riverviewlogs | [closed] There is a terrible cost to dark magic, but you know what they say

[It ends up taking a while to get everything organised, for this little experiment, because they need equipment and a space, most of which Taako leaves in Cisco's hands to secure, since he's the one who knows what the hell he needs. All Taako needs is himself, and that's exactly what he brings to the clinic that Cisco managed to sweet talk someone into letting him borrow.

It's a little creepy, after hours, with no one there, but there are enough lights on to mitigate most of the spookiness.

Most of it.]

Should I have told someone where I was so like, they know where to look after we get murdered by ghosts?

[#helping]

[ It had taken some doing, getting all this set up. Not just because of the science involved, but due to the safety precautions, as well. Cisco remembers the last time, how Caitlin had told him he almost had a stroke. Even though this time, in theory, Taako's magic will be able to keep him from feeling quite that level of brain-frying fear, it's better safe than sorry. After all, he has no clue how his powers and magic will interact. It's possible Taako's powers will be completely incapable of doing anything to influence his vibes. It's also possible that his vibes will be utterly incapable of standing up to Taako's magic. Or there could be some third, messy option.

He goes way overboard on the sensors and setup; it's a smallish room, white and antiseptic, but it's crammed full of devices, mainly meant to monitor Cisco's body. He isn't hooked up to any yet, but it's clear most of them will be attached to him sooner or later. When Taako comes in, looking relaxed and cracking jokes about getting murdered by ghosts, it does, actually, help. Cisco laughs, a little too hard to be very subtle about the fact that he's nervous. ]

Hey, you're the ghost expert, not me. I don't know about the precautions for if Casper and friends decide to crash this party.

[ He hops up on the edge of the bed and starts hooking things up to himself. Electrodes here and there, two mysterious machines that connect to sensors he clips on his fingers. He even takes a tiny sample of his blood, which fortunately Caitlin had taught him to do. As he is working on that, he nods to the foot of the bed, where a pair of goggles are sitting. ]

That's them.

[ In case Taako wants to check them out while he's doing the prep work. ]

You go on one date and suddenly you're the ghost expert.

[He's still honestly not sure if Kravtiz actually counts as a ghost, since he can create a body for himself and... all that, but he's some kind of undead thing, at least, so obviously that makes Taako the ghost expert.

Or maybe it's just that he's a wizard.]

They look kinda goofy, huh?

[Why is he likes this.]

Yep. That's how it works.

[ Cisco hadn't even meant Kravitz - he'd been referring merely to the fact that Taako is from a world that HAS ghosts, at all, outside bad and addictive reality television. But he's more than happy to roll with it, when Taako immediately assumes that is who he was talking about.

When Taako's first and only comment is that the goggles look kinda goofy, Cisco's mouth drops open in mock outrage. ]

They're for science, not fashion.

[ The fact that he says this right as he is strapping a strange, incredibly goofy-looking halo device onto his head really adds something.

Cisco finishes up hooking things on his body, and then... just pauses a moment, gnawing at his lower lip. The two of them had discussed this more than once. It has been a long time since Taako made his first offer, and Cisco has given plenty of warnings. But that doesn't mean he isn't going to give one more. ]

I don't know what's gonna happen. Like... at all. Not too late to change your mind.

Everything is for fashion if you're not a coward.

[Obviously Cisco could have made them look cool despite all the necessary science-y bits, he must've just chosen not to, because he's a coward.]

Listen, my dude, I'm letting Loki pretend to blow me up for fucking shits and giggles, I can handle a little dreaming.

[That's a weird sentence.]

[ Cisco makes a "what does that even mean" facial expression, all squinting and confusion and head-shaking. ]

Maybe... science fashion is just on a whole other level you can't even comprehend. Ever think of that?

[ It's good, to be able to banter a little, to vent his anxiety by joking meaninglessly about stuff that doesn't matter. Humor is a welcome relief - less so when Taako's answer to his warning is so casual. ]

You're what?! [ But before Taako can actually answer Cisco holds up a hand, halting him and saying: ] Actually, don't tell me before we do this, my heart rate's high enough already and that sounds like it won't help matters.

[ Cisco is, indeed, wearing the little heart-rate monitor that Taako had given him, which Cisco has altered a tiny amount - just enough to work in a wire that'll feed data from it to a device that will record the shifts. He does a quick double-check that everything's turned on and attached, and then holds out his hand for the goggles. ]

So... like we discussed. I put on the goggles, you cast sleep, I tell you once I'm in a vision, and then... you do your Nightmare on Elm Street thing and we go from there.

[He rolls his eyes at both the horribly wrong assumption that science is fashion, and at Cisco's fussing.]

It'll be a great gag, I'll tell you about it later.

[For now: this whole thing is more important, which is why Taako picks up the goggles and holds them out for Cisco, before he just sits his ass down on the floor, legs crossed, umbra staff laid across his lap.]

I got it. [The basic timeline for how this goes.] Any requests for where we start out?

[If Cisco wants it to be somewhere chill.]

[ Cisco considers that for a moment or two, then answers in a rush. ]

Listen, I know you don't approve and all, but these things are still calibrated to basically... flip on the fear switch. There might be another way to get my powers to work, but for now, this is sort of the only one I know, so. If we wanna go from zero to vibe as quickly as possible, probably somewhere... conducive to fear.

[ Cisco scrunches his mouth to the side a moment, thinking. Probably he needs to be more specific than that, and it's not exactly like there's a point in being coy about what makes him afraid, when Taako is about to be right up in his brain. ]

Um. Big, industrial-type basement with nobody in it. With an elevator. That... should... get it done.

[ He flips the goggles on, and they light up a bright blue, making a very faint buzzing that Taako will probably just be able to hear. Cisco puts them on and, with a short, rather stressed sigh, lays down. His hands are clenching and unclenching at his sides, but he says, firmly: ]

Let's do this.

[Cisco is half-right; it's not that he doesn't necessarily approve, it's just that Cisco is his friend, and the idea of purposefully scaring the shit out of a friend just seems pretty counter-intuitive, unless its for a prank.

But he does want Cisco to figure out his powers, instead of running from them, so... if it's necessary, it's necessary.]

Had to be a fucking elevator, huh?

[He's also not a fan, not that it really matters.

Taako moves a hand through the air to cast sleep, and then follows it up with dream, slipping into a trance.

The next thing Cisco will see is that basement, with an elevator at one end. It's half open, one of the doors at a slight angle, the lights inside flashing sporadically, casting strange shadows. Taako is nowhere to be seen, for now, but it seems like there's something down here with him, judging by the faint sound of footsteps that can be heard in the distance.]

[ Cisco doesn't get a chance to respond to that weird little comment of Taako's about elevators - he's just opening his mouth to ask about it when all of a sudden, just like that, he is asleep. Which is pretty damn jarring; it takes Cisco a moment to just realize what's happened. Then, he starts to examine the surroundings. ]

Taako?

[ He says it aloud in the dream, and thanks to the intervention of the goggles, says it out loud into the hospital room. In his head he is speaking perfectly normally, but the words come out a little slow and dazed-sounding in the real world.]

Okay, I'm in. Still just a regular dream, don't hop in yet. Can you change stuff, from out there?

[ There's something kind of sick about this, Cisco thinks, as he gets ready to tell Taako how to change his dream, make it frightening enough to actually trigger his powers. He knows it is important - he needs the readings he'll get, needs to try whatever he can to understand all this. But right then, it's feeling uncomfortably masochistic. ]

Can you... make the room brighter.... add a laptop... and... close the elevator doors but have it... coming down... towards this floor.

[ Cisco turns his back to where that elevator is, feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. They're getting warmer, now. If he can just recreate enough of the details of this particular scene, he knows that will do the trick. And then Taako can enter the vision, and they can ollie before things get too awful. Awesome plan. What could possibly go wrong? ]

[Taako's in the dream and he isn't, but magic kind of makes that tricky to explain, so he simply does what Cisco asks rather than popping fully in to properly say how all this works.

The room brightens, a table and laptop appear that are similar to the ones in Cisco's lab, and the elevator door closes, as the little display above it starts indicating that the lift is heading downwards.]

[ Cisco squints at first against the now brighter lights, but then picks up the laptop, glancing at the elevator over his shoulder and walking about the appropriate distance away from it. Once he has, he opens up the laptop and looks at it, his back turned directly to the elevator. There is no sound, to accompany the changing display indicating the elevator is descending. But Cisco knows that it's there, behind him, coming ever closer, silently.

It doesn't take much more than that. The goggles must be warmed up now, sending their signals to the right places. And of course, there's Taako's magic, too, shaping this into a place to be feared. It just takes a little push of his imagination, to tell himself that as soon as that elevator door opens, he knows who is going to be standing behind it, and what is going to happen next.

And as he's thinking that, heart pounding away against his ribcage, the dream tilts, warps. Not in the way dreams normally change, one scene blurring into another, details surreal and unimportant. There is a weird, almost static-y distortion, and the room around Cisco shifts. Not a generic basement, now, but the basement of S.T.A.R. Labs, filtered through a strange, eerie blue light. Everything is like an overexposed photograph - the contrast too high, the regular colors bleached out. And yet it feels intensely, urgently real, in a way that dreams never do. ]

Okay... ok, this is it. I'm having a vision now, we can get started.

[ Now, instead of just holding a laptop, Cisco is standing in front of a desk with a laptop on it. He doesn't want to reach out and hit the button that will trigger the hologram, but he does it anyway, because that was how it had happened, and he's no longer in control of the scene. He hits a button and a few feet in front of him a shuddery image of a creepy dude with glowing red eyes in a head to toe yellow leather costume appears. It would be comical, if it weren't completely terrifying. Cisco's voice is a shade higher than usual as he says: ]

And we should get started by being somewhere that's not here. Like... anywhere. Um. Soon, please.

[There's a second where it feels like something is pulling at Cisco, from just below his breastbone, but the sensation fades and nothing changes.]

Fuck.

[And Taako is just there, hauled into the dream as he tries to refocuses his magic; he doesn't even take the time to look around, just makes a gesture in the air as he pulls at the dream in an attempt to reshape it.

They knew that something could go wrong with this, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon. Apparently the vision is more resistant to being changed than a regular dream is.]

Fuck, I got some bad news for you, pumpkin.

[ Cisco doesn't panic right away. When he hears Taako's voice, at first it is a relief. A reminder that this isn't really happening, that the two of them are camped out in a little room in the hospital, on a moon that is in another fucking universe than S.T.A.R. Labs. Seeing Taako also helps; he doesn't belong here, in this place. The mismatch keeps Cisco's head clear, for a little space of time.

But then Taako is waving his hands, gesturing like he's doing magic. Only... nothing changes. Nothing at all. The juddering, vibrating hologram speaks its recorded line in the same creepy voice as always, and they are still here. Cisco's heart is racing, but he's still hoping this is some stupid mix up. Or maybe... ]

Taako, you know I love your sense of humor, but this is a really, really, reeeaaally bad time to be pranking me. Just- get us outta here, please. Doesn't matter where. It can be somewhere totally shitty.

[ He glances over his shoulder, and the elevator is only two floors away. His breaths become a touch more frantic, a thin edge of panic in them, but he's keeping a handle on it, for now. ]

[This is unfortunate, but unlike Cisco, Taako has no need to be afraid; this isn't his nightmare, and there's nothing in here that can hurt them.]

We knew this shit might not work, and this is this shit, not working.

[He keeps his voice steady, a little casual, trying to help Cisco keep his own chill despite the fact they're currently stuck here.]

Try to calm down, this could be cause you're subconsciously fighting this.

[And this magic is different, if the person is fighting it.]

[ Cisco does try. When Taako tells him to calm down, he takes a long, shaky breath, lets it out very slowly. He tells himself that the fear is just a chemical reaction in his brain caused by the goggles. He can just choose not to pay attention to it. ]

Just end it then. Experiment failed. Stupid idea in the first place. Wake us both up.

[ He tries to say it all very calmly, and rationally; it comes out a bit more clipped and urgent than all that. Then he misunderstands, when Taako says maybe the magic isn't working because Cisco is fighting against it. Cisco is not an angry sort of person, but more than anything else, fear makes him lash out, which is what happens now. ]

Subconsciously fighting it? What, for real? Like, you think I want to be here right now? I don't-

[ Before he can get any further, there is a soft noise, and the elevator doors are opening. Cisco whirls around, his rant against Taako forgotten. As soon as Cisco sees the rather unremarkable looking man in all black standing in the elevator, his demeanor changes from just this side of freaking out to full-blown panic. He freezes in place, can't seem to take his eyes off the man, even as he says to Taako, desperate this time, pleading: ]

Please. Taako, please, you need to get me out of here.

[The anger doesn't bother him, he gets that this is just because Cisco is scared, the fear from this memory heightened by the goggles, and he doesn't feel that explaining himself will help the situation. Nothing much is going to help this particular situation, except for getting them out of here.

And that becomes far more important when... someone exits the elevator, a man Taako doesn't know, and Cisco's voice takes on a desperate edge.]

Trust me, bubbale.

[It's gentle as it can be, as Taako closes his eyes, ignoring the sound of the man approaching, ignoring Cisco's quickened breathing, just focusing all his effort and energy into changing the spell.

He gestures again, and with an almost painful shudder, the vision changes. He'd been thinking about elevators, about basements, trying to stick as close to the original dream as possible in the hope that would help, and it did, because they're currently in the voidfish's chamber.

When Taako opens his eyes, he can see it floating in it's tank in front of them, and even if it's not real, he says:]

It's real fucking good to see you, Fisher.

[The voidfish hums in response.]

[ Cisco wants to trust Taako. He had trusted him enough to try this experiment, after all, which is a hell of a lot. But it's hard to focus on anything else with Eobard Thawne walking slowly and purposefully towards him, one hand raised high and vibrating so fast that it is an awful, nauseating blur. He's smiling a little, even though Cisco's not really sure anymore whether that detail is quite right. When Taako closes his eyes, clearly focusing on trying the spell again, Cisco just assumes it will fail a second time. And he stops pleading and just... gives up. He hangs his head and braces himself for the pain of having his heart torn to bits. There's no point in trying to run or fight back. He knows that as well as he'd known it the first time.

But then, impossibly, he feels a kind of tug from just beneath his ribcage, and Eobard is gone. That shuddery, awful sound of his hand vibrating is gone, replaced by the soft sound of water moving in some kind of huge container, an overall low hum as if there were in some kind of ship or plane. Cisco looks up, breath catching in his throat.

Taako had told him about the voidfish, but words didn't really do it justice. It's so much bigger, and stranger, and more beautiful than Cisco had imagined. And he knows what it means. He whirls around, looking at every corner of the room, but it is empty apart from the two of them and the voidfish. Cisco lets out a huge, shuddery sigh of relief, hand coming up reflexively to cover his heart, to rub away at the half-imagined, half-remembered pain there. ]

Holy shit, you did it. You- Taako, thank you.

[ Cisco is trembling faintly from head to toe, but he stands up straight and works on slowing his breaths, dispelling the lingering panic now that they are safe. He notices, then, that this room still has the faint blue tint of one of his vibes. Still has that weird, hyper-real feeling of a vibe, as opposed to a dream. But... the voidfish had made a sound after Taako spoke to it. That shouldn't happen, normally, in a vibe. ]

That was, uh- we... can talk about that later. [ Then, more briskly, clearly eager to move the conversation along before Taako can ask any questions about what had just gone down. ] So this is the voidfish, right? Are you- does everything look blue to you? It does to me, like I'm in one of my vibes, do you see it like that?

[Even though he had no idea exactly what the expect at the end of that vision, Taako is relieved to be out of it, at least for Cisco's sake. And Fisher's room is peaceful, which he thinks should help, as he leans back against the tank and waits for Cisco to calm down, not wanting to invade on... whatever this is.]

Uh... [Now that Cisco mentions it, he looks around the room, focusing on the colours of it, rather than just trying to maintain this part of the dream.] Kinda? So like, real talk, I'm thinking magic and vibes aren't a great mix, we might've fucked something up.

[Just judging by the fact they seem to be caught in a half dream/half vibe, with Taako trying to maintain control while Cisco's powers do their thing.]

[ Cisco nods, comforted at least by the fact that Taako is seeing things the same way he is. He's never been... not alone, in his visions before. No one has ever actually seen what they look like, the strange distortions to color and light, the way they skip sometimes like a record with a scratch.

He's aware, logically, that being in some kind of half-dream half-vibe is more dangerous than the memory they'd gotten out of, but it doesn't terrify him in the same way. It seems like a problem that can be solved. Cisco squares his shoulders, comes over beside Taako, staring through the glass at the voidfish. ]

I'm assuming you tried waking us up, already?

[ Cisco shuts his eyes, thinks to himself that they are really just in that hospital room, that he should wake up, snap out of this. But it has absolutely no effect, which isn't much of a surprise. He can't stop his vibes when they happen naturally; no reason he would be able to when he's artificially induced one, and thrown magic into the mix. ]

Pretty much the first thing I tried when changing it didn't work.

[Taako has never really experienced anything like this before; he's never had a dream he can't wake up from, since he doesn't exactly sleep the way most people do.

He tries again, anyway, to drop the spell, but nothing happens.]

Jokes about ghosts aside, Lup does know where I'm at, if the spell lasts longer than eight hours she'll come get us.

[Being trapped in this half-dream for eight hours doesn't exactly sound like fun, but it's not... terrible. At least he enjoys Cisco's company.]

Good. That... that was good thinking.

[ Cisco knows that he ought to be more worried about this, but the relief from escaping that basement is still too great. He stares up at the voidfish, the strange lights and its galaxy pattern, the graceful way that it is moving through its tank of liquid. Mostly, when Taako had mentioned it, he'd been talking about its effects. About how Lucretia had used it to make him forget about Lup. ]

I didn't realize it would be so beautiful.

[ Cisco stares up at the voidfish, but keeps speaking as he does so: ]

Maybe... we could try going through a door, see where it leads? Find if there are edges to the dream, or something?

[ The temptation to just stay here, in this room, where everything is safe, until they wake up naturally or someone finds them, is very strong. But that's inaction, not a plan. ]

[Despite his reassurances to Cisco that he wasn't worried, about something going wrong, Taako has a half decent self-preservation instinct. Also, he just kind of tells Lup everything, so it was bound to happen.]

It has its moments.

[At the end of the day, it isn't Fisher's fault, how he was used, and looking back Taako can see the ways it seemed to be trying to clue them in. The song, the way it responded to Magnus, so he can't really blame the dumb fish for making them forget in the first place, or blame its child for continuing the secret.]

Should just be a hallway on the other side of that door, but let's give it a shot.

[He gestures for Cisco to lead the way, since this is half his, as well.]

[ Going through the door had been Cisco's idea in the first place, but he is reluctant to leave that room, and its tranquility, and the voidfish. He feels strange, just walking away without saying anything, even if it's a dream. So, rather awkwardly, he says to the creature in the tank: ]

Uh, nice to... meet you.

[ After lingering just a second or two longer, he manages to tear his gaze away, take a long, deep inhale, and head for the door. He doesn't open it until Taako is close behind him, but once he does, he tries to peer through, to look before he leaps.

Except he just... can't see through it. It is a weird, frustrating sensation; it's not that whatever is on the other side is too dark, because there's enough light in this room that some should spill through. There is just a threshold, and beyond that, he can't perceive anything. It reminds him of the feeling in dreams when he is trying to read, and the words on the page just don't work the way they ought to.

Cisco looks back to Taako, who he assumes also cannot see through, gives a tiny shrug, and steps through.

It isn't a hallway. It's an alleyway he doesn't recognize, under a night sky, empty. Or, at least, that's what Cisco thinks at first. ]

Now, what are you doing here, Francisco? And who is the friend?

[ The voice comes from directly behind them, which shouldn't be possible. Except that, when Cisco whirls around, he sees the door they'd just come through has vanished, leaving just the poorly-lit alley. And there, lurking in the shadows, is whoever spoke. After Taako had talked to the voidfish and it had responded, it's clear enough that those words had been meant for them. That this is either a dream fed with information from vibes, or somehow, they've managed to mess things up so spectacularly that they're actually projecting versions of themselves into other worlds - Taako's, and whatever this one is - that real people and creatures can see, and speak to.

Cisco hadn't gotten why that voice sent the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, until he steps forward into the light. And he sees.... well, himself. Almost. A version of himself in a rather melodramatic all-leather outfit, with a generous helping of eyeliner and updo. ]

What the...?

[So... this is weird.

The weirdness potential had always been there, but walking through a door into an alley kinda kicks it up another notch, only for it to get even fucking weirder when there's suddenly two Cisco's (this has to be someone's something). One of which has a totally different vibe (pun intended) than Taako is used to seeing from Cisco,
and honestly, he's kinda digging it.

Love the hair, bubbale. [And then to the real Cisco:] You should try that sometime, it looks good.

[This is a lot less scary than the creepy basement and threatening dude in it.]

for some nerd

wow

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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