Chojin Patriarch
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Interesting. Visual marks to trace their physical progress, like a trail of chalk marks? Might work better if there were some distinction between marks, though. Or maybe she's trying to tab the spell...September 1st, 2013
14:56 UK Time
Why did Artemis just stab the wall with an arrow?
"Artemis, why'd you do that?"
Assuming the spell would collapse the way you think it would, like seeing the wall slide apart to reveal an entire hallway or something.She shrugs and walks a little further down the corridor. "Because I was paying attention? Spell eaters don't work on everything, but so long as I-" She stabs the wall again. "-keep stabbing at the same interval, my anti-magic arrow will mess up the spell even if I don't know it's there."
Maybe a step counter on their wrist computers that counts as they go? So if it suddenly jumps up a random number of paces, they'll know they found a blind spot."That… Makes sense. Except that if it's a glamour, we'll both walk past it and not even realise that you've taken more steps than normal, because glamours mess with all your perceptions."
"Oh." She looks disappointed. "You sure?"
Still playing a bit of the arbitrary sceptic, eh, Wally? Or just joking, given he's a practising alchemist..."I mean…" I shrug. "If it's just an illusion then your idea would work fine. Or if the guy's actually using optical camouflage-"
She snorts.
And any half-way decent concealment effect would have distributed its wardings so that a single hit wouldn't collapse the whole thing."-then you'd poke a hole in it, but fairy-stuff's supposed to be popular with the street magicians who don't just use demons."
"And what if it's a demon?"
Unless the concealment effect extended to unusual occurrences too. But that might be a bit too much for a street wizard."If it was demon magic..? Demon magic doesn't just make you think something's true when it isn't, it messes with everything. If there was something like that on a hotel there'd be records of the guests and staff going crazy. And there isn't, I checked."
She lowers her arrow. "So what do we do?"
Unless you did it in a way the spell wasn't designed to affect due to oversight. Comparative analysis of each floor with an eye towards inconsistencies, for instance."Well, I already checked the plans and nothing stood out to me."
"But it wouldn't."
Most likely it's just a simple 'you see nothing' effect that affects the general area."Right. Buuuut, this guy's supposed to be pretty weak. Right?"
"If you've done something clever-"
best not to mess with her too much, Wally, or you might find yourself short one girlfriend,"Ah, yeah."
She puts her hands on her hips. "-then just tell me what it is."
Not in the sense she's thinking, I suspect. If such a thing existed, people would already have discovered it.I pull two vials out of my potion pouch. I mean, it's more of a bandoleer, but that's three syllables. "See, normal wizards could just brute force something like this if they were powerful enough, so I was wondering… Can I make anyone that powerful?"
"You've got a potion that makes people wizards?"
So, more of a buff to magical resistance, eh?"No, but it kind of makes the magic around you treat you as if you are."
"And it's safe?"
She knows you, Wally."Thanks for having confidence in me, babe."
"Is it-?"
"I already tested it!"
Not the best test, then. Sadly, I doubt they wanted to try it against Constantine, who's a lot craftier, and less likely to be hindered by increased resistance. He's also technically still in therapy anyway."On humans?"
"Yes. And… Okay, according to Zatanna it only made me about twenty percent harder to affect, but she's a lot more powerful than most street magicians."
...Except that's more or less what the patch-makers did. Unless the tablet making process has its own mystical qualities that disrupt the alchemy. Plus most tablets are a pain to swallow dry..."Uh." She takes the vial I offer her, staring at the dull green contents. "What does it taste like?"
I wince a little. It's a pain, but that's alchemy. You can't just stick it in a clay tablet and then coat it in sugar, it messes everything up. "Maybe just… Swallow it fast."
Something which can vary from person to person, too. Taste is a subjective thing, after all.Cap off, bottom up-. Ouh, yeah, that's it. It's not bad exactly, because… The human sense of taste and smell are there to tell you what's good to eat and what isn't, so it doesn't really react to things that aren't food. You just get left with an impression that you just put something in your body that really wasn't meant to be there.
I wouldn't be surprised to find there are speedsters who work that way.Artemis makes a face, then puts the stopper back on and hands me back the vial. "Does it do anything to how fast you go?"
"No, that's not based on raw magical strength or anything. Maybe if I was using chi-based speed or something…"
The perils of mixing exotic effects, eh?
Little hard to test it, really, even using rats,"It shouldn't, the Danner Formula alters your body tissue, it doesn't have-"
She's scowling. "You didn't test it."
Well, let's hope it doesn't do anything weird like turn her hair neon-green or something."-an on-going effect." I raise my hands slightly. "But if you feel anything weird happening, tell me, because I've got another potion that should stop it."
"Did you test that?"
Also, depending on how large the building is, you may not be anywhere near the suspected room."Yes."
I look around the corridor. Nothing looks different, but I won't know-.
And risk having it burn out of your system faster, depending on how it lasts."So what now?"
"Okay, so we might be able to see though it right away, or it might kind of shimmer..?" I look towards the stairs. "If I run through the place-."
You figure the guy would go for the top shelf?"Where's the penthouse?"
"Ah." I look at my arm computer. "The largest rooms I can see are… Top two floors?"
Well, you wanna get up there quick, right?"No one's gunna do all this for a box room." She thinks for a moment. "And Paul said it's all about presentation, right? He's not gunna take anything but the best."
"Okay." I nod. "Makes sense." And then I grin-
Consider it payback for the ride earlier."Wait."
-and pick her up in a bridal carry and run down the corridor, into the stairwell, up the stairs and up to the second-to-top floor.
She pushes me back as she gets back on her feet. "Ass."
Ah, she's following all the angles, eh?"Okay. Look for-."
Artemis walks… Down the corridor. "Does this place have a history of fire alarms going off?"
Why take the stairs when you can ride, after all?"I have no idea. Do you want me to ask?"
"Just thinking he might use the fire exit to go in and out, but-" She shakes her head. "-that wouldn't fit. Elevator this way?"
All those stairs up and down... Yeah, i doubt anyone would want to travel them too often."Yeah? You don't think doing this right next to the elevator might be a little difficult?"
"If he were smart he'd hide out in a janitor's closet and make everyone forget about it. He's gunna be living here like he's meant to live here, like being able to do a little magic makes him the greatest thing since sliced bread. I though he might use the fire escape, but that's too much effort."
Ah, clever. If he's that lazy, he may have chosen to just fool the eyes."Makes sense." I nod as we round the corner. "Okay, there's the elevator, and-."
Artemis walks along the corridor, left hand trailing along the opposite wall. I dash past her, reaching the other end of the corridor before turning around and walking back-.
Likely the effect of the concealment effect struggling to affect him.She stops, smiling. "There's something under my hand, but I can't see it."
I look-. "Yeah, the wallpaper looks wrong. Like the pattern's turned clockwise ten degrees."
Because technology doesn't care about optical tricks."You wanna try vibrating through it?"
I take out the skeleton keycard the receptionist gave us. "He won't have rewired it. So the panel should be…" I swipe the keycard against nothing, and there's a faint click. "Here." I grip the handle I can't see and push the door open, stepping through the wall…
Well, that's immediately sus..."Huh."
Artemis steps through after him, then stops just behind me. "Weird poster. You take his workshop, I'll check in here."
So, they've found the guy's old lab, and presumably the birthplace of the mood patches. I have the feeling that poster's gonna be significant, but with the magical resistance buff, it might prove less effective than expected against them. If the place is being monitored, they've got to be sweating, between OL closing in and these two following the trails.