Cypher's Journals (Season 4)

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A collection of MP4s by Ivy Noverre (also known as Cypher). Her written 'journal' is just scrawled notes, doodles, or scripts. Not shown here.

## VIDEO JOURNAL 1: MAGIC DORKS

**2020, May 14th | S4E64 - Keep Halcyon Weird**
*Dull whirring, like from a fan, can be heard. The display flickers into view. Ivy's face is very close to the screen, her eyes widening as she realizes this, quickly jumping back.*
"Eeeee… sorry." She freezes for a moment.
*She's in casual clothes -- a light hoodie, jeans, beanie. The taupe color of her small, if cozy, room, contrasts from the jet black bookshelves to her side, and the dark purple bedding she stands inches in front of. A glaive, steel in color but coated with dark lines and runes, leans a bit recklessly in the corner.*
"Sooo, I was having troubling writing and GAIA was getting on me about training too much and," she pauses, "I decided I'd do one of these video journal things. A vlog, I guess, but I'm not blogging it so does that...?" She frowns, before shaking her head, "It doesn't matter."
"So let's see," she says as she grabs a scrap piece of paper and looks over it. "Right, recent events. Uhh, ran into Black Magic Club saturday. You know, those kids who *think* they know how to practice magic. Like summoning demons and using whatever random runes you find." She's waving her hands around and rolling her eyes while saying all this.
"Magic is all about control," she states, flicking her fingers to summon a small ball of fire. "Summoning it, and snuffing it out." She clenches her fist, the fireball extinguishing as lines on her arm briefly glow. "What they are doing is not magic, it's just being dumb," she says, turning away. Quietly, she whispers, "At least mom taught me that."
An awkward moment later, she slightly jumps before turning back, "Right, right. So we infiltrated their headquarters, I think. My info wall had some couriers passing through that area irregularly, and then I saw Cambria go there one time, you know how it is." Her eyes light up, "Oh, and I got the color brands working on my suit! I can make myself look like a Seeker now." She giggles, "The kid at this place *totally* bought it. All it takes is a little red and a little runes and I guess they'll go along with you."
She frowns, before slowly realizing, "I completely forgot the first part of this. Um, to summarize: there was a radio man," she furrows her brows, saying under her breath, "Arnie? Aaron?". She approaches the screen, grabbing a piece of paper from near the camera. "Artie! Yes, radio guy Artie wanted to know about hero antics. So we all, that being me, Focus, and Overgrowth, decided, sure, come along, we'll go figure out something. Then info wall, then this weird, really weird police restaurant." She looks up in a quizzical fashion, slightly shaking her head.
"And then from there we decided to go sneak into this abandoned bar night club place Black Magic Club took over. Did the color switch, then I went and distracted while those two broke in and recovered the stuff in the basement. Easy stuff!" She turns and deadpans the camera, "Or so I thought. I could only keep Cambria busy for so long until she wanted to go down there herself. I **did** do that one trick, the 'oops, spider on your shoulder' paint a mark on your back one. The one Cath always said would never work." She smirks and tilts her head, "It worked Cath."
*She starts pacing back and forth, arms at her side, her fingers faintly tracing sigils in the air.*
"So those two had some trouble with the magic traps. I don't blame them, they had a seventh book Underworld rune in there. Brazenly tied up with two Schism runes!", she shouts, arms wide in a bewildered expression. "Don't ask me why they decided to rig a trap like that, inches away from unleashing some forsaken creature from the Abyss." To her, this is clearly an obvious error.
"So seeing my friends in these traps, I decided to trigger the Push mark on Cambria's back. Sent her flying down the stairs into Focus. Friend out of trap, Cambria out of my hair," she says, smiling and giving a thumbs up in a joking way. "I figured Focus could take care of Cambria, so I ran to watch the stairs for the other five magical dorks."
She sits back on her bed, briefly raising her arms in a shrug, "Luckily, they didn't come, and so Focus and Overgrowth came out with Cambria. Seems Focus had beaten her and they came to some sort of deal. She got some sort of cool elemental boomerang." She looks to the side, her hand on her mouth, quietly, if regretfully, saying, "It **was** pretty."
"And that was basically it! Artie got his weird experience, hopefully that'll get me some good press. Focus did say she had a connection with ties to J.J. Fallon." She ponders for a moment, before stating, "So all's well that ends well." She smiles, a bit half-heartedly.
"Still digging into more clues for the Seekers. They gotta be getting closer to more Pieces. The one I have and the other Kurt is looking after are still safe. Kurt is probably getting annoyed by how much I ask to check."
*As she looks at the camera, a brief liquid black washes over her eyes, veins pulsating dark just once, almost as if trailing down her face. She shakes her head before rolling up a sleeve and looking at her arm. Dark lines, as if stitched with black thread, streak randomly around her own ink. She slaps her arm and shakes it, the lines disappearing, before looking back and smiling at the camera.*
"Ah, ha. It's nothing to worry about. Just a little of my previous exposure to the Paragon back home." She smiles, but her eyes look on worried. "Anyways, as I said, once the Seekers start figuring out where these pieces are, I can just take it from them before it gets back to mom."
*A door shuts in the background, and loud steps can be heard. Ivy looks past the camera for a moment, before turning back.*
"Anyways, this is probably getting on too long. And-", she stops.
A gruff voice can be heard as a door handle is turned, "Ivy, it's 2 AM. Why are you still up?" The side of a tall man can be seen entering the view, in slacks and a stained t-shirt.
"I'm always up this late. Also, have you heard of knocking?", she says, annoyed.
"Oh, err. Sorry. Fine, fine. Just get to sleep soon, okay? You look tired."
She rolls her eyes, "I will. Can you just," she waves her hand in a light-hearted 'get out' gesture.
"Sure, sure. Have a good night, Ivy. Talk to you in the morning." A door shuts in the background.
Ivy stands, approaching the camera. "I should cut that out. If I can figure out how to do that." She doesn't. "As I was saying, getting on too long. I don't know who will ever watch this **but**, hope this first one was a good one." She gives a sarcastic double thumbs up.
"Later."
*The brief image of Ivy reaching out to hit the end recording button. The light fading from the screen. Almost imperceptibly, a pair of red lights shine in this darkness, at the end of a recording. Smiling. A pair of eyes. They blink, and disappear.*

## VIDEO JOURNAL 2: BURNS

**2020, May 24th | S4E78 - When the Smoke Clears, Who Will Remain Standing?**
*Sirens chirp in the background. Firetrucks screech as they rush through the streets. A face, Ivy's, finally shows as the video starts recording. As the rest of her comes into view, she's sitting on the edge of her bed.*
To say she looks bad would be an understatement. Her costume, normally kept in good condition, is marked heavily by burns. A mix of grazed scorches on the edges, along with an overall ashyness along the rest of it. The sleeves are rolled up, gloves off, with white gauze wrapped fully around her hands and forearms.
Her look is one that seems to not be fully in the present. Dark circles lay under her eyes. Even further, inky lines slowly pulse from them, appearing and disappearing. She frowns, moving her jaw as she thinks how to start this.
"You know that recurring dream I've been having?", she questions, before shaking her head and tapping her temple. "Of course they don't, *idiot*. Anyways, the main thing is that the ground is always covered in ash in those dreams. Well, almost everything is covered in ash or burn marks," she explains. "And today I almost caused a lot of damage to Halcyon." She raises her arms, showing off the wrappings. "Luckily, my body heals pretty quickly from my own magic, or else these'd be on for weeks. Itchy though." She frowns as she rubs her forearms against each other.
"**Let's start from the beginning.**"
"So Bolt calls us in, saying there's some sort of call regarding Smoke. You know, uhh, Kenneth Ribaldi." She rubs her eyes, the dark lines in them fading. "The guy I promised that I'd watch his niece and keep her safe," she states, before rolling her eyes and saying, "*Mirror's* old partner. Yeah." She looks up and takes a deep breath, before continuing, "As I said, I'm supposed to be looking after  Samantha, his niece, and so figured this might be important. Our contact was at the hospital, so we all met up there. Shade, Bolt, Whiz, and I."
"We get there, this girl, Hayeli or whatever, stands there doing coin tricks." She picks up a pen and spins it around in her hand, smirking. "She was good, but, " she turns to watch her hand, the pen twirling seamlessly before flicking it up and catching it. She gives the camera a side-eye to finish her sentence.
"So anyways, we go inside, Sam is there for some reason sitting outside our contact's room." She narrows her eyes. "Sam's dad is Smokescreen. Yeah, that supervillain who's been in jail for awhile. And he was here now, getting some operation done." She thinks for a moment, saying, "We had to get Sam out of the way so Whiz decides to get her to go to the hospital cafeteria with him." She gestures with her arms up and a tired expression, "I'm not even gonna get into the **milkshake** stuff."
"So we learn Sam made some kind of deal. Well, specifically a pact, but no one there knows the *right terms*," she sighs. "And she didn't read the fine print, the one that says, 'Your life is forfeit, do not pass go', yeah, yeah. It's a long lasting pact, that's why I hadn't felt it yet even with all the recon I've been doing," she explains, before looking down and whispering, "I should've though."
"This pact involved Kenneth. Sam made it to save his life, asking whatever underworld creature she contacted to do it," she says, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "So Smokescreen wants us to break out Smoke. A little confusing, I know. But after getting into a mess trying to figure out if Samantha has a curse, we figure we have to get going," she finishes, resting her head on her hand before one last remark, "Should've used the water bucket method. For anybody listening, please don't ask people if they are cursed. Basic courtesy."
*She stands up, grabbing some empty vials and a large container of ink from one of her bookshelves. She sets them down in a methodical manner on her bed stand, moving the books, pens, and paper that rest there to other places in her room. She continues talking throughout.*
"We needed a way up to the helicarrier. The others knew of a talking flying car thing," she states, turning to the camera with a puzzled expression, "Weird, I know, but it's Halcyon. The car was called the Baroness. Seemed okay. We end up taking her to the helicarrier. And that's when it all started going wrong."
"So we thought we knew the location of it, but we were a bit off. Which is bad when the helicarrier is *invisible*." She shakes her head, continuing with the moving of supplies, muttering, "So we end up crashing. Right into an AEGIS superjail."
*She sits back down, looking at the camera for a moment, worn out. She starts transferring the ink from the large inkwell into the vials. Not one drop misses, like she's done this hundreds of times.*
"Lasers start firing. Prison airlock is shut so Whiz goes and hacks it. We all rush in, but the doors shut in the middle of it. And Bolt gets locked out," she says, words trailing off at the end. Looking at the camera for a second, she frustratingly whispers, "Should've been *me*."
Glass taps glass, the sound rhythmic, as she continues, "We get inside. It takes a minute, but Shade and Whiz figure out the location of Smoke, so we move." She stops what she is doing and wrings her hands together, looking at them. "Two guards show up. Like a *fool*, I throw two fireballs at them. Of course I'm gonna miss one. Lightning, Ivy. Use it, " she mutters. Furrowing her brow and closing her eyes, she sighs, "Sorry. Whiz covers for me and we're able to take them both down. Then we finally get to Smoke."
*Looking up, she grabs one of the filled vials and holds it between her hands. Her hands start glowing a faint purple, which cascades down her arms, showing slightly through her bandages. She grimaces for a second, but continues, swapping through vials after a minute, until they are all done. Her voice remains calm and talking throughout.*
"Kenneth took a bit of talking to convince him, but once he knew Sam was in danger he was fairly open to the idea. Seeing as we were running out of time, I activated the heat-brands on my glaive and started slicing through the door. With Shade's help, we got it open." She purses her lips, looking up for a moment, eyes also glowing the same as her hands. "But we had to get Bolt, and his communicator wasn't responding. So we ran back to where we came in," she explains, eyes lowering.
"It was *chaos*. The cells started opening. B-Bolt showed up in chains," she stammers, the last vial in her hands, magic pulsing suddenly. "Shade started going at the guards, so I took that moment to free Bolt, who calls Metatron to come pick us up, " she says, placing the final vial on her desk, looking up at the camera. "Whiz blew a hole in the ground with some explosive. Lucky he had that.
"Shade was keeping the guards down but more were coming. And we also had the supervillains coming, the ones just freed, so I raised a barrier," she pauses for a moment, looking to the side, before finishing, "A big one."
*She stands up, grabbing her pouches and transferring the filled vials in and empty ones out. Her back is turned to the camera as she continues, hands shaking slightly and movements stiff. She takes a deep breath.*
"So lasers are firing, and I see Whiz jump down. And then Shade gets hit a few times. And th-then Bolt drops. J-just straight on the floor," she exhales. She's turned completely away from the camera, movements stopped. Steadily, slowly, she continues, "So I decide we need to get rid of these guards and down onto Metatron. So I decided to cast a Fire Whirl, to confuse them. And I still was channeling the barrier." She turns, eyes dark, hands curled into fists. "I broke the first law my mother taught me. You can't cross the elements, or the magic will retreat inside you. Where you can't hold it," she angrily states, eyes closing.
"So now I had all this *fire* inside me. And it wanted out. First the barrier shifted, then my runes burned, then it just," she pauses, falling back on her bed, "exploded." Silent for a few seconds, she then raises her arms, gesturing at the bandages. "Yeah. All my training, and I couldn't even," her voice breaks. She pushes herself to a sitting position, staring at the ground.
"Shade saved us. After getting Bolt down, she helped me onto Metatron and jumped down herself," she continues, voice solemn. "The helicarrier tilted slightly above us, the explosion having broken some systems. Somehow AEGIS stopped it but," she looks up, a tear crawling down her face, "I almost sent it into the bay. Can you imagine the destruction?"
*She stands up, batting at her face for a moment before grabbing the now filled bags and securing them on her outfit. She moves the extra supplies back onto the shelves, her fingers digging into her palms.*
"Bolt told me to forgive myself, but he didn't see what I almost did," she states. "My mother said our powers are for destruction, and it is our own will that changes that. But look at her," she turns, looking at the camera with a deadly glare, a hue of magic expanding in them. "And then Kurt said the whole thing about me. And then today. And that damn dream I keep having!" she almost shouts, grimacing. She takes a deep breath, straightening herself.
"I can't let this happen," she says, eyes returning to normal. She reaches out and grabs her glaive, leaning against a wall. "More training then," she states, moving up to the camera.
"This isn't how I wanted this to go, but I'll fix it later," she says, moving her arm to shut off the recording. Her look is recomposed, determined.
"Later, yeah."
*The display blinks off. For a moment, there is a silhouette of a burning Halcyon, before everything turns dark.*