ZincAboutIt

~Lita; The Chapel of Rain~

“Knowledge." Whisper said. "Has a price. A price I pay happily for those I serve, and that which they have requested of me. But none have requested this but you Lita. This is your own request."

Lita narrowed her eyes at the girl beneath the water, her fingers tightening very gently on Laurelai’s shoulder, protective. A price. The words held an ocean of meaning to Lita, each memory a wave that curled over her head, threatening to drag her under. Whispers in her dreams, words spoken with a sharp, too-wide smile. Lita grit her teeth. She was not about to pay a price if she didn’t have to.

Whisper smiled at Lita even as she began to form thoughts, craft them into an argument that would have worked - should have worked - on the zealous young woman in any other scenario. 

No." Whisper said, cutting Lita’s clever counter at the root. "Her father did not request this of me. And indeed would it be in his best interests? A broken daughter who thinks him a stranger? And I certainly do not think that it is for his sake or his goals that you ask this. No, this question is yours Lita, meant to benefit only yourself. And Laurelai. So. Are you willing to pay the price?"

It was beyond unnerving to have her thoughts known before she spoke them - known and countered before a single syllable left her lips. Lita felt cornered, like an animal, and she bared her teeth at Whisper, all trace of honey gone from her voice leaving only poison.

”Fine,” Lita snarled, the word reverberating over the stone of the grotto. She could feel panic building in her chest, such a hopeless feeling of being outmatched, outwitted, played and played again a dozen times over. The Stranger, the Shade, and now this girl. This place. It would take something from her regardless: Whisper’s price, or Laurelai. Lita decided to take her chances on the outcome that she could possibly live with.

”Fine,” Lita repeated, her voice calmer, closer to its usual timbre, and much, much colder. “Name your price, then tell me what I need to know. But we both know that if you let her die here like this, you will suffer for it. A broken daughter is better than none.”

So calm - how could she be so calm saying those words? Lita stared at Whisper and wondered at herself, wondered how much she’d already given up to be able to speak of her friend’s death as a bargaining piece - even if it was to prevent such an eventuality from happening.

It’s this place, she told herself. It’s the Forgery. Everything is wrong. When it breaks, I’ll be myself again.

But she was already herself again, and broken nonetheless.

@Voidus

Quote

This is the all-purpose End of Era 5 thread! If you have any ending scenes or lead-up feel free to do it here. Since this is all one thread with possible multiple locations, it is encouraged for you to put your current character and their location at the top of your post, at least for a first post in a scene so people reading back over this have a better idea of what is happening and where. Happy endings, everyone! It's time to let the dark back in. 

Vivica looked at the gemstone in his hands and smiled. A garnet - her favorite. 

So thoughtful, even when he is so busy, so troubled. It was enough to make Vivica wish to cry, if only to shed the tears and make space for more tearful joy. It was far more than she deserved. A perfect gemstone, to keep her safe. She would stay in there forever if it meant that she could be so easily clutched in his hand. 

"It's beautiful, Nox," she whispered. "Does this mean I can stay with you when you go into the Alleys?"

The thought of re-entering them, even if she could not see them, set something deep within her at ease. The Alleys - her true home. Dark and deep and lovely. Quiet, except when she was entertaining a guest. Winding and close and endless. Her smile widened, mouth opening slightly as though she might laugh, though she did not. Now was not the time for wild joy. Nox had so much to do. It was only polite to help him be about his truly important work, and allow him to do has he had already promised: to keep her safe.

"What do I need to do to help you?"

@Voidus

I have never been so happy, Vivica thought, watching the Professor work, his long, clever fingers moving over dozens of components, building, disassembling, designing, creating.

No, she reminded herself. Not the Professor. Nox. Lucien. He had asked her to call him both; he had had enough of formality. That thought made all that remained of her tingle and glow, made every errant strand of what was left pull together just a bit tighter. A few more memories floated, hazy and indistinct, through her. Memories of warmth on her fingers, deep and red. 

Red. She remembered it clearly now. Vivica looked at Lucien and smiled. Lucien. Light. It was only fitting that he had both names. Lucien and Nox. The light, and the dark. Both spiraled beautifully within him, over and between one another. 

Perfect. The Stranger had been so wrong to think he needed to change the world. Any world with Nox in it was already - 

She sat up straighter, eyes widening. "I remember. The stranger at the hospital, the one with the lovely smile... He looked just like your friend. The one who made this world. The Stranger... I gave him such a lovely gift."

Vivica looked at the perfect man before her and tilted her head in confusion, hoping he had the answers she did not. 

"Did he not like his gift? Is that why this place is so angry that I'm still here?"

------------------------------------------------------------------

Bennington could see through the cracks now. Nox was losing the veneer quickly, burning it off with a combination of sorrow and fury and time. And of course, with help from Bennington.

But two days... that was hardly any time at all now. Did he really need that veneer anymore? And did he really need to wait all that time to reclaim the memory of his godhood? And did Bennington really want to wait any longer for another drink?

The answer to all of those questions was 'no.'

So Bennington gave everyone what they wanted, and took another deep drink.

@Voidus

Lita crossed the floor of the cavern before she had time to consciously think, pushing away the disorientation and the ache of recalled abandonment in favor of a brighter, more fervent emotion: fear. The sight of Laurelai collapsed on the floor brought Lita's heart into her throat, tin swelling its frantic beating into thunder as she watched her friend lay there whimpering into the damp stone. She knelt down beside Laurelai, hands shaking slightly as she placed one on the blonde's shoulder, as if to check that she were still real. The touch caused Laurelai to flinch, though whether it was to Lita specifically or simply the general overwhelm was unclear.

Whisper's words made little sense to Lita; she had never been any sort of scholar. An identity that cannot coalesce? Two competing Forgeries? It sounded to Lita as though Laurelai had somehow Forged herself on top of what the Stranger had done to them all. What sort of consequences would that have?

This sort, Lita thought, watching Laurelai slip further and further away from lucidity. The ring, they had to find the ring - but it could be anywhere. Where would Lita even begin? She and Laurelai had Alleytraveled through miles of Alleys since Lita noticed the ring's absence, never mind the time that Laurelai spent on her own. It would be impossible to comb that much of the city before Laurelai succumbed to whatever was happening. There was nothing that could be done, no one who could - 

Lita's head snapped around to look at Whisper, placidly standing there beneath the water, steely eyes wide and unceasing in their observation of everything. Everything at once. Hope flared hot and sudden as metal within her, the warmth kindling her tenacity, her drive, her willingness to do whatever it took to achieve what she wished. It chased away the skulking paralytic of terror, the numb inevitability of loss. There was one person, at least, who knew precisely where to look.

"Where is it?" Lita breathed, and though her voice was nearly lost beneath the echoing trickle of water, she knew Whisper would hear her. "Where is the ring, Whisper? Tell me."

@Voidus

New character! Please fellow mods, have a look when able! 

Whisper’s words seemed to add even more weight to the copper bands on Lita’s arms. They dragged at her, leaden and heavy, pulling her mind down, down, down into the polished metal and into memory.

She fell in with little resistance, realizing only as she let go how close she already was to surrendering to those memories. Her eyes remained fixed on the girl in the water, but her sight turned inward now, slipping through a thousand thousand images all constellating around that singular figure. The Stranger. 

But was he singular, in truth? Her memories of him twisted and melded with those of his Shade - identical in form but so different in manner. Different, but not altogether disparate either. Both of them eager to make use of her, both unwilling to take full ownership. A hundred whispered promises in her dreams, and silence upon her waking. The luxury of walking in and out of her life on a whim, plucking her off the shelf when it was suitable. Expecting a knife to sharpen itself, clean itself, polish itself - it was enough to drive someone mad. 

The chronology of the memories was out of joint, scenes from her life spilling out in an order that made no sense. The Stranger appearing in the Chapel that first time, when he had been so close to killing her. The Stranger walking on air over a burning city to rip another monster apart. The Stranger whisking her and Laurelai away into the heart of his laboratory, tempting them with the promise of everything they could ever want in exchange for their help. The Stranger driving a spike of steel into her side, eyes cold and pitiless as she was unraveled and remade in an instant. 

A recent memory floated to the surface of her thoughts, that of two women in the 11th floor suite of the Grand Hotel, hair damp from washing, laughing and crying as they recalled themselves in truth. Two friends, and a plan to store their recovered memories in bands of copper to keep themselves safe. Copper on Lita’s arms, and a ring for Laurelai. A ring that she no longer wore - that empty space on her finger which had caught Lita’s eye. The spark of horror, of realization, that had almost pulled her out of the Forgery again just recently.

It pulled her up out of the memories now, gasping as she turned towards Laurelai - her closest friend. Her only friend. A friend who did not know her, now. And might never know her. Lita caught the bare end of Laurelai’s words, saw her move towards the water. Water that would take ahold of her mind like a vice, refusing to let go. Lita would watch her friend die here in this place, if she did nothing now.

”Laurelai,” she called, voice pitifully thin with pain and disorientation, though echoing across the walls. “We’ll find the ring. Just…please. Don’t go in there again.”

@Voidus

8 hours ago, AonEne said:

Marie: 

  Reveal hidden contents

Author's Note: Marie is a repurposed character from Forged Iron, a Shard RP which died some time ago. I wanted to continue her character arc, and so retconned certain parts - such as her powers - to fit with the Alleyverse, but she is still an OP character. Despite her having started her development in a different RP, I don't want anyone to feel like they have to read all that to understand her posts - so, while this version of her still met Kelsier, it wasn't for nearly as long. She knows he leads the Rosharan chapter of the Ghostbloods, but this time he never offered to let her join them. 

Name: Marie Lekal 

Appearance: Inquisitor, curly tattoos, pale skin; hair is beginning to grow out again as a light fuzz; appears approximately 23 but is closer to 300; very light wooden armor over her linchpin (just enough to prevent surprise attacks - it would not be hard to remove). She is reluctantly beginning to realize that she'll need to find some clothes that aren't Inquisitor robes, but doesn't have any yet. 

Guild (or intended guild): None at the moment; we'll see what, if anything, she leans toward as the RP goes. 

Personality: Easily annoyed or angered - she's practicing calming herself down again, but hasn't bothered trying in a long time before this. Generally confident, but a little uncertain when it comes to what to do next and making large decisions on her own (and irritated at herself for this). Internally really tired of being controlled and messed with all the time, despite not always knowing how to behave without that to either melt into or fight back against. Slides between wanting to destroy things in the hopes that it will please Ruin (or at least that it will give her a trait of her own to hold on to) and wanting to reintegrate into society and learn how to be a person again. It still amuses her to take other people off guard. Enjoys gardening and plants, but doesn't let go of this information easily - even subconsciously, that's something she's repressed for a long time. 

Concept: Recovering Inquisitor 

Motivation: Short-term - find something to do with herself and connect to regular people again; long-term - prove to Harmony that she can be trusted and left alone (she's hazy on what her life will actually look like after that, and is mostly focusing on it as an end goal - she'll need to figure out what she actually wants out of a life when she gets to have one again). OOC note: one long-term goal is to lose most or likely all of her spikes and live without them - this isn't a motivation of hers yet, but she'll get there. 

Merits: 

• Major: Functional Mistborn with Allomantic iron, steel, pewter, tin, bronze, and Atium Compounding (has none to burn - her atiumminds are embedded in her torso and can't be burned - it's for the age, allowing her to live so long on Scadrial) 
• Normal: Feruchemical gold, Feruchemical zinc, moderate fighting skills with axes 
• Minor: Feruchemical copper, Feruchemical bendalloy, some skill and training in botany (specializing in Scadrian - particularly anteverdant - species) 

Flaws: 

1. Due to being an Inquisitor, Marie deals with both chronic pain from her spikes and a form of chronic fatigue - she requires more rest than humans. She's fairly used to both of these by now, and can sometimes push through bad moments with pewter, but they do still affect her. 
2. Also due to being an Inquisitor, she can only see when she has steel or iron to burn and is otherwise blind; she also has some trouble distinguishing writing (particularly with graphite pencils) and anything without any metal in it. 
3. She can be taken control of through her spikes if you have the right powers - something which she may or may not actually resist; depending on the situation, she's just as likely to give in and let you. 
4. Marie has C-PTSD, which manifests as, among other things: emotional flashbacks ('typical' PTSD flashbacks are more rare, though she has had them before), poor emotional regulation, reluctance to trust others with information she deems personal, hypervigilance, nightmares, some toxic guilt over not resisting Ruin (though that's buried pretty deep and she wouldn't admit it without prodding), depression (though not suicidality), poor self-esteem in particular ways, low self-confidence in particular situations, dissociation (which she intentionally makes worse with use of copperminds and slowing her mental speed), and extreme mistrust and minor phobia of emotional Allomancers and anyone else with the ability to manipulate her mind or body. 

NPCs: Marie did not speak to her family after becoming an Inquisitor, and has no idea whether they survived the Catacendre or not. Even if they did, they wouldn't still be alive after the centuries she lived through. She misses them sometimes, but did most of her mourning back in the Final Empire when she was first spiked - she'd lost them long before the End of the Ash. 

Marie doesn't know anyone in the Alleyverse yet; her only remaining connection at this point is to Harmony, with whom she has a very rocky relationship - she accepts by now that his actions up to this point were in an effort to help her and protect others, but she (rightly) believes that he generally failed to improve her mental situation and instead traumatized her further. Though he isn't worse than Ruin, she still holds a lot of anger for him...but she also has to admit that he was right in wanting to protect others from her initially, and in recognizing what Ruin put her through as Bad, Actually. She doesn't like to contact him, but does often wonder if she should anyway - he's the only person who she knows, and the only person so far who understands (intellectually, if not through personal experience) what she has gone through up until now. 

Home Planet: Scadrial 

Current Residence: None yet. Marie also doesn't have any money; Harmony would have sent her with some, or let her stay with people he knows in the Alleycity, but she firmly turned him down on both offers. She'll figure something out by herself, she's sure! 

Backstory: Marie was a Seeker noblewoman whose father sent her to join the Steel Ministry out of religious devotion and lack of anything else to do with her, having married off her siblings already. After being turned into an Inquisitor, she spent most of her time scouting for The Lord Ruler, and after he died, Ruin sometimes sent her to keep an eye on areas where there were more metal - which was why she was too far away to summon to fight Vin. The involuntary spiking and change in life direction in the empire were bad, but they still didn't mentally prepare her for Ruin's arrival - to cope with the mass murder and loss of autonomy, she actively embraced the Shard and his control, accepting him as a god and his destruction as correct and good. 

When Ati died, Marie was in denial - she thought of Harmony as a thief of his power. She was determined to continue doing the only thing she thought was safe now: ruin. Sazed was obviously not okay with this and stopped her from murdering the recovering population of the Basin and causing mass destruction and chaos, but he was new to holding two Shards and did occasionally slip up, resulting in him clamping down harder afterward. In trying to help her heal and return to who she used to be, he would sometimes attempt to directly turn her thoughts away from violence, which only ever made her hate him more. 

After several attempts to help her recover on Scadrial, including talking to or traveling with other people and groups in the hopes of Marie regaining her humanity (and so Harmony didn't have to focus on her all the time, with Trell taking up an increasing amount of his own attention) they reached an accord. Marie had made some progress, namely in agreeing that she did actually want to try having a life beyond Ruin again - even if she hasn't fully accepted yet how he hurt her; that she didn't actually want to kill all of humanity and destroy all of Scadrial anymore (or other worlds, as she begins to learn about them); and in general accepting that there have been things she hasn't let herself think or care about because of her time under Ruin, but that they do exist (though she hasn't fully decided yet if it's safe to care about them now). 

Some decades before the events of Alloy of Law, Marie promised not to attack people if they didn't attack her or someone else first in exchange for Harmony promising not to mess with her thoughts, and they both decided it would be best if she, at least temporarily, left Scadrial. He can reach her in the Alleyverse, but only to send and receive thoughts; he can't control her actions or what she thinks about. 

Loose Ends: As if figuring out what she wants to do with her life and who she even is now - not the plant nerd noble lady, not Ruin's faithful Inquisitor, and not Harmony's faithful Inquisitor either. What's left? - wasn't enough, Marie is finding that going from constant supervision and forced social contact to not knowing anyone on the planet (and having a lot of people be intimidated just by her eyespikes) is...kind of lonely. So maybe she'll make some friends or something. You know, if she has to. 

Links: I'll probably create a playlist at some point for her, but until then, Bitter Water and Dear Wormwood should represent her mood pretty well. 

Art done by Star: 

I'll submit Deteca soon; figured I might as well get one character in and keep working on the other's sheet. If the other mods could take a look at Marie, it'd be appreciated  

Marie is Approved!

The wind pushed against Vivica's back as she sat at the mouth of the Alley, whipping her hair forward past her face. A few strands pulled free, torn away immediately with vengeful fingers. This realm did not like her lingering. Always, it insisted she leave, go. Move on. But she would not - not while she still had a job to do. And right now, that job was waiting.

So, she waited, thinking. Thinking about him, which was one of the only things that remained clear to her now. She spent a pleasant while doing so, kneeling by a slender Light Line and watching the lightning crackle deep within. Time passed as peacefully as it could in this place, and then she heard it: The distant snapping crash of lightning meeting lightning. Vivica's neck snapped around so fast she lost another piece of her cheek to the hungry wind. She smiled, standing. The Professor had left the Alleys again, and so Vivica had to go find him.

She set off down the street, passing a few glowing shapes of people, though few. Night again, then. The thought pleased Vivica, though it was always dark here, in the Cognitive Realm. But she had loved the night, and thinking about him striding through the dark streets of the living city made her smile. His city, his world. It was good that he was out in it, walking. Thinking. Baking, perhaps. It belonged to him, and soon he would remember that. That thought made Vivica smile even wider, and quicken her pace.

Running was rather impossible here. Perhaps that was because her legs had been mostly torn away by the wind, or perhaps it was simply because she was dead. Or maybe because she wasn't real. Vivica pondered these options as she moved, quickly as she could, through the city's many streets and alleyways. They were all rather fascinating; perhaps the Professor would know. Vivica craned her neck around a large building, trying to catch the next slamming crackle of his lightning meeting its opposite. Whatever was keeping this place going did not much like the Professor, either. Vivica frowned, her speed increasing even more. 

Impolite, terribly impolite, she thought, practically flying over the street now though she barely noticed. The wind tore at her again, and she bared what was left of her teeth at it. Not for herself - for him. How dare this place fight him, her Professor, her Nox? How could the world fight him, fight one so perfect? That thought drove her onward, moving faster, faster, until she could actually see the crackling feedback of light up ahead. 

Vivica slowed, rounding a final corner and shying back at the horde of painspren that gathered in the mouth of an Alley, snapping and screeching, fighting over access to whatever injured creature was on the other side in the Physical Realm. She peered around the corner again, cautious frown quickly turning into delight as she caught the figure of the Professor, dark tendrils coiling around gold-white wire through his perfect, translucent frame. Very suddenly, the tall figure of an Alethi woman popped into existence, still staring at some point in her chest. Vivica suspected she knew precisely what she had been looking at as she died.

"Storming bastard," the woman hissed, looking around with considerably less surprise than someone usually did after dying. She must be used to seeing the Cognitive Realm, then. An Elsecaller. Vivica blinked, impressed. Elsecallers were very difficult to catch.

"Hello," Vivica said, stepping out from behind the building. "The man who was entertaining you - did he have blonde hair? Green eyes? A very nice, white smile?"

The Elsecaller, frowned. "Stormfather, what happened to you?" Then she looked off toward some distant point, and let the wind drag her away.

Well, that was unhelpful. The painspren were beginning to depart, back to wherever it was they hid from the terrible wind. No one liked to linger here, it seemed. No one but Vivica. She stepped forward, watching her Professor neatly insert a new spike into a bindpoint. A smile returned to her face. Baking, as she'd thought. And then he spoke a word that called all that was left of her to quivering attention, a word that brought the barest echo of warmth to the deep places of her form and soul. 

"Vivica?" He spoke, peering between the Realms, looking for her. "Are you here?"

She stepped out fully from behind the alley wall, drawn like iron to the magnet of his voice, and smiled.

"Yes," she said simply, as the wind tugged at her hair. She could almost feel the joy radiating out of herself - she hoped he could feel it. "Of course I am here, Professor."

@Voidus

18 hours ago, 18th Shard said:

Resurrection is a thing in the cosmere. It just has to be a plausible post-mortem tea party. 

I stand corrected.

Also, for those who have not read back a page, we are actually discussing something important that we may implement. Please refer to this post: 

7 hours ago, Voidus said:

"To your questions then." The figure, Whisper Lita had called them, replied. "Yes, this is the Chapel that you recall. You have been here before, together. An errant strand of fate brought me here and I stayed that I may be of use. The world has been remade and all of us here with it. Many have broken through this facade already, despite efforts to keep all ignorant, more and more have broken free. The Forgery will not last long."

An ache began to grow in Lita's side as Whisper spoke, that familiar pain between the last two ribs on her right side, growing until it reached a sharpness unlike any she'd felt before. She winced, then felt herself curl inward, groaning, hand clutching the spot until she fell to her knees and saw stars pop before her eyes. Lita hissed breath in and out between clenched teeth as she braced herself on the powdery damp stone, listening to Whisper and pulling her hand away.

It came away wet, and red.

Lita stared at her hand for a moment, not quite sure what she was looking at until it dawned on her. It's blood. I'm bleeding. But from what?

Without even stopping to think, Lita took the fine point of her bayonet and cut a slit into the bodice of her dress, prying the fabric open until her fingers brushed something cold and hard. Metal, metal between her ribs. A spike? How did a spike just appear in her body?

Rain, and a voice like iron. A white smile stretched too wide on a dark face. Two choices offered, and then pain like fire, pain that flared so high and hard that it rounded the horseshoe bend to kiss the feet of pleasure.

Lita looked back to the figure in the water and slowly staggered to her feet, mind too muddled to feel any sort of genuine fear, especially not when half of her still wanted to step into the water and drown herself. She felt the weight of the copper bands on her arms suddenly, as though something within them was dragging at her. Something told her that tapping those memories all at once would be too overwhelming, would break her and leave her incapable of responding to what was happening. So she asked another question.

"What... what do I need to remember, right now, that will help me most?"

@Voidus

48 minutes ago, MacThorstenson said:

I would assume so, if there is an event that would affect causality for a large group of people I would think that it we would wait?

Sadly no post-mortem tea parties allowed

Greetings Alleyverse! The mod team has been kicking around the idea of shifting how threads are created next era, and after receiving initial positive feedback on Discord we thought to post it here.

The general idea is to create time-based threads instead of location-based threads. Obviously, some location threads will stay. Guild HQs, taverns/bars, or a specific time-bound event thread are all examples of location threads that would remain. But to increase the progression of time and prevent thread stalling, we are considering creating a master-thread for the first day of the new Era, and every time we do a time-skip, we create a new thread. This way, people who are moving faster can jump ahead, and those moving slower can remain in the older thread until they, too, can make it to the time-skip. This way if someone is taking a long time to respond in an RP scene, both players can effectively solve their problems. The scene in the past can remain and go at it’s slower pace, and the one in the time skip can progress as well. It will also make following along an actual, linear timeline much easier for those seeking to catch up on plot, and will also encourage more time to pass in-story each Era. 

We would love your feedback and questions on this idea, but it has met with enough initial support that we are excited about it!

Light. She needed light?

Stormlight you idiot, something whispered in her mind. Her own voice this time. Lita took her hand from Laurelai’s shoulder, fingers a bit loathe to part, and dug through her small bag before she found a few spheres at the bottom, diamond broams that she occasionally used for illumination. Lita pulled out three, holding them in her palm, outstretched.

It felt strange to follow the girl’s orders, but something told her that she wasn’t speaking entirely to Whisper - not anymore. The girl was in the water, but the Water was also in the girl. And Lita knew when to push back against power and when to relent. This was a time for the latter.

”Will this suffice?”

@Voidus

15 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Byron:

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Name: Byron

Appearance: A young boy of about 17 who's seen a lot for his "young" age. Light brown hair and brown eyes, about 5’3”. Wears a nondescript brown traveling cloak over some leather clothing for protection. Looks like most skaa, and has worked hard to be unnoticeable. 

Guild (or intended guild): None as of now, but looking for one.

Personality: Tends to be easygoing but anti-social. Prior MO was to briefly get to know people, steal from them, and vanish and flare cadmium in a well-hidden place. He doesn’t steel as much in the Alleyverse, but still has some kleptomaniac tendencies; particularly in the Alleyverse, he found Investiture made most needs easier to come by. He still has a habit of briefly getting to know most people without opening up about himself.

Concept: Byron is essentially a conglomeration of the WoBs about what a time-bubble savant would be capable of, and what that would do to a person.

Motivation (Short- & long- term goal): In the short term, Byron wants to find somewhere to belong, whether with one of the few people he’s met prior or with a new group or guild in the Alleyverse. He’s had some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, and wants to try and avoid that.

In the long term, Byron wants to find out how much he’s using cadmium or how much it’s damaging him over helping him. In a stable environment, being slower is not as helpful as he’d thought, but he’s finding it almost impossible to stop.

Merits:

• Minor:
  • Somewhat skilled as a thief.
  • Somewhat skilled knife fighter.
  • Quite perceptive when up close.
• Normal:
  • Very agile/has very fast reflexes.
  • Resourceful; good at cobbling together quick ideas and at getting people to help in situations he needs them to.    
• Major:
  • A-Cadmium Savant.
    • Can change his time bubble from between 2x slower and 128x slower speed, although any increase in time compression needs to be ramped up over a relative amount of time. This also increases deflections. With focus, he can change the time bubble to be only 1.2x slower.
    • Can change his time bubble from about a 1-meter radius to an 8-meter radius.
    • Can carry his time bubble along with him, or lock it in place as normal.
    • Can feel the deflections of objects entering/exiting his bubble, basically sensing when something enters or exits and its approximate size/momentum, or if something meets the bubble as it moves.
    • Ages somewhat slowly even relative to his own timeframe.

Flaws:

• Savant weaknesses.
  • Must burn cadmium if any is in his system, and gets cravings.
  • Is jarred whenever something is deflected by his bubble. Anything small is counterbalanced, but leads to Byron being unable to move correctly when outside of a bubble with nothing to counterbalance. Larger objects with more momentum can forcibly move him.
  • Has difficulty seeing / paying attention to anything distant, even besides the impact his bubble has – some parts of his brain block out distant events.
  • Any aluminum inside his bubble exists as if it was at normal time, meaning its momentum within the bubble is essentially multiplied by however much time is slowed. While this can be manipulated to an advantage, practically it makes it too difficult for Byron to carry aluminum constantly and makes aluminum weapons much more dangerous to everyone.
• Has an overwhelming self-preservation instinct, which gives him issues with being loyal in times of danger and in leaving himself too vulnerable to anyone.    

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Family is long dead from old age, although Byron sometimes wonders how many distant relatives he’d have on Scadrial. Knows a few PCs such as Aln, and has interacted with a few more (Victoria, Vivica, and unnervingly Sanax, and likely will know some NPCs at the Hospital. However, almost all of these were from the Forgery which may leave him mostly on a blank slate.

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: Alleycity, the slums.

Backstory: Byron was born on Scadrial soon after the Catacendre, and soon Snapped with his new Cadmium powers, which no one seemed to understand. He had friends with some of the other Mistings of his generation (namely Cassie), but didn't fit in very well. Along Cassie and a few others he worldhopped to Roshar, to try and understand his abilities and to adventure on their own. Cassie helped him with cadmium creation, but after his own tendency for theft got him in trouble with a local Shardbearer, Byron hyper-flared for the first time, skipping over years within about a week. He found Cassie had left Roshar after leaving him enough cadmium to last a lifetime, but Byron had found out just how useful being a Pulser when pursued by people could be. Over the next few hundred years Byron stole, met people, and saw different places in Roshar, only to burn cadmium and skip a few months when things went wrong, and eventually he burned enough to begin breaking some of the few limits he’d found. And yet, he still had no idea what he could do, and found cadmium harder and harder to come across. He came to the Alleyverse in search of more cadmium and understanding, and perhaps somewhere where his own oddities would fit in.

Byron entered the Alleyverse during the world’s Forgery, which had some interesting results. He found that Cassandra was indeed in the Alleyverse, but much older thanks to his time dialation. He also met a few other people, like Aln, Folorian, and Emily, but mostly stayed disconnected, particularly when he was attacked by an unknown entity and essentially froze himself in time as a defense. Byron eventually went to the Einladung Hospital in a paralyzed state, and once recovered (and largely out of cadmium) Byron stayed to learn more about his savantism in a more controlled setting. But that didn’t last, as the draw of adventure and the powers he held drew him out.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Byron has some difficulty connecting (and Connecting) to people, both from a life spent stealing and hiding and from his savantism both making him view things relative to himself. But coming into the Alleyverse has given him several people, strange like himself, that he can connect to.

Byron also has yet to reconnect with Cassie, as they left on relatively unknown terms; Byron knows Cassie is in the Alleyverse, but isn’t sure how understanding he is of their parting.

Links: TBD

 

So Byron needs some work. Both in powerset and in personality, because I don't know enough about science to extrapolate what ramifications his powers would have, and an antisocial runaway in group RP tends to not go well. So any and all advice is welcome, whether about his abilities and how powerful/limited they should be or how to make a character start interacting more.

So, as you’ve said Byron is a bit hard to easily fit into a group setting but not impossible. What you need is either an obligation or a need on his part to force him into regular company, since personal desire isn’t going to inspire him to seek out others. Naturally you could play the Vin angle here - he wants something from someone, they have it, he’ll stay as long as he needs to get it but ends up growing fond of them before he decides to leave.
 

You could also do some sort of debt situation. He likes to steal? Well perhaps he stole from the wrong person this time. Oh dear, now he has to work off a debt to some dangerous folk and spend time with them, etc.

Lita heard the water even before she saw the light - blue light, cool and soft, that shimmered over natural stone. But that sound - the sound was what woke her memory first.

Laurelai had stepped ahead of her, but Lita did not mind for the moment. A picture had painted itself over her eyes, that half-remembered vision now sharpening into something crystal clear. Blue light, and falling water. The smell of wet stone, and soft powdery dust beneath her heel. Yes, this was the place. She stepped closer.

Closer.

The Alley widened out at its end to accommodate the waterfall. Lita knew to expect the waterfall before she even saw it, the glowing cascade of water falling from an impossible height to splash softly into the pool below. It would be so easy to simply step in, to push past Laurelai and the Fox creature and tip her face up into the water, to open her mouth and drink it forever, the sweet endless answer to all her questions. Abandon. Completion. She needed to -

Someone was already in the water.

Lita stopped, her arm shooting out to grip Laurelai’s shoulder, fingers pressing into the silk of her dress with enough pressure to hurt. That was out-of-character for Lita, but something told her that only pain would stop the blonde from continuing forward. 

“Laurelai.” Lita hissed, not looking at her, all attention focused on the little figure beneath the water. A familiar figure, one that had been missing for weeks now, waif-like and soaked in glowing blue, eyes wide as saucer plates - wide and terrible. It was Whisper.

Lita knew she should have asked if the girl was alright, if she needed help. Should have asked anything besides the question that tumbled from her lips. But the time for propriety had ended. Now was the time for answers.

”What are you doing in the Chapel, Whisper?”

@Voidus @kenod

5 hours ago, Ashbringer said:

Kalten:

  Reveal hidden contents

Name: Kalten Winterheart

Appearance: A 24-year-old slightly tanned Southern Scadrian man, about 5’ 10” tall, with sky, almost neon-blue eyes and short cut black hair. Wears a warm bottle-green suit while working, but no tie. Wears a gray half-mask (covering forehead, eyes, cheekbones, and curling down to about the ears, but not covering his mouth) on most days, but feels comfortable taking it off.

Guild: Dark Alley, Head of Public Relations

Personality: Excellent at putting on a false face, but also knows – especially among fellow manipulators – that sometimes honesty is the best policy. Tends to be cheerful, and doesn’t hide his emotions when it won’t hurt to do so, and doesn’t lie too often. Loves negotiating and a social puzzle. Treads carefully around other DA Heads with more experience.

Concept: Kalten is a bit of a new force into the DA power structure, another one of several short-lived Heads of the Public Relations Department. Whether he’ll make a social blunder and wind up annihilated from all existence or rise to being a true equal to the other Heads remains to be seen…

Motivation (Short- & long- term goal): Short-term, he wants to clean up the Alleyplanet as much as he can, and help ensure the Dark Alley is… correctly portrayed as it reenters the major public sphere. He also wants to cement himself in the Dark Alley Department Heads, which involves a lot of paperwork from making up from the former DA Head who disintegrated themselves. Long-term, Kalten wants to investigate more of the stranger resources that he has access to as a DA Department Head, and potentially become more of a demigod of his own.

Merits:

• Minor:
  • Emotional-Sensing Fabrial pocket watch (doesn’t work in a Coppercloud).
  • Natural Allomantic Copper.
  • Minor physical combat training, in particular applying small Hemalurgic spikes.
• Normal:
  • Enhanced memory from Copper Hemalurgy.
  • General scholarship about history and many other topics.
• Major:
  • Master social manipulator.
  • Master knowledge of mental Investitures, in particular copper Hemalurgy.
  • DA Department Head (Public Relations).

Flaws: Hates being externally dependent. Kalten loves to ensure things are done, and he always wants to make sure they’re done personally or by someone under his direct command, in a way that he can both understand and have control over. This doesn’t manifest as disloyalty or solitude, usually, but he doesn’t like needing other people or powers that he doesn’t know – such as the nigh-deific abilities of some of the other DA Heads.

Slightly fractured memory. Kalten has developed a habit of burning Copper Hemalurgic spikes in order to absorb the memories that he or his underlings have collected. However, between this, the major shift in his history from the Forgery, and a few things he’s placed in metalminds, Kalten’s memory has moved from being near-photographic to having several memories that he’s not sure if they’re his own, and several memories he knows he should have but are missing.

Family: Mother is (somehow) still alive, living in retirement on Scadrial and sometimes visiting Taldain or the Alleyplanet, and writes sometimes although Kalten never really explained his job to her. Father died, but his death was overwritten during the Forgery, and Kalten isn’t sure if that has been undone or not.

Home Planet: Alleyplanet, but mostly Southern Scadrian heritage

Backstory: Kalten Winterheart was born in the Alleycity to a Homeless, DA-aligned father and a Southern Scadrian mother, taking mostly after his mother but inheriting his father’s Rosharan-descended light blue eyes. When he was about 5 years old, his father died during the Seven Day War, and he was raised in the City by his mother, learning more of the Southern Scadrian lifestyle and wearing his first mask a bit more often. However, as a teenager, someone recruited Kalten into the DA to follow his father’s path, and found a natural inclination to manipulate people and get people to like him, both to get him coffee when runners would bring some to the higher-ups and to help cover up the accidental release of a hyperintelligent nightmaw into the Alleycity. (Don’t remember that? Well, Kalten did a good job smoothing things over, didn’t he?)

Kalten shot up the ranks of the Public Relations department, but only to a point due to his relative experience and Investiture. But he was relatively willing to work about 2 steps under the current DAPR Head, Delsin, so long as he was given some autonomy in how he worked. His mother retired and began travelling back to Scadrial and to warmer planets, aware Kalten had gotten a position at the DA but somewhat unknowing of the implications.

Then the Forgery occurred, and the Public Relations department was mostly a subset of Counterintelligence designed to keep the DA unknown to the city at large. In this reality, Kalten worked as a relatively low-level locater of Hemalurgic activity in the Alleycity. He also had a living father, and while he was distanced from the DA after a near-death experience, he also knew and appreciated Kalten’s work.

After the Forgery was removed, the PR Department was in shambles due to many coworkers returning to their Forged positions and the general chaos involved from reality shifts. This was only exasperated by Delsin managing to disintegrate themselves in a non-R&D-sanctioned science experiment about a week later. Of the remaining Denizens, Kalten was chosen to become the new Department Head, ostensibly because his experience in dealing with memories and his innate skill, but more because he won an internal vote of “least likely to be annihilated by Voidus”. So far Kalten has survived at least one meeting involving the near-deific set of Department Heads (and came out with a potentially threatening bottle of wine he still hasn’t opened), but as a Department Head himself, Kalten has much to do.

Loose Ends: Kalten knows he once had a metalmind containing a secret, something he currently believes to be a perfect or near-perfect copy of his own methods of copper Hemalurgy. At some point around the start of the Forgery, he lost it, along with almost all memory of what he’d done with it, and now wants it back. He also doesn’t know if his father is alive or dead, and isn’t sure he wants to know.

Links: TBD

 

(Older OP Character things):

Intended Threat Level: Kalten is not a physical threat on his own (unless he can quickly and precisely apply Copper Spikes that alter an attacker’s understanding of the situation), but a guild-level threat in his ability to manipulate public perception against his enemies.

Benefit (What do other players get out of this character?): Someone powerful within the DA, but not necessarily someone who knows how best to use that power.

Foible (Why haven't they taken over the world yet?): Anything involving altering memories in the wake of the Forgery cannot be botched, as the DA being found altering memories again would be sure to go poorly for him. That and Kalten is more about maintaining a balance than actually conquering the world with words, and the other DA Departments are a large check on his ability to do that.

Modus Operandi (How do they fight / scheme? What is their plan?): Actual physical fighting is to be avoided, but if forced, Kalten likes to try and quickly implant and remove needle-like slivers of copper into an opponent, stealing a split second of memory from whatever had just happened. This isn’t enough to change a person’s real actions, but is intended to be disorienting and to buy time for Kalten to escape or help to arrive, and perhaps later get a fragment of the attacker’s mindset. Landing these spikes can be difficult on a well-trained fighter, though.

Kalton’s much better in the social sphere, where he works to shape the “public” perception of various events related to both the Forgery and the DA, in particular attempting to connect the DA more to returning reality to as it should be and the original Forgery being a rogue event from a Stranger, and that the DA returning has benefits to prevent this from happening again. He doesn’t go too heavy-handed with these, though, relying more on mundane persuasion for these overarching ideas (i.e. not trying to change the mind of any specific character) and saving overwhelming alterations to memory and emotion for when the DA wants something kept under wraps.

Lastly, Kalton likes to burn copper, particularly to gain the memories in sealed spikes or metalminds – either after he has them unsealed to gain their contents, or before to destroy them once and for all.

Cassie:

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Name: Cassandra “Cassie” Adama

Appearance: A short woman in her 40's-ish with a regal bearing, tends to wear lavender and bronze dresses with a lot of pockets and a long sleeve ending in a glove over her safehand (and Ghostblood tattoo). Her skin is rigid and bronzed, flexible in some places and not in others, with crystalline amethyst eyes and somewhat darker metallic hair.

Guild (or intended guild): Ghostblood or Ghostblood-affiliated

Personality: Cassie tends to be distant from most people, and act at people how they act. She also tends to be incredibly stubborn, but loyal. Otherwise, she's peaceable (if cold) to neutral parties and innocents; and reacts to kindness and aggression in kind (although she's liable to escalate greatly).

Thanks to her savantism, she sometimes acts a lot like the metals she creates: stubborn and only flexible in the right conditions, but strong-willed. She also tends to minorly modify the metal that makes up her body, whether for function or aesthetics (ie creating a pocket to store Iron to burn, slightly changing the color, etc), and sometimes mixes up what aspects of her are normal to living things or not.

Concept: Combining Soulcasting with the knowledge of metallurgy today.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): In the short term, Cassie is dealing with the rewriting of the world and her own physical change, trying to ensure that what she’s become is permanent and if there are any ways to continue to optimize her own self. She also wants to finally join the Ghostbloods, to make good her debt of life and to learn a bit more about Investiture as a whole, and perhaps access the knowledge that explains what she has become. However Cassie’s first priority is ensuring the Metallurgic Emporium is safe, and ensuring she can be helpful in the reconstruction process.

In the long term, Cassie has an interest in the God Metals. While she knows – mostly – that she would never be able to Soulcast a God Metal, she is quite interested in their actual physical properties and would love to get her hands on some.

Merits:

• Minor:
  • Blacksmithing and sales skills
  • Some practice with knife and Lurcher combat
  • Knows most metals very well (modern-Earth level, although Cassie still doesn’t understand anything radioactive).
• Normal:
  • A-Iron / Lurcher
  • Foil Soulcaster savant with advanced metallurgic knowledge
• Major:
  • An animated metallic body that requires Stormlight or other Investiture to maintain, but also removes the need for food, water, and air, and acts like a mirror to Shardplate (although with some differences: is supernaturally and naturally resistant to physical damage, but will only partially resist Shardblades, will bend and dent instead of crack, must be actively repaired via her Soulcaster, and grants little enhanced strength and no enhanced speed).

Flaws: Cassie’s metallic body loses a lot of speed and dexterity. Any quick movements (such as fighting with daggers) will be imprecise, while any activity that must be done with great dexterity will take about twice as long. Cassie also cannot run, only walk up to a brisk pace. If she were to ever run out of Investiture, she’d essentially freeze as a statue until she somehow gets more.

Cassie is also incredibly vengeful, having lived eye for an eye for a long time. She will hold a grudge for a long time, and while not incredibly deceptive, is not above waiting for a moment of weakness to extract revenge. She also has a habit of escalating confrontations instead of trying to calm things. While Cassie is also very kind and will aid those who respect and are kind to her and others, this is often much more fleeting.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Has a friendly relationship with NullBlade, some dealings with other shopkeepers, and acts kindly to anyone who returns the favor. Many interactions with both Rosharan and Alleyverse Ghostbloods even if Cassie doesn’t become a full member. Family is back home on Scadrial, and she sends letters on occasion. Has Poller (an NPC, at least in this era) as an assistant to run the Emporium when Cassie is absent. Has a former relationship with Byron, but has yet to reconnect.

Home Planet: Scadrial

Current Residence: The Metallurgic Emporium

Backstory: Cassie was born as a noble on Scadrial just before the fall of the Empire and the Catecendre, originally Snapped by the mists as a child. She helped rebuild Scadrial, but never really fit in, so she first moved to the edges of the Elendel Basin, and eventually worldhopped to Roshar alongside Byron and procured herself a Soulcaster from an ardent who didn't take kindly to her. She decided to settle down somewhere and set up a Soulcasting shop, and chose the Alleyverse. She now sells Allomantic metals to whomever asks and acts kindly, but is getting worried about the progression of her savanthood and somewhat yearns for the adventures she had in her youth.

In the Alleyverse, she started a business deal with a trader named Lord, who's first order of business was a large order of Hemalurgic Spikes, which Cassie created with some regret. When other forces - including the Ghostbloods who Cassie had contacted - expressed interest in removing the threat, Cassie obliged to help. However, the ensuing battle greatly strained her savantism, to the point she discovered most of her body was metal.

Cassie then spent most of her time researching ways to continue her own existence, eventually negotiating with the Ghostbloods to turn over the Hemalurgic Spikes that she recovered from Lord’s Trader’s Haven in exchange for information on persisting as a spirit. Eventually, using a mixture of the rewriting of the Forgery, the Ghostbloods’ plans, and a series of perfected gemstones, Cassie managed to trap her own soul within her now-fully-metal animated body. She just hopes it will stay that way.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): Cassie still isn’t entirely sure what she’s capable of, and while she says that she’s defeated her changing body, internally she wonders if more damage can be done. She also wants to help those who have aided her, namely NullBlade and the Ghostbloods. Lastly, she wants to find Byron again. They both know that they’re in the Alleycity together, but it’s been decades for Cassie and centuries for Byron, and both aren’t entirely sure how they’ll react to meeting again.

Links (Eg. Theme song, a spotify playlist, a pinterest mood board): TBD

 

Putting Byron into Character Discussion a bit later, because I need him to get looked at a bit more before he actually gets approved / am not even sure I'm using him this era.

Approved and approved! Look wonderful!

Quote

Quote

DA thread sounds good for the next post, which I assume will be kenod.

 

Bennington drifted a few feet from Nox, testing the thread that connected them. The Lonely God had taken back Knowledge, and Bennington could see him sorting and filing it away. Now was not the time for another drink - not yet. It would undo this cold efficiency, and Nox needed that efficiency if he were to start properly dismantling this false world.

"You are a good friend Bennington." Nox said, with the hint of a smile.

Bennington paused, then did a silent loop of assent. That was the sort of thing Vivica would say, which made sense. He had Vivica's madness, after all. Bennington did not understand the concept of friendship, though he suspected that Nox might not actually consider him a good friend if he knew the entirety of what Bennington was doing to his mind. That was alright though. It pleased him in a very small, abstract way to know he was appreciated.

He was increasingly eager once Nox mentioned the Elsecaller. That Inkspren would be a tasty meal, if he could catch it. Spren were some of the more delicious things available to eat in this realm, outside the minds of mortals - especially Invested mortals. Nothing quite compared to that. But a nice spren was a close second, and here Nox was, already formulating a plan to lure the proud Radiant into an Alley. So accommodating. No wonder Vivica had been so fond of him.

"Bennington would you like to join me for some more baking?"

Bennington gave another loop of agreement, this time far more enthusiastic. His body bled from violet to indigo, his shape lengthening out, tentacles growing sharper and more indistinct - possibly more numerous, out of the corner of the eye. He was ready to assist in catching this mortal and their cognitive pet. Nox would get his frosting, and his spike. And Bennington would get dessert as well.

@Voidus

There really is no one more highly qualified.

2 minutes ago, Grey Knight said:

For organic augmentation, I was thinking it would be an alternative pewter, so to speak. A minor strength and speed boost to himself, maybe to others? Only if he's concentrating on it, though.

As for long range, I was mostly just thinking of "within normal eyesight". And he doesn't have very good eyes

Alright cool, I will take this back to Mod HQ and we shall let you know if we need anything more from you. Again thanks for being so willing to work with us it’s really setting an awesome precedent for the era 

20 minutes ago, Grey Knight said:

I agree with basically everything you just said. You've perfectly captured what I was planning on having for the minor talents, and I totally agree that the head-popping is a big deal. In my mind, it would take a solid 30 seconds of very obvious concentration and channeling, that if interrupted would immediately reset the process. It's also immensely taxing-- as I said, he can only do it a couple times before needing a good deal of time to rest. It also really hurts him to do.

Awesome! I would say that I’d want a decision on just how you’d classify organic augmentation (using it as alternative tin or as a minor healing boon) as well as a range of the telekinesis power. “Long range” can mean a lot of things. Then we can do a full review and get back to you, since Voidus knows most about Epic type abilities!

2 hours ago, Grey Knight said:

Fair enough, I'll change the character. Fortunately, I did some sleep-deprived thinking and realized that I can change Mr. Poot into an Epic with basically no significant re-writes needed. In fact, it actually works a bit better this way.

This made me chuckle a little bit, not going to lie.

 

Anyway, here's the new character!

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Name: Rik Poot, Wizard 3rd rate

Appearance: Just an ugly little rat of a man. Short, with a long nose and bald head. Has a thick black beard that he obsessively braids and cares for. Young, despite his looks.

Guild (or intended guild): None. Potentially Ghostbloods.

Personality: Rik Poot has surprisingly developed mental resiliency, coping mechanisms, and social skills for an Epic. He simply chooses not to use them. He is erratic and eccentric, and annoyingly stubborn. For better or worse, he will not deviate from a path he has chosen.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): Rik Poot is not native to the Alleyverse. Given the choice, he would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he has found himself bound to the second-rate Epic known as Balrog, an eldritch horror hell-bent on expanding his personal power. Multiple kill-switches have been embedded in his body after a series of invasive surgeries performed by Balrog. His short-term goal, then, is his captor's mission of joining the Ghostbloods. Doing so will let him survive for a little while longer. His long-term goal is to escape his captor's grasp and finally find freedom.

Merits: Poot's Epic powers grant him what looks like actual wizardry.  Unfortunately, he's terrible at most of these powers. He's capable of only the most rudimentary telepathy and pyromancy, and can barely manage organic manipulation (all minor merits). Where he truly shines is in his telekinetic abilities (Major merit). He can crush enemies' heads at a distance, create blasts of concussive force, and deftly manipulate minute objects. A lifetime of combat has also given him proficiency in swordsmanship, and his rough upbringing have given him an unusually tough constitution (normal merits).

Flaws: Over-use of Poot's powers will straight-up explode his head. As such, he needs time between powerful attacks to rest and decrease his Perils level. He can do 3 powerful attacks before needing about 30 seconds to recharge. His Epic weakness is a nasty one, too-- he's terrified of anything demonic or eldritch horror-y. Even being around such things will shut down his powers. Rik is also stubbornly fickle and distrustful of authority to the point of active detriment to his mission.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): Other members of the small warband of traveling Epics, along with the hated leader.

Backstory: As earlier stated, Rik would rather be anywhere else in the universe. Unfortunately, he fell into the grasp of an extremely powerful Epic that hard-countered all of Rik's abilities. This Balrog then decided to travel the multiverse with its warband of lesser Epics (all forced into servitude or insane enough to willingly serve a demon). The band has ended up in the Alleyverse, and Balrog has decided to make itself a local powerhouse by joining the Ghostbloods.

Home Planet: Earth, somewhere in Holland

Loose ends: The kill-switch in his brain, and his current state of captivity

 

Thanks for being so willing to re-work this!  We really appreciate it. Obviously we have some questions about the strength of each merit in a more specific capacity. To have telephathy, pyromancy and organic manipulation as minor merits, they would be relatively minor in capacity. Here is what I would consider a minor merit version of each, for a hypothetical:

Telepathy: A sense of heightened empathy, skill reading another person’s emotions, something akin to tapping a low level of Connection.

Pyromancy: Snuffing/lighting candles, evading fire when it’s brandished at you, minor fireproofing of a limb or piece of clothing like a cloak.

Organic augmentation: Healing a minor wound or burn, regrowing hair/nails, possible augmentation of senses if the other options for this were not taken (basically using this ability like A-tin)

It should be obvious to you that long range head exploding is a very high level major merit so I want to make sure I understand it. I would count this as an OP powerset but that’s just me, and it doesn’t mean your character is rejected. But I do think that perhaps this specific power should come with either a set lead-up time or a very high personal cost so people can have the ability to run away or so your character can weigh pros and cons with each use. That way people won’t be too hesitant to interact with you (there is a reason people aren’t lining up to RP with IC Mac or Voidus, they can kill you so fast it’s a big risk). Thoughts?

Protect Emily at all costs :3

Vivica will definitely apologize to her at some point for killing herself and making Emily find her body. It will be very weird but Vivica will make a cake.

15 hours ago, MacThorstenson said:

Mac Thorstenson:

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Name: Mac Thorstenson

Appearance: Looks to be in his late 30's early 40's, solidly built. Always in a black suit or overcoat with his bowler hat and mustache.

Guild (or intended guild): DA

Personality: Very controlling and calm, prone to outbursts of anger if things get too bad, but he prides himself on being levelheaded and in control. If he wasn't so powerful and terrifying, some could call his workplace antics goofy.

Concept: A Gentleman Hemalurgist.

Motivation (Short & long term goal): Long term is to become immortal and unkillable, to obtain control over even death. Short term is to protect the city as a whole and keep it and its institutions alive.

Boons:

Major Boons: Hemalurgy, Alleymatics, DA Department head.

Normal Boons: Adept at intimidation and all sorts of torture techniques, proficient in most history and fairly knowledgeable about who's who and whats what. He won't make anything groundbreaking like the stranger, but chances are he could hold a conversation with most people in their fields.

Minor Boons: Constantly pumping connection. Baking. Voidmaking.

Banes: He views is word as law, he won't break it. Believes that the greatest power comes through restraint and control, yet he constantly struggles between asserting his power and using restraint. He's aware on some level that the DA is not good, and that the means that he has used to cheat death and get to where he is often come at the expense of the city and those around him. His love for immortals and long lasting institutions and the comfort that stability brings often clashes with the fact that for him to continue surviving, they may have to die. The city can't thrive while the DA is there, yet he can't survive without hemalurgy and the power he gets from the DA.

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends): His parents are long dead, Voidus is someone he would count as a friend/collegue/boss person. Stranger was formerly a role model and idol of his, now less so.

Home Planet: Scadrial, pre the lord ruler.

Backstory: Grew up before the lord ruler, didn't have a particularly good relationship with his parents. Left to find power in the dark alleys, only returned to kill them and make sure nothing else got the pleasure of removing them from the physical realm. He joined the alleys, and slowly rose the ranks, learning a little about everything while becoming particularly knowledgeable about big stick diplomacy. Was fascinated and loved the alleys for a long time, and uses them as his biggest stick. Its hard to push back against them when he holds a meteor over your continent after all. His big break came when a Hemalurgic Beaver escaped containment and destroyed a planet. He spun the escape as a test of its destructive capabilities, and claimed credit for the invention, using that to rise into the upper echelons of management, eventually becoming the Department of Counter Intelligence head due to his penchant for getting results. After an extended lunch break, he has now returned to the alleys as the head of Alleymatics.

Loose ends (What is unfinished in their life?): The city, which has been about the only constant in his life, is constantly struggling ever since it became the focus of an RP devoted solely to causing and then averting apocalypses. Also there are now several alleys of hyper intelligent penguins that are a constant pain in his butt. They need to be dealt with but at this point Mac's not sure if its possible to stop them.

On a more serious note, he still needs to mend his relationship with Voidus after the barrier incident, as well as enable the city to protect itself should a rogue member of the DA ever attempt to forge it again.

Ives Melancthon

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Name: Ives Melancthon

Appearance: Lots of eyes on his body. He needed to see more, so he got more eyes. Dark brown hair, in a terrible, ragged haircut. A bit taller than average, about 6’3’’ in freedom units. 

Inspired heavily by the Yahar'gul armor set in Bloodborne, he constantly wears his covered hood up, covering a grinning metal facemask that he rarely takes off. When he looks in different directions, one can see the metal eyes of the facemask move as well, as they are secured to his eyes by small pins. 

When he removes his gloves and rolls up his sleeves and pants, one sees several dozen eyes surgically installed on his arms, hands, feet, and legs. Many of them are whited out, as if blind, for they do not see into this realm. 

When he pulls his hood down, his mask isn’t held on with any visible connections, and his hair seems to not be blended well, upon closer inspection it is revealed that his skull holds several other eyes, though these ones appear to be pointing into his head.

In the cognitive realm, he looks like several conjoined twins that have been surgically attached to one another. They share the same brain but the other bodies float listlessly at the side, their only purpose being to provide them sight.

Guild (or intended guild): DA

Personality: Eccentric, and a bit mad. Sarcastic and a bit rude, but willing to work with people because it helps him better understand connection. Attempts to isolate himself from everything so that he doesn’t end up forming more Connections than necessary. Yet his current goal involves learning about how connection forms, and he seems to be willing, in small amounts, to go outside and document changes to his spirit web while he does so. Seems to be very very surprisingly logical but progressing toward nonsensical and self destructive goals. Has an odd thing for eyes. Writes down most things and people he interacts with beyond passing. 

Concept: A hunter/scholar from bloodborne.

Motivation: Long term his goal is to be an eldritch god, short term his goal is to meet some people and study how Connection forms.

Boons:

Major Boon: Very skilled fighter in multiple types of non invested combat.

Normal Boon: Skilled surgeon. Can see on multiple realms with focus. The cognitive with ease, and then connections in the spiritual realm with some difficulty. He doesn’t particularly care for seeing the future, and, unless he’s about to perform an operation on himself, he won’t ever look into it unless mind controlled (unless his is being forced to). 

Minor Boons: Intelligent, a scholar of eldritch knowledge, and a weak hemalurgist.

Equipment: Spikes, swords, guns. Nothing particularly magical in terms of weaponry. His metal facemask pierces his skin, so it cannot be easily removed.

Flaws: 
Routinely meddles with things that people definitely shouldn’t meddle with, risking death and dismemberment. Makes terrible decisions most days, has a sense of self preservation but is remarkably single minded toward accomplishing his goals. He works logically to achieve quite insane goals that are potentially incredibly destructive toward himself.
Mentally he is quite broken, certainly less mentally stable then a koloss. 

NPCs (Eg. Family and Friends):  A wife, and two kids, had initially for the social pressure, but later on they became valuable tools for understanding the spirit web and how it formed connections. They didn’t last particularly long.

Home Planet: The Alleyverse

Backstory:
Formerly a great doctor, a surgeon to be precise. He saw how malleable the human body was and loved the control he was able to exert on it. Eventually after getting kicked out of the medical field for malpractice, he found his way into the alley’s and joined up with the one group that really likes former medical professionals. 
He became fascinated with the eldritch when he stared into the void one day. Unlike most, who’s minds are broken and destroyed by staring into the void, he didn’t feel any different. Immediately he took the perfectly rational step of dropping everything and trying to become an eldritch god. He swears he saw something in there. Perhaps it was a tentacle, a sinew, or an eye, but he became fixated on it.
Now he sits in his forgotten clocktower located deep in the alleys. He stares into the void, gazing and longing for any sign of movement of motion, when he finds it, he writes it down instantly. He believes them to be eldritch gods, long forgotten by the world, and he seeks to join them.
When he’s not gazing into the void, he spends his days and nights experimenting on and analyzing the beasts and abominations found in the alleys. If he can learn about their natures, and how their spiritweb is intertwined with their physical form, he can learn more about himself, and how to ascend.
When he finds some truth, some step he can take to move him closer to the right place, he takes it instantly. I.E. When he found out he could use more eyes to see better, he started throwing them everywhere on himself, even putting them inside his skull, in hopes that he could observe himself. 

 

Both approved! 

16 minutes ago, The Unknown Novel said:

I am aware, I wanted to know where his abilities applied for merits and such, as his copper is pretty wonky.

No problem! Just wanted to make you aware to avoid any confusion down the road  

9 minutes ago, Grey Knight said:

Two questions:

1. Where can I find the new character building guidelines?

2. I'm going to use some elements of Warhammer 40k lore to create my character. This isn't actually a question, I'm just claiming seniority rights to excuse my eccentricities .

You can find the new guidelines in the new Era 6 Character thread. We have decided to start grouping character approval by era to avoid giant threads that are hard to edit and reference both for mods and players.