3004/The trouble with tags..

The trouble with tags..
Date of Scene:	30 October 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Origami and Nolan Voight find a patch of damaged reality, and rescue the boy who fell into it.
Cast of Characters:	Origami, Shatterpoint, Deadwatch

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Origami has posed:
It's late, and dark, and pretty quiet. Nothing is stirring, save maybe a stray cat. there is something... off, along a back street in a somewhat cleaner part of town.In the dim light from the streetlights, it's not totally clear. Is it behind or in a dumpster? One of the closed down storefronts in the area? Something with the artistic murals painted on the wals here, that look much creepier in shifting streetlight away from the lamps? Maybe it's something in the cracking on the siidewalk in a certain patch along the street for no apparent reason?

There's magic involved somehow, and something here is just a little bit weird to any sort of magical or supernatural senses. The weirdness is.. intensified now. Why? Not sure..

Shatterpoint has posed:
    Caroline is strolling down the street, having just departed the Hall in order to... Straighten things out. As the League starts to meet her, she's going to find the mettle of these heroes. It won't be an easy thing.

    As such, she's wandering down the street when, after a moment, she comes to a pause. Her brow raises. Something, to her, seems off. As if everything around her is a few inches to the left of where she remembers leaving it.

    "Huh."

Deadwatch has posed:
The alleyway just off thes street is empty.. Just your usual collection of dumpsters and a few stray animals. Maybe some scattered litter. Just what you would expwect of an alley in almost any city across the country if not most of the world.

Dimly lit by a single bulb over a rear door, the air seems to ripple for a moment.. papers start to stir, as if a breezed passed through.. Then the air begins to distort, stretch, as if it were liquid and from within the distortion a man shape steps out of nothing as if he were stepping out of water.. fading into existance. Reality seems to hold to him a moment, then snaps back and the ma stumble a bit, comeing to lean against his cane-crutch. He takes a moment to look around and frowns.

"Okay.. where am I?"

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore wanders out from a nearby restaurant nibbling on a hamburger and wanders back toward that section of sidewalk, pausing to glance at her phone then look around. She tilts her head at someone materializing, then waves and walks that way idly from a distance.

The weirdness is just... there. Something has changed, maybe?

Shatterpoint has posed:
    Truth be told, Caroline is no mystic- but her mere presence frightens the World of Weird more than anything else, and where there's cowering and fleeing, Caroline can sense it... To some degree. It's like a mild itch at the periphory of her senses.

    Leaning up against a building for a moment, she begins to observe the streets quietly, waiting for... Well, anything to happen, that explains this feeling.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight limps out of the alleway to thes street proper, looking around slowly. He frowns a bit, taking a moment to get his bearings, then looks over at an empty space of sidewalk. "Yo!. Miss. Where am I?" he asks... and a moment letter he raises a brow. "Well excuuuuuuse me.." he mutters and then looks up and catches the skyline of the city and blinks. "Wait.. /METROPOLIS/.. Why the hell am I in Metropolis? God damnit, Why did they send em to metropolis..." he asks, aloud, then glares at the empty square of sidewalk again. "No, I /wasn't/ talking to you. And guess what, leg warmers died out in the NINETIES. Just like YOU DID!" he says, giving the empty space a afinger and turning on the sturrup of his legbrace and limping down the street. "Fucking hate dead Gen-Xers..." he gripes as he starts feeling his way through The Dark for the source of whatevrer his.. allies.. sent him here to look at.

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore wanders over with the phone and looks over at Caroline, then back at her phone, then back up.

Caroline is currently leaning against the brightly lit part of a crude, stick-figurey mural of some Picasso-esque cubist animals staying back in the darkness, while a monochrome blue child painted in a different style by a different graffiti artist huddles on the ground in the foreground.

Miyako hmms, "That wasn't what it looked like before I went to eat."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight limps down the sidewalk for a while, still probably a half block away from the women, muttering explatives under his breath which, in turn, causes some of the few people walking by to look at him funny and even in some cases give the cripple a wide berth. Unlike Gotham, Metropolites don't tend to deal with wackos. It's when he gets to a particular corner, which is mostly free of people, that he stops..

It's mostly free of people. LIVE people. There are a FEW ghosts here though. One in particular who is staring at him. "What are /you/ staring at." he asks, glaring. The lost soul walks over to him and stops a foot away. not saying a word. NOlan raises a brow. "Oh, not a talker huh?" he asks. The spirit nods and holds out it's hand.

"Let me guess.. 'They' thold you I was coming." Nolan says, sighing as the ghost nods, and the cripple takes the spectral hand.. and suddenly he and the ghost are one.. Nolan staggers a bit as mystical energy spills from him in their temporary merging.. as the spirit communicates the problem.. then he releases the ghostly hand and pants. "Okay... I got it.. Find your grandson.." he says, coughing once. "You'll owe me though, you know hat right?" he asks. The Ghost nods solemnly.

Origami has posed:
(OOC note: Caroline Ramsey exits the scene for OOC reasons.)

Miyako looks at the wall puzzledly, crinkling her nose and sniffing at the air. "Why can't any of those wizard kinds that know things ever be around when I find things like this?" She looks down at her phone and looks through the contacts list a bit, then up again and makes a face, then walks over and runs her fingers over a flyer stapled to a power pole, frowning.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight massaages the bridge of his nose with the fingers of his good hand, sighing. He hates these random 'missions', especially since he has no clue who is giving them to him. He turns around and is about to limp away when he almost walks into ANOTHER Ghost. "Geezus!" he exclaims. "What the hell, man?" The Ghost lifts an arm and points down the block, which earns him a glare from the psychic. "You know, Ghosts /usually. are a bit mor etalkative than you bunch are." he warns, then grumps as he limps down the street to where he was directed. "Usually /I'm/ the one who gives orders.." he gripes as he closes in on... a brick wall.. and a woman standing in front of it. A Living woman.

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore is mostly just standing around looking a little bit befuddled, sniffing and touching things as if that was going to help more. She looks up at the mural and frowns again. "So... What else can I try?" She reaches in her bag and pulls out a square sheet of paper, then rubs it between her fingers thoughtfully.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight has stopped a number of feet back from the woman, girl really, who seems to be caressing the strange mural on he wall, poking it in places. He is somewhat amused, since she seems to have no clue what she is doing. She is, however, mystically inclined someway. He can see it in her soul light.. her Aura.. So she must have /some/ inkling, right?

From his strange duality of perspective Nolan sees two worlds at once. In the real world he sees the eall and, of course, it's mural. In The Dark, however, he sees a mystical glyph he is not familiar with.. which isnt saying much since he is not a Sorcerer surpreme or anything and also because there are a HELL of a lot of glyphs. But it DOES glow with Power... and below it the pavement is cracked in an unnatural way.. and there is something icky, something not of newtonian space, in the cracks.

"You know, doll.. Probably best not to be staring at that too long. Modern art will make ya go blind.."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore jumps a little bit. "If I look away, the mural changes. More now because nobody else is on the street. I have a picture from this afternoon.." She fiddles with her phone and offers it over.

The picture shows a monochrome blue mural of a child with his back to the viewer, leaning back against the edge of the wall, surrounded by picassoesque cubist animals of some sort, in the light of the streetlight next to us.

Right now, the child is huddled in the light, and the animals are still nearby, but positioned differently.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight huhs, usually someone asks him who the hell he is.. or why he is there.. They don;t usually just jumpright in and be, well, helpful.

Mystics. Yeesh.

He limps over to stand beside the woman and accepts tehphone with some dismay. he isn't a big cellphone fan. He examines the phone, then the live mural, squinting a bit.. Then he frowns as the picture on the wall and the pictures he got from the grandparent's spectral memory merge in his noggin...

"Damnit.." he whispers, clenching his fist. "Thats who I am looking for. How the hell did he cross over to.. wheever he is.." he asks, more to himself than to her. He then squints at the girl. "And who are /you/?" he asks as he walks up to the wall and gots to one knee (which looks painful by the look on his face) as he examines the crack first.

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore ums, "I'm Miyako.. Origami for the news. They like that name. I smelled something weird here, but.. I don't know how to figure this out. And I don't know who else to call for it. And you smell like an old book, so you might be helpful..."

Something huge stepped here from elsewhere. From too far away. Very too far away. It was.. all wrong and alien, and it bled bad poetry and felt like a bad equation. Maybe it was confused, but that was completely turned sideways. Then it left through the wall. It didn't act like it was a wall. It acted like the wall was somewhere else.

The concrete blames the paint.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight snorts and shakes his head. "If I smell like an old book, then you're reading teh wrong kind of books, doll." he tells her as he concentrates on the 'impressions', both literally and figuratively. His ability is primarily the veil between what is considered life and what is considered beyond life. usually people think that means death and, to be fair, that is a big part of it. But thed ark isn't just full of lost souls who haven't found their way to the true afterlife. It is also where spirits are born, entities created from abstract concepts and the simmering of emotions and the boiling pot-pourri of belief and will.. and, sometimes, the mind-jibbering alien intelligences from lovecraftian horror pass through on their way to the coffee shop..

"Ugh... this feels wrong.. Like New Kids on the Block wrong.." he mutters and painfully stands up, using his cane-crutch as leverage. "Whatever it was, it's gone now.. But I think it damaged reality a bit.. and the murals? Those are prjections of what someone from /our/ side would look like projected from the OTHER side.." he tells her, then looks over her shoulder. "Origami, huh? Let me guess.. thats your 'costumed' name? Yeesh." he shakes his head. "Anyways, I'm Nolan. I'm ooking for a kid.. And I think he's stuck in the Mural."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods. "Yeah. This is about as costumed as I get, though." She pulls out some hand lotion and idly massages it into her scarred hands. "Magic smells like paper to me. Yeah, that's what it looks like to me, but... I don't know what to DO about it? I didn't.. STUDY to get my magic, it just kind of.. happened, and when I read magic books they don't make sense to me. So I don't know much about things like this, but.. I keep finding them." She looks back up at the mural, which is more or less the same as last time she looked, but not quite.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight closes his eyes, runnin his hands over the wall, looking for something.. for a weakness in The Dark.. That shadowy world overlayed on our own where the barriers beween realities is at the weakest and strongest at once.. a filter, if you will. "Smells like paper, huh?" he asks as he traces the cracks in reality, black tendrils of something like phatasmal oil spreading form his fingertips, searching out... "Thats teh oddest description of magick I have heard of.. but thats fine.. we all got our differences.."

There has to be a weakness he can exploit, somewhere.. a dip, a crvibce, something he can push throughto reach PAST.. It is jst a matter of finding it. "And trust me, Magick Books are over rated. except some of those tantric ones. Some of thise drawings are..." he stops, grimaces.. "Right.. yer probably a bit too young to know about that... anyways, not all us magic types are Book trained. Some of us are born with the curse.. or gift.. or whatever you wanna call it. We don't all get to go to Hogwarts... Some of us teach ourselves. Say, if Hogwarts really existed what house do you think you'd be?" he asks casually.

Origami has posed:
The flaw is centered over the pavement. We're standing *in* it. The wall holds memories that.. something.. happened and things felt wrong, then something that wasn't a something moved through the wall, then something else that wasn't weird went through the wall, then someone.. someone young and frightened.. wrote on the wall with a pencil, and then nothing walked through it any more. The symbol is keeping things in place as they are.

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore blinks and hmms, "What House? I don't know, I keep getting different answers on the quizzes. I'm still figuring things out, and I didn't get into the books somehow. I don't do wands and stuff, anyways, so it just feels.. not like what I am used to, I guess?"

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight sighs.. Kids these days. Not hat he is old. he is in his early 30's. But he FEELS older. Much older. A rough life and rpison will do that to you. Oh, and interacting with the dead.

"I know I ain't a nerd, but doesn't anyone READ anymore?" he asks, griping as those black oily tendrils spread over the wall, downwards.. outwards.. forming a bunch iof floating liquid-smoke lines in the air.. Like a crack in three dimenions, maybe four.. it is hard to look at. "Okay.. I think I see what happened.." he says, looking pained again because this is really giving him a headache. "it's like someone crumpled or folded reality right.. here.. I could reach through but I can't navigate the folds..."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods, "I can feel it, I can smell it, but I don't know what anything means. I'm a little afraid to start trying to do things. It's not something that I can see an easy way to deal with by throwing paper birds at it." She shrugs apologetically. "Maybe somebody else can help with it, but I don't know who yet. Last time I saw something weird, I carried it to SHIELD."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight grimaces and steps back from the space, the black ectoplasma (not plasm, PLASMA) that he used to bring the cracks/fold/Crumple in reality slowly fading away. "Shield? SHIELD? Why would you bring any mystical to THOSE jackasses?" he asks. "God, don't you know that if you deal with those loons they will make a FILE on you? Do you know how hard it is for anyone with magical ability to stay ANONYMOUS these days?" he asks as he walks over to the wall, to the 'drawing' of the kid there. "You qant to call the, thats your business. They can deal with whatever that crack really is. But I'm here to get the kid /free/. And I can do that.. I think..." he says as he reaches to the wall.

"He's not supposed to be there, just like that thing wasn't supposed to be /here/.. That means there is a weakness, smaller, on the other side where the kid is.. so..." HE presses his bad hand, the heavily scarred one, aggainst the wall, and those black oily tendrils spread from the scars on his fingers over the surface of the brick.. contouring over the drawong fo the boy... NOlan's mismatched eyes, one blue and one amber, run /black/ as well as he leans into tehwe all.. litterally.. the brick giving like silly putty as his hand dissapears into it...

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore hmphs and crosses her arms. "The first spell I ever did, I didn't know was going to do anything, and it went off in front of a TV camera and a reporter. The anonymous thing sailed a long time ago for me! So.." She shuts up, because you are DOING stuff now and she doesn't want to interfere.

There is a generic warding glyph that is trying.. TRYING.. to keep things on the side they are on. And it was scratched onto the wall with a damned #2 pencil. It's sort of a miracle the thing is holding up like it is, and it starts eroding as Nolan pushes through it...

The other side of the wall is a Cubist nightmare of weird geometries, and the boy is cowering against the wall, because that's where the light is. Although it's not exactly *light* when it gets through the wall. Whatever. he DOESN'T BELONG on that side, so he is easy to pull back through.. but that ward? Starts crumbling and peeling off the wall in a bit of blue smoke. Which apparently isn't just for tech jokes anymore.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight grits his teeth as he reaches through tehveil and into The Dark.. and then THROUGH tehd ark into wherever the kid is... he can feel the dissonance, the strange frequency of that existance, and he has to burp once or twice so he doesn't throw up. "Well, sucks to be you then." he tells her as he moves his arm around, trying to grasp te kid.. a representation of said arm shifting on the wall like a picasso shadow bending in ways that arms shouldn't. "Oh god, that ain't right.. c'mon kid.." he pants... then his fingers seem to grab something, maybe the scruff of the kid's shirt..

"I.. got.. him.." he gasps, his shoulder now in the wall.."Oh god.. now I know what artificially inseminating a cow feel like..." he rasps and he pulls back as hard as he can. There is a wet sucking sound as first the head of the kid appears, the warped wall sticking to him like goo.. then the shoulders.. there is a bit of resistance.... Nolan presses his can against the wall for more leverage and push/pulls one last time.. and the kid comes out with a slimy *SHLORP* sound.. Nolan landing on his ass, the kid on him.. ANd both the kid and his arm glistening with.. goo.

"And now.. I know.. what birthing a calf.. is like.." he pants from the ground "Yay me.."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore gives a thumbs up, and crinkles her node. "Oh God, it feels like somebody cracked open a papyrus scroll or a.. CD or something right next to my nose. That's just not right.. What did you DO?" She looks down in alarm at the shadows next to the wall as they start to not actually match the things casting them correctly. "Ohhh, that can't be good.." She whips out a sheet of paper and starts folding and bending it in her fingers in a flurry of movement, backing away in a bit of an uncomfortable hurry. Fold twist bend.. as soon as she finishes, it flutters to the ground and begind planting roots, a tiny, colorful, silvery flower made of paper starting to bloom on the sidewalk.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight sets the kid aside and sits up (which is a pain, literally, considering his physical disabilities). "I saved the kid from an eternal existance on another plane of reality. Thats what I did." he says, and looks at the kid.. who is passed out now. "Of course, I had to pull him through the Dark to do that.. poor kid probably passed out. Doesn't look the wirse for wear though.." he says as he pushe shimself up to his feet and leans heavily on his crutch..

"Oh.. yeah.. that doesn't look good.." he says, frowning, hen watches with interest as she folds a tiny paper tree and lets it take root in the ground. "Really? REALLY? A /PAPER TREE/?" he asks.

Origami has posed:
The 'paper tree' glistens and glows and starts spreading a ward over the area to reinforce the walls of reality in the area, which may or may not be an annoyance for someone who works with other worlds. The weirdness of the shadows is pushed back against the wall reluctantly. By, yes, a glimmery little paper flower.

Miyako sighs in exasperation. "You say that like there's something WRONG with paper trees?! It's what I do! Ugh!" She crosses her arms. Hmph. "Ugh, I hope I can find someone to fix this soon.."

Deadwatch has posed:
Magical energy is akin to spiritual energy, which is why he can see it most of the time. That doesn't mean he understands WHY magick works, or how someones personal gift actually functions. No, he has to rely on guessing and common sense for that. Luckily, he's sorta psychic so he gets asome help with that.

Still, this paper magic of hers is rather.. unusual. She, herself, the source and the origami itself seems to be the spell itself, /How/ she channels the magick and it's effects. At least it seems that way. God he wishes he had studied more, but it's not like ou can get good magick books at barnes and Nobles.

"Fine! There is nothing wrog with paper trees!" he fumes as he steps alongside her, watching the tree and it's blossom holding back the fracture as the last of the old ward vapourizes.

"The problem is paper is ephemeral. It doesn't last forever." he tells her as he raises his scarred hand and his eyes once again run black and streak of blackness, like a whip, uncoils from his palm and wraps around the paper tree. "We need to wallpaper the hole..."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods, "Oh, totally. I was going to put something on top of that.. It will stay like this as long as I am /HERE/, but I don't know how to, well.. FIX it so it will stay fixed when we leave. I was hoping you had a good number to call or something."

She hrms, "What are you even -doing-, anyways?"

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight grumbles a bit. "Girl, you think I have the Sorceror Supreme on Speed Dial?" he asks as the black energy starts to bleed INTO the paper tree like inck staining.. well.. paper. He grits his teeth as he connects with the spiritual energy of her magic construct. It's not hs usual flavour and it is not easy to change but...

"Like I said.. We're /wall/papering the holeover. or Spackling it. Don't ask me cause I ain't Bob Villa." he says as he limps foreward a step and the tree presses against the wall.. It doesn't flatten, insteqad it seems to seep INTO the brick, slowly.. becoming like a drawing... like the kid and the animals were.

"Your ward is good.. but it's not QUITE in the right place.. Just.. need.. to.. push.. it..." his feet slip back once as teh energy fights back.. so he leans more heavily into it.. now chanting strange nonsensicl words..

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore ohs and just stands back, watching. Because she isn't really sure what you are doing, and you sound like you know more about this than she does. She sniffs and tries to take notes as well as she can, though the details are mostly lost on her.

Also? She makes a note to find this "Sorcerer Supreme" and put him or her or it on her speed dial.

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight is sort of winging it.. as he usually does.. pushing the paper tree into that infitesimal layer between our reality and the one where the boy was trapped. The deeper into the wall the tree goes, the blacker it beco,e until finally it is like a tree drawn in black paint, though the the flower remains white. The cracks on the ground seem to melt as they flow like liquid up the wall, being pulled into the drawing of the origami bush, becoming new branches each ending in a flower as well.. and each flower a glyph... When the cracks are gone there is a flare of un-light and Nolan falls to his knee again, panting...

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore watches. "That is soo cooool. Are you okay?" She sniffs. "Still smells weird here, but.. not AS much.. Is that going to stay put? Uhm... Or do I still need to call somebody to look at this? I'm sure I can find somebody, somehow... Who was that you mentioned, anyways?"

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight still pants, his leg and hand cramping terribly along the unseen damaged nerves he was born with. He looks up, bleerily, at the young woman.. and his eye are no onger black but back to their 'normal' mismatched colors. One blue, one amber. "It'll hold as good as anything I think.." he murmurs as he pushes himself up his feet. "I mean.. it's a patch job but so is most of reality anyways. This one is just dirtier than most." he eyes the new grafiti a moment. "Call anyone you want though. Im done with this.." he looks to the still unconcious boy. "And someone needs to get the kid to his parents.. The cops will know how. I can't be found here. I'm not supposed to be out of Gotham, not without telling my paro..." he stops, clears his throat. "Anyways.. yeah. Sorcerer SUpreme. Some muckity muck in the magic community. Never met him. Lives in New York."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods. "I hang out with the firefighters. I'll take care of it. Go, if you have to. Who do I say you were, if I talk to any other magic types?"

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight grimaces. "Just say.. I dunno... That you did it or something. I don't like my name getting out there. It's hard enough keeping things secret in Gotham. I don't need to be outed here as well. This ain't my home turf."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods. "They won't believe me, but I can say you didn't say who you were. If you ever need me, ask a firefighter to ask around for me. They'll be able to find me sooner or later."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight uhms... frowns a bit. "Yeah.. I dont get along well with civil servants and all." he says, a bit uncomfortable.. He then makes a flicking motion iwth isbad hand and a cheap laser printed business card appears. "If you need /me/, well... I'm in Gotham. You know paper so this will help you contact me.."

Origami has posed:
Miyako Moore nods and runs her fingers over the card. Reveal your secrets, cardstock! "Well, okay. Sorry for being a bit too respectable for you! But good luck. Thanks for helping fix the wall, I really appreciate it. Umm.. I.. better get an ambulance for that boy, okay? So you're gonna want to get out of here."

Deadwatch has posed:
Nolan Voight nods as she takes the card. "No need to be thanking me kid. Just.. be careful, okay? This magical life ain't all sunshine and rainbows.." he says, then steps backwards, the air swallowing him like it was water and he is.. gone.