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34 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"Win or lose I think we're still on the right side." She replied cautiously.

Her gaze drifted over to the three leaders of the DA who had begun talking amongst themselves.

"I couldn't even imagine trying to be on a side fighting against them."

"You're telling me," Lita muttered. She looked over at the three leaders, heads bent toward one another, speaking in low, serious tones. 

I wonder... an insane portion of Lita's mind whispered. Almost unconsciously, Lita flared her tin, shutting her eyes to slits as the dim light of the Alley grew almost too bright. Voidus's voice filtered through the hum of low conversation that had filled the Alley, as clear as if he stood right next to her ear.

"... be convenient to get rid of all of them together," he said, then paused for a moment before continuing. "Plasma Core?" 

I knew it, Lita thought, a tiny smile quirking the corners of her mouth. knew it.

"We sent some Denizens there didn't we? A party of some kind. One was a new recruit, someone who'd had a rather interesting visitor the night before?" 

Lita felt all the color drain from her face. Oh rust. Oh hell. That was her. Typical. Just her luck, really, that she'd eavesdrop just in time to hear them mention her.

Act normal, she thought, panicking. Lita looked up and over across the crowd, face arranged into her most carefully curious expression. You are a spy, not some wilting flower. Act like it. Maybe they wouldn't call her over - perhaps her brief to Mac had been good enough. She'd been thorough, perfectly thorough. She couldn't possibly tell anymore, really. Maybe they'd call Okame, or Laurelai? Laurelai was clever, clever than her by half, actually. They didn't need her report, not all three at one time. She caught her eyelid twitching and forced herself to take a quiet, calming breath.

Lita looked down at the coin in her hand, as cool and blank as she pretended to be, then slid it into her pocket and pulled her tin back to its typical low burn. Voidus's voice faded back into the low rumble of conversation, indistinguishable. She chewed her lip.

"After this is all done," she said to Laurelai, "I am going to need an entire Alley's worth of port."

Edited by ZincAboutIt
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Their conversation lapsed for a moment, Laurelai spent a few seconds to come back down, eventually settling back into her usual comfortable aloofness. Her back stood straight, her pupils dilated back to a normal size instead of the fearful pinpricks they had been earlier. She could do this.

She looked over at Lita only to see the other woman appearing to squint at something farther away, an unusual reaction given the lighting but then again Lita was a tineye, she could probably see fine here. Laurelai envied her that a little, her own abilities let her navigate through social situations with ease and could get her in or out of almost anywhere but being able to see and hear further than anyone else assumed was an incredible advantage for someone who wanted to gather information.

Lita's mouth quirked into a small smile, it seemed that she'd managed to see or hear whatever she was looking for. Curious, Laurelai tried to follow her line of sight, seeing who she might be watching, only to pale when she saw who lay at the end of that line.

There's no way. She thought, frantically glancing back at Lita just as her expression suddenly froze like a deer in headlights.

After a few more moments Lita seemed to snap back out, becoming aware of her more immediate surroundings instead of the distant ones.

"After this is all done," she said to Laurelai, "I am going to need an entire Alley's worth of port."

Laurelai still held an arched eyebrow towards the woman, unsure whether to be impressed or horrified.

"If you just did what I think you did then I'm inclined to agree." Laurelai said, a few notes of disbelief in her voice. "But I'll buy the first round to get us started."

She smiled at the new recruit to the DA, she'd come far in such a short time, taking some heavy risks along the way but so far they seemed to have payed off. For now Laurelai simply smiled in appreciation and looked forward to when they could celebrate together again, it had been wonderful port after all.

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9 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"If you just did what I think you did then I'm inclined to agree." Laurelai said, a few notes of disbelief in her voice. "But I'll buy the first round to get us started."

She knows, Lita thought, but she simply smiled back. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," she said lightly. "But if I were to know what you were talking about, let us assume, perhaps, that the recent overwhelming scale of the day has momentarily caused a few impressionable Denizens to have leave of their senses. After all, some of us are still mere mortals."

Laurelai was eyeing her with a look that was part bafflement, part appreciation. Lita felt a tiny moment of triumph. Never thought I'd be able to ruffle her. 

"I'll be sure to quote you on that last bit, by the way," Lita said, grinning in earnest now. If you can manage to keep yourself from getting disintegrated, that is, the little voice whispered. 

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Mac saw Voidus' face soften, "Sorry about that" he muttered.

"It's alright," He replied, "That strain was partially failed anyway, That reminds me, Mr. Stranger, if possible could we discuss a research project I have been working on these last couple of years? It involves permanently anchoring the sDNA from the spike into the spirit web of the participant."

"That's about it." Voidus continued. "My own fault ultimately, should have just blasted that damnation barrier apart years before and just recaptured the Guardian."

Mac confused replies "I seem to be the whole affair being my fault as I didn't release you ASAP." He flashed back to those moments when Voidus first got out and he realized his mistake. He stumbled, and used his cane to support himself. That failure, that specific moment was the one thing that would haunt him. He still gets weak from thinking about it.

1 hour ago, Voidus said:

"PlasmaCore." He confirmed. "Either that or someone else is using them as a patsy or a front. But either way that's where it is, we destroy them and the problem is solved. We can find whoever may be behind it once the immediate problem is dealt with. Mac, have you been briefed by the ones we sent to the party?"

"Yes, though the thought has occured to me that maybe launching a single overwhelming attack is not the best plan. If we destroy them then we lose the trail." He looked uncomfortable. "I think this actually the first time I have advised caution instead of immediate overwhelming force and utter destruction. But what I fear is a full attack and then the parent organization still knows how to do this, but we have no idea who they are or what their purpose is. I would suggest high level infiltration, but they are really paranoid about spies. The security there is insane. I can actually call up Lita and have her describe the situation if you guys want?"

@Fatebreaker @Voidus

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The Stranger nodded as he listened to Mac and Voidus. Sentient power divestments were rare, but they weren’t unheard of. He had one of his own, his Shadow, but they had an arrangement to keep things amicable. 

May Mac’s mention of a project, the Stranger’s ears perked up. “I’d be happy to! Working alongside peers is something I’ve sorely missed. I’m sure if you’re working on it then it must be an excellent project indeed! And please, there’s no need for Mr, Stranger will do just fine. After all, we’re both department heads, colleagues and what not. No need for such formality between future lab partners.”

At the mention of the new recruit, he turned his gaze to the young Denizen his Shadow had given the coin to. She was standing near another woman, apparently conversing about the meeting, though they snuck covert glances his way. He grinned.

“Well, let’s have a briefing then.”

He gestured for the two of them to join the group. The new Secret Sniffer was hungry for power, he could sense her ambition. His Shadow must have sensed that, as well as her potential. It was important to encourage the development of bright young minds. As the two Denizens approached, he greeted them with a smile. “I do believe a proper introduction is in order. One of you I haven’t met and the other has only met part of me, and not the part that’s meeting her now. Greetings to the both of you, may your spikes be sharp and your measurements precise.”

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For an instant Laurelai's eyes crinkled up as she fought back the urge to let out an honest laugh for once, but she quickly wrangled her facial muscles back into position and returned to a slight smile instead.

Got to keep up appearances after all.

She nodded agreeably, dropping the subject as soon as Lita began to ignore it, though she still sent the other woman a sidelong glance of admiration.

"Well I'll be putting in a request for hazard pay of course." She said smiling. "Guild pride and saving the world or what have you is all well and good, but if we don't get enough of a pay rise to get a proper drink when it's all over then, well..."

Laurelai leaned in conspiratorially and spoke in a whisper.

"I'm going to stop doing R&D's paperwork for them. Those three could probably disintegrate us with a glance but even they'd probably struggle if they suddenly got snowed under with a backlog of paperwork, logs, research exemptions and resourcing requests."

She had no idea if it was true of course, for all she knew they could simply wave a hand and magically complete it all. But it helped break the tension a little bit.

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Voidus frowned at Mac's response, he felt his agitation rising again, the need to stop whatever this was before it continued. But once more he forced himself back to calmness, and from that somewhat more rational standpoint conceded that Mac had a point. Not much use in bursting in, destroying everything in sight if the one behind it all just started all over again from somewhere else.

"Well you're our head of counterintelligence for a reason." Voidus said in consent. "So we need to hide our own plans and reveal theirs. So for now, information is key, we learn what we can and find out what's at the heart of this."

His expression became passive and calculating once more, though as he finished he gave a very slight grin that hinted at what was to come.

"And once we find the heart, we go in and tear it out."

The Stranger consented as well, calling out to the new recruit in question along with another, the one who'd seemed familiar before. Someone he'd met in R&D? He did get a lot of reports, sometimes keeping track of everyone could be difficult.

As they waited for the two to join them he finally recalled something the Stranger had said earlier.

"Wait, you what? You fought a temporally dislocated version of me?" His grin became one of eagerness and curiosity. "Well I pity the poor dimension you used to stage that fight."

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The Stranger grinned even wider

“It was actually to test out the thing I’d been working on. The test went,” his smile grew wry, “smashingly. I can’t say much at this juncture, but I will say that you’re Broken Trajectory technique caught me completely off guard. Felt like an absolute rookie. It almost made up for your shoddy Kurisigama work.”

His grin was playful and his eye danced with mischievous light. This war would be a good exercise, but not nearly as fun as their sparring. 

“Once this is all over I’ll take the two of you to see what I’ve been working on. Maybe I’ll even give you a rematch.”

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6 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"Well I'll be putting in a request for hazard pay of course." She said smiling. "Guild pride and saving the world or what have you is all well and good, but if we don't get enough of a pay rise to get a proper drink when it's all over then, well..."

Laurelai leaned in conspiratorially and spoke in a whisper.

"I'm going to stop doing R&D's paperwork for them. Those three could probably disintegrate us with a glance but even they'd probably struggle if they suddenly got snowed under with a backlog of paperwork, logs, research exemptions and resourcing requests."

Lita chuckled. "Forian used to have me check his ledger books," she said without thinking, then stopped. Forian. The sudden memory of his cold skin on her mouth made her smile falter. "I, um, yes," she continued, trying to cover her fluster. "Paperwork is never fun. Beneath you, really - you're far too interesting."

Terrible effort, she chided herself. Possibly your worst recovery ever.

A sudden movement from the three DA leaders caught her eye, and she felt her eyes widen. The Stranger beckoned the two of them, his smile just as wide as his Shade's had been, though he looked more real

"I believe we're being summoned," she said to Laurelai, trying to hide the sudden spike of fear that lanced through her guts. She smiled weakly. "I'm afraid I didn't brush up on my etiquette for this type of situation. When meeting the solid version of a long-missing demigod, is it proper to curtsy or is it a full prostration?"

She was babbling, her mouth trying to distract her as they walked over. The Stranger grinned wider than ever.

“I do believe a proper introduction is in order," he said. "One of you I haven’t met and the other has only met part of me, and not the part that’s meeting her now. Greetings to the both of you, may your spikes be sharp and your measurements precise.”

Lita stood before him, hand reaching reflexively for her pocket before she forced it to be still. "Good evening, Sir," she said, some long-quiet portion of her mind taking over and spooling out lines she hadn't used since her Elendel party days. "It's an honor to meet you, or, um, this part of you." Smooth, Lita. There's that espionage training working for you, I'm sure he's quite impressed. She banished the little voice, smiling politely. "My name is Lita Attar."

She turned to Voidus next, despite the fact that he hadn't spoken to her, and made a small bow in his direction. When in doubt, too much formality. That's what her father had taught her. That done, she looked to Mac, hoping he'd tell her what to do. "How can I help you, Sir?"

@Fatebreaker @Voidus @MacThorstenson

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Laurelai hesitated at Lita's uncharacteristic floundering, though she habitually made a mental note of it. Something to do with the one she was talking about? Forian?

She was torn between pretending she hadn't noticed and offering a comforting arm when Lita's attention seemed to be distracted again by the three who stood at the front of the gathering. Laurelai glanced over as well and saw all three looking in their direction, the Stranger seemed to be beckoning them over.

She instinctively gulped as her mouth became instantly dry, thankfully hearing Lita do the same in sync.

Well at least I'll die with someone interesting. A distracted part of her mind chimed in pessimistically before she silenced it. No, they're not going to kill us. We didn't do anything did we?

She sent a sidelong look at Lita as they both began walking up, the woman had been eavesdropping them after all. Was that something they could be killed for? She managed to hold off the sweat that began to bead on her forehead through willpower and raised her head confidently. She was almost certain that they weren't about to be killed. Probably.

She was no more sure on what the correct etiquette would be than Lita was, settling for a small nod towards each of them. It was her first time meeting any of them other than Mac, and while Mac had always been somewhat approachable he wasn't exactly the same as these two. The only things she'd ever heard about either of them was that they were powerful and brilliant scientists, no one had ever mentioned what you were supposed to do when you met one of them.

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Voidus grinned wryly at the Strangers elusive commentary, it had seemed like an interesting match. He'd need to find some way to sync up memories across timelines in order to recall it.

His eyes began to wander, distracted for a moment as he mentally drafted some plans before he caught sight of the two Denizens that had been called over, now approaching them directly. He examined them both as they introduced themselves, feeling a little awkward as one of them bowed towards him but he kept his expression impassive and simply gave a small nod of acknowledgement to each of them.

One of the two women introduced herself as Lita Attar, the one the Strangers shade had spoken to evidently, the other greeted each of them with a nod but seemed to be staying silent for now. He was still sure he'd seen her somewhere, though she was a little young to have been around when Voidus was a more active researcher. Then again, appearances in the Alleys could be deceiving, Voidus wasn't exactly as young as he looked either.

"Thank you both for coming." He began. "I understand that the two of you attended a party last night to investigate a new group that has been rising in the city? We'd like to hear the details from you directly about what you found there. Did you gather anything about their motives?"

He stared at them in turns, intently watching each of their eyes.

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22 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"Thank you both for coming." He began. "I understand that the two of you attended a party last night to investigate a new group that has been rising in the city? We'd like to hear the details from you directly about what you found there. Did you gather anything about their motives?"

Voidus stared at Lita with eyes that could cut diamond, and she quickly looked away from his gaze, instead focusing her attention on his shoulder as she spoke.

"Money, mostly, Sir," she replied, doing her best to keep her voice from shaking. "Well, at least that's what the theme of the party was. They wanted to court the great guilds for funds. I'm still not sure why they invited so many others, though, so many random people. They'd put up posters around the city asking for anyone with 'unique investiture,' to come forward, promising to help them use their talents to make themselves famous."

Lita shifted from one foot to another, some of her anxiety fading as her mind began breaking down the events of the party - a familiar activity. The rehashing gave her comfort. "I'm quite sure that was nonsense. And to be honest, I don't see how they could possibly require more funding, Sir. That place was armed to the teeth, with enough security to observe just about anyone doing just about anything. Extremely high-tech, and lots of hidden floors, too. I assume those are for R&D purposes, perhaps living quarters? I don't know. What I do know is that there is likely already some kind of group backing PlasmaCore. I don't think it's a front so much as a division. When we got to the party, everyone who entered got shuttled right into the main hall except for one man. He walked right up to the secretary, handed her a note, and she immediately took him to a private elevator bank. Single elevator, one button."

"The host of the event was named Sebrial, Koloss-blooded I believe, though that's of little consequence. He seemed incredibly keen to get me to agree to a funding partnership between us and PlasmaCore, though he would hardly tell me a thing about their research, let alone outline any kind of copyright terms, discovery license - the basics of any partnership. From what I can tell, they are trying to incorporate multiple forms of investiture within one entity - but without hemalurgy. Something like a spren, but...with many parts?"

She tapped the tip of her nose unconsciously, a sure sign that she was thinking hard, then actually met Voidus's eyes for a moment. "Is that even possible, sir? I'm afraid I don't know as much about these matters as I'd like to. It's only been about..." Lita looked up to the left, thinking. Time didn't make the same kind of sense down here. "A few days since I joined the Dark Alley?"

Lita hated sounding so uncertain, but there was no hiding it, not from these people. "Things began to unravel shortly after the television channels were hacked by an escaped criminal called the Mastermind. He had at least one agent there, then a contingent of Chaos Marines arrived on some mission of their own. We left around that time." She looked over at Laurelai, then clasped both her hands behind her back and tried not to look as nervous as she felt. Perhaps she had found out something more illuminating after they separated.

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Voidus listened carefully as the woman, Lita, gave a report of what they'd seen. He traded a glance with the others when she mentioned that they were fundraising but left her to finish her report. As soon as he'd heard that a party was being thrown in the Alleycity he'd known what to expect, but even so an escaped criminal a contingent of Marines and the unknowns behind the security of the building itself were a little much.

So this PlasmaCore wanted to request funding from us in order to fund whatever it is they've created to draw from the Void? They're either idiots or suicidal.

It wasn't as illuminating as he'd have liked but apparently they at least had enough sense to keep everything behind closed doors and enough security that even a DA infiltrator couldn't find out.

"Ways other than Hemalurgy exist." Voidus conceded. "Though none so precise or freely available, but the spiritual realm is not as unalterable as some believe."

He gave Lita a final nod of approval, considering the short amount of time that she'd been with the DA she seemed to be adapting remarkably quickly.



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Laurelai allowed Lita to turn in her own report first, she'd noted a number of finer details about the attendees but Laurelai and Lita had both already sent those details along to Mac, that likely wasn't what they were asking about now. Like Lita, Laurelai found it difficult to meet with the intense gaze that Voidus was directing their way, though thankfully Lita was gaining most of the attention right now.

She did catch herself glancing up at each of them however, gauging their reactions to each part of the report. Trying to read people and guess their motives was far too ingrained a habit for her to be able to shake it due to a little fear. Especially now that it seemed that they were only here to give a report and not to be executed. Probably.

Lita finally concluded her report, and while Voidus spent a brief moment commenting on it, all too quickly his gaze turned to her. She felt an immediate and instinctive urge to look away, but somehow managed to center herself, without using Forgery she could still become someone who was capable of this much, she could look her superiors in the eye while delivering a report.

Gods she wished she'd had time to change out of this Vorin dress before she got here. What did those women do with their safehands? Then again Vorin women weren't allowed to particpate in most military matters so they probably never needed to worry about where to hold their hands while giving a report.

"And you?" Voidus asked, turning towards her. "I don't recall your name, have you worked with one of my labs?"

"Uh, no sir." She said confidently, not likely that she'd forget something like that. "But it's Laurelai."

For a brief instant he seemed to react to the name, his eyes shifted and became somehow even more intense and he seemed on the verge of saying something, but before she knew it they were back the way they had always been. She dismissed the idea, she must have imagined it. Or he'd likely seen the name in one of the reports she submitted, she did put through a lot of requests for records access after all.

"I can't say I have much to add directly sir." Laurelai began. "I didn't see or hear much beyond what Lita did, though I made note of everyone I recognized."

She saw them begin to look to each other again, seeming on the verge of conversing with each other and compiling what they'd learned. She did note a touch of what almost seemed like disappointment in their expressions.

With that, Laurelai's smile widened further, it wasn't often that she'd get to make an impression like this. She doubted she could really impress any of these people but perhaps she could surprise them at least.

"But sir." Laurelai continued, watching as the three of them began to pin her down beneath their gazes once more. "I uh... I did think about going lots of places to get information. Came up with plenty of reasons I could have too, very plausible reasons."

She saw them staring at her for another moment and realized she hadn't really explained herself.

"Oh, uh... I'm a Forger, I mean I know that Mac already knew." She stammered, idly wondering whether she was supposed to refer to Mac by a title or something.

Her smile briefly slipped into one of concern before she corrected it and asked hesitantly.

"I don't suppose anyone has a Regrowth Fabrial handy? I can avoid any of the ones where I'm dead at least but I'll probably be pretty badly injured in a number of these possibilities."

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KuNud was shaking, uncontrollable tremors shook his body pulling a stamp out of his pocket he nearly dropped it before pressing it to his arm. Instantly the tremors stopped and energy coursed through his body, inhaling deeply he grinned. It was time to socialize, war was coming and life was good.

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10 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

A dark spren watched, lurking above the meeting.

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Yeah, not sure how this is possible, see below...

17 hours ago, Voidus said:

With that a halo of dark light began to spread from him, lowering the already dim light still further as it continued to expand, eventually encompassing all present. Whenever a spren was bathed in the light they suddenly and silently winked out of existence as he Voidmade their connection to the physical realm for the time being.

 

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1 minute ago, Ark1002 said:

It would have been noticed a few times, but drained the things of investiture before they could kill it.

It's from PlasmaCore have fun.

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Given that it's currently in the same room as Voidus, The Stranger and Mac I don't think it'll last much longer.

 

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Voidus did clear the room of spren and other cognitive entities, see his post. It can't be made from the void, any more than it can be made from a vacuum. Assuming the Votex had created it, it would still be made of investiture, and that something would have been removed when voidus purged the room.

 

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You are correct that he didn’t explicitly state it, but it was stated that the purpose of it was to remove any cognitive or spiritual spies.

If one sets up defenses to remove spies it would be stupid to remove said defenses before the secure stuff was done with.

In addition it didn’t imply that the shield was a one time thing, if anything his dialogue and the description imply that it was a continuous effect  

I think that it’s much more logical to assume that he would leave the shield up and running for the duration of one of the biggest events in alleyverse history as opposed to doing one big purge of spies at the beginning and letting them filter back in.

 

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2 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:
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Unless Voidus tells me that, I'm going to assume he didn't.

Because it doesn't say he does.

 

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Even in that case, a number of characters will immediately notice the Spren appearing, and will kill it. That thing won't be in existence there for more than 5 seconds, and after that they'll make sure to keep a continuous effect going.

 

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