metalogs | If madness overtakes us both [Open]

[Leo focuses in on bandaging Accelerator up, nudging his arms whenever he needs to move them. As usual, most of what the other two are talking about starts going over his head pretty fast.

He doesn’t have much to add on the speculation of spontaneous time powers, but he does add this.]

How do we know any of the confluence junk is in Chaos Gate’s control, anyway? People can say whatever they want.

It’s weird that we haven’t had one this month, but… funky stuff happens to this dimension all the time.

[Donnie frowns to himself. It's hard gauging anything between Accelerator's PR field and whatever else might be going on, and he'd only really had a look at what was going on once or twice before.]

We have no concrete evidence, just a lot of coincidences so far as we know. But there are also facts. There was some higher power, or at least someone with a higher power, involved in everything regarding the whole Starfallen mess, and it was enough to bring Chaos Gate to the forefront. With a flashy codename like that you have to wonder what all she can do- I mean, what really is chaos magic?

Hey 'rator, what all you know about your boss anyway?

[He'll shift when Leo prompts him to, a little annoyed with himself that he needs first aid to begin with. You don't get to be the strongest by needing other people to patch you up.

That is, however, slightly less important than the topic at hand. Accelerator is silent for several moments.]

.....

[Where should he even start.]

She lives up to her name. [What a chaos gremlin.] I think whatever happened to the Confluence was caused by her. I think Mechanima was aware of what she could do, too. Part of the reason he made me be her assistant was to keep tabs on her.

[Is this something he should've mentioned earlier? Who knows. When he first started the job he didn't really care how questionable an order like that was, but now he's wondering if he should've been upfront with Chaos Gate....]

[Great. So she really could have something to do with it...]

If she has some control over it, maybe she did this to you on purpose? You're her assistant, so maybe she... wanted you to go back, or have your memories back, or something.

[But why? Wouldn't that imply Chaos Gate can see their own futures somehow?

This is making his head hurt. He focuses on the bandages.]

...There. I think you'll live.

[Pats Accelerator's shoulder.]

That doesn't make much sense. I guess the whole chaotic factor would play to her supposed nature but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much point in it.

[Reluctantly Donnie pushes up his goggles, but at least Leo's got Accelerator patched up.]

Do we need to get you to a hospital? You may have rewired your blood flow but does that do anything for internal damage? What happened anyway? Because that all looked pretty bad.

... She doesn't hate me, so I don't think she would've done this on purpose.

[Because he remembers going home and things immediately going to shit. Things are in fact, worse than ever, moreso than the chaos going on here. Now that he's getting a minute to dwell on it, he's noticing an aching deep in the pit of his stomach.

Last Order's condition hasn't been fixed. Whatever that nun did on September 30th was only temporary....]

It's fine. I can encourage cell regrowth. [He's mumbling that absently. It isn't a big deal, really.

Now that he's all bandaged up he slumps back in his chair.] You two won't believe me if I told you.

So? Maybe she knew that something you experienced would… I don’t know, help her somehow.

[He knows this is a stretch at this point, but still…

At Accelerator’s response, though, he laughs.]

Dude, we’re turtles with magic powers who were mutated by a goat man and then raised by a rat in the New York sewers. It would have to be pretty wild for us not to believe it.

[Donnie's staring at Accelerator like he's grown two heads before he shakes his own head with a sigh.]

Right, because that's something people just do. [He mutters, but if Accelerator's not concerned about internal damage then he's not going to get himself anxious over it either.

He gives the esper a flat look before gesturing with his head in Leo's direction with a smirk.]

What he said.

.....

[He doubts it, unless getting skewered Aiwass is going to help, somehow.

He sighs heavily. Okay, guys, prepare yourselves for some nonsense.]

That thing had said it somewhat corresponded to the term 'angel.' [He's spitting that out, like it's totally ridiculous.] It cut straight through my reflection using some kind of auto defense inputted into it by the board chairman of Academy City. My brain was interpreting that mechanism as wings that looked like they were made of platinum.

[Well, Leo believes it. He just wishes he understood it better. He's familiar enough with sci-fi tropes that he thinks he gets it, though.]

An angel that could cut through your reflection using an auto-defense... [Wait...] Does that mean the board chairman or whoever knows how to negate your powers?

[He doesn't really have much to say about it calling itself an "angel," because, again, anyone can just say a thing!]

An angel, right. But yeah, what you're suggesting is that this thing was created to specifically breach your defenses, and on top of that, was successful.

...was it anything like your 'wings'?

No. [To both Leo's question and Donnie's suggestion that Aiwass was made to combat him.] The board chairman developed this fucking production line of an artificial angel that led to the conditions for this thing, Aiwass, to form. Maybe 'summon' is a better term, because it sounded like it's been around for billions of years and that it'd keep on existing even after all of humanity's died off in the future. Anyways, once it could form it decided to show up because it wanted me to meet it.

[He drags a hand down his face. It's been a long few weeks.]

So no, none of its creation had anything to do with fighting me. I attacked it and its Aleister's fucking auto-defense kicked in. Its wings were like mine though, just... better.

[That's the best way he can explain it.]

Something about mine being from the Aeon of Osiris, and its being from the Aeon of Horus. I don't even know what that means.

Okay, so this guy was trying to make a fake angel, and he summoned a real angel instead. Allegedly.

[Pulling out a book word for that one. He has no idea if this thing is really an "angel" or not, but maybe that isn't the point. It's powerful and functionally immortal, if all of this is true.]

Osiris and Horus? What are... oh! [He smacks his hand into his palm.] I remember! From Lou Jitsu Meets the Mummy Ninjas!

[He seems proud of himself for remembering the names of Egyptian gods from a movie.]

....

Okay, but I guess if there can be alien entities that were locked up in some dimension by otherwise inexplicable forces then sure, why not angels. So maybe...this production line just happened to have all the ideal conditions in which this actual "angel" could make use of? Because it sounds like it's still somehow operating on a similar level enough as what espers are.

[Donnie doesn't roll his eyes at Leo because that'd be the first reference he'd have pulled too, if he hadn't run into someone who claimed to be a god here who shared the same name as one from the Norse pantheons. His first excursion to the library had also included his looking up books on mythology.]

According to Egyptian mythos, Osiris is the god of the afterlife, death and resurrection. Horus is the god of healing and protection and associated with the sky, as well as Osiris's heir.

Admittedly, having an "angel" refer to figures of the Egyptian pantheon is kind of strange but I'm not so sure as to what it was getting at unless it was suggesting in a loftily roundabout way that you're old school and it's the new model.

[Accelerator shrugs vaguely. He definitely doesn't have the full story on the whole angel business, and it bothers him.]

AIM diffusion fields were involved, somehow. Those parameters may have been what I added to my Personal Reality to make my own wings. [It only partially explains it, since he doesn't have an explanation for that nun's song, but it's something.

He hauls himself to his feet, grabbing his ruined shirt to toss out and heading to the bedroom to get a new one.]

I don't know why it brought up the Egyptian pantheon. That's not something relevant to espers, so yeah, it might've been something like that. [Maybe it was mocking him. Maybe both? He clicks his tongue in irritation.] I guess it's something to ask Aleister Crowley if I ever get an audience with him, since I'm apparently so important to his fucking plans.

[AIM diffusion fields, Egyptian gods, personal realities... sure, okay. As usual Leo is only partly keeping up, until...]

Aleister Crowley!?

[He doesn't follow Accelerator into his bedroom, but he does move closer so he can be heard without having to shout (too loudly).]

Wait, like, a coincidentally named guy, or like, actual early 1900s magician Aleister Crowley? Oh, oh, wait!

[He smacks his forehead.]

Yeah! Aiwass the Aeon of Horus! I watched a Youtube video about this forever ago!

[Brb, he's digging into Wikipedia.]

[Donnie's about to ask, but Leo beats him to the punch- although by his tone, it's clear that his brother somehow is familiar with this name.

So naturally Donnie stares at him as though he's sprouted a second head.]

Wha-?

[He'd look it up himself but he's still baffled that these things aren't Accelerator-specific after all.]

[Grabbing another t-shirt from his closet, he yanks it over his head.]

What?

[He's just as clueless as Donnie is. Stage magic isn't his forte, so he doesn't recognize the name outside of Crowley's status as the head of Academy City.

Leaving his bedroom, he ducks into the bathroom to grab a bottle of painkillers before heading back towards the kitchen. Opening it up, he shakes out a handful of pills to swallow.]

What the hell are you talking about?

[He wasn't really the kind of magician Leo is actually a fan of, but he was still interesting enough for a late night internet rabbit hole. Leo remembers reading a little about it and then watching a half hour youtube video.

The details are a bit fuzzy, but he's pretty sure he remembers the basics.]

Aleister Crowley! ...Oh wait. [He looks up, and a grin spreads over his face.] Is this... something I know about that you guys don't?

[Is this how it feels to be Donnie on the verge of an infodump all the time? Man, he kinda gets it now.]

Anyway, in our world, he was a guy who was big into magic and occult stuff. He went to Egypt and said he met an angel there named Aiwass, who wanted him to guide humanity into the Aeon of Horus. Started a whole religion about it!

[Leo goes back to looking at his phone.] Personally I kinda assumed he met a yokai who was just messing with him, but... oh shoot, this world had a version of him, too!

[Leo holds up his phone to show them the Wikipedia page.]

But he died in the 40s so... he's probably pretty different in Accy's universe.

Edited (forgot accy is back in the room lol) 2023-08-20 01:13 (UTC)

[Now Donnie rolls his eyes. Okay, okay, Leo knows this one very specific thing! Get to the point already!]

Huh, so we had some psycho claiming all that? [He doesn't feel so bad about not knowing this sort of thing- it sounds pretty ridiculous. Unfortunately people took these things seriously if there were religions- cults most likely, that followed.]

Well, alternate realities and all that. What's the story on your version of Crowley? [Donnie glances at Accelerator then.]

.....

[Oh, cool. An evening is always improved with Leo being smug as hell. This is utterly ridiculous, and the only saving grace is that at least one of them might know what the fuck is going on.

Unfortunately, Leo's explanation sounds beyond ridiculous. So completely insane that he'd like to just dismiss all of it and go take a nap.

Instead he pops another tylenol and scroll down the Wikipedia page, frowning.]

I don't know. No one knows anything about the board chairman, except that his head office is in this huge windowless doorless building in the middle of the city. I wrecked a portion of the city throwing a wall at it once and it just bounced off like it was nothing.

[Accelerator pauses, knowing there's something he needs to add that is going to make Leo about ten times more aggravating. He takes a breath, mentally preparing himself for the I told you so, then goes.]

... Magic exists back home, so I'm not discounting anything right now.

[This does, in fact, make Leo more smug.]

Ah-ha! I knew it. [He smirks, folding his arms.] I'm literally always right and you guys just don't appreciate it.

[Listen to him more!]

If the Aleister Crowley in your universe knew real magic then maybe in your world, all that Angel Aiwass the Aeon of Horus stuff isn't total bunk! Maybe he had a real prophecy!

Ooor maybe he's still crazy. You can have magic and be wrong. [In fact a lot of people have magic and are wrong.] Either way, sounds like it's made itself your problem, so, bummer.

Great, now he's going to be insufferable. Can I sleep here tonight?

[It's fifty-fifty as to whether he's serious there or not.]

As aggravating as Leo's points are, they can't really be discounted. I'm not sure what more can be done about it anyway when you're here.

Should we be more concerned about the whole spontaneous memory upload? Because up until now, I had no idea that was a thing. I spoke with someone about such time syncs but that occurs when someone takes a trip back to their world and by using whatever means the Alliance has.

[He sighs.] Not a chance.

[Sorry Donnie, you're going to have to suffer through this alone. He's got enough on his plate with all these fresh memories and injuries.

They've got a point, though. As much as he hates it (Go to Russia), there isn't much he can do here. Maybe if he could get back to Academy City... or if Last Order was here... but he can't and she isn't.

He sighs again. It's one of those nights.]

... Tche.

Yeah, I didn't know it could happen, either. I don't know if this is some kind of new Confluence bullshit - [Seems unlikely given Chaos Gate] - or something else.

The better my portals become, the harder I am to escape.

[Leo can always bother them and they'll just have to deal with it.

He'll just listen to the confluence discussion though. He really doesn't like the implications of any of that part of this - that it can happen at any time, that they don't have to even leave for it to happen.

Is he going to get multiple weeks worth of memories beamed into his head one day? And injuries to match? If that happens...

Let's not think about it.]

If madness overtakes us both [Open]

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