riverviewlogs | [open] cast an illusion

who: cisco + anyone!
what: memory share event & catch-all
when: october
where: anywhere
warnings: murder, torture, bullying

MEMORIES

Feel free to either have your character text Cisco (or comment on this post but indicate a text message) about having a vision / dream of his past, or to come to where he is to discuss it.

A. MURDER {third person dream OR first person vision}

[watch here

This memory is both intensely traumatic and one that Cisco has relived many many times. Have fun with it if you want, there may be small distortions - sometimes Cisco seems to remember Eobard's demeanor being gleeful, even smiling as he kills him. There may be odd gaps here and there, as well as inconsistencies. Or you can play it totally straight, just as it happened.]

B. VIBING {first person; vision}

[watch here (memory lasts up 'til 2:30)

This memory is likely to come across in jumbled pieces at first, and then more clearly as the week progresses. What's most important is that this memory captures the subjective experience of vibing from Cisco's perspective. So at one moment the memory is of looking down at a microscope slide of sand, feeling intense unease and fear, to hands reaching out and touching the sand. Once that contact is established, there is a swooping feeling, like missing a step going down stairs or plummeting on a roller coaster, and then the world goes static-y, with strange flashes of light, blurred vision, and an eerie blue tint. The warehouse that Cisco sees feels intensely present, though sounds are a bit muffled and occasionally there are jumps and starts. The end of the vision is as jarring as the start, and afterwards there is the confrontation with Stein, and a palpable feeling of panic over being interrupted and witnessed.]

C. PRISONER {first person; vision}

[watch here

This memory is clear and vivid, accompanied by feelings of hunger, exhaustion, frustration. Feel free to supplement after the cutoff at the end of the scene a moment where Cisco begs that he's already made them weapons (the heat, cold, and gold guns) and that's enough, and also Snart threatening to just out and out kill Dante, both of which are confirmed to happen but aren't shown in the clip I linked.]

D. BABY NERD PT 1 {third person; dream}

[ Cisco can't be older than nine or so, and he's adorable. We're talking a criminally cute child. His hair is cut short, which makes his ears stick out a little, and there's a tooth missing his bottom row of teeth. He's small for his age, (looks even smaller because he's wearing what are clearly hand-me-down clothes), all round-cheeked and bright-eyed. He comes bounding up to a bench in what looks like a small neighborhood park. Sitting on the bench is a pretty brunette girl with a high ponytail and big earrings, and a boy that looks a little like Cisco, around five years older. Cisco, bubbly and excited, asks: ]

Hey Val, hey Dante, do you wanna see what I made?

[ Dante, who has a hand very obviously and purposefully perched on Val's knee, glares absolute daggers at his little brother, but before he can say anything she answers with genuine interest: ]

Yeah, totally.

[ Cisco beams and pulls the lid off the shoebox. Inside is rather ugly-looking device, clearly cobbled together with materials from a bunch of different things. But Cisco pulls it out carefully as if it's the most precious thing on earth and holds it up, explaining in a delighted rush, what it is and how he made it. He has apparently cobbled together pieces from a broken cell phone, an old malfunctioning digital camera, and a half-smashed mp3 player, into a frankenstein'd device that can take pictures, make phone calls, and play music, too. Val sits up as he explains, going from indulgent to this kid with his little doodad to genuinely excited. Cisco hands it over to her and she tests it out, taking a photo of the beaming Cisco, clicking a number code onto the pad which makes 'I Could Fall In Love' by Selena play (though only loud enough that she has to hold the thing to her ear like a phone to hear it). Then, she even uses it as a phone, calling her mom, exclaiming that it really works, and hanging up again. ]

Cisco, this is so cool.

[ She jumps to her feet, saying that she's got to go get her best friend from the corner store across the street to bring her to see it, too, and goes rushing off. Cisco just stands there, holding the thing and beaming like he's never been more proud of himself in his entire life. ]

E. BABY NERD PT 2 {third person; dream}

[ (Continued from the last one, for anyone who wants an angst component)

As this scene was happening with Val, Dante was getting more and more visibly annoyed, trying to redirect attention back to himself. As soon as she leaves Dante snatches the device from Cisco, turning it over once or twice, unimpressed. Cisco's face falls, shifting from joy to trepidation, like he knows something bad is going to happen. Dante doesn't disappoint; he tosses the thing in the air and then catches it as it falls. Cisco pleads: ]

Dante, don't!

[ Which, of course, only seems to encourage the older boy. Dante throws it into the air, higher this time, and catches it, but Cisco winces, clearly terrified that he'll drop it. He tries to grab it away from his older brother, but Dante gets to his feet, holding it above his head. ]

Come on, don't be such a fucking girl, I'm not gonna drop it.

[ He tosses it into the air with enough momentum to it goes behind him and he has to spin to catch it. Cisco keeps pleading with him to quit it, trying to wrestle it away from Dante, who only laughs. It's inevitable, what happens eventually. Dante hurls the thing much too high, and it's hard to say, whether he was really trying to catch it or not. Either way, it slips between his hands and crashes onto the asphalt, shattering into about a dozen pieces. Cisco scrambles to pick up all the pieces, but the lens from the camera has shattered and the casing is cracked. ]

Oops.

[ Dante shrugs, sounds absolutely unapologetic. Cisco starts sniffling, fighting back tears as he tries to fit the thing back together. He starts putting the pieces back into the shoebox, wiping tears from his cheeks as they start to fall but saying nothing, not even looking at his brother. Dante, for his part, says scornfully: ]

Seriously, Cisco, it was an accident. You gotta stop being such a sissy all the time. It doesn't look good.

[ Then he walks off in the direction that Val had gone without another word, leaving Cisco to clean up the rest of the mess. ]

OR hit me up on plurk to plot something else!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It takes Sam awhile to put the pieces of the vision together. He gets them out of order, little flashes here and there. The scene in what looks like an abandoned warehouse, a woman bound to a chair, tinted in shades of blue. Hands reaching for a microscope slide. Once the whole thing plays out in the proper order, days later, Sam still isn't sure what's going on. But he at least knows whose memory it is.]

Hey so
I think I kinda got one of your memories
Just a heads up

[ This has become pretty much standard procedure (at least, for Cisco) that when he sees something from someone else's life, he lets them know. Just to disclose it, as a courtesy. He appreciates that there are clearly a few people out there doing the same.

He's doesn't really appreciate knowing that Sam saw some slice of his past. It's going to drive him absolutely crazy if he doesn't know, so he just asks: ]

what was it?

[ And pretty much braces himself for the worst. ]

Sorta like you were having a vision. You touched this sand, and then everything went all weird and blue, and there was this lady tied to a chair, being interrogated.

[Really, even if Cisco hadn't asked, Sam probably would have told him what it was. It's the sort of thing that might get awkward otherwise, feeling like he's keeping a secret from him.]

[ Well fuck. It's not the worst thing Sam could've seen, but it's certainly not great. It is the lack of control more than anything that scares Cisco - Sam seems like he can probably keep a secret, but how many more people might have seen the same thing, have found out about his powers?

Worrying about that for now is pointless, though. He needs to deal with the crisis right in front of him. ]

we got her home safe and okay
couple of bruises but nothing worse.
and the guy didn't get away with it.

[ He knows that Sam probably doesn't care all that much about what Cisco had seen so much as how he'd seen it, but he's stalling for time. ]

i don't suppose you'd believe me if i told you it was just magic sand, would you?

[ Cisco wants to keep his powers a secret, but Sam had seen him vibe. He's a smart guy, and familiar with people who have powers. Cisco doesn't think he'd be able to spin up a lie that would work on Sam, even if he tried. ]

I'd consider the possibility.

But I'm assuming it's not. Some kinda thing where you can read stuff by touching it?

[He sounds interested more than anything else, and...well, yeah, learning about powers is a subject that interests him. But if Cisco doesn't really want to talk about it, that's okay, too.]

something like that.
the fancy term's psychometry, but i just call it vibing.
you know how i told you about the particle accelerator & all those people getting turned into metahumans?
i left out the bit where i'm one of them.

[ He's... getting a little better at this, with practice, but it's still hard to actually write it out. ]

could you do my a favor and not tell anybody?
please?
trying to keep it on the down low.

I'm guessing things for people with powers are a lot different in your world.

[or maybe not so different on Sam's end, thinking about the Accords.]

I won't tell anyone. Promise.

[ There is a temptation, to just let Sam keep thinking that. It isn't entirely wrong, and it would be easy. But it's not the truth. And Cisco knows that lies are toxic to friendships. So he writes back: ]

thank you.
but it's not a discrimination thing
i mean nobody who's a meta really openly talks about it
and the only meta anybody hears about who isn't a criminal is the flash and no one else
so i guess maybe a little bit

but that's not really why i want it secret, especially not here
nobody cares if you have powers here but
it's complicated. for me, personally.
i've got issues with my powers and the whole thing so i just
am not ready for it to be a thing people know about me, yet.

...the flash? what kind of superhero name is that?

[...says the guy who calls himself the falcon LOOK BIRDS ARE COOL OKAY]

anyway, that's fine, I absolutely get you. hell, I won't even bring it up around you unless you really wanna talk about it.

also, I guess I wasn't being totally honest with you. I didn't have powers back home, but a few months after I came here, I started...you know. bird whispering. don't know why, but it's pretty cool. lame as an actual superpower for fighting crime or whatever, but definitely interesting.

the first couple months the media was calling him 'the streak'
it'd make more sense to you if you'd seen him run
there's lightning. to the average passerby it looks like a flash of light.

[ The joke makes Cisco smile, though. Which is a good thing. Talking about his powers is stressful, and he hates surprises, almost as much as he hates feeling like he's not in control of information about himself. So laughing about the connotations of Barry's superhero name is a nice reprieve. ]

thanks. i appreciate it man.
don't wanna get into it but probably good to just mention the superpowers thing & ptsd thing are kinda related so it's messy as hell
but i'm working on being cool with them.

[ That effort is still very much a work in progress, but... Cisco is trying. And at least he knows that, with Sam, saying just that much is enough to convey the gravity of the situation, without needing to get into the nitty gritty. Which Cisco really, really doesn't want to do. Maybe he will, someday. Or maybe not. Even typing that much felt like a risk, a tiny and terrifying act of trust.

So he is glad when Sam returns that with an act of trust of his own. ]

wait for real?
so you can talk to birds? and understand them?!
that's wild!!! and the absolute opposite of lame!!!!!

well, that's when you embrace it and become the streaker. do the whole thing nude, nobody can even see you.

although the bug guts would be hell to clean off.

[It's possible he might be making dumb jokes just to cheer Cisco up now.]

I mean, I don't coo to pigeons, it's more like a psychic thing? and birds mostly think about sex and food. but, yeah, that's how it works.

[ The dumb jokes are definitely working. ]

ok i get why you'd say that but couple of issues:

1. he has to stop to pick up little old ladies he's saving from burning buildings, or ask the cops which way the robbers went, etc. and even if he vibrated his face so they couldn't see who he was, the whole buck naked thing would be super distracting
2. no comms
3. other speedsters would definitely be able to see him even if he didn't stop at all

psychic thing is even cooler tbh
do they hear your thoughts too or is it a one-way street?

Edited 2017-10-26 02:44 (UTC)

[open] cast an illusion

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