Voidus

The spren watched on, caution and pleasure contrasting within it as the one it had followed stayed where she was, speaking confidently. She kept one hand on her weapon and didn't back down or move away as she spoke, remaining guarded but not allowing herself to be cowed. The spren felt a deep satisfaction, a confidence that it had made the right choice. As it heard her speak the spren felt a sudden sense of elation. The words were not the Words that it needed, but they were a start. The spren slowly brightened again, gaining assured of itself now it stood proudly on the shoulder, facing the other two as they introduced themselves. The spren remembered names now, things usually called themselves by a name. It had a name too didn't it? And the one it had followed, she had a name didn't she? It turned towards her once more, curious this time. -------------------------------------------------------------- One step away from exiting the Alleys, Voidus paused. The pens had all stilled, his arms returned to normal. But just as he was about to shift towards the street he felt one more message. After giving a tired sigh to himself he reached into the pocket once more, pulling the pen from within and activating it to receive the message. His tired expression shifted to a hint of regret as he realised what the message was about. He could confirm it from here, simply be on his way and continue on towards the Worldspike. But he owed Mac more than that, owed it to the last one to see him in this world to hear their words. The last words that Mac had given before leaving. He turned in place, heading alone, deeper into the Alleys once more.

Laurelai continued to frown with worry at Lita, she was about to correct her, assuring the woman that she'd definitely seen her step through the cascading liquid. But a glance at her hair showed that Lita was right, it wasn't wet in the slightest, not even a bead of moisture clinging to one of the strands. Laurelai's gaze flitted back to the falling water, where it hit the water below without causing any disturbance at all. Was it an illusion? Or did it just have different properties? Again the urge to touch it rose up, she felt her hand momentarily rise as if about to test the falling liquid herself. But she stopped as she felt the sudden stab of attention hitting her, she saw Lita staring at her, almost seeming to glare before her expression regained its usual mask. Laurelai let her hand drop back to her side, wiping her own expression clean as she did so and simply staring impassively back at her friend. She knew that Lita kept secrets still, she could hardly be herself and not. But she'd thought that they were past this now, this careful concealing of inner thoughts. The game of guessing and watching and evaluating. Hadn't they agreed to open up that night while the city tore itself to pieces around them? "Quite a stir I imagine." She said aloud. "But finding an ancient lost metal from the gods will do that." She felt her temples tighten, felt a headache coming on as tension continued to fill her. She wasn't exactly an active cave diver, but exploring the caverns themselves had at least been exciting, an interesting break from the work she'd previously been performing. But losing the trust of someone she considered a friend? She felt the worry begin to worm its way inside of her, feeding the voice that had been whispering within her mind.

The spren flitted from one street to the next. It raced along a street before hitting a wall and then backtracking before zooming down another side street, a small little bolt of light racing from street to street, attracting a few startled yelps as it rapidly twirled out of the way of people at the last minute, leaving some faint scorch marks on their clothes. It had only looked away for a moment, seeing a new kind of flower and wondering what it would smell like when it burned, but when it burned back the person had gone again. They must have vanished into one of the side streets, but something about those made the spren a little uneasy. It didn't like that sensation, the faint sense of worry and discomfort that encouraged the spren to leave those alleyways alone. Flaring itself a little brighter for comfort it had raced into the alleyways to try to find the person it was looking for, but streets were difficult to remember and the spren didn't even know which ones it was supposed to follow. Why didn't people glow like the spren did? It would make them much easier to find. Or they could burn, burning things were always easy to find. It finally saw a familiar figure and raced to follow, but just as it was giving chase the spren noticed the sky changing, that happened sometimes but this wasn't the other sky either. This was something altogether different. The sprens brightness faded and it slowed its pace, its head swivelled about to look at the sights around it but it felt profoundly uncomfortable being alone in this place. Catching sight of the figure ahead as it began calling out, the spren slid across the ground towards them, still watching it leapt into the air as two other figures appeared. Landing near the feet of the person it had been following, the spren gave another leap, soaring up from her ankle to shoulder where it landed, guardedly watching the other two figures. "Danger" The spren said in a quiet flicker. There was something it was supposed to do when there was danger, some way it was supposed to help. But the spren couldn't remember it, something else had to happen first. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Voidus followed Vivica's gaze, looking towards another room. He felt her excitement mounting, felt the eagerness of Bennington at whatever waited them in there. Voidus considered it, considered taking a break and simply speaking with some people for a short while. The news of the discovery of Atium would be able to be handled by other departments for the time being, surely he could spare a little while to catch up with some denizens? But after a moments hesitation he shook his head, the DA was always better than those outside the guild but there were still far too many who regarded him with something close to awe, or fear. As something apart from the rest of the world. As a god. "Tempting though cinnamon rolls are." Voidus said. "Perhaps next time." With a final grateful smile he vanished, Elsecalling into another Alley. His smile slipped a little as he found himself alone once more, it had been nice to have a conversation like that again, however brief it may have been. How much of his life had he now spent wandering alone in an Alleyway? Shaking his head, a determined light entered into his eyes. No time to be musing right now, there was something he'd need to check on. If Atium had been found beneath the city, and growing rather than simply stored there, then there was some undue Shardic influence in the world that he hadn't noticed, most likely it was simply an unintended side effect of the Worldspike. It was unlikely, but there was a small chance that there was some failure in the barrier that had caused this, something that allowed more than was intended to leak from the spike.

The spren happily jumped up to the candle's tip, balancing on the wick it spun with the flame from the candle and seemed to enjoy its reconnection with a source of flames. It spred its arms wide and closed them in around the flickering candle light, embracing it only to be surprised when the flames slipped through its grip. With a determined expression it stood back in the air and stared at the flames, preparing itself for the contest that was to come. But seeing the person it was watching begin to leave the restaurant, the spren paused. Second-guessing itself was not something it was accustomed to, but it still felt that insistent tug, that urge to do something. Something other than playing with a candle. Taking one last dive-tackle at the candle flames the spren gave up and followed the woman back out onto the streets.

Laurelai stepped quickly towards Lita, skirting around the pool in order to reach her but moving with a quick and efficient grace. She reached her just as Lita seemed to finish a message in Alleycant, looking up excitedly. Laurelai barely had time to register the expression before feeling her own pen begin to vibrate in a none-too-subtle alert that someone was trying to contact her. She'd raised the pen into position and begun receiving the message just as Lita told her the results of her own and the surprise almost caused Laurelai to drop her pen. They'd found Atium down there? Her gaze quickly shifted to the nearby pool of mysterious liquid, eyeing it suspiciously. Could it be a Shardpool? But that couldn't be, there were no Shards Invested directly into the world to create a Shardpool here. But then that should also prevent any Atium from forming shouldn't it? Her eyes darted back and forth as she thought, barely paying attention to the request for a locations update from the department of records. Distractedly she sent a reply but her mind was still reeling with the possibilities that these caverns now held. But the more immediate concern was what had happened to Lita, the way she'd staggered after moving through the pool. It hadn't been simply from being off balance, something had happened. "Not that I'm not incredibly curious about that." Laurelai said. "But are you alright? Did anything happen when you stepped through?" She watched the pool again, still feeling the draw. Somehow that draw felt even more powerful than the draw of Atium, a legendary metal that was rare even amongst members of the DA. But this liquid pulled at her, promising something even more profound, more powerful than a metal made from the body of a god. Something that made promises like that couldn't be trusted could it? Her pen began vibrating again, another message to receive. But she ignored it, she wasn't a regular field agent at the moment, and even when she was this was a little outside of her area of expertise, it was probably just someone trying to update her. "I'd thought it possible that it could be a Shardpool." Laurelai ventured cautiously, still eyeing the pool. "If there's Atium here as well... but that wouldn't make sense. Unless you did see something? If you did then- WHAT!?" She finally broke off, glaring at her pen in irritation. The vibrating had only gotten more insistent, and with numerous different cadences. Records, and at least half a dozen different individuals from counter intelligence, why would so many be trying to contact her?

Voidus' movement faltered again, ever so briefly, as he saw Vivica draw back into herself. The whisper of someone truly horrified of something, and the kind of thing that could horrify this woman must be something spectacular indeed. He inclined his head momentarily in apology but spoke no further about it, allowing her to move the topic on. "I only know as much as you do." Voidus replied, giving her a small smile as her mood shifted back towards the exuberant. "But it certainly seems like it. Either that or someone is going to be in some serious trouble for a false report." It was barely even a lie, truthfully he did only know a little more than Vivica, in this matter at least. He'd rather avoid lying too openly to someone like Vivica, someone who he could actually speak to genuinely, without a station or power hanging between them. "I imagine they'll probably be sending people out to verify it shortly." He continued, quite sure of this since he'd just sent out the requests himself. Voidus' hands began to slow, a few stopping entirely as less requests came back in. The DoCI was managing things itself now, even without Mac present they had plenty of organisational power to organise something like this. As his hands slowed, his smile began to fade as well. His mind flashed back to that brief, tortured face of Vivica. Nightmares? That too would be something they had in common. Sometimes the torture of a sleepless existence was still better than the torture of haunting memories returning to visit you while you dream. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A long, but not quite as long as previously time ago, in a galaxy still approximately as far away. The Professor sagged in his chair as the candle in front of him extinguished itself once again, the small flickering light being invaded by encroaching darkness until it sputtered out. It was less tiring than it had once been, he'd managed to extinguish it several times now without feeling that complete sense of apathy that he had when he'd tried this before. Destroying solid objects as Voidus did still proved far too difficult to try without completely draining himself, but perhaps some day even that would be easier. He smiled tiredly to himself, looking over towards the clock and frowning at it. Voidus was late, it had been a somewhat frequent occurrence lately. Too frequent for someone who claimed to be working to stop the end of the universe. Finally the doors open and Voidus strode in, looking about cheerfully until his eyes latched onto the Professor's. Clapping his hands together, his eyes scanned the Professor up and down before nodding approvingly. "Been practicing?" Voidus asked. "You're getting much better. It's a shame there's not enough Investiture in this universe to test against that, but other forms of energy are quite similar. Generally a little harder actually so I suppose it's better practice." "You're late." Was the Professor's irritated reply. "Can't blame a man in love can you?" Voidus said with a sly wink. "I mean the universe is ending and all that sure, but don't you all have a million books and movies about how love is the ultimate force or something?" "You're the one who told me that this was urgent in the first place." The Professor reminded him. "And you still haven't told me what from exactly, or why teaching me this will help. Just let me practice by myself most days for weeks on end." The Professor stood as he spoke, striding angrily towards Voidus before stopping mere inches from him and looming over as his voice grew steadily more irate. "All in good time." Voidus said, letting off a dark but silent pressure to remind the Professor who he was speaking to. "You've been making good progress without me needing to coach you through every step, once you've had the basics down the rest has mostly been repetition anyway. Not a lot I can do to help with that." Cowed the Professor backed himself towards his chair before slumping into it, but seemed to still have enough confidence to at least shoot an angry glare at Voidus once again. "Fine." Voidus said, holding his hands up in mock surrender. "I'll give you a bit of explanation then, I suppose you're ready for it." The Professor's eyes lost their hostility immediately, instead becoming laser focused on Voidus, ready to drink in any information he could possibly pull from the dark and mysterious figure that had come to dominate so much of his life recently. "We draw things into the Void." Voidus began. "Unmake them, destroy them. Whatever you want to call it. We take something and turn it to nothing." He saw the Professor nod in understanding, but also seeming a little confused at why they were starting back here, at a discussion of Voidmaking. "Well, Voidmakers aren't the only ones unmaking things. Sometimes the Void itself takes something back into itself. Sometimes something small, a single person. But sometimes..." "It destroys and entire universe?" The Professor asked, eyes wide and horrified. "But how could we possibly stop it by unmaking more things? Isn't that just accelerating it?" "You see part of my dilemma." Voidus said. "It is possible to combat Voidmaking with another Voidmaking, but to stop the Void itself? It's not something I can manage on my own. I doubt two of us will have any better luck with strength alone, but perhaps we can figure out something a little cleverer. Find some core that its using to influence this universe?" "You haven't been idling." The Professor realized. "You've been thinking, keeping relaxed but trying to come up with some solution. Because you don't actually know how to stop the universe from ending." Voidus gave a solemn nod, letting the pressure in the room increase before breaking it with a sudden smile. "And so we might as well relax a bit while we can. Are you free for dinner tonight? I was thinking I could bring Laurelai over to meet you and your partner."

"We remember a lot more than we think sometimes." Voidus replied with a smile, stowing one of the spikes and reaching out to accept the offered cup of coffee. "Perhaps it's the lack of sleep." Not a frequent sleeper himself, Voidus had easily recognised the signs. Most likely she was a compounder abusing stores of Wakefulness to maintain consciousness. It was usually harmless enough for small periods of time, but spending years with no sleep was damaging to the brain, even without the added stresses of potential savantism. Judging from the looks of her it seemed that Vivica probably had progressed that far, the Investiture warping her body itself through constant use. Perhaps her hallucinations were a part of that. "An atrium would definitely be one place." He said politely. "Arm bracers have also been common though. Or in a spike storage vial." He took a grateful sip of coffee, relaxing as he felt the soothing warmth hit him. The perfect blend of alertness and comfort washing over him at the same time. His hands all paused for just a moment, taking the time to enjoy himself as he rarely did, before they began spinning once again in a dozen different conversations. "If they did find it down there - in an atrium - what would you do? Would you be curious?" Voidus said, eyes watching his partner in conversation curiously. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So the universe-" The Professor began. "Will be destroyed, yes." Voidus said, looking over the heads of others seated nearby and searching for someone. "Quite inevitable for all of you at the moment unless I manage to do something about it." "And you need my help?" The Professor asked, eyes wide. "Why me?" "Because you managed to do something that most people don't manage to do." Voidus said. "You accepted your death without embracing it and snapped into a power that few people do. And of those who do, almost none learn to successfully control it." Finally spotting a nearby blonde Barista, Voidus looked over and smiled waiting as she made her way to their table and took their orders once again. As she walked away his eyes followed her before finally drifting back to the Professor. "And the same thing happened to you?" The Professor asked, seeming to notice the attention that Voidus was putting on the waitress and frowning. "You nearly died?" "Something like that." Voidus replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Not a very interesting story." The two sat in silence as their coffee arrived, the Professor seeming to slowly perk up a little more as time passed. Recovering from the earlier lethargy and listlessness he'd experienced after their previous training. The coffee also seemed to help, both relaxing him and making him more alert at the same time. "Something special about that waitress?" He asked, nodding his head as Voidus' gaze slipped once more. "Everyone's special in a way." Voidus replied. "But she did seem interesting." "You should talk to her then." The Professor said with a touch of irritation. "Better than staring creepily from across the store, and if the universe is doomed then might as well seize the day and all that." "Perhaps I will." Voidus said with a grin. The Professor watched as Voidus stood up and walked over to the blonde as she was making another coffee. After a minute of conversation they both began laughing at something and a moment later she wrote something down on a piece of paper and slid it across towards him. The Professor gave a tired smile but a frown still creased his brow, wondering if the universe was really about to end.

These arguments will almost always devolve into an argument of semantics at some point in time. I mean depending on your definition of both 'free will' and 'determinism' you could argue that determinism doesn't preclude free-will. And on a personal level while I generally would tell people that I don't believe in free will, that's also somewhat subject to what exactly you mean by the term. 'I' referring to the totality of the body that is currently typing these words does have the capacity to make decisions. If there are two possible decisions I will weight the evidence of both and pursue that course. The fact that this is simply the result of predetermined chemical and electrical impulses doesn't change the fact that inputs were processed and an output was achieved, a form of decision making. Some people might call such an event free will, I had two choices and nothing was precluding my choosing either one of them. So my own answer usually also involves a question, do you consider computer systems to have free will? They perform a similar, albeit far less complex task. Take in inputs and provide an output based on internal decision making.

I don't disagree with your premise but I do have to ask what you were expecting to get out of this thread? Seems incredibly likely to cause arguments to break out, and specifically arguments that are not particularly productive. Most people either believe in a deterministic world or they don't and it's not a simple thing to change ones opinion on. I will also mention that at certain scales true randomness does indeed occur, so while on a macro scale you can predict for example the result of a flip of the coin if you have all available data and enough knowledge of the forces involved, you can't predict which atom will decay in an unstable isotope in a given moment.

A disturbance from his pocket distracted Voidus during the list of names that Vivica had begun musing about. He'd sagged a little at the mention of godlike entities but it seemed that Vivica didn't ascribe such qualities to him at least. That was something. Reaching into the pocket he pulled a sleek silver pen out, the tip vibrating slightly as he held it indicating an Alleycant message. Those were rare, Mac usually dealt with anything that relied on such clandestine communications, Voidus usually needed to communicate through official channels and records in order to placate HR's endless demands for proof of compliance with every project. But then now that Mac had gone, perhaps it was someone from his department wondering who they were meant to report to. "Nox struck me as intruiging." He replied to Vivica, allowing his hand to drop to one side as he received the message. "It's nice, simple. Easy to remember." He paused, eyes narrowing as he stared at the air over Vivica's head. He payed closer attention as the message continued on, arriving at the expected request of who they were meant to report to, but it was the first part that had caught his interest. Please repeat. Voidus signed back. Did you say they found Atium down there? His other hand raised to his breast pocket once more, fishing around until it found a small ring of Aluminium. Tapping from the store there he also drew heavily on a goldmind, aligning his body with the new identity that he drew from the ring. The surface of his arms rippled, the skin bubbling and bulging out in a dozen different places. New appendagess began to sprout forth until there was barely anything left visible of his original arms. Pens and spikes were past from one arm to the next until all two dozen or so held their own implements, each spinning rapidly from one finger to the next. Messages being sent out to various denizens to advise them, to field agents to begin preparing to enter the caverns, and to the Records department to see if there had been any similar findings previously, in addition to requesting the locations of both Lita and Laurelai. With all the communications happening simultaneously, one request for a status update should pass unnoticed. "Not that I'm opposed to Finn either, and we do have so few Parshendi names around the place so perhaps there's some merit to that as well." Voidus said, continuing on the conversation without breaking further stride. One of the dozen hands raised a pen to his chin, tapping thoughtfully. @ZincAboutIt

Laurelai watched the eerily stationary pool of liquid as Lita stared into its depths, at first she wasn't sure what Lita was talking about. Want to what? Examine it certainly, but pools of mysterious liquid were not something that you could just jump into without investigation. What if it was some kind of acid? But as she stared she felt the pull, the faint desire to submerge herself beneath this liquid growing stronger and stronger. It called, promising something, something very valuable if they just touched it, just reached into the falling liquid and stepped into the pool. It would be able to help her, help them. She shook her head, staggering backwards a step. She could still feel the call of the pool but it was fainter now, less insistent. Whatever it was, it had been an outside force attempting to influence their minds. And doing what a mysterious voice in your head told you to do was rarely a good idea, especially if that voice came from a mysterious pool of liquid. The last time Laurelai was aware of something like that happening, the Ascended Warrior had accidentally released Ruin into the world. "Be careful." She warned in a whisper, staring suspiciously.at the water. "From what we heard they've lost a lot of people in these caverns already."

Ah, then yes as others have said adding new materials to the AV would require some community approval. Given that this could conceivably be limited to pre-modern times then a poll in this thread would probably suffice but if you were looking for adding this to all worldbuilding and lore for the AV then would need to get a full poll up. I would also question why this is required for something that is quite easily emmulatable from just running them as an Epic. Not sure what adding additional complexity of the universe contributes especially given that you'd already said you hadn't given much thought to where they get their powers from so I have to assume you hadn't intended for that source to be particularly integral to the story.

I may be missing something but I'm not seeing any similarities here between this and Voidmaking. Looks more like an Epic power than anything else to me, though Xino has said IIRC that it isn't. But if you were planning to use Voidmaking as a basis for this powerset then this is well outside the range of its capabilities. Erasing sound is not exactly impossible but would be an absolutely insanely difficult, whereas creating things is straight up the opposite of everything Voidmaking is about. The whole reason Voidus was so up in arms during the Plasmacore plot was that they were trying to use the Void to create stuff and he was justifiably worried that they'd end up unmaking the universe if they kept trying to do that. @Ookla the Blue perhaps you could clarify if you meant something else but this would be straight up impossible to do using Voidmaking. I'd definitely suggest making this character an Epic if you still wanted to use the idea.

Sure.

"Vivica?" Voidus offered with a smile, he inclined his head slightly towards her. "You did. As for my name... well I've had a few, but discovering another couldn't hurt." He was somewhat curious as to how the conversation would unfold, curious as to how this woman thought with such a unique view of the world. The spike helped with that of course, but all it did was allow him to perceive things in the same way as her, it wasn't quite the same as being able to read minds. He'd also have to remember to take it out before too long, they had some unpleasant side effects if left in for too long. "I'm having trouble coming up wit any inspiration however." Voidus said. "Perhaps you could give me some ideas and we could work from there?" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sweat beaded on the Professor's face as he frowned in concentration. Voidus watched intently, eyes eager to see if this attempt would be successful. The air in the room was darkening ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly compared to Voidus' earlier displays, but it was enough to show the progress that had been made. And in the Professor's hand was an even denser patch of darkness, the concentration of the will that he was bringing to bear. Without sound, the darkness suddenly vanished. Voidus raised a hand to clap on the Professor's shoulder in sympathy for the failed attempt when he noticed that half the pineapple that the Professor had been staring at had now vanished completely, leaving the other half rolling on the table, a small amount of juice leaking from within it. Voidus gave a smile and clapped the Professor on the back multiple times. With his other hand he absently waved towards the half-destroyed fruit, obliterating the rest of it. "And there you have it." Voidus said, beaming from excitement. "Not completely yet, but I physical materials are always the hardest. But no point in starting off easy, jump in the deep end I say." The Professor stood, panting, sweat still beading down the sides of his face. His posture slowly slumped as though about to collapse but he managed to hold his footing. He lifted his hands up to look at them, seeming to expect a feeling of wonder, or achievement or suspicion that he had somehow been tricked again. But instead all he felt was... "Empty?" Voidus interrupted. "That'll happen, especially with something big like this. Not to worry, give it a bit of time and you'll be back to yourself." "What if we kept trying?" The Professor said, tone unusually flat. He didn't seem too eager to actually continue, or too eager to do much of anything really. "Well for one you probably just wouldn't." Voidus replied. "Lack of motivation to try and all that, but if you did then there's a good chance you'd deplete all of your willpower and eventually stop breathing." Voidus' tone barely changed, he still held the same satisfied grin. But the words that he spoke hung ominously in the air, and even in his current lethargy, the Professor found himself shuddering. "Why are you doing this?" He asked, a small amount of curiosity managing to creep its way back into his voice. "Why teach me this?" Voidus gave the man an impressed stare, surprised that he could even muster the energy to wonder at the answer, let alone actually ask it. "Well to put it simply, there's a problem I'm currently facing and it's not one I can deal with by myself." Voidus said. "So I'll need your help to deal with it, once you've learned a little more perhaps you'll be able to give me some ideas about it and we can work from there. The universe is going to be destroyed." The Professor blinked, not seeming to be sure if this was a joke, or if he hadn't understood somehow. But staring at Voidus' still smiling expression he felt the reality of it hit him. Voidus was perfectly serious about this, this was no con or exaggeration. "Shall we get some more coffee?" Voidus asked lightly. "I met a lovely Barista there last time, I do hope she's still there. The ability to make a good coffee I've found, is almost as rare as what I'm teaching you."

The spren sat on a nearby window ledge, a small circle of darkening wood beginning to spread beneath it. Listening like this wasn't something the spren usually did, but something compelled it to stay here for now. It gave a small popping sound of irritation at the compulsion, the spren hated waiting. Some kinds of waiting were okay, playing games to pass the time for example. Or slowly burning a log in a fire. But those weren't really waiting, they were doing things until other things happened. But right now the spren had nothing to do. There were no logs to burn, no children with sticks, no fires to join with and watch. It was just sitting there, idly watching the two speaking to each other. The images-of-light had been interesting, but the spren couldn't burn light. Or at least it didn't think it could, it had tried once surely? And one of the few things the spren could remember was burning things.

Laurelai wandered into the cavern behind Lita, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that they were at the bottom of the waterfall rather than the top, hopefully that meant no more need for Surgebinding and freefalling through a dark chasm in the ground. She frowned as she watched the water hitting the pool, somehow not disturbing the surface in any way as it hit. Curious. Likely not water then, but what could behave like that? It might have some interesting properties that R&D could make use of. She continued wandering, keeping an eye out for anything particularly out of place like the earlier pile of shoes but careful not to stray too far from the others. She was the least likely of them to survive an encounter with any of the creatures that lived down here, so she'd prefer not to discover them yet if possible. "Laurelai." Laurelai's head tilted as she looked behind her, she'd barely even heard the whisper over the sound of the waterfall, almost thought it was simply another voice in her mind. But she saw Lita's figure groping blindly behind her, eyes fixed on something. Barely made out her next words as well. "Terris?" Laurelai said. "A little of course, passably. Generally I'm more used to Alethi, Aonic or the Steel Alphabet but if you want to read anything about Scadrial's history then you don't really have a choice." She followed Lita's focused gaze, curious as to what had gotten the woman so distracted. Surely it wasn't simply Okame's antics, this seemed a little different. More personal somehow. She'd been expecting something subtle, given that even Lita's keen eyes had seemed to take a moment to process it, but at first Laurelai couldn't see anything at all, just some faint irregularity to the stone. "Where did I put it?" She muttered. Patting herself down she finally found the torch, pointing it towards the section that Lita was staring at and flipping the switch, throwing the characters into sudden harsh light. Squinting a little at the sudden light that was reflected back to her, Laurelai read the characters. Staring harder at the places where they'd become worn and harder to read. "Waterfall?" She muttered as she deciphered the text. "No, that's different this is 'falling water' rain? And what was that one? Some kind of building I think." She tapped her pen against her lip in thought, staring at one of the words until her eyes finally lit up. "Church! That was it. Or chapel possibly, might be misremembering a little. The Chapel of Rain? Something like that." She shot a glance back towards the cascading liquid hitting the still pool below it. She could certainly understand how someone could come to worship such a place, it had a certain calm and tranquil atmosphere to it that would appeal to people, especially the Terris. "But who would be writing that in Terris?" She wondered. "The chances of someone accidentally wandering through an Alley and ending up here is not particularly high. Another worldhopper?" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whisper pulled herself back a little, giving Althea and Wes time to talk but staying just on the edge of earshot. It sounded like they and others had begun realising what was here, though even Whisper had considered it only one of many possibilities until now. But seeing the geodes, seeing one get cracked open removed any lingering doubts. "Atium" She heard the word whispered in half a dozen different places, said in amazement or even reverence. It was a substance that was rare even in the Alleycity, rare to the point that few people would even be able to see it in their lifetime. It was a resource that even the DA would be eager to acquire, possibly even more so than the other guilds. To others it might mean some future sight, stronger soldiers, perhaps an easy spike to use. But for the DA it meant many more experiments that were impossible with any other metals, it would open up the doors to researchers who usually had to wait endlessly until more became available or was recycled from elsewhere. Whisper's own eyes flashed with momentary greed before she masked it once more. This much Atium could be used for a lot of things, the DA might be more imaginative in their ideas than some others, but even those were something she considered merely an idle benefit. Atium was the physical essence of Ruin, the essence of a god. Burning it or using it in a spike might be one means of making use for it, but those were the means that mortals were restricted to. Can you build a god? Whisper wondered. If you have the physical essence, know where the spiritual is. Could they be brought back? She felt her heart accelerate, even with her willpower directed on keeping her expression neutral she still felt the cracks begin to show. The longing, the desire for what this cavern held. Her eyes flickered from one figure to the next, seizing up those present. Was there any chance she could get rid of those who were here? Keep this hidden until it could be extracted? Her eyes found Althea again and paused. No, there was no need to rush things. Running headlong into a fight was not how she operated, she stood no chance of managing to get through the entire scouting force, let alone the remaining forces that would soon be following behind. Patience. We've waited this long for their return, we can wait a little longer.

I have a reverse-meowth if that helps? A cat-eared human who can't speak.

Voidus nodded gratefully to Vivica as she turned the machine on. Her stare lingered a little as it ran over him, but she didn't seem to recognise him. That was always a relief, a chance to interact on a normal level for a change. If only for a short while before other business called him away, or someone told them who they were talking to. He felt his tension deepen again at the thought, but a small shake of the head dismissed it and brought his attention back to Vivica He ran through a list mentally but didn't recall meeting her before, that wasn't exactly surprising given that she hadn't recognised him either. She definitely struck an interesting appearance, even as those in the Alleys went. Fully human as best he could tell, but that expression, the waves of metallic smelling blood drifting from her. She was definitely one of the interesting ones. He follwoed her gaze as she addressed some other figure, but didn't see anything. Even with a brief flare of tin, a pulse of bronze and a peek into the cognitive realm. He eyed the empty space curiously. Either something particularly special, or a hallucination, or just a lie? Some act to put people off guard or test them? He felt his smile twist into genuine enjoyment, the first he'd had in some time now. And began patting pockets down until he finally retrieved something, a long silvery spike that certainly did not seem like it should be able to fit in the small breast pocket that he had pulled it from. Without hesitation he plunged it into a bindpoint just above the liver, narrowly avoiding several organs with expert precision. He felt an intense rush of vertigo, as though he had just been thrust forward at great speed only to find that the ground wasn't moving. The mildly uncomfortable experience of having his perception of reality altered and then suddenly, clear as day he saw the octopus that was drifting about, watching Voidus curiously. "An interesting use for these, we'll have to update records and suggest some further studies." Voidus muttered to himself as he examined the now-visible hallucination. "Good day Bennington." He said. "Will you be joining us for coffee?"

Laurelai contemplated a jibe about how much she'd enjoy letting him enjoy the glory of the wind when he didn't have any Stormlight. but she settled for a sniff instead, looking around the cavern that they'd landed in and straining her ears to hear what Lita had mentioned. She could hear it, though at first she'd thought it was simply wind moving through tunnels. But the constant sound definitely seemed more like water than wind, and Lita would be able to hear it much more quickly. "Waterfall?" She asked cautiously. "Great. More falling." She threw Okame another look before testing the torch that Lita handed her. It let her see more clearly, but even without its light she would at least be able to avoid tripping over anything. Hopefully. "If you try to push us into a lake." She warned, looking over shoulder. "I will endeavour to come up with an even more creative means of vengeance than I already have." She followed after Lita, trying to still her emotions to keep from being too riled up. She didn't know how the Horneater had managed to so consistently get under her skin like this but she needed to be calm if they were proceeding into the unknown. Unflappable. "I've currently decided on placing spikes in a particularly unusual spot." She continued. "And not one that has any bindpoints." Unflappable.

Eventually Voidus discovered the location of the coffee machine, it had taken a little tracking down and he'd been disappointed to find that Laurelai hadn't been in the department of Records when he'd checked, but no doubt she was still safe. He'd know if she wasn't wouldn't he? His brow furrowed, eyes looking towards a nearby wall of stone as if to pierce through it with his gaze, but he relaxed a moment later. No need to be so intrusive on her daily life, she was likely out on a mission or with friends. Perhaps that one from Mac's department that he'd seen her with, Lita? He should really speak with her at some point. The Alleys shifted around him once more leading to a nondescript Alley with a plain wooden door set into one of the walls. Voidus strode towards it, rapping on the hard wooden surface three times before opening it and entering inside. "Excuse me, I'm in some need of caffeine." Voidus said with a tired smile as he turned to survey the interior of the room. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somewhere at sometime, but like definitely a time that was a while back. A really long while back. Voidus rapped smartly on the door before letting himself in, it had been a day since he'd last seen the Professor but it looked as though the poor fellow had barely slept. he was already inside his office and practically leapt to his feet when he saw Voidus enter. "Been keeping well?" Voidus asked conversationally. "Lasers." The Professor replied confidently, slightly bloodshot eyes staring into Voidus'. "Antiphase with the ambient light to cause it to darken and then some form of Sisyphus cooling for the coffee." Voidus gave a wry smile at that, not a bad guess all things considered. Though there were some astounding leaps of technology that would be required to perform something like that, let alone where he could actually hide all of these lasers. "You know when I came to this world I was curious about the lack of Investiture." Voidus began. "It does make it even harder for you to understand probably, and harder for me to demonstrate. I could kill something I suppose but that's a little macabre." Thinking to himself for a moment he gestured towards the chair that the Professor had been sitting on. He waited until both of them were looking at it before flicking his hand gently and sending a small mote of darkness towards the chair. As soon as it impacted, there was a sudden warping and the chair vanished in an instant. "Now I suspect you probably still won't believe me until we actually get this started so you can see for yourself." Voidus said. "I don't need your money, I'm not asking you to join a cult or anything. I just need a little bit of your time." The Professor was carefully examining the space where his chair had been, patting the ground and feeling around in case it was somehow simply hidden. But at last, with a somewhat defeated expression he turned back to Voidus and simply nodded. "Fine, show me." He said. "Excellent." Voidus replied, pulling out a small bag which he stared at with distaste. "Why don't we start by destroying some of my least favourite fruits in the multiverse."

"Okame, can you take us down?" Laurelai nodded, turning towards Okame before realising just exactly what it was they were about to ask for. "If you push me I swear I'll-" Laurelai cut off suddenly as a firm, insistent shove moved her off of safe ground and into free fall. There was an instant and intense experience of vertigo and nausea as she suddenly found herself falling, but not at the rate her brain was usually used to. The disconnected sense of almost-weightlessness and the reality of the large drop underneath them caused a spiralling panic that she had to seize control of before she started screaming. Keeping her jaw locked to avoid giving any satisfaction to Okame, Laurelai glanced over towards Lita, doing her best to keep from having too undignified a posture as they fell. She saw the moment of startlement in Lita's expression as well, but it was almost overpowered by something else, her burning and boundless curiosity and hunger for secrets. This is your fault. Laurelai sent as they slowly descended. You asked him. She heard Okame's voice calling up down below, added it to the mental tally of recompense that she owed to him at this point. Arranging her dress so it stopped fluttering about, she landed as lightly as she could manage when they reached the ground, not losing her footing or falling over at least. Then shot an intense glare towards Okame.

Introspectively dwelling on her own problems, Laurelai almost missed the sudden tightening of Okame's posture. The none-too-subtle disapproval in his tone as he replied to her question. She abandoned her reply to Lita part way through, interesting as interdimensional coffee sounded, anything in the EH department was not something that a wise woman got tangled up in. But Okame's reaction was more immediately interesting, here was a final sign of the usual dark and brooding character of many of the Knights Radiant. The hidden pain, promises of some dark and regretted past. "I apologise if I upset you." She said, bowing her head slightly in apology. "I didn't mean to cause offence, I was just curious. As I said you're not exactly like most Radiants." As her head bent down she kept her gaze locked firmly on Okame's hand as it opened for an instant before he seemed to force it against a wall. She was all to aware of how dangerous he could be if he had a mind to, with the amount of time that she and Lita would have to react in this small a space they'd likely find their spines severed within short order, eyes burning out. One more person to be afraid of. Wincing as she tried to squeeze the voice out of her mind she remained silent. @ZincAboutIt @Invocation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Whisper caught the eye of Wes for a moment as his gaze lingered on her, she let her own stare pass over him as her eyes wandered as though lost, but using her peripheral vision she kept an eye on Althea and Wes as they spoke. She had avoided keeping extended contact with any one person during the trip so far, trying instead to familiarise herself a little with as many people as she could. Friendly, helpful but not someone that anyone would look for or notice too much as she moved around. That was usually ideal. But Wes had spent a decent amount of time talking to her back during the hiring process. That might be useful, he seemed to have a good impression of her at least, either that or he was a much better liar than she'd given him credit for. But eyes staying on her for too long would be restrictive. Her gaze passed over them once more, lingering for just a moment on Althea, taking stock of her quickly. Whisper did not doubt that she would not have an easy time if she picked a fight with one of the leaders of the Ghostbloods, but how attached was Althea to this underling of hers? What would she risk? Whisper had already watched them both with some interest throughout the trip, in their own ways they were both vulnerable. She hadn't been intending to act with them immediately, but should she accelerate things a little? Whisper forced a shiver as she looked over towards the body once more and wrapped her arms around herself, either for warmth or comfort. As she did so she checked once again that the spikes were still in place, ready as ever in case she needed them. Satisfied she slowly made her way over towards the pair of Ghostbloods before holding up a canteen towards Wes, offering him the little water she had left. Wiping a tear from an eye would have been a bit too much to try in these circumstances so instead she simply kept a solemn expression on her face and sent a regretful gaze towards the body once more. @Sorana @I think I am here.

Blinking a few times Voidus watched the room come back into focus. His attention had been drifting too much lately, too much work perhaps but there were few he could share it with. The Stranger had been absent recently, hopefully they would meet again before a few thousand years past. With Mac having left as well that reduced the number of active Department Heads. The faint recollection of a cafe still floated in the back of Voidus' mind, and with it he realised a possible solution to his immediate problems. Temporary it might be but a perfect cup of coffee could go a long way towards keeping him alert. But where had the coffee machine been last? R&D? No, that was some time back. It had been found to function perfectly and required no more improvements so R&D hadn't needed to have anything else to do with it other than occasionally sating their own caffeine requirements. Standing up, Voidus loosened his neck, stretching it to one side before straightening back up and looking towards the door with purpose. He strode forwards and opened the way back into the deeper Alleys to see if he could find the elusive machine that he sought.

Laurelai's eyes shifted to Lita's back, the woman gave no obvious sign of the message she'd sent but she was an accomplished denizen who'd worked with acquisitions as well as the DoCI before. Laurelai frowned slightly as her own pen began to spin from one finger to the next in a slow but elegant twirl. Mac? Nothing recently. She paused, trying to recall when she'd last heard from him. In spite of her recent stint in the department of records she had kept some occasional contact with Mac, and to his credit the Department Head had usually made time to hear her when she'd asked or requested something. He'd always been more approachable than most of the other department heads as well, a little less... ominous. Perhaps due to his own experience in blending into a crowd when he needed to, unlike figures like the Stranger who would be unlikely to pass unnoticed no matter what forms of Investiture they used. In a meeting perhaps? I'd heard he'd- that he'd been visiting Voidus a bit. She glossed over the short hesitation in her reply, the sudden stiffening of her usually nimble fingers when she thought once again of that figure, cloaked in ominous darkness and exuding a pressure that could snuff her life out with as little effort as blowing out a candle.