ZincAboutIt

Why do your job when you can engage in interdepartmental flirting amirite @MacThorstenson and @Voidus?

Inspired by the role-reversal between Lita and the Stranger Ouroboros @Fatebreaker

Vivica sat at her desk, lunch tray now empty, and waited for her next visitor. Bennington hovered in the air beside her, unusually still. Neither of them looked toward the door. The visitor would not come in that way. In the far corner of the room, the shadows pooled oddly, seeping over the floor, viscous as spilled oil. Vivica was not afraid; she had once helped someone tear open reality, after all. She had stared into the Void and felt it call her by a name that even she had never known she possessed. She had waded ankle deep in quantities of frosting that would have made an Inquisitor weep. No, Vivica was not afraid. But that didn’t mean she liked this visitor. The creature surfaced from the tar-like shadows, emerging head first like a swimmer taking a long breath. The pool was barely a centimeter deep, but to this creature it might have been fathoms. Ropes of blackness dropped from its flanks, running down its legs to collect in puddles as it walked forward. The great kelpie stood before her, eyes two orbs of polished jet gleaming in a wet face. Benninton bristled at the thing, his violet blushing to deep indigo, his form twisting, elongating, becoming sharper and more dangerous. ”That won’t be necessary, Bennington,” Vivica said, her voice soft. She looked at the creature, and it opened its mouth. Strings of inky saliva made a soft ‘pit-pat’ against the tile floor. “It’s only come for what it’s due, after all.” One day, she knew, it would take more than the memories of her dreams. Vivica’s mind was like a sieve - so many holes. Impossible to fix. She was a problem for this world. Unlike the other life, this one did not have a place for people like Vivica. One day, she would simply be removed. But not today. Today was just the same as the other days. “Hello,” she said to the creature as the slick shadow on the floor rushed up to meet her. “You look hungry today.” Vivica smiled as her vision went black.

For someone who has no alternate memories I would probably have them focus on observing those who do or notice the actual physical manifestations of trouble like the earthquakes that have been mentioned. Edit: or ya know just listen to the person running the plot don’t mind me Edit edit: @MacThorstenson I can’t believe you actually wrote that XD

Makes sense. But still, it is just too perfect!

@MacThorstenson Any time Ronald does anything, all I can hear is “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top

It’s the DA

Fast track to godhood is right down this here Alley…

Join the club, we have jackets. Well, lab coats.

Your taste runs even more destructive than mine lol If you want to give your character a very interesting but messy end, they could always go try to date Vivica

Lol I’m mostly joking. Actual gods are a bit thin on the ground this Era - off in their own separate dimension, or transformed into mild-mannered academics, or eating buns in front of hat shops.

Sure, loads. Though, I’m not entirely sure you’d enjoy their interpretation of “dating.”

Gotta find a god who’s willing first XD

Who is dating gods around here?

I think the contrast of Aln with her surroundings is a fun dichotomy, but you’re always welcome to roughen her around the edges, perhaps edge her more towards the Neutral camp. Or make a new character that’s just as ruthless as the city requires

Lita remained still and cool as Whisper agreed to her assignment and turned to leave. She flared Tin for a moment after the door had closed, making sure the girl really had gone her way. Then, and only then, did Lita allow herself to lean back in her chair with a quiet gasp. Her fingers sought the pocket of her skirt, traitorous as a moss addict, and she drew out the coin. The metal felt good - more than good. It felt right. Like it was meant to be there, dancing over the tops of her fingers like a cold star. She stared at it for what felt like hours, then flipped it, catching it in her palm and slapping it onto the back of her other hand. The profile of a skull grinned up at her, it’s right eye impaled with a spike. Lita started, hand jerking back reflexively, and the coin dropped onto the table, head-down. She stared at it for a long moment, unease and fascination warring within her, a combination that she hadn’t felt in what seemed like ages. The lure of a secret. That hunger that had led her to the Alleys in the first place. How long had it been since she’d really searched for a secret on her own? Months? A year? Running the Department was everything she had ever wanted. And yet… What are you hungry for, Lita? The question floated through her mind on a cold breeze, and she found that she could not recall who had asked it of her. There was only an impression. The thrill of power, and a prickle of fear. Suddenly, her silver pen twitched on the desk, and Lita immediately picked it up, coin momentarily forgotten. She quickly received Laurelai’s message, wrinkling her nose at the unfortunate interruptions the young woman was facing, and smirking at her inclusion of the well-dressed man. A girl after my own heart, she thought, sending back a quick response. ”Proceed with care. It will gain us nothing to lose your good standing at the hospital. You can return any time. Send details of others in the room with you. If anyone else is tracking the same lead, they may attempt to follow you. See that they don’t succeed. Escape into an Alley if needed. Any tail you have will be swiftly intercepted - much to the delight of Acquisitions.” Lita turned back to the coin and hesitated, fingers poised just above the slick gold surface. Did she dare turn it over? What would she find? She bit her lip, then quickly turned it over; it dropped into its other side with a heavy ‘clack.’ The plain, smooth gold was just the same as the other side. No grinning skull. Nothing remarkable at all. Lita put the Coin back into her pocket and went back to work, but not before tapping a little heat from her Brassmind. There was a chill in the air that she had not noticed before. @Voidus

Ah yes, Eldritch Math.

Lita turned up the burn on her Tin as Whisper began speaking, taking in all her small, unconscious movements. When she mentioned these ‘dischordant strands,’ her pulse quickened, pupils dilating as she elaborated. Not a lie, then, Lita concluded. Whether or not she was simply mad, the girl thought that she was telling the truth. Indeed, this was important to her, exciting. Well, she had been trying to get Lita’s attention for the better part of the month. Lita would never have admitted it aloud, but Whisper’s theory was eerily close to the reports that had been trickling into the DoCI from out in the field. There really was something strange going on in the city. And stranger still, the Dark Alley was not it’s origin. You hear it? Whisper’s phantom voice changed, as though she had just noticed something. Or are a part of it? Different. Singing louder but silenced more harshly? Lita felt all the hair rise on the back of her neck, and it took all her training to remain still. She could hear her own heartbeat race - something she had learned to tune out over a decade ago. But now it thundered in her ears like a storm. A storm… Rain pelted her face, whipped by a wind so cold it seemed to lance into her very bones. She could taste lightning in the air, ozone fizzing on her tongue as it gathered high above her in the boiling clouds. Fire chewed its way through the city, undeterred even by this, the most ferocious of storms. The Alleystorm. Behind her, a voice like obsidian cut through the night — Lita blinked, feeling the tatters of something that felt like a memory fade into nothing. She looked down, noticing that her hand was halfway into the pocket of her skirt. Ruin, what was the matter with her? It was unconscionable that a single girl - albeit a damned unnerving one - could cause Lita to lose her composure. ”What you have noticed,” Lita said, pleased that her voice sounded more level than she felt, “has been corroborated by several others in the field. There has been a dramatic and unprecedented increase in mental phenomena throughout the City, all having to do with some form of retrograde amnesia.” ”What’s more,” Lita removed her hand from her pocket, placing it face down on the top of the desk, “these phenomena do not seem to be originating from any department within the DA. At least, not any department that we know of. It is in our best interests to find out the source of these phenomena before they reach a point where people will begin to remember those old stories of demons in alleyways and seek us out en masse. It would be easy enough to hide or dissuade them, but that would rather tip our hand. Which would be inconvenient.” Lita steepled her fingers and looked at Whisper, taking in her eager form, her watchful eyes. “I would like you to continue to observe these ‘fragments,’ and as you observe them, bring them to me. Do not speak to anyone else about this - not even to those within the Dark Alley. Indeed, I intend for you to watch both within and without the Alleys. Do you understand?”

Specifically the records room, it’s a Covert Op Convention

Rust and ruin I love this place

I’ll admit that I actually always read the Stranger’s reappearance in Era 3 to the soundtrack of Bruno Mars’ “24 Karat Magic” and I mean, collar popping is essential in this case

*pops collar on Baking Coat* You got it

*wipes tear* My little Tineye, all grown up and inspiring nightmares

The trick is to make a Faustian bargain with the immortal terror god and become his little pawn so at the very least he’ll kill you last The Lita Method

Good point @MacThorstenson!