ZincAboutIt

Lita frowned in the dark, chewing her lip. A meeting? Yes, maybe. Who knew how long a meeting with Voidus could last? For all Lita knew, Voidus could stop time or rewind it or create pocket universes to hold as long of a meeting as he liked. She didn’t miss that tiny stutter in Laurelai’s transmission at the mention of Voidus’s name. Her father’s name. As far as Lita could tell, no one else knew that Lita had discovered that particular secret. Probably why I’m still alive, she thought darkly. Lita felt an old nudge of guilt at keeping the knowledge from Laurelai. She had been so close, the night of the invasion; it was a miracle she hadn’t let it slip. So much wine... too much. Too careless. Laurelai had the right to know about her father, but was it worth Lita's life? No. No, it wasn’t. Maybe we’ll finally get that pay raise when we inevitably find something spectacular down here, she sent instead. We could ask for offices. You know, I’ve heard that the EHD actually has an interdimensional coffee maker? Supposed to be incredible. @Voidus

Lita smirked a little at Laurelai's open-ended question. She knew what Laurelai was thinking - Okame was odd, and not in the typical way of the Alleys. Lita was never sure if the Horneater was constantly just playing everyone for a fool, or if he really was as upbeat as he appeared. Either way, Lita actually believed him about eating the shoes. "No one is eating any shoes," she said softly, regaining the lead again, ears picking up the sounds of water trickling somewhere down the tunnel. An underground spring? Lita wondered if they might find some kind of Invested water down here. Now that would be a treasure indeed. You're starting to sound like a scholar now, the voice in her head mocked. They'll need to get you a desk, soon. Maybe you can ask Mac for a cubicle beside Laurelai in the Records Department. Lita rolled her eyes at herself, though her musing did catch on the edge of something that had been bothering her for a while. Mac... now that she thought about it, it had been a while since she'd heard from him. That wasn't entirely unusual - Lita was generally left to her own devices unless she had a job, but she'd sent him a message about exploring the caverns at least a day ago now. She'd have expected him to at least say something, even if it was his usual 'Report anything useful.' Complete radio silence wasn't like him. She pulled out her pen and spun it between her fingers, sending a quick message to Laurelai as they walked. It wasn't that she distrusted Okame, but, well... he wasn't in her department. If Mac were away on some secret errand, she didn't want to broadcast it to everyone. Have you heard from Mac lately? She sent, pressing her other hand against the cavern wall as they walked. He's been uncharacteristically silent on my end. Is he working on a new project? I heard he'd bought a boarding house sometime over the last half-year, but I can't imagine it would take up that much of his time. @Voidus

The icy shock of the water would have driven all the breath from Corette's lungs - if she'd been holding her breath. As it was, the Cadmium torque around her neck allowed her to hold her breath indefinitely. She braced against the frigid water, letting it flow around her body, allowing herself to become familiar with its cold sting. The headlamp had nearly slipped off in her dive, and she pulled it back into place snug around her forehead before turning first left, then right, getting her bearings. Her body sank slowly, and she pushed a few more bubbles of air out of her lungs to speed the process. Then, when she was about fifteen feet below the surface, Corette kicked off to her left, hoping to find the cavern wall. A dull splash echoed above her, and Corette turned, the beam of her headlamp bending oddly in the water to illuminate... Karin? She wrinkled her nose, but kicked towards the woman; at least it was another DA member. If this dive turned out as she suspected, she didn't want to have to deal with another guild so soon. She waited for the bubbles surrounding Karin to clear a bit, then beckoned to the woman before pointing down and towards the left - towards the cave wall. Follow me. Then, she turned and began to swim, kicking through the cold, inky waters. @kenod

They continued on, and soon, Corette could sense the approach of a larger, wider space up ahead. The echoes of her steps became grander, and the air seemed cooler - freer. She stopped, turning to Eos. "Keep the team back for a moment," she said. "I want to check it out first." She paused. "For safety." A lie, and a rather poor one, but Corette didn't much care about that. The force tugging at her felt stronger than ever - whatever was in that cavern, it was Invested, though she couldn't place the signature. She wasn't even sure if it had a signature. It was more like a presence, a weight against her Seeking; something that had lain dormant for a long while, waiting. Waiting for me. Corette grinned and crept forward the last few yards, then turned the last bend in the tunnel to come out on a ledge. The ceiling soared up a good forty feet, and the floor of the cavern plummeted down, sinking into dark, inky water below. A faint purple light glittered intermittently where the beam from her headlamp passed over the far walls. Something glimmered there, far back in little crevasses and cracks in the stone. Crystals? She flared her Bronze out over the water, trying to feel for something, anything that she recognized -- The high crack of breaking glass echoed out over the dark water, shocking her out of her Seeking. Immediately, the sound ceased, though she thought she caught the glimmer of falling crystal fragments tumbling out of one of the tiny cracks in the cave wall. A prickle broke out over her skin as she recalled the redacted portion of the document cache. Something was growing down here... growing... The beginnings of a suspicion churned through her mind, and her heart rate picked up as she turned towards the near wall, extinguishing her Bronze completely. There were no pocks in the stone here, and the ledge hung out alone over the water, too far from any other walls, and the walls themselves were too sheer to scale. Corette looked down into the dark water of the Well, then checked her Cadmium minds. Her reserve of breath was still deep and vast - more than enough for a quick look. More than enough to find out whether or not she was right. Quickly, before anyone back in the tunnel could stop her, she slipped off her pack and began untying her shoes. She shucked them off, then unzipped her coveralls, once more standing in the cold dark in nothing but her underclothes. Corette stood there, shivering, for one moment before sprinting forward, tapping Cadmium, and diving headfirst into the dark, black water. @Invocation

"The Great Work" Sketched this out a bit ago, and finally got around to coloring it. A good way to close out the weekend. Inspired by this:

The tunnel wound down deeper into the earth, and the darkness surrounding Corette seemed to deepen with it. The light from her headlamp sliced a neat circle into the blackness, but it did little to penetrate the dark. She had known this kind of darkness before - the Alleys were far more dangerous than any of these caves would ever be - but something about this place unnerved her. It was the mural, she decided. Seeing her own future, painted out onto the stone... someone else choosing her path. She rolled her shoulders, trying to work out the knot of unease there. What is your fear telling you? Matthieu's voice rasped in her mind, and she could almost see the old Inquisitor pacing up and down the little Alley outside of his office. He had always despised being cooped up in that room, and that was before he'd been promoted to Department Head. Corette couldn't imagine how maddening it must be for him, spending hours and hours sorting through reports and directing plans instead of stalking the streets and alleyways of the city. If her mentor could handle having his future dictated by fate, well, so could she. The scouting group whispered amongst themselves behind her, surely shaken by Myriad's death. Corette didn't relish the idea of someone stalking her in the dark, but she'd steered everyone away from whatever was in that cave. Whoever had murdered the woman hadn't come into the main cavern, hadn't shown themselves until Myriad had wandered into that Mirror Cave. Well, Corette could respect a boundary; it was the same in the Alleys, after all. No one wandered down there unless they wanted something sharp driven into their heart. It seemed only fitting that the same rules should apply below the surface, as well. And, she thought, flicking the cork off another vial of Bronze flakes, they'll find me much harder to skewer, if they get hungry for more blood. Corette knocked back the vial, feeling the Bronze flare to life within her. The odd pull on her senses increased, leading her down, down towards this new cavern. Towards the Well, and whatever it was that lay growing under the deep water there.

Kaz slides his goggles up onto his forehead with a sigh and begins working at the leather strap pulled taut on the side of the table. It's quiet now, and he can once again hear the refrain of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" softly emanating from the phonograph set up in the far corner of the laboratory. "I told you it wasn't going to work." The voice comes from Kaz's right, tone bored and mocking. Kaz feels his own sense of disappointment and boredom heighten unnaturally, and he sighs. The irritation is his own. "You're getting sloppy with your Rioting, brother," he says, finally pulling the leather strap loose from its buckle and moving onto the next. "Hardly." Baz moves around the other side of the table, and as usual he's grinning. He's got his own goggles slung around his neck, though it's obvious he was wearing them during the experiment. The skin around his bright green eyes is clean and olive tan - a stark contrast to the rest of his angular face and much of his neck. Kaz knows he must look the same, and that isn't an exaggeration. Looking at his twin is like looking in a mirror. Kaz slips a ring off one finger and hands it to Baz, not bothering to see if his brother will take it. He does, of course, slipping it onto his own right middle finger. The Zinc shines in the light, accentuating his brother's long, elegant fingers and calling attention to the two smooth stumps sitting in the place where his ring and pinky should be. Baz catches his brother's gaze, then meets Kaz's left eye with his own two. Three bright emeralds glitter there, locked onto one another, before flicking down towards the remains of the man on the table. "I had hoped," Kaz begins. "We both did," Baz agrees. He looks back into Kaz's one eye. "We'll find him. We will." Together, they begin the work of cleaning up, finishing with the leather straps and moving the experiment off the table. He had a name, but it is unimportant now. Simply mental dross, not worth keeping even in the smallest Coppermind. Kaz begins to catalog his tools, wiping each one clean and moving them aside for sanitizing. Baz follows suit, and the two work in the easy, efficient silence of two lifetime partners. There is never a moment when they are out of sync, each one tapping Zinc, a well of mental speed that seems endless lying within both brothers. Their gift, their birthright. When the work is done, Kaz goes to the sink and washes his hands; the water runs off red, and the lather from the soap turns pink. He washes them again, and again, until the water runs clear, then rubs a damp washcloth over his face. The looking glass over the sink is speckled with bloody water, and Kaz grins at his reflection before drying his face and hands with another cloth. "I could really -" "--use a drink?" Baz finishes, and he's already unbuttoned his labcoat to reveal the smart trousers and waistcoat he has on beneath. Kaz shucks off his own coat, revealing an identical outfit beneath, and sets both coats into a bin for soiled linen. They'll be washed... somewhere. "Put on your dancing shoes, brother," Kaz says, already stepping out of his rubber work galoshes. "I've got a good feeling about tonight." As they leave, the phonograph skips its track, spitting an uneasy hiss into the air. No one remains to hear it; the experiment is over. For now.

Who wants to know what happened at the end of Era 3 when Lita and Laurelai dictated a field report while drinking 3 bottles of wine? @Voidus Well, you can't. But, you can have this:

I actually do think it would be epic if a few of the higher-powered entities in the AV could hear their name spoken in vain. That might be why no one actually does it. And @AonEne you may want to specify that any bizarre narratives referenced here are the result of plugging ridiculous phrases into a story completion AI (talktotransformer), not works of fiction by sensible humans.

I stand by my claims

That was me, I said that. I claim credit. It's recorded somewhere, I can prove this.

What about "Sanctuary"? Looking at the map, Alleycity is on almost an island, connected to the rest of the land by only two small bridges of earth. If the planet is rather chaotic and violent, the area around the Worldspike, in addition to the fact that it is somewhat isolated, could make the area a decent "sanctuary" location for people who want to live in a more secluded place. The Worldspike would be watched over by Voidus afterall, so might be less chaotic in general, more "policed" (even if just barely). Just a thought! :]

Breeze, which makes every bit of sense. I could be no other character, aside from maybe Allriane

We're always happy to have new members join us! Come by the Alleyverse and say hi if you get bored of staring out your window into the grey doom that is a Cascadian winter I'll be right there with you, hoping someone shatters my prison of seasonal depression and boredom with a new post. Also, I too listen to Audiobooks and love them! It's nice to meet another Audiobook lover. Reading while working? Uh, yes. My literal dream for most of my life, now come true.

I don't spend much time around the theory boards, most of my (excessive) time spent here revolves around the RP section of the forums. Though, I do occasionally lurk the Mistborn and SA theory threads. Mistborn is my favorite series by far, I just love the Metallic Arts. So elegant and clever!

Corette cocked her head, thinking. Purple light? Not more mushrooms, she hoped. She'd had quite enough of that. "We should warn the others about that Mirror Cave, I suppose," she said, still burning Bronze. "Whoever killed Myriad, they don't seem fond of trespassing." And just one more reason to go down that other path. She let a hungry little smile play over her mouth, though she covered it as she walked back down towards the scouting group. "There's been an incident," she called, hoping to get everyone's attention before more people wandered off and got themselves nailed to the wall. "Whatever is in that mirror cavern isn't keen on visitors. Myriad's been killed, and we've been warned off entering the mirror cave. Any of you are welcome to go there, but you do so at your own risk. I'll be taking the formal group down the second tunnel, down towards the Well." It's about time we find out why we're all really down here, I think. "Stay alert, and follow me. Keep your headlamps on, and no wandering off. Unless you don't mind painting the wall with your blood, of course." @Sorana @kenod @I think I am here. @ElephantEarwax @Rushu42 @I Rashek

Corette looked down that tunnel again, feeling... something. It was faint, and strange, like a whisper half-heard, or the sense of deja vu. "Only water?" She said, stepping around the blood that had pooled beneath Myriad's body. The image on the cave wall came back to her, the painting of all of them gathered around the edges of the water, gazing down into the deep blue with an obvious reverence. "Nothing else?" The logical portion of her mind told her she should be more concerned about whoever had killed Myriad. She should be cautious, maybe even sad, about the woman's death. But Corette had never been quite like other people in that regard. She hefted the dagger in her hand, remembering the slick warmth of that man's blood on her hand, all those years ago. Even then, death meant little to her. Now? Well, now it was simply a feature of her job. But, this wasn't a job, this was her vacation. She was off the clock. Follow your fear, Corette. Whatever had killed Myriad didn't frighten her. But that second passage, that deep, half-remembered feeling. That did. "You're sure you didn't see anything else down there? No life, no plants? Nothing... growing?"

Corette twisted instinctively as Eos grabbed her, dancing backwards a few feet, her mind reeling a bit as she tried to process the woman's message. Myriad? She blinked once, twice. Then, she took a deep breath, recalling the group in her mind. Myriad, the woman with the odd, echoing Investiture. Yes, now she remembered her. The rest of Eos's words caught up then. Dead. A message. Corette said nothing, but she pulled her long, sharp dagger into her hand and started in the direction Eos had come. The others could follow, or not. A fork in the tunnels. That would lead further down, down towards the Well. She burned Bronze, Seeking forward, trying to catch anything that might be up ahead. There was a strange, warped feeling around a nearby cavern - the Mirror Cave? Maybe. A deeper, more distant sensation tugged at her, off to her right. She looked towards the fork in the passage, then up at the form of Myriad, hanging on the stone wall like an insect pinned to a board. She looked at Eos. "You two went ahead - what happened? Aside from - " Corette gestured towards Myriad's body with a wave of her hand. Someone else is down here, she thought, reading the message scrawled above the dead woman's head. Someone who doesn't want company. "Did you see anyone down here, any signs of life?" @Invocation

Welcome! I’m also a 27 yo nerd living in the PNW. It’s grand to have someone else from the area around these parts!

Within reason, yep.

I'm so excited for this thread!!