Into the Dark

[+Sorana]

On 9.1.2020 at 11:22 PM, kenod said:

Maybe we can just have this cause everyone to run back to the base-camp, so we can do a small time-skip for the guild teams to arrive/start sneaking in?

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ooops, sry I had Althea already stay.

Do they have to sneak in? Althea isn't really the type to leave it all behind. I would need some strong reasoning to have her leave without ensuring that the atium really ends up with the DA.

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

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I had figured kenod would be doing that, since they made a character to specifically come down into the cave. If I need to do something, just tell me and I'll do it  

 

[+Sorana]

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kenod, do you need us to do something?

@kenod

[kenod]

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Um, it would be nice if there was a small timeskip, since it's kind of weird for the DA team to arrive so quickly after the message went out, given that it had to be assembled first. Still, if that isn't possible we can just stick to alleys causing temporal weirdness and have them appear now.

I'm also not entirely sure about what's happening with Whisper's screaming thingy?

@Sorana, @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Edited January 19, 2020 by kenod

[+ElephantEarwax]

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timeskip makes sense

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

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Yes, I think a timeskip is fine. ~12 hours? Maybe a bit more?

@kenod

[+Sorana]

On 17.1.2020 at 8:39 AM, kenod said:

I'm also not entirely sure about what's happening with Whisper's screaming thingy?

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Voidus wrote that it subsided after a while, so idk what is the current state...

And a timeskip is fine for me. We could claim that they distributed the Atium during that time (as Ele's character has suggested) and everything is ready for the DA to take over?

 

[I think I am here.]

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Timeskip is fine for me too.

 

[AonEne]

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I’m good with whatever works for you all. 

Myriad was mildly unnerved by the screaming from nowhere, but after making sure it was no one in the group she chalked it up to more weird magic cave shenanigans and leaned against the wall in case Aln or another scholar sent communication back. 

[Rushu42]

5 hours ago, AonEne said:

Myriad was mildly unnerved by the screaming from nowhere, but after making sure it was no one in the group she chalked it up to more weird magic cave shenanigans and leaned against the wall in case Aln or another scholar sent communication back. 

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Is this happening at the same time as the shenanigans in the Guild? 

 

[AonEne]

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I think so, yeah. I don’t expect her to send anything back, just seemed like what Myriad would do. 

@Rushu42 

[Rushu42]

3 hours ago, AonEne said:

I think so, yeah. I don’t expect her to send anything back, just seemed like what Myriad would do. 

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Fair enough.

 

[kenod]

Vita watched as the alleys warped in front of them, and as they walked through the opening they stepped out onto the base of a large crater, a small camp and digsite in front of them. Some people still manned it, though most seemed to have gone down into the caverns. One of them noticed their group, pointing at them and yelling at the rest. She sighed and walked towards them, the other denizens spreading out to cover the ACE employees and secure the lift and it's controls.
One man angrily walked towards them. "What is the meaning of this?" He angrily demanded. "This is an ACE operation, sanctioned by the government. So what in Harmony's name is the DA doing here?"
Vita sighed. "Play conversation 4," she whispered into a hidden microphone, the music of her earbuds changing accordingly. "Listen,"  she said to the man, "We're going to go down there. You can either let us and nobody will get in any trouble, or we'll get in our way." She paused, keeping track of everyone's locations. She didn't like this place, too sterile, difficult to see anything, she wanted to get down into the caverns, where there would be more life.
She had her head turned away from the man as he tried to find something to say, some kind of objection. She flicked her wrist, cutting him off, twirling a butterfly knife in her hand. "So, what is it going to be?" She asked coldly.

10 minutes later the elevator touched down on the ground of the first cavern, and she hid a sigh of relief as the world flared up around her, fungi covering the various walls, with especially large samples in a column hanging down from the ceiling in the center of the cavern. "Play instrumental 6," she muttered as she studied the central growth, focusing on it, something seeming odd about it.
"One of you get a sample from the central spire," she said. "I think it might be invested."
"You mean those glowing mushrooms?" One of those with her asked.
They glow? She wondered, feeling curious. "Yes, that one," she said. "Watch out for the water," she added when she noticed it. "It's a lot deeper than it seems, and it branches out. Deeper down there appear to be some rather large lifeforms. Intel suggests they're predators, and are invested." She paused for a bit. "Actually, if you can, lure a couple up and capture them, they would make nice research material."

They continued on, past the areas Aylitha had mentioned, making sure to take some samples along the way, though she didn't spend much time there. They could always come back later after all. When they saw the base-camp in the distance they made sure to take a wide berth, avoiding it. They could take control of it later, but first they had to rendezvous with the agents already in place. Still, she detached a large contingent to stay there and keep and eye on things. It wouldn't do to have them go and cause trouble after all.

Finally they reached the area the reports had talked about, the well of Atium. She could feel it, the nodes of Investure faintly visible to her sight. She could also sense the group, the ones that had found it. She also noticed the one Aylitha had told her about, and she was glad that she had mentioned it. She was accustomed to differentiating different biosignatures from her time in bioscience, but her signature was so similar to Aylitha's that she'd likely had thought it was her, and accidentally did something she shouldn't have done.

She walked toward the group, remaining Denizens falling in behind her. "I'm sorry," she said, interrupting the current conversation on what to do with the Atium, "but that conversation has just become unnecessary. The DA will be taking over from here."

@Sorana @Ookla the Maybe-Existent @ZincAboutIt @ElephantEarwax @Everyone I've missed

[Fatebreaker]

'Sixty-three shoes,'

Lita reached through the Coin and spoke directly to him. So she had remembered that ability, what more would she remember...

 'We found sixty-three right shoes in a cave further up, sitting in a pile. Sixty-three people missing from a tenement that vanished overnight, right down to the foundation. And there are others, other places that have just... gone. Erased. No sound, no trace. I received a tip - that's why we came down here, the three of us. Me, Laurelai, and the Radiant.'

The Stranger felt his entire body tense. Discrepancy Manifestations, or Distortion Pulses as he called them, it had to be. He had been going too fast, rushing towards his goal. Such rash haste could destroy everything, or worse, alert Voidus. He should have run trials, should have checked for distortion signals, should have been more careful. 

'Whatever you're doing, things are happening. People have noticed. And even if you take my memories, if you keep on the way you're going, he will notice too. You know he will.'

She was right, and it did nothing to help with the rising worry. From what he had just been told, the distortion pulses had been significantly larger than his projections had accounted for. 63 people, an entire building, it spoke of horrific miscalculations on his part. It was a miracle Voidus hadn't noticed already. What had he missed? Most likely it was either a containment issue, or he simply hadn't accounted for details about the world. Fear and Flames, this was bad. Forgery was a pain it the neck when dealing with a single individual's soul. And he was dealing with a subject untold orders of magnitude greater. But that was no excuse, not for someone of his skill and experience, he was supposed to be better than that. He needed to be better than that.

He had rewritten a planet before, changed the very development of it's people. He remembered showing Voidus, the pride he had felt at his friends amazement, their friendly battle on its surface. But there hadn't been even a fraction of the scale, variation, and power of Investiture on that planet that there was on this one. So many different  forms of investiture, multitudinous practitioners. And that wasn't even beginning to touch on the Alleys, or Voidus himself for that matter. Voidus presented a serious issue in and of himself.

Not only did his power equal that of the Stranger's, but much of his past was a mystery. The Stranger had no Idea who the man had been before his pursuit of Hemalurgy and the Void. A scholar, a businessman, a farmer? He knew not, and using malatium was incredibly dangerous, for he had no way to explain to Voidus why he wanted to use it on him. Voidus was the reason the Stranger was rushing, because every moment passing was a chance for the Head of All Alleys to learn of the experiment. Voidus was the one person in the multiverse that the Stranger trusted, but he could never know what he was working on or the change might not take. He had to do this without his trusted ally, his only friend. And if he succeeded, He would never speak to Voidus, or anyone else, ever again. It would be absolute solitude, for the sake of the work.

'I knew you, for a moment.' Lita whispered the words through the Coin with the softness of a summer breeze. 'Glorious. And alone. But you don't need to be."

Her hand rested on the back of his hand, light as a hummingbird upon a bough. It was soft and warm, and so totally human. The Stranger felt as if he had been paralyzed. He couldn't remember the last time he had been touched by someone who wasn't trying to kill him. Physical contact was not often extended to those seen as gods, be it as formal as a handshake or as intimate as an embrace. And only one person had ever really known him, and that person would now never know him again. The Stranger had tried not to think about the price of his great work, about how he would lose the only friend he had. But Lita's words opened the wound he had kept at bay, and the pain flowed through him like a bittersweet river.

Alone. He was truly alone. But Lita offered a ray of light, a glimpse of something other than the darkness of his world. And she could be useful too, a small part of him thought, a tool of cunning and precision. But the other part was not thinking of strategy and use, but of a simple human touch.

 

'You came to me when I had nearly nothing, when I was no one. You took a risk. Now let me show you why,' her voice was filled with Steel and Shadows as she spoke. 'You began an experiment. Don't end it before it's done.'

Lita's eyes burned with a Hunger so desperate the Stranger knew that it could one day consume her. It was a hunger he knew well, for it was consuming him in this very moment. She was right, he had seen promise in her, real talent and ability. She would make the Dark Alley proud, he was sure of it. Her pursuit of secrets kept her sharp, involved in the world outside the Alleys. Outside the Alleys. That was it, he knew how she could help, how he could fix this. 

Laurelai spoke at that moment, "Perhaps we should research it." She said as she turned towards him, though her eyes never left the falling waters. "It's bound to be useful somehow." Her voice was distant, and he knew the draw of the water was pulling on her even now. He could use her as well, and this place. Pieces fell together in his mind, and he knew success still lay within his grasp.

"Indeed, useful beyond reckoning." He held Lita's gaze for an instant and sent his thoughts through the Coin. 'Speak of this to no one. The work is greater than you know, and if you are to assist you must be absolutely unwavering or you will lose everything.' His thoughts came through with a weight and force behind them that Lita was sure to find uncomfortable, but he meant for her to understand the gravity of his words. He stepped away and faced the water. "But it is also undeniably dangerous, and so must be studied with caution and secrecy. You are to speak to no one of this, Denizen or otherwise."

He strode to the edge of the water, feeling it's pull. His eyes swept it's serene surface, but he did not touch its glassy depths. His back was to the two of them as spoke with the utmost gravity, "Now I offer you both an opportunity the likes of which you have never dreamed, and will never encounter again." He turned away from the water to face them, and his eyes held the levity of a crypt. "I am engaged in an experiment the likes of which the world has never seen. I offer you the chance to gain knowledge and power beyond your ken, and the opportunity to carve your mark in the annals of history. So what say you? Will you join me in the pursuit of knowledge, of secrets, of Science?"

@ZincAboutIt

@Voidus

[+Sorana]

Brashen perked up after a while and Althea turned slightly in the direction he indicated. She watched them arrive, several of them and made sure to keep a part of her attention with Max and Wes. She wouldn't loose them now. Not here, not to the DA. Not when they had found something that at least resembled a peaceful solution. Calmly she watched them approach, her share of atium heavy and cold in her bag. It would be interesting to see if they would keep to the agreement they had come to.

"Then we will leave you to it." she replied, not insisting to learn their name. It wasn't neccessary, and she doubted she would get anything to work with anyway. Instead she tried to commit their faces to memory and slung her bag over her shoulder, got ready to leave. She waited for Wes and Max, shot a look at Adren to see if he would stay, of if he was interested to take a look at some of the mushrooms they saw earlier.

This was it. She'd gone on an expedition and it ended up with calling the DA to take care of things. It was strange and at the same time it was also comforting. She had considered so many things these last weeks, stepping down, leaving, maybe changing her life fundamentally, but in the end, in the end this place was her home. With the DA, with the conflicts with TUBA and with all the crazy stuff going on. And yet, when it came down to it, then suddenly they were able to talk, were able to come to a solution. It was strange, but at the same time, it was also good. Let the DA take care of things. this place belonged them anyway and she knew, that they had no intention to destroy it completely. At least not now. They somehow needed that place as well, if only to find subjects for their experiments. She never quite turned away from them while she waited for the others to get ready to leave as well. It was a good ending. A lot better than fighting each other to the bone.

@kenod

@Ookla the Maybe-Existent

@ElephantEarwax

Edited February 2, 2020 by Sorana

[kenod]

Vita nodded. "I'd suggest you head back to the main camp, or go explore in a different direction. As a word of advice, the DA will be mounting its own investigations soon too, so I suggest keeping an eye out to avoid incidents. We'd also appreciate being kept up to date with your discoveries. We'll be taking inventory of the Atium, as well assessing possibilities for extraction."
Pausing, she tilted her head, sweeping her sight over the crowd in front of her, feeling rather uncomfortable. "You have wounded," she said, not bothering to make it a question. "I'll heal them. If they don't want that, I request that they leave. Having wounding people here is rather uncomfortable."

[+ZincAboutIt]

Light danced over the stone grotto as Lita waited, her whole body tense and frozen. Her eyes never left the Stranger’s - she wasn’t sure if she could look away, now. Time felt odd here, pulled a bit at the edges, warped as if under pressure. Her hand stayed where it was, resting whisper-light against the back of the Stranger’s own. A small sliver of her mind was demanding that she think about what she was doing, that sliver that was still the young girl from Elendel who worked in her father’s parlor. The girl who had never held any power, because she was too weak to keep it. The Lita who listened, but could never demand.

That girl had died in Elendel almost three years ago, now. Lita had killed her. And this terror, this self-doubt, was simply what remained of her ghost. She had to trust herself, trust that she knew what she was doing. The time for weakness was long-since past.

Lita reached into herself and crushed the last vestiges of who she had been. They crumbled like ash, and something cold and wonderful settled around her in their place. Lita drew in the mantle of her ambition and held the gaze of a vicious, hungry god.  

'Speak of this to no one. The work is greater than you know, and if you are to assist you must be absolutely unwavering or you will lose everything.'

The words pressed into her mind with an almost physical weight, and Lita actually felt herself begin to burn Pewter in an attempt to hold up under the strain. She gritted her teeth at the demonstration of will, and part of her quailed at the knowledge that this was but a fraction of the power the Stranger could bring to bear against her mind. This was merely the brush of his palm fitted over her wrist; Lita did not want to know what it would feel like to be under the bootheel of his attention. She said nothing, not even sending a response through the Coin. Her agreement was implicit. Lita had no doubt that her life would be the least of what she would lose if he had even the smallest doubt about her “unwavering” loyalty.

He stepped away, turning towards the water, and Lita let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. The pressure on her mind had eased, her thoughts her own again, and the last few minutes caught up with her in a rush of color and sound. The razor clarity that had pulsed through her moments before had begun to fracture again, all the pieces starting to fall away. She still held them, but many made no sense to her now.

"But it is also undeniably dangerous, and so must be studied with caution and secrecy. You are to speak to no one of this, Denizen or otherwise."

The water - he was speaking of the water. Lita felt it draw her forward even before she looked at it, whispering the promise of knowledge beyond anything she could imagine. She glanced to the side, where Laurelai stood similarly transfixed. The blue of the water reflected in the blue of her eyes, turning them into blazing slivers of glacial ice. Her face was set in an expression of deep, ravenous attention; Lita knew what she was feeling. She felt it too.

"Now I offer you both an opportunity the likes of which you have never dreamed, and will never encounter again." The Stranger turned back to them, his eyes cold and heavy. "I am engaged in an experiment the likes of which the world has never seen. I offer you the chance to gain knowledge and power beyond your ken, and the opportunity to carve your mark in the annals of history. So what say you? Will you join me in the pursuit of knowledge, of secrets, of Science?"

The Stranger’s words echoed in the close, cool dimness as he stood, silhouetted against the glowing blue curtain that was the Chapel of Rain. Lita felt her eyes slip from his figure to the water behind him, and there was a deep warring within her; all that hunger, all that want. Knowledge and power beyond her ken? It waited for her there, just beyond the edge of the pool. Lita’s body shook with the effort of standing still when every fragment of her soul burned with thirst. She ached to step beneath the water, sink to her knees and drown in it. The release of life, of will, of everything - there would be only the water, and the boundless depths of knowing all. What was existence but a fragile cage of bone and blood? Another limit to be shattered, another prison to escape.

But something held her still, screaming against the mindless draw of the water. Her will, bloodied fingers clutching tattered reigns, jaw clenched, eyes fierce. This place held a power over her that twisted her into something crawling and helpless, a slave to her own hunger. There may have been knowledge waiting for her beneath the water, but power? What power was there in wasting away, so deeply subsumed in knowing that there was no way to use that knowledge? The fragments of her rational mind knew that if she stepped under that water again, she would never step out. She would be this creature forever, whimpering and kneeling before finally dissolving into nothing.

Is that what you want? That little voice whispered, somehow cutting through the lure of the water. Power at your fingertips, and you give it up?

Slowly, agonizingly, Lita forced her eyes away from the gently falling water and back to the Stranger. He knew the hunger within her, so deep and rending, but he bent his to his will. He wielded it like a tool, not the other way around. And the things he could show her, the secrets she could learn… She remembered him sitting at her little table, watching as golden script twisted itself across her walls and floor, hinting that she could crack reality itself and drink the truth of it like wine. 

If you know the world’s secret, you can do whatever you want.

Lita drew herself up straight and felt a tiny smile curve up the side of her cheek. She was playing with fire, but it wouldn’t consume her. Not today, anyway.

“I will,” she said, her voice stronger than she’d expected. Excited, even. It drove some of the blind yearning out of her mind, sharpened her focus. 

Lita looked to the side again, where Laurelai still stood. Laurelai. Voidus’s daughter. Her friend. Could she let her lose herself in the water, watch her abandon her reason and will and mind? Doom her to die in this place?

Yes, she admitted. I could. If Laurelai chose to stay, Lita would not abandon her own course. She would follow the Stranger alone, if she had to. But that did not mean that she wanted to. Lita held out her hand to the other woman and looked across the distance between them - so small, yet so terribly vast.

“Laurelai,” she whispered, some fear coloring her voice. Fear of losing her friend, and fear of losing herself. “Come with me.”

@Voidus @Fatebreaker

[AonEne]

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It's posts like these that make me happy we moved beyond Era 1. (The Alleyverse was still great then too ) 

 

[Voidus]

Laurelai could feel the cool air of the underground brushing against her, brushing lightly against her skin and being pulled into her lungs as she tried to maintain a regular breathing pattern. She could smell the slightly damp stone from around them, the dirt that had collected on her clothes as they'd travelled here. She could hear her heart beating in her ears, the pulses faster than normal.

But none of that mattered. All that mattered was what she could see, the gently trickling droplets of azure liquid falling down to land perfectly inside the pool in front of them. The Chapel of Rain they had called it, Laurelai could understand why someone would call this a chapel. She'd always known about the Shards and other powerful beings of godlike power, but she had never particularly taken to any religion, when there were dozens of different worlds each with a different religion and all clamouring that there's was the correct one it was hard for her to rationalise accepting one over the others. But this room, the droplets being inexorably drawn into the pool. She felt the draw of the waters, a connection beyond any physical influence. This was no simple drug or Allomantic pulse of emotion.

The waters had the answers, all the answers. They could confirm her hunch about her parentage, answer where her powers came from, why she had decided to visit the Nightwatcher and any other question she could even think to ask. All she had to do would be to step under the waters once again, and she would gain all the answers. Knowledge was power to a Forger, and the waters promised all the knowledge she could stand to obtain and more.

Her pulse quickened further as she stared into the depths, the rest of the world darkened into a tunnel that led back to the pool, guiding her to where she needed to go. It was so simple, just a few short steps and she would be there.

"But it is also undeniably dangerous, and so must be studied with caution and secrecy. You are to speak to no one of this, Denizen or otherwise." The Stranger said, voice strangely distant and echoing.

Laurelai absently nodded, eyes still fixed to the pool. Her legs wavered as she felt the pull wash over her, almost a physical force dragging her forwards. It was only after she'd nodded that she realised what the Stranger had said, but that didn't matter. She wasn't going to speak of this to anyone else anyway, if other people knew they might try to step under the waters as well. Might try to gain their knowledge in her place. She felt a slight trickle of sweat beading at one temple before running along her cheek, the only moisture that clung to her despite having been submerged beneath the rains.

The Stranger stepped forward, looking into the poo,l and Laurelai felt an almost overwhelming urge to leap forward, to push him back so that she could fall in before he got the chance. He was the head of the research department for the DA, surely he could not pass up the opportunity to taste what the waters could give? Was that why he'd told her to leave? So that he could have them to himself? Laurelai's gaze flickered away from the waters, staring at the Strangers back with a flash of suspicion and jealousy. She couldn't fight the Stranger, if he wanted to take the waters then she had no way to stop him. But maybe if she used the knowledge they gave...

"Now I offer you both an opportunity the likes of which you have never dreamed, and will never encounter again."  The Stranger said, blessedly turning his back to the waters. "I am engaged in an experiment the likes of which the world has never seen. I offer you the chance to gain knowledge and power beyond your ken, and the opportunity to carve your mark in the annals of history. So what say you? Will you join me in the pursuit of knowledge, of secrets, of Science?"

Knowledge and power? Laurelai didn't usually consider herself power-hungry, she'd had plenty of opportunities in the DA to gain more power and had passed them up. Simply spiking yourself and gaining some new form of Investiture might intimidate people, might make life easier, but it held little interest to her. That kind of power had its consequences. But knowledge, understanding the what and why, that was true power. Power that couldn't be taken away, that enriched you beyond what any metalmind could. The Stranger offered her that. But his words rang hollow, with the water right behind him, still within her sight. The waters could provide more knowledge than he could, he'd feared them enough to travel here when he felt whatever Lita had learned. He offered knowledge, but Laurelai knew a way now to take it without being beholden to anyone. She felt her heartbeat pick up again, a rapid drumbeat in her ears urging her forward, to make haste. The world continued to darken, even the Stranger becoming vague and indistinct until all she could see was a shining blue pool of liquid.

“Laurelai" A voice said, a quiet whisper breaking through the darkness and the deafening sound of her own pulse. “Come with me.”

She saw a figure appear, becoming clearer as her focus was broken. Lita, holding out a hand towards her in offer. The slight shake in her voice had turned the statement into a half-question, unsure what Laurelai would do. Laurelai stared back into her eyes, trying to understand. It seemed harder to understand her now than it had been when she'd first found the woman in that tavern all those months ago. The hand was an offer, a call to try to understand once again. But...

The waters of the well glistened close by, they could let her understand as well. Clarity, simple understanding not masked by any duplicitous intention, veiled threats or lies. Laurelai had studied people all of her life, she knew better than most that they were impossible to truly understand. She might come close, even getting an Essence Mark that would take for a full day. But she'd always thought that the reason Essence Marks never lasted as long as other stamps was that it was impossible to truly and perfectly know a person. But the waters didn't lie, didn't conceal, they would show her the truth and nothing more.

Her face turned halfway between the two, eyes moving back and forth between Lita and the pool as her mind sped up. Her forehead became damp as more beads of perspiration appeared, her breathing quickened until her lungs began to hurt. She could feel the pull from the pool, but also from Lita. It was subtler, not nearly so powerful or so noticeable. By all rights the overpowering draw of the pool should have won the struggle in an instant. But still Laurelai hesitated, Lita held the last faint connection that held Laurelai to the world, the cruel and chaotic world outside. Why should she choose that world? The world in the waters was so much simpler, it was clear with no darkness or murk to frighten, no people to confuse her, no questions unanswered.

As she looked towards Lita's hand, Laurelai recalled a flash of the night when the city had been attacked. When the two had shared drinks in the tavern, both red-faced and laughing at themselves and the world. Sharing a glorious moment of joy and laughter, uncertain if the tavern they were in would be the next building to collapse or burst into flames around them.

Her leg wavered as she slowly lifted it, sliding it forward into the stone. It was slow, a physical effort to move herself, but as her foot landed it firmed. She stood, facing away from the pool and towards Lita, giving her friend a weary bittersweet smile. And nodded.

"Of course." She said.

Her voice was hoarse and strained, but she reached one shaking hand out, stepping forward and taking Lita's hand in hers before giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"I wouldn't leave you two alone, someone needs to be around to remind him to let you turn your tin off before he spikes you."
@ZincAboutIt @Fatebreaker

[+ElephantEarwax]

Holding the helmet of under his right arm, Adren nodded to the other denizens.  "Here is the atium we gathered." 

Walking over to the leader and slightly wincing from the movement on his left arm, whispering, "Professionally, everyone here worked hard to get here, and through pain and loss to obtain the atium." Gesturing to his arm covered in the recent gouges from the crystals. "I am going to keep a few beads for awakening research, and I would highly advise that all the members of the expedition are allowed to keep some, it will help keep everyone content, and could be seen as a gesture of goodwill to the other guilds." 

 

"Once this is over then what will we do? Can we go find more monsters?" Mercy said to Adren. 

Subvocalizing his words back, "Maybe we can. You need to ask Jethro if he is up to fighting one though."

@kenod @Sorana @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

Edited February 6, 2020 by ElephantEarwax

[I think I am here.]

On 06/02/2020 at 11:35 AM, ElephantEarwax said:

it will help keep everyone content, and could be seen as a gesture of goodwill to the other guilds." 

Worked hard. Through pain and loss. Wes replayed the words in his mind, remembering the people the worm had eaten, his hope that they could be alive. What a simple phrase. Pain and loss. Three words. Wes looked at Adren and then at the atium. Take some for himself? It seemed like a bad thing to do, to reduce his travels to a handful of atium.

He looked to the atium and scooped some that someone had dropped off of the ground. He felt a little empty. The violence, politics and compromises had gotten to him. It seemed so naive in retrospect to think it would end any other way than the big organisation taking everything for itself. Wes hugged himself. It was like a bully.

And that meant the trip was over. Wes idly remembered his entrance, when he’d ran from Mike, from that party. He’d abandoned his only friend. For what? A couple metal beads. He thought he was too exhausted to cry, but his eyes began tearing up nonetheless and he turned away from everyone to hide it, moving to a corner of the room. He still held his Kalea in the box and it peered at him as he took out his device, trying to stop his hand from trembling.

Are you there, Mike?

[+Sorana]

Althea hid a grimace when she watched the Underling turn away. She wouldn't leave without him, couldn't leave without him, but thankfully Adren's words gave her a good excuse to stay for a while longer.

"Get ready to leave." She told Wes in a quiet voice, and knew that Max would hear her words as well. The others - probably, but it didn't matter. It wasn't secret anyway. She shifted her weight to her other leg and looked at the woman, waited to see her reaction to Adren's proposal. She had picked up some atium, but if they were willing to hand over some more she wouldn't mind. In the end every single bead could proove helpful.

@kenod @Ookla the Maybe-Existent

[kenod]

Vita tilted her head slightly at man's question, thinking about it. It seemed like a decent idea. It wasn't that much Atium after all, at least not compared to what was still there, and getting the goodwill of these people could prove useful.
Finally she nodded. "I don't see any trouble with that," she said. "Though, in return, I'd request that you keep the existence of all this a secret, at least for now. I assume at least some word has gotten out," she said, looking at the leader of the CoC, who according to her info hadn't been with this group when they left, "but I at least want to avoid a gold rush. It would be... annoying, and it would pose a good chance of destroying all the other interesting parts of these caverns."

[+ZincAboutIt]

Corette had herded the remaining crowd either into a line for healing, or back towards the base camp. More than a few people seemed uneasy at the idea of a DA Denizen healing them; Corette could understand their trepidation, though it was misplaced. If the DA had wished to kill everyone, they hardly would have sent down an Acquisitions team.

So far, she had kept her distance from the team, and they had cooly avoided her as well. They knew the drill - she was out, on mission. It would disrupt the entire point if everyone acted as though they knew one another. Corette suspected that one or two people had already guessed her affiliation, but a guess was hardly a solid fact. The Elsecaller and her pet underling could guess at whatever they liked.

She moved into line behind Adren, feeling the sting on her arm from where she had ripped the geode free beneath the freezing black water. Corette didn't know this new woman personally, but then, she didn't know many people back in the Alleys. She spent more time outside than almost anyone else in the Department, at least as far as she could tell. Corette was pleased when the lead Denizen took Adren's advice. A little reward would go quite a long way towards keeping everyone else sweet, and there was hardly a shortage of the metal down here. 

"Alleycity Excavation won't be pleased," she said quietly, "but I doubt you'll find trouble with them. A public gold rush is hardly in their best interest either. It's my opinion that they knew about the possibility of the Atium since the disappearance of the first scouting group. They'll likely put up a stubborn front, but old Tycho and the rest of the Board aren't stupid. They know what your people can do. You shouldn't have more than a little trouble locking this place down, and that only so they can save face."

@kenod @ElephantEarwax

[kenod]

Vita examined the new woman, focusing her senses on her, paying special attention to the injury on her arm. Based on what she was told this was likely to be the operative that discovered the Atium, which would mean it was best to keep her... actual affiliation under wraps. Of course, those injuries on her arm were probably also what was making her skin crawl right now.

"That's good to know," she softly answered. "Makes things easier." Which was true. Sure, they could easily deal with the team down here, but losing support of ACE would make it a lot harder to get their claim on the Atium to stick, as well as making exploration of these caverns a whole lot more difficult.

"Can I..." She asked, holding out her hand a bit, looking at the woman's arm. "It's making my skin crawl right now."