ZincAboutIt

Welcome to how I felt in Era 3 XD

I’m curious if we should consider allowing some power creep in new characters, especially as we go through a bit of a revival. If things get out of hand we can always reset once the Era ends, since it is by nature a hard reset. Just with one of the new proposed characters being a Mistborn, I haven’t really seen any of those approved in a while. But it might be fun to see if people can be civil with their more powerful characters during this specific era, since there’s a great reason for mandating any needed changes built right in.

Either option is fine with me. Lita would probably get notified of the request since it came from another department, but if you want to keep Xanas’ activities regarding Sanax more under the radar or can pass beneath her notice for now.

The girl entered Lita’s office with all the wariness of a feral cat, and nearly as much lithe grace. She seemed utterly at odds with the grand scale of the place, and Lita was suddenly reminded of her childhood lessons about the Ascendant Warrior. Whisper had something of Vin about her - an urchin in a nobleman’s office. No, decided Lita, eyeing Whisper as she sat lightly on a chair. This girl would give Vin nightmares. “Good morning,” Whisper rasped out, before using her more customary method of auditory Lightweaving. Rusts, that was unnerving. ‘Now why am I here?’ Lita settled back in her chair and tapped one red fingernail against the mahogany desktop. She considered letting the silence stretch out, but there seemed little point in a power-trip here. Whisper was no fool, and she knew where the power was. Hammering it home would just make Lita look insecure. So she chose the direct route. ”You have sent me four notes in the last three weeks.” Lita began to set them out on the desk, one after another. “All of them are regarding the Founders, most specifically the Lonely God and the Stranger.” She placed the most recent note at the far right of the line, tapping it before looking up at Whisper with one eyebrow raised. ”I don’t suppose it has crossed your mind that sending out my agents to ‘remove’ the people who disguise themselves as mythological figures would be both a spectacular waste of resources as well as the most moronic and obvious show of our hand since the shadow years.” Lita opened her desk drawer and removed a coppermind ring, sliding it over one finger and accessing Whisper’s personal file. She blinked a few times as her brain processed the information deluge, then continued. ”I also know you’re smart enough not to expect such a weak lie to actually get past me in regards to your supposed worries about said figures returning. It is well documented that you have a devotion to the Founders.” Lita waved a hand. “Now that that is out of the way, I would like to know the true meaning of these letters. In your past communiqués, I have noticed you mention ‘whispers’ and other such ineffable anomalies in the city. I’ll admit that until recently I dismissed these as fancy. But recent events have given me a new perspective. I am giving you the opportunity of my complete and undivided attention on this matter.” Lita fixed the girl with a stare and gave a small, cold smile. “If you wish to keep your secrets, that is your right. But I do intend on having them one way or another.” @Voidus

The steam on her tea was still rising as Lita wove a pattern through the Alleys, stepping surely and avoiding looking too closely at the boiling grey and black shadows of the Void above her. Once, Alleytravel was terrifying. Now, she was too busy to be terrified. The most she could muster was a sort of businesslike vigilance. She appeared in the hallway outside her office, loathe to face her in-tray but aware that it would only get worse the longer she avoided it. A sip of tea fortified her resolve, and she entered the room to begin. A few hours had passed when someone placed a note gently in the center of her desk. Lita looked up, distracted, before leaping halfway out of her chair and nearly upsetting the inkwell. ”Gah!” ”Ma’am,” the creature said, genteel voice utterly at odds with its pitch-black eyes. “Letter for you, ma’am.” It was a Stranger, a hemalurgic construct that could store enough Connection so as to be nearly unnoticeable until it was literally right in front of you. Lita found that she both hated and admired them. She respected the art of stealth, but rust and Ruin, the things could bloody well make a bit more noise when delivering mail. ”Thank you,” she said, nodding at the thing, then promptly forgetting it as she opened the note to read. She felt the sigh building as she scanned the page, finally letting it out when she dropped the note back onto her desk. Whisper. The girl had always been odd, even by DA standards, but lately her over-developed zeal regarding the mythological Alley Founders was getting in the way of her work. If she didn’t get ahold of herself soon, Lita might be forced to reassign her to an internal department. Or just drop her into one of the endless abyss Alleys, Lita thought, before chiding herself. That wasn’t how Mac taught her to do things. “You must do your best to keep your humanity, Lita, before you end up paying too steep a price and losing something you can never regain.” Lita sighed again and took out a silver pen, spinning it between her fingers and sending a message to Laurelai. ”Status report requested. What have you discovered so far?” That done, she removed another pen, stared at it for a moment, and sent a message to Whisper. ”Received your latest note. Please report to my office immediately to discuss.” @Voidus

@Voidus Should I have Lita send Laurelai Alleycant messages via this thread or the DA one considering she is located there? Trying to be plot consistent but also location consistent edit: actually I will just keep her in the DA thread, I have something else to do there too

So I know where you’re trying to say here but technically the Forgery would affect your characters even more than those who lived in the Alleyverse beforehand, since the current world is the only version they know. There is no dissonance in their personal history, so the distortions felt by others would be even more confusing. It’s possible they could experience the Forgery failing in noticing landmarks in the city momentarily changing, or watching people look at one another differently, or something like that. But their lack of internal dissonance would in fact make them much less likely to suspect a problem with the world.

@Voidus Aaargh so close! Laurelai was so close! XD I know that is the point of the plot but aaaaagh!

The DA would definitely be interested once they found out, yeah. Especially if they are remembering their other life.

It lives again!

Oh dear, I’ve frightened her, Vivica thought as she watched the young woman’s eyes widen, watched her stagger backwards and brace herself against the wall. Bennington floated down towards Laurelai and wiggled his tentacles at Vivica reproachfully, his color darkening slightly. She cast him a withering look. Now was not the time for reproach. Vivica felt a great elation begin to grow in her chest. Finally! Perhaps someone else would be able to understand. The baking. The science. The frosting! “Yes,” Laurelai whispered. “She told me not to, but I looked.” Vivica nodded, unsurprised. Of course she had looked. Everyone looked. That was the idea. Laurelai did not seem to share Vivica’s mounting sense of joy. If anything, she looked terrified. She had made rather a mess, leaning on Vivica’s desk, crumpling her latest drawing of Bennington and the Professor in the other life. Vivica felt a moment of irritation, felt her hand twitch towards the pocket of a coat she was not wearing that contained a spike that did not exist. But no. That was not very good hospitality. One did not stab ones guests - well. At least not this guest. “Vivica,” Laurelai said, picking up the drawing. She was staring at it as though it might swallow her up. “Who was my father?” Bennington froze in midair, then streaked away across the room to hover in the far corner. Vivica wanted to do the same, but that would be rude. And it would not do to be rude to company, especially the Peofessor’s daughter. But this was a delicate matter. This was a secret that was not hers to tell. Vivica may have been mad, but she was no gossip. She looked down at the drawing in Laurelai’s hand, at the face of the Professor. So lonely. Much lonelier than he was in this life. And yet, the Professor was lonely now too, in his own way. Perhaps because he missed his friend. There was nothing like a good friend. ”Nox,” she said softly, smiling at the drawing. A broken smile, and yet it felt right. “That is what I called him. He was so kind to me, a true gentleman. I’m afraid I lied to him, Miss Laurelai. I just… well. I just couldn’t admit to him that he wasn’t a hallucination. It seemed much kinder to let him pretend for a while.” Vivica sat down at her desk and removed a single black crayon from a drawer before sliding a fresh sheet of paper towards herself. She began to draw, hand flying over the page as she spoke. She could almost feel the image trying to push its way out of her hand. ”It is hard to be oneself, Miss Laurelai. It is much simpler to pretend, to tell a story in your mind. To paint over all the darkness, all the pain. All the loneliness. It is much easier to simply go mad.” Vivica handed the new drawing to Laurelai, a simple image, familiar. The stylized face of a man, impassive but for the hint of a furrowed brow over two eyes that were solid black. Like wells of night. Or holes in a mask. The mask of the Lonely God. ”Your father was very lonely, Miss Laurelai,” Vivica said, still staring down at the crayon in her hands, cheeks hot with shame at revealing Nox’s secret. But then again, if anyone could help the Professor, surely it was his daughter. “He was the loneliest person in the world.” @Voidus

Vivica shook her head and tore off another strip of orange peel. She grinned when she felt the slight mist of orange oil on her hands. It was a poor substitute for frosting, but it was nice. “No no silly. Not outside the hospital - in the other life. With the shifting skies and the Baking Coats and the warm, thick frosting. I never had to worry about sleeping then. Not like here. They make me sleep.” She plucked out another orange segment and slowly squeezed it in her hand, feeling the juice drip between her fingers. “In my good dreams I remember the other life. You were there, we all were. You, and Gray, and Sierra, and the red haired girl with the gold Coin, and the man with the one eye, and the man with the bowler hat, and your father, and Bennington of course. That was a long time ago. Or maybe it was yesterday.” She shrugged, then looked up at Laurelai, forgetting to hide her teeth. It was just so lovely to talk to someone after a few days in isolation. “You’ve seen it again, haven’t you? The sky. They tell you not to look but everyone looks. We have to look. We have to know. The Void. Grey and black and white and grey and black and grey and dark dark dark dark dark Dark Alley.” Vivica jabbed her finger into the center of the orange. It was good to practice her bindpoints again. Even if she never got to use them. ”Oranges smell so nice, don’t they?”

Vivica sighed but dutifully stepped back towards her desk, brightening slightly as she noticed a small satsuma on the desktop. She must not have seen it at breakfast, and she picked it up, turning it over and over in her hands. ”What a nice day it’s turning out to be, isn’t it Bennington?” Bennington did an affirmative loop and then drifted over towards Laurelai, who was entering the door with no small amount of trepidation. Vivica was used to trepidation in her visitors - all except the Professor. He was special. ”You don’t need to worry,” she said to Laurelai, smiling what she hoped was a calm, reassuring smile. Vivica made sure not to show her teeth in the smile. That made people nervous. “I won’t try to extract your eyes. Your father would never forgive me. I’d probably get disintegrated.” She giggled, then began to peel the satsuma, digging her thumb into the skin and ripping off a strip. “There’s something different about you today Miss Laurelai, isn’t there, Bennington?” Bennington agreed, though of course Laurelai couldn’t see him. “You remind me of the other you,” Vivica continued. “In the other life.” She plucked out a segment of orange and popped it into her mouth. It was sweet.

I believe he is in the Cognitive Ward, unless there is another one I don’t know about. But that’s where all the crazy people are

It’s happening my friend.

Lita pinched the bridge of her nose and set the report aside - she’d re-read the same line five times now. It would do her no good to force productivity when she was this exhausted. Maybe I head down to R&D and pick up a wakefulness medallion. Then again, she didn’t go down that way if she could help it. Some of the researchers were a little too zealous about handing out “free samples.” She sighed, sliding the field report back into her in-tray, and opened the topmost drawer of the elaborate mahogany desk. It still felt like Mac’s desk, still felt like his office. But it wasn’t. It was hers. And that made all those reports Lita’s problem. She chewed her lip and took a slender vial of metal shavings from the drawer before removing the cork and drinking it in one go. Instantly, her Tin reserves doubled, and she burnt a little extra to try and banish her fatigue. It was only mildly successful, with the added effect of making the tag on her shirt feel even more rough and itchy. Irritated, itchy, and still exhausted, Lita stood up and Alleytravelled to the nondescript hallway housing her quarters behind the blue door. She took a moment to set the kettle on, then began pacing. Almost of it’s own accord, Lita’s hand dipped into her skirt pocket and withdrew the heavy gold coin from the Festival. It felt good in her hand, and she flipped it once, watching the fat disc carve a little arc in the air before smacking back into her palm. She continued to walk the coin back and forth over her knuckles as she sat and waited for the water to boil, watching the light gleam off it’s blank faces. She remembered sitting here on her first day as a new acolyte, practicing alleycant with her teaspoon, when a shadow had floated through the door. The shadow of a stranger… Out of the corner of her eye, Lita saw gleaming golden script race across the walls and ceiling, while at the same time she felt the deep, gnawing emptiness of the Void pulling at her. …no, not just a stranger… Her eyelids fluttered, and her elbow slipped off the edge of the table. The coin flew out of her hand, and Lita reached out instinctively to burn Pewter and catch the coin before it hit the— Wait. Pewter? The coin plinged off the stone floor and rolled under a nearby settee, leaving Lita with her hand outstretched, feeling both an immense sense of disorientation as well as embarrassment. What had that been? She couldn’t burn Pewter - what was she thinking? Definitely need more sleep. She had been burning the candle at both ends since Laurelai’s initiation, taking what was likely too close an interest in the young woman. She had to be better, had to hold it together. There was an entire Department to run, a city to surveil. She didn’t have the luxury of exhaustion-based insanity. Lita stood and sighed before slipping her hand under the fringe of the settee and removing the coin, slipping it back into her pocket. As she did, she felt the slightest twinge in her right side, just between the ribs. Lita ignored it, just as she ignored the memory of the shade floating through her door. The memory of an event that had never happened. In her pocket, the coin grew ever so faintly warm.

Hey I may love Kelsier an inordinate amount but I would never break The Rules for him. I mean I’d break some rules. But not the AV role play rules.

We are indeed restarting the machinery around here. And as to the GBs, I have no idea, they do their own internal stuff and it’s not my department. But if you got promoted then hey! Also you’ve got the right name so I mean, who am I to argue

Well hello there, it has been a while since I’ve done this and I’m very out of practice but we’d love to have you! As to where you should begin, that is a good question and I don’t have a firm answer for you as we are waking up after a long subforum nap. The best place to start would be to make a character and then get that character approved. Then, you can drop them in as you like. But yes, character first. There should be a guide for New Players around here somewhere as well. As you can see we are terribly organized around here

Vivica sat on her bed and stared at the wall. The sunlight moved and shifted as it filtered out from behind clouds, first illuminating the white wall, then casting it into shadow once more. She pointedly avoided looking at the thick leather straps that had anchored her to the bed as recently as that morning. It had been a bad couple of days, and Vivica had been very unpleasant to one of the nurses. They had taken all of her pens and pencils after she had attempted to extract one of his eyes. Such lovely light green eyes. Something moved in the corner of her vision, settling down on her desk. “Not now, Bennington,” she said, still not looking at him. The octopus pulsed once and drifted deliberately across her line of sight. Vivica sighed. It would be days, if not weeks before the staff would let her have another visitor. At least I managed to give the Professor his drawing. It was a very important drawing, even though he hadn’t seemed to like it very much. Vivica couldn’t understand why. It was just a picture of him baking with this friend, the man with the one eye. Vivica smiled as she recalled the man with the one eye. He, like Vivica herself, appreciated the liberal use of frosting. She started. Something was moving out in the hallway, and out of habit she stood up to peer out her little window. The familiar but unexpected figure of the Professor’s daughter strode past, and Vivica cocked her head. Curious, she thought, sure that there was something… different about her today. Vivica did not like Laurelai as much as she liked the Professor, but today the young woman felt more companionable. Why, Vivica could almost picture her in a Baking Coat of her own. Laurelai seemed to be alone out there in the hallway, and with a look back towards Bennington - who gave an encouraging loop and wiggled his tentacles - Vivica tapped loudly on the reinforced glass of her window just as the young woman walked by. @Voidus

*takes bite of cookie* Let’s do this.

Ooh interesting conjecture. How do you mean (other than the fact that in any case she is fictional )?

Blowing on the embers, here. Era 5 vs. Era 4 Lita. Who is the true version? Facets

Yeah actually, while we wait on a little coordination of the main plot it would be fun to RP Vivica again. She’s the easier to write if you’ll believe that lol (what that says about me is anyone’s guess )

I am currently rereading my whole character arc and wow I wrote a lot XD and sure, whatcha thinkin?