Central City

Aaron was doing what he usually does outside of costume. Screwing with people. It was one of his favourite past times, and actually the only past time Aaron enjoyed that wasn't illegal, or weren't legal for him to do yet, of course he had to moderate and not take things too out of control. Which of course in the end usually does with a prank or a trick getting a bit out of control, but he does this for a hobby so why not have a little fun with it.

Aaron had set up a trap that could only go off one time and it was going to be glorious. He had a hidden video camera recorded and everything and was going to post it to youtube. He was sitting across the street from the porta-potty on a bench, wearing jeans, a teal t-shirt and the onomatopoeia of BANG on it like it came directly from a comic book on the front and a pair of black trainers. He was reading a tabloid about a relationship brewing between Virgina Stark and Captain America and "Green Lantern and Flash: Best Bromance over?". Of course usually these tabloids were nothing but lies or rumours, but Aaron loved reading these things. He read every page with a huge grin on his face until he saw someone about to enter the porta-potty and put down the tabloid and watched the man.

As soon as the man entered a mechanism was activated and three cream pies flicked upwards. One hit him right in the groin, another in the chest and the last hit him in the face. Aaron started laughing out loud as he saw the cream covered man exit the porta-potty. The man stormed off in anger and possibly embarrassment. Aaron quickly crossed the street and entered the porta potty to pick up the hidden camera which is not really hidden seeing as it was just duct taped to the wall and was a rather sizeable, about 7 inches long and 4 inches high, hand held. He peeled it off the wall and watched the footage of the prank, fast forwarding a few minutes, and started crossing the street to sit back down, but someone was sitting in his seat.

" Hey buddy boy, scooch over. Thats my spot. See that magazine thats proof that I was sitting here before you. Now move!" He said angrily. He hated when people took his spot. Usually it was a speedster catching him in the act, but not this time. This time it was a just a hipster and he didn't look very tough at all. If he didn't move at least he could a good right hook to the jaw.

(OOC: I realise it starts in Central City, but they're moving to New York soon) @lokijr

Leif had heard of this “trickster” in Central city a good few weeks ago. Or rather, his bird had found out and told him. From what he had heard, the kid was more of a Practical Joker than a trickster. Nothing about him seemed a trick. He had watched enough news feeds to know; the kid probably didn’t have the brain cells to know what a trick was, judging by how stupid he seemed to be on occasion.

He had been postponing this little visit for a while. It had felt necessary from the off to give this little wannabe a lesson or two. After all, he was a tutor, so it was in his job description. But he had had work to do, Ph.D. papers to work through and a lot of people to trick first. So he had waited quite some while before finally coming to find the kid. He had had some vague notion that maybe his style would have developed over this time, but apparently not.

Leif had pretended to be another innocent part of the crowd as he arrived; as he was he could probably pass for a worker at a more relaxed office job, annoyingly goofy jumper and all. He had taken the full day out- Saturdays really were a blessing- and had teleported, magically of course, to Central City in the early morning. Looking for the Trickster had taken a while longer, but he had managed it, and had been observing- subtly- since he had set up his “trick”. How no-one had noticed was beyond him. The kid was clearly dressed to absorb attention from all sides.

It was clear that he would have to present his views to the child as soon as possible. This was a laughable prank- and not for the right reasons. He took the spot on the Trickster’s bench without any hesitation, picking up the paper and- well, even he couldn’t pretend that reading it didn’t hurt instantly upon looking at it. His lie detection started tingling like crazy- practically crackling, and he instantly started rubbing along the tingles. He would just have to pretend he was reading.

Of course, he hadn’t been planning on actually reading- he hadn’t even been planning on having anything here at all- he just watched the Trickster inconspicuously from over the pages. Leif barely batted an eyelid as the little prank went off. That was tame by any count; and of course, he had seen it being set up. That was rather aside the point. His eyes flitted down quickly as he started to head over.

Aatsuk was nearby, pretending to be a regular jackdaw. Apparently she did not find this very entertaining, judging by the mental messages she kept shooting across. He had only had one so far which was not a complaint- and that had been about not having to pretend and remain this bored for longer.

Leif didn’t respond for a full few seconds after the Trickster’s exclamation, and then he just sighed. He lowered the paper, tossed it gently sideways to land next to him, and looked up. ”No, it’s proof that you read tabloids.” Leif shifted slightly in his seat, looking the kid up and down as if trying to work out what to make of him. His expression broke into a smile, and he held out his left hand as if to shake- of course anticipating some sort of stupid buzzer trick- it seemed around the right level of maturity. ”Jo Willis.”

And that would be the cue before the boy would probably punch him in the face. In all honesty, he would likely do the same, but a bit more magic and much more finesse. If what he had gleaned about this kid was correct, he certainly would try an attack then. ”I believe the magazine was there when I picked it up. So that would be your seat.”
Spoken so surely and in such a helpful tone, too.

Aaron really wanted to punch this guy in the face. Someone paid good money to buy that magazine only to have it stolen from right under there nose and right know this... Stranger... threw the tabloid. Gently! Why? It was a piece of trash plus Aaron stole it. Why do people have to be so nice?

He returned the handshake using his robotic hand expecting to be able to crush the mans hand, he was trying so hard you were able to hear the mechanisms in the arm trying their hardest to crush his hand, but dam did this guy have a really tough grip and if he had to guess it sounded like it was his hand that was getting crushed. "Huh. Quite the grip you got there. The names Jack. Jack Mehoff." he said giving a false name, and seeing the name he gave 'Jo Willis' he wasn't going to give his true name either.

Aaron sat next to 'Jo' and picked up the tabloid and continued reading it and laughing at it.

"These stories are completely ridiculous. I mean look at this. 'Captain America, Hawkeye and Iron Maiden: Love Triangle in the Avengers?' this is gotcha journalism and I really love gotcha journalism." he said giggling and continuing to read, and followed the code he usually did with normal people. If you ignore it, it will go away.

(OOC: Sorry for it being short, but I didn't know how to continue the post)

Leif had thought that maybe the kid had bought the paper, that maybe he was idiot enough to think it truthful- and judging by what passed for a prank with him, that seemed a reasonable assumption. By that expression, Leif felt maybe his conclusion was a little off. Well, he had at least annoyed him slightly; always good for easy entertainment.

Leif pulled an innocent expression as he returned the youth’s grip. He only pushed down a very little harder than the kid did in return. He had learned long ago to never use his full strength against someone unless you actually wanted a fist-fight- Leif never wanted a fist-fight. He only had to put in a minute fraction of his strength to prove he was stronger. He’d been hoping to get the guy to shake with his left too, in response, but apparently that didn’t work. What sort of research would it have been if he hadn’t worked out about that right arm?

”That’s a lie.” He paused a little, only a very little. He leaned back against the bench, turning his eyes away from the kid, and straight ahead. ”Which my alias was not.” Strictly speaking, that was true. Just because he’d used one of his middle names and his mother’s name instead of his first name and patronymic, that didn’t make it a lie. It did make it a less effective alias, but only marginally. Who would be able to track him down from that?

”You’re right they’re ridiculous, and I’d have thought more T’S- Thorson included there and Stark removed.” Actually, that was quite the entertaining thought. That little “slip” was, of course, deliberate. Naturally, he acted as if it wasn’t. ”I rather detest it. No actual lies, but you can just tell at the end when you’re finished that it’s all wrong, and it’s full of mistakes.”

He sighed lightly. ”It’s almost painful to read through all the lies.” Not to mention that it was painful to see lying performed that awfully.

”Wow, what brilliant lying, let’s tell every kid on the street that you detect their lies, great plan. Better yet, let’s tell him we know your cousin’s name and gallivant around pointing out our half-truths. Wonderful strategy, I think it has to truly be said.” Aatsuk had taken the opportunity to walk around to the front of the bench, choosing a position clearly within their line of sight, although still several metres away. It wasn’t like he was going to be keeping his lineage a secret for too much longer, anyway.

Really, Aaron should have had enough information by now to know he wasn’t “normal”. Anyone who knew Leif would also know that Aaron’s tactic was sure to fail. He allowed the “Trickster” his silence for another half minute after Aatsuk’s message. ”I presume you’re not limited to just rigging port-a-loos to fire pies at people.” He turned his eyes back to Aaron, and brushed some of his longer hair back off of his face with one hand. ”That’s middle-school level- and I’m ranking you up for having the know-how to make the mechanisms- and it would make you a rather low-level trickster if it was your highest level of skill.”



(OoC: T’is fine. Leif muse always manages to find something to extend posts out with.)

This guy was good. He knew he was lying about his alias, but then again Jack Mehoff was a terrible alias. By just saying it out loud kinda gave it away. it was more an alias that looked better written on an ID card then saying it out loud and that made him hate this guy even more, and seeing as Aaron was bad at making aliases that wasn't a joke one way another, but hey maybe the guy knew who he was by saying his name and intimidate him. Maybe. The Trickster wasn't that famous out of Keystone of Central City and if they did few knew his name, or card to remember, his name. "The names Aaron Walker. Jojo."

Aaron was surprised by how much Avenger gossip he knew, and none of it seemed was from tabloids. Which raised the question. 'How does he know so much?' Plus he was making less sense by the minute. How does he know what the tabloids are saying is all wrong? Because sometimes, even though it happens very rarely, they are right in some way or another and apparently the lies hurt the guy. This guy is 50 shades of wacko with a severe OCD problem if lying could really hurt him.

Then he did something no one in there right mind would do say to Aaron. He insulted his skill at pulling pranks and tricks and the last man who did that was still in the hospital due to a blow to the head that shattered his skull. They still had to get some splinters out of his brain and he wouldn't quite be the same ever again. Oh if Aaron had his baseball bat he'd be swinging it like it was nobody's business. That prank wasn't middle school level. This wasn't a normal mundane middle school prank, no normal middle schooler would be able to do what he just did. Not even a high schooler could this. This was a college level prank.

"I find that insulting. I can do much, much more. It's difficult of course. The resources to stage these pranks take a lot and I'm not able to get the stuff, and I'm insulted that you would even insinuate that this was my highest level of skill. With the right equipment and enough time, I can do far better Mojo Jojo" Aaron said meeting the gaze of Jo with a fiery passion in his eyes. He wanted to prove this guy wrong, he was going to prove this guy wrong.

"I can bet you that I can out trick you and hold the title of the Trickster." He said taunting his skills and boasted about what he could do.

"You won't be able to beat me Mojo Jojo, I'm called the trickster for a very good reason." He said standing up and smiling at him.

”Thank you for the truth, Walker. I think in future you should refrain from innuendoes; they both prove your age and that you’re lying. Apart from that, your delivery was astonishing. You could definitely be a professional actor when you’re older.”

The kid certainly seemed to want to know about the information he’d hinted at, judging by his expression. “50 shades of wacko” would be a more apt description of some of Leif’s father’s earlier plans than his youngest child, but how on Earth could the kid just leap straight to him being able to detect lies? He couldn’t.

Of course that insult on his pranking had been a mild lie. The actual mechanism was fairly impressive- not impressive as it would have been if it were magical- but the prank idea was middle-school level, at best.

”Tell me what you want and I can get it for you. And I should hope you can do more. Although you might need a little training given by your current state.” He gestured vaguely to the porta-potty. He ignored the comment on the insults; until he actually proved his worth with a clever scheme he would get no apology.

”Ah, hilarious. I so want to be called Jojo.” Leif crossed his legs over with the raised knee wide to the side, then stretched his arms back behind his head briefly. ”And you decide to add a “Mojo” in there without me having shown you anything.” He brought his arms back down again, and twisted around so that his whole torso was pointing towards Aaron. ”Although I guess you could call my skill in picking out lies nigh-on magical.”

Leif smirked just a little bit at that penultimate comment. ”You know, real tricksters tend to keep who they are hidden, or at the very least, don’t just blurt it out at the slightest cue. I think I’ve already won your challenge just by merit of that. But in case I haven’t…” Leif got up somewhat leisurely from the bench, muttered something very quietly- almost certainly too quietly for the boy to hear, unless he had more keen ears than the average person by a wide margin, and then pulled a small sheet of paper and a pen that he had just magically summoned from his trouser pant pocket. He brought the paper up, cupping it in his right hand in order to get the support to write on it.

He finished the note off with a little flourish of his left hand. ”The pen’s mightier than the sword… or rather, pie.” He moved the pen back to his pocket, and started a walk from his end of the bench. ”I think you should get on with your fantasy stories. I’ll be back in five minutes.” He said, looking slightly over his shoulder. With a deep breath, he forced himself to pull the most quietly mournful face he could, and went off, walking four doors down the street, and turning the corner into the first shop on the street there, holding up his little piece of paper to people and just saying “hello” in a forlorn voice. With each there was a brief exchange, although he was careful not to speak loudly enough to be over-heard by Aaron, and to finish with a “thank you so very much” to each of them, no matter how much money he got. Hopefully the kid wouldn’t be following.

He slipped into the shop; a medium to large sized bookshop with a steady dribble of customers.

Four and a half minutes after starting, he moved out of the shop, and walked back to where Aaron had been and hopefully still was. He reached one hand into his pocket and removed a few folded notes and a decent number of coins, and dropped them on the bench where he had been sitting. ”I hate to be using tricks just to earn money, but it’s a good, objective measurement. You can count that up and keep it if you’d like.” As if he hadn’t kept some of it for himself. He tossed the piece of paper down last. ”So easy a one-armed infant could pull it off.” Well, they’d probably do it better, as long as the note was modified to fit.

If Aaron happened to read it, it would say:

[/i][/font][/ul]Leif shifted the money over a little to allow him to take his seat on the end. ”So what resources do you need?” He wasn’t planning to keep this on money for long even if he was going to be keeping this up- but he could earn some favour from the kid by competing over money for a while, and that would of course allow him to get more daring. ”Alternately, you could try tricking me.” He genuinely wanted to see what pathetic excuse for a trick this child would come up with to use against him.

Aaron had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Maybe in his own definition of being the Trickster meant not blurting out your identity at the drop of a hat, but literally everybody in Central City knew that Aaron Walker was the Trickster, since he was the guy terrorising most people in this city. So there really was no point in hiding it anymore. "By merit I would be a lot of things Mojo Jojo." Aaron said smugly "But I know that I definitely am a better trickster then you Mojo Jojo." Aaron said with a laugh

Aaron just watched him write something down and left to go somewhere. Aaron wasn't going to just sit here and wait. Aaron was going to con a conman

It wasn't too hard to find someone setting up a scam and now it was just time to scam the scammer, and it was the easiest one to notice. The con man was doing the Three-card Monte. It wasn't hard to join the game, it looked like they had already gotten two guys of all their money, now it was time for Aaron to get rid of this guys money. It was easy Aaron first threw down 5 dollars, then 10, then he did something that almost no self respecting Con man could ignore. He threw down a 100 dollars. enough to entice the man into making Aaron lose, but Aaron was counting on it. The man grew a very slight smirk on his face before moving the cards around again, but that was where the trick was going to be. The queen wasn't going to be anywhere, or so thats what the guy thought. The good thing about being a con artists is that you always have the scams ready as well so having a red queen card on your person really helped a lot. Now he just had to make a distraction to lay down the card.

"I... I... I... ACHOO!" Aaron said doing a convincing fake sneeze that gave him the oppurtinity as he balanced himself on the table and was able to switch the most left card with his own queen. "Sorry, god dam hay fever." He said adding another sniff at the end to be convincing. "The left one." he said pointing at it Which made the conman laugh.

"Sorry pal, but..." the Con Man himself looked surprised when it was a queen.

"Hot Diggity Daffodils!" He said picking up the money and walking away 'suckers' walking back to where Jojo was sitting.

He laughed when he saw the measly amount of money Jojo made, and even at his little insult to him that whatever con Jojo did even Aaron could do, also he called him and one armed infant. "I've made much, much more money then you in the same span of 5 minutes Jojo. Better step up your game."

Aaron thought for a moment about what he would need. He would need a lot for the things for the things he had planned, but he knew this would never work if he was in a city where before he was able to do any of his big scale pranks that he'd be stopped by a speedster. So he needed a change of scenery. "Well a change of scenery would really help seeing as a speedster always stops me before I can do anything, plus he can read my actions like a book. How about somewhere new. Like Star City or New York City. Then we can start talking about what I really need." Aaron said finishing it with a scoff when Jojo said to try and trick him. There was one thing about tricking tricksters he realised, it was hard. Tricksters by trade new all the secrets meaning this guy new everything that he knew. "I'm not stupid Jojo, You and I know all the tricks in the book. It'd be hard for both of us to trick each other." Aaron said not wanting to do any tricks against Jojo, just yet because he was expecting it, better to do it later.

Leif generally did a good job at hiding his identity- either by acting as the innocent bystander to manipulate and thus being beyond suspicion himself, only being present for a very short time, or by abusing his powers to hide his identity. He had not, he knew, however hidden himself fully from the Avengers and SHIELD thanks to his cousin’s position- which made it all the more important that his civilian identity was hidden. ”Now that would be a lie. You have no real evidence.” Leif was getting sick of the child’s nickname. He had expected one, but nonetheless it was an awful name to be given. ”I think now might be a good time to inform you that strictly speaking Jo is a mispronounced abbreviation. Strictly it should be “Yo” and “Mojo Yoyo” just sounds moronic.”

Leif got back in time to just watch Aaron’s return. ”What makes you think I wasn’t going easy on you?” Leif pulled out the rest of the money from his pocket, quadrupling the total in one go. ”I already told you that I don’t tend to use tricks to earn money.” Well, why would you when you could just use magic to conjure up the money you wanted?

”I believe I could trick you. Maybe not on a con, but just on the level of simple deception, or getting up to the far more entertaining levels, I’m sure that I could.” Leif split the money more evenly and took back his half before tossing the rest in one movement towards Aaron. He stood up leisurely, took a small step over and reached to grab the kid’s hand. ”I recommend you hold on tight. The first time can be dis-orienting.” A knife materialised in his other hand as he said that, and he tossed the blade over. Bringing it down, it seemed to cut through the air as though it were a solid object, leaving a small band of pale green light in mid-air tracing its path.

Leif could practically hear Aatsuk rolling her eyes at this as she sent her psychic message. ”Oh yes, let’s be theatrical, that’s going to be so helpful in the long run.”

”Given that the Ungbarna will have to see some of my powers eventually, somehow I don’t see the issue.”

Leif drew the blade-wielding hand down quickly, extending the lit area. Although it was still quite a small band, given the light was purely illusionary it wasn’t a massive issue. He allowed the knife to vanish-again that had been an illusionary replica of one of his own blades. He held up the arm for the bird, which she landed on, after one of the most obviously reluctant pauses possible. ”I believe familiars are a must-have.”

Leif made sure that the kid was holding his hand before he said his spell: ”Annar Staðir!” He took a step forwards into the patch of light that still hung in mid-air. Well, it was more like a step sideways into a non-physical location. Apparently Midgardian physiologies didn’t take kindly to that. Mostly it would appear to be just a thick white haze, although someone with good observance would notice the occasional hints of colour through it, almost like hints of the bifrost reflecting through. Everything else was just a blankness in the senses, except the occasional hints of a light breeze playing with fingers of mist. Leif started walking slowly forwards, and after about a half-dozen steps paused very slightly.

And then he stepped through, bringing them out onto the top of a tall building in Manhattan. They were about a metre away from the edge. Luckily there was a railing, but it was still only stomach-height with an awfully long fall below. Leif let go of the kid’s hand and looked around the space in front of them. ”Directly in front of us is Bryant park. And at the end, in that Venetian style building, is the New York Public Library. And I believe…” Leif leaned forwards against the railing and twisted to look South, almost directly. ”That would be the Empire State Building on our right. I guess that any tourist to New York would want to see that fairly early on, but it’s not worth the crowds to get closer.”

Aatsuk took the opportunity to hop off straight onto the railing, as Leif turned to look at the façade above them on the building. It was a bold blue-green colour with “Metlife” written in huge white letters. ”I’m thinking another metre forwards and we’d have required their services; and that I’m surprised that there are any insurance companies left in New York which aren’t completely bankrupt by now.” He turned just his head to look at Aaron. ”So, what do you really need?”