Operation: Mad Men - Where It's Happening
Jun. 5th, 2018 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logs Using the photos, Amanda, Doug and Artie try to narrow down the possible locations depicted.
Telepathy had a wonderful way of turning a simple action into a weird process. Emma's projection of the photos that had been found in Kevin's mind appeared in Artie's as if he had them right in front of him. It was as clear as a memory of a moment ago despite never seeing them before.
The room had been cleared down to white walls. Artie projected a photo on each wall, as large as the space allowed. He paused, held up a hand and squinted at one of the photos. "Afternoon sun," he signed. Shadows on the right, so... a moment later, he had a compass rose up on that one. He held up a hand again, and the other two images vanished, replaced a moment later by a map of Manhattan at the time one one wall and a modern map on the other. A wire frame model of the buildings in the remaining photo appeared on the floor, still flat but ready to be manipulated.
Bridging from Emma to Artie to Doug - memory to image to pattern - was fascinating. Just when Doug thought he'd figured out how his power interacted with others, a new wrinkle arose. He examined the pictures along with Artie, trying to determine the modern equivalents of older buildings and street views. Using three people to navigate in four dimensions. Doug backed up, trying to get more of the projection in his field of view. Sometimes he needed a different perspective.
For her part, Amanda was studying the shapes of the buildings, looking for familiar landmarks. The fact she had her feet sunk into the floor, creating a partial link with New York, might have been unsettling to anyone who wasn't used to her doing it. "It's not downtown," she said after a moment. "There's not enough landmarks like the Crysler Building."
Artie paused and spun the wireframe. "I had it lined up to the street grid in Manhattan. But if I turn it to match Greenwich Village's streets.... Look." He put a red dot on a building at a corner. "That's on Bleecker St. I think."
"Could be," Amanda agreed. "But so much has changed, I can't exactly..." She looked at Doug. "Can you get any patterns off the streets on this? Anything that looks familiar?"
Trying to get the whole picture was giving him a bit of a headache. "That bodega on the corner," he said abruptly, pointing at a small market in the picture. "I've been to that shop. Pretty sure the same family still owns it, a couple generations down." It was like looking at a baby picture of a person you only sort of knew.
Artie nodded. He projected an image of the bodega today on one wall after a quick google maps search. Slid it across to overlay the first projection and began adjusting it - modern ads removed, and the redone windows from the 80's and yeah... yeah... the bones were the same. "We've got it!" He let everything vanish and rubbed his forehead for a moment. "Ready for the next one?"
***
Second is the first location (Harlem), using Artie's powers to line up the sites. For this one, how about Artie and Doug are working together trying to id the exact location in Harlem, while Amanda magically hides them so they don't get noticed? We can reference the fact that they've been doing this for a while now and most of the locations have been a bust - too much has changed in the meantime and there's no clues left. The third loglet is the one where they actually find something.
"Amanda, are you sure we can't just duct-tape a GoPro to you and let the city do the walking?" Doug asked with a groan. It felt like they'd walked across approximately half of Harlem, looking at barbershops and walking up and down staircases. The first match had been a stroke of luck, him recognizing a shop that had stayed more or less the same over the years. This one, too much had changed in the intervening time.
"I wish," replied the witch. "But my city thing doesn't work that way. It's more feelings and impressions, not actual images." She looked somewhat wilted as well after a lot of fruitless wandering. "How about you, Artie? Anything ringing any bells?"
He was staring around, eyes open but unfocused, looking at the the skyline. The older buildings were similar to each other, gaps where time had changed things. "I don't fucking know! It's been 50 years. Maybe there... No."
"Balls." The exertion was clearly getting to all three of them - between the crazy mutant powers version of a game of telephone, and the physical movement itself, and Amanda keeping them 'under the radar', as it were, they were all getting a bit testy. And when that happened, mistakes became more likely. "Okay, snack break," he told the other two, fishing out some of their favorites - he'd taken an extra moment at the last corner shop they'd looked at to stock up. "Is there something we could be doing differently?" he asked as he munched on some jerky.
"Gimme." Amanda didn't snatch at the cranberry granola bar, but it was close. As she chewed on the first giant bite, she considered the situation. "If this was an overhead view, we'd be doing a lot better," she said, her mouth partly full. "Artie, can you bring the photo up again? If there's anything in the background, like the river or one of the big landmark buildings, maybe we can line it up for a map view?"
He nodded and then held up a finger. "Hold on... Amanda, Doug, I'm going to project it life-size around us. We're almost here and this won't be subtle but it might help match the location." He built from the ground up - streets, litter, walls and ancient advertising. He flipped it, moving west to east, matching the orientation of the light and ... yes. "I know where this is."
Amanda's feet had dropped slightly into the pavement as she used New York's power to strengthen the "don't see me" glamour she was using to hide Artie's power use. "Well done. That's... what? Five blocks west of here?"
"Well, at least I'm hatching a bunch of Pokemon Go eggs," Doug muttered. "Five blocks west it is. Holler if you need more snacks."
***
Third is the second location and will end with them on their way to the third (which is where the bomb is and the location for Log 15). Let's make it a building that's since been converted into apartments, and they have to talk their way in (or at least distract the occupants long enough for someone to sneak in and look for signs of a group called HELIOS operating out of there.)
"Well, it's not exactly an office building any more," reflected Amanda as they paused outside what had been offices back in the 1950s, but now were obviously low-rent apartments. "How're we going to do this? I don't think me randomly 'porting in is going to work - too much chance of me getting shot or maced or something."
Doug was fishing in his pockets. "Ah!" he said, finally finding what he was looking for. He put an incredibly dorky pair of glasses on and showed a matching picture inside a billfold. "County inspectors, at your service," he said with a grin. "Artie, think you can make matching ones for you and Amanda?"
He gave Doug a tight-mouthed smile and pulled out a second pair of glasses, which he handed to Amanda while he grew a really ... bad beard. Overgrown goatee and stringy but thin. The sort of beard that distracted from your face because everyone felt sorry for you for going out in public like that. The picture in Artie's billfold matched. Amanda's was blurry and over exposed. Probably she was the same person but honestly, it was hard to tell. "Stay near me if you need to flash your ID," he signed to Amanda. "You know the drill."
"Looks like we're buddies, then," she replied with a grin, sliding on the sunglasses before twisting her hair up into a more professional looking knot. "Doug, how about you take the apartments on the right side and we'll take the left. Meet back here when we're done?"
"Works for me," Doug replied.
***
"Another swing and a miss," Doug said with a sigh as the trio regrouped down the block. "But I certainly got an earful from some of the tenants about maintenance backlogs..." His ears were still ringing slightly from the invective hurled at the last apartment he'd checked.
Artie sagged against the wall for a moment and sighed, letting his terrible beard vanish. "It's not there." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Let's hit the next one on the maybe list."
Amanda nodded as she consciously pulled her posture more upright. "Water Street. Let's go."
Telepathy had a wonderful way of turning a simple action into a weird process. Emma's projection of the photos that had been found in Kevin's mind appeared in Artie's as if he had them right in front of him. It was as clear as a memory of a moment ago despite never seeing them before.
The room had been cleared down to white walls. Artie projected a photo on each wall, as large as the space allowed. He paused, held up a hand and squinted at one of the photos. "Afternoon sun," he signed. Shadows on the right, so... a moment later, he had a compass rose up on that one. He held up a hand again, and the other two images vanished, replaced a moment later by a map of Manhattan at the time one one wall and a modern map on the other. A wire frame model of the buildings in the remaining photo appeared on the floor, still flat but ready to be manipulated.
Bridging from Emma to Artie to Doug - memory to image to pattern - was fascinating. Just when Doug thought he'd figured out how his power interacted with others, a new wrinkle arose. He examined the pictures along with Artie, trying to determine the modern equivalents of older buildings and street views. Using three people to navigate in four dimensions. Doug backed up, trying to get more of the projection in his field of view. Sometimes he needed a different perspective.
For her part, Amanda was studying the shapes of the buildings, looking for familiar landmarks. The fact she had her feet sunk into the floor, creating a partial link with New York, might have been unsettling to anyone who wasn't used to her doing it. "It's not downtown," she said after a moment. "There's not enough landmarks like the Crysler Building."
Artie paused and spun the wireframe. "I had it lined up to the street grid in Manhattan. But if I turn it to match Greenwich Village's streets.... Look." He put a red dot on a building at a corner. "That's on Bleecker St. I think."
"Could be," Amanda agreed. "But so much has changed, I can't exactly..." She looked at Doug. "Can you get any patterns off the streets on this? Anything that looks familiar?"
Trying to get the whole picture was giving him a bit of a headache. "That bodega on the corner," he said abruptly, pointing at a small market in the picture. "I've been to that shop. Pretty sure the same family still owns it, a couple generations down." It was like looking at a baby picture of a person you only sort of knew.
Artie nodded. He projected an image of the bodega today on one wall after a quick google maps search. Slid it across to overlay the first projection and began adjusting it - modern ads removed, and the redone windows from the 80's and yeah... yeah... the bones were the same. "We've got it!" He let everything vanish and rubbed his forehead for a moment. "Ready for the next one?"
***
Second is the first location (Harlem), using Artie's powers to line up the sites. For this one, how about Artie and Doug are working together trying to id the exact location in Harlem, while Amanda magically hides them so they don't get noticed? We can reference the fact that they've been doing this for a while now and most of the locations have been a bust - too much has changed in the meantime and there's no clues left. The third loglet is the one where they actually find something.
"Amanda, are you sure we can't just duct-tape a GoPro to you and let the city do the walking?" Doug asked with a groan. It felt like they'd walked across approximately half of Harlem, looking at barbershops and walking up and down staircases. The first match had been a stroke of luck, him recognizing a shop that had stayed more or less the same over the years. This one, too much had changed in the intervening time.
"I wish," replied the witch. "But my city thing doesn't work that way. It's more feelings and impressions, not actual images." She looked somewhat wilted as well after a lot of fruitless wandering. "How about you, Artie? Anything ringing any bells?"
He was staring around, eyes open but unfocused, looking at the the skyline. The older buildings were similar to each other, gaps where time had changed things. "I don't fucking know! It's been 50 years. Maybe there... No."
"Balls." The exertion was clearly getting to all three of them - between the crazy mutant powers version of a game of telephone, and the physical movement itself, and Amanda keeping them 'under the radar', as it were, they were all getting a bit testy. And when that happened, mistakes became more likely. "Okay, snack break," he told the other two, fishing out some of their favorites - he'd taken an extra moment at the last corner shop they'd looked at to stock up. "Is there something we could be doing differently?" he asked as he munched on some jerky.
"Gimme." Amanda didn't snatch at the cranberry granola bar, but it was close. As she chewed on the first giant bite, she considered the situation. "If this was an overhead view, we'd be doing a lot better," she said, her mouth partly full. "Artie, can you bring the photo up again? If there's anything in the background, like the river or one of the big landmark buildings, maybe we can line it up for a map view?"
He nodded and then held up a finger. "Hold on... Amanda, Doug, I'm going to project it life-size around us. We're almost here and this won't be subtle but it might help match the location." He built from the ground up - streets, litter, walls and ancient advertising. He flipped it, moving west to east, matching the orientation of the light and ... yes. "I know where this is."
Amanda's feet had dropped slightly into the pavement as she used New York's power to strengthen the "don't see me" glamour she was using to hide Artie's power use. "Well done. That's... what? Five blocks west of here?"
"Well, at least I'm hatching a bunch of Pokemon Go eggs," Doug muttered. "Five blocks west it is. Holler if you need more snacks."
***
Third is the second location and will end with them on their way to the third (which is where the bomb is and the location for Log 15). Let's make it a building that's since been converted into apartments, and they have to talk their way in (or at least distract the occupants long enough for someone to sneak in and look for signs of a group called HELIOS operating out of there.)
"Well, it's not exactly an office building any more," reflected Amanda as they paused outside what had been offices back in the 1950s, but now were obviously low-rent apartments. "How're we going to do this? I don't think me randomly 'porting in is going to work - too much chance of me getting shot or maced or something."
Doug was fishing in his pockets. "Ah!" he said, finally finding what he was looking for. He put an incredibly dorky pair of glasses on and showed a matching picture inside a billfold. "County inspectors, at your service," he said with a grin. "Artie, think you can make matching ones for you and Amanda?"
He gave Doug a tight-mouthed smile and pulled out a second pair of glasses, which he handed to Amanda while he grew a really ... bad beard. Overgrown goatee and stringy but thin. The sort of beard that distracted from your face because everyone felt sorry for you for going out in public like that. The picture in Artie's billfold matched. Amanda's was blurry and over exposed. Probably she was the same person but honestly, it was hard to tell. "Stay near me if you need to flash your ID," he signed to Amanda. "You know the drill."
"Looks like we're buddies, then," she replied with a grin, sliding on the sunglasses before twisting her hair up into a more professional looking knot. "Doug, how about you take the apartments on the right side and we'll take the left. Meet back here when we're done?"
"Works for me," Doug replied.
***
"Another swing and a miss," Doug said with a sigh as the trio regrouped down the block. "But I certainly got an earful from some of the tenants about maintenance backlogs..." His ears were still ringing slightly from the invective hurled at the last apartment he'd checked.
Artie sagged against the wall for a moment and sighed, letting his terrible beard vanish. "It's not there." He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Let's hit the next one on the maybe list."
Amanda nodded as she consciously pulled her posture more upright. "Water Street. Let's go."
