#reversepiper

[purplecyborgnewt]

[vexic929]

façade (dangerous to know)

set in an alternate season 1 where Hartley is a grudging ally

Warnings: none

I watched him closely, noting every subtle flicker of disdain beneath that polished, detached exterior. Harrison sat there, composed as ever, sparing only a half-interested glance in my direction as I stopped in his office doorway before returning his focus to some unassuming paperwork, likely another layer to his meticulously constructed façade.

He looked up finally, calm and entirely unbothered, his gaze as detached as if I were a momentary distraction rather than the thorn in his side I'd become. His mouth pulled into a faint smile, thin and devoid of warmth. "Hartley," he said, his tone clipped. The way he'd said my name almost sounded like a slur. "What are you doing?"

It was a fair enough question; the last time we'd been alone, I'd attacked him. I was pretty sure if Allen had noticed I'd lingered behind, he wouldn't have sped off so quickly. But here we were.

I shifted my posture, tilting my head to fix him with a practiced look that was far more confident than I felt. "Nemo tenetur armare adversarium contra se."

"Equo debeo credite?" Harrison asked, spreading his hands in something of a shrug. As though he didn't already know the Trojan Horse he'd invited in.

I stepped forward, just enough to force his attention fully onto me. "You know, I saw someone in your home that night," I said, watching him carefully. "A figure, standing in the hall."

Harrison's expression remained carefully neutral. He was always unreadable, except to me. I knew when he was pretending. I knew when something - someone - was a threat.

His fingers tapped idly against the desk. "Hartley, I live alone."

I huffed out a laugh. "Oh, I know. You see, I didn't just see someone. I saw the way he held himself, the way he moved, the way he ran." I let my gaze sweep over him, down to the chair, back up again, deliberately.

For the first time, I saw the barest flicker of something in his eyes.

I leaned in slightly, voice dropping to something conspiratorial. "So tell me, Harrison - where was your wheelchair when I was escaping S.T.A.R. Labs?"

Silence.

The kind of silence that held something, waiting.

His fingers flexed just slightly against the desk before he stilled them, as if catching himself. But I wasn't going to stop - not until I had torn the truth out of him, even if it destroyed me in the process.

"Be careful," he warned softly, an echo of something he'd told me once before, under very different circumstances.

I remembered it all too well. The first time I had ever called him Harrison, without the formality, the distance. The way he had tilted my chin up, brushing his thumb across my jaw with the kind of deliberate intimacy that had made me lightheaded. "Be careful, Hartley," he'd murmured then, a warning with less of an edge.

I was careful. I had been careful. And it hadn't mattered.

He continued. "It wouldn't be wise to make baseless accusations, especially ones with evidence to the contrary."

"Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," I countered.

"Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." A clear dismissal.

I scoffed, unwilling to let him have the last word, and shifted tactics.

"I listen in on a lot of parties I'm not invited to," I said coolly, my tone laced with the barest edge of a threat. "I hear things, Harrison. More than you'd like, I'm sure."

Harrison's smile barely moved. "Then I'll be sure to speak louder."

I grit my teeth, unable to shake the feeling of his condescension slipping under my skin like a sliver of glass.

"Hartley, by all means, if you have something to say then you should say it." He continued, leaning back in his chair and removing his glasses. "What, exactly, have you heard that you think needs addressing?"

His gaze swept over me, cool and assessing. That was his trick, wasn't it? Always playing the calm, collected mentor. But, somewhere beneath that well-tailored kindness, I knew he was itching to get rid of me. He just needed the right excuse.

I let the moment stretch, let him wonder just how much I was holding back before finally responding.

"Maybe you should ask Gideon instead. She seems to have all the answers."

For a fraction of a second, something else flickered through him, something deep and old and wrong. I had the ridiculous thought that he was about to lunge at me. That he could. That he would.

Instead, he only smiled. The kind of smile that had made me want to follow him anywhere, once. That smile didn't waver but his patience clearly had.

"Get out, Hartley," he said, voice a dangerous, silken whisper. I felt the phantom brush of his fingers still, a firm grip on my chin. He always managed to twist me at just the wrong angle. 

"You'll never truly replace me, you know." I was pushing my luck, I knew. 

There was a little animation in his bearing, one hand clenching and unclenching as though fantasizing what it might be like to wrap his fingers around my throat. To still the frantic beat of my heart with one smooth motion. 

"On the contrary, I've never had someone be so easily discarded before. It's a feat, even for you."

The insult stung, quickening my pulse and sending heat flooding to my face despite the effort I'd expended to soothe my nerves. Pointless. Wasted effort. He'd always known just how to needle his way beneath my skin.

"Is that a fact?" I asked, tone carefully light. There. The smallest of tics in his jaw. No one else would have seen it. 

"We can finish this conversation later." 

"Promise?" I said, a mocking edge to the word. 

"Get out. Now." 

I took a step back, giving ground. For now. I'd be back. He wouldn't shake me that easily and he knew it. I gave him the sort of flourishing little bow I'd give after performing a concerto. Again, the slightest twitch of the muscle in his jaw. He was slipping. Check.

"Don't worry," I called over my shoulder. "I'll see myself out."

~~~~~

translations:

Nemo tenetur armare adversarium contra se - No one is required to arm an opponent against himself

Equo debeo credite? - Should I trust the (Trojan) horse?

Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus - Liar in one, liar in all

Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt - Men generally believe what they want to

[vexicwrites]

factum fieri infectum non potest

Warnings: none

"You never loved me."

Hartley's voice was quieter than it had been but no less harsh as he glared at the older man through the glass. He knew it was well after hours - that was the only time Harrison bothered to come speak to him, when he could shut off the security cameras and talk openly without worrying about his team hearing their conversations. So Hartley didn't feel it necessary to hide his emotions either. The man had seen him naked, after all, it was hard to get more vulnerable.

"No. I didn't."

Hartley had expected some more bullshit lies about how he had loved Hartley, would always love Hartley, or something similar. The blunt statement hit him like a physical punch and he looked away, fighting the lump that formed in his throat. He'd cried enough over this man, he definitely didn't want to cry in front of him. He let out a forced, miserable, pained laugh.

"So, what, I was just...just stress relief? An easy fuck?"

"Yes."

Hartley felt like the air had been sucked out of his lungs. He couldn't breathe, couldn't speak. God, it hurt. The rejection, the cruel dismissal, it hurt so damn much. He knew it was true, but he'd still thought…he'd thought maybe there had been something real between them. That Harrison cared about him, even just a little. But of course that was too much to ask for, far too much to hope for.

"Hartley." God, that condescending tone was grating. "Does that really upset you? You knew it wasn't anything more. I cared about you, as one of my best employees. You were my guy. Not my partner."

"Who's your 'guy' now? Ramon?" Hartley spat, trying to override the overwhelming grief with venom and anger. It didn't quite work, his voice shook and his hands were trembling, but at least the tears stayed back.

Harrison removed his glasses, completely unbothered. "I'm not sure what you want me to say. I got what I needed and now we're done."

Another knife straight to the heart, Hartley wasn't sure how much more he could take. But he managed to not crumble right then and there, breathing through the pain.

"Does your pet Flash know this side of you?" Hartley sneered, his tone bitter. "How long until he figures out who you really are now that he knows I warned you about the accelerator?"

Harrison's face hardened a bit, the first sign of real emotion he'd seen from the man...maybe ever. But the flicker of emotion was gone as quickly as it had come.

"Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit. I made a horrible mistake but Barry will see that it was just that - a mistake."

Hartley tsked. "Factum fieri infectum non potest."

"Indeed." Harrison replied, turning away from him. "Goodnight, Hartley."

The moment the door to the pipeline closed, Hartley fell back against the wall of his cell and slumped to the ground, feeling broken and empty as he choked on a sob. Harrison Wells had taken everything from him - his future, his career, his heart - and for what? Nothing. Harrison had given him nothing. He was nothing to Harrison.

-----

translation:

Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit. No man is wise at all times.

Factum fieri infectum non potest. It is impossible for a deed to be undone.

[strivia]

Well, if you're a hater, then hate the creator It's in your image I'm made

[kitkatt0430]

hartley/eowells for the ship bingo

Hartley/EoWells - ReversePiper

Not an OTP for me but I am convinced that this is a canon ship, it happened pre-canon and it explains so much of how Hartley and EoWells interact during S1.

On the one hand, they have a dynamic I'm very curious about. I've explored it some in fanfic and I do think that to some degree Eobard genuinely cared about Hartley. Just like he genuinely cared about Cisco. It just wasn't enough to stop him from screwing Hartley over anymore than it was enough to stop him from killing Cisco.

On the other hand, I want Hartley to be happy. He deserves to be happy after all the awful things he's gone through. And his relationship with Eobard is basically doomed to make him extremely unhappy. So I'm much more likely to want to explore Hartmon or PiperFlash or PiperSmith or... basically any other ship for him really.

But it is definitely a ship that I visit from time to time. Sometimes I gotta delve into that well of angst.

[icedteaandoldlace]

Lace's Official Ranking of Couples from The Flash

22: Hartley and EoWells

Not really sure if they should count as a canon couple, but here they are, anyway.

So, I don't ship them in the sense that they're a ship that I would root for in canon or seek out fanfiction for, and I'm not really emotionally invested in their relationship at all. But just the same, I find their murky canon dynamic fascinating, and I LIVE for meta analyzing and overanalyzing their interactions and pointing out all the ways in which yes, they're totally canon to some degree. On all levels except physical, I am eating popcorn and turning them over under a microscope. So much drama and so much subtext. If anyone on this show was gonna get a soap opera spin off, it's these two.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

F, O, W

Thank you!!

Fandom ask game

F: The Flash. 2019-present. Watched the show a while before but didn't join the fandom till later.

O: "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift. ReversePiper aka Hartley/Eowells 100% (not even sure if I ship them, toxically or not but that's just the vibes)

W: Counting the Arrowverse as one fandom cuz I could do the whole list with just those shows.

Arrowverse: Barry Allen

Star Wars: Ezra Bridger

MCU: Kate Bishop

Psych: Shawn Spencer

Supernatural: Charlie Bradbury

[shrinkthisviolet]

4 & 6 for the salty ask game, please!

- folk melody

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

Nora/Thawne, Iris/Thawne, Cisco/Thawne, Hartley/Thawne, and Barry/Thawne (the last two are strongly suggested by canon, and I acknowledge that—I just don't like reading fics focused on them 😂 as background ships, I usually don’t mind)

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Maybe Hartmon? It's not an OTP or anything, but I see the vision more than I initially did, when I hated it

salty ask game!

[ftl-faster-than-life]

in that case, if you wouldn't mind I'd love a ReversePiper drawing from you <3333

Absolutely can do

[purplecyborgnewt]

...and then suddenly Cisco Ramon shows up...

[vexic929]

Andy Mientus's facial expressions are such a journey in the scene where EoWells confronts Hartley in the accelerator, don't mind me while I hyperanalyze every detail (thank you @squireofgeekdom for posting that glorious gif set) but-

first we have THIS right, that firm press of his lips he starts the scene looking almost like he wants to cry but is holding himself back THEN

you can literally see how much he WANTED EoWells to own up to it, to explain it away, to actually make it make sense

he's hurt, he's disappointed, he's heartbroken, and he's disgusted but also he's in disbelief, his lover idol/hero is finally showing his true colors and he's made the decision that he has to go against him for the good of everyone (attempted Flash murder notwithstanding Hartley is really a good person but I could go on about that in a separate post)

but then

his face falls SO fast, he pivots from fury to fear in an instant, that's a man who has been betrayed before and knows exactly how bad it can go for him when he doesn't fall in line, he's not scared of the big burly security men, he's scared of another person destroying his life (and I would be willing to bet those wounds are still fresh, he's only just managed to pick himself back up from having his life torn apart before and EoWells knows it)

anyway The Flash has a cast of some of the best actors and I'm so mad they didn't use Andy more he's SO talented

[strivia]

Pspsps get that ReversePiper angst. This cover took root in my brain and I had to vid it with them.

[kitkatt0430]

For a fake title, Activation Energy?

Activation energy in chemistry is the minimum amount of energy required to start a chemical reaction, but it finds other scientific uses such in the description of nuclear reactions and other physical phenomena. It could also refer to the minimum energy required for the Particle Accelerator to begin overloading.

And Hartley just found out that the activation energy threshold for the STAR Labs accelerator to go into overload is a lot lower than expected. Dangerously so. But he's not the only one who's just figured this out; Cisco Ramon has seen it too.

A fic that would probably start off with ReversePiper and have endgame Hartmon.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

for ship bingo: eobarry, reversepiper, and snowest :)

With no disrespect— gods damn it I can’t escape the Eobarry

Obsessed with them one-sidedly and I have many feelings about it (show version btw)

Reversepiper: don’t really think about them tbh

Snowest: hardly read them but I love this ship

(The happiness one is about Caitlin specifically)

[icedteaandoldlace]

Shit, y'all, I just realized something.

So I know I'm not the only one who was expecting there to be a reveal in The Sound and the Fury that Hartley and Thawne used to be boyfriends or lovers or something of that nature, right? But it never happened, and for a while I thought that either I had misinterpreted their relationship, or that maybe that wasn’t the writers’ intent, but that Tom and Andy had played it that way intentionally, whether just for the heck of it or because they had misinterpreted something.

After a while and a few rewatches, I started to think that maybe their relationship was a botched attempt at a father/son type of dynamic. Because even though their energy is all wrong for it, there are a few things narratively that seem to point toward that. Namely, A) Thawne referring to Hartley as "the prodigal son", B) him later reassuring Cisco that Hartley was never his favorite/that he didn’t even have a favorite, C) Cisco's feelings about Thawne and Hartley's relationship mirroring his feelings about Dante being his parents' favorite child, and D) Hartley also being estranged from his parents and immediately feeling threatened when Thawne compares his first impressions of Hartley and Cisco to each other.

But (homoerotic vibes aside) there is a particular detail that suggests that maybe Thawne and Hartley weren't intended to be father/son coded after all, and that is what Thawne says to Cisco just before he kills him, and then again in the do-over timeline when he talks him out of leaving Team Flash:

"In many ways, you have shown me what it's like to have a son."

We all know that line, it's nothing new. But the connection I had never made before is that both times he says that, he says it like Cisco is the first--and perhaps only*--person he's ever met to cause him to develop paternal feelings. But Thawne met Hartley first, and already had a close established relationship with him before Cisco came along.

Also, compare that line to what he says to Hartley when Hartley starts to feel like maybe Cisco is going to take his place in Thawne's life:

"You're still my guy."

Which could translate to anything from "you're my only bae" to "you're a dope employee, and my hiring Cisco doesn't mean that I think he's smarter than you or capable of doing your job better than you are." There's nothing inherently parental about the line “you’re still my guy”, and in fact, either of the potential meanings I just mentioned makes more sense than him saying that while meaning "you're like a son to me".

There's also a definite difference in Thawne's interactions with each of them after their respective falling outs (fallings out?). When he sees Hartley again after firing him, he does put on a bit of an apologetic performance for Team Flash's benefit, but for the most part it seems that dealing with Hartley again is a bit of a chore, like he's already closed the book on this relationship and he's ready for Hartley to just move on and forget his number. He even actually acknowledges to Cisco that Hartley's presence at S.T.A.R. Labs back in the day subtracted from the experience of working there, while Cisco's adds to it.

In contrast, he's no longer performing for anyone when he tells Cisco that his powers were "given" to him “out of love”, or that he wishes he could have told him about his grand master plan, because having Cisco help him with it would have made it more fun. And although by season 6 all his fondness for Cisco seems to have gone out the window, and he now just sees him as The Flash's Friend and therefore The Enemy, in their last meeting prior to that in season 5, he still seems to have a little residual pride about having caused Cisco's powers to emerge, and in seeing him all grown up and saving China, as it were.

The point to all of this being, I think that if Thawne and Hartley's relationship was really intended to come across as a father/son type of relationship, their interactions with each other would have been less gay a bit more sentimental and genuine, and more similar to the dynamic Thawne had with Cisco, instead of him just wanting to be done with Hartley already (y’know, like how one gets around their ex).

I don't know if they were necessarily intended to have actually gotten together at some point, but I think Hartley at least definitely wanted to. And if that is the case, then that adds an interesting layer to the Cisco/Thawne/Hartley dynamic, because Cisco thinks he's gotten roped into another sibling rivalry type of situation, while in Hartley's mind they're essentially in a love triangle.

-

*Granted, Thawne did express paternal feelings for both Barry and Nora in the seasons 1 and 5 finales, respectively, but those scenes both came after his scenes with Cisco. Plus they both felt more like taunts at Barry than genuinely true statements to me, but idk how the rest of y’all interpreted them.

[purplecyborgnewt]