to whom it may concern

[metatemporal]

Test results

▼ X

sent at 11:28 PM (two minutes ago)
FROM	Dr. Harrison Wells <harrison.wells@starlabs.com>;
TO	Hartley Rathaway <r88gjfke8@hushmail.com>;
resultscomparison.pdf Mr. Rathaway and associate, Attached are the DNA comparison results for your samples. Please feel free to call, email, or visit S.T.A.R. Labs during regular hours if there are any irregularities you wish to discuss. - Harrison Wells Director of S.T.A.R. Labs 4737 Garrick Ave. Central City, MO 63118 314-574-5252
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Comments

[metatemporal]

[ There's a touch of irony to the way he inclines his head in acknowledgment. A sure, why not which contains an echo of some hidden amusement. ]

It's been an interesting week, Henry.

[ Clearly, he's not going to force them past small talk, though not from enjoyment of it. There's always something to learn from the way people choose to go about these kinds of meetings, and there's a lot to learn about Henry Darrow, given there is no trace of him anywhere. Not in the annals of history, though that's hardly uncommon and not too significant. Not in public records, though there are other people called Henry Darrow to be found. Not in criminal databases, not in the scientific industries he's familiar with, not in academic circles.

But so what? There are over seven billion people alive at this very moment. What are the odds that this man is someone significant?

Probably about the same odds that would see a lightning strike grant a man superhuman powers, honestly. ]

[socialactivillain]

[ He takes a moment to sip his tea and further study Wells. There's something he can't quite put his finger on about him, and he's curious to find out just exactly what it is. ]

It certainly has.

[ Likewise, he's in no rush for anything but a friendly chat. The longer they stick to the pretense of small talk, the less likely things are to get out of hand, though Piper gets the distinct impression that Harrison Wells is not a man who likes things out of his control when he can help it. He's known a lot of people like that. ]

[metatemporal]

[ Harrison hasn't come to any conclusions of that size, himself. He has his coffee and zero concern that the situation will get out of hand. But then, he does have a fairly unique definition of "out of hand." ]

How is Hartley.

[ This too is very polite, as if Wells hasn't thought about him for a while, which is true, and as if he is at least a little genuinely interested. The same tone one would use inquiring after a mutual colleague, not an embittered protege whose life he ruined. ]

[socialactivillain]

He's well. Destroying your house a second time was very cathartic for him.

[ He's trying really hard not to roll his eyes at Wells' fake interest. It's pretty obvious, but he assumes Wells means it to be. ]

[metatemporal]

[ The interest isn't faked at all; genuinely interested, but only a little, is exactly how he feels about Hartley. Wells, on the other hand, can read Piper's barely restrained eyeroll and the continued passive-aggressive phrasing, though he neither acknowledges nor responds to them.

Though Hartley and Henry are related, he hadn't expected them to share a similarly unsubtle social hostility, and that is interesting. He wouldn't leap to any conclusions on the strength of that, of course, it just makes some of the questions he already had stand out more than others. ]

Was it? It didn't seem to work that well for him the first time.

[ And this too is all easy sincerity as he sips his drink. ]

[socialactivillain]

[ He isn't actually that similar to Hartley in disposition usually, but he figures maybe Henry Darrow can be. He'd be much more honestly polite had he not heard some truly upsetting things about Wells. ]

He still ultimately got out of your Pipeline, so in the long run, I don't think he counted it as a failure the first time around.

[metatemporal]

[ Another little angle of his head that suggests polite irony, echoed in his voice. ]

I ... was talking about catharsis, but I'm sure you're right about that.

[ Since Henry has moved them forward in the conversation, however. ]

I think perhaps — and I understand why — Hartley has built me up as a greater adversary than I am in reality. [ Wells sets his coffee down absentmindedly. ] I destroyed his life and he can't yet see a way to destroy mine. There is nothing else that will satisfy him.

Which is justifiable, I think.

[ In the calm of him discussing his own hypothetical destruction, whatever that would entail, Wells seems to be contemplating something else other than Henry or the rest of the coffee shop. A not yet existent future. ]

Except that I owe much to many other people in this city than him. [ A little grimace now, quick and passing immediately into a renewal of his attention on Henry. ] One of them is the Flash.

[socialactivillain]

[ He's not convinced that Wells is quite so much the evil mastermind Hartley has described him as, or else he wouldn't be here, but he's far from believing Wells is harmless. ]

Yes, I imagine you do. Since it was your particle accelerator that has caused so many problems, even after Hartley warned you not to turn it on.

[ He pauses, covering his hesitation with a sip of tea. ]

At least the Flash seems to be a good man. Slightly misguided in some things, perhaps, but the results could've been much worse. I'd hate to imagine that speed put towards less well-intentioned deeds.

[ Not that he needs to imagine it. He's seen first hand what damage a speedster who doesn't have a good heart can do. ]

[metatemporal]

Yes, that's exactly what I was referring to.

[ No sharpness there; he's used to people having to spell out loud the basic facts of the situation. ]

What kind of 'deeds' do you imagine?

[ He has to admit, he's curious, if only because he knows Barry as such an incorruptible pillar of hopeless altruism that he's never bothered to try. (Of course, Henry presumably wouldn't.) That doesn't really figure into the plans. He wants the Flash to be the Flash. But there are things Barry doesn't think about as much as he should, like the pipeline. Idealism is one thing, and naivety another. ]

[socialactivillain]

Even just above average selfishness and greed could have unfortunate impact when paired with he ability to move so fast you can't be seen. But beyond that, I imagine he could probably get away with almost anything without someone else who could run fast enough to catch him. Even murder.

[ He feels a familiar twinge of nausea as he tries not to remember the sight of Bart Allen's corpse, but he swallows it back. ]