2025-01-24 - Kraken Summoning and Dream Plans

There's an uncertainty surrounding the mysterious melody which was first heard at the park during the holiday decorating and then again several times since. One of those times, as Enzo had witnessed, the melody itself had brought a group of carousel horses to life and despite their best efforts, they could not stop it from playing, even after shutting down the ride.

Whether the actual melody itself being played by non-magical means had any sort of power was nothing that they had tried, but as they were willing to try anything in regards to what ever the hell is down at the bottom of the lake, Enzo was willing to try anything, including recording Trace playing that melody on his violin and then playing it back underwater via waterproof speakers.

There was still a chill in the air as they stood out on the beach and this is one of those times where Enzo's not wearing his Hospitality blazer. He just has on a red leather jacket with a black sweater beneath it and a pair of black jeans and boots. He has all of the recording equipment set up, it's just basic and simple stuff and as he tinkers with some of the controls for a bit, he turns to glance over his shoulder to Trace, from where he's kneeling, "Don't know if this is going to work, but we may as well try."

There's also the sound of the waves in the distance, but he'll be able to edit it out later.

Angelo was given the time and the place to catch up. After his 5 o'clock show he was so done today and happy to be his own person for a little bit. Luckily Dante seems to have modifies most of his things so he can wear a sweatshirt under a coat and buzz on over here. Like a man-sized katydid he descends with a faint gold sparkle trail behind him- a preferable alternative to coming in hot like a lawn dart.

Sliding his ear warmer off and stuffing it in his pockets Angelo approaches up the beach, "Ferry was taking a bit. We know what the projected results might look like or we going in guessing?"

Trace is in a pair of black boots with some grey jeans on and a dark green sweater to ward off a bit of the chill and his usual black leather jacket. He seems comfortable enough despite the chill in the air. His violin is a beautiful instrument, expensive, well cared-for, a gleaming reddish polished wood, nestled in the red velvet of its black hard case.

He lifts it out and checks the tightness of the bow, the tuning of the instrument, and nods to Enzo. "Well, we'll see what happens and either way we'll have a recording that we can work with."

When Angelo lands he says, "I dunno. That's why we're doing it outside. Just stand back a bit in case I summon a kraken or something."

There's just something fascinating and amusing about watching Angelo flutter sparkle over in the way that he does, that Enzo just watches as he buzzes over with a lifted brow, before shooting a glance over at Trace once more. He can't hide the growing smile upon his lips, though he tries.

"Did Dante tell you?" He asks as an aside to Angelo now, "About the teleportation?" That incident happened quite a while back, but he doesn't know what the triplets discuss. Dante didn't tell the other two that Enzo understood Hungarian either until they found out!

"And no, this is untested territory. So we have no idea how this will play out." If anything, he looks back over to Trace and his violin again, as this will be the first time that he'll be hearing the other play and he's been looking forward to it for a while now.

Angelo looks to Trace at the warning and his eyes widen; a slow grin warms, "I already like you, Trace. You don't have to say nice things to me promising me a Kraken." Looking to Enzo a smile warms with a shake of his head, "Dante did not tell me shit about shit so yoooou get to catch me up."

Looking to Trace he mentions less casually, "I do have kinda a big ask of you after this but let's start here and see what we got." He pauses before pulling out his phone that he's smartly put a wrist strap on. "I'll record it and see if we pick up anything."

His eyes go to his screen taking a couple steps before the leaf-like wings take him effortlessly up in the air to get a top-down view of what's happening lifting about 10-15 feet. "Let's DO this!"

Trace glances from Enzo to Angelo as he asks about the teleportation, settling in with his violin now that it seems to be ready. But then Angelo is mentioning a big ask of him, and while he's curious, they are about to do the recording, so he nods and says, "Alright. Well, once we get this recorded, we can talk about that." He does nod toward Enzo who is also recording and says, "Having two can't hurt."

Then he nods to both of them and lifts the bow. Fortunately it's a pretty calm day so they're not going to end up just recording wind. Drawing the bow across the strings, the melody begins to play. It's a simple thing, some sort of waltz-like ditty, light, and danceable if one felt inclined to dance. Trace plays it beautifully, the clear notes a little different on the violin than they would be on the piano but otherwise very clearly recognizable as the same tune that played at the decorating, at the tree lighting, and at the carousel.

But while he is playing, nothing obvious happens. Nothing comes to life, moves, or otherwise stirs beyond whatever might normally do so from the little breeze off the water.

Once Trace begins to play, Enzo is completely quiet. He not only listens to the melody being played, the sound of the violin, but he also watches the other's stature, the way his hands move, the way his fingers move, his expression and so forth. It's difficult to look around and see if anything were to stir when you're so entranced with what's before you, but he'll eventually do so during some point of the performance.

So far there was nothing and this he does note. He'll wait for the melody to be played one time more before finally turning off his recording of the mystery tune. A quiet smile on his lips, he turns back to Trace once the recording is done and he starts to play it back to ensure that it was recorded.

"Nothing out of the ordinary nor threatening." He comments, "Still, I'll have the underwater speakers with us the next time we go down and try it out anyway."

To Angelo, he says as he begins to pack up once his own recording is checked, "I can travel between mirrors. So lets say I wanted to get to your apartment, I could just enter my mirror and exit out of yours, if that makes sense."

Angelo hovers in the air recording. When Trace starts to play the middle Kerekes gives him a look- not in surprise as you don't generally have a violin if you cannot play it, but with an impressed look. He does a slow flying circle over the water looking for- he has no idea. His legs hang below him slightly bent- his expression also a little bent as he may have been hoping for a response.

He comes back and looks to Enzo stopping the recording. "I did not see anything but I can run it through the editor to see if this perception is still correct." He's got all his editing software from his little family production posts. he does not look as if he's assuming a variant outcome however.

"Trace that sounded amazing even if the wind tries to eat the sound." Looking to Enzo he looks surprised. "That's a thing?? Damn. Well," Shaking his head he warns, "You come over without texting first you get what you get." Nothing new there, but the warning is the customary courtesy warning label.

Trace looks focused as he plays, his eyes closing. There's no music that he's playing from. It's the memory in his head of the melody. But the way that he moves, the glide of the bow across the strings is precise, steady, and relaxed, his posture comfortable and familiar. This is a well-loved and well-used instrument, one that he is very clearly accustomed to playing. He goes through it at least a couple of times for the recordings before he stops. It's probably good someone else is watching what's going on around him because he wasn't.

He lowers the instrument once he's finished and looks around, but when all seems well he waits to let the others to check the recordings in case they need to do a second take, keeping the bow and violin in hand until it's confirmed that they're good to go. Then he chuckles at Angelo's reaction to Enzo's revelation about his mirror-hopping ability. "It's pretty damn cool. I got a little demonstration."

"I'm trying to think of useful mirrors in the park to be able to step out of." Enzo says as he begins he picks up the case of his recording device. "Useful as in, well, which mirror will let me step out into a place I might need to be to further investigate, snoop, whatever I need to get this job done." He then adds, "Unfortunately, from what I can tell, I need to have been in that room or looked into that mirror before I can teleport through it, so yeah. It's not as easy or convenient as it may seem, unless I get that in." And where would he use it? Who knows.

Stepping in closer to Trace now, he scans the beach and their surroundings. If any of his father's people were here, well, they would've had to have gotten jobs, for the park, the same way as him. Not that he would put it past them to do so, but it was less likely. "That was beautiful." He finally says about the violin playing, "I could barely keep my eyes off of you." But he had to be remain both vigilant and observant no matter the difficulty. "I'd love to watch you play again, but with something less ominous." And to that he has to laugh.

A look is then given Angelo, "So what's this big ask?" He's pretty sure that the big ask isn't for him, but he inquires anyway.

Angelo thinks about it and says frankly as there's no mixed company here, "Since we have no budget," something not freely flaunted usually, "What I'm thinking is for one, the mirror in the Tarjay. Then if you need something in a pinch you have a fast way to a wide range of tools, supplies, and also other mirrors which are in the home goods section." This is the reason people call Angelo when they are in a jam- he gets people out of them. "Then you can plant other mirrors where you need if you need to create a wider network of them."

Looking back to Trace he says, "We need to jam sometime. I brought my guitar here." The smile warms genuinly impressed and proud of his pal present.

Looking back to Enzo he pockets his phone, "Riiiight. Okay we all shared a dream that one night where we were in the tunnels and Gabe and I got messed up by those mechanical dudes and Trace, you did the thing to get us out of there finding the exit." Looking back to Enzo he says "You picked up on that but also accused me of being the cause weird dream shit is happening." Pauses he says as if solving the math problem proudly. "I am not, but I did dream that ship on the bottom of the floor of the lake."

Looking back to Trace now that the setup is out there he says "I don't know how your thing works but if we can somehow go into the dream of that boat I had before maybe we can get an idea of hazards on that hip, where they were keeping things, and if the McGuffin we're looking for was on it." His hand waves in a small circle, "If the area is going to be hazardous with like dangerous pressure or whatever it might help the search team cut down the time they need to spend in there and prevent opportunity for getting hurt."

Taking a deep breath he looks to Enzo, "I can help you research but Saint asked me not to dive back down there and I don't want to scare her like that. This might help get us more accurately to the goal here." He pauses adding, "If it works at all and if you get some weird dream or whatever instead Trace don't judge me." There's a wry, dimpled grin suggesting he's not too worried about the judgement part.

Trace smiles as Enzo steps closer. It's probably good he's still holding onto the instrument. The desire to reach out and touch him is, well, it's pretty much ever-present. Instead he dips his head just a little and says, "Next time, I'll play something that I really like playing, or maybe something that I've written. Just for you." Then he laughs too and says, "And definitely less ominous." He finally does tear his eyes away from Enzo to put the violin away, which gives him something to do with his hands as he focuses on Angelo and his request. The instrument gets set inside, the tension on the bow loosened, and then it too gets clipped into place before he closes up the case and straightens, slipping his hands into his pockets.

He listens to everything that Angelo puts forth and then looks thoughtful. "So.." He pauses, considers. "I can get into your dream and change it. That's how my thing works. And I can pull you into my dream. That part is.. I wouldn't say easy but I have practice with it. But I've never tried to get someone else to dream about something I haven't seen or created. I'd have to experiment with that to see if it would even work."

"Yeah, we were thinking of putting mirrors up everywhere where I might need to go or a short cut, but..." Enzo says with some non-chalance, "I'm sure the higher ups won't be too suspicious if I'm dragging a mirror into their offices or whatever, if I need to poke into their files for reasons." He then adds, "Not that I think I'd need to... Unless they have a more detailed maps for engineering that's not the one we got in our handbook." The one he's been scribbling notes on.

He will quiet down and allow Trace and Angelo to speak about the dream things, because he has no idea how any of that works, in truth, but he does understand what Angelo is getting at with this request.

Angelo blinks at Enzo and says "You don't need to be in their office. Computer data isn't stored locally it's like... on a server somewhere probably else. You probably need a hacker for that not a mirror." If it saves Enzo a B&E charge he'll point that part out now.

Looking back to Trace he says "I don't know who all has what, but maybe someone else who was there has a skill. You're the only one I know that's ever done anything like this. I trust you though and I was thinking maaaaybe it could help. I'm game for slipshod experimental brain science if you are." A faint grin holds with the idea of going into a new direction.

"I was thinking less for sneaky thievery and more for just quick travel from place to place," Trace chuckles, "But you know, the potential larceny applications are also there. But Angelo does have a point. That stuff is all probably online somewhere that someone could get to with the right skills. Not that I have those skills."

He then nods to Angelo and says, "We can give it a shot and see what we can do." Then he smirks a little and says, "I'm not going to be doing neurosurgery on you man."

Enzo's brow lifts when the others bring up hackers and stuff, "Right.. Like I need more people in my business. I'm sure we got one on the payroll somewhere." Does he trust anyone else in the park? Not really. "I mean, I do need quick travel and I do need, POSSIBLY," He emphasizes, "To get into places where we're not allowed to go. I don't know what management has records of if anything, but I'm thinking, by now, they must be calling professionals to dig into this magic." He then ends with, "Or they're idiots."

Then again, Enzo is thinking with a business mind, very much like his father, perhaps, and this magic was a gold mind in a sense.

"Well that should be interesting," He says of this dream trial, "Either way." He then turns to Angelo, asking, "Are you going to put yourself up for auction? That date thing? Or are you bidding?"

Angelo chuckles and the wings ruffle for a moment as if cold and just pull in and retract for warmth. "I mean I trust you if ya did, Trace, just don't mess up my hair. I'm partial to it." And also a shapeshifter but there are principles to this.

Curious he looks to Enzo considering, "Ya knooow, I hadn't even thought about it. My whole head's been in this new show and figuring out a research angle. Yeah I could probably do that. Odds are almost always good that one can make a cash donation to these things too but yeah I'm guessing probably? I have to check the date of it because I'm trying to plan a surprise for someone."

"Fair point," Trace says, of introducing yet more people into all of this. "It's not like I know a hacker that I could recommend, either." He doesn't have those sorts of connections. Then he considers for a moment and says, "You could come, too," to Enzo. "I'm.. fairly sure that I could connect all three of us." He pauses, "If you wanted to." He's never ventured into actually using his dream abilities with Enzo nor has he asked him how he's felt about it yet.

The question about the date auction has him lifting both brows and he glances over toward Angelo. "Oh? Who are we surprising?" he asks, because he just likes gossip.

Enzo considers, "Where do you think they keep the actual plans for the park anyway? Something to look for." It's probably something he should have gotten a copy of early on, but he's been sidetracked so many times and he figured the map that he's been using was good enough. Not that he's been crawling through... crawl spaces and such all that often.

He then blinks when he's invited to their Dream escapade, "Oh. Uh... sure. That sounds interesting. Is it anything like that shared dream that we had?" Enzo knows how that felt like, but having heard somewhat more of how Trace can manipulate these dreams, he puts his trust in him to know exactly what he's doing.

Where Trace asks the question that Enzo may have been curious about, this talk of the charity date event, has him looking over at Trace now too.

Angelo says with no hesitation, "I can't think f a weird situation in my life Enzo's not witnessed. It'd be a shame for him to miss out on this one." The trust level he's got on Enzo doesn't even let a question like that move the needle. Finally he says to Enzo, "We can see what Dante knows. He does all sorts of stuff to help us with ours. He can give you better insights on stuff like that. Usually though were it my business. Safe deposit box maybe? Hard to say."

Trace point blank asks and that catches Angelo off-guard where he laughs and has to give him respect for that. "I met someone who iiiiis really cool and work way too much looking after like the rest of the world and I really respect her for that and though, ya know, thought maybe surprise her and let her know she's appreciated. I have no idea what her social situation is so I don't want to make it weird but I thought a surprise nice gesture would be, ya know, not weird."

"Actual plans for the park would likely be available to the entire mechanical team, particularly any electricians and plumbers who are responsible for making sure that everything has power and where on the grid and on which backup generators everything is running," Trace says, as for who would have access to the plans. "It's not really the sort of information people lock away in vaults. But it would be restricted access just to those who need it to do their actual jobs."

"Something like that," Trace says to Enzo, "We'd all be there together and aware of each other. Except unlike that dream, I'll be able to affect it much more easily. Whatever THAT was, was both powerful and magical. And I've never had as hard a time affecting a dream as I did then."

"Aww," Trace says when Angelo both answers and dodges the question. "Does she have a naaaame?" because now he's just going to go digging for that information. Sorry, Angelo. You brought it up.

Though when Enzo looks over at him, he asks, "What?" chuckling.

"That should be easy enough to locate and possibly, accidentally venture into." Enzo says to when Trace mentions where these things would be stored. "I guess I'll have to find and electrician or one of the maintenance crew to..." He shrugs. Obviously, he's not going to tell everyone that he's going in there to take a look at, swipe or whatever a map, but he'll think of something when it comes to it.

Standing there, looking at Angelo, he's considering the other's words now, "Works way too much looking after the rest of the world? Hey, that sounds like me." He says in a deadpan, but there's a humored smile on his lips at this idea that his bestie might have eyes on someone.

At Trace's question, Enzo raises his free hand, "Nothing." He then tries and fails to stifle a yawn, "I was just wondering if /you/ were going to do the generous and noble thing and put yourself up for auction."

Angelo listens to Trace break down who would have the blueprints and he looks- disappointed? "Aww waste of an opportunity to keep something in a cool vault? The movies lied to me." He does remind after Trace's breakdown with some pride in the other's work, "But you diiiid affect it."

Angelo reaches out to slap Enzo's shoulder with amusement, "Aww lookit that it does doesn't it?" Angelo looks to Trace with an arched eyebrow also curious, but he was also asked a question and answers him honestly. "Her name is Aisley, and she's the runt wrangler for all the kids that need outsourced supervision. She gets the very cool gig of hanging around 7 year olds that are not allergic to fun which are some of my favourite people, and asked for help setting up some cool party event stuff for them which has given my whole month momentum." He pauses and very reasonable says, "I'd really like to return that favour." Angelo reaches over and pokes a finger directionally at Trace in a very light 'boop' to the should. "And that's the gossip."

Trace nods a bit as Enzo ponders on how to get ahold of that information and offers, "I can just ask around, too. It's not like I don't have reason to be curious about the electrical connections around the park and possible sources of combustibility depending on where we might schedule additional fireworks displays. I can make something up that sounds convincing."

When Angelo gives up the details though, he grins and says, "Aw, cute." Because it sounds cute! "Well, I think that's sweet that you're planning a surprise for her." He laughs and says, "Excellent. I appreciate your giving me the tea."

As for the date auction, he shakes his head and says, "I hadn't really thought about it." Then he asks, "Why? Are you?"

"That's right, you're allowed to go into all of those storage rooms, why not other areas that deal with far too much lighting than is necessary to be kept behind a steel door." Enzo says in a faux annoyed tone, thinking back fondly of their time stuck in that particular storage room. "I mean, it's not entirely weird to find me in odd places. They only asked why I was in the air duct, not why I was trapped in that storage room prior to that part." And to this he just laughs a little.

While Trace thinks this whole thing with the 7 year olds is cute, Enzo practically grimaces at the thought. While he's not allergic to fun, he is allergic to 7 year olds and anyone around that age range. "I'm sure she's hot." That's all he'll say because, well... yeah.

Then when the question is turned back to him, he's all like, "Psh, Do you think /I/ would put myself up for a charity dating auction? It's not as if I don't have a date as it is."

In contrast to Enzo, and maybe the biggest divergence, is that Angelo still thinks getting to hang out with kids all day is a win. He does answer though, "Incredibly, yet, somehow, this does not put a crimp in the plan." Warming a smile to Trace he says, "I will always share my tea with you, m'dude."

The response to the auction have him snickering, "I'd think paying extra for you to mingle with the general public was your baseline fee?" More seriously he asks Trace, "So what dooooo we need to do to test this? Like, what's the prep for this here?"

"I'm pretty sure the room wasn't really supposed to be for lighting. I'm guessing they just ran out of space and stuffed it in there because they didn't have anything worth putting behind a steel door," Trace chuckles at Enzo's annoyance just a little bit. The urge to lean over against him is strong, but he only moves a tiny bit in that direction before he straightens again, reminding himself to keep that little bit of distance.

Trace likes kids! Trace spent a few hours with them after the premiere at the amphitheatre entertaining them and making ornaments with them. He gets Angelo. He offers a fist-bump for this bit of information.

Then he raises his brows at Enzo and says, "It's not as if I don't either," with an amused expression. "Unless you're trying to tell me something."

Then he says to Angelo. "No prep. Just, pick a night to do it. Go to sleep. I do the rest."

"I mingle with the general public all day as it is." Enzo intones flatly back to Angelo, "And I can't say that I'm being paid enough for that. In fact, I'm sure I'm being paid the base wage, because this is anything a freakin' intern can do." He just took the job because it was easier to snoop around that way. He wasn't a concierge or any of those, he just handed out brochures and did his best to address guest complaints while having them fill out a form if necessary.

"No. I was just curious is all. I sort of expected you to, so..." Because out of the both of them he figured Trace would be the bleeding heart.

Angelo is absolutely vibing on this entire recollection, perhaps in part to troll Enzo, but he's admitted to then being the other best part of his job when he's not around too. Trace gets a fisbump back whish appropriately has a little halo of gold flecks that catch the light briefly as they do. "Enzo, I appreciate you." he does.

Looking to Trace he says "Well I figure I'll probably be crashing in a couple hours. If tonight works? You let me know your schedule."

"If you were going to do it, I'd bid on you, and thus make a generous donation and still end up with the only date that I want," Trace tells Enzo with a little grin. "Or, if not, I'll just make a donation. And that will satisfy my charitable tendencies."

Then he nods to Angelo and says, "Alright. Well, text me when you're going to crash and we'll give it a try." He then looks over to Enzo and says, "And you're already yawning. You down for tonight?"

"Huh." Enzo's brow raises at Trace's idea, "Well, I might have to put myself up for auction like a piece of meat then." He's obviously joking! The thought of being bid on and won seemed to intrigue him at least.

He then blinks at Angelo, nodding slowly to those words of appreciation, "Thanks. Back at ya, Jell-O." And he means that as well.

"I could be down for a drink and a hot shower before bed, but... don't you just hate sleeping early, knowing that your work shift is just going to come up that much sooner?" Enzo's just making small talk! "But if we need to do this tonight, I'm game."

Angelo says "Enzo if you do, we'll hit up the spa before then and make a day of it. I will incentivize you to do this." He can never not be an enabler here, especially for the little things that bring Enzo the smallest modicum of joy. Dante may have given him practice here.

"Nope. It means I get to go to the gym, make Saint swear a lot, and feel invincible. Then I get to go to work." He loves his job, it's disgusting really, but there is a contrast when one gets to practice his chosen career. "Right now hot shower sounds good. "Lets call it like 9pm?" Little old man hours he's got, but he's also up at 4am. "And, ya know, I appreciate you guys trying this out with me. Maybe there'll be fewer stabbings this time. That'd be neat." That was not the fun part of the dream, but something new to try might actually keep him awake. it remains to be seen.

Pulling out his phone he takes a few steps, wings unfold and he's up and off taking the most direct route back home texting mid-flight.

Trace laughs and says, "A very handsome, stylish, charming piece of meat who happens to be excellent company." The urge to go over and lightly tug on the lapels of Enzo's jacket like he would his blazer is strong, but he keeps his hands in his pockets. "Either way, I'll make some kind of donation. But I don't think I'll be volunteering."

"And, there's no reason that a drink and a hot shower can't be in the cards before bed," Trace says with a little grin. "Do you work tomorrow?" He does not.

Then Angelo is moving to head out and he lifts a hand to wave. "Alright, text me. I'll let you know if we're good to go." Then he looks at the recording equipment and instrument and says, "Shall we pack it up?"

"I can just picture it now, someone outbidding you at the last minute." Enzo says in an amused tone, even if both of his brows lift as if that idea were daunting. "Then I would be stuck with who knows what and I'll need to make sure that they understand my boundaries. And one of them is that there's no kissing on the first date.... not that there would be any others to come."

When asked if he works tomorrow, there's furrowing of his brow when he says, "I didn't work today, so yeah... Of course, I work tomorrow. Later in the day."

He's already starting to pack up the equipment just when Trace asks. There isn't too much and they all fit nicely into this case. "I've got this." After putting away all of the equipment and zipping the case closed, he looks over to Trace, "And why not? Too shy to be paraded around like that?" He's talking about the auction still, as he packs up another bag of small equipment now and zips that one up too. And he asked mainly out of curiosity. Slipping the bag over his shoulder and holding the case in hand, he steps in to close the distance between himself and Trace, brushing the back of his hand against the other's in that closeness.

"Oh no," Trace chuckles. "True. That is a risk." Then he affects a much more serious face and says, "There better not be. On either count." But his lips tug up a little at the corners.

When Enzo says he has to work the following day, Trace nods a little in understanding. "Well, at least it's later in the day. We could sleep in," he suggests, the presumption there being that he'll be staying at Enzo's.

"No," he laughs. "I'm not nearly as shy as I used to be." Evidently, if the past few days have been any indication. When the distance between them closes though, and their hands brush, he lets his fingers brush against Enzo's, smile softening.

Enzo's own lips draw up into a grin as he lets out a quick laugh, eyes lowered to view the sandy ground when Trace puts on that serious face and issues that playful warning.

"I'd like that." He murmurs in regards to sleeping in, "One of these days, we're going to synch up our schedule, but with the ebb and flow of the tourist season..." And that's when he just has to make this semi-annoyed face, "I don't know why I'm thinking in the long run, I mean... I know why but..." He means, the fact that he'll be doing PR forever and having that sort of schedule.

"Hmmm..." It's more of a sound than anything at Trace's speaking of him being less shy now. It does make Enzo want to hurry back into the comfort, warmth and privacy of his own apartment... with Trace right now. "Let's head back, get that drink... take that shower and hope that Angelo is dreaming tonight."