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

[Guest Coda]

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If anyone wants to RP with Corenar, a Rosharan person with a secret past that not even he knows, please do so. AonEne, my former RP partner, became very busy. Corenar currently knows basic Hemalurgy(from meeting Ene's guest Denizen) and is interested in Investiture in general.

 

[+Sorana she/her]

10 hours ago, Coda said:

If anyone wants to RP with Corenar, a Rosharan person with a secret past that not even he knows, please do so. AonEne, my former RP partner, became very busy. Corenar currently knows basic Hemalurgy(from meeting Ene's guest Denizen) and is interested in Investiture in general.

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If you want to rp in this thread, I have to decline, sorry.

Otherwise yes, although the character I would like to use is a little bit crazy.

 

[Guest Coda]

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I could switch threads. Sounds great.

@Ookla the Dreamer

[+Sorana she/her]

12 minutes ago, Coda said:

I could switch threads. Sounds great.

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Okay. Just pick one, or general Alleycity?

 

[kenod]

On 12/6/2019 at 8:34 AM, Ookla the Dreamer said:

"My name is Temeria." She replied, committing the strange names to memory. "Temeria Shenet." Her last name sounded strange on her tongue, despite the fact that she had never changed it to fit the names in Iri better. But now, with her sister around, it had become something more than a reminder, it had turned into a real familiy name again. It might tell everybody who her sister was, and that immediatly placed her into the same house by nothing but affiliation. If that was good - she had no idea if Aln's guild was important enough to protect her, or if it was the other way round. Maybe she had just painted a huge target on her back.

Temeria grit her teeth when she realized that she had no way to judge the situation at all. She didn't know enough about the place, about this world and she still felt observed, as if something was there, right behind her shoulder, staring at her, waiting for a mistake. Focus. She chided herself and couldn't stop her head from turning, checking if the alley behind her was empty. It was. Only the shadow's appeared to have moved around a little. The spren was burning brighter, and  she found it standing on her shoulder, as if it was proud of something. It was here. Relief that she wasn't completely alone got rid of some of the fear and she took another breath. So far it was nothing but two persons. Mac had been nice. Ignore the shadow's and stay calm. Panicking wouldn't lead to anything as tempting as the thought was.

She tried to come with some nice tidbit as well, something like the comment about family names and when she couldn't think of something, went with a question. "Do you live here? Or is this, " She made a gesture along the alley, "More like a connection to a different place?" Too late she realized, that this was probably something everybody knew and that her words had revealed her as being completely clueless. Well, she couldn't change them now anyway.

@Ookla the Foxed

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Sorry, for the late reaction, I got somewhat distracted.

KanMien scratched her head, trying to think about the question. "That's a bit of a difficult one," she said. "The Alleys themselves form a separate world that we live in, but at the same time we generally don't live in the Alleys themselves. Our labs and living spaces connect to them, and are part of this world, but aren't alleys themselves. Honestly, I'm not sure if anyone fully understands the nature of this place. Voidus or the Stranger might, though I'm not sure. I think Mac was the one who understood the nature of this place the best, but well..."
She shrugged, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "As for what the Alleys themselves are... I guess they're both a location and a connection at the same time. The amount of Alleys is supposedly infinite, but only a small number actually connect to alleys in the real worlds, and the others can shift around in all kinds of ways, to the point that we don't even have any maps, and any navigation needs to be done on instinct, and can only be done by Denizens. And of course, there are other hazards too. Some Alleys don't function according to any known laws of physics, possibly because they're intersecting with worlds that work according to different laws. Others vanish into the void, or are home to beings that have never existed. Yet in others time flows differently, and there are even Alleys with multiple temporal dimensions."

[Guest Coda]

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I don't care. Whatever you feel like.

@Ookla the Dreamer

[Voidus]

Temeria. The Spren gave a resolute nod as it heard the name, doing its best to make sure it remembered it. People put importance in names didn't they? They said them a lot at least, and they felt important when they said them. The Spren should probably remember Temeria's name now that it had learned it. Temeria Temeria Shernet. It sounded nice to the spren, interesting. Like something it wanted to burn, but words shouldn't be burned. The spren remembered that much, words must never be burned.

The spren held its footing on Temeria's shoulder, staring down the other two figures whose names it had already forgotten. The cloth beneath its feet was textured, it could feel the little threads coming off and weaving together in some kind of pattern. The spren had to hold itself back from singing the loose threads, Temeria hadn't burned them yet, that was probably for a reason. Maybe she wanted to burn them later instead? Somewhere less dangerous? That would make sense, no point burning something if you couldn't enjoy it.

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

Stepping silently from an Alley, Voidus straightened himself as the scenery changed around him, the sky shifting overhead, the plain path between two looming walls of buildings. Two figures standing together opposite him, while another stood in the center of the path, a small glowing figure standing on her shoulder. Voidus let his gaze wander over those present, watching for any signs of other parties remaining unseen before finally stepping forwards from behind Temeria.

"The Alleys." He said in a controlled voice. "Are an ever changing mystery, but not one we are inclined to discuss at length with others."

Stopping in between the other two figures, he turned to regard Temeria, hs gaze paused briefly on the spren, then on her sword before finally focusing on her face. The dark pools of his eyes locked onto hers, staring intently as though to forcibly pull what he needed to know from them.

"You were the last person to see him?" Voidus asked, voice tensing for a moment. "Mac. Before he left."

[kenod]

KanMien gave a nervous look at a Voidus as she stepped aside. "Ah, sorry sir," she muttered. Curious she looked at what was going to happen, hoping it wouldn't be too dramatic, or if it was, not catch her and Kumiko in the blast radius.

[+Sorana she/her]

Temeria whirled around in surprise, drawing her sword a little when suddenly, finally, something changed behind her. A figure had appeared, but before she could do something, reposition herself or even judge if the figure was a threat or not, they moved, stepped past her and stopped only when he, it was obviously a man given his figure and the way he moved, stood in between of the two that had greeted her earlier.

He dismissed her question without even looking her way - not that she really had understood KanMien's explanation completely, but it had felt better than this simple - it's not your business. Apart from that he was right. It wasn't her business. And yet, at least the part she had been able to follow had helped to grasp this eerie place to a certain degree. It was sounded a little like the thing she had used to travel here. A portal, in the shape of an alley. Given the length of KanMien's explanation that was probably mostly wrong, but it was something she could picture and so she went with it.

The figure turned around, allowed her to see his face, the short hair and his eyes. The eyes. They were dark, endless pools that seemed to reach out for her, while they first focused on the spren and she instinctively lifted a hand, as if to shield it from them. Feeling stupid at her defensive reaction, she slowly lowered her hand, but still shifted her weight, to be able to move more quickly. Then the eyes brushed over her sword and finally locked onto hers and she nearly immediatly looked away, down at the ground unable to stand them even for a heartbeat. She could still feel his stare, as if he was looking past her skin, as if he tried to pry her open with nothing but his eyes and she moved a step away, unconciously trying to get rid of this gaze, of the feeling. The cold fear returned, grabbed her with relentless, icy hands and she felt her grip around her sword grow tight when she fought the urge to start running right here and now.

When he spoke again his voice had changed a little, tensed when he refered to Mac and the little slip of control changed him from awful spirit of the dark to something else. Something a little more human. No, not human, she immediatly corrected her own thought. Mac had declined to be a god and yet referred to himself as one, he had told her, that his guild had created this world. Whoever this man was, it would be safest to assume he was the same category. Powerful enough to create a world. A god. Temeria considered to fall to her knees, and decided against it. It would have been the wrong way with Mac, and at the moment he was the only thing she had as reference. She swallowed, tried to keep her thoughts in one place and to avoid the dread that rose in her throat. One step after the other.

She forced herself to look up again, focused her own gaze on his chest, just below his neck. It would make it possible to see if he moved, without meeting his stare directly. She had been taught to look there, to avoid her eyes giving away where she aimed her next blow at. It was as far up as she could bring herself to, fear holding her throat in a tight grip. And maybe she should be proud that she was still standing anyway.

There was no option to keep silent when he asked a question, no hesitation to think about her reply or to shape it in a good way. She went with the truth, without really thinking about it. "No, I wasn't." She shook her head. "The street wasn't empty, I am sure, others have to have seen him as well. But I am positive I was the last one he spoke to, at least outside of the alley he walked into."

@Voidus

Edited December 12, 2019 by Ookla the Dreamer

[kenod]

Back in the alleys Aylitha slowly trotted through the strange Alleys. It had been a long time since she had been in this part of Alleys. Or it felt so at least. She was certain she had visited less than two months ago, but her memories told her it had been decades since her last visit. There wasn't anything strange about that though. She just hoped that in this case she was in the time of her first memory, not her second. Otherwise...

She shook herself, a tremor going through her body, hair moving as if an unseen wind was moving through it. The search for proper candidate had been difficult. Finding the proper candidate wasn't difficult. After all, she already knew before she started searching. The difficulty was in trying to find someone else who would do. Still, she hadn't found anyone, and as much as she disliked it, she was the proper choice, setting her personal opinions aside.

She still sometimes felt her actions had been wrong, that she hadn't cared for her properly. To leave her exposed to what happened to her, to leave her to have to cope with things. It would have been much kinder to simply erase the memories, take in her mind, give her a new world to live in. But then, humans never seemed to do that. For some reason the idea would horrify them, though she had trouble understanding why. After all, a life without pain would be a kindness, right? Still, she had held back. After all, despite her own opinions, she didn't believe Karin would have approved of it. Not back then, at least.

Again, a tremor went through her fur, and she stopped in front of the door. A tentacle sprouted from the ground at her feet, knocking on the door. Politeness never hurt one anyway, and it was even more important when speaking to an equal. Like one such as Matthieu, head of Acquisitions.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Matthieu pinched the bridge of his nose and set down the piece of paper he'd been studying with a slight sigh. The spike in his other hand continued to twitch and vibrate; this Atium news had the whole DA in an uproar, and he'd received at least fifty messages in the last half hour alone. He allowed himself a small smile at the knowledge that it was Corette, his little Corette, that had made the initial discovery. He'd have to give the girl a promotion if she made it back out of the caverns. Maybe some Feruchemical Connection? Matthieu's smile grew wider, dragging up to one side like the curve of a fish hook. The girl was already a wraith in the dark; that would make her nearly unstoppable.

He held out his hand  and burned Iron, and the metal pen on the edge of his desk zipped into his waiting fingers. He jotted down a few notes about Corette, then got a bit lost in the plans for arranging a full Acquisitions inquiry down into the caves. When the knock came at his door, he was actually surprised.

Getting old, Matthieu, he thought with a low growl of irritation - more at himself than anything. And it was true. He was old now, old in a way he hadn't thought possible before, though he'd never admit it. He wondered, briefly, if his Lord had felt this old. Those days back in the Final Empire were smudged, faded memories now, but he could still recall the Lord Ruler's face, and his eyes. Matthieu remembered Rashek's eyes far more vividly than he could remember his own; it had been a long time since he'd been granted the Steelsight. He thought his eyes might have been green, or perhaps hazel. With another sigh, he burned more Iron and pulled at the latch on his door, allowing it to swing open and revealing the form of Aylitha.

Matthieu cocked his head for a moment, somewhat surprised to see her, then stood and gave his fellow Department Head a shallow bow.

"Aylitha," he said, his voice low and gravelly, though touched with a slight warmth. "It has been an age since we last met, though it is always a pleasure to see you. Do come in."

@Ookla the Foxed

[kenod]

Aylitha looked at him for a second, thinking. "It was?" She asked. "Alright, that's good to know. Still, I thought I was in this area a few months ago, though I probably didn't visit your office." She lowered her head, bowing in return to Mathieu's gesture, and walked into the room. Along the way her form shimmered, and a second later a young girl stood in her place, walking to one of the chairs and sitting down.

"It seems you have been busy," she said, looking at his desk. "Still, I guess that with your agent's discovery that is somewhat inevitable." She tilted her head for a second, as if listening to some inaudible voice. "It seems they're busy down there as well," she continued with a slight smile, "they seem to be having some issue deciding what to do now." She fell silent, hoping to let Mathieu fill in what his department was planning.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Matthieu felt his mouth twist a bit in irritation - not at Aylitha, but at his circumstances. "It is rare nowadays that I get a chance to leave this room," he began, his voice edging towards annoyance. "Long years have passed since I have been able to stalk the Alleys as I once did - but that is no matter."

He sat and folded his hands on his desk, fixing Aylitha's new form - that of a girl with dark hair - with his full attention.  

"The matter of the Atium," he went on, "is still in a state of flux, as you might imagine. Of course, R&D is drooling into their petri dishes over the possibilities of that much Atium, though sending a horde of whatever-they-have down there would surely lead to an absolute bloody panic. Hardly the worst thing in the world, but there are far subtler ways to go about the extraction. I've been attempting to contact Mac - our agents have worked together in the past, and with one of mine already in the team that would be an easy pairing, but I've been unable to reach him. I've had some correspondence from L--"

Matthieu paused, pressing his lips together to avoid calling him 'Lord Voidus' - Matthieu had been corrected on the matter several times by Voidus himself, who apparently disliked being revered. It was rather hard for Matthieu to reconcile his deep awe for the Dark Alley leader with his disapproval at Voidus's inability to accept his own divinity. But that was neither here nor there.

"From Voidus," he continued. "Apparently there are potentially a few DoCI operatives down there already, though more can of course be sent. I've already begun assembling a short list of my own people to go down there and assess the situation. Apparently, a few bleeding hearts down there want to destroy the Atium."

Matthieu clicked his tongue in vague distaste. "Some people are so ruled by fear that they let it blind them to opportunity, don't you think?"

[Voidus]

The corner of his lips twitched in the faintest of smiles as Voidus listened to the figure before him. She didn't meet his eyes as she spoke, but neither did she run in fear or beg for mercy. Voidus banished the smile from his expression but did spare a brief nod of approval for her behaviour. Her courage certainly explained the presence of the spren that still wavered on her shoulder, flickering as though unable to decide if it should be bright to provide some kind of comfort or dim to remain unnoticed.

"But the last to speak with him." Voidus confirmed. "He left the Alleys almost immediately afterwards."

Voidus looked her over once again, eyes running over the brown hair that was kept out of her face, the muscles of someone well accustomed to fighting, the scars of someone who had fought in more than simple trials or practice areas. With a more intent expression he continued watching, looking past the exterior to try to gauge the woman who waited for him to continue. What kind of person was she? Why had Mac spoken with her? And why had she decided to come into the Alleys? She seemed aware enough of the dangers, despite her attire indicating a recent arrival.

"Did he ask you to come here?" Voidus asked, he stepped back a little to avoid overly intimidating her, lessening the intensity of his gaze as he did. "To pass along a message of some kind?"

Voidus had only just noticed the moment that Mac had crossed through the Alleys, he hadn't seen anything that had happened before then. But if Mac had spoken to this girl and she was still here, aware of who Mac was, then he must have seen something in her. Some promise? Or had it simply been idle curiosity?

@Ookla the Dreamer
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"Evening." Voidus said as the plain wooden door opened before him. "Let me guess, you must be-"

"You know who she is." The Professor interrupted with an irritated tone. "I've had the picture on my desk since before we met."

The two both entered through the door, being held open by a friendly young woman, blonde ringlets framing her smiling face as she allowed the two in before swatting at the Professor in mock-irritation.

"That's no way to treat a guest dear." She said.

The Professor just gave a sigh, holding the door open as Voidus stepped through, followed shortly after by another young woman.

"Now let me guess, you must be Voidus." The Professor's wife began. "And this charming young lady must be Laurelai."

"Indeed." Voidus replied with a disarming smile and giving a short nod of his head. "I apologize for having stolen your husband so frequently, but company such as his is hard to come by, I appreciate you allowing us to continue our meetings."

"Well it can be difficult." She replied, sparing her husband an affectionate glance. "But he assures me it's necessary, and I'm just glad he's found someone to talk to again."

The Professor and his wife led the way towards a large dining table, already set and laden with a large roast chicken and a collection of side dishes around it. They sat down together and began serving, piling plates high with tantalizing foods as they engaged their guests in small talk, waiting for Voidus and Laurelai to become more comfortable.

"This is pleasant." Voidus said across the table, leaning back and relaxing into his chair. "Nice way to spend the time."

"This chicken is delicious." Laurelai said. "There's something to it, a bit of a kick to the flavour that I can't put my finger on."

"Lemon." The Professor's wife replied. "I can get you the recipe if you'd like? Not much to it if I'm being honest, nothing too fancy. I love your name by the way, where's that from?"

"Family name." Laurelai replied with an awkward shrug. "My mother's middle name, and grandma's."

"Ah, well maybe one day you'll have a little 'Laurelai' of your own." An amused reply came. "Or a little Voidus jr."

Across the table Voidus smiled, he leaned back in his chair relaxing as the Professor stared anxiously into the distance.

"It won't kill you to relax a little." Voidus said. "It's a rather pleasant evening if you take the moment to enjoy it."

"I know." The Professor replied with frustration. "But I can't just relax, I can't forget... all of that. What's happened."

He continued to look around anxiously, as though hoping the answer would pop out from behind the kitchen bench if he just stared at it hard enough or long enough. But after a minute's further brooding he gave a loud sigh, rolling his shoulders back and trying to force himself to relax.

"I know that I won't be able to solve anything by worrying." He said. "It's just a lot to take in all at once. A lot of pressure."

"You'd better get used to pressure." Voidus replied, still smiling. "Doesn't get much more pressure than what we're going to be attempting."

[kenod]

21 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Matthieu felt his mouth twist a bit in irritation - not at Aylitha, but at his circumstances. "It is rare nowadays that I get a chance to leave this room," he began, his voice edging towards annoyance. "Long years have passed since I have been able to stalk the Alleys as I once did - but that is no matter."

He sat and folded his hands on his desk, fixing Aylitha's new form - that of a girl with dark hair - with his full attention.  

"The matter of the Atium," he went on, "is still in a state of flux, as you might imagine. Of course, R&D is drooling into their petri dishes over the possibilities of that much Atium, though sending a horde of whatever-they-have down there would surely lead to an absolute bloody panic. Hardly the worst thing in the world, but there are far subtler ways to go about the extraction. I've been attempting to contact Mac - our agents have worked together in the past, and with one of mine already in the team that would be an easy pairing, but I've been unable to reach him. I've had some correspondence from L--"

Matthieu paused, pressing his lips together to avoid calling him 'Lord Voidus' - Matthieu had been corrected on the matter several times by Voidus himself, who apparently disliked being revered. It was rather hard for Matthieu to reconcile his deep awe for the Dark Alley leader with his disapproval at Voidus's inability to accept his own divinity. But that was neither here nor there.

"From Voidus," he continued. "Apparently there are potentially a few DoCI operatives down there already, though more can of course be sent. I've already begun assembling a short list of my own people to go down there and assess the situation. Apparently, a few bleeding hearts down there want to destroy the Atium."

Matthieu clicked his tongue in vague distaste. "Some people are so ruled by fear that they let it blind them to opportunity, don't you think?"

"Currently one of them is actually talking about donating it to a charity, or creating one," Aylitha noted with a small smile. "Besides, destroying it would prove difficult anyway, given its location." She thought for a bit. Matthieu's agent would actually be able to do it, though it would be difficult. The Ghostblood might be able to do it as well, depending on her skill level. Finally she shook her head, trying to get her thoughts back on track.

"Still," she said, "that does bring me to the reason I'm here. The Atium itself isn't that important to me, it's not much use in my department's experiments, though I have to admit the additional funds it could create would be ... useful." She smiled, thinking of the new super-lens microscope she could comission with those funds. "Still, Bioscience's main concern is with the lifeforms found in the area, not the Atium. On the other tendril, that does mean that it's best for your subtle method to work, since it will minimize environmental damages, and if it leaves us in control, well, it would be much easier getting my own people access." She shuddered for a moment when she thought of what R&D would do to get the Atium. If they got involved she would be likely lucky if caverns were still underground afterwards.

"Anyway," she said in a more serious tone, "I hoped you could add a certain Acquisitions' member to the list of people you're sending down. She has some previous experience with Bioscience and should be able help deal with my concerns regarding this. My current agent lacks the necessary experience to take care of this, and while she's a decent scientist she lacks the mindset necessary for this particular job, and she also lacks the proper knowledge about working together with Acquisitions on this." And she doesn't know she is an agent, of course, She mentally added.
"Honestly," she continued, "I'd prefer to keep her out of the loop on this, since it makes it easier to get information on what ACE is doing." She smiled. "Of course, I'm more than willing to give you information on what they're up to." She folded her hands as well, mimicking Mathieu's gesture. "I hope that's alright with you?"

[+Sorana she/her]

He was still staring at her. Even when he confirmed her claim, he still stared at her as if he wanted to know each and every detail about her, as if he was taking off her cloths and and skin and muscle to see who she was. And yet, to hear his verbal confirmation was a relief. It lent her some credibility and hopefully upped her chance to step out of this place again. He obviously had known that Mac had left the Alleys, although he had no idea what had happened before. As long as she held that information, she was valuable, and being valuable usually had being alive in tow. He looked her over again, and she flinched back under his glance, instinctively tried to avoid it, before catching herself in the middle of another step back, forced her eyes back to his sternum.

He moved away from her, gave her a little more space and she forced her hands to open again. She hadn't even realized she had formed them to fists. Finally something changed, as if a pressure was removed from her, and when she looked up into his face, his stare had changed. He was still staring at her, but differentely. Less intense. Temeria exhaled, took a moment to take in his face, the short hair, the way he looked at her, how he held himself. He reminded her of an officer of some sorts. A general maybe. The thought cast a different light on the situation, one she knew how to handle.

"No." She shook her head, determined to stay with the truth. "He didn't ask me to come here, nor to pass along a message of some kind." She barely noticed her voice becoming a little stronger when she setteled into some kind of familiarity with the situation. It was nothing but a report. Concentrate on the information, hope your officer likes it and see what happens. "I decided on my own to come here."

That was the critical part. She had no idea how many rules she had broken by coming here without an invite. The spren was flickering on her shoulder, and she turned her head worried if it was alright, or if this place was hurting it somehow - but these thoughts had to wait. First she had to survive here, then she could talk to the spren. Temeria took a deep breath when her eyes accidently touched the sky, the deep, endless shadows on the sides, the strange windows - no. She focused her attention on the man.. If he wanted her dead, he would kill her. No use to worry about facts she couldn't change. Better try to get this as right as possible.

She touched her fist to her chest in a salut and inclined her head in greeting. "Temeria Sheneth, sir. If you want to, I can gladly decribe what happened before his decision to leave and repeat the reasoning he gave me."

@Voidus

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Matthieu watched Aylitha with his Steel eyes, musing on how she seemed at once quite human and terribly alien. He barely considered himself human anymore, but he had been, once. Aylitha seemed something else entirely; a fascinating person to be sure, and certainly worthy of her position as Head of Bioscience. That had never been his specialty, but he made a mental note to go visit her department sometime and get a feel for what they did there. He inclined his head with a slight smile when he saw Aylitha mimic his gesture of folded hands. 

"That seems perfectly reasonable," he said, moving his notepad back before himself and poising the pen above the paper. A single drop of ink - mixed with metal so he could see it - dotted the surface. It appeared as a tiny star in a field of black etched with thin blue lines. "And continued information would be quite helpful. Corette is doing what she can to relay events, but open use of Alleycant is hardly inconspicuous. Your... abilities would be of great use. You are right, indeed, that a speedy extraction and securing of the cavern for our use would be most advantageous to us. And of course, any funds from the Atium would be allocated where needed."

He smiled a little wider, and would have winked - had he eyes to wink. "Now, to the manner of this agent of yours - what is their name? I plan to assemble a group within the day, and anyone with your direct recommendation would of course have a place among them."

@Ookla the Foxed

[kenod]

On 12/13/2019 at 7:32 PM, ZincAboutIt said:

Matthieu watched Aylitha with his Steel eyes, musing on how she seemed at once quite human and terribly alien. He barely considered himself human anymore, but he had been, once. Aylitha seemed something else entirely; a fascinating person to be sure, and certainly worthy of her position as Head of Bioscience. That had never been his specialty, but he made a mental note to go visit her department sometime and get a feel for what they did there. He inclined his head with a slight smile when he saw Aylitha mimic his gesture of folded hands. 

"That seems perfectly reasonable," he said, moving his notepad back before himself and poising the pen above the paper. A single drop of ink - mixed with metal so he could see it - dotted the surface. It appeared as a tiny star in a field of black etched with thin blue lines. "And continued information would be quite helpful. Corette is doing what she can to relay events, but open use of Alleycant is hardly inconspicuous. Your... abilities would be of great use. You are right, indeed, that a speedy extraction and securing of the cavern for our use would be most advantageous to us. And of course, any funds from the Atium would be allocated where needed."

He smiled a little wider, and would have winked - had he eyes to wink. "Now, to the manner of this agent of yours - what is their name? I plan to assemble a group within the day, and anyone with your direct recommendation would of course have a place among them."

@Ookla the Foxed

"Vita," Ayitha said after a short pause. "Hazel Blackmore. She transfered to Acquisitions... two years ago? Either that or twenty years, but I think it was the first? I might be off by a year or so though." She was sure it hadn't been that long, but some doubt still remained. It had happened before after all. It wasn't a big issue normally, a century doesn't matter when you're immortal, but Vita wasn't, at least not the last time they had met. And if it turned out something like that had happened...

She thought about it. It wasn't normal protocol for bioscience, normally you should make your own enhancements, but she could do it, and make Vita immortal. She wasn't sure if she'd give permission, but it wasn't as if that was really necessary, right? It would be easy to do, and she would thank her afterwards. Humans always seemed to hate aging, from what she had seen. Karin didn't, a voice whispered in her mind, and she grimaced. Still, she could always make the offer. At some point Vita would surely see the benefits, right?

Suddenly she remembered where she was, and she coughed, a gesture she had aquired a long time ago, though it still seemed a bit strange to her. "Anyway," she quickly said, "if you do add her to the list, could I pay her a visit after this? That way I can explain my end of the situation to her. Afterwards I can come back here to help get you information on what is going on."

[18th Shard he/him]

80 Years Previous

Remember. Xan touched the copper in front of the large metal plate at the front of the lab. Memory surged through him. He remembered how to read again. He glanced up and read the plate.
“Do not look at laser with remaining eye. This side up. Shake well. Contents under pressure. This side down.”
Xan searched the coppermind for the log. This was the Eye coppermind, and it contained most of the records of events that occurred. Nothing today, he noted. He looked at the sensor beneath the plate. Nothing registered abnormally. Not today, his coppermind indicated. He made the note. Xan didn't think, not anymore. He hadn't since he had died. But when he was remembering, when he was touching one of the higher copperminds in the lab, he could almost remember ....
Memory faded. Xan's hands dropped to its side. Remember. Its eyes, glazed, scanned the room for the nearest copper. It grasped it. Memory surged through it. He remembered how to read again. He glanced up and read the plate.
Batteries not included. Not covered by most insurance policies. Side effects may include drowsiness, glowing...
Xan searched the coppermind for the log. Today's entry had been filled in. Not today, it read. He moved on down the instruction list. The Heart coppermind was next. He reluctantly relinquished his grasp on the metalmind. He walked across the room to where a blood purifying machine was running. Deoxygenated blood flowed through the machine's artificial heart. You needed the blood to keep clean and not coagulate if the spikes were to be preserved. If all the work that had gone into those spikes were lost, it would be... Xan couldn't quite conceive how he should respond, but with the spikes of Connection and Identity in his chest, and the Breath within him, he could almost imagine what he would have done before...
Memory faded. Xan's feet slowed without purpose. Remember. Its eyes, glazed, scanned the room for the nearest copper. It walked forward and grasped it.
Memory surged through it. This was a lesser coppermind, with mainly instructions on how to clean the area nearby. It carefully grabbed a glob of mistwraith muscles, placing them on the end of the spike in front of it. It turned the switch that diverted the blood into another tube, emptying this slot. It lifted the spike, careful not to allow the spike to come free of the mistwraith flesh. It rinsed the slot, translucent red water flowing around its gray hands.
Xan didn't think about feeling. It didn't think about where this spike came from or what it did. It didn't even notice the circle of Shardblades, stabbed into the stone in front of it. There were eight, each of a different order. If it had looked into the Cognitive Realm, it could have seen the eight deadeyes, standing numbly in the same spots. It could have seen the spikes, rammed into each of them, binding them to the man it once was. It could have seen the other two spren standing still, defiant, as if waiting, a spike in the eye of the inkspren and in the abdomen of the spren behind him. That one had once been bonded to a Stoneward. Xan didn't see them though. After all, it was Lifeless. It couldn't think. It just continued its task, as the coppermind had instructed. Remember. Remember. Remember.

10 Years Previous

Xan reached for the coppermind. Memory surged through him. He noted the wires that were deteriorating slightly on the lab’s systems, silently measuring lengths. He began to uncoil the loop of wire, keeping the coppermind against the skin of his knees. He braided the wire together, then dipped it in the plastic that he had kept liquid in the vat.

Behind him, he heard a clatter. He turned and saw a Blade fall to the ground. He turned to the coppermind, searching for the protocol he should follow. Check Linchpin coppermind database. He turned and started running for the Linchpin coppermind.

Halfway there, his memory faded. Xan slowed, but his pace brought him close enough to the coppermind to reach it. He tapped the memories stored there, a flood of information flowing in. Place in stone in center of room near Heartmind. If only one Blade left, engage warning fabrial on final spren.

He grabbed the Blade, noting it to be the Stoneward blade, and stabbed it into the stone pillar near the others. He flicked on the fabrial, and then sprinted back for the coppermind, barely making it in time before his memory faded.

He tapped his memory of peeking into the Spiritual Realm. He saw, again, that place within places, the time between times, connections spanning eternity, fracturing into the future, words in gold covering every surface. He almost grasped why he had done what he had, why he had killed himself, leaving behind this husk of himself. Almost. But not quite. He let go of the memory, and sat, looking at the dead spren in the stone by him. Tears fell from his eyes. He didn’t feel anything at the spren’s death, not really, but it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. He could almost imagine what it would be like to be one of those spren, to just one day break and die.

Memory faded.

Today

Xan checked the sensor. Nothing again, he noted. He started to turn, but the fabrial next to the sensor started blinking. He looked, with a hint of what once might have been curiosity. Well simulated memories seemed to make it easier to remember what it had been like when...

He'd missed it. A faint distortion on the sensor, so faint it was almost imperceptible. He turned up the sensitivity. Then did so again. And again. And again. It wasn't clearing up. What was this?

He kept increasing the sensitivity until he could see the Investiture in the trace metals floating in the air. The pattern, it was... What was that? It looked like something had been inverted from normal, an emptiness where his sensor should be reading. He flipped the colors on the screen. That's... that's my spiritweb. Inverted.

He checked the coppermind, almost frantic. Almost. It was time. This was the signal he was supposed to remember. He tapped all the memories that had been stored years earlier.

He turned to the metal plate that had been installed so many years earlier. His eyes glanced over the first line: “I set these words in metal, for nothing else will last.”

People had always wondered what the unwieldy disclaimer had been for. Surely no one could prosecute the Alleys and win a legal battle. They had never understood. These weren't warnings. They were instructions.

Push only labeled buttons. Xan pushed every labeled button.

Do not look directly at sun. Xan opened the sunroof, exposing the solar panels to the sun.

High in sugar and iron. Xan turned the knobs labeled sugar and iron to high. Liquid connection, like that once used by the Ire, began to flood into a small green basin.

Keep arms and legs inside of machinery. Xan turned off all system functions in the lab extremities, focusing all power to the vital functions.

He continued down the list....

Void where prohibited except where not prohibited. Xan turned off the Realmatic stabilizer.  He began to panic as darkness started to coalesce on the sensors. He started. This was real panic, real fear. Not memories. Real. What was happening?

Unintentionally lost connections may be collected at no extra cost. He poured the Connection from the basin onto himself. His vision snapped into all three Realms. Threads of Connection exploded out of him. Many of them snapped to the copperminds, and to the inkspren hovering on the edge of his vison.

Complimentary cookies will be provided for all non-living entities, free of charge. He picked up the atium spike - uncharged - and rammed it into his chest next to the other two.

Please keep all spren visible at all times. He held out a hand and began to summon the spren as a Blade. Darkness began to ripple around it in his vison. The spren started to shake, resisting the summons. There was something else there, something familiar, holding onto the spren, invisible even to his eyes. He felt the Blade fall into his waiting hand.

In case of emergency, ask for help from any of our non-existing help entities. He seized the threads of Connection attached to him and grasped onto the spot from which the drag on his Blade had seemed to emanate. He felt the ties grab hold of soemthing, strengthen, and began to collapse into him. He dropped the Blade, and it clattered to the floor. The darkness surged, ripping into the lab.

If all other methods of recourse fail, we extend our apologies. Xan screamed, and all went black.

 

Xanas gasped for air. He rolled onto his side. It had worked. It had finally worked. He dry heaved, adjusting to once again having a body. He had finally escaped the Void. The emptiness where even darkness was too light a word, where description failed because there had to be something for you to describe it. Some had thought the Spiritual Realm the source code of reality - but the Void was all the zeroes of reality's binary. It was the consuming vacuum, except consume made it sound like matter and energy were going somewhere.

Xanas seized the coppermind, seeking to draw in the records and memories he had made. Memory was so fallible compared to a coppermind. He could feel the investiture inside the metal. He pulled on it, and it... drained away. The metal drooped, loosing its shape a little. Xanas felt a seizing inside. What had happened? He reached for the table and stood. As he did, his hand brushed the fabrial on top. The gem shattered, dimming. Light extinguished. Xanas stepped back, wary. He turned to the metal plate, polished almost to a mirror's sheen. He saw himself. Grey, Lifeless. Eyes a deep black. A single dark, warped spike in his heart, unlike any metal he had seen before. And dark black lines, spreading faintly out from it. He stepped closer, still staring at his own face. Storms. He had thought he had made it back completely. I have. Mostly.

He turned to ask Tsarik what it had looked like on this side of the transition. He saw the Blade laying, still on the floor, point sticking into the ground. He peered into the Cognitive Realm, still barely visible from the perpendicularity that had formed here. He saw the dark inkspren, and the spike in his eye was now somehow darker. There was no light or even Tsarik's usual texture there, only a dark emptiness. And his other eye. Storms. Where it once had been, there was just a series of scratches, as if oil had been poured into a scratched plate and then frozen. Tsarik did not speak. Xanas began to weep. The other spren, they had been... acquired, but Tsarik, Tsarik had been all his own. He had bonded him long before he had ever seen a spike or even left Roshar. He had been the only real remnant left of who Xanas had been, once. Enough. There's no time to grieve. You need to identify what has changed, why the metalmind and fabrial you touched drained away.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Xanas dressed in an aluminum-lined, gray-white robe (it had once been an Elantrian's, who had embroidered Shao on the back - Xanas thought the Aon was appropriate). With aluminum-lined gloves on, Xanas carefully picked up Tsarik's corpse. He placed the dark black Shardblade into an aluminum sheath that he slung over his back. He didn't dare try bonding it. The others that  he had tried to bond had dissolved into the Void, along with every other Invested object he had touched. Spikes that had taken years to make, Awakened machines, all gone. Even the Aviar had lost all its Investiture, and then slowly died. He had figured out that aluminum allowed him to interact mostly normally with things, blocking the Investiture from getting in contact with him.

The tests he had carefully run had shown him to be Lifeless still, physically, but the darkspike in his chest somehow had stapled him back into his body. Whether his Cognitive aspect had been affected by his moment in the Void was debatable (he hadn't been the most sane before that experiment), but his Spiritweb had been entirely replaced. Where once there had been Investiture, now there was only darkness, an inversion of who he had once been. The souls that had been attached to his by spikes had been ripped off, leaving behind a mangled excuse for what had been a Spiritweb anyways, but this was worse. As far as Xanas could tell, he was now anathema to kinetic Investiture - but he needed it. He could feel, inside him, the Void, pulling on him, drawing him back. Like a twisted version of a Returned, he would need to consume Investiture to keep the Void from pulling him back, and he couldn't even compound or infuse anything anymore. He looked at the lab. There was nothing here he could use or would need anymore. He needed answers, and he’d learned all he could here. He pressed the self-destruct button and stepped out into the Alley. It was time to find some answers. He needed to find an old friend.

 

[Voidus]

It wasn't very often that Voidus found himself genuinely surprised. If you lived long enough you ended up seeing pretty much everything there was to see, learned how to recognize and predict it. But one thing that Voidus had certainly not anticipated when he had begun the day was that it would include a Nalthian military salute given by a young Rosharan girl who intruded into the Alleys.

He stared at her without blinking, she'd certainly been brave to come here, or at the least, reckless. Those two didn't always go hand in hand but the presence of the spren on her shoulder gave some inclination as to her personality. And she was being respectful enough, not simply barging into the Alleys to challenge their authority or ranting about the evils of the DA. Though that was possibly because she didn't know enough about them. On the whole Voidus found himself holding a favorable opinion of Temeria, but then first impressions weren't always perfect.

"I would want that very much." He replied. "Perhaps somewhere a little more comfortable for you?"

He gestured to one side where a doorway appeared in the stone wall, a doorway that had certainly not been there moments before. Stepping through it, Voidus raised an arm invitingly to Temeria along with KanMien and Kumiko.

"If you'd care to." He said to the latter two, indicating that they were invited but not obligated to enter.

Voidus' office was much as he'd left it, the large wooden desk still sat proudly at one end, opposite a small collection of chairs and a lower table. The papers he'd left on the table were still there as well, causing a slight tightening of his expression when Voidus saw them. But this was worth the build up in workload that it would cause.
@Ookla the Dreamer @Ookla the Foxed

[+Sorana she/her]

Temeria suppressed the urge to cringe under his stare, the way he didn't even blink unsettling her in a way she hadn't expected. A god. Mac had told her, she had known, but there were so many nuances of knowing things. She had known in an abstract way, but this stare, it wordlessly, easily proved her wrong. Anxiously she remained where she was, waited for his decision, for his next words.

He agreed, even offered to go somewhere else, somewhere more comfortable for herself. She exhaled at the prospect to leave this place, to get away from the eerie sky that seemed to call her to look up and at the same time frightened her to the bone. It was distant, should be no threat, but she knew, knew with every instinct of her body, that it was dangerous. Her shoulders sagged down a little, only to grow tense again, when he gestured to the side and a doorway appeared. A doorway in a wall. Impossible, it was - he was a god. Watching him step though it, into a room beyond the wall she tried to come up with a reason, failed and simply filed the fact under 'things above her pay grade, think about later'. Obviously walking through walls was possible here. She followed as soon as he lifted an arm towards her, indicating that she should step through the door was well, his invitation as good as an order to her.

Slowly she walked towards the doorway, braced herself for something, anything, and despite the fact that he had just demonstrated that it was possible, she was still surprised when she didn't end up walking straight against a wall. She stopped, turned around and tentatively extended a hand back into the alley. It worked. There was only air, just as if she had left the alley and stepped into a house. Curiously she reached out for the door, it was hard and solid beneath her fingers.  Sharply she withdrew her hand and fully turned towards him, when she realized that her attention had wandered. "I apologize sir." She tried to save the situation, unsure how he would react to her distraction. She had known officers that could overlook small breaches in protocol, while others hadn't been that amused. Quickly she stepped to the side, to clear the doorway and added a late: "Thank you for the invitation, Sir."

@Voidus

Edited December 16, 2019 by Ookla the Dreamer

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

On 12/14/2019 at 3:42 PM, Ookla the Foxed said:

"Anyway," she quickly said, "if you do add her to the list, could I pay her a visit after this? That way I can explain my end of the situation to her. Afterwards I can come back here to help get you information on what is going on."

"Ah, yes, Hazel Blackmore. It has indeed been about two years, though time can get slippery around here. I will add her to the list."

Matthieu did so, jotting down the girl's name beneath the rest of his list and placing a tiny tick-mark next to it. That done, he looked back up at Aylitha.

"Feel free to contact her. Simply notify me when she is ready to be sent. Your continued aid on intelligence will be much appreciated."

He smiled a wolfish smile full of teeth and cunning, his mind already bent back towards the Atium. With enough Atium, Matthieu could live a many long count of years indeed, could be younger, faster, stronger, as he was in his youth on Scadrial. And he could do it all without the unpleasant side-effect of having a vicious god whispering into his mind. Atium, but no Ati to go along with it. He smiled a bit wider.

"I look forward to working with you," he said to Aylitha, inclining his head again. "When you return, there is no need to knock. My door is always open to a colleague of your caliber."

[kenod]

KanMien gave Kumiko a questioning look at Voidus' offer. Kumiko shrugged, and both followed him into the newly created passage. After all, it was definitively more interesting than doing paperwork. Of course, given the nature of the news, coming along might be problematic as well if Voidus decided he didn't like it, but still, knowing what had actually happened would probably be worth the risk.

***

Aylitha nodded and tried to hide her relief when Matthieu confirmed her assessment of the time that had passed. "Alright," she said, "thank you." Slowly she stood up and started walking out of the room, her body changing back into a fox, and she slowly trotted down the alleys towards a certain set of rooms. Deep down she started wondering if she was doing the right thing here, while mentally she started preparing for the coming conversation.

[Voidus]

"It's fine" Voidus replied, waving a hand dismissively at Temeria's apology. "You're far from the first person to get curious."

He gestured towards the comfortable sitting chairs for KanMien and Kumiko, taking the seat at the desk for himself. Based on her posture he imagined Temeria would probably prefer to stand as she spoke, military types often did. But there was a chair opposite his at the desk should she need it. He was, after all, not a superior officer of hers though that seemed to be how she was most comfortable treating him.

"Now Ms. Sheneth." Voidus continued, leaning forward in interest. "If you could report on your encounter with Mac? How you met him, what you discussed, and how he came to leave."

Voidus had seen many people come and go over the years, people beyond counting that had died and passed into the Beyond, or left and never returned. He'd thought he might be numb to that sense of loss by now, but somehow it still managed to hurt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A long time ago in a universe far, far away.

"Laurelai's pregnant?" The Professor asked, eyes wide and a grin forming at his mouth. "Congratulations."

"Thanks." Voidus replied, giving a wan smile.

But Voidus' expression was not that the Professor would usually associate with joy or excitement or any of the other emotions one might expect of a new father. His face was torn with indecision, the dark circles under his eyes gave him a defeated, exhausted look about him. It was not a face that the Professor had seen on Voidus before, causing him to frown with concern.

"Is everything all right?" He asked.

"It's fine." Voidus replied, waving a hand dismissively. "But we need to be heading off soon. You've trained about as much as we have time for, now comes the work of saving the universe."

With the change in topic he seemed to recover some of his usual energy, his smile widened and the bags seemed to almost disappear as he regained an energetic sparkle to his eyes. His expression flickered a little as he glanced out the window, but then quickly returned.

"Something must be a focus, something here, on this world. If we can find it, find whatever has drawn this place to the Void." Voidus began.

"Then we can send it there ourselves and prevent the rest of the universe from being taken with it." The Professor finished, nodding in understanding. "But where could it be? How long will we need to be gone."

"Quite a while." Voidus replied, seemingly unconcerned. "A few years in all likelihood."

The Professor gave a pained grimace and then a sad little smile towards Voidus.

[mathiau he/him]

53 minutes ago, Voidus said:

"Laurelai's pregnant?" The Professor asked, eyes wide and a grin forming at his mouth. "Congratulations."

"Thanks." Voidus replied, giving a wan smile.

But Voidus' expression was not that the Professor would usually associate with joy or excitement or any of the other emotions one might expect of a new father.

Quote

Wait, wasn't Laurelai supposed to be Voidus's daughter? Is the Professor just assuming things or...?