|| Hey guys! It's been ages and although I've gotten requests rude and polite from many of you to update the next chapter, only a few of you have said anything regarding the story itself, and I thank you for that. Tests, Projects, Final Exams, and Writers' Block are all a gigantic pain in the rear, but I'm done for the term so hopefully I can try to be regular in delivering for y'all. Thanks! ||
Chapter 6: Verisimilitude
Previously in M.A.G.I.C: Rising
With a satisfactory nod, Brandon leaned forward and gestured for the barista to do the same. The moment he mentioned a name under his breath, all the lights in the bar fused, and Daisy knew something was up –
As Brandon was grinning.
Darkness now took over the shop, and after the initial tension had strangely dissipated, the other customers calmed down and cracked a joke to liven things up. A few raised their cups, and one particular regular glanced over at the bartender and his companions, and raised a glass in their direction as well before downing the drink in a single gulp. Unfortunately, he did instead end up choking on what turned out to be a spoiled serving, and he belched, his drinking buddies satisfied that they had entertainment before dinner. The agitated customer was intoxicated to start with, and now furious at the cup sized offense, jumping off his chair and grabbing the counter to protest. Only in his peripheral vision did he catch Daisy's sly chuckle, but that wasn't going to take precedence over getting an actual legitimate wine god forbid he didn't right this wrong before anything else-
The subsequent quarrelling covered Daisy's quiet laughter, and it was only when Brandon stopped giving weird looks to the offended patron that he noticed her expression, and scowled in return.
"I know you're laughing at me. What's it about this time?"
She adopted a neutral expression as she slowly slouched forward and closed her eyes, though she couldn't stop herself from a small grin.
"It's a pity, Brandon. Your appearance cracks mirrors, your presence makes drinks spoil and your crush causes blackouts."
He opened his mouth to retort, but stopped midway to roll his eyes and wave his hand at the stuff she was accusing him of doing.
"Daisy, please, my crush isn't even here at the moment."
He casually glanced back to where Daisy sat, taking notice way too late of the fact that a certain pink-headed individual sat upright in the next chair over, surprise complete with the goofy old smile plastered on her face.
"Gee Brandon, I'm flattered. But if I wasn't here, you should have said it earlier so I could have told Mykael not to come over."
Her serene expression was interrupted by a hand poking her shoulder, and a quick look revealed the culprit to be Daisy, still slouched on the counter.
"Did you come from the lab? You still reek of motor oil and sweat."
Her pink eyebrow twitched and Shade settled for a smile that suggested no thoughts of annoyance.
"Daisy dear, you're never going to find a decent SO with lines like those."
"My sister's good enough for me, thanks."
A passing Crontix slammed Brandon's refill on the counter and laughingly shook Daisy's shoulder.
"Three cheers for sister-cest, I always say."
The men laughed, but Shade tilted her head and raised an eyebrow in response to the tired figure.
"You two are twins, right?"
Brandon's grin was more than enough for a simple answer.
"Hell yeah, twin-cest in the house!"
The two males kept laughing and punching shoulders, and all Daisy had the strength for was to sigh and silently return to an upright posture, quietly regarding her friend with curious eyes.
"You met my father before you came here, didn't you?"
Shade threw her chin up and shut her eyes for effect.
"And I thought you weren't the type to answer a question with a question. Yes, in fact, I did visit your father in his office, but that doesn't- "
"What did he tell you?"
"…Everything, if that answers your next couple of questions."
"What about your uncle's trunk?"
"He said it was locked by some audio magic or something like that that- wait, how do you know about it?"
Daisy chose not to immediately respond and used the bartender's booming background laughter as sufficient excuse for the lack of a reply. Shade wasn't going to let up just yet, and prodded her with a simple quirk of the brow. The inquisitive gesture was met with a solemn gaze of equal intensity, and a moment later, she yielded with a telling sigh.
"To keep it short, let's just say that your uncle used to come over often and describe you and the fact that you had your ability without even knowing about it."
Shade's expression dropped all playfulness and she sat a tad bit straighter on the barstool.
"Gee, I wish Uncle Cooper just told me that to begin with… well, that's fine, but why did he tell you about the trunk?"
Her gaze shifted upon Daisy's raised finger, slowly twirling a dangling lock of hair as the girl herself put on a devious smile.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"It contains a secret so amazing that it would destroy half the MAGIC communities and morale, but also bring peace to the world."
Both the girls spun around on their chairs, shocked by the fact that it was the bartender himself who spoke. More annoyed than surprised, Daisy pressed her lips together and glared at Cron with a deadeyed look. It was clear that nobody was ever supposed to ruin her moment, and Shade committed that fact to memory.
With his back turned, Cron was still washing cups and chuckling, whereas Daisy tried to punch a hole through the man with a death stare and Shade sat still, processing the last sentence she had heard.
"I can read minds, remember? And yes, if you seriously injure me, your father won't be real happy about-"
"Mr. Cron, are you serious? It'll destroy the world?"
Shade's shrill interruption caught the attention of a few other customers uninvolved with the action, and Brandon had to cover with a sheepish grin and a cover of drunken play to ward off the unwanted ears. Daisy sighed and turned to Crontix.
"If you know that much, then you know all about it, don't you?"
The running water shut off, and the bartender did a 180, shaking cups dry as he caught Daisy's eye while putting them away. He slowly rose up from his squatting position and narrowed his eyes.
"Of course I do. Your dad would fill me in on what I missed when I was stuck watching you and your little sister through your days of raising hell for me."
She in turn stared back at the older man, her visible disdain slowly shifting into a smirk.
"I could always ask my father for someone to babysit us again."
The stare was barely held for a moment before the door chime rang once more and Strieter stood outside the shop, struggling to open the door with ice cream cones in both hands. Shade joyfully clapped her hands together, and Brandon was at the door in a flash, grinning from the inside at his frowning face before finally throwing the door open. Thankfully, the tension was broken, and Cron whipped around back to work, while Daisy slowly slid a seat out for Strieter, who wordlessly accepted it and faintly scowled as Brandon slugged him with the intent of catching up with him.
It was that very same scowl that caught both Daisy and Shade's attention, highly atypical of the man even in his bad days. After all, would anybody who was fine eat ice cream with that lingering frown on their face?
Daisy only continued to stare past him while Shade tugged at his sleeve with her free hand and drew him close enough to whisper.
"Did something happen on the way?"
Stri's frown mellowed as he aggressively attacked his ice cream.
"More like something's going to happen. I can't let Brandon know though."
The simple exclusion hooked both girls and Daisy turned her head to act uninterested, though her watching him from peripheral vision implied otherwise. Shade furrowed her brow and pressed further.
"Is it related to that blue-headed guy?"
Stri shook his head.
"Mango asked me to come over to his place in a bit to talk about some important stuff. He sounded really serious, and he asked me to make sure not to bring Brandon at all."
Brandon himself pushed his chair back and laughed.
"Ha! Fine, don't worry yourself Stri, I won't come with this time."
Daisy watched him scamper off to the restroom, and sighed, returning her attention to the now alert and slightly weary couple.
"What sort of important stuff?"
"Well for starters, he pointed out that I have an ability that I have absolutely no idea on how to use properly, and that he could help with that."
Daisy deemed it right to intrude with her own question.
"What do you think he's going to help you with in that small apartment of his?"
Stri leaned back and looked skywards for a moment before looking at his friend.
"I think he said he had a hunch about something, and that he was going to check it. Also, he said that there was something important about Looker that he realized that he wanted me to know for future reference."
Shade gobbled up the last of her cone and wiped the crumbs off her face.
"He couldn't text you or anything?"
He simply nodded solemnly.
"It's unusual for him to be like this, and that's what's worrying me."
She looped her arm inside his, the downcast expression on her face giving Strieter an idea of what she was thinking. That wasn't enough to stop him from his current destination, and even with the current orientation, he hopped off his chair and leaned in close to Shade's ear.
"I'll let you know if something happens, I promise."
And with that, he departed.
Knock Knock Knock Knock
….
Knock
He took a step back and leaned backwards, forearms initially recoiling at the first contact with the cold metal of the railing that demarcated the apartment's stairs. That was a rather unique knock between the two of them, one that signaled that he, Strieter, was alone on the doorstep. It wasn't often that they used that specific knock pattern, but then again, his friend on the other side of the door did value privacy and often resented certain individuals coming at his residence, namely Brandon.
But there appeared to be no interlopers tonight and the sounds of a key inserted into a lock and the scraping of metal upon metal marked Mango's arrival at the door. He opened the inner door and cast a glance at his comrade outside before kicking the screen door open wide enough for Stri to grab the door's edge. Wordlessly he gestured to hurry inside and released his hold on the door, and Strieter likewise followed him into the flat.
It had been maybe a month since he'd been at Mango's place and yet, he couldn't help but take notice of the arrangement of such otherwise tacky house decorations like the hanging cloth lanterns hung at various locations and the display of carved wooden horns that serenely lay rolled on their sides on the kitchen table. Today led them to the living room complete with cayenne sofa-esque furniture, where the host jumped backwards onto the nearest seat and Stri also sat down on the fuzzy material. His leg poked into something with a sharp corner, and he pulled his leg back to realize he almost sat on a laptop and subsequently scooted over.
The host with an unkempt appearance didn't appear to mind as he smiled at the little motion.
"If my laptop breaks, we can't be friends anymore."
The more heavyset man smiled in return and gently offered the laptop to the other.
"Sorry. I won't break your laptop then."
Mango quickly grabbed the device and turned it on, fingers hovering intently above the keyboard and eyes on the black screen. Had he already neglected his guest?
"Let's get right to it – you have no idea how to use your ability, right?"
Stri returned to his world of thought and immediately frowned at how the opposite was true.
"As I said, it's called Resupply and I can somehow materialize any items I can visualize mentally in front of me."
From the sudden white glow reflecting on Mango's shirt, he figured that the host was logging in and continued.
"From what I think I understand, there are limits to powers like these and I'm not sure what mine is. What did this have to do with you again?"
After a moment and a few clicks, Mango sighed and rubbed his neck.
"If I recall, you said Looker gave you your power, right?"
"Yeah."
"Looker is considered to be a rebel or a terrorist - depending on what you made of That Day - that came from my country. It got me thinking, maybe that Resupply originated from somewhere back home, and I asked my sister to check on it."
The guest propped an eyebrow.
"Ninaara?"
"Yep, Nin's still got access to the MAGIC chapters back there, and she sent me an interesting email for you before she left."
He shifted the laptop to his knee and with it as a pivot, wheeled the laptop around for Strieter to squint at the screen. The message was originally in Turkish, but thankfully Mango had rewritten the message in English underneath, and he held his breath as his eyes went from line to line.
I was gonna wait until I came over there and surprise your big friend, but your nagging is making me send this email. I did go back and check with Tarzuk and the others at the offices, and it turns out that the ability you're asking about does have a couple files on it. However, since you were being mean to your dear little sister, you'll have to wait until I come to physically get it from me :P
If your big friend is as impatient as you are, then I'll give you some information to use. The ability is called Resupply in English but in Turkish it was called Stock Room. The basic limits are pretty much the usual 'can materialize only within eyesight' and 'cannot materialize any ambiguously defined thoughts', but there's a third limit that I'm going to explain when I get there.
It looks like his ability isn't based on stamina or energy, but if I were him I'd only go for materializing small items and not big ones.
Oh I almost forgot –
You need to get a life.
3 Nin
Strieter tugged at his chin hair as he looked over the contents of the email. The translation was clear enough for him, but a few phrases caught his attention more than others, and with an exasperated sigh he sat up straight and raised his eyebrow again.
"Big friend?"
Mango couldn't help but sport a sheepish grin.
"She's seen the pictures of us at Six Flags and all."
"Your sister's calling me fat isn't she?"
"Well…uh… just forget about it. I didn't call you here to have my sister call you fat."
Strieter sighed away his thoughts about the futility of fat and stared intently at his friend.
"Is it about what you called That Day?"
The mention had certainly struck a nerve as the host's eyes widened for a moment before squinting once more with a complimentary frown. Stri instinctively reached out for his friend with his hand, but Mango shook his head and cracked his knuckles.
"Well, it's an interesting story that I wanted to share, and you both can see for yourself why it's considered the cause of everything that's happened so far."
Again he raised an eyebrow.
"Both? Who's here besides me?"
The Turkish man cracked another smile.
"Brandon should be outside, if I predicted him correctly."
"Predicted him?"
Now Strieter was confused, and placed both his palms on his knees as Mango grinned.
"I made it clear that he wasn't to come. However, that wasn't entirely true, and I'm certain he fell for it and came here following you."
"Mango, that's not how Brandon sees things."
"Of course it is. It's Brandon after all."
"….I've known him since middle school. Maybe you're talking about a different Brandon?"
The host waved his hand to ward off Stri's argument and triumphantly pointed towards the door.
"Nonsense. Right about now, he's waiting just outside the door. Go open it if you want, you'll see."
He slowly rose up from his seat and took a few steps to the door, peering around the doorframe as he slowly opened it. But there was nobody outside, and the sound of footsteps behind him indicated that Mango also was able to view his greatest misjudgment of the night.
5 minutes later found a completely distraught and egoistically ruined Mango sitting still on the red couche whereas Stri was pacing around on the open floor, busy with a phone call with Daisy, who did confirm his suspicions that Brandon was drinking in broad daylight and had to be carried home before anyone found him out for underage drinking. Strieter sighed at the sheer absurdity of what he was hearing, and paused before requesting that she come over in Brandon's stead.
20 minutes later found both Daisy and Stri respectively picking their nails and wondering whether the clocks were 5 minutes fast, when their host finally reappeared, largely calmed down from his state earlier. A tray of biscuits in hand was set on the cushion space between his two guests, and Mango likewise sat down, laughing at himself as he ruffled his hair.
"Yeah, sorry you had to see that side of me. Man, I am such an idiot."
Daisy picked up a biscuit and bit half off before speaking.
"Took you long enough to figure that one out, Sherlock."
Strieter also picked up a biscuit, though he stopped before eating it.
"Anyways, I think we were talking about That Day or something, right?"
His smile lost substance and faded into a neutral expression, though he didn't have as dramatic a reaction as he did with the previous mention of the subject.
"That's right. That Day is also known as The Day of Flames or The Day Istanbul Burned. Sounds familiar?"
To Stri, he knew nothing of the sort, but Daisy narrowed her eyes and with a complimentary head tilt, caught the host's attention, and he turned to her. Her frown made Mango reconsider any attempt to speak first, and with a show of hands, he gestured for her to go first.
"Are you implying that you were there when it happened?"
His head shake was enough of a response, but Stri remembered and spoke up.
"It's the incident that happened a few years ago during Spring Break, right? I think Mango was hanging with us back then, I think."
The Turk in the room yawned and stretched before speaking further.
"Seriously, you both have bad brains. I was visiting relatives back in Ankara when That Day happened. When I got back home the entire district was utterly destroyed and neither I or Nin could find our parents. In a word, utter calamity."
Stri took it upon himself to count with fingers that the phrase was indeed not one word, while Daisy crossed her arms and softened her expression.
"Look, I'm sorry for you and all that, but how does that relate to anything recently?"
The sudden jab of his finger in Daisy's direction surprised her and Strieter, while Mango jabbed his finger again and one more time and started hyperventilating.
"It does-It does- It does I'm telling you. It kept sitting in my head for a while now, but I finally think I have a good idea."
Almost instantaneously, Daisy found herself grabbing her friend's quivering hand, and slowly put it down on the table. She didn't have to obnoxiously stare to realize that he was seeing everything happen in his mind all over again, and she sighed and squeezed his hand as a show of strength. His breathing slowly fell back to normal, and his expression became drained.
The tender moment nearly over, Strieter sneezed the rest of the group's hesitation away, and inadvertently captured everyone's attention, which he naturally turned back to his host.
"So, what's this good idea of yours?"
Mango leaned forward and clasped his hands together.
"I believe I know who Looker is."