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On 11/22/2019 at 6:31 AM, Ookla the Maybe-Existent said:

Wes looked up from the silence, nodded.

“Like fabrials,” he said. “That’s a combination.”

And confusing. The things that made sense were the machines of metal, and screws, and electronic chips. Fabrials were weird, with their gemstones and magic. “Did you have some books to recommend?” He asked, unsure what she meant when she asked him if he wanted to know more about Investiture.

“I’m always ready to learn more,” he said, looking ahead at the caves. It had made the teachers feel like they could dump more work on him, and certainly hadn’t increased any friendships with students. But, he’d always had his knowledge. Gears and dogs never abandoned you. But Wes had more, he had a crew. Mike, Seom.

But what if they left, replaced him? Well, then he’d always have the gears and the cogs, still.

I cannot tell which one you meant to put in there :P

@Ookla the Maybe-Existent

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Karin followed after Corette, watching her swim up to the wall. Some sort of glow seemed to come from fissures in the rock, apparently the thing Corette had been looking for. Curious Karin swam closer as well, only to suddenly kick backwards when a giant eel came out of the fissure Corette was inspecting. Looking closer she could see things in the other fissures as well. In hindsight she probably should have expected it, the holes made great shelter, but that didn't help them much now. She watched as Corette pulled a knife out of a sheath on her leg and followed suit herself, growing a bone-white harpoon in her right hand.

In the end it didn't seem like her precautions were necessary though. No further animals came out to attack them, and Corette managed to find a fissure without any life, though Karin had no idea as to what she was expecting to find in there. She watched as Corette put her arm in one, pulling out some rock. Curious Karin edged closer, barely noticing the flows of blood coming from her arm. Corette broke open the rock, pulling out a small piece of metal that Karin hadn't ever seen before. It had an odd sheen to it, similar to silver, but reflective enough that it looked more like mercury, though in solid form. Corette obviously was familiar with it though, staring at it as if she'd found some kind of holy artifact.

What really caught Karin's attention though was when she suddenly pulled a small spike from somewhere. Just as Karin was trying to figure out why she had something like that she started twirling it around. It took a few seconds for Karin to figure out what was happening, but then she finally noticed it. Alleycant! She thought. But then, that meant Corette had to be a DA member. Karin looked at her in shock, almost missing the message itself. Even then, with her weak knowledge of Alleycant she only managed to make out a few things: Rare, tunnels, immediate action.

Karin simply stared at Corette, trying to understand what was going on, but then she finally noticed the blood coming out of the wounds on her arm, and worse, she thought she noticed movement in some of the other fissures. Nervously she swam up to Corette, touching her arm to get her attention. She pointed at her arm, then at the signs of movement in the crevices. Finally she made the gesture for up, hoping Corette would understand what she meant. They could discuss what they found here later, first they had to get away safely.

***

Deep in the alleys Aylitha watched at the findings ACE had made, somewhat annoyed at the fact that she too had missed the fact that Corette was a DA member. Still, she was even more annoyed at what they had found. Unlike Karin she did know what Atium was, and how valuable it was. She also knew it was utterly useless to her department, and that if anything it would simply eat up funding in some dash to try and get as many as possible of it, and she sighed in knowledge of how much would be wasted on this while it could be spent on pursuing science. Still...

Tentacles all through the alleys started moving erratically as she thought through her options. She wasn't interested in the Atium, but there where other things discovered in the caverns that were of interest. Maybe if she managed to make sure the right people got down there... Yes, that could work. Anybody being sent would probably be from the DoCI or acquisitions, given their expertise with fieldwork, but if she managed to get some fitting people selected... Maybe have chat with them before they left... The tentacles stopped moving, and a single patch split off a large fox, which quickly started walking towards one of the Records rooms. It was time to look through some of the personnel files...

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16 hours ago, Ookla the Dreamer said:

Adren. She liked him, but in the end he was DA. Althea ran some possible replies in her head and then finally nodded. "I fear, that it will to fights." she replied, her voice projecting a careful calm she didn't really feel. "Depending on how we react to it, it is entirely possible that some will start a war out of greed or because they hunger for power."

Slowly she touched the wall again, partially elated, this was a treasure and you could do so many incredible things with it. It was pure power and money - and at the same time she knew that everybody would feel like that. They would see the treasure and they would try to get a part of it for themselves.

She soulcast a part of the wall, to create a little platform for stand on and then elsecalled up there, reached into a hole until her fingers touched something in the middle and she broke it out. The stone cut her skin open, but she ignored the pain, the shallow cuts immediatly starting to heal again. Calculating she considered her next action, then she repeated the motion, plucked another one before returning to the ground. Her arm had healed completely when she was back with Adren, Wes and the girl. "Here." She handed Adren one of the two, and then took a close look at the one she kept for herself. She had seen it before, but it was rare, so rare that to hold it in her hand was elating. The thought alone what she could learn about it, what they could do with it.

"The last invasion is six months past." She said after a while. "And now we find that cave full of one of the few things able to upset our delicate balance." It was a balance between all guilds except for the DA. The DA could kill them all and that kept the others in check. At least it had more or less since the seven day war. Pondering she looked back up at the holes, pocketed the bead. If she wanted to keep the balance she had to change the equation. And there were only two ways to do it.

"What do you think?"

Breaking it open and staring at the geode and the bead inside, Adren looked around at all the cracks in the walls, each one with many crystals, guessing that there were more in the well as well. Looking back to Althea he whispered, almost reverently,

"I think this could be dangerous. Obviously everyone will tell their guilds and brag about the Atium in the well. It should be collected and if possible removed from circulation. And preferably out of everyone's hands. but I know that no one in the Alleys would want it to be destroyed, myself Included. So I fear for everyone involved."

"How is atium forming here?" Jethro questioned.

"Cause this is the well of course." Mercy replied. "Adren take the atium. Gather as much as you can and run."

"No" Adren responded loudly. "I couldn't do that."

Feeling the rough cracking surface of the wall and staring up at the crystals, Adren began looking for a route to climb the wall.

Edited by ElephantEarwax
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Althea looked at him, how he stated that he feared for everyone involved, and then turned to look at the wall, at the cracks. As if he was searching for a way up there.

"It's Atium." She replied to Wes question, continued to keep a gentle touch on him, to be able to act should it be possible. At the moment, there were seven people in the intermediate area, including her and Wes. All of them would know what was going on by now. She look up the wall, wished that she could simply destroy it with nothing but a thought, considered to bring down the whole cave. She reached out for the stone, chatted a little with the spren and then filed the possibility away from later use. Possible. But the consequences for those living above were a black box. So she would resort to that should people start killing each other.

Her eyes rested von the wall with it's holes and she was tempted to elsecall up there, and get as many as she could, to get them out and away, to secure them for the ghostbloods, for herself. It was Atium, it was rare. If they owned a larger stock, it would give them an edge in a possible conflict and they could secure their place, they could maybe finally be save. No.

Althea swallowed and forced the thought, the greed aside. She had three people she didn't know exactly where they belonged to and suspicions aside, she could only act based on facts. So three wild cards. The Underling and herself and two belonging to the DA. The DA. An idea formed in her head and she evaluated it. She would give up the possibility of power, but she would avoid bloodshed. The ghostbloods, they had their place just like TUBA. At the moment nobody was actively trying to oppose them and if someone tried, they could always deal with it. The atium would help to secure their place, but to risk fighting over it. The greed returned, urged her to ask for a share, no to take a little share. Lusk worked with atium, he could use it. They all could use it.

She fought the greed, her curiosity, this possibility and looked at the facts. She could take a part. She doubted anybody would stop her, and she could get away, take the the Underling and flee. It would be good for the ghostbloods but if she looked at the situation in a long term way, then it would upset their balance, and that might cause a lot of trouble for everybody. Slowly she accepted her greed and then pushed it away. She took her curiosity, and then feeling raw she placed it aside.

"I think you should take them." She said quietly to Adren. "The DA. If you have the stock, they are out of reach for everyone else." The DA could already wipe all of them out with nothing but a wave of hand of some of their members. Atium wouldn't change that. Add one to infinity and you still had infinity. And yet there was this part of her, that wondered, if she was making a mistake. If this was the right way, if she could give all of that up so easily.

Edited by Ookla the Dreamer
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3 minutes ago, Ookla the Dreamer said:

"I think you should take them." She said quietly to Adren. "The DA. If you have the stock, they are out of reach for everyone else." The DA could already wipe all of them out with nothing but a wave of the hand of some of their members. Atium wouldn't change that. Add one to infinity and you still had infinity. And yet there was this part of her, that wondered, if she was making a mistake. If this was the right way, if she could give all of that up so easily.

Setting his pack on the ground, "I think giving it to the DA may be best. But how to convince everyone that it is for the best." Adren replied beginning to scale the wall and reaching in with his left arm. Dropping geodes down to the ground at Althea and Wes's feet. "If you want, start cracking them open. Hitting them on Jethro should do it nicely, but don't touch him or you cold hear him for a few minutes."

"Why is it always hitting me on rocks, or stone trees." Jethro complained. 

"Boo hoo." Mercy shot back. "You get to do something."

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8 hours ago, Ookla the Foxed said:

Karin simply stared at Corette, trying to understand what was going on, but then she finally noticed the blood coming out of the wounds on her arm, and worse, she thought she noticed movement in some of the other fissures. Nervously she swam up to Corette, touching her arm to get her attention. She pointed at her arm, then at the signs of movement in the crevices. Finally she made the gesture for up, hoping Corette would understand what she meant. They could discuss what they found here later, first they had to get away safely.

Corette noticed the shifting movements within the fissures a moment before Karin swam up to her, eyes wide. The touch on her arm was soft, but even slight contact stung against her bloodied skin. Karin motioned towards the surface, and Corette nodded, kicking her way up. She wasn't eager to fight a swarm of eels in dark water.

As her head broke the surface, Corette resisted the instinctive urge to take a breath. Instead, she struck out towards the shore, which actually amounted to being little more than a lip of bare, jagged stone and a few feet of gravelly beach. When her feet touched the bottom, she turned to Karin and held up the bead of Atium.

"This is Atium, one of the rarest resources in existence," she whispered, unsure who might be listening in. She was sure at least a few others in the group would be able to puzzle out the fissures, crystals, and strange feeling of this place. "Once word gets out, everyone is going to want a piece. These caves will be crawling with people, each one trying to make it rich. Add the Guilds into this, and it could get even worse."

Corette slipped the spike back into her sheath and felt herself begin to shiver. She looked up towards the ledge and spotted a cascade of boulders that looked easy enough to climb. Better start now before you freeze up. Corette forced herself to move her arms and stamp her feet, anything to get her circulation moving and warm herself up. Wet as she was, it wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing. 

"Listen," she said to Karin, voice low. "I'm here mostly on my own business, but I've been a field agent for most of my life. I rarely spend more than two days at a time in the Alleys; most people there don't know me, and I want to keep it that way. As far as they are concerned," she pointed up towards the ledge, "I'm not in the DA. Now, I'm going to get back up there before I break my teeth from shivering too hard."

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To clarify here: Corette is in the DA, but she wants to maintain the facade that she is unaffiliated when interacting with the rest of the expedition.

 

Edited by ZincAboutIt
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4 minutes ago, ElephantEarwax said:

Setting his pack on the ground, "I think giving it to the DA may be best. But how to convince everyone that it is for the best." Adren replied beginning to scale the wall and reaching in with his left arm. Dropping geodes down to the ground at Althea and Wes's feet. "If you want, start cracking them open. Hitting them on Jethro should do it nicely, but don't touch him or you cold hear him for a few minutes."

"Why is it always hitting me on rocks, or stone trees." Jethro complained. 

"Boo hoo." Mercy shot back. "You get to do something."

Althea looked at the geodes for a moment or two, then she bend down, picked up one and rolled it around in her hand, then hit it on the ground and broke it open. The Atium bead was small, so small and at the same time to dangerous. She touched its surface and then moved it to her other hand, before reaching out for the next geode. Taking off her helmet she used it to place the geodes inside, in open view for every, save for a few she stowed in her pocket. You never knew, at the moment Adren was right. As long as there was no agreement, there was no agreement. She could talk to Karin, convince her. That had could maybe help.

Take a geode, crack it open. The money, the possibilites on the ground in front of her. It was tempting, so tempting to take the helment and leave. Secure it somewhere. And yet she didn't. She took a deep breath and stayed. Accept her emotions, but don't let them control her. And greedily securing a part of the atium, was the worst road to take. She looked at the wealth, at the power and then focused her thoughts back on the matter at hand. The spren she had felt earlier. It had shown the future, so it was connected to all of this somehow. Maybe it had been attrackted by the atium, or maybe, maybe it belonged here. It was a secret, a riddle, something she could find out. Something she had discovered and she didn't need to fight for Atium to keep the knowledge.

Her eyes moved over to Jethro. She would touch him, later. Once this was sorted out, she would accept Adren's offer and touch him. The thought of a new voice in her head, if only temporarily made her skin crawl but at the same time she wanted to. She wanted to step beyond her past, beyond her fears and the panic that grabbed her once someone tried to play with her mind. Jethro was a risk, but he was a calculated risk. Maybe she could finally move beyond.

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49 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Corette noticed the shifting movements within the fissures a moment before Karin swam up to her, eyes wide. The touch on her arm was soft, but even slight contact stung against her bloodied skin. Karin motioned towards the surface, and Corette nodded, kicking her way up. She wasn't eager to fight a swarm of eels in dark water.

As her head broke the surface, Corette resisted the instinctive urge to take a breath. Instead, she struck out towards the shore, which actually amounted to being little more than a lip of bare, jagged stone and a few feet of gravelly beach. When her feet touched the bottom, she turned to Karin and held up the bead of Atium.

"This is Atium, one of the rarest resources in existence," she whispered, unsure who might be listening in. She was sure at least a few others in the group would be able to puzzle out the fissures, crystals, and strange feeling of this place. "Once word gets out, everyone is going to want a piece. These caves will be crawling with people, each one trying to make it rich. Add the Guilds into this, and it could get even worse."

Corette slipped the spike back into her sheath and felt herself begin to shiver. She looked up towards the ledge and spotted a cascade of boulders that looked easy enough to climb. Better start now before you freeze up. Corette forced herself to move her arms and stamp her feet, anything to get her circulation moving and warm herself up. Wet as she was, it wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing. 

"Listen," she said to Karin, voice low. "I'm here mostly on my own business, but I've been a field agent for most of my life. I rarely spend more than two days at a time in the Alleys; most people there don't know me, and I want to keep it that way. As far as they are concerned," she pointed up towards the ledge, "I'm not in the DA. Now, I'm going to get back up there before I break my teeth from shivering too hard."

 

Karin looked at Corette for a few seconds, and then nodded. She could understand that. "Alright," she said, and then she shrugged. "It's probably not my problem anyway. I've never heard about that substance, so I doubt it's of any interest to Bioscience. The only real issue I can see is that the oncoming gold-rush might destroy some of the ecosystem here, or make it more difficult for us to do research on the fauna and flora in these caverns."

She then looked down at her own wet clothing, made especially uncomfortable by the cold air around her. "And yes, let's go back up there," she agreed. "With some luck one of them will have been smart enough to prepare blankets or towels, or maybe a source of heat."

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On 26/11/2019 at 3:14 PM, Ookla the Dreamer said:

Max. She reached out for him. Do you keep an eye on the other guilds? Will you know should they ready their armies? I think we found something that has the potential to cause a conflict of some sorts.

We have operatives in most major guilds, Max replied back, a hint of curiosity in his voice.

What is it? And how big a conflict are you thinking of?

——

Atium. Slowly the realisation dawned on Wes. This was an atium cache. Suddenly he stepped back, looked reverently at the geodes. He hadn’t seen this much atium ever, only a couple small beads at a time, and that, from a distance. But this was a whole horde of it. Right here.

“That’s a lot atium,” he stated the obvious, looked at Althea.

“Won’t so much of it mess up the economy?”

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We found a whole cave full of Atium geodes. And who knows how many more are here. She sent him a picture of the cave, of the beads in her helmet, so that he could see for himself. So I think, depending on how this ends, it can be a pretty large scale conflict. I suggested that the DA takes them, to remove them from the game, but I have no idea if someone else agrees. For a moment she was silent, turned her head when Wes replied.

The Underling stepped away from geodes Adren was dumping on the ground, looked at them reverently. "I doubt that much of it will end up on the open market, but yes, of course it can upset the economy. Easily." Although they might be lucky if it only came to some economical problems.  That still would be enough to cause conflict, but you could deal with economical problems, at least you had a chance with them. If people started killing each other outright - you hadn't. She looked at the boy seriously, tried to figure out if he understood the danger they all were in. She couldn't ask him to stay close, not without the other Wes and Adren listening, so she only hoped that enough sense to watch his back until this was settled.

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Laurelai wandered into the cavern behind Lita, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that they were at the bottom of the waterfall rather than the top, hopefully that meant no more need for Surgebinding and freefalling through a dark chasm in the ground. She frowned as she watched the water hitting the pool, somehow not disturbing the surface in any way as it hit. Curious. Likely not water then, but what could behave like that? It might have some interesting properties that R&D could make use of.

She continued wandering, keeping an eye out for anything particularly out of place like the earlier pile of shoes but careful not to stray too far from the others. She was the least likely of them to survive an encounter with any of the creatures that lived down here, so she'd prefer not to discover them yet if possible.

"Laurelai."

Laurelai's head tilted as she looked behind her, she'd barely even heard the whisper over the sound of the waterfall, almost thought it was simply another voice in her mind. But she saw Lita's figure groping blindly behind her, eyes fixed on something. Barely made out her next words as well.

"Terris?" Laurelai said. "A little of course, passably. Generally I'm more used to Alethi, Aonic or the Steel Alphabet but if you want to read anything about Scadrial's history then you don't really have a choice."

She followed Lita's focused gaze, curious as to what had gotten the woman so distracted. Surely it wasn't simply Okame's antics, this seemed a little different. More personal somehow. She'd been expecting something subtle, given that even Lita's keen eyes had seemed to take a moment to process it, but at first Laurelai couldn't see anything at all, just some faint irregularity to the stone.

"Where did I put it?" She muttered.

Patting herself down she finally found the torch, pointing it towards the section that Lita was staring at and flipping the switch, throwing the characters into sudden harsh light.

Squinting a little at the sudden light that was reflected back to her, Laurelai read the characters. Staring harder at the places where they'd become worn and harder to read.

"Waterfall?" She muttered as she deciphered the text. "No, that's different this is 'falling water' rain? And what was that one? Some kind of building I think."

She tapped her pen against her lip in thought, staring at one of the words until her eyes finally lit up.

"Church! That was it. Or chapel possibly, might be misremembering a little. The Chapel of Rain? Something like that."

She shot a glance back towards the cascading liquid hitting the still pool below it. She could certainly understand how someone could come to worship such a place, it had a certain calm and tranquil atmosphere to it that would appeal to people, especially the Terris.

"But who would be writing that in Terris?" She wondered. "The chances of someone accidentally wandering through an Alley and ending up here is not particularly high. Another worldhopper?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whisper pulled herself back a little, giving Althea and Wes time to talk but staying just on the edge of earshot. It sounded like they and others had begun realising what was here, though even Whisper had considered it only one of many possibilities until now. But seeing the geodes, seeing one get cracked open removed any lingering doubts.

"Atium"

She heard the word whispered in half a dozen different places, said in amazement or even reverence. It was a substance that was rare even in the Alleycity, rare to the point that few people would even be able to see it in their lifetime. It was a resource that even the DA would be eager to acquire, possibly even more so than the other guilds. To others it might mean some future sight, stronger soldiers, perhaps an easy spike to use. But for the DA it meant many more experiments that were impossible with any other metals, it would open up the doors to researchers who usually had to wait endlessly until more became available or was recycled from elsewhere.

Whisper's own eyes flashed with momentary greed before she masked it once more. This much Atium could be used for a lot of things, the DA might be more imaginative in their ideas than some others, but even those were something she considered merely an idle benefit. Atium was the physical essence of Ruin, the essence of a god. Burning it or using it in a spike might be one means of making use for it, but those were the means that mortals were restricted to.

Can you build a god? Whisper wondered. If you have the physical essence, know where the spiritual is. Could they be brought back?

She felt her heart accelerate, even with her willpower directed on keeping her expression neutral she still felt the cracks begin to show. The longing, the desire for what this cavern held. Her eyes flickered from one figure to the next, seizing up those present. Was there any chance she could get rid of those who were here? Keep this hidden until it could be extracted?

Her eyes found Althea again and paused. No, there was no need to rush things. Running headlong into a fight was not how she operated, she stood no chance of managing to get through the entire scouting force, let alone the remaining forces that would soon be following behind.

Patience. We've waited this long for their return, we can wait a little longer.

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Lita stepped forward, then stopped. The Chapel of Rain. It seemed appropriate for this place - peaceful, reverent. She looked towards the water falling from the ceiling, following it down to the pool, which was still as a pane of glass. While everything about this little alcove radiated calm and tranquility, Lita couldn't help but feel something else. Just a whisper, an echo of something more powerful, something that pulled her in.

She took another step forward, her mind slow to process Laurelai's question. Worldhoppers?

"Maybe," she said softly. "Who knows how long this place has been here?"

I wonder what it feels like? She thought, staring at the water. Almost unconsciously, Lita stretched out her hand towards the stream, stopping with her fingers halfway towards the falling water.

What am I doing? Sticking one's hand into obviously Invested liquid was one of the stupidest things she could think of - had six months living in the Alleys taught her nothing? Still, her arm just hung there, frozen. There was something about this water that held her attention.

"Can you feel it?" Lita murmured, fighting the odd compulsion to touch the water - just touch it. Just once. "Don't you just want to..." 

--------

Corette finished scrambling up the side of the ledge, the many cuts on her arm stinging and dripping blood, her body so cold she was sure she'd chip her own teeth shivering. She still clutched the bead of Atium in one fist, barely sparing a glance for any of the others as she made a beeline for her pack and the blanket roll she'd strapped to the bottom. Only once she had wrapped the cloth around herself and rubbed a little warmth back into her limbs did she glance around.

Althea had already filled half her helmet with Atium beads, and the rest of the group was standing around gawking as Adren threw geodes down onto the ledge.

Well, there's all hope for stealth gone out the window. She felt even better about her decision to immediately contact the DA leaders; surely at least the Ghostbloods would know about this already now too. Corette moved towards Althea, Wes, and Whisper, careful not to let her eyes linger too long on the girl. Appearing unaffiliated with any guild would likely be an advantage now more than ever, and would allow her to hopefully gain valuable information on the plans of others in regards for this new resource. 

"I see you found a drier way to gather those," she said ruefully, lifting the bead of Atium - and her bloodied forearm - out of her blanket.

@Ookla the Dreamer @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

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42 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

"I see you found a drier way to gather those," she said ruefully, lifting the bead of Atium - and her bloodied forearm - out of her blanket.

Althea turned to Corette, her bloodied arm, the way she held the bead up into the air. A drier way yes, but they had found it on their own. Corette had stayed quiet, had tried to keep the secret for as long as possible to herself. She suppressed the urge to hide her face behind her hands, when she felt the girl Wes eyes on her, knew she was calculating, everything of her earlier teary eyed demeanor gone completely. So it had been a mask. Like the ones she wore herself. Whisper seized up those around, her eyes darting from person to person, greed. Greed, power and money. The worst and most tempting combination.

Her eyes returned to her helmet and she tilted her head backwards, looked up at Adren. Wondered if he really expected her to hand it over.

They were all calculating. All of them. Except Wes. He worried about the economy of the city. She liked this way of thinking, to consider the whole picture instead of your small, little world and she straightened, stepped to his side when Corette approached. Her face changed a little, determination set in her features when she made sure, to underline the fact, that Wes was with her.

"They are all around the cave." She confirmed, although everybody with eyes could see it. Still she found that many thought it reassuring if you replied to their statements of the obvious, and she was set on solving this as peacefully as possible. "Where is Karin? I would like to talk to her."

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10 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

 

Corette finished scrambling up the side of the ledge, the many cuts on her arm stinging and dripping blood, her body so cold she was sure she'd chip her own teeth shivering. She still clutched the bead of Atium in one fist, barely sparing a glance for any of the others as she made a beeline for her pack and the blanket roll she'd strapped to the bottom. Only once she had wrapped the cloth around herself and rubbed a little warmth back into her limbs did she glance around.

Althea had already filled half her helmet with Atium beads, and the rest of the group was standing around gawking as Adren threw geodes down onto the ledge.

Well, there's all hope for stealth gone out the window. She felt even better about her decision to immediately contact the DA leaders; surely at least the Ghostbloods would know about this already now too. Corette moved towards Althea, Wes, and Whisper, careful not to let her eyes linger too long on the girl. Appearing unaffiliated with any guild would likely be an advantage now more than ever, and would allow her to hopefully gain valuable information on the plans of others in regards for this new resource. 

"I see you found a drier way to gather those," she said ruefully, lifting the bead of Atium - and her bloodied forearm - out of her blanket.

@Ookla the Dreamer @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Scaling back down the wall, bloodied left hand and arm struggling to hold on from the bleeding cuts running along them. Stumbling as he hit the floor, having dropped the last few feet, Adren walks over to his bag and pulls out a length of bandage, a handkerchief, a water bottle, antibiotic ointment and a cookie from the small bag. Immediately putting the cookie in his mouth, he begins dressing the wound. Wiping down the cuts with the water and handkerchief, and applying ointment to each cut and wrapping his whole arm in the bandage. 

Drinking the last of his water, Adren clears his throat, "Not the most effective way, as you can probably guess." Gesturing with his right hand to Corette and his own arms. "This is a valuable place to the entire universe, we need to preserve this place, allomancy will break it if we aren't very careful."

Taking a couple geodes from the pile he had dropped to the floor, and cracking them open easily on Jethro's blade, Adren stared at the silvery atium. 

"Its so shiny, can I have some?" 

"You don't have any way to use it. at all. What good would that be?" Adren thought at her.

"You could make a small ring and put it on me" Mercy said, a grin in her voice.

"That wouldn't work, but I like the idea of an atium ring or two...." Adrens thought trailed off.

@ZincAboutIt @Ookla the Dreamer @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Edited by ElephantEarwax
Had to change devices, didn't want to retype.
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Wes felt thankful as the Rightahand stepped closer, posture firm, and consciously he moved closer as well, when he felt protected by the gesture. It seemed everyone was looking at this atium like it was a mouse and they were all cats. Except a couple people. Like the other Wes, she always seemed to understand how Wes felt, and Correte, although Wes had to tear his wide eyes away when she brought out her bloody arm. Blood brought up unpleasant memories of the past few caves. Of Myriad.

“Maybe we can just leave it here?” Wes asked quietly to everyone.

“If everyone pretends it didn’t exist and we just move on, no one has to fight?

—-x—-

Max cursed. Then he cursed again.

God Beyond, he said. It was a lot of atium. Thinking he paused, wondered how to go about this. Every second wasted was another second the other guilds had an advantage. If I send operatives we can have a clean extraction of the atium before other guilds, and then we can peacefully discuss. Or, you could agree to split it equally among the guilds?

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"We discovered some Atium." Althea specified in Nekorb's direction and had to suppress a wince at Max reply.

I don't know if this can still work. The DA is already here, but if you think that you should send some operatives, so that the Canton is represented, then do so. She stopped talking, listened to Wes and Adren before she continued. I can't speak for the Canton, Max. I will try to prevent a war, but I can't represent you as well. Quickly she sent him an image of their map and then highlighted where they were.

Slowly she bent forward and picked up her helmet, the atium she had pocketed feeling strangely heavy in her pocket. She wasn't even sure if she could feel it at all and yet, all the wealth in front of her cast a dreading shadow, like a reminder of impeding doom. "Here." She handed Adren the helmet, without removing anything from its contents first. Then she looked around, met everybodies gaze.

"We should talk about what to do with this place. As much as I would prefer to leave it alone, and never speak of it again," her eyes rested on Wes when she said so, "I doubt that this will work. I believe that we can find a way to deal with this, though." The Underling had moved closer as well and she considered to elsecall him away, out of the way of those standing around him. He would be safer somewhere else, but he had been here when they discovered it. He had a say in this, just like everybody else.

"Does anybody here has a proposition how to continue?" She played the ball to the others first, curious to see what they would come up with. It could tell her a little about their goals and if they were interested in a peaceful solution as well.

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Balancing the helmet on his right arm, carefully using his heft hand to tilt the helmet towards Nekorb and the rest of the group, "Atium is Ruin's godmetal. It is powerful in all three Scadrian magic systems and  hasn't been tested well in others because the supply has basically been nonexistent."

"Look at that atium,that's enough to buy most of the city, and it's not all of it around." Mercy's shrill voice whispered in his ear.

"Merc, stop it. He isn't taking it, at least like that. You were told already." Jethro retorted loudly, in the cacophony of thoughts bounding through Adren's mind. 

"I have many of ideas for what to do with it, but all of them have an overarching danger. This atium needs to not go fully into circulation. We could end up with another Manywar or 7 day war." Looking around the gathered scouts, at each person in turn.

Momentarily shifting his attention to his bag, Adren got out a cookie, and began to eat it.

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43 minutes ago, ElephantEarwax said:

Balancing the helmet on his right arm, carefully using his heft hand to tilt the helmet towards Nekorb and the rest of the group, "Atium is Ruin's godmetal. It is powerful in all three Scadrian magic systems and  hasn't been tested well in others because the supply has basically been nonexistent."

"Look at that atium,that's enough to buy most of the city, and it's not all of it around." Mercy's shrill voice whispered in his ear.

"Merc, stop it. He isn't taking it, at least like that. You were told already." Jethro retorted loudly, in the cacophony of thoughts bounding through Adren's mind. 

"I have many of ideas for what to do with it, but all of them have an overarching danger. This atium needs to not go fully into circulation. We could end up with another Manywar or 7 day war." Looking around the gathered scouts, at each person in turn.

Momentarily shifting his attention to his bag, Adren got out a cookie, and began to eat it.

"Wait, so this stuff is valuable?" Nekorb's eyes widened as he spoke.

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Corette watched Althea watch everyone, and though her face remained impassive and neutral, Corette could detect her unease. She had moved a bit closer to her Underling, only serving to underscore her fear over what everyone would do. The Underling boy was young and weak - Corette had expected as much. Leave and forget that this cave existed? What kind of nonsense was that?

But when Althea had echoed his sentiment, then passed her helmet to Adren, Corette felt a wave of contempt ripple over her. She was diligent to keep this emotion off her face, and in truth, if Althea wanted the DA to take all the Atium off their hands, well, that was good news. But privately, in Corette’s own estimation, her respect for the Elsecaller plummeted. It seemed that fear ruled even one such as her, a Guild leader and powerful Surgebinder. Judging by her poorly-concealed tender hearted tendencies towards the weaker members of the expedition, she was fretting about war. 

Another man had piped up, his eyes wide as dinner plates as he stared around the cavern.

”Highly valuable,” she said, then looked back towards Adren and Althea. “Karin is on her way back up here. Also, before we discuss how to divide up this great treasure, we might want to consider the organization we all came down with.” Corette pointed to the patch sewn onto her coveralls, which she had pulled into her arms. 

“We won’t be able to keep this from the Director, not for long. One of this lot may have already sent word. They’ll stake a claim to this just like everyone else.”

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Karin climbed up to the others, her body soaked to the bone. She heard most of the conversation as she climbed up, and when she finally arrived she was dissappointed that there wasn't anything she could use to warm herself. "Couldn't we just collapse this place?" She interjected. "If we block of these tunnels, or better yet, bring down the whole ceiling on the well, we might be able to prevent anyone from getting to this metal."
The suggestion made sense to her, but deep down she felt it likely wouldn't work. The large guilds had too many resources, they could likely find someway around it eventually. Still, it might offer a temporary respite, time they could use to organize and find a more permanent solution.

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18 hours ago, Ookla the Blue said:

"How... how valuable?"

Nekorb's voice was hoarse.

“You can buy a decent amount of expensive things with just one bead,” Wes said. “That valuable.”

To his memory, it used to be because it was incredible as a metal to burn, making a Mistborn unstoppable. As far as he could tell, over time the reason for its value had shifted from being powerful to being rare. And powerful, Wes corrected himself, atium still made a Mistborn unstoppable and was a catch-all as a spike, it was just that it’s value had only increased with its rarity.

“We should have the government have it then!” Wes said when he thought of an idea. “They can use it for good stuff, and they aren’t even a private organisation so they won’t use it for evil things. That’s fair, right?”

—-

You should destroy the crystals, Max replied, remembering old books on warfare. This wasn’t warfare yet, but be careless and it soon could evolve in that direction. And war was definitely something Max didn’t want. If they keep generating atium, it will be a constant source for conflict. Destroy the crystals, so then only the atium currently produced is around. Then...

Max paused, tried to think. A squadron of Canton operatives would surely be a sign of something aggressive. Maybe even pushing it too far. If he was going to need someone down there, it would have to be a small group, nothing too threatening.

I’ll be there, he said. Make sure nobody starts a war in that time, please?

Love you,

Max.

Edited by Ookla the Maybe-Existent
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21 minutes ago, Ookla the Maybe-Existent said:

“You can buy a decent amount of expensive things with just one bead,” Wes said. “That valuable.”

To his memory, it used to be because it was incredible as a metal to burn, making a Mistborn unstoppable. As far as he could tell, over time the reason for its value had shifted from being powerful to being rare. And powerful, Wes corrected himself, atium still made a Mistborn unstoppable and was a catch-all as a spike, it was just that it’s value had only increased with its rarity.

“We should have the government have it then!” Wes said when he thought of an idea. “They can use it for good stuff, and they aren’t even a private organisation so they won’t use it for evil things. That’s fair, right?”

—-

You should destroy the crystals, Max replied, remembering old books on warfare. This wasn’t warfare yet, but be careless and it soon could evolve in that direction. And war was definitely something Max didn’t want. If they keep generating atium, it will be a constant source for conflict. Destroy the crystals, so then only the atium currently produced is around. Then...

Max paused, tried to think. A squadron of Canton operatives would surely be a sign of something aggressive. Maybe even pushing it too far. If he was going to need someone down there, it would have to be a small group, nothing too threatening.

I’ll be there, he said. Make sure nobody starts a war in that time, please?

Love you,

Max.

Nekorb looked at the Well, lost for words. Just one bead?

"How many beads are down there?" he asked.

Quote

Are there any crystal openings above water?

Edited by Ookla the Blue
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