Voidus

The Worldspike and the Voidpool where Sudiov originally was born from. But one is in a barrier and the other is sealed off. So for practical purposes, no I don't believe there are any. You say trap, I say opportunity.

Welcome! First off an obligatory: Would you like a cookie? So the current plot is a little difficult to explain but broadly the entire world has been Forged into an alternative timeline. Guilds are much less powerful, the guild wars have been erased and most of the demideities are either not active or Forged into new identities as average citizens. Some people have begun to regain memories of the old timeline and the world has started to fracture under the strain. Meanwhile some powerful individuals seek to maintain the forgery and utilize shadow monsters to remove memories from those who have regained them and occasionally make people vanish. Current era is era 5.

Still reviewing things but just a note, we're not usually fond of people adding random and especially nonsensical weaknesses to an otherwise serious character just to get under the point totals. (The sneezing was particularly egregious for me, I don't believe I've seen a single character sneeze at any point in the AV so when would this trigger, and why?)

Breathing heavily at their rapid transit through the Alleys and then the lobby of the hotel, Laurelai leaned against the walls of this gilded elevator and looked at her friends eyes, panicked face shifting into a warm grin, the kind of grin usually given only to a friend one had not seen in many years, though of course Laurelai had technically seen her regularly for the past few days. "Well, you look terrible." Lita said, mirroring the grin and then burst into laughter. Laurelai held back for only a second before she joined in. Peals of mirthful cackling filled the space, echoing in the small space of the elevator. The missed time melted away at the sound, as an entire chorus of Laurelai's and Lita's joined the laughter, reflected in the burnished walls into infinity. "Rusts but it's good to see you again." Laurelai managed finally, wiping a small tear away. "I mean, obviously I've seen you I just... well you know what I mean!" The lack of good company and fine spirits has been sorely missed. She thought, hoping the other woman would understand. "And, as for looking terrible..." In an instant her dress was repaired, the sweat and dust that she had gathered in the Alleys vanished and her hair hung neat and straight once again. "Oh by all the Shards, I missed being able to do that." She said, stretching and enjoying the sense of instantaneous refreshment. "So how the Rusts have you been? You know, other than the crippling headaches, identity crisis and the universe collapsing around you." @ZincAboutIt --------------------------------------------------------------------- Gentle hands shook Whisper awake from her position on the ground, she heard a concerned voice but before she could even process it her instincts kicked in. She rolled to the side and jumped back a half-dozen feet to land in an awkward crouch with a spike ready to throw, concealed in one of her loose sleeves. "-you alright? Do you need a doctor?" The voice said, finally catching up to her. She eyed the man who had been helping her, now staring wide-eyed and worried. She took a steady, calming breath to restore her pulse back to normal, self-diagnosed the bruises and the minor concussion she'd received. Then gave an apologetic smile before lifting her head to show the thick scar along her throat. Sorry. She mouthed, with what she hoped was an innocent expression. He tried to approach again and offer aid but she started off at a jog, hoping he wouldn't follow. That scream, it had been at the hospital, and if she wanted to find out why she needed to move quickly. Her speed was slowed with her concussion, a constant ringing in her ears blocked out most background noise and even the echoes of the scream though she was sure it had not been silenced. With her current condition, the Alleys were the only way to get there in time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Professor Esserethel was moments from jumping onto a tram towards the hospital when he saw the figure of a young boy collapsing on the street, coiling up into a ball as though in great pain. Domi's mercy. He cursed before leaping off and towards the boy. He knelt down next to him, eyes running over his figure in an instant before touching a shoulder gently. Had it been some pre-existing condition set off by the quake? The tremor hadn't been that violent, perhaps simply fear-based? "Don't worry." He began in a soothing voice "I've got you, are you alright? Do you need a doctor?" He was already looking up and scanning passers by in the hopes that one of them might be a medical professional when the boy twisted and leapt with surprising speed. Enough to be clearly Invested in some way, and as he settled there was a moment when his clothes shimmered with Stormlight. Radiant. The Professor noted. Could have been an issue with the Nahel bond? Maybe the Tremor was Invested somehow. The boy gave a weak smile and mouthed an apology before darting off at top speeds. And fueled initially by instinct and then a concern that the boy may have become concussed in his fall, Professor Esserethel followed him into a small alley between the train station and a bank. "Just wait a moment." He called, already beginning to run out of breath. "You don't need to rush like-" His words froze in his mouth as the scenery around him shifted in an instant from tarred road to a dark cobblestone, the sun vanished from the sky and the walls changed to thrice their previous height and looming ominously. Ah. Whisper thought as they froze and turned, hearing the voice the instant they started Alleytravelling. Whoops.

I don't have any issues with people RPing characters in a different guild to them, I do generally want to be a little careful of just letting people play department heads because it can be easy for people to just use it as a power fantasy. For me most of the joy of the upper members of the DA is them struggling with their power, when to use it and why, what it means to be so different from everyone else. Coming to terms with all of that is an interesting story that has been explored from many angles. That being said this concept looks like it is exactly heading in the right direction. I'm not going to go so far as saying it's approved since we probably want to wait for more details of the era, etc. but looks like she'd fit in pretty well.

Investiture: Seon (5) (Honestly hesitant to even add this much, Seons are mostly just companions which I'd honestly encourage people to have, and used for communication but pretty much everyone in the AV has a fabrial or cellphone or Alleycant which can accomplish that. Skills: Intelligent (20), Skilled Crafting / scholarship (25 + 30) Melee combat (35) Equipment: Shardblade: (30) Weakness: Distractable (10), Fears (10), Explosive Disorder (10) Total 5 (M) + 110 (S) + 30 (E) - 30 (W) Can bump the weapon skills up to Expert if you'd like, which is technically 5 points over but as mentioned I'm hesitant to even count a Seon and its also such a well-rounded character. Approved.

Something grabbed her by the waist, darkness woven into limbs and surrounded by chitinous armour. Laurelai screamed as she felt them, then screamed again as they pulled her backwards. She could see nothing of the creature itself, only feel as she was grabbed by innumerable insectoid claws. They restrained her limbs with a thousand tiny pincers, grabbed her torso with a larger pair and then she felt a million tiny claws digging into her skin, every strand of her hair clamped by another limb. She felt tiny legs crawl across her face reaching down and across until they hit perfectly painted red lips and began to pry them apart. A freezing pulse of energy ran through her, extending the time she had to feel the horrifying sensations into an eternity which was finally, blissfully broken. Though when she heard the voice it occurred to Laurelai that many would prefer the grasping pull of the insects to this voice, a voice like impending danger, the creak before the sky fell and the world plunged into endless nothing. "And you, Forgotten Daughter. You have always had power, but you sought something more, that which you had lost. And now you have it. " Forgotten Daughter? Laurelai thought, no that wasn't right. She knew her parents, even if she'd lost one of them. Neither had ever forgotten her. So lonely. Why did they leave? Nobody else in the house when they found me. Why did they never come back for me? Nobody even asked if I was okay. "You made a bargain and gained your hearts desire at the cost of the world, though you did not know it." The Voice continued, seeming to speak to both Laurelai's at the same time. No. Said Doctor Esserethel. I wanted to see, to know the deep secrets of the world. I wanted to know the secrets of myself. The Forgotten Daughter countered. I found the heart of the world and only used it to fill in records. "I think your price has been unjust, but would you have paid it anyway? Could you possibly bring yourself to do anything otherwise?" Yes. I love my family but the hidden truth that I had is worth so much more. No, I finally have the answer for The Question, to finally have that answer and know who I am is worth the price. The light was fading, and the room felt cold and damp. Like a silent gentle rain in a cavern far below that whispered of secrets answered and truth unveiled. "Are you willing to pursue this path and the secrets that await you? What are you HUNGRY FOR?" They both stilled, feeling the damp and remembering the silence of falling water. And then something else, a louder pour of rain falling from above, the heavy sleet of an Alleystorm. A quiet Alley waiting to be pierced by the sound of spike meeting flesh. And a question, not meant for her but she had often wondered at her answer. “Then I offer you a Choice. Would you have Power, or Subtlety?” Laurelai had often considered what it would be like to have the powers of a Radiant or a Twinborn, to fly through the air or carve flesh apart with your bare hands. But she had never sought to gain a spike for either. The utility and practicality of Forging, the awareness of ones self had been worth any price. But what did this new Laurelai think? I think that Forgery has uses far beyond healing. She replied. I think that the practice of studying everything and everyone distances us from them, even when we have a family. I think that we consider ourselves separate from other people even as we understand more than almost any others how similar we are to them. I think that we choose Subtlety, and I think that there is one thing mightier than any sword. Laurelai's hand clutched a smooth metallic surface, comfortably positioned in the fingers of her right hand. With a swift motion she pulled her arm up and stabbed it into the creature behind her, and as she did an image rose to her mind, a maze of twisting patterns constrained by a circle. Such a simple thing to channel rivulets of power and yet so powerful as to rewrite reality itself. One of her eyes was already covered by shadowy material but the other, even half-lidded, could see Lita slice a section out of the shadowy creature that had grasped her with a metallic flash. Poor creature had certainly gone after the wrong denizen. Laurelai smiled, the pen in her hand twitched slightly. The creature behind her reared back as a nearly-identical slash tore across its own torso, its history rewritten so that it had been the one to try grabbing a department head. Laurelai took a moment to review herself, the scratches all over her, the oily material which clung to her skin, the tatters of fabric where claws had torn apart her dress. "This." Laurelai said, whirling around to stare the creature down imperiously. "Was designer." A carpet of lavender flowers appeared underfoot and trailed Laurelai as she moved, not entirely suited to the seriousness of the moment, nor entirely intentional but she smiled at them nonetheless even as they tangled her feet. "I'd forgotten how inconvenient that could get." @Fatebreaker @ZincAboutIt

This is I believe the fourth time someone has founded such a guild Regardless the DA do not actually provide cookies in intro threads any more, nor have we for some time. The practice was common enough and employed not only by us but by others as well that it sort of became a meme and sometimes people still use it but we actually stopped the practice in the guilds specifically because of things like this where intro threads would get derailed with dozens of comments around cookies and whether or not they were ethical and should be eaten, etc. Which is not very welcoming for newcomers. So please avoid these kinds of discussions in intro threads and if someone is being too aggressive with discussions of cookies do let someone know, ideally either myself or @AonEne since we're the mods who are most involved with the Alleyverse and by extension the DA.

This falls under Chaos' post that we prefer people to post genuine welcomes and focus on the newcomer rather than memes.

I would generally suggest that people find another player to play the other half of that rather than RPing two sides of a conversation constantly.

I think Lita was added by virtue of plot-requirements for this era which we've given passes to previously. But yeah if you have plans for the appointment to be more permanent then it might be a good idea, though I highly doubt you'd get any pushback for it given how established Lita is as a character and how light-handed she has been with exercising her power so far.

I think any department heads of the DA are kinda obligated to go through the OP character route, doesn't have to be personal power but they should be an incredibly influential individual who has the power to potentially alter the fate of the city. So I think I would prefer that we had some community input over whether or not such a character would fit in the story, have discussions around how active they'll personally be, etc. But not something we've discussed before so if any of the other mods have differing opinions I'm certainly open to have a discussion about it. @AonEne @MacThorstenson @I think I am here. / other mods who I don't want to tag since they haven't been as active since the reboot and I don't like unnecessary tagging.

Swords Expert - 75, hand-to-hand amateur - 10, Bow average - 45, smart - 10 Skills: 75+10+10+45 = 140 Equipment: Bulletproof, self-repairing cloak with stealth capabilities - 40, super-bow - 10 Equipement total: 50 So just going to say here that before we even get to Epic powers this is already hitting 190. Also as an interesting point Unaging is not actually something I can cater for from an Epic point because while Epics do age slowly I believe that canonically it has been stated that there are none who do not age at all. Big point of the series actually that they're not truly immortal. For the others: Elemental reincarnation: Reincarnation is one of the strongest rated Prime Invincibilities because it can't be circumvented, now there are some weird restrictions to this version of it but also it does technically combine cloning in as well so just slightly lowered from standard. 70 points Realization: So assumptions for this one - No highly technical creations (Computers, etc.), cannot created Invested/Magical items, additional benefits of created items do not exceed what is physically possible (Eg. extra stealth is as stealthy as an actual cloak can be, not magical invisibility / sharpened swords are not shardblades, etc.), 'significant energy investment' is extremely draining to the point of borderline incapacitation for a number of hours. Limited creation ability - 70 points Unaffected by Calamity - 10 points Magic total: 70+70+10 = 150 Weaknesses: Clumsy out of combat (5), slow to heal (5) (Assuming this is a natural, non-magical slowness) Total: 140 (S) + 50 (E) + 150 (M) - 10 (W) = 330 This is well over the point cap so we can't approve this unless you want to go through the whole OP character process.

Laurelai could hear her pulse, a rapid pulsing which thundered in her ears. But somehow Lita's words seemed to cut through that roaring torrent with ease, the faint whisper clearly audible and the room, maybe even the Alleys themselves seemed to still at the whisper. ”A god could do it,” Lita said, with what felt like arduous slowness. Laurelai was impatient for the next words, but somehow felt like she already knew them. “A god, or something… something Stranger." The room fell quiet, an all-encompassing silence enveloped them and for a moment Laurelai was worried that her heart itself may have stopped beating. But though that silence should have dominated the space, somehow in this soundless interior it was Lita's words that pressed upon her. "Something Stranger?" Laurelai said at last, her voice felt small and near ready to break. "You don't mean..." But she did, Laurelai knew she did, and even knew why she did. She almost felt a hand pushing a warm metallic coin into her grip, but not the cool, comforting hands of her mother. Strong hands, callused and somehow cold beyond anything that temperature differentials could explain. Something stranger indeed, something that she and Lita had both spoken to, right after... Find us. The waters whispered again. Find your answers. She saw the gentle rain once again, not surrounding her, but in front of her, just out of reach. And she knew that if only she could reach it once more then she would have everything she ever wanted, that then she could simply lie there beneath the silent dark droplets. Dark? Her eyes widened as she looked past the memory, the rain vanished along with the faded memories. But there were other droplets that were not memories at all, dark black fluid that silently dripped from the ceiling onto the floor behind Lita. Fluid that began to coalesce and form a living creature. Laurelai screamed, leaping to her feet and toppling her chair over in her haste. Her hand felt slow, like it was moving through molasses as she raised to point at the creature now forming, trying to get Lita to see it, to do anything to stop it. And then her voice caught in her throat as she saw a shadow on the table, a shadow cast not by the shadow creature in front of her, but by something behind. @ZincAboutIt

Absolutely love a DA budgetary war. As for Voidus post-Forgery I don't necessarily want to commit to anything because it at least in part depends on what happens this era still. There's a non-zero possibility that he just realizes that he and the Stranger are just timebombs waiting to destroy the universe and that they should both just retire or move on to another experiment, hand over the reigns so to speak.

Detteca and Sanax as well I believe. Plus technically the earlier Voidus.

Kinda all Investiture, energy and matter is anti-void.

Shutting off the AV news because they don't want to doomscroll while on holidays.

Whisper does not necessarily have the most sane idea of who in the DA is capable of what, she is slightly to extremely insane. She assumes that most of them probably have the ability to erase the city on a whim if they chose to, either through personal ability or just like unleashing the abomination hordes. Whether or not this is accurate is an exercise left to the reader.

I have actually always been of the opinion that Voidus and the Stranger are not that much of a pair of outliers in the DA, like the various department heads could if they wished to wield some pretty monumental power. Like the fruit-throwing that was mentioned earlier nearly prompted Voidus to just obliterate everything but he was restrained by other members. So yes definitely the more powerful figures, but the Alleys deal with things like the Phoenix, death stars and eldritch gods, they could at the least drum up enough power to make people think they might be able to kill Voidus. Yeah it's a massive conglomeration of mad scientists and bakers with very minimal managerial intervention or oversight, it's honestly a miracle we haven't destroyed half the universe fighting over whose name comes first in a paper that's being published.

This is actually rather interesting, there have been no shortage of people who have tried to destroy the DA in the Alleyverse but it is weird that nobody has ever thought to turn them against themselves.

DA civil war? Well that sounds... Reality ending.

I feel like the Stranger was wise enough to excise them from existence in the Forgery. Some hatreds are too powerful to be overcome even with reality-bending magic that reshapes the entire world.

Yeah someone exploded on top of the Phoenix, which then out of respect retreated from the city. Then after that the marines nuked half the city from orbit to kill off the abominations that everyone was fighting. Almost all of which could have been avoided if someone had not chosen to throw a fruit-that-shall-not-be-named at the Worldspike.

This is more or less already the case. The DA largely don't actually care or interfere much with the wider city unless it's affecting them in the Alleys. Mostly because the RP becomes very boring if there are a bunch of demigods just wandering around handwaving the problems away. Though by necessity of the RP we do tend to mostly see the few members of the DA who actually do wander about the wider city from time to time. No someone else nuked the city because the DA was defending itself and murdering pretty much everyone in the process. And no, not really. In part because there's just absolutely no way to seal the Alleys against the DA, but also because there are several demigod level department heads who would get personally annoyed at that and just use less standard Alleytravel to arrive in the city. I think that was discussed yeah though we never really went anywhere with it that much. And yeah, Alleytravel is just the most basic application of Alleymatics.