Karnatheon

"Done." With that the man pulled 500 crysts out of his pocket and set them on the counter, then walked out.

A man in a suit walks in. "Yes, I was wondering if you could ship Max and Althea for me?"

Ok maybe my previous post was a bit of an overstatement. We don't really know the power of a shard in comparison to someone else, to my knowledge. This character could easily handle the Lord Ruler might be more accurate.

From a cosmere stand point this character could potentially hold it's own against a shard. Been a while since I've read WoT but that's what I seem to recall. Obviously difficult to compare cross magic system, but that power with that prime invincibility is, as said, OP.

After a little time had passed, Laonin walked over to Ishek and sat down in a nearby chair. "I'm sorry about all the confusion here, I wasn't expecting so many people to show up on my doorstep all at once. Especially one on death's doorstep. You had said you were looking for me, but before we could have a proper conversation everything went wild." Laonin said, stretching a bit. "Anyway we seem to have a moment of calm finally, so what can I do for you?" @The Grumpy Elantrian

Laonin continued to hold the man's hand. The woman healed and healed the man, and still he was in pain. Whatever was happening wasn't an easy fix. The woman was definitely straining herself doing whatever she was doing. She seemed to be expending more and more of her power, almost as if the man was draining it away from her. Suddenly the man seemed to have a brief moment of lucidity, as he and the doctor seemed to communicate with a look. Then the man spasmed once, as a look of relief spread across his face, and the doctor now started to scream. It seemed as though she had caught whatever had been ailing the man. Laonin attempted to comfort her but she quickly started casting spells on herself, then stood up unsteadily after a moment and went to sit in a chair. "Uh, are you alright ma'am? What happened?" Laonin asked, then knelt down and said, "And how are you feeling friend?"

Laonin had been impatiently waiting for a doctor to attend to the wounded man's needs. As he stood there he observed his surroundings. A nice looking place, if a little modern for my tastes. Finally someone had aproached, and after a conversation with the receptionist, had come over and begun to help. She didn't seem to be wearing a uniform though which was a little strange. Oh well, we'll take any help we can get. The woman began channeling Stormlight into the man, and this seemed to bring him out of his stupor. From his experience this should have solved the problem but the man seemed to be in more pain now than before, or perhaps since he was more lucid now he was just showing the pain more than before. A green light appeared from the woman's hands as suddenly the man began thrashing about, seeming to be in axtreme suffering. Feeling useless just standing there, Laoning knelt down and reached out for the man's hand. Squeezing his hand firmly, Laonin said "Stay strong brother. I don't know what's happening right now, but we're here for you. I have faith this woman can get you through this. You just need to believe." Laonin turned to the woman, " What's going on? Why isn't what you're doing fixing him?"

After their hasty introductions had been made and they decided on a course of action, Laonin hurriedly followed Alask, keeping an eye on Ishek to make sure he kept up. They hurried through the Alleycity, Laonin keeping a wary eye out for any sort of trouble. Thankfully most of the people they came across stayed out of their way, perhaps the size of their Feruchemist friend playing a part in that. Finally Laonin could see the hospital ahead. Hopefully they had arrived in time to save this man's life. Almost as an afterthought, Laonin relaized he was still in his pyjamas, he hoped he didn't look too ridiculous.

Laonin let out a sigh of relief. The substance in that vial had cost him a pretty penny. He wasn't entirely sure of its contents, the alchemist who sold it to him had only specified that it didn't contain any Hemalurgic spikes(A fact that Laonin had been insistent on). Only said that it would allow him to withstand any ailment, even fatal ones, with ease. It didn't fix what was wrong, simply held it at bay, and kept away the pain best it could in the process. It should help the man clear his head, and survive whatever was wrong long enough to receive treatment. Hearing the Scadrian speak to him, Laonin was slightly taken aback. Had word of him really spread so quickly? Word of mouth always seemed to complicate things. "Infamous huh? I wouldn't know about that. I suppose it depends on what circles you frequent. As for my name, while the Man who Fixed sounds meaningful, my name is Laonin. I am a simple smith, attempting to Forge that which has been broken. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ishek. This is Alask." Laonin said, pointing toward his other visitor. "Why have you been looking for me?" He said, then looked down at the man on the ground, who seemed to be trying to sit upright. He knelt down again and looked the man in the eyes. "And you my friend, what is it that ails you? Who are you, and how can we help? Do you require medical attention?"

Gavilar Kholin

The boy walked past Laonin as he held the door open, he then closed it as he lead his guest inside. He seemed to be inspecting the room and his host as they walked. Good instincts on him, thought Laonin. He knows to monitor his surroundings. Laonin led him to an open area with numerous stools and some tables, primarily used for detail work on items once they were forged. Decorative etching and such things that didn't require heat. The boy took a seat as Laonin walked over to a nearby cupboard and pulled out a useful little device he had come to enjoy the ease of. It was a tea kettle with a heatrial built inside of it, which made for a quick cup of tea when one was in a rush. He filled it with water and activated the fabrial inside it, waiting for the kettle to whistle. He turned back to look at the boy and noticed a flash of nervousness pass over his face briefly, though he managed to contain it quickly. There is definitely more at play than I know. Maybe I can get him to open up a bit over some hot food? The boy introduced himself and Laonin suddenly realized he hadn't made proper introductions. "Pleasure to meet you my boy." he said, reaching out for a firm handshake. "My name is Laonin, and welcome to my home. I apologize for the shape it's in. I've been too preoccupied to get it all arranged properly. As for how you can assist me, you seem to be a sharp lad, a trait I assume you picked up on the streets. I'm not from the area you see, only entered the Alleys not a few months ago, and I've only gotten familiar with a few of the areas around here. I don't know much of what's going on in the rest of the city." Hearing his kettle begin to whistle, Laonin turned and deactivated it. He grabbed a couple of mugs out from the same cupboard, as well as a small cloth pounch. He opened the top of the kettle and dropped the bag into the water, to let it steep. "I've renovated a couple buildings in this area, because I have seen them for myself. But I don't know where else to look. I would love to help everyone you see, but I can only do so much on my own. I was hoping to begin spreading my activities further throughout the city, in some of the poorer areas. I was thinking maybe you could help me find places to focus my efforts, to try to be able to help as many as I can. I don't know if that sounds like something you would be interested in or not. I could also always use help around here in the forge. I've been doing my best to help furnish necessities to those buildings I do finish. Pots, pans, utensils, your everyday objects. I could always use another set of hands, assuming you were willing to learn and work hard?" Suddenly someone knocked at the door. Laonin moved to get the door when Alask instead jumped off his stool and opened it, greeting the newest stranger to visit him. Laonin then heard a shout from outside as Alask ran out the door. A feeling of dread began to encroach on Laonin's heart. What's happened now? Is someone hurt? He bustled to the door and barely had time to acknowledge the presence of the Scadrian standing there, when he saw a man collapsed on the ground, with Alask kneeling over him. "What's going on? Where did he come from?" Laonin exclaimed, looking up and down the street for any other sign of activity. He hurriedly knelt down on the ground and looked the man over. Unfortunately he had no medical experience, so he wouldn't know what to do even if he could figure out what was wrong. He quickly stood to his feet and rushed back inside yelling at Alask and the Scadrian, "I don't know what's wrong with him. I have something that can hopefully help with the pain he's in, but I can't fix whatever is wrong." Pointing at the Scadrian on his doorstep, he said, "Well don't just stand there man, go help the poor fellow. We might need to bring him to the hospital for care if neither of you have experience with this sort of thing." With that he rushed upstairs to his room and grabbed a bottle, and checking its contents, ran back outside as fast as he could. "Here, give him this, see if it helps at all." he said, hoping the liquid would bring the man some ease from his pain, so he could at least tell them what was wrong. That way they could try and do something to help him. @I think I am here. @The Grumpy Elantrian @xinoehp512

@The Grumpy Elantrian

Laonin listened carefully to what his visitor had to say. He must have something else on his mind, Laonin thought. The way he was speaking made it seem as though he was nervous, or preoccupied. He spoke of what Laonin was doing with a note of something in his voice, respect maybe? Awe? Or was he simply curious? There was definitely more to this boy than what appeared on the surface. He seemed unkempt, like he had been having a rough go of it for a while. But he didn't seem like someone you would typically see on the streets. He had enough life left in him to make the effort to come here, and not just for himself. Laonin had had people showing up at his doorstep looking for handouts, and he had assisted in what ways he could, but this was not the case here. The boy mentioned the trail he left behind when he Forged a building. Something I hadn't thought to take care for. If one of the more sinister residents of this place don't like what I'm doing, that may give them an easy way to find me. I may need to be more cautious in how I do things. "Well, I don't know that what I've been doing has had such a large impact thus far. Though it warms my heart to know that you find my actions inspiring. The way I look at it, problems won't solve themselves. You can't just set an ingot in the furnace and expect it to take care of itself. It needs hands to guide it. That's the problem with this city. There's no guiding force behind it. The guilds you speak of each have their own leadership, and I'm sure some have taken an initiative to help others, but the majority look out for themselves and seek to further their own aims. Those that don't directly seek to sow chaos, don't seem intent on trying to restore order either." Laonin paused, realizing he had just started rambling off and not really answered anything the boy had said to him. "As far as Investiture goes, I really try not too put too much stock in it. Obviously I've been using Soulstamps to renew buildings, as that is the quickest way to do it, but nothing can beat a good pair of hands with a will to use them. Most of the problems in this place were caused by massive amounts of Investiture, in the hands of those who would abuse it. I'd take one man with his heart in the right place over a dozen fickle Allomancers or Shardbearers any day. As to how you could assist me, I have a few ideas about that, if you would care to step inside? I just woke up you see, and could use a nice warm drink about now." With that Laonin steps back and gestures to let his guest in, assuming his invitation is accepted. @I think I am here.

Reading spoilers nested in spoilers is so difficult on mobile.

A low, rumbling sound was emanating from the stairway to the second floor. It would pause for a moment, then resume. The sound echoed through the building, but all else was silent. An imaginative listener would assume there was a bear or a dragon slumbering within the forge, but it was simply Laonin snoring loudly. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, but it was not loud enough to breach the slumber of the exhausted man on the second floor. The snoring continued until a second, louder knock made its way to his ears as he awoke instantly. Laonin sat up and thought he heard someone calling from below. "Just a moment!" he shouted. He hurriedly stood up and stretched. He looked himself over quickly to ensure he was mostly presentable, then put on his slippers and walked downstairs to where the noise had been coming from. As he crossed the room he saw his distorted reflection on the surface of a newly polished sheet of metal. I really ought to sort out my wardrobe, he thought. This robe is an entirely too bright a shade of green, and these red fuzzy slippers have the face of some furry animated character on them. Well, you make do with what you have I suppose. He approached the door and, after unlocking it, opened it to see a young man standing there. He looked to have a similar complexion to Laonin, though perhaps not due to working over a forge every day. "Can I help you?" Laonin asked, looking his unexpected guest over more thoroughly. @I think I am here.

Laonin walked through the Alleycity. Since becoming both literally homeless and one of the Homeless, he had been looking for a suitable place to claim for his own. He had come across many people in this strange place, from the DA to TUBA to any other number of other Homeless. He tried to mind his own business for the most part, as getting involved only seemed to end in death and despair. He hadn't been here long but for the time that he had, he had heard rumors of a great war which had happened in the past that threatened this entire place. A war which it still seemed to be recovering from. He passed ruined buildings, people huddled in corners, and others who rushed from place to place, either needing to be somewhere or needing to be away from somewhere else. There were of course many powerful people in this city. They went about their business, doing important things in important places with important people. Running around waving magic circles in the air, or shining bright with some inner light, or getting into fights with other people. Of course when fights between powerful people happened, those around without power seemed to suffer even more. Most of the people in this place seemed more concerned with trying to spike unsuspecting travelers with sweet delights, or trying to stop the people doing that, or creating strife between guilds. That isn't to say there weren't people out there trying to serve the greater good. There was at least one hospital set up that he had seen, but the care that had been given to most residents of the Alleycity was lacking in his opinion. Buildings had been left in rubble, people without homes. Countless dead caused by power hungry people with no care for the common folk. As far as Laonin could tell there was no central government to this city, and that meant there was no one keeping chaos in check, or rebuilding what had been lost here. He walked up to a ruined building he had been studying for several weeks. It seemed as though during the 7 day war it had been destroyed by flying rubble from an explosion in the distance. He had explored as much of it as he could get to, and had asked the few remaining denizens of this area for as much detail as they could remember. He pulled out his toolkit and set to work once again, carving into soulstone. He would restore this building, and hopefully with it at his disposal he could continue to restore the ruined parts of this city to their former glory. He took the soulstamp he had been working on for weeks, now finally finished, and pressed it to the cornerstone. The seal sunk into the stone, and he could almost feel the building trying to determine if his work was good enough for it to allow the change to happen. Suddenly the ruined building before him was replaced with a sturdy, well kept forge. "Well, that took long enough," Laonin muttered, "I should have just tried telling the darned thing the explosion missed it in the first place. Of course it still wanted to be in working order!" Wiping his hand on his pants, Laonin walked through the now intact doorway, surveying what he saw before him. The building seemed well built of course, one of the reasons he had chosen it in the first place. Something that had been created well was all the more likely to want to return to the vision its maker had had for it in the first place. He walked over to the anvil, and was pleased to see that the rust which had previously been coating its surface was now gone. It seemed it had considered itself a part of this place, and when the roof had repaired itself, came to the conclusion that the rains wouldn't have been able to reach it. It was a decently sized room, with lots of hooks and shelves on the walls for tools and equipment. Most of those were missing, either destroyed or looted by people trying to scrounge for valuables. That suited him just fine, he preferred to use his own tools anyway. Now to get himself situated. ----- A sharp ringing sound echoed out the front door, almost like the beating of a heart, a sign that this place had come back to life, and once again its blood was pumping. Laonin stood over the anvil, beating a hunk of metal with his hammer, forcing the impurities out of it. He did this for the time it took for the metal to start cooling and then shoved it back in the forge to heat up again, piling more charcoal on it. While it heated he perused the room, taking in the changes he had made to it the last few weeks. He had moved all of his belongings in, meager as they were, and the place had an almost homey feel to it. He had of course been concerned that the building would relapse into rubble, but after the first night passed without incident came to the conclusion that he had been correct in his assessment that the building wanted to return to its intended purpose. He had since been refitting his tools, as they had been through some tough wear and tear since his last chance to repair them. He had also been making good use of one of his soulcasters, converting some nearby rubble into iron with which to forge. Some would argue he could have simply soulcast it into steel directly, and cut out the purifying process, but he never really trusted a fabrial to do what he could do on his own. He trusted his own hands. Thankfully there was still a supply of charcoal in the back room, as it had been blocked off previously from looters by the rubble. He didn't quite have the skill with a soulcaster to create coal. Plus he had heard that excessive use of soulcasters could have ill effect on the nerves, so he tried to avoid it as much as he could. Which meant he would need to find a way to keep his metal supplies stocked. Something for a different day, he concluded, as he retrieved the now glowing metal from the forge and continued to hammer it into steel. After several hours of hard labor, Laonin cleaned and hung his tools on the wall, and put the forge to rest, to be reawakened tomorrow. He then ate some dinner in the sparse living quarters on the second floor, and set out, toolbox in hand. He had found his next renovation project, a tall building which seemed to have been crushed by something large, given the enormous footprint left nearby. While most of the building was destroyed, the first floor was relatively intact, and housed several families of people who had nowhere else to go. He spent the remainder of his day inspecting the building for damage, taking note of anything and everything that could affect structural integrity once it was repaired. Thankfully there seemed to be some records of what this building had looked like before its destruction, which made his task a whole lot easier. As he was working a rugged looking woman approached him. "What are you doing?" she asked, looking at Laonin making measurements and writing down notes on a sketch pad. "I'm trying to determine how easy this mess will be to clean up. This building used to be able to house a dozen families comfortably, near as I can tell. Now there's a handful lying about in the dirt, and with the holes in the walls it can't be much warmer in here that out there anyway." Laonin replied. The woman looked surprised for a moment. "You mean you're going to rebuild this. Where will we stay when you tear it down? Do you know how few buildings there are with even this much room? Why not build somewhere else that won't disrupt those few living here, and let us be." she said turning away. "I don't intend to tear it down, I'm simply going to fix it where it stands. And seeing as how there doesn't seem to be anyone barging in with deeds of ownership, you'll be first in line to claim housing once it's done." The woman stopped and turned back toward Laonin, a flicker of hope in her eyes. "Really? You're really going to fix it? Why would you do that?" she said, a hint of suspicion in her voice. Despite the hope she felt, her life had been hard enough to know no one would do something like this without a reason. "In my opinion, this place has seen enough power hungry men to last an eternity. I figured someone needed to step up and fix the damage they've caused. I know one man can't fix everything. But even if I only help one person, then that's good enough for me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to continue with my work." he said, turning back to the wall. The woman looked at him for another moment, the flicker in her eyes warming to an ember in her chest. She turned and went to talk with a group huddled nearby. Some didn't react but the rest watched this dwarf of a man continue to work. Not knowing what to do, they continued doing what they had been, surviving. After doing a preliminary assessment of the building, Laonin headed home. Strange, he thought, only a short time here and I already think of it as home. Have I really been so desperate for some stability? Arriving back at the forge he let himself in, and locked the door. He climbed the stairs to his small bedroom, and after changing, lay down in bed. He let out a deep sigh. Tonight he would sleep well. He finally had a goal, and the means to see it through. Turning onto his side, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. --------

Well thank you for the quick response. And pinging yourself.

This is my character. I'm not able to link Archer apparently though because it thinks I'm posting spam. Also, as far as some of his methods seeming to conflict with his weakness, he realizes the benefits of Investiture and will use it, but tries not to rely on if fully. Also maybe he is just a hypocrite.

That was my assumption but I just wanted to clarify. Thank you.

Do characters need to be from a specific timeframe in Cosmere? Like would it be just as likely for a character to wander into current Alleyverse time from Alethkar the night Gavilar was assassinated as it would be for someone to wander in from when Alethkar was overrun by Fused?