)

(IF YOU HATE TL;DRS JUST SKIP AHEAD TO THE “THE REVIEW” PART. YOU’RE WELCOME)

I actually hate to admit why was I interested to watch this movie in the end, but for once SOMETHING motivated me to go to a movie after countless tries from my family to get me to watch something in theatres at a “reasonable time” (daytime is what they mean, this movie was at 8pm our time, and this is when the cross-city bus transport (it goes from one big city to another) stops doing their service lmao).

I myself have a lowkey interest in moviemaking (I’m already getting there by editing my phone-recorded videos because whatever). I come up with my concepts in my head and I am mostly willing to put them down somewhere in my computer so I don’t forget it years later if I want to make that concept a thing in the end (because none of my concepts are finalized... well except for one short horror-ish story I posted on DeviantArt (see mom, I do like some horror stuff!). Reddit as of lately inspired me to edit some of my movie’s plot-lines based on irl events (not related with anything too SJW), and I’m not sure how an usual movie-goer would see this concept but I am going to try to execute it... whenever I have enough equipment to shoot my own little films or skits or whatever.

What’s that? There are people who scrolled past this and already yell at me that “YOU ONLY WENT TO SEE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE OF THE MAN WHO COMPOSED THE SOUNDTRACK~~~”? Ugh yes you exposed me, tea all over. I even had “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” on a bit of a repeat as of lately (how fucking come I wasn’t too couragerous to listen to this song before?? And “Pyramid Song”??? Man am I discovering their pearl(ie)s(*) too late). And I’m occasionally on the band’s subreddit as well. And the man himself is touring ‘round the USA, signing material of fans and have genuinely warm chats with them. Admireable.

But that’s only half truth.

I never thought I’d see Suspiria on cinema theatres in here. Until one time when I saw an ad on a completely random Lithuanian website that said this movie is coming to our theatres 14 December... I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. I made my goal to see Suspiria since then. I even dared to ask a couple of my new college ‘friends’ to see it with me, but one of them fell off the deal when I revealed that I’ll be going to see it on Saturday, and on the weekends he’s usually at home, far away from the city the college is in (he lives in college dormitory on mostly the work-weekdays). So my only movie companion ended up to be this 28-year-old coursemate (actually we both study different things but sometimes we attend some of the same lectures) who was intrigued by the Suspiria trailer herself so at least I’m gonna have her by my side of the movie, so I thought. Sweet.

I already envisioned seeing this in a mall cinema theatre but my companion offered me a cheaper alternative - her suggested cinema theatre was actually in renovation so the business is temporarily happening inside an actual drama theatre’s long theatre hall. I had to wait long until the ticket box opened and because of that I was lowkey frustrated as I finished my English test writing a little earlier, so I spent my time walking around the city until the time came and I wandered off to the old building of the cinema so then I remembered it was moved and I found the moved place. Yeah I bought the tickets before my companion could but I’ll skip ahead to the time that I almost lost the tickets because they were put down on a windowsill outside some children activity centre (Suspiria and children?? lol). I came back home late at night and was ready for the movie to happen the next day. Oh and before buying the tickets I coincidentally saw dance classes going on nearby that building... weird, as Suspiria has dance elements in there

The day came (December 15) and my family went together with me because they saw this as an opportunity to see the Christmas tree of our city (but not the movie). Needless to say, they were still visibly pissed at me orchestrating this idea, as I planned everything BUT the transport to go by. Well at least my mom and my sis. Dad was cool with it as he returned home to watch Home Alone. Aside all that, the cinema hall was cozy, Christmassy, not too small, there were a few trailers before the movie, no snack-seller places (as this is not a mall lol) - my companion was glad she wasn't at the mall as she found this place where we were at way lovelier.

Now with all that unnecessary long intro off my chest, let’s begin:

THE REVIEW

(definitely not spoiler-free, if you are sensitive to spoilers please watch the movie for yourselves before reading my review. But if you like being spoiled, I’m your friend then I guess lmao)

The intro to the movie felt like I ended up booking a wrong movie - I didn't expect that to be set somewhere in Germany, especially an American/Italian-shot one. Was that a thing in the original Suspiria? I don't know... (apparently it is, but the cities are different, never the country though)

Patricia (I didn’t know it was Chloë Grace’s role until reading the Wiki) looked like to be a really big deal here, with the dance pupils discussing her disappearance the other day and Susie overheard them, then Sara mentioned the Patricia thing to Susie after Susie revealed she was kind of chosen as the lead dancer for the Volk play... is it because Patricia was THE saviour that unfortunately knew a little too much?? Idk, it’s perhaps the reason we get to see the Klemperer guy subplot happen (I didn’t know it was Tilda Swinton behind him all the time either, must be because the way the male German accent was put on her lol). Turned out she was captured and kept under some dungeon where Sara had gone later in the movie, but looking like an almost melted and grotesquely old human being (or if Mary’s mother from “Chocolate with Nuts” was a person). Speaking of which, there is one more later in the movie, but I won’t tell just yet - we will need to get into such scenes discussion first.

Interesting deaths here, despite of them being grotesque and horrifically detailed. It almost felt like Susie, whilst doing her first dance as the probable lead dancer, temporarily turned into Olga’s voodoo doll or a violent bloodbender (that old lady from Avatar that could bloodbend was incredibly uncanny, damn) and left Olga completely fucked up, and the foam mouth later on... is this the effect myxomatosis has on a human being if it was ever humanly? She was twitching and salivating afterall. :P But no, she’s not dead until she gets to plead her death later in the movie! :O Several others occur throughout, but none is more prominent than this key scene I described, well at least according to TV Tropes.

The search for the evil person in this movie without Wiki helping me much was definitely a nice game for me to play. I kept thinking that Blanc might be that one, then I thought she’s not the one until she looked at Carolina (I think that was the tall tomboy’s name??) suspiciously and then she later passed out on the floor violently, with rabies foam and everything.

Anyway, don’t tell me Tilda Swinton wouldn’t make out a pretty good Thom Yorke post-Pablo Honey. She’s 8 years older than him, ffs! Also played a man before (e.g.: this movie I’m talking about) so the make up won’t be an unjumpable-over hurdle.

The sighs were for sure unsettling, especially because they oddly sounded like orgasm here and there. IDK why. I know fucking is referenced twice in this movie (well only fucking once and sex another time). Speaking of random things, the nightmare shots were completely random themselves, following up with some imagery we never see in the movie again, and some of that we see only a little (like the worms and bloody organs).

3 long scenes that were note-worthy for me. One is the Olga mutilation/Susie's first dancing scene that I already noted, and it was driven by music (the others will be too. Soundtrack of this movie still rules). Then there's the Volk play itself - girls go from one place to another, take poses of each other, dance individually, let their minimalistic red rope dresses flick in the air, interspersed with Sara in the underneath area and her broken leg (so broken, the bone went out of her skin!), and then the matriarchy getting her back on stage, but healing her leg with her witch powers before that. I haven't really listened to the rest of the soundtrack but I gotta check the song out so that I won't end up labeling it as a Kid A reject. No but seriously - intense dancing needed some intense drumming and painful instrument sounds just to project out the massiveness of the whole play.

Then I keep remembering the scene where Madame Blanc commands Susie to jump higher and higher in the mirror hall, up until she jumps as highest as possible. Also my companion’s favourite scene was the stare exchange between these two ladies during the part where people were singing some drinking song in a bar to celebrate ‘Volk’’s success - you hear them singing and then some chilling background noise slowly mixing and creeping its way into the atmosphere, then I think it leads into a scene where some sparkling aura entity wakes Susie up (and she’s nude) in the middle of the night and gets her to go down to this... dungeon orgy full of random stuff going on, complete with an Asian man doing something beyond explanation (I could say lewd but not quite), even more strange ritual dancing and the very much frightening Madame Helga... who looked like Jabba the Hutt for some reason. And then of course everyone slitting, slashing and twisting each other, and by the end Susie throwing us all a plot twist which makes her THE evil one who can finally let her ‘friends’ go of all that suffering they have been through thanks to the damn witches (and yeah apparently her dance friends haven’t completely died? THAT’S how they do - they tell Susie to end their suffering and she does). Also she cracks her chest open to reveal a... very graphic part of a female body that will by no doubt get this whole text review reported without consent so I refrain from any illustrations. Oh and this scene mostly has the possibly favourite this movie’s soundtrack song of mine, if not one of them, play - titled Unmade. It was a mind-boggling decision to do so but the movie editors do them I suppose, but still. I felt sad for the song having to be the background of such absurd but fair enough events? (Oh and I didn’t mention that everyone who voted for the other woman than Madame Blanc to be the leader of the witches (iirc) were rid of in this movie. Damn.)

Oh and the ending is rather an interesting detail, not talking about post-credits because as always I have to be this one movie goer who wants to do it but can’t because they’re urged to go back out of the movie theater. We turn into modern day Germany with a love heart carved on a brick wall with the letters A and L (perhaps?? at the time of finishing this review my memory towards it kind of erased some parts of the movie for me), a nice little remembrance of Lutz’s (the old man’s) love for his dear Anke, with which they have reunited during the movie, but Lutz was dragged out by some people related to the dance academy for probably wandering elsewhere than needed and somehow Lutz ended up as one of the sex dungeon victims, stripped of clothing and lying down quite powerless. That and before the modern day shot we are subjected with Lutz in hospital with Susie coming to visit, they discuss something related to the plot, Susie touches the guy speaks some more, leaves and according to the Wiki, Lutz “suffers from a violent seizure” that was nothing more than just a hard seizure. And it even erases his memories!

Anyway, as a whole, I felt more underwhelmed of this movie’s experience despite really wanting to see it. Like, “uhm yeah gore blood people getting slashed everyone’s a witch and everyone’s watched over by the witch and if you expose the witches you die” kind of underwhelmed. I didn’t want this movie to blatantly go through my head, but it did, that’s why I wanted to make notes everytime something notable happens. There was one startling moment, and it just was an innocent scene transition. And something within Olga’s mutilation scene made me chuckle (and made some other people leave the cinema hall ASAP). It’s more of a disgusting watch than scary. Also feels too dragged out in parts.

I’d only recommend it if you are gore-tolerant (there are people that can’t stand looking at blood so this might as well not be for you, especially if you’re younger than 16), like intense choreos that can impact other people literally, and... the soundtrack. Yes of course. If you dare to get through the movie with feeling its soundtrack, sometimes you might as well feel it right, but some of the soundtrack song usages might as well make you go “hmm” as much as me.

I'll remind myself to never watch a movie in theaters for soundtrack again (unless they're not THAT late). And the other 'trilogy of the three witches' movie remakes, especially if they come out at the time I haven't moved houses by now, because for sure as hell will my parents not like me going to cinema late once more. The movie is lowkey 7 out of 10 for me, can sometimes it's on the verge of falling down to 6 becaude of no completely proper comprehension of some directing choices... so 6.7/10 is good - as it still has 6 in it, but totally leans on to the 7.

Will probably watch it again. I need to remember some more of this movie sometime later. And looking for online uploads of this movie is unrecommendable - I'll wait until Lionsgate distributes it to America for wider audiences so that anything could surface 2 months (or even a few days) later from now. Though if I didn't need all that, I'd definitely not watch it again for a long time... unfortunately I want to.

Post movie feelings: my companion liked the movie, initially said to never watch it again but now wants to watch it again because it was so "wtf" she felt like re-experiencing it at some point. She liked the music (another bonus point for Yorke). She wished she could film the reactions of other people who watched this, as they mostly were confused, all being like "wtf did I just watch???". I'm already feeling bad for the 3rd companion who didn't join us but would also like to watch this - he’ll likely be one of those confused movie-goers.

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Commander Cold

(Something ridiculous that I wrote at work the other day) AO3

“Thanks for coming,” Barry said as Sara and Leonard finally made it down to the pipeline.

“Is there a reason why we’re here?” Leonard asked, crossing his arms. He and Sara had been working on setting up their new home since leaving the Waverider. Progress had been slow for more reasons than one, but now it was held up by this.

“A breach opened in the cortex,” Iris explained as they entered the metahuman prison. “And he came out. He claimed he needed to talk to us, but this was after Caitlin and Cisco got into a fight with him when he came out.”

Sara frowned. “So why call the two of us?”

“Because he said you two had to be here too.”

Ahead of the four was one of the cells that now held someone. It was a boy decked out in some blue and white outfit, sitting on the ground. None of them were sure how old he was. He drummed his fingers against the glass, looking up when they approached him. His eyes were obscured by a pair of goggles, and a hood was pulled up over his head.

“You’re all here,” he mused.

“Who are you and why are you here?” Sara inquired, stepping forward.

“Let me out of this cage and I’ll tell you.”

Iris shook her head. “You attacked our friends, then said you had something to tell us.”

“Look,” the boy rose to his feet. “You need to trust me here. There’s things I can’t tell you.”

“Then at least tell us why you’re here so I can get back to what I was doing,” Leonard snapped.

“Just tell us who you are at least,” Barry added.

The kid shrugged. “That’s something I’m not sure you’re ready for.”

“Half the people in this room have been dead, one’s been in the Speed Force, and I’ve seen enough to take whatever you can throw at me,” Iris told him. “How come you wouldn’t tell us anything when we first subdued you? How come Sara Lance and Leonard Snart had to be here too?”

“Well, I was hoping one of you might figure it out,” the captive sighed. “Especially at this point in your timelines. Guess I was wrong though, but it doesn’t matter.”

The four exchanged frowns.

“Hey, at least just let me out of this,” the boy leaned against the glass. “I’m not going to try and kill you or anything. It’s be stupid of me to even try, and I’m not even sure it would work in the end with time travel.”

“The hell is that supposed to me?” Sara scoffed.

Barry tilted his head at the boy before moving over to the controls. He punched in the buttons to open the cage that the boy was inside.

“Barry, no,” Leonard shook his head. “You realize you could get us killed.”

“I’ll stop him if he tries,” Barry said as the boy stepped out. “Nothing funny, or you’re going right back inside there.”

The boy smiled at Barry. “Thanks anyways.”

Leonard noticed something at the boy’s side then. His hand dropped down to grab the cold gun that he’d brought to STAR Labs just in case they had a lot of trouble. 

Sara noticed the motion and moved her hand towards a place Leonard knew a knife was hidden. “What is it?”

“The kid’s from the future,” he said.

“That coming from your timey wimey sense?” Barry grinned.

Leonard rolled his eyes. Cisco had nicknamed his little gift from the Oculus after he was first rescued, and everyone refused to let it die. While he definitely felt the temporal energy that surrounded the kid, that wasn’t what had tipped him off. “Take a look at his weapon.”

Iris, Barry, and Sara all looked at the boy’s weapon. At his side, within a reach of his hand, was a cold gun. However, this model looked much more sleeker than Leonard’s. Now, taking another look at the kid, his outfit made much more sense. The hood, the goggles, the cold gun. Whoever he was, he seemed to be some future copycat of the Captain Cold persona.

“Who are you?” Sara demanded, stepping forwards with her knife in hand now. “Either you’re going to tell us willingly, or I’ll make you.”

“How about another idea?” the boy said, pulling his hood down and lowering his goggles. “Take a good look at me and see if you can figure it out yourself.”

The four studied him closely. He seemed around sixteen years old. His skin tone was only a few shades lighter than Iris’s. Black curls grew out of his head. A few freckles were splashed across his nose, like Sara herself had had when she was younger. The eyes of the boy were a familiar shade of blue. Sara turned towards Leonard as they realized why. 

“Whoa,” Iris looked from the boy to them. “You look-”

“No way,” Leonard shook his head. It couldn’t be possible.

Barry seemed stunned. “What’s your name?”

“Commander Cold,” the boy answered with a smile that reminded them too much of Barry’s.

“Your real name, kid,” Sara corrected.

“Leo,” he admitted.

Sara looked over at Leonard before back to Leo. “As in...”

“Leonard Bartholomew Allen.”

“Allen,” Leonard repeated, turning to Barry.

“I’m your grandson,” Leo told Barry, then faced Leonard. “Yours too, Gramps. And Gran’s. And Gram’s.”

Sara opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“Okay,” Iris exhaled slowly. “So why are you in the past.”

“Because you told me to get here,” Leo addressed her. “Jules already gave my coordinates to the current operators of the Waverider. They’re going to pick me up soon. But before I go back, I have to give you a warning.”

“A warning?” Sara raised an eyebrow. “What about?”

“Someone’s coming for you very soon,” Leo said gravely. “And if you want to live to be able to meet me again at least once, then you’ll have to be prepared.”

[faint-i-wont-be-ignored]

This is so fucking funny to me idk why

One of these days her intrusive thoughts will win. And Colin and his drums won’t stand a chance