Sorana

@Ookla the Paragon Could you please update my character sheets? Thanks a lot! I've updated Damaya's and Althea's a bit and added the rest I had in mind for Lena. Lena: Althea Damaya

Lena followed Alask slower. Not running at night, probably that only counted for everyone apart from him, but she wouldn't take a chance. Not after haveing seen the shade. She left the few remaining apples on the ground and it was her turn to climb into the plane. It was large, huge. She had never seen anything like it before. She had expected it to be smaller, the wings to look different, planes looked to tiny when they were up in the sky. But this, this thing felt gigantic to her. She mirrored Alask's movements, although slower and then simply stood there, looking around the machine fascinatedly.

Lena shook her head, evading his glance. "My son." She let the word hung there for a moment. "He grows up with my grandmother. I try to visit him, when I can, but she doesn't want me anywhere near him. So mostly I try to earn some money, to support them." Shaking her head she forced a smile on her face. "It's alright I guess. He's better of without me." Another lie she almost believed. She looked at him, quietly begging him to tell her he would keep quiet. Fear for the boy clear in her eyes. She had stepped on the toes of a lot of people, you did that when you robbed them.

“Now, that’s not strictly true,” Alask replied, still looking straight up, at the stars. “I have it spiked into me. Using those magical spikes the guilds seem to be so fond of. So yeah, I may have one that occasionally possesses me, but I’m not a Shade.” That made her pause. Spiked. Another thing her grandmother had told her stories about. Another thing she'd never wanted to really get in touch with. “That doesn’t make it any better though, does it?” Lena hesitated, then walked over, stopped next to him. "Actually it does. For me at least." Because you are human. No nightmare came alive, but a human. "They are beautiful, aren't they?" She asked, gesturing at the stars. Then she fell silent, pondering. There were still tears on his cheeks, and the expression in his eyes. She couldn't help him, but... She pulled out her wallet and handed him a small picture. It showed a boy around four, with the same hair, his eyes were different, but all in all the familiarity to her own a face was obvious. "A secret for a secret."

"No." Her voice sounded strange. "You are a shade. You don't have it with you, you are it." She stepped closer, didn't mention his tears.

Just to state this here as well: I'm not sure how I feel about this. Not because of the assasinations, but because of the short time we play each era at the moment. It would only lead to people keeping their character, out of fear to loose their position within the guild. And I fear, that this would lead to a another round of a higher powerlevel. Why don't we make a mixture. Only people with a active character are allowed to lead the guild, or a squad or whatever. One of their characters has to represent their position. If this character dies, they can't act according to that position anymore, but can create a new one as replacement, maybe need to wait a while with that.

Suddenly it was silent. Lena waited a while, unsure when she could head down again, but finally decided to leave. It was silent, withered corpses were lying everywhere. Hastily she crossed the floor and headed into the night to their meeting point. She heard Alask before she saw him, quietly sobbing. "Alask?" She asked, her voice still shaking, keeping a bit distance between them. He wasn't glowing anymore. That was a good sign, wasn't it?

That's a beautiful concept. Honestly it is. I'm not really sure about myself, but I have an idea for @Silva . For me she would be one of the daughters, not the youngest, not the eldest. A firm vision in her head where she wants to go, and at the same time, a steady presence to rely on, one to always listen. Not the loudest of the bunch, but always there with a smart and/ or funny reply on her lips. The one that keeps everybody grounded, while supporting at the same time.

"I don't know," Alask replied. "Just run to where we said we'd meet. 200 meters south of this building or whatever. Zack, Nekorb and the others will meet you there. As for me, I'll be there too, it just might take me a little longer. Now run." Lena took another step back. Run. How did he expect her to run? He was standing between her and security and there was no second exit. And she wasn't excited about getting shot, while trying to move past them. Alask stepped forward, provoked them to shoot at him. Lena instinctively screamed as well when he clutched his shin, and then he changed. The shade. He was the shade. She had believed them monsters, not human. He was the shade. He was the shade. She watched the nightmare lunge forward, kill the first guard and briefly wondered about how he controlled this, then pushed the thought aside. He couldn't control it. He'd told her, that he couldn't control it, not directly enough, but indirectly he had. Lena suddenly felt sick as she observed the shade kill another man. Run. She stared at the open elevater door, at the shade just beyond and realized she couldn't. Not without passing that thing with barely a hand's wide left. Not an option. But staying here was not and option as well. Her legs shook as she waited until the shade focused on the next guard and then she lunged forward, jumped towards the control panel, aiming for the button that would close the door. And missed. Instead she hit the "number 2" before stumbling against the wall. Her shaking fingers tried again and this time she managed to get it right. The door closed slowly, and then it was upwards. Turning around she grabbed her hair and vomitted on the floor of the elevator. Then a little bing announced she had arrived. She left the elevator again and for a moment stood there. Then she rightened her wig, tried to keep her thoughts away from Alask. He was crazy, utterly crazy. And she had willingly teamed up with him. His fear, his insecurity, all part of a show. Her grandmother called her crazy, but this, this was insane. He was insane. A shade. He was a rusting shade. Blocking the elevator door, to keep it here, she moved over to the stairs. Then she stood there, listened. Distant screams echoed up from below. She would hopefully hear it, should he decide to move up. And then the way through the entrance hall would be free.

I never read Mistborn in german. Only Elantris and there a lot of things got lost with the translation.

"Run where? And you?" Lena replied, looking at security in front of them.

I liked it though. The characters were well developped and the world was interesting. But I didn't read the german version, so I can't really say anything about the translation.

A camera? Lena looked around. She was right, there was a camera. A camera, or a microphone, too? Spreading her right hand in a calming gesture she smiled. "I'm sure this isn't neccessary." she told Ms Miller but the woman only raised her eyebrow. "I am pretty sure it is." Her voice was cold as ice and fear rose like bile in Lena's throat. Arrest? She couldn't get arrested. He needed the money, he needed her. A lie, but one she had told herself so often, she firmly believed it. He needed her. He needed her. Stepping back until she was standing next to Alask she observed the situation. Five guns, pointed on them, twelve eyes following their every movement. Lena was used to talk herself out of dire situations, but this time she was left speechless. She still had some apples left maybe she could throw them. Only to be killed by their bullets? Nonsense. Had they eaten the apples? If yes, they needed to buy time, they would fall asleep soon. And yet, they all seemed alert. Pancakes, she still had some pancakes with her, and the antidote. And her hairbrush and some makeup. Nothing that could help them right now.

Lena fell silent, when he asked this and then turned towards him. "The moment they notice, something is wrong with their colleague, they will call security, or a doctor, or whoever. I wouldn't count on us having the hour we agreed on. Maybe a few minutes, maybe more." She sighed. "It was my mistake, I got the recipe wrong. It's too strong. Even with what you had left he shouldn't have collapsed that quickly. What that means for the rest. It depens. On what they've eaten today, on their bodies, a lot of things." She pressed the button for the ground floor, thinking.

Lena saw the man slump and helped Alask arrange him. Feeling for his neck she counted. Slow, too slow, and slowing. She couldn't help but count for a while longer, tried to get a feeling for how fast the poison worked. Interesting. She might have gotten the whole recipe too strong. Probably a problem for the more lightweight, that were eating the apples right now. She definitly needed to work on this recipe for a while longer. "Downwards then?" Alask asked and she looked over at him. Should she tell him, that this guy would die? Probably withing the next half an hour. Deciding against it she nodded, and walked over to the elevator, calling a goodbye in the room, telling them to mail her, should they have further wishes. Stepping into the elevator she closed the doors and turned to Alask. "Front entrace? Risk that they looked our names up, or called someone? Or climb down an emergency fire exit and risk that someone spots us? And can we contact the rest? Tell them, we kind of screwed up?"

Lena handed out the apples, smiled at the workers, chatted a bit with them. Told them something about plants and vitamins and healthy food and whatever she could think of, to keep their ruse. Most of them were happy about the break, especially when she let them know, that this of course counted as working, and that they were allowed to make a short break now to eat the apple, to give fedback, if they would appreciate such a measure regularly. She made sure to take notes as well, to appear like she really cared about their opinion, inwardly urging. They only had little time, until Security checked their names and realized they were fake. They would do it, maybe even right now. It was only when she heard a louder voice somewhere behind her, that she turned around and saw Alask looking over, shrugging helplessly. Lena plastered a polite smile on her face and went to confront the man. "Would you care to explain, why you don't want to participate in this measure?" she asked him, keeping her voice professional, but tried to show him, that she cared. "I don't like apples." he replied curtly and turned away. "And I need to work." Lena nodded, leaned against his desk, next to him, on the other side of his cup of coffee. Making eye contact with Alask she looked pointedly at the coffee and and then at the pouch where he had stored the poison. "I understand. But could you please answer another question or two, so that I can fill in my report?" lowering her voice she added. "Management takes a tight look at this project, they want to change Alleyzon's reputation." the man turned towards her and she smiled thankfully. "Would you care for other fruits to be delivered to your workplace?" she started asking her first question.

She nodded and pressed the button. "Let's start at the top and move downwards." She replied for the sake of those listening in. They went upwards, stopped now and then, some workers getting out, some others in. When they were alone, just below flight control, she adressed him again, a lot more respect in her voice than before. "You are good. That was fun. The idea with the epic tech, brilliant." The elevator slowed and she changed her face back to Alleyzon HR. "We have to make sure they eat them. Maybe eat one ourselves, should it be neccessary, depends on their reaction, the situation. I have something with me to neutralize the poison."

Smiling Lena took over. "We are introducing a professional occupational health management. Part of the new strategy managent decided on." She laughed. "Excuse me, I'm probably boring you with the details. Where can we find the elevator?" The woman pointed to the side and Lena nodded thankfully. "Thank you." She gave her an apple. "It's good to see, you are taking your job seriously. We'll check out with you, when we're done, so that you can keep your records straight." Without waiting for the woman to reply she walked over to the elevator and pushed the button for upwards.

We are very much alike in that regard. And no it isn't. They can always get a translated version, but I won't wait for it.

That's something I obviously didn't inherit

But everybody trusted the cookies.

@Ookla the Cited I like that idea. It would give the Avatar's more meaning, and we could still use the guilds to strive for a plot, while at the same time we could reduce the amount of secret pm's.

Althea lay there, breathing in and out, in and out. The pain continued to subside, but still, it hurt. She heard Max step up next to her, kneeling down and he lifted her head, then he placed his helmet over her face. Immediatly the pain lessened and she took a deep steadying breath, then rolled on her side to push herself up. The helmet cleared her thoughts, let her think easily, calmed her. Their plan, they had a plan. Blood was running down her chest, and her thig protested as soon as she put some weight on it. Looking around she saw exactly one bullet lying around. Meaning that two were buried somewhere in her body, her flesh knitting itself together around them. Making a mental note to get them out, once this was over, she slowly got to her feet, just in time to see Solace punch Max in the face, so hard he fell to the ground. She turned towards Solace, but he stepped to her, plucked the helmet from her head and crushed it with a single motion of his hand. This was bad. As in, this wasn't going to end well for them. Immediatly the pain was back, thankfully bearable this time and she heard Max offer help and solace declined. For a moment she wondered if Max was rioting some of Solace emotions, or if he tried without it, when she felt a great weight settle onto her. Tired she tried to kep her eyes open, when the feeling got supressed, when she suddenly felt alert and fearful, happy and desperate. Everything that was swirling around in her mind suddenly was there, dominated her thoughts, made it difficult to think logically, to resort to reason. And yet it was better than to immediatly fall asleep. “Look into my mind,” she heard Max say “Look into our minds. See the pain we’ve been through. We’re like you. We understand.” His voice was tired, and when she looked down she saw him fast asleep on the floor. Turning to Solace she looked at him. "He's right. We know pain. But more importantly we know how to handle pain and fear. How to not give in. To go on. To find a reason to get up in the morning and to live..." her voice trailed of when she forgot what she wanted to say next. Max grip on her emotions vanished and sleep grabbed her, tried to push her down. Sinking to her knees, she shook her head. There was a reason, he didn't simply kill them. He had a plan, he wanted to do something. Her thoughts turned sluggish, and she couldn't follow that idea, really think about it. But she needed to, there was one thing she needed to tell him. "Whatever you want to do. Leave Max alone. Take me instead." Her hands hit the ground and she tried to push herself upright again, but instead she felt her arms give way, her body slump on the ground as she fell asleep.

Lena followed Alask over to the building and observed him knock on the door. Someone opeed, a woman in her late thirties and Lena quickliy changed her grin for a professional cool smile. “Who is it?” Alask looked at her, asking her to step in. And so she did. "Good afternoon. My name is Brenda Hunt. This is my colleague David Turner. We are from Alleyzon's HR department." She quickly introduced them, using some random names and extended her hand. The woman shook it instinktively and offered her own name. HR implying she had the power to fire her. Employees usually respected those working for HR. "Phoebe Miller. Security." Lena nodded. "It's a pleassure to meet you, Mrs Miller. I have to apologize, we are a bit late. The traffic on our way here was terrible." A confused look crossed Mrs Miller's face and Lena madd a show of being confused herself. "You got the e-mail announcing that we would come by?" She inquired and the woman slowly shook her head, stepped back. "I didn't. But please, come in, we can discuss this at the reception." Lena smiled at her again. "I am sorry for the inconvenience. I fear my assistant made a mistake." Assistant, as in: I am important enough to have my own personal assistant. The woman shortly smiled back, then led them inside towards a desk with more security behind. Lena looked over at Alask, quietly asking if he wanted to take over.

Damaya folled him and ran as fast as she could. Running, she decided she hated running. And then she breathed in. Stormlight floated her veins and lessened her aches, healed the wounds she got from her crash. It renewed her energy and suddenly she was able to keep up easily. Laughing she spread her arms and felt the cold rain on her arms, soaking her dress, so that it hugged her body, improperly hugged her body, but she didn't care. She felt good, at this moment she simply felt good.