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

[ Now that they're out of the dream itself, Cisco can't see what harm it would actually do, for Taako to see if those spells had worked or not. In a way, it's kind of a fascinating question. ]

What all did you cast in there, anyway? There was, uh... I mean getting us out of the first vision was still the same as the initial spell, right? And then there was that telepathy thing, the... whatever the hell that fear spell was. I miss any?

[ Cisco knows that Taako can cast spells silently, and fairly discreetly, so it's possible there were others he wasn't aware of at the time. ]

Just those two. Super sorry about that fear one, bee-tee-dubs, it's the only spooky one I've got that doesn't do any psychic damage and I thought we should try to avoid that if we could.

[It was bad enough the way Cisco looked at him, never mind if he'd actually been hurt afterwards because of something Taako had done.]

[ Cisco finishes gathering up the last of his things, nodding to Taako that he's ready to go whenever, when Taako apologizes for that fear spell. ]

It's cool. Not even sure I know what psychic damage is but I super appreciate not having any. And I mean, hell, it's what got us out, anyway, and I asked you to. I told you whatever it takes, so. It's cool.

[ He means all of that, too: there's conviction in the words. But he also shifts his weight from foot to foot, hands tightening on the strap of his bag, because just thinking about it makes him feel cold and anxious and uneasy. It's that disconnect, between the rational parts of his brain that understood the situation, and can see the sincerity in Taako's apology now, as well as the preemptive one he'd given before casting it. Cisco knows all that, but it doesn't change the sliver of fear that's gotten stuck in a less rational part of his mind.

He'd never seen Taako do magic like that before. Not even in a vision. He'd made beautiful mansions, turned water into delicious rosé, had identified things, caught Cisco when he was falling, summoned dope talking unicorns. But he'd never done anything frightening. And even though he knows Taako's a powerful wizard, who could do a whole lot of harm if he wanted, it's different experiencing a tiny portion of that.

Cisco has been friends with Taako long enough now to know that he sees through half-truths pretty easily, so Cisco adds: ]

I might be a little jumpy for a bit, but I'll get over it. It was just... it was just a lot. And I mean that whole nightmare vibe situation was a roller coaster of not fun, so. Don't apologize and don't worry about it even if I'm a little weird for a little while.

[There are a few people in the Quarantine who've expressed fear over his magic and over him for being able to do it, and somehow he didn't expect to ever need to add Cisco to that list, regardless of how understandable the reaction is. It's not as though Taako cast some other spell and Cisco reacted badly, he literally used magic to put the fear of god into him and now he's reaping what he sowed, so he can't even be annoyed about it.]

I got you, don't even sweat it.

[It's a deflection as much as anything, but he casts teleport (in a higher level spell slot) as soon as he's finished talking, hoping it'll work as a distraction, especially once it's actually successful and they arrive in his bedroom.]

Well, shit, dream spells don't count.

[Weird.]

[ Being teleported is pretty cool, and on top of that it's kind of clear that neither of them want to keep talking about this right now. Cisco isn't too worried about the long term, anyway. Once he's got a little distance, he'll probably be able to file it away along with all the other nightmares about his friends turning on him, frightening or hurting him. He's getting pretty good at ignoring those, these days. ]

Maybe you were tapping into the vibe? As far as I can tell they're like, raw multidimensional energy, so maybe instead of using your reserve or whatever, you were just manipulating that?

[ Cisco sticks his hands into his pockets, glancing around Taako's room a bit but not wanting to be too nosy. He'd already kind of snooped on that date with Kravitz, tonight, after all. ]

Kinda weird... you know what my vibes look like now. Haven't really been able to figure out what's up with the blue.

[Nosy if fine; oddly enough, Taako doesn't really treat his room as much of a personal space, because he's so used to having someone coming in an out, whether it's Lup on the Starblaster, or Magnus at the Bureau, so any shit lying around is shit he's fine people looking at.]

Remind me to hit you up if I need to cast a bunch of powerful shit.

[Which seems to be exactly what Taako was trying to do back in the glass of Phandalin, and he's honestly not sure if he can even do, but he's going to have to worry about that in the future.]

Maybe it's like, the way your brain interprets that energy?

[He shrugs, because this isn't his strong point, and starts casting the spell, focusing it on the wall beside his bed.]

[ Cisco shrugs, too, mouth quirked to the side in a little smile. It's not really his strong point, either. Sure, he's studied other metahumans, but they'd all be relatively easy to understand. His own powers, by some stupid twist of fate, are significantly more mysterious. ]

Who knows. Hopefully the readings I got will give me some clue.

[ He waits until Taako has cast the spell - the same as the very first one he had demonstrated to Cisco, all that time ago, in that espresso bar. Cisco follows him through and to the magical room on the other side, saying as they go: ]

I think maybe I could do it again, though. Controlling it, like I did at the end there. Now that I kind of know how that feels. It's a little bit of progress.

[There is, as always, a grand foyer upon first opening the doors, but Taako leads Cisco through that and into the kitchen he's whipped up, claiming the little bench seat for himself, because even if those couple of spells didn't seem to burn slots, he's still kind of wiped. Flopping dramatically on a comfy bench seems like a great use of his time.]

So what you're saying is that we kinda got a net win over here, despite asshole Cisco and all the other shit.

[Like the whole thing with Taako's date and that dude that Cisco was terrified off, but they can't deal with that later.]

Kitchen's all good to go, let me know if there's anything weird you want, but it should have all your basic shit.

[He can create enough food in here to feed 100 people a 9 course meal so... a handful of whatever Cisco wants will be easy.]

Yeah, something like that. Or at least we broke even.

[ Cisco looks all around the kitchen, smiling faintly; it is spacious, brightly lit, and of course, quite stylish. Taako never does anything by halves, after all. As Taako makes himself comfortable, Cisco starts looking through what is available. He quickly decides on a recipe - one of the few he'd actually picked up at home, fancy enough but not something that'll take hours. Seems pretty unlikely that Taako will have ever had tamales, either, though it's hard to say. ]

If I'm gonna make the recipe I got in mind, only thing I need you haven't got is a couple of banana leaves. Any chance you could, you know. Transmute me up some or whatever? If not I guess I can make something different...

I got you, check the fridge.

[Conjuration isn't in Taako's wheelhouse necessarily, but he got pretty good at it during the stolen century, mostly because there were more than a few times they showed up on completely empty worlds and had to rely on magic to keep them fed. After the first few cycles they started stocking up better, but sometimes there's only so much non-perishable food a group of people can eat before they start going crazy, and that's when conjured roast chicken is useful.]

You think there are more of you out there? I mean, if you've all got the same power, you might run into yourself again eventually.

[Maybe some of them are nice?]

[ Cisco looks in the fridge and makes a noise of surprised triumph, pulling out the two large banana leaves. He pauses to smile his thanks over to Taako where he is lounging, and then he starts assembling the necessary ingredients and beginning the prep work. It's a recipe he knows by heart, so there's no trouble in talking at the same time.

That being said, there is a gap of silence before he answers Taako. He is turning the encounter over again in his memory, thinking about what it was Reverb had said. ]

In theory, there are lots of different versions of everyone, in parallel universes, each one of them with slightly different lives. That Reverb guy made it sound like he's been... keeping tabs on a bunch of other versions of him. Us. Whatever.

[ That's a thought that doesn't sit very well. Nobody likes being spied on, but Cisco in particular hates even the thought of it. Finding out a supervillain has had surveillance equipment hidden in your apartment for years will do that to a guy. He starts chopping up onion and other ingredients for the quick marinade. ]

Sounds like the other me's know a lot more about controlling their powers.

[ Which in and of itself doesn't really bother Cisco, except that it makes him think about the particular circumstances that had led him to spend so long denying his powers, avoiding them, hating them. ]

Edited 2017-08-06 02:41 (UTC)

[It's pretty easy to empathise with how shitty it would feel to know someone's watching your every move, even if Taako can't directly relate.]

So, this might be kind of a long shot and considering our last fucking experiment into magic and vibes maybe a bad idea, but I got a spell that can hide people, right? Usually it's to hide 'em from divination magic, but maybe it'll keep Eyeliner from being a creep.

[He has no idea whether it'll work or not, but he doesn't think it'll hurt to try, since it's not the same as directly merging their powers together the way they did with the dreamscape.]

[ Cisco pauses, cupped hands full of rough-chopped white onion, to look over at Taako. ]

You would do that for me?

[ As far as bad ideas go, it seems to Cisco that the worst case on this one would simply be that the spell wouldn't be enough to prevent Reverb from vibing and spying on him. But still, it surprises him, that even after everything that happened tonight - the weirdness and scariness that helping him had put Taako through, he's willing to just offer his help again, like it's nothing. Cisco swallows, dumps those onions into the blender, and goes back to the cutting board to dice up some garlic. ]

Divination magic's probably about as close an equivalent as there is. I don't know if it would work, but... can't hurt, right? And I mean... I can't say I'm loving the idea of him stalking me, even if he's ten dimensions over or whatever.

Edited 2017-08-06 04:01 (UTC)

[It doesn't really occur to him that this would be any kind of big deal for whatever reason; yeah, the whole dream thing sucked a lot, but it's not as if Cisco did anything on purpose, Taako got involved of his own choice, and now he's just... continuing to help, because Cisco's his friend.]

It's a pretty easy spell, only lasts for twenty four hours so I'm gonna need to recast it but up to you how often you wanna do it.

[Not the most elegant solution, having something that needs to be recast daily, but its better than nothing.]

Oh, right.

[ It should have occurred to him, that it wouldn't be a one-and-done type situation. Cisco hesitates, torn between telling Taako to not even worry about it, because re-casting it every day would be a hassle for him, and Cisco doesn't want to be a burden. But... he remembers Reverb smiling at him and the pretty creepy way he'd looked him up and down, and for once, veers towards selfishness. ]

Uh, how 'bout we try it for a few days, if that's alright, and I'll see if I can come up with some sort of tech to take over after that.

[ He'd made tech that could prevent Grodd from taking over people's minds - if he can just isolate some kind of frequency, for vibes, maybe he can adapt the same principle, put it into some kind of totem he can just carry around with him. He digs through the spices, adding some of this and that directly into the blender, not really measuring anything. He adds some water, a few chiles, and pops the top on, blending the stuff and setting it aside. ]

Don't know what I did to make me a fucking creep magnet.

Deal.

[He decides that not making a big deal about it is the best way to handle that particular exchange, to avoid giving Cisco a chance to back out; casting a spell once a day (and a low level one at that) isn't any real strain on Taako's very super busy life, and if it helps someone who's helped him out heaps of times, it only seems fair.

Anyway, the whole creep magnet thing is more important, because if Cisco is gonna bring it up, Taako feels like he should address it.]

Hey, listen, you know like... just cause that guy was an asshole doesn't mean you're gonna end up that way, right? You're not that dude.

[ Cisco thinks about cracking another joke, about how he knows that's not gonna happen because he's going to avoid the hair eyeliner and leather trifecta. But he thinks better a minute later. Taako had been reading his thoughts, when they were face to face with Reverb. It's not like Cisco is going to be able to convince him that he's not all that worried. He gets out a knife and starts prepping the meat, glad for something to do with his hands. ]

Yeah, I guess not. I'm not, like, worried about it. I mean, I'm a little worried, but I'm not freaking out or anything. Just... wary, I guess.

[ He keeps on slicing the meat into manageable chunks, and maybe it's because the dream had worn him down enough that he's that particular kind of tired that makes people strangely confessional, or perhaps it's just that it seems silly trying to hide things from Taako now that he's been in Cisco's mind, seen some of his actual, literal nightmares. Regardless of why, he clears his throat and says, deliberately, not looking at Taako: ]

When I first got my powers, Dr. Wells - Eobard, I mean - told me all this stuff about having this great destiny ahead of me, and how he made me what I am and I would go on and do big things with this... gift he'd given me. And... y'know, every single thing he did was fucking evil, so I'm just kind of cautious about what that makes me, now. Like all that becoming a god shit Reverb was spouting. I don't think it's really possible, but I do think it's a good idea to be on my guard, in general.

[ Cisco explains it as calmly as he can, wants Taako to see that this isn't just some weird self-esteem thing, or bizarre paranoia with no actual source. As far as he's concerned, he has legitimate and logical reasons to be wary, and it's only fair that Taako should know about them. Taako had trusted Cisco enough to come into his vibe to help him, and it could have gone very badly. Maybe, Cisco thinks, Taako ought to trust him a bit less. He does his best to keep it a chill PSA, but his voice shakes just a little when he talks about Eobard, like it always does, whether he wants it to or not. Nothing to do about it. ]

So if you ever notice me starting to go Dark Side... I don't know. Just throw me in a cell or something until I snap out of it.

[ He pours the marinade over the meat, sets all of that into the fridge to sit for a little while, then starts prep washing the banana leaves. ]

Edited 2017-08-08 14:29 (UTC)

[Throwing Cisco in a cell isn't going to happen, but he figures that part is hyperbole and doesn't really need addressing (in part because if Cisco manages to control his powers, a cell probably isn't going to do like, anything).]

That's who that was, right? In the basement?

[Eobard. Dr Wells. Whatever the fuck he's called. Taako hadn't been entirely sure, but obviously with how much this dude has messed with Cisco, it makes sense that he'd be one of Cisco's big fears. There's still the whole death thing to consider, what was said about that, but he's going to deal with one thing at a time.]

I'm sure you've like, considered all this shit. But maybe he said all that just to fuck with you, you know? From what I've heard, he's the kinda asshole who knows how to get under people's skins, maybe he knew if you could figure out our shit you'd be able to stop him, so telling you all that, about how it was a gift from him, he knew that'd make you avoid it.

[Taako has no idea if he's even remotely close to the mark with that, but it seems like the kinda messed up logic that someone could use pretty easily against Cisco, if they knew him well enough.]

[ ~~Joke's on you Taako, Cisco has every intention of making himself a powers-proof prison just in case he goes bad~~. ]

Yeah. In the flesh. Or- it was a vibe, so I guess... in the... memory, or whatever.

[ Cisco cleans the banana leaves with a damp paper towel in even, smooth strokes. He listens to what Taako says, heart beating quicker than it ought to. Cisco's not sure exactly how much Eddie had told Taako about Eobard, and how much he's deduced just from the way the both of them avoid talking about him, but apparently it was enough to get across what a skilled manipulator he was.

And Taako has a point, of course. Eobard couldn't have planted a better bear trap in Cisco's mind, ready to snap at him any time he so much as thought about taking ownership of his own powers. So maybe he HAD planned it. ]

Maybe. I mean, it's possible. He did always know how to play me.

[ He delivers that last bit with only a faint trace of bitterness: after all, it's a fact. It was only after half a year away from him that Cisco had been able to look back and see all the ways that Eobard had kept him from asking too many questions, had gotten him to participate in some pretty shady shit without batting an eye. Things Cisco should have known were wrong, but they couldn't be, because Dr. Wells suggested them. ]

I'd almost like it better that way, you know? If it was just mindgames. It's... cleaner. But he did blow up the particle accelerator, which gave me my powers, and like it or not-

[ Cisco almost just lets it drop, there. But this is Taako. Taako, who he knows, and trusts. Who has himself been betrayed before, deeply, by people he trusts. Sazed. Lucretia, even if she meant for the best. Cisco gives the barest of little shrugs, and finishes: ] -he changed me. A lot.

[It's kind of a dickish thing to think, but Taako is fairly sure that Cisco wouldn't be too hard to play; he doesn't do the whole hustling thing, any more, but if he did there are definitely a few weak points he could think to exploit, ways to get Cisco to respond in a certain way. And he can only imagine it'd be easier if someone went in with that goal in mind, getting under Cisco's skin in order to manipulate him.

He's smart enough not to say that out loud, though.]

That sorta shit always changes you.

[Because Cisco is right, he gets it. Lucretia tore away half his soul, and even if that wasn't her intention, it made him into an entirely different person.]

Listen, the way I see it is everyone's capable of being a fucking awful person and everyone's capable of being a fucking great person. Reverb chose to be awful, you don't have to. And from where I'm sitting, I'm not even worried about you turning bad.

[This Cisco, the one in front of him, felt bad about hurting someone for a few seconds. Taako isn't worried about him turning evil.]

Yeah.

[ Pointless, to wish that nothing changed him but what he chose. Cisco does wonder sometimes what Taako would think of the pre-Eobard version of himself, without the occasional strange fits of sadness or paranoia, who smiled more, and brighter, and trusted everybody who was even a little nice to him.

But it doesn't matter much; that version of him is never coming back. What matters now is his future. And what Taako's saying isn't that Eobard had had no role in shaping him, but that ultimately, the choice was on him. To do good, or to do evil. Cisco sets aside the banana leaves, turning to look at Taako finally, a tiny smile on his face. ]

Thanks, Taako. That's... I'll remember that.

[ And not all that different from what Cisco had been talking about before, just a little more optimistic. More "choose you who want to be" and less "choose carefully always or it will be evil o'clock". ]

Hey, sometimes I give good advice. We'll mark this one down in the record books.

[It's a joke to mark the end of the serious part of their conversation, because that's kind of just how Taako rolls. There's a limit to the amount of feelings he ever wants to get into, and right now it seems like he's achieved his goal of reassuring Cisco, so he's happy to move on to other things.]

What kinda booze goes with what you're making, I can mix us up a cocktail or two?

[ Cisco recognizes the cue for what it is, and he's more than happy to follow suit. They'd talked about... well, not all of the stuff that they probably ought to, but a good portion of it. And any discussion of Eobard is bound to make Cisco want to change the subject pretty darn fast.

He doesn't know how great of an idea it is to drink after what they'd both just put their brains through. Then again, they'd both gone through the nightmare ringer, so Cisco's willing to say fuck it. He considers, humming in thought as he pours the masa into the pot, slowly. ]

You know what? Normally I'd say just beer, but a mixed drink is sounding pretty baller at the moment. What don't you surprise me? They're gonna be pork tamales, just a little spicy, so maybe something kind of tangy, sweet but not too sweet?

[A drink is the only solution to what they'd both put their brains through, honestly.]

I think I got the perfect thing.

[Something citrus is probably the best bet, and there's a liquor from one of the places he visited that was made with a citrus fruit he hadn't run into before and hasn't run into again since, so he hops up and heads to one of the cupboards to grab that (magic is so useful) along with a few other mixers and a cocktail shaker.

He's gonna make some baller cocktails to go with those baller tamales and everything will be great for at least a little while.]

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

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