2025-04-22 - The Dossier

After their milkshakes and fries and a decent night's sleep, it was time to look over the information that Alejandro Castillo had sent to Enzo. It came in the form of an encrypted file which, of course, Enzo knew the password to and was able to open up. There were several items within. One file was titled "Wonderland" and another was titled "Alice", a third was titled "The Waverly/Landrydale Connection", and a final file was simply titled "Daniella Mercer".

Trace isn't entirely sure whether he wants to know what it is that Alejandro has in store, but his curiosity is no doubt getting the better of him as he settles in to see what there is to see.

Enzo didn't bother to get dressed for the day, but he did slip on a pair of boxers to wander around the house in. He had some serious bedhead and Trace would have figured that Enzo's mind was on the dossier and whatever plan he was mentally working on to tell his father when the time came, when in truth, the time already came to tell him.

He brewed them some espressos, at the very least, as they are both settled around his laptop on the couch, going over the whimsically titled files on the screen.

His brow just has to furrow now, "I thought I was leaving the park. What's all this?" Because most of this looks park related. He clicks on the one titled "Wonderland", assuming that's just about the whole Spellbound Park.

Trace hadn't bothered to dress either when Enzo didn't. He's got on a pair of light linen pajama pants and his hair is .. marginally less bedheaded than Enzo's but not by a lot and he's also a little scruffy. But he doesn't seem to care much about that right now. Neither of them are running out the door any time soon. His cup of espresso is sitting on the table nearby, but he hasn't touched it yet, letting it cool enough to sip.

His brow furrows a little bit as he looks at the file names but shakes his head. No idea.

When the "Wonderland" file is opened, it is not the park. It is, instead, a series of drawings and rough concept pieces for what looks like a small city or town. There are what look like multipurpose buildings with shops and offices on the lower floors and residences on the upper floors built around garden spaces and gathering spaces. In the very center is what looks like a large octagonal depression that houses a series of archways leading from the outside toward the center of the plaza with some sort of device in the center of it.

There are various notes written here and there in the artist's handwriting. The large space in the center is labeled as "Transportation Hub" and other areas are designated as "University", "Public Works", "Athletics Center" and "Library and Arts" with little labels and arrows.

There are several more concept drawings in the file of individual buildings and of the "Transportation Hub" itself which looks suspiciously like the lab they found The Looking Glass in.

"Want me to make some toast, sausage and eggs later?" Enzo asks with a quiet smile, eyes on Trace momentarily, before his attention returns back to the file once it's open. He did a little bit of shopping at least.

Once Wonderland is open, it's not what he expected. In fact, it was great than what he'd expected. "Huh..." He goes through the various concept art for the town, looking on them with interest. This is Enzo's passion and what he finds in these files completely engrosses him as he focuses on every detail and looks to the various buildings and way that they are arranged as if making his own mental adjustments on what he might change. He then has to do a double take when he notices the "Transportation Hub".

"Now that looks familiar. So that whole place that we visited? Was that supposed to be Wonderland?"

"If you want to," Trace says with a little crooked smile. "I would definitely not turn it down." Reaching for his coffee, he lifts it and takes a sip of its contents, blowing on it a little first just to be sure.

Trace studies the concept images with interest. It might not be his passion, but he is definitely interested and curious as to what it all is, and he leans in, shoulder to shoulder with Enzo as they take in the details. He doesn't try to hurry him from one image to the other, instead just letting his own gaze linger over each one.

"Maybe?" he says. It seems a solid enough theory to him. "These drawings look new, though," he points out. "Not old like the stuff from the 1800s that we found."

If Trace was the one with the empathic powers now, he might get a sense of excitement out of Enzo just by going over these drawings. This was exciting and creative work to make a new town, but the idea of using the device and everything that goes with it, well, he's still not sure about that. Uncertain if it's even possible to take it from this place. "Who is the person creating these designs anyway?" He wonders aloud as he tries to seek out their signature somewhere.

Out of curiosity, he clicks on the file named "Alice" now.

Trace can kind of tell that without needing any sort of empathic powers. He can just read it in Enzo's body language and the interest that he's showing those drawings and the screen. That, and he knows this is very much what Enzo really wants to be doing.

There are initials on the drawings. Enzo would recognize them as an artist who has done work with he and his father in the past. Probably commissioned by his father to work on these drawings, too.

When Enzo clicks on the "Alice" file to open it, an image of Estella Waverly appears. Included is a dossier on her and what, apparently, Alejandro's people have been able to find out about her. There is a history of just turning up in Chicago and living with an "aunt" whose name is in the file, the high school that she went to, and various other information tracing her whereabouts afterward. But there are a lot of question marks about where she came from prior to turning 14 years old.

As the file continues, there is an old picture of Alistair Waverly and his wife when they are younger.

Then there is a photograph of Alistair in Chicago in the 1870s but underneath his photograph is the name "Alexander Weaver" and there is a young girl standing next to him who can't be more than 7 or 8. Her name is listed as "Esther Weaver". Scribbled beneath that are the words: "Alistair and Estella Waverly? If so? How?"

When Enzo sees Waverly's image, he can't help but frown. He wants to just go back to the good stuff, and to him, that is the town building! "I'm not sure what he expects me to do with this information. I figure, he already has people to dig more of this up and I won't need to touch on it anymore. I mean, I'm leaving the park. Waverly's still here." When he says this, he turns to look at Trace for a moment, before he reaches for his own cup to take a sip of coffee before setting it back down.

When he spots the photograph of Alistair, which then names him as "Alexander Weaver" and then eyes the child "Esther", and then the writing beneath the photo, his own brow arches.

"So is this Estella just trying to get back to her own time? World? Whatever?" He asks aloud, "Again, this shouldn't be my problem." And he looks more than eager this time to linger on it further and move on. He even eyes the file named "The Waverly/Landrydale Connection" with suspicion, expecting to find more of the same.

Still, he clicks on it.

Trace looks over the file on Estella Waverly with some interest because while Enzo is more than ready to just toss the whole park into the lake and leave everything about it behind, he is still invested to some degree. There's a slight furrowing of his brow as he compares the images of Alistair and Alexander who definitely look identical, to the younger and older images of Esther and Estella who ... could very well be the same person. It certainly looks like it. But his own features reflect the same question written beneath the images: How?

When Enzo brushes it off as not his problem, Trace holds back whatever he might have said in answer to the question, instead waiting to see what is in the Waverly/Landrydale file.

This file contains images that may look familiar -- a lab in London, the lab from Sault Sainte Marie. Both are similar in a lot of features, though both have some small variations here and there. There's quite a lot of dense text to read through positing the possibility of teleportation across vast distances, explaining the potential for travel with significantly lower environmental impact, but there are also a lot of questions. Did this ever work? Did this explain how Landrydale seemed to be in both places at the same time? Did Waverly get caught in his own device? Did they somehow create time travel instead of teleportation?

There's quite a bit more exposition on the topic of both men's experiments and successful patents. This file seems to be particularly textually dense as it gets into the weeds about what evidence and connections have been made to try to prove that the technology exists as well as reference to ongoing competition between a number of interested parties to be the first to harness this particular technology. Among those families, Castillo is mentioned several times.

And hadn't the man in the baggy suit in the dream seemed to have recognized Enzo?

"Look at all of this text to read." Enzo says with a lifted brow, turning slightly in Trace's direction to gauge his interest and to see what he thinks about it. "I wonder why I'm being given any of this stuff at all. I just want to make future cities. Towns with great infrastructure and transportation that easily and conveniently connects them to other such towns." He's just telling Trace everything he'd said before of his dreams.

Taking another sip of his coffee, he looks back at some of the text. "I'm afraid I'm not a scientist or a physics sort," His brow furrows when he says this, but he figures they fit into all of this, "To understand or even have a grasp on any of this. But teleportation, if it did work, would be a decent choice of transportation... depending on what happens to a person when they teleport and boy have I heard stories."

Something does catch his eyes though and it's when he sees his name mentioned. Well, not his first name, but Castillo. And this makes him go back to rereading that whole part again. "That's...interesting. I mean, we aren't the only Castillo out there, but if this is my family, we've been involved in this thing for a while now."

There are a couple of other names that might look familiar to Enzo from just recollection of employee records, guests at the park, etc. Some may not immediately catch his interest, but there are a couple that he'd immediately recognize like Cavendish and Robichaud. It does seem a bit of a coincidence that these several names are all mentioned. Certainly, there are plenty of all of them out there in the world. But these specific last names all together? Interesting, at least.

Trace just looks at all the pages of technical jargon. Sure, there's some terminology that he understands, but he's a Chemist and not a Physicist, or Metaphysicist, or Magiphysicist, or whatever it is that all of this is on about. "Well, he must be giving it to you for some reason. Perhaps it's just background information for.. whatever comes next? Or maybe he's going to want you to work with someone who does understand it?" He's just not sure.

He's quiet though for a bit as he just looks at the information on the screen, saying nothing more for the time being, clearly turning all of this over in his head.

Those are strangely specific names to just come up for sure and Enzo has the program highlight them for him and any others he might find as he just quickly browses through the list. "I did wonder what VoW knew about any of this, but it seems they or their families had some knowledge of what was going on."

And to what Trace says, Enzo just has to put his hands up as if he were giving up on life right now, "I don't want to work with someone who wants to deal in any of this. I just want to build my towns and cities."

He then points over Daniella Mercer's file, "She's supposed to be my partner for all of this. Let's see what it says about her." And with that he clicks open Daniella's file.

"I know," Trace says when Enzo says he doesn't want to deal with any of this stuff, just build his towns and cities. He leans over into his shoulder briefly and then goes back to sipping his coffee as they continue to look at what is contained within.

Daniella Mercer (another last name that showed up in the previous file) comes with an impressive resume. She does have a degree in Physics and Engineering and is a Materials Scientist. And part of the reason she's been selected is to work on analyzing the materials that have been recovered from the lab in London and, as one might imagine, be part of the team working on building the Transportation Hub as it is called. There's information on her previous projects, connections to various clients that Enzo would know about, and then there's a whole section on personal information about her -- likes and dislikes, family history, only child, enjoys horseback riding and marksmanship, etc. Half of the information is professional, the rest of it reads like a dating profile.

There's just one note -- "Make a good impression."

"Hey, I saw her name in that last file. Along with the others." Enzo points out about her last name, before he looks over her resume first. "Well, here's our scientist."

The more personal information section gets a look through as well, to which he says with some amusement, "Hey look, she's an only child too. And she enjoys horseback riding." He then tilts his head to the side and ponders, "I wonder if she got something similar about me and if so, I wonder what it says."

Then there's that note that catches his attention and Enzo can't help but scoff at it, "Does he even know who he's talking to right now?" Before he has to add in as an afterthought, "I mean, sadly, it's going to be a bad first impression, because I'm going to be making my stand, so... maybe he does know who he's talking to right now."

"And if he thought he was going to make me do science stuff instead of actual real estate stuff, he is out of his mind." And to that, Enzo takes a deep drink out of his now warm cup of coffee, before he asks, "So, what did you think of all that?"

Trace finishes his espresso and sets the cup down before leaning back in his seat on the couch, not really reading the information anymore, just sort of looking at the laptop screen. His expression is a little hard to read, though not likely intentionally. He just seems to be processing the contents of the files and what it all means. When Enzo asks him what he thinks, though, he says, "I think he wants to reel you back in with the promise of something you're genuinely interested in. Give you an 'acceptable' partner to work with. And thinks that he can just full steam ahead with .. whatever all this is.. some kind of quest for teleportation technology or something that's been going on for over a hundred and fifty years? It's.. weird... and yet I guess makes sense as to why he wanted knowledge about the park and the stuff that was found here. I don't know what to think about the Waverly stuff. Or how it all connects. But it does seem that a bunch of people or at least family histories, are connected outside of the park."

But then he blows out a slow breath and looks back to Enzo and says, "The important thing is what do YOU think of all of that?"

"Well, what do you think this all means? Do you think Cavendish and VoW bought the islands because they wanted this teleportation technology too?" Enzo asks, before pointing to his laptop, "Because if not him, then his ancestors put it in his mind that he wanted those islands for some reason. Robichaud too." He goes on, "Like what is everyone planning to do? The Park? My dad? Whoever? Waverly...?" That one gets a lift of his brow now too.

When Trace pushes the question back to Enzo, he reclines completely back against the couch now as well. "For one thing, imagine if we had teleportation technology. That would solve a lot of our transportation woes. MAYBE. And that's a huge maybe. Right now trains and subways are the way to go if you want move a lot of people on a regular basis to work, school, that sort of thing. Teleporters though...?"

Though he figures Trace isn't asking about that in particular, or maybe he is. Enzo just lets out a sigh, "I don't know. It all sounds... interesting and I can't say far fetched because magic exists but as much as I'd like to get in on a project that might make the cities of tomorrow feel a bit closer than tomorrow, you know how I'm feeling about working with my dad right now. I'll give him a call. Tell him what has to happen before I even consider working with him on this." He then leans against Trace to brush his shoulder against the other man's and then leaning in to kiss the edge of his lips. "It's a new exciting thing to think about and work on, sure. But I'll never forget what he did to you."

Trace's gaze drifts to the empty espresso cup on the coffee table and lingers there. Whatever is going on inside his head, his features start to smooth out into something quiet, calm and unreadable. Enzo would be correct in figuring that Trace is not at all asking about the mysteries of teleportation technologies and what that might mean as far as how back people have been looking into this place and how deeply they might be intertwined.

"But you are considering working with him on this," Trace says, his gaze still fixed on the cup in front of him, his voice quiet and flat. His expression turns briefly pained when Enzo mentions that is a new and exciting thing to think about and work on. He knows that it is. He knows that this is what Enzo wants, the kind of project that he dreams about. His eyes close at the kiss and then open again, searching Enzo's features. "I wish you could do it without him."

"No." Enzo says when asked if Enzo were considering working with his father on this and he just shakes his head, reaching to set the screen on his laptop to sleep. "I'm not considering working with him. Not with what he did to you, unless he could so something to repay both you and your family for being so reckless and dangerous."

His shoulders then lift and he shuts the laptops lid closed now too, "He has a whole plan laid out and a team put together working on this. People with a lot of experience with construction and real estate development, as well as with science, apparently." And this he says with a roll of his eyes. "Who, in turn, already has a lot of connections with my father's clients."

Even as he says this, he tries to think of what possibilities he has. "The only thing I can see is, let whatever the park is doing with the device and with Waverly, and piggyback off of that, while I seek out investors, clients, suppliers, and good places to possibly break ground to build this City of Tomorrow. Or the starting point. And that's a lot of work." He says with a lift of his brows. "I'm not allergic to hard work, of course, but I'm sure my dad's going to cut me off once he catches wind of this and while I have I decent enough saved up, it was never there to start my own business... I always believed I'd be working for the family business for the rest of my life and some day owning it."

He then lifts the lid of his laptop back up again and opens up an empty document file and starts making a list, "I guess if I'm planning on doing this, I should've have started yesterday. Or last month. Or last year." Enzo has to laugh at that.

That very carefully maintained composure hiding behind it uncertainty, tension, a bit of fear, it ebbs a little when Enzo says that no, he is not considering working with his father on the project. He takes in a slow deep breath and its a little shaky when he lets it out, but he nods slightly. He watches as the laptop is closed. He's still quiet though, listening as Enzo goes over what his father already has in place, and then the possibilities for himself going forward.

"What about the lab in Sault Sainte Marie? I didn't see anything in your father's notes that mentioned that land. You mentioned looking into it while we were there," he finally says when Enzo mentions Waverly. Then, somewhat hesitantly he suggests, "What if.. we offered to cooperate with the park, work on the tech, and maybe see if we could build a project there?" The land was just there. It wasn't very close but it also wasn't very far. And it already had infrastructure built on it.

Then he says, "We could probably find investors to help.. and I could help."

That lab at Sault Sainte Marie which he was almost so eager to tell his father about, because it was something akin to a town and more. If Enzo still had his father's money, he might consid-- Well, his father doesn't know what he's up to just yet. "That would be a great place to start, though I can't say that I'll be much help with the tech. Building plans and things like that, sure. But we'll see. I wonder who I could get with further building and infrastructure planning, along with electrical and..." As he talks, his fingers move quickly across the keyboard.

"As for investors. I could go down those names listed in the files. Though, the easier to find ones are ones we'd already know that have connections to this place or to anything. The rest, they could be anyone with that name. Maybe Waverly'd have some idea of that too." He says as he types, turning to look towards Trace with a little hint of a smile, "And people who are not-involved in any of this, our friends, if I still have any, we can try asking them to."

If anything, Enzo seems excited about the possibility surrounding this.

The more that they start thinking about possibilities and start talking about plans of where to go from here, what other opportunities they might be able to take advantage of, the more that Trace seems to relax, the tension leaving him as he runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back and looking thoughtful, pondering over what resources they might have at their disposal.

"I bet my parents know of some folks who don't have connections with with your father but who might have interests in the same industry that we could try and tap, too," Trace says, and then adds, "And if you need scientific connections, I have a bunch of connections from college through MIT that I could probably reach out to in a number of different disciplines."

He reaches over when Enzo looks over at him and gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze, "I think you have several friends who would be more than happy to help you with a project that was entirely your own, that would help you get a leg up on building something that's yours."

"Now... who can I trust back at home that might pack up the rest of my stuff and drive my car over to Sault Sainte Marie?" Enzo asks himself. Oh, he's not giving up his already fully-paid for glamorous car. His fingers tap lightly on the coffee table. "Wonder if my dad's less often than usual because of all of this stuff. Either that or I'll have to go and make the trip myself." He doesn't seem bothered either way and he even types into his plans 'Possible road trip back home to get my things' and for approximate time, he puts down 'Sooner rather than later. A lot sooner'.

"I mean, future city with possible ideas of teleportation as transportation might be a hard sell for some people." Enzo states truths when he says this, but he continues to typetypetype, but he seems amused by this. "My dad's lucky that he already has people he works with investing and who knows, maybe he and some of the other names on the list, or their families, kept in touch throughout the years." Maybe some of those other names on that list in the file could've been familiar if the Castillos had continued to do business with them.

At the squeeze at this shoulder, Enzo turns and just smiles at Trace, leaning over once more for another kiss. "It's like my friends never believed in legacys, which was always weird to me, when they'd ask, 'What did you really want to do?', I don't know? Real estate?" He shrugs his shoulders, "Ask me again in another life when I have other things influencing me."

"You're going to need a place there to put things first," Trace points out. "Unless you just plan to move everything into storage." He then hesitates for a moment before he says, "If you need to go out there, I could come with you. Help you move things. Could always put it in storage near the ferry terminal in Petoskey." The one where they'd first run into one another that first day taking the ferry from the mainland to the park. His smile quirks a little bit wry. "Until we figure out exactly how things are going to pan out. That way it's at least nearby if we end up needing to figure out a different piece of land or something."

He then laughs a little and says, "Maybe start off with a future city without the teleporting part. So far we know that the magic doesn't even work outside the park. It's probably going to take a while to even figure out if we could get it there. But.. the land is on a waterway and we could do some research to see how close it is to a rail station and figure out other methods of transportation as well." He does nod about the list of names and the potential that some of those names might know enough to want to fund a project like that anyway.

Trace leans in to meet that kiss, brushing his lips softly against Enzo's once, and then twice, keeping him close for just a moment longer. "Legacy can be a great concept," Trace says diplomatically. Then he leans forward and rests his chin on Enzo's shoulder. "I just want to see you build your own."

Enzo wonders if it's safe for Trace to come along with him. "I'd love the company. I'll make sure that my dad isn't at home when we do this. And that the staff on hand aren't the type to snitch." He then adds, his voice sounding chipper, "And you can even drive my second ride. No need to leave that one behind either." It's a good thing that Enzo doesn't have a yacht of his own or he'd try to take that too...

"Yeah, find some storage space and some parking space nearby. Talk to Waverly and hopefully, she'll give us the keys to that place and we'll work from there." He then frowns a bit when Trace mentions these other methods of transportation. "I wish that I could be more, uh... hopeful, when it comes to that, but extending train routes, hell, even upgrading to highspeed trains, all of those tend to get shut down real fast and real often. You would think that we wouldn't want to known as trailing behind Asia and even Europe in that department, but here we are. The automobile industry has a stranglehold on transportation." Says the guy who wants to bring his two expensive cars over. "Let's build another lane for that highway rather than highspeed rail." From the looks of it, Enzo could go on and on...

That kiss was necessary to help shut him, especially when it comes with a bonus kiss, thanks to Trace. This is also what Enzo needed. The first thing he needed was a project to excite him, which is what he got. And now that he's in all cylinders mode, this little romantic downtime helps to keep him from burning out or overworking himself. After a moment of this quiet time, of them thinking of the future, perhaps, Enzo finally goes back to what he'd said earlier, "Right! I almost forgot. Let me try my hand at breakfast, like I'd promised."

It's clear that Trace isn't even sure it's safe for Trace to go with Enzo, but he's certainly willing to try if it means helping him with all of this. He then smiles a little wryly and amusedly. "You have two cars?" he asks with a laugh. "Camilla has mine now." Because she's using it for school and he doesn't need it at the moment. "And if we get it all done quickly enough, maybe we can just be in and out before there's a chance he'll be home. Especially if he's spending all this time out in Chicago." Which is where he wanted to send Enzo, after all.

"She doesn't own the place, just got permission from the caretaker, but I bet we could talk to her about getting access again. Maybe she can put us in touch with whoever actually currently owns it," Trace muses, only to be distracted by Enzo's talk on the likelihood of other modes of transportation. "I know," he says, having definitely heard that before, offering a little smile. "Just you know.. in case we need something to sell them on in case teleportation doesn't entirely pan out." He's just thinking contingencies.

But he's more than happy to think about a few more of those kisses and breakfast, which he'd lost his appetite for for a bit there, but was finding a renewed interest in the talk of toast and eggs. "Breakfast sounds great," he grins. Not that he wants to derail Enzo from his project, or planning it, but he'll be more than happy to give him little distractions here and there to keep him from burning out and just because he likes distracting him. Some of the weight lifts off his shoulders.