metalogs | [Closed] Is it Just Smoke and Mirrors?

Entry tags:

[Closed] Is it Just Smoke and Mirrors?

Who: Accelerator

levelshift, Donnie

purplexing, Leo

faceguy and Oliver

meca
What: Three teens meet up with some guy from the internet for a magic charm
When: *Nebulous hand waggle* Sometime after this and this
Where: Excelsior
Content Warnings: Accelerator

Seeking help over the internet isn't anything strange, so getting in contact with a self-proclaimed witch can't be any more unusual. Donnie might have balked about it before- his previous experiences with witches had not been very great, all things considered, but when you are friends with a magic cricket man and trade verbal jabs with a Norse god on occasion, really, outsourcing magical problems to a witch isn't all that out there.

"That...looks like the place down there," Donnie says as he peers through his goggles, zooming in. "Sooo our designated meeting spot should be directly below."

Of course they're up on a roof, scoping things out. They're ninja. Ninja and one esper. Point being, why walk on the sidewalk when you could practically use anything else as a pathway?

"Now, where is...?"

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They're ninjas, sure, but Oliver isn't. Which is why he doesn't bother trying to be stealthy when approaching the building they've agreed to meet up in--an art studio that's currently empty of inhabitants. Theo likes this one, and Oliver knows their schedule well enough through him. Which makes finding an empty time slot he can use to meet up with others easy. His fingers reach for the door knob, and the ink on the back of his hand glows a soft blue as the lock slides loose. There's a security system, but it's an easy to fuck with one that doesn't take him any effort at all--it's on, and then it's off without him so much as glancing towards the hub.

Once the door's open, Oliver steps inside and leaves it unlocked behind him. Settles down comfortably on the closest couch, dropping the reusable grocery bag he'd been carrying with him down on the coffee table, and pulls out his phone--not the one he'd gotten here, the one that'd traveled with him from back home.

If it takes them longer than a few minutes to let themselves in, he may just help himself to a nap.

Accelerator doesn't like this. It's funny, before the brain injury he would have never, ever considered being cautious, but here he is, doing exactly that. The idea of having some random stranger Donnie found over the internet taking a look at his work phone bothers him, though he knows they don't have any other good options at the moment.

... Well. If this person turns out to be skeevy, he'll just crush him and they can move on, find some other way to track Chaos Gate.

"That must be him," he mutters, watching as a figure approaches the designated meeting area, does some presumably magic bullshit, and heads on in. He frowns a little, briefly clenching his hands into fists before hitting the switch on his choker. "Let's get this over with."

As usual, he doesn't wait for the turtles, just hops off the edge of the roof and slows his descent at the very end by twisting gravity vectors around. Once on the ground he doesn't bother with stealth anymore, simply shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and approaching the building casually.

(Casually, with his power still enabled. Just in case.)

Alright, guess he’s just gonna walk in there.

“No appreciation for subtlety, honestly. And this was starting so cloak and dagger.”

Leo sighs dramatically, watching Accelerator go down. He’s still not sure about this, but he trusts Donnie and he can’t think of a reason why this random “witch” (allegedly!) would want to trap them.

He motions to Donnie, saying, “After you.” He’s just going to open a portal to get himself down, but he wants to hang back a second - just to make sure this is all on the up and up.

The glow of the arcane showing up in his goggles' display is promising, at least. Donnie echoes Leo's sigh, dramatics and all, as their resident esper makes his way down.

"Right? Oh well. 'Rator is 'Rator."

Giving his brother a nod, Donnie starts to make his own way down. Rather than taking the streets to get across, he flies to the adjacent building before descending, keeping close to the walls to meet Accelerator by the door. After doing a quick look around, he nods at the esper before swinging the door open to step inside.

"Knock, knock."

Well, at least he wasn't waiting long. Oliver looks past his phone screen to the trio and--looks them over. Squints, but if their appearance is throwing him off any, he's not making it obvious at all.

He swings his legs over to put his feet back down against the floor. Presses his elbow against the arm of the chair, and tips his head to press his palm against his cheek. Holding up his head is Effort, and he isn't up for that.

"Thought you might want somewhere quiet, given how hush hush you were trying to be." Anonymous status and all. Oliver raises his other hand to wave them closer; he's got rings on every finger, at least one--and numerous piercings in his ear. A closer look would show that most of them are covered in runes and sigils, all made of steel and various gems and minerals. They're all charmed, each created for a specific purpose.

Accelerator doesn't say anything as they enter the place, looking around for any apparent ambushes or signs this was a bad idea. The interior looks like a regular art studio, and there's nothing visibly fishy about it which is good. But there's a familiar pressure against his chest, one that started way back in Academy City with a boy not called Unabara, and his hands are shaking a tiny bit.

Ugh, this again. Given what he knows now about his own world he can guess the cause of it (magic) and while it doesn't necessarily mean anything dangerous it's still irritating.

He's going to hang back and let Leo and Donnie do the talking. They're both a lot better at it than he is, so.

Leo’s the last one in, watching for anything he thinks is shady. But now that the conversation has started, he glides to the front, grinning companionably as he looks Oliver over.

“Yeah, hush hush is kinda our thing. Ninja and all.”

He gives his mask tails a little flip as he says it.

“So you can track a magical signature, right? We wouldn’t mind seeing it in action.”

"It seemed better to err on the side of caution for a potentially delicate operation," Donnie adds as he steps forward, nodding. He resists the urge to go flipping down his goggles just yet as he looks the guy on the couch over. Assuming Accelerator is being Accelerator, he lets the esper hang back for now.

"Anyway, I'm the one who spoke with you. Name's Donnie. And yes, you did say you could demonstrate. Given our conversation, you'd require an object that the person you'd want to track has used their magic on, correct?"

"Mm', yeah. If the person themselves is unavailable, which it sounds like they are."

Taking his palm off his cheek, Oliver reaches forward for the grocery bag, and dumps it out onto the coffee table. There's a piece of chalk, a few gemstomes, and several chunks of iron.

"Tracking magical signatures is hard to demonstrate without doing it," Not that it's stopping him any. The gems and iron get shoved over to the side, before Oliver starts using the chalk to draw a circle. Draws several overlapping circles inside the first circle. "so I can just do it, and if you guys decide to fuck me over and not pay me back the IOU, I'll just curse you." His tone is nonchalant; whether or not he really means it is something else entirely. Revenge takes effort, and an owed favor is likely not worth it.

"...." Accelerator purses his lips, resisting the urge to snap back with a threat of his own. It's an amount of self-control he wouldn't have bothered with before, so he is a little proud of himself for holding back.

He isn't bothered by the apparent mundane and a little faux-spiritual items that are going to be used -- Unabara had apparently used human flesh for his magic, so gemstones and chalk or whatever are probably a step up. Taking the cell phone out of his hoodie pocket and tossing it over to Donnie, he otherwise remains against the wall. "It's a piece of technology. Does that complicate anything?"

Very good, Accelerator, you’re learning!

“Cursing anybody won’t be necessary.” He waves a hand. “But maybe we should nail down some limits on this IOU before we get too deep here…”

He glances at the phone that Donnie hopefully just caught. Accelerator has a good point that this depends on if the phone is even a good object for this…

Donnie almost gets smacked in the face by the phone as he's distracted by Oliver's setup. He hugs the thing to his chest, giving Accelerator a brief scowl- little warning, huh? before he turns back towards the other human, waving a hand as if to dismiss both the witch's threat and Leo's suggestion.

"Like services for like services. I already told him I'd owe him a favor. You two don't need to worry about it."

He reaches up to bring his goggles down, curious to see how all this magicking is going to register through his readouts. He supposes he's not at all surprised that all of the jewelry Oliver's wearing bears some sort of mystic property to it. But yes, the phone.

"If what you did tell me about your ability is anything to say about it, then a phone is hardly going to be an issue, right?" he asks as he steps over to hold out the device.

His eyes keep down-turned, focused on the circle he's drawing. Oliver doesn't usually do shit that requires this amount of focus; relying on sacred geometry is shit he only does on occasion, so he's being careful not to fuck up his lines. The chalk hits the end of the circle, and Oliver's pulling it back to start on a large triangle that intersects the outermost circles.

"A phone with GPS'd make this a lot easier, actually. Was it theirs, or did they just fuck with it?" Not that he's waiting for an answer, because Oliver's extending a hand out over the table, palm up.

He's doing his best. He gives Donnie a small shrug to return the scowl before turning his attention back on Oliver and his phone. Mostly his phone. He doesn't want the thing to get broken or messed with in any substantial way. The IOU is also a little concerning, but if Oliver asks for anything outrageous he doubts it'd be hard to force him to change his mind.

"I think she made it," Accelerator answers. Kind of hard to tell the nature of the phone when it appeared out of thin air. "It's my phone for work. She gave it to me."

Yeah, he's going to worry about it. No offense, Donnie.

But for now he'll let it go - this is Donnie's show and he's not going to take over. If what Oliver asks for later is out of line, he'll figure something out.

So he holds his hands up in surrender and steps back, though he's keeping a close eye on what Oliver's doing now. Mainly because he's just flat out interested; magic is so cool.

Donnie hands over the phone. He really doesn't expect the other two to accept his decision but arguing about it isn't going to expedite things. Besides, he hasn't said any specifications of his own abilities, just that he was more technically oriented. He's sure Leo'd be even more uncertain about his offering Nulls any assistance if the need comes up, not that Donnie's felt the need to mention it.

He doesn't know too much about the phone but it looks pretty up to date from what he'd inspected of it. In any case, Oliver had said that GPS would just make it easier, not impossible. So he turns his attention to the careful network of geometric shapes that have been drawn.

Oliver turns the phone over in hand, ink on the back of his hand glowing a soft blue. He hums soft under his breath, eyes half-lidded and focused down on the phone itself.

"So, usually, this is where I'd use selenite and iron to make a compass that points directly to the source of the magic. Right? Easyish, you put one piece," His hand drops down to the circle, places fingers against one corner of the triangle. "here, either the phone, or the selenite, and put the other on this point," fingers slide over, careful not to smudge lines, "Then I use myself to complete the triangle. I can do that. Or I can just use the phone's GPS and point it directly at it's source."

Magic is weird. Was Aiwass magic? And that artificial angel? They have the same glowing shit going on, and they caused the same pressure that Accelerator is feeling in his chest, so....

He doesn't know. None of this makes any logical sense to him, even the mention of selenite and iron makes it all sound like pseudo-spiritual bullshit to him. He frowns a little.

"Use the GPS." The three of them understand how that functions, a lot better than magic given the makeup of the trio, so it makes more sense to go with that.

Leo nods in agreement with using the GPS, but he's still watching it all with interest.

Selenite, iron... runes... using yourself to complete the triangle...

"Can anyone learn how to do this?" he asks. Just throwing it out there. Having a way to track people like this could be useful, if they need to find someone who Donnie hasn't gotten a chance to bug.

Geology had never been Donnie's particular subject of interest, but he's listening all the same. Making a compass, albeit magically oriented, makes sense. He frowns thoughtfully.

"And if we didn't have something with convenient GPS, how would it work? Would it be channeled or whatever through you?"

"My particular brand of magic, no. You're born with the capability of developing it." Oliver turns the phone over in hand, opens up the map function on it and closes his eyes for a moment. Breathes in deep through his mouth, lets it out through his nose. When his eyes open, his pupils are blown, eyes more black than brown. He stands up, holds the phone back out.

It's mapping to a location marked with a blue arrow - wherever Chaos Gate's currently hiding out at.

"If it didn't have GPS, it'd work on it's own after I finished the compass. Magic sticks hard to metals, it's near impossible to work it out. I make it, but it doesn't need me after it's done. Same as this thing, which--I'm done with."

"....."

His particular brand of magic. Does that mean there's other kinds of magic anyone can use? It doesn't seem like it would apply to espers. At least, the magic back home isn't compatible with espers. Accelerator wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here as well, and from what he knows of the side effects, he isn't in any rush to experiment.

Anyways, it looks like they've got a tracker on Chaos Gate. Not matter how it was done that's good, right?

Bummer. Since they're (presumably) from different universes, Leo doubts he was born with the capability.

Oh well! He's sure there are other tricks he could learn. Or that Mikey could learn. Either way.

"Whoa... so it found her?"

Donnie's not sure whether he's disappointed that it wasn't flashy or impressed that it was so fast. Brows lifting, he glances at the others before he looks at the phone, making a mental note about metal and magic, at least in regards to Oliver's particular brand of such, even as he tries not to look directly at the man's dilated gaze.

"Looks like," he confirms to Leo once he has the phone in hand. "That...is pretty cool." Assuming it is in fact Chaos Gate that the arrow points out. "In any case, we've got a heading. Which...looks like it involves another cross-country trip."

"I used to do this all the time back home. Had a friend who'd disappear into the middle of fucking nowhere and forget how to find himself, it was annoying. But it does mean that things like this comes pretty easy. Practice makes perfect, and whatever."

And since his job here is mostly done, Oliver's going to go back to lounging on the couch comfortably. No need to slouch forward and fuck around with the stuff he'd left on the table if he can instead lay down, right.

"Have fun with whatever it is you're looking for." He has an idea. It'd have been hard not to feel Chaos Gate's magic back during Fantastic's broadcast. But, really--Oliver doesn't give two fucks. So.

Accelerator finally pulls away from the wall and moves over to Donnie, so he can get a look at the phone's screen. Sheesh, that's far. He frowns at what the GPS shows.

"Great," he says with a sigh. Apparently finding someone who could track her was only step one in this whole process. She isn't making this easy, though that shouldn't be surprising.

Leo leans in too, taking a look.

"Oh, is that Sunset Falls? Hey, I've been there!"

Mainly to party... which he probably hasn't mentioned to Donnie or Accelerator, actually. It was before either of them made it to this dimension, after all. At least it means he knows it, at least a little.

"I know all about wanting to keep track of people," says the guy who puts trackers on all his favorite people, usually without their consent.

Donnie casts a dry look at the witch at the apparent dismissal. "So that's it then, huh?"

Studying the phone's screen again, he nods at Leo's observation before pausing. "Wait, really? When?" And for what reason, that's really the question Donnie wants to ask because what is there to do around Sunset Falls?

"Okay team, so what's the plan?"

"Good luck, or whatever."

Because while he's not going anywhere, he is raising his own phone up. Unlocks the screen, and starts sending off a message to someone before he's opening another app to browse through short clips. He's self-entertaining.

"Assuming it's only going to be the three of us, we go to Sunset Falls and see if we can talk to her," Accelerator responds. It's far from the best plan, and he has no idea if having this witch guy there would help or hinder things. They're all flying blind here, and he hates it.

"It's got a pretty cool party scene, apparently. I went to some raves in a supposedly haunted warehouse."

He still refuses to admit that ghosts are real.

He nods at Accelerator, casting a glance at Oliver. He seems disinterested and so Leo doubts taking him would be much help.

"Let's hit it. We need to move before she leaves again."

Donnie'd agree on Accelerator's thoughts were he aware of them, but he's thinking along the same lines. He's not quite sure what their plan is short of trying to talk to her, but it's something, and at least Accelerator has some sort of connection to her.

"Why am I not surprised you went for a party," he says, rolling his eyes at Leo. He might however be of the same mind when it comes to the subject of ghosts.

He spares a quick glance back at Oliver, not that he can get on the guy's case when he's also one to default on playing with his phone at any given opportunity. "Thanks," he does say in afterthought, figuring at least that much needs be said. If anything magic-related comes up, at least they have options in who to bother.

"Agreed," Donnie nods as he looks back to the other two.

Chaos Gate, here they come!

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[Closed] Is it Just Smoke and Mirrors?

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