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

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

Sierra was surprised. Another hallucination? She was beginning to doubt that she was actually insane. But... if she wasn't crazy then... These were real people. One covered in blood and babbling about baked goods, the other... Well, who knew what he was like. Sierra paled. These people were certifiably insane! What was she doing? She felt her breath shorten, but then her eyes fell on the coffee machine.

Food.

Her mouth began to water. She hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon. And later that evening, she'd thrown it all up. Her stomach rumbled and she curled her fingers around one arm. Maybe these people were insane... But Vivica had been kind to her. That wasn't something that just happened. The question again - Why me? - rolled around in her head as she eyed Grey with her quiet, hard, amber eyes. She said nothing. 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica's eyes lit up when she saw the coffee machine, and she beamed at Grey. Bennington seemed to share her enthusiasm, swimming three quick loops around Grey's head before floating back down near Vivica's left shoulder. Grey was one of the few denizens who could actually see Bennington - probably due to his telepathy. And he was always so polite. Bennington may have been a hallucination, but that didn't mean he didn't have feelings. Some people had even tried to tell Vivica that Bennington wasn't even real. That was just plain rude.

She let out a little squeak of joy, then looked back at Sierra. The young woman had gone rather stiff, looking from Vivica to Grey to the coffee maker with increasing levels of alarm. It was probably the prospect of drinking literally the best coffee ever. Surely, it couldn't be Vivica that had Sierra alarmed. She looked toward Grey, thinking. The man's face was a bit unorthodox, she supposed, covered as it was in grey tentacles. But his one red eye was just so full of character - it couldn't be him. Vivica gently prodded the girl in through the doorway, then shut the door behind them before darting across the breakroom floor.

"This is gonna knock your socks off," she said, preparing the coffee in the machine and setting out two cups. Bennington floated above the machine hopefully, but Vivica gave him a little shake of the head. "No, Bennington. Don't you remember the last time you tried coffee? I'm not going looking for you again. There's only so many imaginary Alleys a girl can walk through before she goes crazy! Do you want me to go crazy, Bennington?"

She looked over her shoulder with a sheepish grin. "Sorry about him," she said apologetically, then gestured towards Sierra. "Grey, this is Sierra. I found her in one of the outer Alleys - I think she was stabbing someone." Vivica shrugged. "Anyway, I really owe you one, Grey. I think I might be able to make it up to you though. I had the best biscotti idea. I think it could really take this coffee to a whole new level of immersive experience."

Vivica poured one cup of coffee, then handed it to Sierra before filling one for herself. She noticed that Grey already had a cup. The lucky duck, in here all day long with this thing. Clever, too. I bet he has to sleep almost as little as I do!

@Shard of Thought @Snipexe

[Voidus]

Voidus' eyes suddenly refocused. He realised he'd been lost in his reminiscence, who knew for how long. With such a skewed perception of time it wouldn't be difficult for him to become lost in memory for a year without noticing. But based on the state of the office it didn't seem to be that long, perhaps only a few minutes. Paperwork still awaited completion in a pile nearby, reports that needed to be viewed, requests that needed to be seen, experiments that needed to be conducted. The flood never seemed to cease.

But that professor... what was the name again? Forgotten. Like so much else it's lost to time. Will I forget this too if I live long enough? Forget the city, the DA, Mac?

He reluctantly pulled a sheet of paper towards himself, best not to get lost in thought again. Work would be something to do with his mind at least, something to stop his mental wandering. It was difficult but he forced his eyes to follow the writing, reading through the report in its entirety. Usually after having scanned it he would move on to the next, his intervention was rarely required, but on this report he stopped. The slightest of furrows formed at his brow as he reread the document.

"Missing buildings? Just one could be a mistake, but this recurrence..."

He tapped a pen against the desk as he read through the details, paying closer attention than he usually did with such reports. The fact that people were vanishing was nothing too concerning, people vanished every day in the city after all, but the possible implications of this were more troubling. If this was happening on a large scale then it could mean something was wrong, potentially very wrong.

"I thought we'd finished that machine before Plasmacore had done any damage." Voidus said, still tapping his pen thoughtfully. "Could we have missed something? Something small that cascaded over time?"

Time had a habit of causing problems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A long time ago, etc.

A pair of wide eyes stared at Voidus, at the black substance that he seemed to be emitting. The eyes were a mix of confusion, incredulity and fear but it seemed that curiosity was what won out eventually. The owner of the eyes blinked and seemed to recover the mobility of his body, clearing his voice after a few failed at speaking he looked Voidus directly in the eyes.

"What is that?" The Professor asked.

Voidus gave a wide smile in response, holding both arms out to encompass the darkness that surrounded him. He seemed to almost fade into that darkness, to become one with the very concept itself. Darkness in human form, with a pair of grinning teeth.

"That is nothing." Voidus replied. "Well, more specifically it's what you might call a void. The Void."

The Professor just stared back in mute shock, unprepared for any of this explanation, unsure of how to react. Unsure if this was even real. He brought a hand up to his face, waving it around and staring at it as it moved. After a few repeated attempts at this he shook his head, either unsatisfied or realizing that it wouldn't prove anything.

"The void?" He asked. "But what is it? Some kind of trick? Smoke?"

He took a hesitant step forward, trying to examine where the darkness was coming from, what could possibly be causing it, but at the same time something primal in him told him to move back, move away. Curiosity and instinct warred with each other, leaving him paralyzed by indecision. But as Voidus continued to smile the fear seemed to win out this time and the Professor took a step back to where he had started.

"Am I seeing things?" He asked. "Head trauma from the accident?"

"Not quite." Voidus replied, still smiling. "Though I suppose in a way your 'accident' is the cause of all this. What you did in that moment is something few people rarely embrace, and those that do usually don't survive the experience."

The Professor's eyes stared blankly back, confused. He didn't seem to understand what was happening, where this conversation was going or who exactly Voidus was.

"This will take some time for you I'm sure." Voidus continued. "But in that moment you gained something, or access to something."

All of a sudden the darkness vanished as though it had never been. The lighting returned to normal, that strange pressure vanished. Nothing was disturbed, and for a moment it seemed to the Professor as though the entire thing had been his imagination. But then Voidus held one hand out, palm upwards. And resting in that palm was just the faintest trail of some kind of dark thread, a thread that extended from the palm directly into the Professor's chest.

"Voidmaking it's called." Voidus was staring intently now, eyes fixated on that tiny thread. "And if you're willing, I'd like to teach you a little more about it."

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

19 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Vivica's eyes lit up when she saw the coffee machine, and she beamed at Grey. Bennington seemed to share her enthusiasm, swimming three quick loops around Grey's head before floating back down near Vivica's left shoulder. Grey was one of the few denizens who could actually see Bennington - probably due to his telepathy. And he was always so polite. Bennington may have been a hallucination, but that didn't mean he didn't have feelings. Some people had even tried to tell Vivica that Bennington wasn't even real. That was just plain rude.

She let out a little squeak of joy, then looked back at Sierra. The young woman had gone rather stiff, looking from Vivica to Grey to the coffee maker with increasing levels of alarm. It was probably the prospect of drinking literally the best coffee ever. Surely, it couldn't be Vivica that had Sierra alarmed. She looked toward Grey, thinking. The man's face was a bit unorthodox, she supposed, covered as it was in grey tentacles. But his one red eye was just so full of character - it couldn't be him. Vivica gently prodded the girl in through the doorway, then shut the door behind them before darting across the breakroom floor.

"This is gonna knock your socks off," she said, preparing the coffee in the machine and setting out two cups. Bennington floated above the machine hopefully, but Vivica gave him a little shake of the head. "No, Bennington. Don't you remember the last time you tried coffee? I'm not going looking for you again. There's only so many imaginary Alleys a girl can walk through before she goes crazy! Do you want me to go crazy, Bennington?"

She looked over her shoulder with a sheepish grin. "Sorry about him," she said apologetically, then gestured towards Sierra. "Grey, this is Sierra. I found her in one of the outer Alleys - I think she was stabbing someone." Vivica shrugged. "Anyway, I really owe you one, Grey. I think I might be able to make it up to you though. I had the best biscotti idea. I think it could really take this coffee to a whole new level of immersive experience."

Vivica poured one cup of coffee, then handed it to Sierra before filling one for herself. She noticed that Grey already had a cup. The lucky duck, in here all day long with this thing. Clever, too. I bet he has to sleep almost as little as I do!

@Shard of Thought @Snipexe

Sierra took the coffee. The cup felt comfortably warm in her bony fingers. She wetted her lips with her tongue and took a small sip, the warm liquid racing down her system. It pushed away her chills, calmed her. Her shoulders relaxed as some of her apprehension melted away. She quickly took another sip. And another. Then, she turned her eyes upward, at the two strangers who were with her, suddenly realizing that she wouldn't know where to run to if something happened. Her stomach rumbled and she took another sip, staying silent. 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica cradled the cup of coffee in her hands, savoring the warmth that spread through her fingers, then took a sip.

As always, it was perfect. She stood there for a moment, eyes closed, just tasting it. Full-bodied but not bitter, and so many minute tastes it was like a symphony in her mouth. Vivica smiled, opened her eyes, and took another sip. Sierra seemed to have relaxed a little with the coffee in hand, which was good. This was the best coffee in existence, after all. If this couldn't comfort her, well, the girl might actually be dead.

"Right, well, I'm not sure about you, but I feel much better. Just what a brain needs for some thinking, eh? Actually, while we're here, maybe Grey will have an answer to your question. He's awfully clever, always thinking about things." Vivica smiled at Grey, watching as Bennington bobbed over to him and attempted to float into his cup of coffee. She shot the little octopus a warning look, and Bennington drooped a bit but kept himself up around Grey's shoulder.

"She wants to know 'Why me?' Or, well, why her, I assume. Not me, that wouldn't make any sense. Sierra's got some big questions - my kinda girl. Once we figure this one out, she'll be asking even better questions like, 'What happens when you give someone two sets of memories?' or 'Can you permanently transplant someone's ability to feel pain into another person?' or 'Can a walrus become a Tin Savant?' The answer to that last one is, unfortunately, yes, and I've been told that we should never replicate that experiment again, but, well, nothing ventured." 

She gave a little laugh. 

@Snipexe @Shard of Thought

[Voidus]

Quote

I think any DA experiment involving Arctic animals is doomed to failure. First the penguins, now the Walrus.

 

[Snipexe he/him]

Grey watched Bennington spin through the air around him before responding to Vivica.

“Why you, Sierra? I think you know the answer. Vivica said she found you stabbing someone. I don’t know much about the killing, or much about you, but I can say this. It shook you to the core. I could see it in your face, as you entered, in the way you shy away form us, while hanging on our every word. Your world has begun to crumble. You’ve torn down one of the foundations and it turns out it was load bearing, and now the whole thing is coming down around you. Whether or not we are partially responsible for said demolition is besides the point, though I would suspect that it would come down anyway, with or without our help. This is fact, even if you’re denying it as I speak.” He paused, taking a sip of coffee with his tentacles, and letting his words sink in.
@ZincAboutIt @Shard of Thought

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

A single tear escaped Sierra's eye, but she didn't feel it at all. Her already pallid face whitened further and she took another long, slow sip of coffee, trying to warm herself from his chilling words. She did want to deny it. She wanted to hide behind the collar of her coat, wanted to run away, to go back and prove to herself that Theresa wasn't dead. That she hadn't just murdered the one person who was ever kind to her and that she hadn't let her emotions get in the way of her three truths; she deserved everything that happened to her, Theresa was better than her (that's why she had been successful, after all, while Sierra had withered away), and there was nothing Sierra could do to change those things. She tried to move her fingers toward the handle of her whip, but found that her fingers were still numb and wet with her sister's blood. She couldn't deny it. And she hated that with all her heart. 

Sierra looked down at her skates. "How do you know those things?" she asked, a dangerous, yet broken tone in her voice. Her own vulnerability scared her. This wasn't her! Where was her ability to shove the emotions away? Why couldn't she find her resilience? 

@Snipexe @ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica nodded as Grey spoke, sipping her coffee and watching Sierra slowly fracture before the both of them. As usual, Grey was spot-on. There was a small part of her heart that felt some pity for the young woman, but it was tied to a place that Vivica did not wish to look at too closely. Breaking... yes, Vivica knew about breaking. The memories were strange, faded things, swirling and black like dark fog. Or smoke...

Smoke curling up under the door, smoke in the air, smoke clinging to Vivica's hair as she clawed her way free from the wreckage. So much noise, everywhere noise - screaming, crying, the hungry snap of fire chewing its way through wooden planking. A cold heat spreading down the left side of her head, running down into the collar of her night dress - 

She blinked herself out of the memory, shocked by a slight burning on her hand. Vivica looked down; she'd slopped coffee over the rim of her mug. Her hand was shaking. That was odd. Vivica could feel her heart starting to race, her breath coming a little harder now, a little shorter. Bennington lifted off from his place above Grey's shoulder and began zipping around in slight agitation, his wide luminous eyes taking on a hint of worry. The little octopus had started to fade, his body becoming more and more transparent with each passing second. He wiggled his tentacles in alarm, focusing on a spot behind Vivica. She took another sip of coffee, hands still shaking, trying to stave off what she knew was coming.

The memories continued to leak out of their prison, driving Vivica further and further away from the lovely lucidity she'd managed over the last few weeks. She'd escaped the dreams long ago, but her past would still demand its due one way or another. Vivica tried to calm herself, taking deep breaths, focusing on Grey, on the coffee, on Sierra - Sierra didn't need to see her like this. It was simply rude to come apart in front of a guest. She reached into a pocket, pulling out a ginger snap. No, wait, that was a spike. Oh, dear.

"Grey?" She said, voice shaking, coffee now splashing all over her wrist and dripping down onto the floor. The burning only fed her memories, driving her further and further toward terror. And once she was past terror, she would reach a place that no one would enjoy. "Do you perhaps have a closet I could stand in for a moment? Someplace small. There's just - just so much space out here, all of a sudden, you know?" 

@Snipexe @Shard of Thought

[Snipexe he/him]

“How do I know? Because I see it here every day. Because there are many of us who have gone through what you have. And additionally, these aren’t just for looks.” He said, gesturing to his tentacles, then hearing Vivica’s question. “We have an existential crisis closet just this way,” he said leading her by the shoulder to the door and pointing down the hall to the door. “If someone has eaten the stock of cookies, just yell. People keep forgetting to replace them, so I have extras on hand.”
He returned and resumed what he had been saying. “The fact of the matter Sierra is, there are a lot of denizens here like you. However there is one thing that makes them different, one thing that sets them apart from the rest of the broken. They have drive. They have a desire to push themselves and the borders of understanding to new limits. They have taken the shards of their broken world and forged a new one. They’ve taken the broken wings that melted in the sun and used them to construct a interstellar spaceship So now we return to you. Do you have this drive, this desire. Do you, Sierra, think you can take your foundations, those few scraps that are left, tear them to ground and build something new? Or will you clutch onto the remnants like a shipwrecked survivor clutches to the wreckage of their ship ignoring the vessel on the horizon if they were only but willing to swim?”

@Shard of Thought @ZincAboutIt

Edited November 2, 2019 by Snipexe

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

Sierra tightened her jaw. "I don't have a life," she said, "because I don't have anything to live for. But if I find that..." Her shoulders drooped and some of the determination in her eyes melted away. "Then it'll be a miracle." She scoffed at her own words. She was beginning to come back to herself. "I don't want to be here. I... don't know what I want. But I do know that I don't like being picked apart and analyzed. Connections hurt you... And I don't get hurt." 

@Snipexe @ZincAboutIt

[Snipexe he/him]

"You don't get hurt eh? I think your current emotional begs to differ, but that's besides the point." Grey said wryly. "You want something to desire, you want something to live for? You've been initiated into the Dark Alley, albeit not really by choice, but nonetheless, you're now an initiate member of the most powerful guild in the Alleyverse. Don't you want a little revenge on whoever gave that good ol' helping of emotional trauma? and if you've already done so, all the better! You need to stop pouting and smell the roses. You don't have to be sad about death. About murder. It happens. Whoever you killed was just as likely to die from a drunk driver, or a random abomination then they were to get brutally stabbed. You've just accelerated entropy a tad. Not even that much on the cosmic scales. And, now that it's over, you can move on, get a life. Take a class on cooking, maybe go to community college, whatever your cliched dreams are. It won't work out obviously, but it'll be something nice to hope for. As I said before, you've been given an invitation to the guild run by gods. Just accept, and take advantage of the perks. So, do you want to make a decision. Yes or No. Are you in, or do you want to hold onto false semblance of normalcy that will eventually collapse with you in an insane asylum. And, while they do tend to have good food, Asylums get rather boring after a while, so I know which I would choose.

Quote

Sorry, for the delay.

@Shard of Thought @ZincAboutIt

[AonEne he/him]

Quote

In the few scenes I’ve read with him in them, Grey is constantly a living mood. Congratulations on this character, Snip, you deserve it  

 

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

Sierra swallowed. What in the world has she just gotten herself into? "You're crazy..." she whispered. She looked down at her coffee, at her reflection in the liquid's surface. Maybe they were crazy. But... they'd been nice. Right? Right? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Sure," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Whatever. I don't know anything about you people, but it's not as if I'm going anywhere anyway. I'm just a lost, worthless tinker, and now that I've done the only thing that made me get up in the morning, I've lost any semblance of ambition. I don't care. It doesn't matter anymore." What she didn't mention was how hungry she felt, how frail. Giving in to Grey's prodding was less about not caring and more about being too worn out to fight back. 

@Snipexe @ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica sat in the darkness of the little room, back pressed up against two corners, knees to her chest. She focused on the nearness of the walls, the closeness of the air. She was fine, she was safe. These were the Alleys - this was her home. And yet, her breathing continued to come ragged and hard, her heart continued to hammer in her chest. Bennington's form had dimmed to a barely-visible glow; she could very nearly see through him completely. 

"Bennington?" She whispered between gasps of air. "Don't go. Please, don't go."

Even here, alone in this tiny, dark closet, Vivica felt the terror hounding her. She could smell the smoke curling through the air, curling through her nightmares at the refugee camp, then the orphanage. A decade of nightmares, of red light dancing and crackling every time she closed her eyes. Vivica bit back tears, clinging to the sinking raft of her lucid thoughts. The fear, the memories - they were all too much. She knew that she was strange, that she was mad, even. Vivica wasn't stupid. Ten years of constant wakefulness did not come without a cost, but for the most part, Vivica was in control of her insanity. Usually.

She could fight it harder, she knew. Vivica could claw her way out, she could sit here alone with the memories and the fear, and that rusting smell of smoke and charred flesh until she was a weeping, shivering mess. That was an option, and one she had taken a few times before. But it hurt. It always hurt. And really, what did it matter if she was a little more crazy than before? No one in these Alleys escaped unscathed - nearly everyone was broken. Grey had been right. What was the point, really, of trying to patch up all the cracks? Better to simply embrace them. Only then could she get some real work done. Vivica felt her grip slacken a bit, allowed her mind to flee beyond the doorway into... elsewhere. Wherever it was that it went during times like these. And with that portion of her mind went the vast majority of her fear.

Vivica stood, feeling herself smile in the dark. It was a wide smile, a little too wide, with too much teeth and not quite enough mirth. She flicked on the lights, absently scrubbing at one eye, then picked up one of the cookies that sat on a small table just inside the door. As she took a bite, she tried to remember what it was she had been so worried about, but it was like trying to peer through murky water. Vivica shrugged, chewing in satisfaction, and patted her pockets. Her notepad still sat inside her coat, and her pen was still behind her one remaining ear. She took the spike out from her pocket again, flipping it in the air and catching it over and over before remembering why she'd come down here in the first place. The coffee maker. Sierra.

Her smile widened, white and hard, and from behind her head something moved into her line of sight. It was Bennington, but... different. Where before the little octopus was a rounded, glowing collection of luminous violet tentacles, now he appeared larger, sleeker, his tentacles longer, his body a deep indigo that pulsed with a darker light. Vivica grinned up at him, and some of her wild, mirthless joy was reflected back to her in his own eyes, which were narrower and keener. More calculating.

"You've changed your clothes, Bennington!" She said, slipping another cookie into her pocket and flipping the spike in her hand before opening the door and striding back into the Alley.

As she walked back towards the EHD break room, a little spring in her step, she caught the tail end of Sierra's sentence.

"I don't care," the girl said. "It doesn't matter anymore."

Vivica opened the door again, still smiling that hard smile, Bennington floating above her shoulder with a predatory grace that his earlier form had lacked. Her eyes fell on Sierra, then on Grey. She pulled a cookie out from her coat pocket. "They're delicious, of course. Your handiwork, I assume?" She bustled over to the coffee maker, filling herself another cup and taking a sip. "Thanks for the closet. As you can see, I'm totally better now. Not even sure what I was so worked up about!"

She turned her gaze on Sierra now, cocking her head and flipping the spike over and over and over again. The girl didn't seem very happy, which Vivica found odd. She'd offered to show her around, hadn't she? Even taken her to get the best coffee ever. And still, the girl seemed morose. It struck Vivica as remarkably ungrateful, and she felt a little frown crease her brow even as she still grinned at the girl, turning her smile into something a bit feral.

"That's hardly the enthusiasm I was hoping for," Vivica said, looking over at Grey. "Has she been like this the whole time I was gone?"

@Snipexe @Shard of Thought

 

[Snipexe he/him]

Grey stopped himself from responding as Vivica entered the room. He noted Bennington’s altered appearance, as Viv commented on the cookies, and Sierra’s state. Her smile seemed a tad bit wider then normal, but who was he to judge. He turned back to Sierra in response to Viv’s question, “I’m afraid so. I’ve tried getting her motivated and excited, but I’m afraid she keeps falling back on the same old excuses. I think we may have to resort to more drastic actions. Perhaps a snickerdoodle with a side of chocolate chip?”

@ZincAboutIt @Shard of Thought

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica caught her spike, then balanced the flat edge of it on the end of her index finger as she took another sip of coffee.

"Mmm," she said softly, though whether she was musing over the coffee or Grey's suggestion, even she wasn't quite sure. Vivica looked at Sierra over the rim of her mug, feeling vexation vie with disappointment and... something else. Boredom? Yes, that was it. 

"That could work," she replied, then moved up towards Sierra, pocketing her spike as she did so. Vivica put one slender finger under the young woman's chin and tipped her head up so she could look in the girl's eyes. "It has been a while since I've gotten to test my snickerdoodles."

Vivica's finger left a red smear on Sierra's chin. "This girl is barely an ember," she said, clicking her tongue. "So little left. So little to scrape out of the mixing bowl, and I'm bored. She's barely even enjoying her coffee - the best coffee."

She took a step back, pouting a little, then looked up at Bennington. "What do you think, Bennington? Is she worth a few cookies? Or is she more of an... ingredient."  

Her smile returned, and she looked over at Grey, raising a brow as if to say 'Your call.'

@Snipexe @Shard of Thought

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

Sierra narrowed her eyes, wiping her chin. She was feeling more and more sick and she wasn't sure that was due to her anorexia anymore. These people scared her. She'd never admit that, of course. "Don't. Touch. Me," she said, voice coming out in a low growl. "I never agreed to any of this."

@Snipexe @ZincAboutIt

Edited November 5, 2019 by Shard of Thought

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

"Ah, there now," Vivica said, watching Sierra. "The ember flares."

Bennington slipped over her shoulder and twined himself around the young woman, who was oblivious to his inspections.

"As to what you agreed upon, well, you followed me here, didn't you? Followed a Denizen into an Alley, down and down and down, and now here we are. Drinking. Talking. Having a nice time - except now you're just being rude. Rude and dull."

Her smile sharpened, slicing a white edge into Vivica's pale skin. "Is there truly nothing you want? Nothing? No hunger, no desire? No question that you're dying to answer, no experiment you're eager to run? Just an empty girl in an empty alley with empty thoughts? And if that's the case... well, why are you living at all? You're tired of life? Well, we can help you with that. We can help you either way."

She looked at the blood staining Sierra's clothes. "Haven't you ever wanted to tear the world apart," she whispered, voice shaking slightly with fervor, "just to see how it works? To build it again, better this time, just to prove that you can? The snake devours its own tail - creation, through destruction. The end, hailing the beginning. You can rebuild yourself here, any way you want. You say you have nothing left? A lie."

Vivica held up the spike between her fingers, and Bennington pulsed with a deep indigo glow, swimming a slow loop around the both of them.

"You have plenty of blood, and hunger. You can rebuild from the ashes, Sierra." She offered the girl the spike, blue eyes wide and shot through with red vessels. Exhaustion transcendent to gleeful madness. "All you need are a few nails."

@Shard of Thought

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

The anger in Sierra's face softened. There was something inside of her. Something that turned in her stomach, something that had kept her alive. Her eyes glazed over with tears, but when she blinked they were gone. "Of course I want to rebuild," she said, voice trembling yet contained. I want to destroy. "I want to destroy..." Want to make them see me for once. "Want to make them see me for once." I just... Don't know... how... She trembled, not sure how to react. She was feeling something. That didn't happen very often because she was so used to shoving everything down. And anytime something did leak out, she was alone. She didn't want to let them see her. For the second time, she desperately wanted to hide behind her coat, cursing herself for everything she had ever done wrong. And that was a whole lot. 

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Vivica beamed, and like a passing squall, the vivid and imminent danger in her face was gone. She clapped her hands, giggling, then looked over at Grey again.

"Wonderful. Wonderful! Now we're cooking!" She said. "Speaking of cooking - Grey, do you think the snickerdoodles and the chocolate chips are still necessary? Just the chocolate chips? Just the 'doodles? Oh! Decisions, decisions. Hmm, Bennington, do you happen to have a copy of the New Employee Handbook?" She patted her pockets, checking to see if she had any loyalty spikes on hand, then pulled out a piece of shortbread instead. 

The octopus, who was still pulsing with a dark purple light, gave her a skeptical look. Vivica sighed at the lack of appropriate spikes and popped the shortbread cookie into her mouth.

"Don't you sass me," she said, pointing to the thin air above her right shoulder this time and speaking in between chewing. "I'll turn you into a tea cozy if you're not careful. Oh, what, you think I'm bluffing? Well, we'll see next time I have someone over for tea, won't we?"

Vivica sneezed, aspirating shortbread crumbs all over the front of her lab coat, and gave a little sigh. "I don't suppose either one of you are secretly blowing a dog whistle, are you? Incredibly high frequencies always make me sneeze. No? Well, it was worth an ask."

@Snipexe @Shard of Thought

[AonEne he/him]

Quote

*stops blowing and looks up fearfully, then chucks her whistle into the nearest alley and gets out of there* 

 

[Snipexe he/him]

"We can still always do both. It's simply a matter if the victi-sorry, Sierra here, is ready to begin her journey that, surprise twist, will be a shockingly subversive masterpiece in what critics are calling the greatest thing the Dark Alley has produced since whatever John from accounting made yesterday. As for the frequencies, someone could be using the Apocalypse teaPut and it just came to a boil. Always tends to happen during dramatic moments. May need to adjust the Metaspout" Grey said.

[Zephrun’s Imperium they/he]

Sierra looked at Grey, her eyes somehow conveying confusion, aggression, and a slight measure of fearful curiosity, all at the same time.

[Snipexe he/him]

Grey looked back at Sierra, "Why are you staring at me? Are you trying to convey something with your eyeballs that I'm not picking up? I'm only fluent in the eldritch gifted form of telepathy, not the reading of the anime tears in eyes. Perhaps it will be something that will improve with age, like a fine red wine, vintage Naruto: Episode 64."