Voidus

The cool air felt nice as they stepped back out onto the streets, although Laurelai could have done without the accompanying sunshine returning to pierce her eyes and stab her brain. They left the side street behind and made their way back towards the building that had vanished, the pain slowly fading as she became accustomed to the light once more. "I don't think he had the capacity spare to deliberately lie at least." Laurelai said, eyes flicking back behind them for a moment. "But still not necessarily the truth. Still, I think it's certainly worth investigating a little further. About the only thing I could think of other than something just teleporting this whole building away would be if somehow something sunk it into the ground, into the caverns perhaps?" It was nothing more than a guess at this point, but Elsecalling an entire building would not have been an easy affair, and would have needed to be very deliberately done. Why go to that effort for a not particularly important building? Something underground may have struck the building by accident, though she didn't like to think about what could create a tunnel big enough for an entire building of that size to fall into it. "So, sneaking into an unexplored cave system underneath the city to find something that can destroy or move an entire building without being noticed? Sounds like a pleasant break from paperwork." She said, smiling back at Lita. "I've read about a few caverns that were found a little further out, if this one is anything like those then be prepared for things to get weird." Another dark corner to hide away in. Sounds perfect for you. Laurelai's smile slipped a little as she heard that drawling voice at the back of her mind again.

Glad I didn't go to school. Whisper thought to herself. If they didn't even learn that much then what was the point? With a small sigh she looked around the room, towards the varied individuals gathered here and there, most now making their way over to the posting by the door, trying to push their way to the front to see if they had made it onto the list. Each of them would be hiding something, probably several somethings. People always tried, they filled themselves up with their own secrets, some took it a step further and tried to hoard the secrets of others as well. Everyone has things they want to keep hidden. She wrote down. Things they're not proud of. Things they're afraid of. But if we knew everything about everyone then no one would be able to surprise us. A world without secrets wouldn't be very interesting I don't think. Some in the counterintelligence department knew secrets, others had a thirst for finding out the secrets of others. Whisper just liked secrets for their own sake, the unknown was an unfathomable depth of mystery and surprise, trying to shine a light into that was both pointless and dangerous. Some things were dangerous to know, some secrets had a mind of their own. Sometimes when you stared into that chasm of mystery, it stared right back at you. A brief shudder travelled down her spine before she could suppress it, causing another small smile. Going to see if you were picked? She asked, standing up as she did so and gesturing towards the posting. She wondered what was down in the caverns, waiting for them all to arrive. What secrets waited for someone to stare into the darkness.

Halfway through wiping the board clean again, Whisped paused, head tilted to one side at the question. A small smile tugged at her mouth as she looked up at Wes, her gaze flickered up to his eyes, switching from one to the other. She sat silently, staring for a few seconds more before finally continuing to clear off the board and writing on it once more. I like helping people. But if I like it, then I guess I'm really doing it for myself, to feel nice. Whisper wrote, giving a small shrug. I'm here because I wanted to be here, I think that's true for everyone.

Leaving Javih collapsed in the street behind them, Laurelai followed Lita back out towards the main road. As they walked, Laurelai threw one last pitying glance over her shoulder at the figure huddled over and clutching onto his pouch like it were the most precious thing in the world. All that mattered was getting another fix, he'd abandoned all logic and reason in favour of an escape. And who does that remind you of? A scornful voice called from within her mind. Hiding from his problems? Seeing something scary so he hides himself to try to escape it? At least he has an addiction to blame, you were just hiding because you're afraid. She gave her head a quick shake to clear it, focusing on what they'd learned. On Lita's figure ahead of her, the question Lita had asked. What was it? Something about records? It took her mind a moment to catch up, but she forced a little smile as she replied. "That's a low bar to be setting if we're creating some kind of benchmark for excitement." Laurelai said, smile twisting into a grin. "Buildings disappearing without being seen is definitely up there. Meanwhile, the most interesting part of records lately has been when someone stubs their toe while they're getting up for tea." @ZincAboutIt

The spren dashed into the hall, catching up with the two as they strode slowly through. A number of candles rested at the base of some of the statues, the spren happily leapt in to each of these in turn, using the small wicks to twine itself around happily before moving on to the next one. After working its way through a number of candles it flitted up to the base of Devaan's statue, landing on a larger candle that was set near the base. After a moment spent looking over the room and its occupants the spren sat down atop the candle, one arm hooked around the gently flickering flame and legs dangling over the edge as it watched the two speaking nearby.

"So." Laurelai started, walking back towards Javih and giving him a reassuring smile. "I really don't want to ask my friend to ask you again, let's try being a little more helpful shall we?" Javih nodded his head rapidly, a thin sheen of sweat visible on his skin as his eyes stayed locked on to the finger Lita had used to threaten him. In his fear he seemed to have even forgotten about the pouch, or wasn't focusing on it at least. If they were lucky they might get a few lucid minutes out of him. "What happened to that building?" Laurelai repeated. "I don't know!" Javih managed to stammer out. "It was there all right, I didn't make it back in that night, fell asleep outside it. But it was there when I went to sleep, then I kind of got woken up by this wind I guess? Then it wasn't there anymore." "Wind? Did you see anything else? People? Lights? Anything?" "I told you, it was just gone. Nobody there, no lights. Just a hole." Laurelai traded a brief glance with Lita, there didn't seem to be much to go on. He may have just missed something, a sleeping drug addict was hardly the most reliable witness, but unless they could find someone who was then they didn't have many leads. "What about since then?" Laurelai asked gently, trying to get Javih's attention with a soft smile. "Have you seen anyone else strange? Or anything else notable that's happened?" "Aside from you two? Not really, few people came through to look at it but a building vanished so I guess that's normal." His head turned a little towards Laurelai as he spoke, but his eyes remained warily fixed on Lita. "Can I have it back now? Please? I think you broke my hand. Just a bit, just so it doesn't hurt as much?" "Is there anything you remember about the people who came to look?" Laurelai asked, ignoring his request. "Any strange clothes? Tattoos? Distinguishing features?" "I don't know." Javih said, voice creeping back up to a whine. "I can't think, please just a little bit, then I'll be able to remember. I just need a little bit more." Laurelai stared down at his cringing, begging form with intense distaste. Even with the threat of losing an eye he was still so fixated on the moss, how did someone let themself sink this low? With a sigh she leaned down and picked up his injured hand, looking it over quickly but efficiently. Javih winced a little as she tested the joints, tried to protest but she ignored him. "Here." Laurelai said, giving a small wave over the hand. A little surge of Investiture followed, causing a faint birdsong to briefly echo through the street. But Javih's hand was restored to its former function, skin smooth and unmarked, bones reset. "There. Pain's all better now." Javih looked down this time, staring in confusion at his hand. He was almost about to smile when a flicker of confusion crossed his face, and his brief moment of joy was suddenly overwhelmed with a deep and unabating hunger. "Now you probably really want that pouch back right now. After all it's been days since you've been able to have any." Laurelai said, meeting his eyes. "So let's try to bring some of that focus back to the questions and then maybe you can have some okay? What did the people look like?" Javih seemed confused momentarily, he was almost about to object when she'd told him how long it had been. But he also recognised the craving, it definitely felt like it had been longer than a few minutes. Soon even the confusion faded, the why didn't matter, just that he knew he needed it. "Lots of people." He began, words tumbling rapidly out of his mouth. "A few groups, no tattoos that I saw. A couple was dressed nicely? Man and a woman. Fancy clothes but I don't remember much else, they were looking at it for a while. Another guy came yesterday, really tall, one of those ones with the bluish skin? Took a look but he left quickly. Said something about caverns?" Sweat was flowing down his forehead at this point, she could see his muscles tensing and his eyes stayed locked onto the pouch that Lita still held, ready to leap on it but still wary enough of Lita to not try. He seemed even more eager to help them now, and Laurelai took note of the vague descriptions he'd given, they should be enough to get started on, other people would have noticed people like that. "Anything else you wanted?" She asked, looking over her shoulder towards Lita and raising an eyebrow quizzically.

It took a great deal of her willpower to keep Laurelai from bursting out in a giggle as Lita began pantomiming to their pursuer. Thankfully his attention was firmly on Lita, confused for a moment before shifting into a grin that was all greed. The 'fight' that ensued, if it could even be called that, was over almost before she could catch up. Lita had the man grappled and was dragging him along the street without breaking a sweat. Once they were well and truly out of sight from the larger street, Lita stood the man up, relieved him of his pouch and offered him up to Laurelai with a smile. Laurelai returned it with one of her own before moving towards the man, glancing over him and giving a pitying look to the clearly broken bones of his hand. "Sorry about my friend." Laurelai began. "She can get a little forceful sometimes. But if you just tell us a few things then we can be on our way and she won't need to get any more upset than she already is." His face was a mess, a haze of pain and the drugs clearly making it difficult for him to process what she was saying, but after a few moments he nodded in understanding. "Lovely. So let's start with something simple shall we? What's your name?" Laurelai asked, smiling sweetly at the man as he cradled his crushed hand. He blinked, not seeming to expect that question. Almost it seemed like he was about to refuse to answer even that, but the nearby presence of Lita seemed to convince him to open up a little. "Javih." He grunted out, accent noticeably Alethi. "What do you want? Just give me back my pouch-" "We'll be asking the questions Javih." Laurelai interrupted. "But if you answer you might get that back. Is it the last you have?" Javih hastily nodded, eyes glued to the pouch. Even the shattered bones in his fingers seemed unimportant compared to his desperation for it. "So. You were trying to attack us? Rob us?" "Your fault." He said back, almost whining as he tried to take a step forward only to be stopped short by a spike. "Coming here dressed like that, walking into a street like this." "Well we tend to wander Alleys rather than streets so perhaps we're not familiar with the dangers." Laurelai replied with an amused smile which furthered when she saw his attention briefly dragged back and a look of fear. "Now, what do you know about that plot of land you were standing outside of? The empty one between the other buildings." "Not empty." He replied, eyes now stuck to the spike Lita was holding and wide with fear. "Used to be a building there. People." "And what happened to that building?" She pressed, leaning in towards him. "It disappeared." Javih gave her a patronizing look, as though explaining something obvious. "Not there anymore." "Not a helpful answer." Laurelai told him, giving a small sigh and taking a step back, behind Lita. "Perhaps my friend should ask? She's a little more persuasive than I am sometimes."

The spren darted a little ways ahead of the two, becoming a small ribbon of orange and red light as it moved and reforming when it stopped at a collection of chairs outside a cafe. The spren waited for the two to catch up before jumping to the next chair in the line, then the next. It kept pace with them, leaping in sudden bursts of glee, occasionally taking a brief pause to examine the small singe marks it was leaving on the wooden surfaces.

But the Tautology club became inactive because people stopped posting in it.

Laurelai let out a soft sigh of relief, felt her smile become less forced as she stared back at Lita. She was concerned, not scared, but that was still better than eager. Confident was better than suicidal by a long shot, though even confidence could be dangerous in their line of work. But barring any big surprises, Lita was well founded in her confidence. Laurelai hadn't read all of the reports, but she'd seen enough to know that she was more than capable of handling an uninvested mugger. "Excitement?" Laurelai asked, still smiling. "You sleep next to an alley more dangerous than this, this just seemed like the easiest way to tell if he was watching us or the building. Plus he's not exactly likely to share this story with anyone so we can ask him a few questions without it getting out. Even if he did tell anyone that two scary women from the DA questioned him in an Alley then one sniff would be enough to convince anyone else that he'd just had too much moss." The sound of quiet footsteps became audible even to Laurelai's unenhanced ears, they were staggered, and in spite of his attempted sneaking kept scuffing slightly against the stone. If it was a spy from one of the guilds or some other organisation then they were remarkably committed to impersonating a somewhat incompetent addict. "I thought you said it was down this street!" Laurelai exclaimed, much louder this time. She immediately dropped the smile and adopted a frustrated expression. "We've been looking for hours." It had been a while since she'd been to Scadrial, but she did remember the irritatingly whiny voice of one of the young Noblewomen she'd seen there. Add in a particularly strong accent to indicate someone still new to the city and that should be enough to draw in anyone who could put two and two together. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the figure, following closely behind them, almost desperate in appearance as he clutched something in one hand that gave off a faint sheen. "If my brothers hear that I've been sneaking out to visit a pool hall they'll be furious." She continued, feigning ignorance. "If I don't even get to see the pool hall then what was it all for?" @ZincAboutIt

Seizing us up for a nice robbery. Laurelai almost kicked herself for not thinking of it. They blended in as best they could here, but Laurelai hadn't had a chance to change clothes yet, they might be a little wrinkled but they were clearly not an outfit that many around here would wear. Combine that with the fact that they likely didn't seem all that dangerous and of course someone was probably going to try to mug them. She was just about to agree when she heard Lita faintly mutter something, something about crushing windpipes? Laurelai felt her expression fall slightly, though she was quick to correct it. Had Lita grown that accustomed to violence like that? She'd lived through enough before gaining any pewter that she had to know other ways to lose or dissuade someone from tailing her didn't she? She quirked her mouth a little in reply as Lita smiled a little awkardly at her. Laurelai let her gaze linger a little on Lita's expression, trying to see, to understand. But they were still on the street, still being watched possibly. "One way to find out I suppose." She murmured, barely moving her lips. She lurched forward from their side of the street, moving around a corner to a smaller street, a little further out of the way and still largely destroyed. If the addict wasn't going to try to mug her she'd almost certainly find someone else who would if she continued down much longer.

This has been my assumption of how most people have kept track of time in the AV, various cultures each using their own calendar, maybe a couple of weird fusions of different systems. Very chaotic.

"No debris." Laurelai noted under her breath. "Some collapsed earth but nothing from a building." The missing earth was almost conspicuously absent of broken brick, wooden planks or any other form of rubble. There were a few small pieces towards the edges, but those had likely fallen in after the fact. The giant hole in the ground showed no signs of buried bricks or broken furniture. If it wasn't for the lack of damage to the surrounding buildings and missing scorch marks she'd almost think it had exploded, but even that would have buried something under the earth. "No debris, no bodies. Hard to think of something being quiet enough to not be seen but also large enough to carry all of that off in one go." She casually scanned the street, not letting her gaze rest too long on anything but trying to keep an eye on the people Lita had mentioned. Was that addict looking at them? It was hard to tell with a passing glance, and even if he was he might just be paranoid. Or it could be someone using Firemoss as a cover, people might notice an addict but they rarely payed too close attention to them. She dismissed the thought, there was no reason to believe he was anything other than an addict. This wasn't exactly a high profile location, why would someone be secretly watching it? She was probably just too eager to see conspiracy now that she had a chance to get out. Not everything was some elaborate game of spies and subtlety, sometimes an addict was just an addict. "So why here?" She asked, mostly to herself, though Lita would doubtless be able to hear it. "Was there something important here? Or someone?" She took another sceptical look over the street, it was not exactly the place you'd expect to find someone important in the city. She did notice that the addict was still looking at them though. He hadn't moved from the corner, but he was definitely looking over at them. Laurelai ignored it, looking down the street in the other direction as she continued whispering. "That fellow on the corner. Real addict? Does he have calluses?" @ZincAboutIt

Whisper watched calmly and silently, watched the flicker of conflict in Wes' expression. He seemed to almost lose himself in some kind of memory or imagining for a moment before coming back to reality with a slightly bitter look. She watched quietly, allowing him to finish talking and then for a few moments longer before clearing the board once more and beginning to write upon its surface. Maybe. She began. But some people will know that it wasn't just the high ranks, the important people. The people you help will know who you are, know what you did. You'll know that you made a difference. I'll know. She turned the board back around so that he could see, clear blue eyes staring back into his, wandering from one to the other as though seeking for something.

The spren tumbled off the hat as it was pulled out from under it, it's body shifted, turning momentarily into a more indistinct ribbon of flame before settling back into a humanoid shape. Its head flared a little brighter and then was suddenly equipped with an identical bowler hat which it removed and held to its chest protectively, copying the gesture of the man. It looked back up to the man, crackling briefly in satisfaction before flaring again and reverting to its previous, unhatted appearance as it dodged out of the way of one of the mans swatting hands. "Friends." The spren agreed, with a crackling voice full of sparks.

A group of flamespren danced together around a fire that was being used by a small food cart to grill meat on. The spren mingled together and moved so smoothly that it was difficult to tell how many there were. Amongst them however, one spren was a little brighter than the others,it danced together briefly before separating from the rest. It's small, flickering form appeared human shaped but it continued to shift through different sizes and builds as it darted out from the fire. It seemed to leap into the air, as though caught in a sudden updraft, before streaking back towards the ground. It was not the slow and graceful movement of a windspren dancing amongst the leaves, it moved in sudden bursts and shifts. Flickering over towards a stand of flowers and pausing briefly to dance in delight as one of the flowers began to smoke ever so faintly. After being chased away by the stands owner it flashed skywards once more, landing on a nearby roof to overlook the streets below. It watched two people pass nearby, one male and one female, though it didn't pay attention to such things, what it did notice was the hat that one of them was wearing. It hadn't seen a hat like that before. It leapt from the roof, glow fading as it was caught in the wind and seemed about to vanish entirely when it suddenly shot downwards like a tiny lightning bolt, leaving a faint orange trail in its wake as it landed perfectly on the mans bowler hat.

Laurelai waited as Lita picked up the last of what she needed. She accepted the coat as Lita offered it and eyed the cookies with great interest. She'd been working off of Bendalloyminds for a few days now, but they were no replacement for real food. Especially not a cookie that smelled that good. Actual food. Conversation. I've definitely needed this. Laurelai thought. Maybe I should just stay out of the Alleys for a few days until everyone else has a chance to finish our backlog, I've certainly helped enough of them get through their work. She finished the last of the cookie just as she strode out into the alley that Lita waited in, thankful that nothing along the way had tried to freeze, burn or devour the cookie. "They're good." She noted, subtly wiping the last few crumbs from her mouth. "Maybe not 'haunt my dreams with temptation' good yet but I imagine if you'd had a few thousand years practice like the Stranger probably has then they'd definitely be there." As they walked out into the street Laurelai winced as a sudden ray of sunlight peeked through the cloud cover and managed to catch her straight in the eye. She felt an almost instant headache developing as the first natural light she'd seen in days illuminated her. But they were on a job now, she could ignore it until it went away. Hopefully. "I do remember the sun it turns out. Specifically I remember how much I hate it." she said quietly. "Although at least we're not recovering from 2 bottles of Elariel estate this time." She vaguely remembered drafting an experimental proposal to destroy the sun while she was still hung over on the day after the fight with Plasmacore. The proposal had lacked any method by which life on the planet might continue to survive after the suns destruction but other than that it had been surprisingly thorough. "You said this place was newly built?" She asked, suppressing another wince as the sound of her own voice worsened the brewing headache. "Do we know when it vanished?" She watched the few other figures that were on the street, instinctively trying to analyse them, but even if this was the work of a person it was unlikely that they would linger around one specific scene for any length of time. Perhaps if this was the most recent site? And even if the culprit themself wasn't here that didn't mean that nobody else would know anything. Laurelai shifted her posture a little, adjusted her clothes to ensure that her spikes wouldn't be visible to anyone watching. People always got nervous around anyone with spikes. Either scared or so curious that they'd ask a thousand questions and never give any useful information. Travelling incognito was usually far preferable.

Laurelai's grin slowly widened as she set her now-empty mug down on the table. "Anyone tries pushing me back into that building and they're going to find out what happens when you Forge a spike while it's still inside of someone." She said, but her grin was excited rather than vicious. "I'm coming." She glared down at the splinter that was still sticking out of her hand for a moment, felt the familiar rush of Investiture that her Forgery provoked but thankfully nothing obvious happened. Moments later her skin was smooth and unblemished once more. The somewhat frazzled strands of hair that had hung over her face were back behind her ears and sleek once more. "Ready when you are." She told Lita, her former grin morphing into her usual small smile, mouth ever so slightly quirked on one side.

She could deliberately do that as part of her character if you can justify it, but deliberately exposing herself to her weakness would cancel or limit the power, not enable it to happen.

Happy to approve that. And I also like weird weaknesses, but this was kind of the opposite. Needing to be bitten by an ant in order to use the power is the opposite of how Epic weaknesses usually work I'll add it to the list.

The problem as I'd see it with this one is that while this may be a pretty severe weakness for the character, it's also not that difficult to get around. 10 minutes is definitely better and enough that this is technically within point totals now, but I'm still a little hesitant about a power that can completely take someone out of a scene with no way to reverse it other than to wait. I'd say we'd probably still need to limit this to only being used with NPCs or with players permissions, but then we could drop the requirement to be bitten by an ant (Also because that seems kind of weird and arbitrary to me, I get that it's to try to limit them but that seems really specific for an Epic power)

Midway through a groan at the news that their humiliating report had somehow gotten even worse, Laurelai straightened up as Lita continued speaking, getting to the main point of why she'd asked Laurelai here. "Disappearing like a giant flaming bird incinerating them?" Laurelai asked. "Or disappearing like..." She let the question trail, but judging by Lita's expression she already knew the answer. "Rust." She said, eyes opening wider in surprise. "No, nothing I've seen come through. But I've still been working on individual reports so it'd need to have come specifically to me. Is this recent? Any kind of pattern between them?" Her mind initially jumped to Plasmacore, but they'd largely left the city by now, those who hadn't had been caught. This also seemed a little subtler than their 'flood the city with monsters' plan had been. There was no dismissing the possibility that it was just some strange interaction of Investitures, with so many Invested people and items in the city she was surprised it didn't happen more often. But this seemed a little too specific to be something like that. Laurelai was well aware of what effects rampant and undirected Investiture could produce, but it was rarely consistent.

Laurelai moved to the table, taking the seat opposite Lita and dragging a mug towards her. She took a moment to test the temperature before letting out a sigh of satisfaction and taking a long sip from the cup. She waited for some of the tension to fade before replying to Lita, letting some of her muscles relax. "Record reading is interesting." She finally said. "Record writing is far less so. I've spent hundreds of hours in there reading over experiments, historical records, incident reports. Someone managed to give a working circulatory system to a piece of rock once, that was pretty interesting to read." A little tension returned as she paused, her eyebrows drawing closer together as she frowned at some thought. "But writing them is unbearably dull. Half the initial reports we get seem like they're written by people who have only just discovered how to write and most of the other half by people who practically scream how much of a waste of time they think it is for them. How any of them ever manage to research anything I'll never know." She noticed that her breathing had sped up as she talked, her body tensing again as she recalled some of the worst offenders to cross her desk. She took another long sip from her cup,. letting the warm sensation spread through her body. She tried to remember the times in between, the reports that she'd managed to quickly read and transcribe. There were plenty of those too, they just stood out less than the really annoying ones. "Thankfully there's more than just me there so I don't know everything that happens, but I'll try to keep an eye out for any imminent disintegrations." She gave a small chuckle. "I'm still half expecting one for me to arrive sometime, but thankfully no more department heads glaring at me lately so that's one upside I suppose. As for interesting things..." She paused to open her eyes back up, looking at Lita over the lip of the mug. Was she worried about something? About what Laurelai might have read? She'd seen a little of what Lita might have been up to but had it been worse? "Someone left their transcription of our incident report from the attack on the city. Do you remember that part where we started composing a song? That was very pointedly highlighted."

The silence was broken by a clattering of something against wood, and a moment later by a heavier thud. Laurelai stared at the pen she'd thrown across the desk in frustration, then down at the hand she'd accidentally slammed into the wood as part of that ill-conceived course of action. It took a moment for her brain to interpret the pain signals coming from her hand, the dull throbbing from slamming her knuckle against hardwood, a sharper piercing pain from where a splinter had gotten lodged. A low muffled groan joined the other sounds as Laurelai used her other hands to stifle the instinctive growl of pain and frustration. After venting a small amount of frustration as silently as she could, Laurelai leaned back in her chair, holding her injured hand up to examine. The splinter was small and the bruising didn't look too bad. That was fortunate, the last thing she needed today was someone from HR telling her she needed to file a workplace injury report before she could heal it. A mountain of paperwork from the Department of Records was bad enough, but HR took paperwork to a whole new level. She'd heard once that they'd requested a series of 3000 sequential Alleys just for filing. She'd assumed it was a joke when she first heard it, but her few interactions with them led her to believe that if anything it was probably more like 10000 sequential Alleys. Something in her pocket began to suddenly shift, startling her out of her reverie and almost causing her to knock a bundle of completed records over. Her hand instinctively darted into the pocket, causing her to wince a little as the splinter caught against the fabric, and pulled out her spanreed pen. Once she had it in hand she aligned it, hoping against hope that it wasn't someone asking her to finish their records for them. Thankfully it was Lita, inviting her over was a bit of a surprise but it had been a while since they'd been able to catch up. Within seconds Laurelai had cleared the new papers off of her desk, left the records bundled up to one side and swiped her other pen back from where she'd thrown it. She almost ran out of the doors back into the Alleys around the department of records, the air was still strangely dusty here but at least it wasn't from inside the building. She paused only for a second to appreciate the air before rapidly striding down the Alley, beginning to arrange a path to the Alley that contained the little blue door wherein Lita still dwelt. Less than a minute later she was knocking on the door using her non-injured hand, and then darting inside. Closing the door once inside she used her body to hold it closed, as though certain that if she didn't the paperwork might follow her. "I liked this job better when the city was on fire and everything was trying to kill us." She commented as she spotted Lita's figure. "Everything was much simpler then." @ZincAboutIt

Whisper kept her head forward as the presentation began, using the time to consider what she would do about Wes. He'd admitted that he was a Ghostblood, but that might not necessarily be the most useful thing on this expedition, especially given how the ACE employee had reacted to that question about things to kill. But he's eager to talk, nervous, possibly concerned about his status. The pen in Whispers hands continued to twitch and she was briefly tempted to ask someone from the Counter Intelligence department if they had any information. But she wasn't here on behalf of the DA right now, no doubt some other denizens would come along for that, including whoever the Aylitha look-alike was. This was for her more personal interests, those not shared by most other Denizens. The room filled with light again as the presentation ended, Whisper took the chance to erase her previous sentence from the writing board and began to scrawl something else before turning it around to Wes. Even if the Ghostbloods don't need you, it seems these people do. Couldn't you help the people who went missing? That had been an interesting note, some people had already gone completely radio silent down in the caverns. ACE had done a decent job of keeping that quiet so far, and they seemed to be genuinely interested in recovering their personnel and not losing any more. That would probably draw a nice crowd of people who wanted to play hero, though that mention of trackers might put some people off. She looked up at Wes, no judgement in her expression. Just a fixed and determined gaze. Isn't helping people enough? It doesn't matter who else is here, just whether or not you will be. @I think I am here.