Into the Dark

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

"This year, Penrod," Rig's voice echoed back to them, once again a nearly-perfect match in timbre and rhythm. The slight dissonance was probably the most unsettling; just enough to set all her hair on end, but not enough for her to doubt that it was Rig speaking. She'd have thought it were him, had she not been staring straight at his mouth.

A tiny smile lifted the corner of her mouth. This was a curious thing, to be sure. But where was it? There were enough people milling through the cavern that someone would likely have seen a creature creeping along the ground. Corette lifted her eyes to the trees, searching the branches amidst the wet, humid fog. Then, her gaze travelled up a bit farther, towards the distant, shadowed cavern ceiling. It seemed pitch dark up there to her, but Corette knew someone who might be able to spot anything lurking.

She looked to Allri, then pointed first to her eyes, then the ceiling, before mouthing one word. 'Tin?'

@I ♥️ Rashek @TrailRunnin

Edited October 25, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[I ♥️ Rashek]

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I keep having to update my post because you guys are posting while I'm writing it 

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Just now, I ♥️ Rashek said:

 

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Mea culpa!! Trying to get stuff in before I'm doomed to mobile typing during the commute home. 

 

[I ♥️ Rashek]

1 hour ago, ZincAboutIt said:

She pulled her slender dagger into her hand, then looked over her shoulder. "I'm going to go have a look around, and I could use a pair of Tin eyes and a good Coinshot." Corette turned to Allri. "It should give you some good practice for Seeking, too. I'll be right behind you, but this will be ideal experience for you to venture a bit ahead. A Tineye is a valuable scout, and as a Mistborn you'll want to become accustomed to the limits of your abilities. Are you in?"

Allri nodded. She wondered what the first expedition looked like-maybe it would be useful in finding their mural.

Burning tin, she looked back at the first mural. The figures on the wall were very realistic, once she took out the symbolism. She'd never mistake them for photographs, but it was very clear who they were referring to. Her own painting clearly showed her high cheekbones, her brown hair … no, it was wrong, her hair would never be that messy. Not even after Steelpushing herself into a wall, falling asleep in a cave of sleeping-gas mushrooms, falling into a puddle, and getting hit by coins during practice. Okay, maybe it was that messy. Maybe.

With her tin on, Allri couldn't miss the second "Are you in?". This one didn't come from Corette, though. Allri spun around, trying to pick out the voice's source, but in the misty cavern, she could only see shadows flitting across the back of the cave. She turned back to the group, thoughts racing. It was clearly not a normal echo, and in light of the other things they'd found, the odds were pretty good that it was dangerous in some way. Looking to Corette for reassurance, she saw the Seeker put her finger to her lips, then gesture for them to keep their eyes on each other. Allri did.

Rig spoke, then. "Northern mountains sure are nice this year, Penrod."

Allri waited, watching the other two. Nothing was visible yet, but her heart was pounding anyways. But there was nothing for her to do except wait and watch. Nothing for her to do, when anything at all could be out there.

When the voice returned, it was almost a relief. This time, it came from above.

Allri saw Corette mouth 'Tin'. She was already burning it, but she flared it for a moment, searching the false sky for signs of trouble. Tree branches and mists were in the way, but they were useless against the flared tin. The flitting shadows from earlier were visible again. This time, with the flare, she could make out their features-they looked like rats with wings.

Turning back to Rig and Corette, Allri silent-spoke what she'd seen. 'Bats. Looks harmless.'

@TrailRunnin @ZincAboutIt

[+Invocation]

A campfire's crackling might normally have been calming to Malu, but all he could think now was how loud it sounded, and how much of a beacon it was in the darkness for whatever else was out there. He was also exceptionally aware of his time limit. It couldn't be that long before it was time again, and then what would happen? He'd feel guilty if something happened to Nekorb from his other side. He had to find a way out. "I'm going looking for an exit. You should stay here, in case something happens to me. No need for both of us to get eaten at once, yes?"

@xinoehp512

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Sorry about the delay on this. I haven't been in Malu Mood until now.

 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

'Bats. Looks harmless,' Allri mouthed to them, her pupils wide with Tin.

Corette raised an eyebrow, looking aside towards Rig. If there was anything she'd learned in their time here, it was that nothing in this place was harmless. And a swarm of bats that could mimic human speech posed any number of issues even if they weren't interested in killing anyone. It was certainly harder to share a private conversation with the threat of any number of words being repeated aloud, at random, in a crowded cavern. 

Pity that so few of us know Alleycant, she thought, but pushed that complaint aside. Such whining was pointless, and besides, she'd rather keep that ace up her sleeve. Corette looked upwards towards the bats lost in the shadows, thinking. It was unlikely they'd be able to hear a whisper, so close communication would probably be safe. The real question was whether or not it was still safe to go off exploring.

Almost certainly not, she thought, but that didn't stop her from wanting to. This would be the perfect opportunity to do some snooping, with everyone else distracted and fretting about the bats. Still, she wasn't foolish enough to go alone. If neither Rig nor Allri could be bothered to come, Corette would be marooned in the clearing. She comforted herself with the idea of a hot soak in the springs as possible reparations for missed secrets, though she still ached to go looking around. Standing on the very tips of her toes, Corette turned to Rig and pitched her voice low. Allri would almost-certainly be able to hear her too, with her Tin still on.

"Still interested in exploring? Or should we wait it out? I'll admit, the idea of getting eaten alive by a swarm of bats screaming at me with my own voice is less than appealing, and there's plenty of other ways to spend the time. The choice is yours."

@I ♥️ Rashek @TrailRunnin

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Tried to wait a bit longer on this one  

 

[That Violin Guy he/him]

10 hours ago, Rushu42 said:

Sarah looked up, following the arc of the glowing sphere. Something moved in the darkness, and she caught her breath. How had Althea known it was up there? Suddenly, she heard Althea repeat herself. "No order, Wes". Only, the sound hadn't come from the white-haired woman, who seemed deep in thought. She whipped her head around, squinting at the ceiling. Althea had said it could mimic voices. "Did you hear that?" She asked Fasi in a low voice.

@Oduim’s Chmapion

Fasi looked around. She nodded almost imperceptibly.

[+ElephantEarwax he/him]

Adren, having been sitting in the camp he had made, called to Corette, "If you are going from this cave, can I follow you, I don't like these bats. They're mimicking Mercy and Jethro. Its driving me mad."

@ZincAboutIt

[I ♥️ Rashek]

5 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

"Still interested in exploring? Or should we wait it out? I'll admit, the idea of getting eaten alive by a swarm of bats screaming at me with my own voice is less than appealing, and there's plenty of other ways to spend the time. The choice is yours."

Allri returned her tin to a low burn, noticing the world dull around her. She felt tired-a day spent walking could do that, especially when she wasn't used to it. Her clothes were still streaked with purple sleep spores, and it would be nice to get those out. They might be affecting her now, actually. It was easy to lose track of time in caves like this, and she'd been the one most affected by the spores earlier. Even if her drowsiness was completely natural, she didn't think it was a great idea to confront danger while only half awake. And it was so warm here-what were the chances that the next cavern would be so agreeable?

Looking back towards the hot springs, Allri made up her mind.

"It's been a long day. Let's go back and sleep."

 

Edited October 26, 2019 by I ♥️ Rashek

[+Sorana she/her]

Althea watched the group dissipate again, the paintings loosing their fascination. It was always interesting to see how easily some gave up. The voices of the flying creatures were disturbing, but she still turned back to the wall, looked at it again.

"Would you like to try to capture one of them?" She asked Karin and Myriad, basically Wes as well although she wasn't sure if he was interested in something like that and pointed above to indicate the animals.

"Otherwise we could try to find something out about the wall. There has to be a reason for why it does, what it does."

The future. There were possibilities. Some Epics could do it, some metals allowed for that as well. She even had heard about a special type of Aviar. Pensively she considered all possibilities tried to think of something plausible.

@kenod

@AonEne

@I think I am here.

[AonEne he/him in an enby way]

3 hours ago, Sorana said:

"Would you like to try to capture one of them?" She asked Karin and Myriad, basically Wes as well although she wasn't sure if he was interested in something like that and pointed above to indicate the animals. "Otherwise we could try to find something out about the wall. There has to be a reason for why it does, what it does."

Myriad shrugged. She didn’t know enough about the magic here yet, not enough to participate easily in a talk about the wall, so if they did that she’d step out. “I wouldn’t mind trying to capture one of those.” If it could mimic voices, it might be sapient, and she had ways of finding that out. Not that she would ever possess one; she had enough pride not to Bolt into animals. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by AonEne

[kenod]

Karin threw a glance at the hotspring, wondering if they couldn't just call it a day. It wasn't as if the voices were going to go somewhere after all.

She sighed. "Sure," she told Althea with a shrug. "Might be a decent distraction from this wall at least." still, she would have prefered the hotspring for that, maybe a couple of hours of sleep as well. She always found that nice, even if she technically didn't need it.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

18 hours ago, I ♥️ Rashek said:

"It's been a long day. Let's go back and sleep."

Corette nodded to Allri, then watched her wander back towards the hot springs. A few of the bats roosting in the high shadowed darkness echoed her suggestion with a scattering of "sleep, sleep." The girl had a point; how long had it been since Corette had caught a few hours of rest? She cast another look towards the deep darkness that beckoned out beyond the mist, then towards the epicenter of damp heat that was the stone forest. Rig still stood beside her, his posture tense and alert. He'd added a branch of petrified wood to match his dueling cane - when had he gotten that?

"Normally I'd throw caution to the wind here," Corette said softly, "but I wouldn't say 'no' to a nice bath and maybe something to eat. Still a bit rusting cold after my earlier dip, aren't I?" She spared Rig one withering glare. "Before we leave this cave, though, I'd like to take a look at a few of the other walls."

She pulled the tablet from her pocket, glancing around quickly to make sure they were relatively isolated, then opened the document cache and scrolled down to Footnote 32.

"And then, there's this." Corette held the tablet at her own eye level; if Rig wanted to see, he could rusting well stoop for once in his life. She tapped the line, fingernail clicking on the screen right above the word '[REDACTED]'. "They found something down there, down in that cavern they call The Well. I think whatever they found, that's the reason we're down here. Eight people went missing down here - no word, nothing. And yet the ACE Executive Committee is willing to risk an even larger group?"

Corette looked at him, her smile sharp, hungry. "That's the real treasure - what everyone is gunning for. Stancel might be looking to rescue Warrick and the others, but ACE? They want whatever is down in that cavern. And they want it bad."

@TrailRunnin

-----------

Lita edged a bit closer to Okame and peered at the rock he was indicating, then raised one eyebrow at Laurelai.

Go with him? She signed in Alleycant. Division would certainly be useful down there, Gravitation too.

The Horneater had proven useful, if a bit erratic, on more than one occasion. It was a bit of a surprise appearance, but, well, he did enjoy his little dramatics. And if someone was going to tag along while Laurelai and Lita did a bit of exploring, Lita figured that she could do worse than a Radiant who could atomize stone and float down sheer drops. Certainly made the threat of a cave-in far less dangerous.

She slipped one hand into her pocket and touched her Coin, feeling the cool, heavy metal against her fingers. Lita pulled it out, turning it over and over in her hand as she looked down into the darkness of the caverns. Down into the unknown, where a world of secrets waited for her like a treasure horde.

How many times had she walked into the unknown over the last few years? The girl from Elendel, the Lita Attar that had darted through shadowed streets, alone and afraid, fleeing the death that she had caused - that girl was gone. In her place stood someone else, someone keener and sharper, more than just a lookout, or a spy. Had it happened the night of the PlasmaCore incident, when the rain tore through the city in freezing sheets, and she'd burned enough Tin to light the world on fire? She could still feel the steel entering her body, slender and sharp, a violation and a benediction. Had it been then, when the voice of a cruel and cunning god called her up out of the depths of unconsciousness?

Or had it begun sooner? Had it been back in her new room behind the blue door, fresh from her interview, the tiny spikes in her forearms still stinging and humming? When a shadow walked through her door as she spun a teaspoon between two fingers - had it been then? When words of gold scrawled themselves across the floor and the walls and the ceiling, or when the deep madness of the Void slithered up into the corners of the world, pooling in the empty well of the Stranger's right eye? Was that when it had begun?

Does it matter? The voice in her mind whispered. Lita considered it, then flipped her Coin one more time. She caught it as it fell, bright and gold as the sun, with none of its warmth. The spiked skull grinned up at her, and she grinned back.

"It's past time for a little vacation, I think," she said, then looked over to Laurelai. "You ready?"

@Voidus

Edited October 27, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[Voidus]

Still breathing a little rapidly, Laurelai sheathed the small dagger she'd pulled out when they had both heard Okame. As she hid the sheathe once more she turned and glared at the Horneater with a stare that was more dangerous than any simple blade. He ignored both her and Lita's irritation and began making his way towards a small hole that she hadn't noticed, seemingly another entrance into the caverns below.

Laurelai shook her head, she would have thrown the dagger at him if she wasn't quite sure that he'd probably catch it out of the air or something. Rusting Radiants and their reflexes, that combined with the fact that Laurelai wasn't exactly an accomplished fighter meant that any attempt at physical retribution would likely end in embarrassment. She grit her teeth together and shared a look with Lita, spike dropping into her hand and already spinning.

If he does that again I swear I'll spend however long it takes to make it work coming up with a Forgery to turn him into a frog. She signed.

Still, he would likely be useful in the caverns. If they found something down there then it would be best to have some backup, Turning to Lita again, Laurelai saw her gave her coin a flip, grinning at the result before looking up.

"It's past time for a little vacation, I think," Lita said  "You ready?"

"Here's hoping we find another abandoned bar with free port at the end of this one." Laurelai replied, matching Lita's grin. "Harmony knows I could use something to wash out the taste of whatever it was they were serving at that bar. I still refuse to acknowledge that as wine."

With a small sigh she stepped forwards to the hole, making her own way down after Okame.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Lita felt the change in the air the moment she stepped fully into the hole in the earth, Tin allowing her to catch the bare whisper of moisture and mineral chalk that wafted up from the depths. It had grown dark quickly as they descended, though to Lita it seemed barely dim. Behind her, the midday light was almost blinding in comparison; it cut off as they rounded a sharp corner, white sunlight swallowed by rough black stone.

She hefted her pack, tightening the straps around her shoulders. They hadn't packed much, but neither of them was stupid enough to descend into an unknown cave without some food, water, and - in Lita's case - metal. Tin would prove invaluable down here, letting her make out details that would be easily missed even with a handheld torch. She fished one out of the pack anyway, then handed it to Laurelai.

"Looks like the tunnel slopes downwards for..." Lita squinted, seeing no end to the long, winding path. "For a while. I'll keep an eye out for anything strange. Okame, how far down have you explored?"

@Voidus @Invocation

[+Invocation]

6 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

"Looks like the tunnel slopes downwards for..." Lita squinted, seeing no end to the long, winding path. "For a while. I'll keep an eye out for anything strange. Okame, how far down have you explored?"

"Not far. Caving alone is not generally a good idea, so when the group I was spying on left for areas I couldn't see, I turned back. I did hear them talking about soporific mushrooms in one of the tunnels that runs parallel to this shaft's bottom-most level, though," Okame said, still thinking he was lucky to not have gone too far and fallen victim to the spores, if the effects were not affected by Stormlight.

@ZincAboutIt @Voidus

[Voidus]

Laurelai grimaced as darkness consumed the tunnel around them. She could manage darkness well enough, and could cope with the dirt and grime that surrounded them, but it still wasn't particularly pleasant to be walking blind into a passage with who knew how many tons of dirt and rock overhead. She gave a grateful smile to Lita as she handed over a torch, careful to keep it angled down and away from her eyes. The last thing they needed was to light-blind their Tineye.

"Soporific mushrooms?" She repeated questioningly.

She didn't know of any to hand, but that kind of research wasn't a particular speciality of hers. Well, not right at the moment anyway, but with a brief bit of mental focus she managed to shift her history to one she'd begun preparing a while ago during the war with Plasmacore. She'd initially only created this history to be able to have a discussion on poisons but she hated leaving an unfinished history, so in her spare time she had refined it until she came up with a satisfactory history that stuck.

"Nothing so naturally potent that I know of." She said, a little more deeply in thought. "Some can be refined into something like that but the dosage is usually lethal, soporifics are hard to manage unless you can get a precise weight measurement and medical history, too easy to under or over dose someone. Invested then?"

Thinking helped to distract her as they travelled, she no longer felt the need to keep brushing the dust off of herself only to have it instantly replaced again. Though she did wish she'd packed some proper gloves along with them, handling ingredients with bare hands was never advisable if they might have toxic properties. Perhaps if she used Forgery to keep her hands clean before and after? But how plausible would it be to have clean hands after hours of cave diving?

"What brought you down here?" She asked Okame. "Personal curiosity? Or does one of the other departments have a particular interest in the tunnels?"

[+Invocation]

3 minutes ago, Voidus said:

 "What brought you down here?" She asked Okame. "Personal curiosity? Or does one of the other departments have a particular interest in the tunnels?"

"Truthfully, I was bored. I spent so much time tucked away in that Alley that I began to go a little stir-crazy. I learned that this was going to happen, and thought maybe it could be used to benefit us all, so here I am." Okame considered something for a second and went on. "For all I know, every department has an interest in this, but since I've been in isolation, I am not privy to most of the information that gets passed around. I could offer you the same question, though."

Quote

Apologies for it being short and all dialogue, I'm on mobile right now so it's hard to make good posts.

@Voidus

[Voidus]

"You could indeed." Laurelai replied with a sly smile.

But rather than answer, she continued to walk in silence, still grinning and staring at the Horneater's back. She waited a number of steps for effect before speaking again to change the topic, just as the silence got too much.

"But since you haven't, I'll ask another one. Did these tunnels branch much? Or was it mostly one passage?" Laurelai said.

She watched the walls with some interest, they hadn't come across any major forks or side-passages yet but there was no telling how complex this tunnel would get as they went onwards. They could always mark which passages they'd taken, but that also carried it's own risks if there were other creatures down here, or simply someone from the city following after them.

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Lita reached out and ran her fingers along the stone to her left, feeling the cold, rough edges brush against her skin. She shivered, then tapped a little heat from her Brassminds. Instantly, the cold air around her became pleasantly neutral, and she relaxed a bit. So, Okame had followed the ACE expedition for a little while? That would prove useful, in all likelihood.

She smiled when Laurelai side-stepped the Horneater's questions, glancing over at her in the dark. The little smirk on her face was evident to Lita's enhanced eyes, and she had to hold in a laugh. So far, Lita could see no branches in the tunnel, nor any light filtering in that would suggest other entrances. She kept her hearing focused behind them; if something wanted to sneak up behind their little party, they'd be in for a sharp surprise.

"This system is supposedly incredibly complex," Lita said softly, her voice sounding loud in her own ears. "According to that news publication the Scholars have going - and I'm hardly counting that as gospel - the initial exploratory party has gone missing with no word. But they apparently managed to get rather far down."

She fell silent again, feeling the air become more still, more quiet - though silence was always relative to a Tineye. Somewhere, she could hear the soft drip of water.

Good to know there's water down here, she thought, then slipped her Coin back into a pocket. Even the idea of losing it down some crevasse or mine shaft left her in a cold sweat. There was a part of her that knew she relied too much on that Coin, that she almost revered it. But, well, it was literally a good luck charm - and it had saved her life more than once with its warnings, however cryptic they might be. 

Good excuses, the voice whispered, cold and soft. But that isn't why you clutch it so tightly.

Lita ignored the voice, painting over it with her own. "Do you think anyone else has ever walked here?" She said aloud. "Or are we the first?"

@Voidus @Invocation

[+Sorana she/her]

Althea followed Karin's glance over to the hot spring and she fighed all well. "We can always call it a day and go on later." She ammended, although she wasn't particularily tired. Mostly she felt good and strong, she hadn't pushed the stormlight back when she realized, that she hadn't needed it earlier. "Corette mentioned that Adren has already set up camp, so we can simply head there, make a stop at the hot springs and care about the flying creatures later?" She didn't plan to bath in front of everybody, but that was a different matter. The thought to get out of her cloths alone made her comfortable, and to jump into them with all of her cloths on, didn't really seem wise to her. Maybe she could only wear a part, but in the end it would leave her with the need to change afterwards, if she didn't want to go sleep in a set of wet clothing.

The wall captured her eyes again and she touched it again, her fingers moving over the paint, when she couldn't quite turn around and leave this riddle behind. Investiture resists Investiture. Gently she reached out for the wall with her mind, touched the paint, the stone, tried to find a place she could convince to change, something to get a hold on with her own Investiture.

She suspected to find no hold, to be moved away. The wall was obviously invested, so she knew that she most likely had no chance to soulcast it. Instead she was mostly looking for something that she might be able to soulcast, because that might give a hint as to what exactly the wall was doing, which parts influenced which. To her surprise her Investiture latched onto the wall, as it always did when she found a spren, someone to bargain with.

Althea pried farther, offered some stormlight in hope for a reply and got a vague sense of a spren, definitely non-sentinent but it was strong, stronger than most of the spren she usually encountered. It wasn't the wall she realized after a while, the spren just used the wall, it was attracked to something else, and therefore had decided to stay. The stone was only a place it used, nothing more, and nothing less. It wasn't sentinent enough to really answer a question, but the fact that it was here alone, that it acted based on something, told her stories. Her mind swirled around when she considered that, when she tried to find out what the spren could be attracked to, why it was where it was and what it meant. A spren that showed the future. That adapted said future now and then. A spren that was attracked to something. Something that - the thought ran into a direction that made it dangerous, and she hid it carefully. If she was right, the expedition might loose its playful character sooner than later.

She considered the other members of the expedition, relaxed slightly when she decided, that at the moment there was large chance that none of the others were able to find this out by themselves. That left her with one question. Tell them, allow them to follow her train of thoughts, consider the implications, or just stay quiet, until she found out if her suspicions were right. It was the Alleyverse, spren tended to act strangely around here. Still. A spren in a wall, calm, quiet, it felt nearly dormant, although she knew that it wasn't. It was simply calm. A spren. Little seeker rats, worms, but that she just met a spren she'd never sawn before. That was something worth every minute she spend down here. She left the spren some stormlight as a gift and then finally turned away from the wall.

"Maybe we really should head back to the others." She returned to the matter at hand. The sooner they slept. the sooner they could go on. And that meant, they could find the reason why the spren was here sooner as well.

@AonEne

@kenod

Edited October 28, 2019 by Sorana

[I think I am here. he/him]

Not an order. Sighing in relief Wes looked to where some people were setting up camp and getting ready to sleep, and to the others who were analysing the wall.

“Shouldn’t... someone stay up to keep watch?” He quietly asked the Righthand. Her tone had softened his fears somewhat, but she still outranked him by leagues, and the thought of punishment made him lightheaded.

“Just a suggestion. But, some predators might target sleeping people? Like why the mushrooms were trying to put us to sleep.”

——

The reply came.

You’d need something to attack them all at once. If they can mimic voices they must have acute hearing, some sort of loud noise, or high-pitched frequency would probably hurt them.

A pause. Assuming this situation is hypothetical, of course, he joked. Max knew full well it probably wasn’t a false scenario.

@Sorana

[+Invocation]

9 hours ago, Voidus said:

"But since you haven't, I'll ask another one. Did these tunnels branch much? Or was it mostly one passage?" Laurelai said.

"There's a few small offshoots, including one I watched a few people fall down. They should have been paying attention. But it's mostly one passage that doubles back on itself a few times, as far as I know."

8 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Lita ignored the voice, painting over it with her own. "Do you think anyone else has ever walked here?" She said aloud. "Or are we the first?"

"Unclear.  But if I had to take a guess, I'd say I was the first. No one else seems to be aware that this is here. Shoddy information gathering, honestly," Okame said, extremely disapproving. 

[+ZincAboutIt she/her]

Lita listened to Okame pontificate and rolled her eyes at his back. So no one's been here. Good. More secrets for me. And besides, it was hard to gather information on something you had no idea existed. She had to admit, it was a bit surprising that no one else had explored these tunnels, but, well, perhaps someone had. Maybe the knowledge had just gotten lost. Lita had seen the state of the Records Department for herself on more than one occasion - that was a definite possibility. 

The thought of the Records Department spurred her to take another look at Laurelai. Here in the darkness, the woman wouldn't know Lita was staring; it was a rare opportunity to catch a rather unguarded look at her. She crept along beside Lita, torch angled down, for which Lita was grateful. Their brief stint outside seemed to be serving her well; she'd perked up like a wilted flower set into a glass of clear water since Lita had gotten her out of that stuffy library. Lita had nothing against records work - she'd done enough of Forian's ledger-keeping to know that it held its own sort of power - but there was something special about getting out into the world and catching a secret yourself.

Stepping beside Laurelai felt a bit nostalgic, like walking backwards in time half a year. Now that she'd had a little more time to think on it, the distance between them hung in a palpable fog. After the fight with PlasmaCore, they'd staggered out of the ruined Odd Job Tavern and into the nearest Alley, avoiding any severe danger during their Alleytravel by some miracle. Lita had been too preoccupied with her own hangover to wonder about Laurelai. Once she'd cleaned herself up and was capable of keeping down more than broth and her own tears, Mac had come to her with an assignment. Then another. And another. 

Lita's world had narrowed into one long game of chase, one she'd perfected near the end. There were lulls in the work, times when she'd managed to snag a cup of tea or a quick drink or a chat with Laurelai, but Lita had spent far more time with the other CI field agents and members of Acquisitions. It was an odd thought, that she was more familiar with people like Tanarav or Derrings than with Laurelai, despite the fact that she probably knew more about Lita's life than anyone living on this planet. But did one drunken evening make a friendship? 

A question nagged at her, and though she shoved it deep into the closet of her mind, the words whispered and cut through anyway. Maybe Laurelai's distance hadn't been mere chance, or an influx of work.

So much blood on those hands of yours now, Little Lita. She pushed the thought away, edging her Tin higher, seeking that cool clarity of thought. It washed over her like rain, and with that icy observation came another benefit.

"The tunnel bends up ahead," she said, her voice echoing in a quiet sussurus around them. "Hooks to the left. There's some source of light further down - you won't see it. Probably a ways away yet."

@Voidus @Invocation

[kenod]

12 hours ago, Sorana said:

Althea followed Karin's glance over to the hot spring and she fighed all well. "We can always call it a day and go on later." She ammended, although she wasn't particularily tired. Mostly she felt good and strong, she hadn't pushed the stormlight back when she realized, that she hadn't needed it earlier. "Corette mentioned that Adren has already set up camp, so we can simply head there, make a stop at the hot springs and care about the flying creatures later?" She didn't plan to bath in front of everybody, but that was a different matter. The thought to get out of her cloths alone made her comfortable, and to jump into them with all of her cloths on, didn't really seem wise to her. Maybe she could only wear a part, but in the end it would leave her with the need to change afterwards, if she didn't want to go sleep in a set of wet clothing.

Karin nodded. "Sure," she said with a quick nod. She felt slightly bad about the fact that she'd likely pushed Althea into calling it a day, but it wasn't nearly enough for her to actually suggest going on. The idea of a hot bath was far too attractive for that to happen. She wondered how they were going to handle the bath though. Going in wearing all their clothing would be a bit weird, but the alternative wasn't really that interesting either. She shrugged, she could always figure that one out later.