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

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quote

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

@Voidus

[Voidus]

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

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

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

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

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

[Fatebreaker he/him]

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

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

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

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

@Fatebreaker

 

[Fatebreaker he/him]

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

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

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

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

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

[MacThorstenson he/him]

5 minutes ago, Fatebreaker said:

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

Quote

OH MY GOSH HE'S BACK.

We need a party.

We always need a party.

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

@Fatebreaker

[Fatebreaker he/him]

Quote

You're too kind, Mac 

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

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

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

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

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

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

@Fatebreaker

[Fatebreaker he/him]

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

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

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

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

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

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

She took the coin.

Quote

Last post of the evening!

 

[Fatebreaker he/him]

As she took the coin, from the Stranger's Shade, he grinned widely. 

"You'll do, Little Lita, you'll do." He turned and walked towards the door, stopping to look back at her. 

"Remember that this is bigger than anything else. It's bigger than people, guilds, wars; this is the pursuit of Secrets. This is Science. Keep it as your compass, and the Alleys will truly accept you." The door opened on it's own and he walked into the hallway.

"Tell Mac I said hi. He's been dealing with a lot lately and the real me hasn't visited in quite some time. Tell Laurelai that I appreciate her recent work in the Records, that's no easy task." He turned and gave her one last smile as the door slowly closed.

"And enjoy your cookie while it's warm."

[+ElephantEarwax he/him]

Spoiler

Nobody mentions the elephant in the room

I couldn't help myself... Im back for a day.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Lita watched the door close slowly, then eyed the cookie on the table. She picked it up - it was still warm, and the center felt soft. She sniffed it tentatively; it smelled amazing.

Hell, she thought, then shrugged and bit into it tentatively. The sound that escaped her mouth edged precariously close to obscenity, and any earlier caution was thrown to the wind. Lita's newest and most crucial objective was to cram as much of the cookie into her mouth as possible, chewing with reverence.

It was only after she had licked the crumbs off her fingers that something prickled in the back of her mind. Lita looked down at the coin in her hand, then crossed the room and opened the door, looking up and down the Alley outside. It was empty, of course. She closed the door and went to boil some more water for tea. As she waited, she flipped the coin, watching as the golden scales spun in the air. That uneasy feeling persisted, nettling her. It wasn't until she was back at the table, ready to tap the Alleycant medallion again, that it hit her.

My name, she realized with a shiver. Lita looked at the golden coin lying on the table. I never actually told him my name.

[Voidus]

Voidus shifted, his tired expression became stern as he stared at a corner of his office. Sudiov had been making more attempts at incursions in the Alleys themselves recently, likely not expecting any of them to work but even so it kept Voidus busy dealing with them. If any changes to some of their experiments were to occur it could set back decades of a Denizens research.

But this wasn't Sudiov, this was something different.

A feeling.

As a man of science, Voidus rarely relied on gut feelings or instincts, but there was something different about this one, it felt real like one of the Strangers hunches that he'd pitched while they were both exhausted after a long series of experiments, the hunches that almost universally turned out to be correct. Voidus hadn't had many hunches like that himself but he guessed that this was what it felt like.

Somehow, he knew that there were a number of dangerous figures in the Alleyverse. Dangerous in a different way than most. Beings that needed to be eliminated.

He swivelled around in his chair, seeming to peer through the walls that surrounded him to several more distant locations.

He'd need to start with the one the Ghostbloods had held captive.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Laurelai rubbed at her eyes as she closed the last record, SPI-4823 had been an interesting read but not important to what she needed. The questions that loomed at the back of her mind still itched at her, driving her to seek more information. But there was a time and a place for everything, and she had other places to be right now.

She returned the pile of records to storage, nodded to the denizens nearby and began making her way out. Even with the use of a Bronzemind medallion, she still hated pulling all-nighters like this, decades of experience told her that it was ultimately less useful than maintaining a consistent pace and allowing her mind to rest properly in between study-sessions.

She Alleytravelled back to her own quarters first, making a jug of coffee and pouring out one cup for herself. Then checking up on various notes that had arrived in her absence as she drank it. It seemed that a number of Denizens had mobilized last night, heading out to assist some church out beyond the city walls.

Must have been the field agents. They're the only ones who are free enough to do something like that on a whim.

She took note of the reports, devoting them to memory before burning them. She'd need to follow up on some of them later, and see what the outcome of the matters at the church had been.

But for now, she headed towards one of her hallways, jug of coffee in one hand, and a pair of cups in the other. Using the hallways as the starting point she Alleytravelled once more, almost losing some of the coffee in the frozen slopes of Alley 2378, before eventually arriving outside the pale-blue doors to Lita's quarters.

She knocked briskly on the door, a professional knock, though her full arms made it a little awkward.

"It's Laurelai!" She called out. "I've brought coffee."

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

4 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"It's Laurelai!" She called out. "I've brought coffee."

Lita jerked awake, peeling her cheek off the table. The Alleycant medallion was still strapped to her arm, but the pen had rolled off the table to who-knew-where. She stood, blearily rubbing one eye, and slid the gold coin off the table, flipping it absently as she crossed to the door and opened it.

"Good...morning?" Lita said, pulling the door open wider as she saw Laurelai had her hands full. The smell of coffee wafted in ahead of her. "Is it morning?"

[Fatebreaker he/him]

A faint voice could be heard echoing down the Alleys 

“Did we get mornings back?!?!?”

[Voidus]

 "Is it morning?" Lita asked as she opened the door, looking like she'd just woken up. There was an imprint on her cheek, as though she'd been lying on some solid surface for an extended period of time.

Laurelai smiled when she saw the other woman then stopped at her question, looking up at the sky. Was this one of the Alleys that had a diurnal cycle?

A dark roiling mass of gray met her gaze as she looked upwards, they seemed to momentarily form shapes but broke apart before any definite shape could be determined. The view held her attention for a few moments before she frowned and looked back towards Lita.

"Technically not it seems." She replied. "Excellent point. But it's morning in Alleycity at the moment."

“Did we get mornings back?!?!?” Another voice cried out from the distance.

Laurelai debated whether or not she should reply, there had been that one time that she'd replied to a vague voice in the distance that turned out to be one of the escaped Eldritch horrors that had tried to devour her existence. She decided to ignore this one to be safe.

"Ready for what the new day bring?" She asked Lita "Or do we need some motivation to get started?"

She shook the coffee pot invitingly

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

6 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"Ready for what the new day bring?" She asked Lita "Or do we need some motivation to get started?"

She shook the coffee pot invitingly

Lita pointed a finger at the coffee pot. "Definitely some motivation," she said, walking over to the small kitchen and getting a clean mug. She whisked the dirty cup of tea off the table and scrubbed the tiny spot of her own drool off the tabletop as well. No need to out herself as a slob so early in the game.

"Someone came by while you were away," Lita said, meeting Laurelai back in the main room. "Someone important, I think. He seemed very important, anyway. Either that or my hallucinations are beginning to produce coins." She held up the gold coin to Laurelai.

"Said his name was 'the Stranger,' and he told me to tell you that..." Lita squinted, thinking back to the odd dream-like conversation, "that he... appreciated your work in the records department, that was it. Anyway, he walked right through the door. Just about scared the wits out of me, actually."

[Voidus]

Laurelai poured herself a second cup along with one for Lita, still a little too hot to sip straight away she set it to one side as she listened.

"A stranger walked through your door? Or one of the actual Strangers? Did it have weird kind of black pits instead of eyes?"

Why would one of the Strangers be here, and how would she have noticed it if it did? I've never seen one before anyway. Wait did she say a Stranger? Or...

"Did you mean to say a stranger? Like someone you didn't know? Or did he actually introduce himself as..."

Laurelai trailed off, her eyes became unfocused as she thought the matter through. If the Stranger was back that was big news, the head of R&D had been gone for a long time, since well before she'd joined the Dark Alleys. Before she'd been born even. Should she report this? Who to? Mac? Someone in R&D? Voidus himself?

She shivered and took a deep breath, her hand relaxed from where it had been nervously gripping and twisting the hem of her dress, she started smoothing it back out.

"Did he say The Stranger?" She asked again.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Lita watched Laurelai's face carefully, holding her cup of coffee gingerly. It was hot.

Probably should turn off the tin, she thought absently. She'd been burning it all night, it seemed. Not good.

At her mention of The Stranger, the blonde woman seemed confused, then apprehensive, then downright anxious. Lita watched her twist the edge of her dress. Well, it seemed like this Stranger fellow was as important as he'd made himself out to be, if Laurelai's reaction was to be believed. Lita doubted she was faking - she was usually so unruffled and cool.

Lita took a tentative sip of the coffee, hissing as the heat of it seared her tongue. "Rusting hells," she swore quietly, glaring into the cup. She cleared her throat. "Yes, he called himself  'The Stranger.' Or, some kind of... shadow? He was real, but not..." 

Lita started flipping the coin again. "He must have been real enough, though. He gave me this." She caught it mid-flip, looking at the image of the balanced scales, recalling the other images that had cycled across the face of the coin: the world, the spiked skull, the sun. "He had a spike through one eye, real old-school. His other eye was...odd."

[Voidus]

"Rusting hells." Laurelai echoed.

What did this mean? Was the Stranger really back? And if so why hadn't anyone else heard about it yet? There were too many questions and too little information. She unconsciously cluthed at her dress once more as her eyes darted rapidly around the room, unfocussed but contemplating.

"We'll have to tell someone I suppose." She sighed, sliding her spanreed pen out. "But what to say..."

Suddenly she looked directly at Lita.

"Actually, I suppose this is good practice. Care to take a shot at it? We'll need to let Mac know at the least. I'm honestly not sure who else we should report this to."

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

It took Lita a moment to figure out what Laurelai was talking about. The pen, you moron. She set down the coffee cup and ducked under the table, feeling around for the pen; it was lurking behind one of the chair legs. 

"So what do I tell him?" Lita said, straightening back up, spanreed pen in hand. She'd tapped almost all of the Alleycant medallion and figured she could send a message, but the prospect of sending such sensitive news herself made her nervous. "'Good morning sir, hope you're well. Hate to bother you but the somewhat-real manifestation of an ancient missing demi-god visited me while I was having a cuppa. Regards, Lita.'"

She giggled, the sound coming out a bit more strangled and high than she had intended. Reflexively, she reached for the coffee, extinguishing her tin and filling her brassmind. The temperature instantly started to moderate, and she sipped gratefully, uncaring that the caffeine would likely make her more nervous.

 

[Voidus]

Laurelai cracked a smile as Lita spoke. It would definitely be amusing to see Mac when he received a message like that, but at the same time she knew he'd been busy with something recently, best not to put more stress on him than he needed.

"Something simple perhaps." She said. "Along the lines of 'I met with an entity that called itself the Stranger, though this is currently unconfirmed.' Simple is usually best."

Laurelai ran her hands through her hair for a moment before pausing to rub at her temples. More stress was not something she needed today. Who knew what would happen because of this? Would the structure of R&D change? It already changed pretty much every other week anyway, but it could be even worse now.

She took a large gulp of coffee, burning her mouth slightly as it hit her soft palate.