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

[MacThorstenson he/him]

17 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

 

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I have time over the next few days to RP this, my schedule is clearing up so I should be good.

Also, btw, using the @so and so feature doesnt work inside quote boxes. If you wan't to @ someone you need to do it outside of the box.

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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Thanks for the tip! I've also got plenty of time in the ensuing days, so yay!

Lita breathed a little easier when Mac walked in, looking disheveled but calm.

At least he isn't blue, Lita thought. Or missing a leg. She'd been taking so many things for granted her whole life, and she hadn't even known it. He mentioned something about penguins, which Lita decided to ignore.

Not my department.

She straightened up as he looked over to her and Laurelai, suddenly very aware that her right shirt sleeve was completely drenched in blood. In any other situation she'd have been mortified, but after meeting a blue man with horns and getting casually spiked by a fellow with a peg-leg, Lita decided to just pretend that nothing was amiss. At the mention of alleytravel, Lita felt the full scope of her attention narrow in on Mac. Now that was something that seemed infinitely convenient. 

Lita accepted a spanreed pen and copper medallion from the blue R&D member and decided to put her fur wrap back on. These laboratory rooms were cold. She slid the pen into her skirt pocket and tied the little medallion onto her left arm above her brass metalmind bracer.

"It has certainly been an illuminating couple of hours," she said. At least, she thought it had only been a few hours. She bit her lip, then shrugged.

@MacThorstenson

[MacThorstenson he/him]

"It has certainly been an illuminating couple of hours," She said.

Mac decided that it would probably be best for her to retain her sanity a little longer, so he didn't mention that this R&D Laboratory was outside of the normal time stream.

Instead he grinned, "You have no idea. Follow me please." He walked to the door of the lab and opened it up into what appeared to be an infinite blackness with a single white path. Before walking out onto the path he turned around, staring at her.

"Do not, under any circumstances, step off of the path. Alley 7+86i is an interesting one, as you will soon find out. But do not leave the path." He then started walking down the alley. Like most of the imaginary alleys, this one changed after every step. Every step he took the color of the path and and the void surrounding it changed randomly. Thankfully he was not epileptic, or else he would have been in trouble.

He walked about 100 yards then stopped and opened an invisible door next to the path. This one was a door to the more traditional alleys. The ones with integers as their labels. These just looked like normal city alleys. Once there he waited for Lita to arrive.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

1 hour ago, MacThorstenson said:

"Do not, under any circumstances, step off of the path. Alley 7+86i is an interesting one, as you will soon find out. But do not leave the path." He then started walking down the alley.

Lita peered down the strange black alley with its white pathway and turned on a light burn of tin. She regretted it the moment she stepped out of the doorway, as the walls and pathway flashed in a dizzying array of color and light. Lita extinguished her tin, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment and willing her feet to remain exactly where they were. She opened her eyes; Mac was down the path a ways.

The floor between them felt oddly insubstantial, like it wasn't quite real. Lita narrowed her eyes to slits and concentrated on her feet. The colors on the pathway pulsed with the rolling beat of her own steps. She walked, hardly daring to blink, until she arrived where Mac stood next to a doorway into another alley. Thankfully, this one looked normal.

Nothing here is normal, she reminded herself. Lita looked up at the suited man, pushing her glasses further up her nose so she could see properly. Colorful spots popped and danced before her eyes, and she blinked hard, shaking her head a bit. 

[Voidus]

On 3/9/2019 at 5:30 AM, Inky said:

Aliela walks in here, looking for supplies

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Is Aliela affiliated with the DA prior to this? Otherwise this may end very badly

 

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Also sorry again for my absence, was taking the weekend to relax mostly so haven't been on much. But I should be a little more free from now on so hopefully I can reply a little faster.

Laurelai followed a short distance behind, far enough that she hopefully wouldn't distract Lita but close enough to help if needed. Like most of the more senior Denizens of the DA, Mac didn't exactly have a full grasp on what most people considered normal. She still remembered the headache it had caused when he'd taken her through that Alley that let her peer into an infinite number of herself peering back. It turned out that staring into an infinite abyss of probabilities tended to significantly alter the Identity of those who weren't used to it. She'd had to redesign all of her stamps so they still worked on her.

Entering one of the non-complex Alleys once more she let out a small sigh of relief. Learning more about the Alleys in the past two years had done little for her sense of vertigo and unease. It had made it worse in some ways. Walking through a hall of multi-hued lights was weird, knowing what those lights were?

Well, perhaps some lessons should wait until a bit later.

[old man moomba he/him]

A large shipment of Handwavium was transported past Mac and Lita.

[MacThorstenson he/him]

5 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Lita peered down the strange black alley with its white pathway and turned on a light burn of tin. She regretted it the moment she stepped out of the doorway, as the walls and pathway flashed in a dizzying array of color and light. Lita extinguished her tin, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment and willing her feet to remain exactly where they were. She opened her eyes; Mac was down the path a ways.

The floor between them felt oddly insubstantial, like it wasn't quite real. Lita narrowed her eyes to slits and concentrated on her feet. The colors on the pathway pulsed with the rolling beat of her own steps. She walked, hardly daring to blink, until she arrived where Mac stood next to a doorway into another alley. Thankfully, this one looked normal.

Nothing here is normal, she reminded herself. Lita looked up at the suited man, pushing her glasses further up her nose so she could see properly. Colorful spots popped and danced before her eyes, and she blinked hard, shaking her head a bit. 

Mac raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"I genuinely did not expect you to keep your sanity. Most people break after having the normal concepts of space and time broken down before their eyes." He clasped his hands, and started walking down the alley. "You don't need to worry about your sanity or safety here. This is alley 5937. We keep it specially for training people to alleytravel.

Now, on to alleytraveling.

To alleytravel, you need to understand a few things about the alleys. The biggest and first thing is that the alleys are fluid. They are always changing and shifting depending on a variety of things. In fact, the alley's may be similar to electrons in that they are in a constant state of flux when they aren't observed.

Why is this important? Because it allows you to know that where ever you want the alleys to take you they can. The path doesn't need to be logical, it doesn't even need to hav been there yesterday. The alleys can make it.

The second is that the alleys are everywhere. They can connect to every single alleyway in the entire multiverse. They connect to even more than alleyways, but that's not important right now. What's important is that they can take you from every place, to every other place. They are an ever shifting labyrinth that has infinite entrances that you can control with your mind," He paused for a breath, "Once you know those two things, all it takes is believing them. Once you truly believe them, you can alleytravel. All it takes is concentrating with an obscene amount of strength on where you want to go and how you want to get there.

So right now, I want you to think about where we are now. Once you have that in your mind, I will take you to a different alley. Then, I want you to believe with all of your strength that they alleys will bend to your will. That they will move you there. Then, holding that thought in your mind, start walking forward and turn when you feel like you should. Don't worry about getting lost and getting killed in horrible ways. This is a safe space to practice." Mac stopped talking and looked at her with concern.

Most people didn't make it. They would get lost, accidentally look into the void, or walk into an eldritch horror. It was a shame to risk their lives with this. If we had to kill them it might as well be in the name of science. 

Lita had so much potential too. But it had to be done. This was as much a measure of aptitude as it was them learning how to alleytravel. It would tell Mac how many supplements to give her.

Hoping that she had gotten familiar with their surroundings enough to will herself back there. Mac motioned for her to follow him, then started walking. After about 3 steps everything changed. The walls were no longer slabs of concrete, they were bricks. The sky grew more blue, and the ground turned to dirt. Mac closed the path that they had just walked through then said, "I will come find you in 5 minutes if you can't get back." With that he disappeared.

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Edit: May not be able to respond today. Maybe.

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by MacThorstenson

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

"They are an ever shifting labyrinth that has infinite entrances that you can control with your mind," Mac paused for a breath, "Once you know those two things, all it takes is believing them. Once you truly believe them, you can alleytravel. All it takes is concentrating with an obscene amount of strength on where you want to go and how you want to get there."

Ahh, Lita thought, nodding. It's like a con job. Convincing the world to let her have her way was something Lita had been doing for years. She'd watched her father soothe people since before she could walk, pushing one way so that someone would go another. She was no Soother, but she'd done her best with the gifts she was given. These alleys already had everything she needed - she just had to push the right way. 

A doorway to anywhere. Lita closed her eyes and burned tin as soon as Mac told her to concentrate on her surroundings. She scuffed her foot along the stone floor of the alley, felt the cool dampness of the concrete slabs on either side. There was a slight breeze - small, just enough to raise the hair on her arms and tickle her extra-sensitive skin. The air smelled cold, like iron and threatening rain. In between Mac's words, Lita concentrated on the silence of the alley. A hollow sound, almost empty. She opened her eyes again, memorizing the grey stone floor, the lighter grey walls, the dim sky. 

She walked forward three steps, and felt the world change. The walls were brick, red as rust. The sky brightened, bluer now, and the air seemed drier. Dirt crunched beneath the soles of her shoes, dusty and hard.

Mac closed the path that they had just walked through then said, "I will come find you in 5 minutes if you can't get back." With that he disappeared.

Lita wrinkled her nose. "Rusting dirty trick, that," she mumbled, kicking a small rock towards where he'd been standing. She blew out a deep breath, then squared her shoulders.Concentrate. She did so, recalling the smooth cobbles of the last alley, the dampness of concrete slab that never saw enough sunlight. The hollowness of the air, almost empty, like a bottle with one last sip of wine left. She remembered being there. She was there already, in her mind. Now, she just had to convince the rest of the world.

Lita stepped forward, and the world stretched around her, then broke like wet parchment. The ground beneath her feet felt small, like a highwire, or a plank laid out over open air. She was balanced over something vast and uncaring. Blackness seeped into the corners of her vision, tugging at her mind. It whispered to her, quiet and certain as a creeping nightmare, calling her to look up, begging her to look up, commanding her to just look up.

She felt her mouth open in what should have been a scream, fists clenched, nails digging into her palms, and still she walked forward. She looked forward, only forward. The alley, she had to get to the alley. It was cool and damp. Air like winter rain. Cobblestones. The sky... the sky was...grey...

Turn. Turn now. NOW! Lita felt her feet pivot automatically, and she stepped off her highwire, plummeting into --

Her palms hit dark cobblestones, then her knees. Pain. A cold breeze shocked her skin - she'd started flaring her tin at some point. This was the alley... this was the alley, the right one. 5937. Concrete slabs rose to either side of her, and the sky had dimmed again to its damp grey. The sound though, it didn't sound right. That was when Lita realized she was still screaming. She stopped, coughed, then sat quietly in the center of the alley and let herself weep.

@MacThorstenson

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Last post of the night.  

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Just re-read some of the above posts and realized Laurelai is probably still in this alley, watching Lita re-appear out of nowhere and have a rather overdue breakdown. Feel free to chime in or just watch her re-sort her perception of reality. Yaaay new skills.

@Voidus

Edited March 12, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[Fatebreaker he/him]

@ZincAboutIt

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Is the the R&D Alley, or a different one?

 

[MacThorstenson he/him]

9 minutes ago, Fatebreaker said:

@ZincAboutIt

 

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I moved her to  different alley to practice alleytravel.

 

 

[Fatebreaker he/him]

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Ok, I thought that she had traveled back to the other Alley.

 

[old man moomba he/him]

The Handwavium was annhilated by Mac's lengthy explaination. 

"Hey," the man who had forgotten his name shouted "Don't you know how unstable raw Handwavium is? Now I'll have to go get some more!" 

He fell backwards through a door that lay on the ground. The door then folded itself into a wooden paper crane and flew away.

[kenod]

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Since when does the DA have handwavium? We're scientists, we don't need it. Some of the tech companies and militaries on the other hand...

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by kenod

[old man moomba he/him]

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I mean, where else would you get it? Seems like the Alleys are where it comes from. 

 

[kenod]

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Apparently it doesn't though, since we don't use it, and others seem to be using rather large amounts of it. And since the DA doesn't sell the stuff, and trying to steal from us would make the term suicidal into a severe understatement, it seems it's acquired somewhere outside of the alleys.

 

[old man moomba he/him]

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Well where does it come from? 

I like the idea of it being produced in the Alleys. It fits better here than anywhere else.

 

[kenod]

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So, quick question. Do you want Handwavium as an actual canon thing here, or is the whole Handwavium thing just a type of joking around?

 

[+Ark1002]

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*Coughtraitorcough*

 

[kenod]

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Says the person who's both a GB and DA member himself, and whose ex-replacement leader was a GB and DA member too.

 

[+Ark1002]

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Just now, kenod said:

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. 

 

[MacThorstenson he/him]

On 3/11/2019 at 11:43 PM, ZincAboutIt said:

"They are an ever shifting labyrinth that has infinite entrances that you can control with your mind," Mac paused for a breath, "Once you know those two things, all it takes is believing them. Once you truly believe them, you can alleytravel. All it takes is concentrating with an obscene amount of strength on where you want to go and how you want to get there."

Ahh, Lita thought, nodding. It's like a con job. Convincing the world to let her have her way was something Lita had been doing for years. She'd watched her father soothe people since before she could walk, pushing one way so that someone would go another. She was no Soother, but she'd done her best with the gifts she was given. These alleys already had everything she needed - she just had to push the right way. 

A doorway to anywhere. Lita closed her eyes and burned tin as soon as Mac told her to concentrate on her surroundings. She scuffed her foot along the stone floor of the alley, felt the cool dampness of the concrete slabs on either side. There was a slight breeze - small, just enough to raise the hair on her arms and tickle her extra-sensitive skin. The air smelled cold, like iron and threatening rain. In between Mac's words, Lita concentrated on the silence of the alley. A hollow sound, almost empty. She opened her eyes again, memorizing the grey stone floor, the lighter grey walls, the dim sky. 

She walked forward three steps, and felt the world change. The walls were brick, red as rust. The sky brightened, bluer now, and the air seemed drier. Dirt crunched beneath the soles of her shoes, dusty and hard.

Mac closed the path that they had just walked through then said, "I will come find you in 5 minutes if you can't get back." With that he disappeared.

Lita wrinkled her nose. "Rusting dirty trick, that," she mumbled, kicking a small rock towards where he'd been standing. She blew out a deep breath, then squared her shoulders.Concentrate. She did so, recalling the smooth cobbles of the last alley, the dampness of concrete slab that never saw enough sunlight. The hollowness of the air, almost empty, like a bottle with one last sip of wine left. She remembered being there. She was there already, in her mind. Now, she just had to convince the rest of the world.

Lita stepped forward, and the world stretched around her, then broke like wet parchment. The ground beneath her feet felt small, like a highwire, or a plank laid out over open air. She was balanced over something vast and uncaring. Blackness seeped into the corners of her vision, tugging at her mind. It whispered to her, quiet and certain as a creeping nightmare, calling her to look up, begging her to look up, commanding her to just look up.

She felt her mouth open in what should have been a scream, fists clenched, nails digging into her palms, and still she walked forward. She looked forward, only forward. The alley, she had to get to the alley. It was cool and damp. Air like winter rain. Cobblestones. The sky... the sky was...grey...

Turn. Turn now. NOW! Lita felt her feet pivot automatically, and she stepped off her highwire, plummeting into --

Her palms hit dark cobblestones, then her knees. Pain. A cold breeze shocked her skin - she'd started flaring her tin at some point. This was the alley... this was the alley, the right one. 5937. Concrete slabs rose to either side of her, and the sky had dimmed again to its damp grey. The sound though, it didn't sound right. That was when Lita realized she was still screaming. She stopped, coughed, then sat quietly in the center of the alley and let herself weep.

@MacThorstenson

@Voidus

Mac appeared back where they started, next to Laurelai. He never really liked this part of the process. There wasn't too much that could go wrong, but what could go wrong was absolutely terrifying. It was a very efficient system when you thought about it. They would either make it back and be fully useful, or they would make it back and be broken so terribly that we didn't need to worry about them. 

Or they didn't make it back at all. 

Suddenly with a clap like thunder Lita appeared and collapsed, screaming. Mac reflexively warped 10 feet back, confused. That never happened. There was never sound, no indication of change. Alleytravel was instantaneous. It wasn't even clear if it was temporal. 

He slowly walked toward the weeping figure on the ground, trying to make sure she wasn't possessed. What had happened there? People never came back like this. They were either comatose, dead, or insane, but never screaming and crying. 

"What happened back there?" He asked softly. "Are you alright? Tell me what happened."

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So sorry for the late reply, the last few days were hectic irl.

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

8 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Mac appeared back where they started, next to Laurelai. He never really liked this part of the process. There wasn't too much that could go wrong, but what could go wrong was absolutely terrifying. It was a very efficient system when you thought about it. They would either make it back and be fully useful, or they would make it back and be broken so terribly that we didn't need to worry about them. 

Or they didn't make it back at all. 

Suddenly with a clap like thunder Lita appeared and collapsed, screaming. Mac reflexively warped 10 feet back, confused. That never happened. There was never sound, no indication of change. Alleytravel was instantaneous. It wasn't even clear if it was temporal. 

He slowly walked toward the weeping figure on the ground, trying to make sure she wasn't possessed. What had happened there? People never came back like this. They were either comatose, dead, or insane, but never screaming and crying. 

"What happened back there?" He asked softly. "Are you alright? Tell me what happened."

Lita turned, hastily wiping her eyes and getting up. She felt heat creep up her neck, and hiccuped as she tried to calm herself down. The concern in his voice was unexpected, and somehow made her feel even more foolish. 

"I..." Lita began, then stopped. What had happened? She looked down at her hands - she still had all her fingers. The rest of her looked unhurt as well, apart from the heels of her palms, which were red and raw where they'd broken her fall. "I don't know. It was..."Her hands moved around one another as she tried to find the words, almost like she was untying a large knot. "It was like that feeling, like something is following you. And you want to look, you really want to look, but you don't, you can't."

You've bungled it royally now, that little voice whispered. They probably think you've gone round the twist

She shrugged, trying - and failing - to look nonchalant. "Probably should've turned the tin off first," she mumbled. "Won't -" she hiccuped again. "Won't happen again."

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Hope I didn't accidentally break the rules of alleytravelling. I'm more than happy to back-edit this to fit within the scope. And no worries on response time! I'm currently riding a pretty high fever so apologies if my writing isn't that refined. 

 

[MacThorstenson he/him]

2 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Lita turned, hastily wiping her eyes and getting up. She felt heat creep up her neck, and hiccuped as she tried to calm herself down. The concern in his voice was unexpected, and somehow made her feel even more foolish. 

"I..." Lita began, then stopped. What had happened? She looked down at her hands - she still had all her fingers. The rest of her looked unhurt as well, apart from the heels of her palms, which were red and raw where they'd broken her fall. "I don't know. It was..."Her hands moved around one another as she tried to find the words, almost like she was untying a large knot. "It was like that feeling, like something is following you. And you want to look, you really want to look, but you don't, you can't."

You've bungled it royally now, that little voice whispered. They probably think you've gone round the twist

She shrugged, trying - and failing - to look nonchalant. "Probably should've turned the tin off first," she mumbled. "Won't -" she hiccuped again. "Won't happen again."

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No don't worry about breaking the rules! There are none . I didn't tell you about how it should be on purpose.

Mac breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok, that's good. At least you didn't look into the void. You shouldn't have gotten that close to it this time, but you did the right thing. Someday you will be able to look into the void, but generally it means certain death. The tin also shouldn't have been an issue. But can you describe to me your thought process? What did you think you were doing?" Internally he sighed. That came out wrong. "Sorry, bad phrasing. When you thought about alleytravel, did you think about it like you were just walking? Like you were folding origami? One guy even says its a bit like baking a cake for him. So what did you think it was like?"

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

3 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

Mac breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok, that's good. At least you didn't look into the void. You shouldn't have gotten that close to it this time, but you did the right thing. Someday you will be able to look into the void, but generally it means certain death. The tin also shouldn't have been an issue. But can you describe to me your thought process? What did you think you were doing?" Internally he sighed. That came out wrong. "Sorry, bad phrasing. When you thought about alleytravel, did you think about it like you were just walking? Like you were folding origami? One guy even says its a bit like baking a cake for him. So what did you think it was like?"

Lita chewed her lip and thought. "It was like walking on a narrow plank," she said quietly, "laid out over a high drop. One foot in front of the other. Eyes only ever on the plank. Never at the ground below."

She absently undid her braid and brushed her fingers through her hair, then started plaiting it up again. The tension on each section of hair felt good, everything being corded and woven into its place. "I thought about this place," she said, still braiding. "I did as you said. I remembered it down to the way this alley sounds. It was there, in my mind. Then when I started walking, it felt like any step in the wrong direction and..." She trailed off, fastening the end of her braid with a little leather tie. "Well, I imagine 'falling off' would result in something worse than a broken arm."

[MacThorstenson he/him]

1 minute ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Lita chewed her lip and thought. "It was like walking on a narrow plank," she said quietly, "laid out over a high drop. One foot in front of the other. Eyes only ever on the plank. Never at the ground below."

She absently undid her braid and brushed her fingers through her hair, then started plaiting it up again. The tension on each section of hair felt good, everything being corded and woven into its place. "I thought about this place," she said, still braiding. "I did as you said. I remembered it down to the way this alley sounds. It was there, in my mind. Then when I started walking, it felt like any step in the wrong direction and..." She trailed off, fastening the end of her braid with a little leather tie. "Well, I imagine 'falling off' would result in something worse than a broken arm."

"Not here it wouldn't. The alleys are safer here, so if you had stepped off it wouldn't have been too bad. But it would have been irritating. But you aren't answering my question. Im not phrasing it the best way, but I need to know what you thought it was like. 

For some people, when they start trying to alley travel, they think of themselves manipulating something. And that is how they believe that the alleys are under their control. One guy a while back thought of it like a con-job, but he was a mess for a variety of reasons. There needs to be something that you think you are doing, whether its playing with clay or baking a cake, otherwise you can't manipulate the alleys without knowing their true nature. And that takes forever to figure out. So what is it for you?"