People you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley

[MacThorstenson]

"Excellent." Mac said cheerfully. "Now don't worry, these spikes are pretty small compared to normal size." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal spike twice the size of a railroad spike. 

"If you could please lie down on your stomach. These spikes are going to go into the underside of your forearm. Each spike on its own doesn't actually have a bind point there, but once we stab you with 5 or more of these spikes the sub-spinal bindpoints shift to your...." He continued rambling on about the science as she lay down on her stomach. 

@ZincAboutIt

Edited March 15, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[old man moomba]

A balding man in a full face mask took notes. 

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita felt her mind go blank the moment she saw the spike, and laid down on her stomach mechanically, feeling the table press into her cheek as Mac continued speaking. The edges of her vision started to fuzz.

Let me faint, please, Lita thought desperately. Did they have some ether around here? At least a drink?

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Sooo should I assume she'll be awake for this or should I have her black out and miss all the blood and screaming fun?

@MacThorstenson

[MacThorstenson]

Mac was incredibly confused about how a man had made it into his office without Mac's permission. Mac warped a solid aluminum box around the man to be dealt with later.

After Lita had lied down, Mac reached into the blood jar and pulled out about 20 thumbtacks. He chuckled to himself as he placed them on Lita's forearms. He shouldn't joke like that, but it was fun. Once each tack was in place, he tapped it in with the large railroad spike. When all that was done he pulled out a few mental stability thumbtacks to keep the weakness from showing.

"There you go." He said. "How does it feel?"

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

26 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

"There you go." He said. "How does it feel?"

@ZincAboutIt

Lita looked at her forearms, feeling relief flood her body, quickly followed by irritation. She stared at Mac flatly; he looked quite smug.

"Much better than I expected," she said archly, looking at the railroad spike in his hands. "Stings a bit but I imagine that's expected."

Now that she thought about it, she did feel a little different. Lita looked at the little metallic dots on her forearms, hoping they worked as Mac had said. "Will they interfere with my brassminds at all? Or my tin?"

[MacThorstenson]

"No, they shouldn't. These don't mess with identity enough to impact your ability to fill metalminds, and your ability to burn metals shouldn't change at all. Now, if there is anything else you would like to know, now is the time to ask it. Otherwise, I will take my leave now." Mac started to clean up the blood and spikes. "I will be in contact when I have a job for you."

@ZincAboutIt

Edited March 15, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[Voidus]

Laurelai shook her head as she watched Mac brandishing the railway spike around. He'd tried to trick her with the same ruse when she'd first started learning to Alleytravel. But she didn't ruin the joke, allowing Mac to eventually reveal the actual spikes that they would be using and completing the relatively painless procedure.

Still, she might be a little overwhelmed after all of that. Might be best to take a bit of a break for a while.

She assisted in cleaning up the room, first wiping the blood off, then spraying the area with disinfectant and wiping down again. The cleanup crew would do a more thorough cleaning at some point but in case the lab was needed urgently it was still best to keep things ready.

"If not, I'll show you where you can sleep for a while, though of course if you have rooms in the city then you're more than welcome to return there."

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita nodded at Laurelai gratefully, gathering up her wrap and rolling down her sleeves. "Some sleep sounds wonderful, actually." She had a flat in the city, but suddenly she wasn't sure if she could get there without falling asleep on her feet. Better to be safe.

She thought about bowing to Mac, then decided on a respectful nod. He was all business, mind already turned toward something else. If she wasn't so tired, she'd have been curious. Now, however, all she wanted to explore were the secrets written on the insides of her eyelids.

Still rather dazed, she walked across the office to where Laurelai stood.

"Lead the way," she said.

@MacThorstenson @Voidus

[MacThorstenson]

"OK." Mac said, returning the nod to Lita. He bagan warping the tables and vials of blood to the cleaning department. Once he was done he turned to the wall, and he looked through the wall into the alleys.

He saw all of them. Every single one.

Even the ones that most people didn't consider alleys, like the alleys in between atoms and molecules. The small alley in between an bed and a nightstand. Every single one. He saw it all and understood it. Then he calmly picked up a fractal alley and moved it infront of him. He took a step forward and into the alley.

All someone watching would have seen was a guy go from existing in 3 dimensions to 1.58 And disappear.

Edited March 15, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[old man moomba]

The balding man stuck his hand into The Abyss That Lies In The Bottom Of The Peanut Butter Jar and accessed the alley there. He folded up into a peanut butter covered knife, which then compressed into a single point of light. The light winked out as the notetaker disappeared.

[MacThorstenson]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Dapper said:

The balding man stuck his hand into The Abyss That Lies In The Bottom Of The Peanut Butter Jar and accessed the alley there. He folded up into a peanut butter covered knife, which then compressed into a single point of light. The light winked out as the notetaker disappeared.

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I'm fine with it in this specific instance, but I would note that the ability to use and access alleys that aren't typically seen as alleys isn't an ability that someone can access without millenia of training. In addition, it's not actually usable outside of the alleys any more for anyone due to sudiov.

It's one of the peak's of alleymatics and gives someone roughly 20000 character points as it puts them on par with Mac.

Typical alleytravel is limited to connecting the alleys to move from spot to spot generally.

I would prefer it if you didn't do stuff like that outside of the alleys.

 

Edited March 15, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[old man moomba]

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:^)

 

[Voidus]

Laurelai approached Lita carefully, ready to support the other woman if needed. Exhaustion and exsanguination did have a tendency to leave one a little faint. She wouldn't be the first to pass out on their first day with the DA.

"Alright, I'll show you to your rooms." Laurelai said.

She led the woman through further Alleys, trying to keep the path simple, until the came out in another of the more traditional Alleys, large red brick walls loomed over the pair on both sides as they appeared, and a number of doors dotted the walls.

"This is near the department of records, I spend a lot of time around here researching and most of the more... interesting experiments happen in different departments so it's usually quiet at least." She explained as she walked further into the Alley, eventually stopping at a nondescript pale blue door. "And here we are."

She cautiously opened the door, peering into the room before entering to ensure there weren't any stray experiments, then gestured Lita to follow her in. Laurelai shut the door behind them and flipped the light switch, illuminating the interior of the somewhat plain room. The floors were a dark, polished wood, the walls a featureless white plasterboard, and a number of corridors led into other rooms.

"Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, personal lab." Laurelai said, briefly pointing to each one in turn. "The lab's only got basic stuff, if you need any charged spikes or anything fancy you'll need to pick it up or head to one of the proper labs. Some of the kitchen's have Soulcasters in them but I'd avoid that and just use the normal food, Soulcasted stuff tastes weird if you haven't tried it before."

She gave a quick rundown of the house's facilities, instinctively lapsing into a somewhat dull monotone as she did so. A bad habit she still held from her days of solo research when she'd relentlessly muttered to herself about everything. Part of her early attempts to create Essence Marks.

"And that's about it." She finished. "I'll let you rest up and see you in a bit, if you need you can try tapping that copper medallion and see if you can pick up Alleycant, the memories should all be there."

Laurelai turned to leave, heading towards one of the corridors to begin Alleytravelling to the records departments, there were a few files on experiments she'd wanted to go through and she reasoned that she might need to pick up a bronzemind if she wanted to be done by the time Lita was up again.

 

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Feel free to stop her if you have any more questions, otherwise she'll be heading out.

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita followed Laurelai as she took them on a fairly straightforward path, winding their way onto an alley of red brick. She tried to memorize the route, but the scenery slipped through her mind like water in a sieve. Her feet felt heavy and her head light - never a good sign.

The rooms behind the pale blue door were sparsely furnished but nicer than her flat in the city. There was an  air of efficient tidiness that gave the place a dormitory feel, like the back rooms of a university. A small portion of her mind that was still awake stirred at the mention of a "department of records," but it was a teaspoon full in an ocean of exhaustion. 

"Thank you," she said to Laurelai, hoping her words didn't sound too slurred. "Is this a place I can rent long-term? It's far nicer than my room in the city. I've got little to pay with now, but I have more back at my flat." 

She wasn't entirely sure how this was going to work, but her father had always told her it was better to offer to pay and be refused, than the other way 'round.

"Oh," she added. "If I do need to leave, do I just...Alleytravel out? Is there a special door?"

A special door? Lita repeated to herself, feeling like an idiot. What is this, fairyland? Laurelai was clearly keen to be about her own business, but Lita did not fancy being stuck down here without knowing a way out - even if she probably wouldn't be leaving for a while. Old habits died hard, and what kind of spy would she be if she didn't double-check her exits? 

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I'll be putting her to sleep after this. If I don't wake her up before Laurelai gets back she can wake her up whenever. 

@Voidus

[Voidus]

"Oh," Lita said "If I do need to leave, do I just...Alleytravel out? Is there a special door?"

Laurelai turned just as she reached the corridor, giving Lita a quick look over and noticing her exhaustion. She looked like she was ready to collapse the moment Laurelai left, probably not the best condition to be trying to Alleytravel in while she was still so inexperienced.

"I'd recommend getting some rest in before you tried it." Laurelai said with a wry smile. "But yes, this area is pretty safe as Alleys go, you should manage fine based on how you did before. Take care, I'll see you soon."

With that she gave a small wave as she turned around once more, her dress twirling around as she took one final step into the corridor and vanished, Alleytravelling to the department of records.

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita awoke abruptly and immediately began burning tin. The light stinging on her forearms became an uncomfortable throbbing, and she was suddenly aware of the feeling of her clothes on her skin, the slight crick in her neck, and a small draft moving through the room. Her memories of staggering in and collapsing on the bed were fuzzy at best, though she was glad she'd had the foresight to kick her shoes off before passing out. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, pleasantly surprised at the warm water flowing from the spigots. A short time later, she was clean and fully awake, tapping a rather luxurious amount of brass to help her dry off faster. 

She was loathe to put her old clothes back on, bloodstained and musty as they were, and a quick search through the closet in the little bedroom yielded a rather nondescript set of shirt and trousers. They fit well enough, and Lita tried not to think too hard about who they had belonged to, once. She tugged her shoes back on, then crossed back into the main room and opened the door. The alley outside was quiet, but something had woken her - she was sure of it. Lita flared her tin higher, closing her eyes to help focus all her attention on her hearing. She tuned out her own breath and heartbeat, listening hard. It was almost like she could sense people coming or going... somewhere, a great number of them. Something had happened, or was happening. Lita pulled her head back into the set of rooms and shut the door, sitting down at the kitchen table and extinguishing her tin. She sighed, then looked at the copper medallion still tied onto her left arm. That foolish, reckless part of her wanted to go exploring, but she'd seen enough to warrant a little more caution. Laurelai would be back eventually, and it would look good if Lita managed to pick up some Alleycant before her return. 

She made herself some tea in the kitchen, went and fished the spanreed pen out of her rumpled skirt pocket, then sat back down at the table and started tapping the memories stored inside the medallion. The pen lay unused on the table - the last thing Lita wanted was to accidentally send a slew of nonsense messages into the world. Instead, she used her teaspoon, twirling it through the air between her fingers. She thought of the nonchalant ease with which Laurelai had moved the pen, and attempted to mimic the motions. After the third time dropping the spoon into her tea and expanding the boundaries of her cursing vocabulary, Lita decided to concentrate on the basics and get the flourishes in later.

[Fatebreaker]

A shadow passed down the Alleyway, then stopped at the blue door. It cocked it's head as if to listen to something, though someone walking past wouldn't have heard anything. Then it passed through the door into the room. It took in the furnishings, the light, then turned it's attention to the room's occupant. it was a girl, trying to twirl a spoon between her fingers. It watched her with curiosity, then amusement as her efforts bore poor results. As she began her tenth attempt it spoke,

"Try holding the spoon closer to the center, that way the weight is more evenly distributed."

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita shrieked and dropped the spoon for the tenth time; it landed back in her cup of tea with a sad 'plop'. A shadow hung in the air in the middle of the room before the door.

How did I miss that coming in here? she thought, slowly rising from the chair and trying to get a solid look at it. The shadow was still, and didn't seem malevolent. As her heart thundered in her ears, she replayed its words to her. She reached into her cup of tea, swearing under her breath as her hand got all wet - again - and pulled out the teaspoon. Lita held it in the center and tried twirling it again, feeling like a fool for taking advice from a shadow that had just phased through her door. 

Of course, the spoon spun beautifully between her fingers. A drop of tea flew off the end of the handle and landed on the tip of her nose, as if to further hammer home the absurdity of it all.

"Thanks," Lita said to the shadow. Having never spoken to a shadow before, Lita was utterly unsure of whether or not she was committing any social errors. "I suppose asking how you got in here would be stupid, wouldn't it?"

@Fatebreaker

 

[Fatebreaker]

The shadow chuckled, "No, that wouldn't be unreasonable. As I posses no physical form, doors are more of a formality for me, one I often forget that others observe rather religiously. Allow me to set you at ease."

The shadow shimmered and became a man, or at least an image of one. His skin was a rich brown, his hair a tangle of black curls, and his grey lab coat was torn and mended in several places. but what stood out most was his eyes. One was black, so black you couldn't distinguish the pupil from the iris., and the other was actually a gleaming metallic spike. His mouth was set in a grin that made the observer feel uneasy, both humorous and slightly predatory. He nodded towards her.

"I, am The Stranger. Or rather, I am a piece of a reflection of him. It's rather complicated." 

The image flickered briefly and he frowned, then tapped his head with two fingers. That seem to sort things as his form stabalized, though close inspection would reveal it was still not physically there. 

"You're new, if I'm not mistaken. I don't suppose that you know who I am?"

[MacThorstenson]

5 minutes ago, Fatebreaker said:

"I, am The Stranger. Or rather, I am a piece of a reflection of him. It's rather complicated." 

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OH MY GOSH HE'S BACK.

We need a party.

We always need a party.

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita took an involuntary half-step backwards as the shadow resolved in the form of a man in a tattered grey lab coat. She felt all the hair on her body stand on end at the sight of his eyes. The silvery spike was unnerving, but his other eye was what made Lita shiver. He smiled at her with a sort of feral amusement, as though she were a particularly entertaining canary, and he a very patient cat.

"You're new, if I'm not mistaken," the Stranger said. "I don't suppose that you know who I am?"

Only very important people asked that question. She swallowed and set down the teaspoon. "Very new, sir," Lita said, putting on her best polite, attentive smile. "I'm afraid I haven't had much time to learn about the DA's history yet. I've only just joined the department of Counter Intelligence."

@Fatebreaker

[Fatebreaker]

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You're too kind, Mac 

The Stranger's Shade nodded as if her words were an expected confirmation.

"I thought not. My Originator has been, absent for a while now. I am doing my best to keep up with the goings on, so that I can catch him up once he returns. If he returns." He floated over to the table and took a seat. "I am the second oldest Denizen of the Alley, the head of the Research & Development Department. And the Marketing Department, can't forget that. I am one of the original Denizens, and I helped Voidus forge the Alleys into what they are today. I have furthered the cause of Science and helped to shape the way Hemalurgy is viewed. I have taken untold thousands of people into my labs and created more Hemalurgic constructs than anyone in the Alleyverse has even dreamed of."

His gaze practically glowed with the intensity of his words, and the room seemed to grow darker as he spoke. Shadows twisted on the walls and whispers seem to float through the air. Then smell of freshly baked cookies wafted through the room, and he smiled warmly, though even that just felt marginally off. "And I love getting to know the new Denizens." He held out his hand an a chocolate chip chip cookie seemed to form from thin air. "Cookie? Don't worry, it's safe."

"Counter Intelligence eh? One of the Newer departments if my memory serves. Run by Mac? Good fellow, knows his stuff. We could do with a few more like him. Driven, ambitious, hungry for knowledge." His eye met hers and almost seemed to deepen in an indefinable way.

"What about you, acolyte of the Alleys? What are you Hungry for?"

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita listened to the Stranger's Shade speak and felt the room darken at the edges, new sounds and scents moving through the air, spirals of shadow curling up the walls and across the floor. Fear traced an icy finger down her spine, but excitement raced right alongside it, bright and hot. Here was power, true power, old and strange and unfathomable. She hesitantly sat back in her seat at the table opposite the man, hoping that she wasn't being too informal. He met her green eyes with his one black one, and she felt like she was looking into a well drilled straight through the core of the earth.

Lita reached out and picked up the cup of tea, drinking automatically. It was lukewarm and tasted a bit metallic after so much contact with the teaspoon. What was she hungry for?

"Secrets," she said quietly, almost without thinking. Lita recalled her conversation with Mac and Laurelai at the tavern. If you know the world's secret, you can do whatever you want. The chance to peer behind the curtain, to see the other side of the coin. She smiled, the corner of her mouth curling upward with a slight wickedness. "Real secrets. The kind of secrets the world keeps from us."

@Fatebreaker

[Fatebreaker]

 

The Stranger's Shade threw back it's head and laughed.

"Excellent. You'll do well here, mark my words." He held up his other hand and a coin appeared between his fingers, the face showing a globe. He rolled it back and forth across them with dexterous ease. "That is what Science is about, learning the secrets of the universe itself. Knowing what is unknown. We learn the secrets of matter and time, and the secrets of mortals become but paltry things. Once you taste the ambrosia of Truth, real Truth, it is impossible to go back. Hemalurgy is the tool with which you can crack open the world and drink the secrets inside. Secrets are a heady thing indeed."

He stopped and flicked the coin into the air. It spun rapidly, reflecting the light as he caught it once more. The other side of the coin was engraved with a skull, a spike going through the left eye socket. "But there is always a price, whether you know you must pay it or not. Nothing drives that concept home more than Hemalurgy, making it once again the perfect science. Anything is attainable, but it always has a price. Always."

His form flickered between different versions of himself, some muttering indistinctly, some cackling maniacally, one with blood seeping from an empty eye socket. The shadows in the room grew darker and the whispers grew louder. This was that feeling of the Void, the cold abyss. It loomed as the small room seemed to fade away. There was everything and nothing in that Void. It seemed to swallow the universe itself.

And then the room was back, everything was calm, and the Stranger's Shade was sitting in the chair. The coin's face showed a radient sun.

"But if you are willing to press on, the Light of Science will be your guide." The room began to glow with a golden light, as glowing words began to write themselves on every available surface. Formulae in strange languages, descriptions of people and the workings of their minds, the secrets to life itself. Then they vanished as well, and theroom was quiet once again.

And the Stranger's Shade was standing right in front of Lita, his expression one of curiosity, as if she were an experiment he was waiting to see the results of. He held out the coin, and this time it's face showed a scale, perfectly balanced. 

"These are the Alleys, Lita. Are you willing to pursue this path, and the secrets that await you?"

[+ZincAboutIt]

Lita's breath caught, and she stared up at the Stranger's Shade standing before her. They were both standing. Hadn't they just been sitting at the table? She looked at the coin in his hand, face stamped with the image of a scale. Balance. There was a price to be paid, always a price. Lita knew it, she'd always known it. She had known where this would go the moment she'd followed Laurelai out of the tavern.

No, a voice whispered inside her mind. You knew long before then. 

It was right, of course. Actions had their consequences. She recalled the damp chill of Forian's dead flesh, the way he'd clawed at his own throat as the poison burned through him. Her father was lost to her now, a world away, and no going back. Everyone in Elendel thought she was dead. That was the price for a new life. Lita Attare had died that night in the soothing partner right alongside Forian Tekiel. The woman who traveled to the Alleycity had been someone else. If Lita went through with this, she would never be the same. She was already changing, even as she stood there in the little room. Slowly and by degrees, she would lose this version of herself as well. Someone else would take her place, another Lita, smarter and stranger. Was she willing to take that chance? What else was she willing to lose? What was she ready to gain?

Lita looked into the Stranger's Shade's one black eye. It was deep and magnetic, like a piece of sky with no stars. She was reminded of that feeling of the Void, that vastness of nothing and everything. His spike glinted in the other socket, round and bright like a gibbous moon. Was she ready? Was she willing?

"Yes," she whispered, blood pounding in her ears. "Yes I am."

She took the coin.

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Last post of the evening!