ZincAboutIt

The Stranger: *spikes Lita*

@Sorana I know that I'm 100% on board to put in the effort needed to make this work with my DA character and have it be fun for others. Interactivity is fun and I'd love to rp more of that!

Lita stood in a frozen moment, staring into the Stranger’s eyes. The spike in his left socket glowed, and the black well of his right eye deepened into a darkness she had no name for. Eternal, terrible. Powerful. She felt the lightning before it struck, ozone fizzing on her tongue, lifting the hair on her skin. It split the sky, a white rift in the darkness and rain. The Coin froze in midair, and the image of the spiked skull sparkled with cold finality. Both faces. “So be it,” the Stranger whispered, and his voice was a vein of metal beneath the earth, a vein of dark blood deep beneath the skin - surging and visceral and inevitable. He moved toward her with the casual grace of a predator who had forgotten what it was to be afraid. The Stranger was inertia, was the step forward. His left hand slid back a fraction, long spike held in practiced fingers. Lita caught the last flicker of lightning along its edge: bright, hard, and sharp. Then he was before her, and Lita was reminded of their first meeting, when his Shade had offered her the Coin. He had been close then. He was closer now. Lita felt the air bend before him, rippling against her. She could hear his breathing - measured, but deep. The barest edge of one of his sleeves brushed against the inside of her arm as he crossed the last few inches between them. Tin raged within her, but she could feel her reserve running thin. Not much left now. The intensity of her flare slipped the barest fraction, but it was enough. Enough for the emotions she had shoved away to come rushing back in full. The first was terror. For one sliver of a moment she was Lita Attar again: young and lost and woefully out of her depth. Wait! Her mind shrieked. Wait! Too late. The spike plunged deep into her, the fragile skin of her torso parting with a traitorous ease. Lita heard it, heard the metal grind against one of her ribs, felt the sound reverberate through her body with a dense wetness. The world slowed around her, and she could have counted each drop of rain in the air. She felt her body curve around the impact, felt her mouth open in a scream. A light mist of blood painted the tattered grey of the Stranger’s coat. Pain. She had thought she knew agony before. Fool. Everything was pain, hot, thunderous, singing in her ears, sawing her nerves. Lita tasted copper in her mouth, and the world began to blur and darken. Tin raced through her, the last flames of her flare burning higher, hotter, harder, stoked by the Storm. Her mind began unspooling, fleeing from itself, anything to make it end. She was still screaming, head tilted back. Rain hit her tongue, mixing with the blood. Over the Stranger’s shoulder, the Coin glittered, the spiked skull grinning its mirthless grin at her. Let this be a reminder to you… a reminder of Sacrifice. Her Tin ran out, and darkness consumed her. @Fatebreaker @Voidus

“Then I offer you a Choice. Would you have Power, or Subtlety?” Lita felt the Coin slip through her fingers and twine around the Stranger's instead. Then he flicked it into the air, where it remained, spinning faster and faster until it looked like a tiny star in truth - golden and bright in the dark fury of the Storm. The whole of her life pushed her toward Subtlety. She was the Tineye, the secret-keeper, the girl in the shadows. The one to send in first, quiet and quick as lying. The Stranger continued. “Would you steal the secrets of the world with cunning and guile? Would you wear a thousand faces and have none of your own?" 'My little Tineye,' Forian murmured into her ear, wrapping her in a mink shawl. 'My beautiful little secret...' He had passed her around like a party favor, and she had been his little knife. A sharp tool in the hands of dull men, again and again. Restraint, caution, listening, waiting. Obedience. "Or would you tear secrets out with your bare hands from those who would keep them from you? Would you rip the truth from the hearts of your enemies?” 'What do you think would happen once she realized she was a mistake?' She saw Forian's eyes in the lamplight, glassy and wide through the haze of her cigarette smoke. Handsome even in death - though death had not come gentle. She had chosen the subtle way, cyanide in a snifter of brandy. Poison - a woman's weapon, they called it. The way out for someone with meager power. I should have carved your heart out, Forian, Lita thought. She had been weak then, weak her whole life. Unwanted, unknown, a tool. A toy. Before her, the Stranger pulled two long spikes from within his coat, dripping red. Ghostly shapes bloomed around him, twisted, moving, screaming in the hardened darkness of the Storm. All was sound and rain and agony, but still she heard him. “This choice I offer you, but know that you will never be who you once were. Are you seeking to build upon a weakness, or are you someone seeking to hide the fact that you are weak?” All her life she had been subtle, trailing in the wake of powerful people. Forian, her employers in the Alleycity, and now the Dark Alley. A knife in the dark. Knowledge was power, but she had never kept enough of that power for herself. She couldn't hold onto it. Lita had danced around the truth of the world, waiting for someone to lift the curtain so she could see backstage. Cunning. Guile. Weakness. But not anymore. Now, she would hold her own knife. The price was irrelevant - she had been paying it already. Always under another's heel - until now. "The time for weakness is over," she whispered, watching blood drip from the tips of both spikes. Her heart was a malestrom in her ears, rivaling even the Storm. "I seek to build." @Fatebreaker

The Alleystorm howled around her, the city screamed, and still, the Stranger's voice cut through to her mind like the subtle blade of a knife. It hurt, everything hurt. Sensation was pain, but she reveled in it. She turned towards him, registering the feel of the stone through the sole of her boot. It whispered its secrets to her, and the whisper tore through her body, cataloging itself in her bones. Lita met the Stranger's eyes - both of them. The spike, and the void. If I flare high enough, she thought, might I see to the bottom of that eye? The Coin in her hand glowed with a haunting, pale light. To her eyes, she was holding a phantom star. She shivered, the motion sending a wave of gooseflesh across her skin. Her mind bent at the edges - she could feel herself fracturing. Too much. It was too much. And yet, it was not enough. She closed her hand around the Coin, still smiling. Her left eye twitched and stung, but she refused to blink. There was not a moment that she wished to miss now, not when there were secrets to be found. Lita could almost hear the beating heart of the world itself. Her mouth moved around the word, a near-silent declaration amidst the howling wind. Somehow, she knew he would hear it too. "Yes."

Lita flared her tin, and all was pain. Pain, and glory. She felt her mouth open, and the small gasp that escaped her lips sounded like a scream to her own ears. Her heart was thunder, her blood was a waterfall, her breath was a hurricane. And the Storm! Cold bit into her skin like needles, her body starting to tremble, rain blowing in from the street to pepper her cheeks in a wet tet-tet-tet. The alley bled color, the stone beneath her feet a hundred shades of grey and brown, each drop of rain changing the hue. Something moved out of the corner of her eye, a bright sliver of shine. Laurelai's spike. The Alleycant message came a moment later. Is everything okay? The question struck Lita as impossibly absurd. Okay? She grinned, the smile wild and hard; Lita felt the cold wind cut into her gums as she turned toward Laurelai. Her reflection gazed back in the shine of Laurelai's eye, and Lita saw herself as she was then: hair a windblown tangle, half-soaked in rain, shaking with each new gust of the Storm. And her eyes, wide and gleeful and terrible, green swallowed in the black of her pupils. Lita laughed a string of high, strange notes that were quickly torn away in the wind. In a back room of her mind, Lita was terrified. She knew she should be afraid, but there was simply no room. No room in her mind with all the world pressing in around her, oozing through her skin, climbing down her throat, ringing in her ears. She could taste Laurelai's own fear on her tongue, watched as a row of hairs on the back of the woman's neck rose in a synchronized wave like a field of autumn wheat. Lita spun the pen in her fingers, the narrow cylinder carving a perfect ellipse as it danced over the edge of her thumb. Never better. @Voidus

Hello all! I've decided that I want to push Lita into tin savantism in this next Era, and I'm wondering how she would be re-scored, how much would be power increase and how much would be weakness, etc. I'd like to get this pre-approved so I can just write her in a natural, real-time progression through this process. Any input would be helpful, also in how this would probably up the significance of any kind of resonance her twinborn powers might give her (A-Tin, F-Brass [heat]). Pinging mods but really, any input is welcome here! I'm excited to RP the whole process. @Voidus @MacThorstenson

The Alleystorm was at its full height now, and Lita's mind and body strained against its own limits. She was sensation, every nerve strung taut and plucked at once. From behind her, Lita could hear the Phoenix shrieking in agony, the wind rushing against its fiery form as it plummeted towards the ground. She was grateful for the deep shadow of this alleyway, though to her it was bright as full noon - brighter, even. Her eyes watered, the sting compounded and layered over the rest of her senses, just another note in the symphony echoing through her. The city was burning, screaming, dying. Lita could hear the blood running through her own body, the pulse of her heart, the microscopic contractions of her facial muscles when she blinked. Tin was a bonfire within her, a white-hot forge fire flooding her body, her mind, her soul, commanding her to burn. The smallest whisper of caution tickled her mind, the fear of flaring too high for too long. Everyone knew the dangers of too much tin, the price that would be paid if she pushed her body too far. But this...how could she give up this? With this much perception, there was no secret that could hide from her. She was sight, was hearing, was touch. The woman before her, this Deteca, was merely a distraction, a small piece of the larger whole. Rusts, this entire city was but a scratch on the surface. There was so much more to discover, to learn, to uncover. Lita turned her head a fraction to look at Mac, then the Stranger. The limit, and the limitless. Both had moved through this world of their own accord, but so differently. Mac would advise caution, restraint. And the Stranger? Did he not also warn her against recklessness? Lita was balanced on the knife-point, a dancer in the storm around her, that liminal space of the doorway, the endless chasm that echoed between heartbeats. She remembered the golden script that had crawled and burned along the floor, the walls, the ceiling of her quarters back in the Alleys. The language of reality, the truth that she had only ever glimpsed before in fleeting whispers. I still have one vial left, she thought, fingers tracing the bottle with a fevered hunger. Here, in the storm, who knew what a true flare would let her see and hear? And the cost... did it matter? In her pocket, the Coin pulsed with a low heat. A warning, or an encouragement? Both? What are you hungry for? Her voice was softer than a whisper, the word a phantom shadow, a thought who's soul had dripped down the back of Lita's throat and onto her tongue. "Everything," she breathed, and flared tin.

Nerin blinked at the boy, trying to understand what he was talking about. Lenny? A canal? Some kind of fight? And exactly how had he known that Attayl was here? Lenny...wait. "Lance?" Nerin said, leaning forward despite herself, gripping the edge of the table. "Do you mean Lance? Blonde, carries a cane, wears a mask?" She swept her hand across her eyes to mimic Lance's ridiculous half-mask. Fear gripped her heart then, squeezing with iron fingers. If Lance was captured, if the Farriers were beaten, then there would be no one left to protect them from the Scarlets. They'd all end up like... Nerin's gaze flicked toward the kitchen door - just for a moment, but it was enough. She stood, not waiting for the boy's answer. "Attayl?" She called, panic leaking into her voice, making it more shrill, more insistent. "Attayl, Brillin, get down here. There's someone here who wants a word!" @Sorana @I think I am here.

Downstairs, someone knocked on the door. Nerin groaned, leaning her head back against the door frame, and closed her eyes for a moment. Then, with a sigh, she turned and walked back downstairs, stoking the brass burning within her and sending out a Soothing before she even got to the door. Nerin pulled the curtain aside for a moment, almost doing a double-take when she spotted the spindly, short form of a boy on her porch. With slightly less irritation, Nerin unbolted the door and cracked it open, Soothing away some of the boy's likely anxiety and distrust. "You'd think I'm a dog-catcher the way this place is taking in strays," she said under her breath, shooing the boy inside and closing the door again, sliding the bolt into place and tugging the curtain closed again. Nerin turned to get a better look at the boy, crossing her arms but incapable of keeping a small smile off her face. She pointed to one of the tables and went behind the bar to pour the boy a mug of small beer. The boy watched her with keen eyes as she set it down before him, then took the seat opposite, maintaining a small but level Soothing on him to keep him comfortable and less likely to run off. "Right," she said, sighing. "What are you doing here, then?" @Sorana

Lita was about to answer Laurelai, remark on her Forgery, when she heard a new heartbeat echo from behind her. She spun on her heel just as Voidus spoke, quickly recognizing her as one of the TUBA leaders. Deteca - that was her name. Lita recalled it from that jumpy fellow, the one who could predict the future. Her hand was halfway into her coat pocket before she had time to think, fingers brushing along the length of the spike there before selecting her pen instead. No need to defend herself with Voidus, Mac and the Stranger all here. She twirled it even as Voidus confirmed her suspicion. She can Alleytravel, Lita sent to Laurelai, mind working through the implications. She should be dead - either that or she'd somehow learned more secrets than she'd let on. Another spy, perhaps? Lita pushed her tin further towards a flare, assessing the woman quickly. Dilated pupils, elevated heart rate, slightly hurried breathing. Deteca was afraid, but handling it well. Used to stress then - so possibly a covert agent. Or a soldier. Or perhaps it was her leadership experience that gave her that 'calm in the storm' look? Speaking of storms, the Alleystorm had arrived in full now, wind picking up and carrying rain, ash, and smoke in its wake. Lita could feel the power within the storm stoking her Allomancy, making it sharper, more refined. She flicked green eyes between the three DA leaders and Deteca, careful to keep her face impassive. No one's killed her yet - that means the truce is still in effect? Or perhaps they wish to know how she learned to Alleytravel - that was certainly a secret worth holding out for. One block over, someone screamed wetly as a roof collapsed over their heads, support beams weakened by fire and wind. Lita winced slightly, cataloging the information and then filtering it out. She turned her gaze back to Deteca, smiling ever-so slightly, the green of her irises a bare ring around the deep well of her pupils, black and hungry. Secrets. This woman had some good ones, she could tell. Lita's left thumb passed over the face of the Coin, which was still showing the scales. She wondered what was about to happen, more afraid than she'd liked to admit, and more excited than was anywhere close to decent. What a relief, then, that no one expected decency from Lita any longer. @Voidus

The air cooled around them, and Lita breathed a grateful sigh before wiping her brow on her sleeve again. The air isn't the only thing in this alley that's cold, she thought, looking at Voidus. Waiting was the right move - certainly the smartest move, but still. People were dying in there. Tin allowed Lita to hear far more than she would have liked from the buildings surrounding PlasmaCore. People screamed, and everywhere the hot, hungry sound of fire chewed through the plaster and timber of tenements and shops. And are you going to go save them, Lita? She breathed out through her nose and looked down at the blackened ring surrounding her feet. No, no she would not. Lita was no hero, and she had never been. She was a spy, a creature of the shadows. Corrupted, down to the core. A memory floated to the surface of her mind, perhaps called by the sudden cool breeze. Lita could see the dappled green of the Village, so quiet, yet so alive. "She's already been corrupted," one of the robed men had said to his companion. Lita burned tin, the several yards of distance between them seeming like nothing at all. "Twinborn - dangerous. If we had raised her here, maybe it would be different, but the girl's father is a man of ill repute. A Soother. She's already spent too much time as an outsider." "The girl isn't even ten yet," the other man countered. "This place is her birthright, as much as yours or mine, Fadwyn. How can you pass judgment so early? Did you even read her letter? She believes her mother doesn't even know she's alive." Fadwyn shook his head, the disdain in his voice shifting towards pity. " Poor little fool," he said, pulling the letter out from within his robes and unfolding it. "Better to let her keep her delusion. Think about it Deshwym - you know how word travels here. What do you think would happen when she learned her mother never wanted her in the first place? That she was a mistake? That Ve--" But Lita had already extinguished her tin, turning her back on the cool green of the Village and disappearing into the steel and cobblestone snarl that was Elendel. An outsider - a mistake. Tears dripped onto her starched collar as she ran. Lita blinked, realizing she'd been staring at the ground. She raised her head, and as she did so she felt a slight wetness gather in the corner of her eye, pushing at the lashes there. Frustrated, she stoked her tin, the sudden rush of sensation shoving her emotions into the background to make room for a flood of new information. The tear became mere moisture in her eye - a nuisance, but hardly worth thinking about. Lita brushed it away with an indifferent flick of her finger and watched as the Phoenix descended rapidly on PlasmaCore. She pulled the Coin back out of her sock and flipped it once, opening her palm to reveal the image of the scales. Action. Reaction. Consequences. She wandered over to Laurelai. "I don't suppose it would be too optimistic to hope that the tavern will survive all this?" Lita waved her hand toward the Phoenix with a grim smile. "I still intend to cash in on that drink."

Welcome! I’m technically an adult but I’ve got the same problem as you do! Proud addict here I’m guessing your favorite character is Hoid? He is pretty great. Have fun exploring the forums! We are happy to have you fellow traveler!

I agree, putting it to a vote is best! If we decide to spread it out over two eras/ delay it to a later era then we also need to figure out what to do in the immediate next era as well. A vote is the best way.

Taking notes at the important meeting:

Nerin looked up at Attayl as the girl spoke. Choosing a second metal? That was a thing unheard of - you either got one, or your got them all. Or you were a Twinborn. Nerin knew very little of Feruchemy, and the Terris guarded their art with a quiet ferocity. Still, she'd heard the word. One Allomantic power, one Feruchemical, and that was it. That was all a person could have now. Except Lance burns both Iron and Bendalloy. Attayl was right - there had to be a way to get another power. And if you could get a second... who was to say you couldn't get a third? "I think he's a Coppercloud too," Nerin said softly, recalling the way Lance had easily shrugged off one of her most powerful Soothings. "Lance, I mean. I can't Soothe him, and he doesn't wear an aluminum hat. Copper is the only other way." Nerin pushed down a shiver. Copperclouds. Dangerous folk - Nerin knew that well enough. Harmony, but she knew. Against a Coppercloud, she was helpless. Just a girl with two hairpin daggers. Though if she could have a second metal... Nerin pictured herself as a Coinshot, the eye in a maelstrom of metal. Things would have gone very differently today if she... if... One of the walls in her mind warped and shivered, a solid crack running through the Beautiful Room. Nerin looked down and away, as though the truth of things were lurking in the corner of Brillin's room, and she merely needed to turn her head to make it disappear. "When he comes back - if he comes back, I'll ask him," she said, staring at the floor. "It's time for answers."

I really love this whole idea, but this is, I think, my favorite part. It may be due to me having a spy character , but it would be way more complex and interesting to engage with the guilds in this way, more character-to-character interaction, less fighting, less bombastic insanity. I would really enjoy exploring the DA in a subtle way, rather than the massively OP way that is generally expected and done. I think that the emotional and mental effects of this plot would also open up a huge amount of character development. The theme of Sacrifice is a great one and would mean different things to every character. Figuring out about the world and the shift would also likely cause conflict within each guild, people who want to keep the new changes, or go back to the old. I just really love this idea a ton, and would be super excited about it whenever it happens!

Lita stood in the middle of the dingy alleyway, trying to calm the racing of her own heart, still reeling from the sudden Soothing. Now that she knew what to look for, it was obvious. Her father had Soothed her on many occasions - she should have recognized the feeling. Though it had never been so powerful as that. She turned her head to squint at this Phoenix thing, careful to shield her sensitive eyes. Tin let her see far too much of the creature, and a new wave of fear crested over her - her own this time. Lita looked away, trying to figure out what, if anything, she could do against some flaming bird. Fire. Heat - she could handle heat, if she had a place to store it. Lita tapped her teeth with one finger, then removed her coat, setting it down about 10 feet away. She rolled up her sleeves, first the right, then the left, so that her brass bracers were fully visible - along with her two rows of tiny spikes. Lita knelt down, placing both palms flat against the stone floor, and pushed her tin even further down - right to the point where her eyesight began blurring again. The lack of sensation jarred her, but she didn't want to feel any more of what she was about to do than was strictly necessary. She concentrated hard on the heat stored within her metalminds, tapping a stream and pushing it down, down through her palms and into the stone. Lita focused, clearing her mind for the moment, pouring all her mental energy into keeping the heat secluded in one part of her body. Should have practiced with this more, she thought fleetingly, before shoving that away too. There was only the the stream of heat now, pouring through her palms and into the stone. It began to blacken and singe beneath her hands, the heat causing beads of sweat to appear on Lita's brow. Internally, she checked her brassminds; the storage was emptying rapidly, but there was still quite a bit of heat. She hadn't tapped in a while, and all the spillover from the Coin had pushed the reserve to the top. Lita continued to tap at almost a reckless speed, moving her palms to the side a bit, hoping that she wouldn't blister her hands. A bead of sweat dripped off her nose and hit the stone with a hiss, steaming instantly. The ground was a blackened ring around her, and Lita finally stopped, stepping backwards and checking her reserve. Nearly empty. That was good. Two handprints glowed a sullen orange before her, the air above the ground shimmered with heat. Lita resisted the urge to store more, and wiped her brow on her shirt. The concentration had cleared her mind somewhat, and she began to burn her tin in earnest again, ignoring the uncomfortable heat. She looked towards Laurelai and KanMien, then at Voidus, Mac, and the Stranger. "Right," she said, flexing her fingers and taking a deep breath. "Now what?"

Lita felt the heat of the air immediately upon re-entering the city, and for the first time in what felt like ages, she forced her tin down, down to a meager half of the near-flare she'd been keeping up for hours. The Coin in her sock continued to burn against her ankle, and her brassminds were accepting the spillover heat slugglishly. Not much room left in them now - she'd have to tap that heat soon, or figure out how to get rid of it another way. Suddenly, KanMien dropped to their knees, clutching their head. Laurelai ran towards her, and Lita made to follow suit when -- Fear. Lita froze, suddenly deep in the grip of the terror she'd been carefully keeping at bay for the better part of five days. What am I doing here? She felt herself sway a bit, leaning against the wall, suddenly possessed by the desire to become as small as possible, to hide, to run. Run away from these people, from this place. She was nothing, no one, a mouse who had wandered into the lion's den. And soon, when they grew bored of her, they would take her deep into their twisting Alleys and break her like spun glass. There was an odd, internal pressure within her, as though she were a ripe plum and someone was pushing their finger against her skin. Pushing, pushing, trying to get in. Lita shrank down further, huddled against the wall of the alleyway in an attempt to keep away from this...thing. This force that wished to overtake her. It was so strong - she couldn't keep it away much longer. Lita felt her mind bend around the intrusion, almost breaking, almost, almost -- It was gone, as quick as it came, and Lita was glad she had already sat down, for the return of her other emotions would have sent her to her knees. She drew in a long breath, coughing, and lifted a shaking hand to her head. Lita pulled herself up against the wall and staggered over to Laurelai and KanMien. "Are you alright?" She asked, voice coming low and shaky. Lita looked toward the three DA leaders, hoping they might know what was going on. "What in every hell was that?" @kenod @Voidus

If you want to use them as a benchmark then I seriously doubt there's anything I can do that they couldn't do as well. Laurelai replied. Comparing yourself to people who can create universes might not be the best benchmark to be setting when trying to gauge your usefulness. Lita gave a small smile of her own. Yes, perhaps present company wasn't the best metric when it came to usefulness. Reluctantly, she lowered her burn of tin to something reasonable. A bit below a flare. That was reasonable, right? Something tickled the back of her mind - it felt like worry, though Lita barely felt it. She barely felt anything. Or rather, she felt too much. Even here in the Alleys, there was so much to notice. The air moving around them as they walked, the tiny currents of their breath, the beating of each heart, the ground underfoot. Lita could feel each fiber of her clothing against her skin, felt one stray hair brush against the back of her left ear, the tight cinch of each of her metalmind ear cuffs, not to mention her bracers. The top of the one on her right arm just barely grazed one of the tiny spikes in her forearm - the pain was a tiny drop in the ocean of sensation around her. Heat. A sudden, heavy pulse of it moved through her fingers. The Coin? Lita drew it out of her pocket, the disk unusually heavy for its small size as always. She flicked a glance at the Stranger, who had remained quiet for some time now, then back to the Coin. No one else seemed worried, but then, they were basically immortal. Hesitantly, she sent Laurelai another message. Coin is getting hot again - maybe because we're getting close to PlasmaCore? Either way, something is happening, or will happen soon. Get ready. Lita shoved the Coin back into her sock, grimacing at the heat against her tin-enhanced skin. She stored a bit of it, but not all. This was one of her only advantages here, and she intended to use it. @Voidus