Lunamor

I’ve got my irl stuff mostly back under control so I think I’ll be able to start rping here again now. I saw that a new episode might be starting soon, so I can wait to have Eza enter until then if that would work better. @TwinStorm, so sorry for ditching the Leon plan thing. If you still want him and Eza to meet at some point I’m happy to still do that. I completely understand if not though because I’m sure a lot has changed. Alternatively, @Steel Speedster, since Fenna was fighting in the Boss Fight of Era 7, Eza might actually be inclined to trust her a bit. Not too terribly much, but seeing her actively fight on the side of good made a good impression. I think she’s the person Eza would be most likely to start a conversation with willingly if you’re interested in that (I think I can find an excuse for her to do so). If anyone has any other ideas/suggestions on how Eza can get involved please let me know! To sum up her character’s relevant info for interactions, she’s a teen investigating a hemalurgic organization with recently aggravated trust issues. I think if a character has been in the Mistwarrens in the past 7ish months they might’ve seen her on wanted posters that were up for a couple of days.

Sorry for the late response, I’ve been having some health issues the past few days. I’m happy to have Eza join the scene if y’all want, but it’s getting pretty crowded and I don’t want to mess stuff up. @SpiritOfWrath, @KnightSkye, @TwinStorm, are you guys ok with Eza joining or should I hold off for now? I might be a bit slow to respond for the next couple of days.

@Ookla the Irreplaceable, is Leon going to be in New Hallandren at the beginning of the tailing scene with him and Eza? I’d like to make a setup post for her (she won’t actually reach his area yet but the post will end with her entering whatever district he’s going to be in).

Welcome to the Shard! I absolutely love your username!

@Ookla the Irreplaceable, do you want to start off with the tailing scene with Eza and Leon or have that at some point later? Also, for that scene, I’d prefer if you had the first post for it since Eza is just going wherever Leon is.

I can send you some info about the group from Eza’s backstory in a pm. Right now most of her relation to them revolves around a single guy, so if you end up wanting to connect your characters’ stuff to them feel free to add some lore to the group. The group is definitely less powerful than UFO (or can be changed to be less powerful than them for plot convenience if I am misinterpreting UFO’s power level). Thanks for the reminder about not letting this take over the main plotline, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.

While I’m happy to have Eza and Leon run into each other, I’ll note that it’ll be very hard to convince Eza to be at all friendly to Leon. Her hatred of hemalurgy and general mistrust will make it hard for her to ally with him unless he lies about his intentions convincingly enough or procures something extremely shiny. Since he’s a good manipulator he could probably talk her down to passive-aggressive instead of aggressive, but it ain’t gonna be easy. She just got over being betrayed by another radiant-hating criminal She could actually end up tailing Leon by mistaking him for someone else she meant to be following if that sounds good to you. A master thief would probably be pretty good at detecting another thief.

My plan for Eza during the timeskip is for her to have been searching for information about a group of hemalurgists who have been trying to track her down due to backstory reasons. In terms of tying herself to the main story for this era, I think there's a couple of ways she might be able to initially encounter UFO/characters in that organization. Since she's fleeing from people with access to allomancy, she might try to steal some aluminum supplies from UFO and could be caught in the act or the missing items could be noticed. The chances of her going to them directly for help are low, but if she gets desperate enough she might try to alert them of the existence of the hemalurgist group. Since she's illiterate, she'd probably need to do that in person. She's also likely to just straight up try to rob someone if she sees that they have something shiny. If anyone has characters you'd like her to interact with in one of those ways or other ideas for interactions please let me know.

Resubmitting Eza's character sheet with a few minor updates since she's had some appearance changes/backstory updates. Recent events have had an impact on her behavior so I thought it would be good to add those for context, I can remove some of that part if needed.

I technically “joined” the Alleyverse like 4-5 years ago, but I think I posted a grand total of one time so I’m not counting that

Eza, The Mistwarrens, 3 days after the blood moon Eza silently sprinted forwards with occasional bursts of speed where her feet left the ground as she ironpulled on objects ahead. The woman chasing her, thank Harmony, didn’t seem to have any abilities that lent her the same grace. When she leapt up to a rooftop to follow Eza when she tried to get some height, there was an audible, if small, thud. She was probably a pewter misting, although Eza wasn’t familiar enough with other Alley magics to be certain. Eza's heartbeat wasn't nearly as quiet as her footsteps. The thundering in her chest was so loud she almost worried that the woman chasing her could hear it. It took everything she had to keep her breathing quiet and avoid drawing in panicked gulps of air. She kept her hood pulled down low, thankful for the night's darkness that obscured her face. While she passed the occasional wanderer sticking to the edge of whatever street or alley she found herself in as she madly half dashed, half flew, they took no action to help her. This was the Mistwarrens- everyone here knew better than to interfere in any altercations. You just kept your head down and pretended like you hadn't seen anything. Eza's current predicament was entirely her own fault. By this point her wanted posters had been taken down, likely because witnesses had confirmed that she probably wasn’t responsible for the crimes she’d been accused of after the events in the prison. She’d assumed that meant she was safe, that the authorities were no longer looking for her. Unfortunately, the authorities weren’t the only ones who had been looking for her. To be fair, she’d been pretty distraught at the time of her carelessness. The loss of Eighth had broken the wall holding back the emotions she’d tried to suppress for so long. That didn’t excuse walking around with her hood down and chatting with people in the daylight, though. Her scar stuck out quite a bit, the new one she’d acquired not large enough to offset its prominence. Eza faltered as her thoughts focused on her grief. Her foot caught on an uneven cobblestone and she tumbled to the ground. Unexpected anger flashed within her. There was a reason she’d forgone any semblance of friendship for so long; you couldn’t have anyone to mourn if you didn’t have anyone in the first place. Eighth had made her weak. Apparently, a friendship with someone she'd known for less than a day was enough to break her. She turned her tumble into a roll, springing back onto her feet and resuming her running. She lost a bit of the lead she'd slowly been gaining on her pursuer. If she didn't do something soon, the woman behind her would catch up and the monsters would have her. She had to end this now. The biggest advantage she had over this woman was her control over momentum. Eza took a deep breath, drew her knives, then jumped up into the air and ironpulled on something heavy behind her. She shot backwards, rapidly approaching the woman chasing her. She was forced to skid to a stop, but couldn't change direction as quickly as Eza could. This threw her off balance, her focus on keeping her feet beneath her rather than on the girl rocketing towards her. Eza held out her knife, gripping the handle with both hands, and closed her eyes. She felt something tugging it backwards, then it ripping free. She ended her ironpull, letting herself slowly skid to a stop. Something in her knew that this chase was over. Eza turned around and returned to where the woman had been standing, footsteps dragging across the stone with soft scrapes. Her pursuer was motionless on the ground. She hesitantly tried poking her and got no reaction. The woman had crumpled so that she was lying face down, so no injuries were visible, but the pool of blood spreading beneath her told her that something vital had been hit. Had she just... no, she hadn't. This wasn't a person. They- they weren't. They couldn't be. A person wouldn't be chasing her like this, that was what the monsters did. She hadn't gotten a good look at the woman, though. Why hadn't she looked? Carefully, Eza rolled the woman over. She didn't pay too much attention to the fact that her head flopped backwards further than it should've, instead ripping off the person's tinted glasses. All she could stare at was her eyes. She still had eyes. No spikes of metal pierced the woman's wide open eyes. That didn't make sense. She had to have been a monster. Eza flared her iron, desperately searching for some proof of her own innocence. She saw nothing, so she flared it even higher. The fire in her stomach started to feel as if it was burning in the literal sense, but she ignored that. She just needed to- There. Two faint, but thick, lines leading to the woman's shoulders. The lines said they pointed to steel, but felt wrong, somehow. Eza extinguished her iron and hastily yanked the collar of the woman's shirt sideways. Sure enough, that revealed the head of a gleaming spike pierced into her shoulder. Eza breathed a sigh of relief. That meant she hadn't made herself into even more of a monster than she already was. Without dallying for a second longer, Eza took off into the night, her hand now stained bright red with a monster's blood.

I apologize for going dark for so long without any warning, I've been doing pretty poorly but things are starting to turn around. I should have my epilogue post up sometime today or tomorrow.

My classes end in ~2 weeks, so as a heads up I should be able to start posting again after that.

Eza made it outside just in time to see the arrival of a glowing person. They had unnaturally bright green eyes this time. They were running towards the constabulary, a grim focus on their face. That was probably someone coming to help; the only glowing people she'd had interactions with seemed to be the heroic type. She was also greeted by a few shocked gasps and one particularly frightened scream. She looked down, remembering that she was covered in blood, then opened her mouth to call for help. Before she could get a word out, the glowing person had reached her. They paused briefly, glowing brighter and reaching out towards the knives in her shoulders. Eza jerked away and quickly tried to wipe the slightly congealed blood off of her face. "The blood's for attention, go help the people inside!" Best to be blunt. The glowing person nodded with a slight smile, and faced the building again. A sharp crack rang out through the street, and Eza felt numb. All she could do was stare as wood began to splinter. There wasn't anything she could do about those trapped inside. She... she needed to be pragmatic. Or was she just being selfish? Eighth would've run in there to help strangers. She needed to help her friend. Eza took a step forwards, then saw a few battered constables begin to emerge. She dashed over worriedly. She couldn't see Eighth. Why wasn't he with them? No, he was there. Stumbling, completely bruised and looking like he'd done a very poor job of butchering a cow, but he was there. Eza tried to get closer, reach out and help him make it through those last few meters, but recoiled at the sound of another crack. The wall came crashing down, partially burying her friend. His screams stabbed into her ears as new blood glistened in the moonlight. She extended her hand once again, but was too slow. A massive tile reached Eighth before she could, completely burying him. She burned iron, trying to spot the unique line leading to his strange metal, but there was too much debris blocking it from her. "No!" Eza furiously clawed at the debris, trying to lift one of those massive planks away. The glowing person joined her and brought strength that must've been twenty times her own. It didn't take long for the pile to be cast aside. She could barely look as the final slab was removed, expecting to see a broken and crushed body. Instead, there was nothing. Her eyes shot over to the glowing person, seeking some sort of other option. There had to be a way to find him; just because he wasn't there didn't mean he had been completely crushed, or been torn to bits, or been lost forever... The glowing person just slowly shook their head. "I'm so sorry." Eza ran. She didn't respond, didn't wait for someone to look at her injuries, didn't even look behind her. She just ran, and ran, and ran. She wanted to get away. She needed to get away. From the horror, the grief, the pain. But she couldn't. It kept pace, staying right by her side. Its breathing was the same, its heartbeat her own. She could feel it in her lungs, her eyes, her stomach. In the tears streaming down her face, in the pain shooting through her shoulders, in the blood seeping from the wound on her cheek. She wasn't sure how long she ran for. She'd reached somewhere unfamiliar, but the alleys here all seemed to look the same to her. Eza was forced to stop when her legs nearly gave out and breathing became too difficult. She stumbled into an alley and absentmindedly yanked out the knives embedded in her shoulders. It wasn't enough pain to make her guilt go away. This was her fault. The only person who had trusted her in years had died because of her. She was nothing more than a blight, something everyone needed to stay away from. Everything in her life had been screaming it at her. She hadn't listened. Stupid, selfish, worthless. Eza screamed. It was hoarse, wordless, quieter than it should've been. It was the last of the air from lungs that hadn't yet caught their breath. It was rage, sorrow, and hatred. It was nothing and everything and things quit making sense as the night blurred around her. The yell echoed longer than it should've. It wasn't just her own. Sounded an awful lot like her, though. Eza slumped to the ground, exhausted. She pulled her knees to her chest, then began to sob. The blood running down her face mixed with her tears as she realized that she would always be alone. She suddenly felt the cold metal of a shiny, silvery case pressed against her side as she realized that meant she had nothing to lose.

Eza had room for only one thought in her head and could feel nothing but her heart pounding in her chest. The monsters had been killed and their most recent owner had left, but that didn't mean everyone was safe. Eighth was practically soaked in blood, and the constables on the ground were dying. She could deal with her horror, grief, and relief later. She was fast and largely uninjured. Well, aside from the three butter knives sticking out of her shoulders. That was less than ideal, but they weren't causing dangerous levels of blood loss so long as she left them in and they didn't slow her down. She looked around for a moment, then located a pool of blood that hadn't congealed too much yet. Dashing over, she splashed it all over herself until it looked like she'd been attacked by an axe murderer. If she played up her childlike appearance, she'd probably look more like a victim than a suspect. That would be important for what she was going to try to do. Eza then called to Eighth over her shoulder, already sprinting towards the door. "I'm going to find help, please don't die!" With the state he and the constables were in, she figured that she could run for help and return faster than they could walk. Those more seriously injured might not be able to get up at all. The blood-curling screams that had been coming from the building likely had drawn at least some attention, so hopefully she wouldn't need to go far. @Longshot97 @Scars of Hathsin

Eza soared through the air. The good news was that she was no longer trapped. The bad news was that she was quite quickly heading towards the wall. She iron pulled on the hinges of a door across from her to slow down. It worked, and she hit the wall with an amount of force only significant enough to cause bruises. Nasty ones, sure, but just bruises. She heard a sickening crack as she impacted. Eza saw that the door she'd now pulled on multiple times had become partially detached from its door frame. That wouldn't be a great option to anchor herself again. Eza slid down to the ground, then immediately took off after the monster again, her mind still filled with rage. She watched its motions carefully as she ran, trying to find the best spot to attack it from. It was lifting its arms high, advancing forwards. That mean it was occupied, distracted. It also mean that it was attacking someone. She looked in the direction that it was facing, and the anger burning in her heart was extinguished by a new emotion. Cold, icy fear. It was going after Eighth. Eighth was so injured that he was practically defenseless. If the monster wasn't stopped, he'd kill him. And Eza didn't know how to stop it. She couldn't see all of what was going on, her friend partially blocked from view by the beast, but she could hear Eighth's scream. She reached her destination and, not knowing what else to do, tried slashing at the thing's heel tendons again. @Koloss17

Eza sprinted directly into the path of the oncoming fist, continuing to keep her iron on a low burn. That annoying bird squawked loudly into her ear and dug its talons into her shoulder. One of the blue lines extending from her chest to something she couldn't make out seemed to glow. She pulled on it without thinking, and whatever bit of metal that line pointed to had been implanted solidly enough into the wall to yank her to the side. The monster's fist missed her by inches. Two more lines were highlighted, one in front of her and one to the side, so she pulled on both of them at once. This pulled her diagonally to behind the beast. Eza grinned maliciously, then pointed her dagger outwards and yanked on one final thick line- one of her own choosing, this time. As she was sent rocketing across the floor, her knife slashed through one of the Achilles tendons of the monster. Another blue line was highlighted, but before she could switch to pulling on it, she came to a sudden stop. ... With a surprised grunt, War fell to one knee. It immediately shot a grasping hand outwards in retaliation. It wrapped around Eza's midsection and stopped her midair, the force of her ironpull nothing against its iron grip. War held the girl up in front of itself. The tiny thing was a better fighter than it'd anticipated. "That really hurt!" Eza responded by spitting in its face. War almost decided to tighten its grip and squish the girl, but then noticed the man shouting commands at the remaining constables. He looked around the room and saw that everyone other than those four survivors had died or were injured enough they might as well be dead. He looked over at his new boss, who'd told him not to kill this tiny thing. He looked back at Eza, who proceeded to bite his hand. People were most likely about to try to kill him. He was out of most sources of anger. He probably wasn't supposed to murder Eza. And she was very, very angry. The girl would make a good battery. Her death would give him a stronger temporary boost, but he needed a lasting source of fury. So he continued to hold her immobilized in place, turning to face the incoming attackers as he managed to awkwardly stand while his heel knit back together. He roughly shook the girl around a bit to make sure she stayed mad. @Koloss17 @Longshot97

Eza watched Perses and the three grotesque monsters fall to the ground with confusion, her head slightly cocked. She wouldn't shed any tears if they had all suddenly had heart attacks or something, but the chances of that happening were astronomically slim. She just shrugged at Eighth, as if she was worried that speaking would wake up the collapsed monsters. Before she could do anything else, they snapped awake again. The most emaciated monster suggested killing Eza and Eighth, and she nearly bolted right then and there. But Perses rejected that idea, saying that they needed witnesses to spread the word. Maybe he needed them to go tell people about how he had killed Asylum and saved the day. But then he alerted the monsters of incoming constables and said three awful, terrible words. Dispose of them. It wasn't over. She should've known that Perses wouldn't be any different from Asylum. He was a monster too. Eza was about to implore Eighth to run, get out of there before they were both slaughtered, when he decided to do something incredibly stupid. He ripped his bird off of his shoulder, then set it on hers. He told her to go. He wanted to fight. Eighth was giving up his only chance at survival. They'd been given an out. They'd been spared. They could've walked out that door and finally been safe. He was badly injured, bleeding profusely from practically every part of his body. There was no way he would survive this. She needed to leave without Eighth. She couldn't physically stop him, even in his injured state, and she knew trying to speak to him would only serve to distract him from the monsters trying to hurt him. He wasn't going to make it whether she tried to help or not. Eza was useless in a fight, and would probably only get in the way. She could clearly see her path to survival in her mind's eye, laid out before her like a map. That must've been from Seiju. She couldn't leave Eighth, though. That meant that she was probably going to die. This was the end. But she couldn't live with herself if she abandoned her friend. Eza cursed, then burned iron, searching for any anchor points or objects she could use as projectiles. There were few things sturdy enough to move her, but plenty of bits of what was probably silverware. Some random woman not wearing a uniform was fighting alongside the constables, seeming to be significantly stronger than she looked. That might increase their odds of living from zero to incredibly slim. After getting her bearings, she turned to Eighth. He was fighting the sick monster. She had to help him. She took a step forwards before freezing, her eyes falling on a different monster. All she could see were those bloodshot eyes. They were filled with nothing but wrath. All encompassing, total wrath. Suddenly, Eza felt that same fury rising up within herself. She hated this monster. Eza wanted nothing more than to kill it. She drew her knife, then threw it towards the monster with all of her strength. It nearly hit a constable, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered but hurting this beast. The weapon embedded itself in its shoulder, and for the first time she saw the bulging muscles covering it. The resulting flash of terror was quickly smothered by another surge of anger. The monster didn't even flinch as the blade pierced its flesh. Instead, it smiled a wide grin. How could it smile? It thought she wasn't a threat. It thought that she was weak. Eza growled. How dare it smile like that. How dare it look down upon her. She ironpulled on the metal in the hilt of her dagger and yanked it out of the demon's shoulder. It soared back into her hand with a spurt of too-bright crimson. Running at the beast, she lifted her dagger high, aiming for its gut. The monster was so tall that it was the highest point she could reach. Before she could get within striking distance, she felt a sudden impact as the demon's hand swatted her away. Eza went flying across the room. She managed to pull on door hinges across from her, slowing her down so that when she slammed into the wall she merely lost her breath rather than broke her spine. She yelled in frustration, then ironpulled on some silverware behind the beast as hard as she could. Forks, butter knives, and spoons launched themselves right into the back of the monster. The forks and knives were sharp enough to stick into its back. A few knives even made it all the way through, though the holes they left closed up quickly. The knives that exited through the front didn't stop their journey. Eza continued to pull on all of the utensils, trying to sink those embedded in the beast's back further in and not wanting to risk missing any by trying to let go of the ones that made it through. One knife scratched a constable's side and one got stuck in another's arm. She didn't notice, their yelps of pain falling on deaf ears. It was hard not to notice the knives that got stuck in her own shoulders, though. There were three of them, each in a row. The wood of the wall behind her had luckily been too hard for the dull knives to pierce, so she didn't get stuck in place. That meant she could charge at the monster again. Eza began to do just that, leaving the knives where they were. Blood slowly seeped from the punctures. She shoved aside constables fighting for their lives without a thought. Her wild eyes didn't see anything but that hateful gaze. All she heard was its grating, infuriating voice. "This will be fun, tiny one." @Koloss17 @Longshot97 @Speeding Steelrunner

Eza's grip on the cutting board faltered as she watched Asylum's body crumple to the ground. The dull thud of it hitting the floor seemed louder than the gunshots. She'd expected more of a fight; this was a startlingly mundane end to a series of insane events. There was no dramatic dodging of coins, no throwing of knives. It had taken mere seconds for Perses to kill them. Simply two gunshots and it was all over. Over. It was over. That was a good thing, a really good thing. It meant that Eza and Eighth were safe, assuming Perses didn't snap and kill them both too. They'd survived despite death doing its very best to snatch them away. She should've been smiling or even laughing with relief. It was finally over. So why wasn't she smiling? Eza quietly crept up to the now nigh-unrecognizable corpse. A tempest of warring emotions raged within her as the reality of what had happened fully sunk in. None of what she felt was right. She was sorry. Sorry for Lum, the person she'd grown to trust. The first person who'd seemed to give a damn about her after years of wandering alone. They'd understood what it was like to be a danger to those you cared about, how it felt to lose everyone you held dear. They were a thief, an outcast, someone who'd royally screwed things up. They were the same as Eza in so many ways. She'd failed them. She couldn't save them. But she was also glad. This wasn't happiness, not in the slightest. It didn't come from a place of joy, it came from a place of hatred. Hatred for Asylum, the monster who had killed so many innocent people. The monster who'd nearly killed Eighth and herself. The monster who'd willingly abandoned any chance at redemption. Eza was glad to see the gory display before her, sickeningly so. She hoped their death had hurt. She regretted not taking the chance to inflict any pain on them herself. If only she'd been able to help her friend. If only she'd been able to slam her dagger through the heart of her enemy. If only she'd been better than the wretch she was. After her dry eyes stared at Asylum a moment longer, conflicting emotions rendering her expressionless, Eza looked up at Perses. "Thank you." There was nothing else to say. She glanced over at Eighth. He looked awful. Not a single part of him seemed to be free of injury and his clothes were soaked with his own blood. It was a miracle he could stand upright. Eza began to walk over to him as Seiju fluttered out from behind her to settle on her master's shoulder. Her brows furrowed slightly with concern as she wondered if he would be able to make it out of the building without aid. She certainly wouldn't be able to support him. @Koloss17 @Longshot97