Lord Joyde The Madman: Heylo, everybody! How are you all doing?

Hey ho!

Lezz go!

I may have been replaying Prototype 2. Its the game that started all of this.

My imaginary worlds.. all of them wouldn't exist if it wasn't for that game.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

The Following Night... - The City Of Sorcierre (Underbelly) - Alice's Point Of View...

"Are you sure that it is safe to come here, mistress?" Alex blurted out as he stopped the carriage right in front of a certain alley. A deep, dark and endlessly black alley stuck between a tavern and an alchemists shop. A gate into the undercity of Sorcierre where all the filth gathers and festers.

I shook my head in negative."No... Not at all, but my weakness to dark magic is something I cannot allow an enemy to exploit. And nobles are all too happy to hire even the blackest of evils should it get the job done. I must be prepared."

"I see... well, good luck then, milady." He bowed his head and went inside of the carriage, most likely for a nap. I pushed a whole bunch of pilfered books into my academy bag and walked out of the carriage and into the alley. Moving swiftly through the thick darkness, I found myself face to face with an annoyed guardsman."A'h, wot do we 'ave 'ere, ey?"

I bit down my disgust at the half-dressed thugs level of speech and merely recalled my knowledge of banditry. In these kinds of situations, when a complete idiot stands in your way, the best way of dealing with the situation is to be panicked and as honest as possible."A trader. I've got school books to sell, but enough of that, name your price old man!"

He blinked in confusion, taking a moment to comprehend my words and I didn't dare interrupt him as he rubbed his chin in thought."Books, yah say? Yer mum or pap musta sent you 'ere wit qvoite the bit of 'ash den, roight?"

"Yes, yes! Just say the amount! I need to go quick before the bloody guards catch on." He nodded, fully falling for my bullshit lies."Avroight, I's gunna letcha in for says... twenth silver?"

Funny how he managed to say silver correctly. Now boys and girls, the trick here is not to hand out the number of coin as quickly as possible, but to silently stare in horror at the man."... oys, dun look a' me loik dat, girlie."

"I don't have that much..." Another lie as the idiot sighs in an almost knowing and understanding manner."Aye, I's know. Me's just testin' ya, little lady. Two silvers, dat good?"

A blink and a nod."Thank you, sir!" The finisher is, as one may expect, a bright and happy smile while handing over the amount of coin and rushing through the door behind him." 'ave 'un in dere, lil gurl." He waved me goodbye as he opened the door.

And with that, I was in. Now what?"Guess I might as well look around."

Dropping my stupidly innocent charade, I straighten my posture, adopt a cruel look in my eyes, re-tie my white hair into a ponytail and put Luctus on. Some of my unwanted public promptly decided to piss off just from seeing that. Sadly, some idiots still remained in the shadows. Although, there was something familiar about the shapes of the dark figures.

Shaking my head out of my stupor and deciding not to waste anymore time, I began my trek through the black market. A myriad of stolen books, magic crystals and rich embroidery littered the first few shops... looks like the criminals had a good, good year."DISCOUNT POSIONS, POTIONS AND POSIONS! DID I MENTION DISCOUNT? POISON? GET YOUR POTIONS AND POISONS HERE! BUT MAINLY POISONS!"

Some guy exclaimed merrily as he waved two alchemical vials around in his hands, one containing a fell green liquid while the other a bright red one. Erm, health potions are not supposed to glow brightly like that.... most likely distilled or maybe its just another type of poison, like the green one.

"HEMLOCK! GET YOUR HEMLOCK HERE!" Another, this time a woman covered in black and green, shouted loudly for everyone to hear. Her shop had a sign on top: home-grown Hemlock!

Ah, I hear that particular plant goes well with the red. Anyways, moving on."Hey little lady... you look like your looking for something in... particular."

A shadowy figure approached my left side and I didn't even bother dramatically reacting to his presence, merely nodding and outright asking my question."Yeah, I have school books to sell and a item which produces dark magic in small quantities to buy. Name your price for both."

He blinked, much of his face covered in a white mask. His body appeared lithe and muscled, a true thief, it seemed."Not the reaction I was expecting... names Lloyd. I thought something was off about you with how easily you tricked that idiot up front, not that it takes much but hey, good job."

"You're wasting my time, friend. That tells me you have something not-quite-good in mind for me." I promptly deadpanned him, causing the man to take a step back and pull his shadowed arm back, thus allowing me to realize that he was about to steal something from me. I then picked up a broken off piece of slate from the ground, turned to look the man in the eye and squashed the stone with so much force that only paste remained, dust seething out of my hand as it rose into the air.

The man swallowed down hard as he rose both hands in front of himself in defense."R-r-right, never fucking mind. I'll take the hint and, uh... what you're looking for is two streets that way." Surprisingly, he pointed towards a much more crowded part of the market and not towards some even darker alley.

And there were those around here, which I found most intriguing. A beaming smile was his answer as I concluded that he had no more reason to lie."Thank you, mister." I dug out a gold coin and threw it his way."Being reasonable does pay off sometimes... and I may have a job for you later if you are interested, thief."

"Just remember that I am, as you just said, a thief. I refuse to kill, other than that, I'm your man." He nodded and dispersed into the shadows, most likely to watch from afar. A guy like that is not easy to get rid off and I will most likely have enemies that will require being spied on.

Walking forward and into the crowd, I suddenly found myself sourrounded and assaulted by really bad smells, causing me to nearly vomit as I noticed the unclean executioner station up above. Intrigued, albeit still quite disgusted at the drying gore in front of me, I climbed onto a nearby statue and observed the situation with a little bit more clarity. Someone was getting executed, it seemed.

A bald old man with a dense, deep scar on his right eye or where it was supposed to be anyways, was bent over the chopping block with another, much younger bandit standing over him. He looked somewhat familiar."Listen people and listen well! This old fool tipped the guards off on one of my slave-trade operations a few days ago in exchange for a paltry sum of fifteen gold!"

The crowds murmured in approval, seemingly agreeing with the old mans actions, despite him currently facing death itself."He hoped that the guards would kill us all, but I, Casper Of The Copper Knuckles gang, managed to get out of it alive!"

He exclaimed dramatically, much to the disapproval of the crowd."You suck, Casper! Let someone else lead the Coppers and just go die in a ditch somewhere!" A random idiot yelled, easily gathering the approval of the crowd.

Hey, wait a moment here...."Casper?" I muttered out in recognition as the man in question pulled out a small firearm and promptly shot the idiot, silencing the crowd."Fuck you all, I ain't dying yet. Now, as I was sayin'..."

He moved the pistol down and pressed it onto the old mans head."I's gonna show you all what happens when you fucking cross me, you worthless sacks of sh-.. Alice?" Ah, he noticed me.

I waved at him in a somewhat comical manner."Hi Casper! How are you!?"

"Ah! I'm fine! Wait for a bit, I'ma shoot this bloody wanker and then we can talk better." He did as he said, promptly plastering the ground with even more smelly gore as the old mans head exploded from the amount of powder that entered his brain from such an.. intimate distance. Shrugging towards him, I promptly leaped through the air and over the crowd, lodging my foot into the wooden boards of the executioners block as I landed."Er.. what the hell?" One of his thugs muttered out in fear as I lamely dug my foot out of the damp, blood stained plank and turned to look at Casper.

"Yo Casp, been a while, hasn't it?" He nodded and motioned for me to follow him, the disbelieving crowds dispersing in disinterest."Aye, that it has. Now then, how are you doing, my favorite kidnapping victim? And whats up with that jump? How come you are here in this... nice place?"

"So many questions Casp, is that any way to treat a lady?" I chuckled at the man, causing him to snort as he kicked the door to a nearby tavern open."Well, lemme buy you a drink first then... erm, you do drink right?"

"I'll take apple juice if they have it. If not, honey mead is fine too." A blink of surprise was my answer before he nodded."Yeah, they do. OY 'KEEP, GET US SOME MEAD AND APPLE JUICE OVER HERE!"

"Right away!" A maid in poorly sewn clothing, though I guess the many seemingly random openings in her clothing which revealed quite a bit of her pale skin may not be random at all, quickly reacted to Caspers voice."Boss? Whats going on? Whos the gi-"

"Ya don't need to know, chump. She's an old friend of mine, leave it at that and go on patrol. I'm busy." The thug opened and closed his mouth, appearing more than a little dumbfounded as he nodded and left."Nows then, what are you doing here, Alice?"

"Well Casp, I finally became a student of magic here." He shook his head."Not that girl... I mean here, in the bloody Underbelly of the city? A gal like you, despite having the neccessary know-how to be here, should not be here unless ya want someone dead.. or to get shanked and die yourself, anyways."

"Too bad cause I'm not here for either... yet. I'm here cause I want to sell these, think you could be my fence?" I promptly showed him the books. His eyes went wide in surprise."Uhh, dontcha need those?"

I laughed at him as the barmaid placed our drinks onto the table, the wooden patchwork shaking unsteadily as she did."They aren't mine. Plus, I have some other.. stuff, I may want to sell later which could be of equal value. You in?"

A blink before nodding."Last thing I figured would happen today would be the making of a long-term arrangement but sure, I'll play your game. Now, tell me for real this time, whats going on with you?"

A deep sigh escaped me, seems like I won't be able to escape this question no matter what I do and I don't really want to lose my connection to this guy."Look Casper, you do know my parents died, right?"

"Aye.." He nodded, seemingly regretting asking now."Well, I figure that the other nobles in my kingdom wont hesitate to do their best in order to get rid of me. Considering I manage to surivive the year, they'll probably be pushing the king to remove my title as High Lady. I figure I may as well use my bandit know-how to get into this sort of life before that happens."

"In other words, you wanna live this life as long as you can but you also wanna secure a stable life after all you've got is gone, yeah?" He asked me with an approving tone and I nodded."Pretty much. Now, are you in or not?"

He inspected the books, giving each a whirl through the pages and nodding in approval."Yeah, sure.. I'll take these off yer hands. Five gold per book sound good to ya?"

Shrugging, I replied with a sigh."Not the price I'd have put on them, but I don't really hold all the cards here and that is more than generous enough. Deal."

Taking out a pouch and handing me seventy gold as he pulls the books closer to himself, I notice how the gold he paid me with wasn't all Clausian. Now, rather than thinking he scammed me or that he has no idea what each gold is worth, I asked."The currencies are all worth the same here, aren't they?"

A nod was my answer."Aye, gold is gold, silver is silver, don't matter where its from, don't matter where ya use it, up or down... stupid decision on the headmasters part, differing currencies are an easy way to make loads of money."

"I agree... but maybe you could get connections to the different royal banks and exchange the money there?" He laughed."That'd require having people loyal enough to make the transfer without running away with the coin." Ah.

Well, thats about right, isn't it?

Anyways, I shook my head out of my stupor and asked."Say, do you know any place that sells dark talismans?"

"Why'd you need one of those?" He quirked an eyebrow towards me."I.. I can't tell you the honest reason, but a half truth would be that I need it for an experiment."

Shrugging at me, he replied."Thats fine... anyways, theres nothing of the sort in the underbelly itself. You might have a better chance to find something like that in the upper city, Alice. After all, this is a city of magic."

I blinked, feeling really fucking stupid as I lamely rubbed the back of my head."Now that you mention it..."

"Didn't strike you as a possiblity, eh? Oh well. Anyways, you got any more business for me or?" He asked me as we both downed our drinks."Not at this time, no... but if I do need.. things done, I'll be sure to come to you. And believe me, there may be a lot of those things to be done very soon."

He scowled at nobody in particular."Hate to be you right now, lass. But know that my gang won't trouble you... unless you trouble me."

I quirked an eyebrow at the man as I stood up."Your gang? So there are others?"

"Not in the city, no." He shook his head in negative."But a lotta bad people have their claws sunk deep into this city, regardless of how pretty it looks like up above... watch yourself, there may be more than nobles that you gotta deal with sooner rather than later, Alice."

"Appreciate the gesture and.. I'll do my best... see you around, Casper." I said as I quickly made my way out of the tavern and marched back into the upper city, silently cursing myself for not looking for a talisman in a city full of mages.

Oh well, if I didn't do it this way then I would not have met Casper... at least not this soon. Maybe this was fate?

Also, an underbelly as thick yet as free as this...

I looked around the blackened place to find it almost homely... almost.

Shaking my head out of my stupor one last time, I made my way out of the place."Find what you were looking for, milady?" Alex, the ever loyal coachman, patiently waited for me outside. I shook my head."No.. I sold the books but all I gained otherwise was a feeling of stupidity... Get me home, Alex."

"As you say, milady..." He muttered out in a somewhat curious tone as he shook the reins and off we went.

Don't mind me guys and girls! I'm just a line break...

Yes, yes, I'm slowly but surely turning Alice into the "Louise" of this cantinuity.

Bite me.

I know you love it.

Anyways, read and review! And Good Morning/Day/Night to you all! ADIOS FOR NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!