~ Tнє Pαяα∂σχ Hσυѕє ~ now back to regularly scheduled chaos

Maladict | Down a hill, by the Lodge over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go | {{More Mint}}

The force was enough to knock Maladict over by surprise more than anything else. Humans didn't push vampires; this was unheard of and very stupid. But Hector had done it anyway. Maladict was on his feet again almost at once, shouting, "Hey!" after the cheat of a blinker. But he was almost laughing.
The sled was placed against the snow with haste, while Maladict used the motion to push himself forward. Vampire strength might have given him an edge in something, but it also meant that when he had originally put down the sled it had nearly sunk through the snow. It all balanced each other out.
His sled sped after Hector's, though it was behind. Maladict leaned forward as much as he could, trying to work out air resistance. This was so much easier as a bird. His body was made for that sort of thing. This? This was a bit different. He wanted to win though.
There were a couple jumps. He aimed for one, his tube sled barreling toward one at speeds that were steadily increasing. The sled made the jump ... and suddenly Maladict's sled had made of the distance, side by side to Hector's.
Maladict looked down and swallowed. This hill looked a bit steeper than it had from the top. Should they be worried about the speeds they were making?
Naaaaah.

Volt | Spaceship Room | <Raintalon> mintedstar/fur

The word "teleport" caught Volt's attention as her helmet angled towards the guards, not acknowledging The Doctor's warning glance. She wasn't going to kill anyone, but she had no intention of being arrested either. Teleporters caused trouble, she knew a couple of them. No matter how fast the Tenno could move, it wasn't enough to outpace someone who could location hop. No telling what would happen if one of the guards was able to make physical contact --they could be taken anywhere.

She released the hilt of her sword and stepped back, raising her hands defensively, but angled outward to show she wasn't interested in fighting. She could see the gathering crowd outside the door, including more guards. This was going to be tricky. The two guards advancing towards her seemed to hesitate for a moment. Volt looked between them and the exit. She could do it. She could run. But it would solve little.

"Don't touch me," The Tenno warned. Her voice was devoid of emotion, the causal tone she used with her companions shifting into a soldier's military bearing.
She deftly sidestepped their captor's grasp and joined The Doctor and Matt of her own accord. She kept her head down, non-resistant, but tilted in such a way she could stare at The Doctor in a manner that Volt hoped would communicate how much she disliked this plan. There was little she could do to not look like a threat, so for now these people would have to be satisfied with her compliance. The alternative was much messier.

Matt | Spaceship room - unknown planet | mintedstar/fur »ƑαƖcση |

Matt reeled as he was grabbed and swiftly carted away, nausea gripping his stomach as pain shot through...well, everywhere.

"Ahh - hey, hey, guys, take it easy! Broken bones, here!" he chided quietly, although he was feeling slightly foolish for missing the fact that their ship had apparently been two seconds from exploding the entire time he'd been trying to have a conversation with the strangers.

"Psst, Doc, Volt," he said, leaning as far towards the two of them as he could without straining too much against the hands that marched him steadily along. "Whatcha think are the odds these guys know how to make the ship not blow us all off the face of...wherever this is?"

Hange | Catan room | mintedstar/fur |

Hange hit the floor hard, bodyslammed by Myrnin just in time to avoid being impaled by arrows and broken glass. They lay still for a few seconds, stunned, then sat bolt upright, glass sticking in their hair and making them look significantly more deranged than usual. Which was saying something.

"Ahh, but do they dislike me? Do they really?" they asked, eyes lit up with interest as they stared at the arrows embedded in the walls around them. "Are they capable of such a thing? Perhaps this is merely them fulfilling their programming - something like 'behave in a hostile manner to those who oppose you', would be my guess. Shall we capture one and find out??" they added brightly, spurred on by their idea, which they apparently thought was a truly excellent one. "I wonder how they would react to that...."

| Enjolras | Clo's Late Response to the Zange Event | {{Rped by Clover}} |

As the woman collapsed Enjolras shot a look at the others in the room. Clearly she'd had some sort of information or warning to give to them at the end of her life. This was the lodge- could it just be some sort of room bleeding over? The rules of safety that applied to the living room usually appeared much more strained here in the lodge. Enjolras stepped closer to the Lodge as he was still outside, and looked down at the figure. He didn't know if he recognized her or not.
His attention was drawn by the sounds of screaming as a pair of figures sped past the group of blinkers, both of them screaming. Yep, that was the House. The oldie's expression was deadpan.

| Hector | Random Hill Near Lodge, Sledding | {{roleplayed by clover}} |

Hector yelled along with Maladict as the two fools whizzed past the lodge. If anyone crashed now it would be highly embarrassing. As the two sped towards the pine forest Hector did the smart thing and bailed. rolling onto his back so that the sled wouldn't be under him anymore and he could stop without sledding into the forest. The sled flipped up into the air and skittered away, bumping into a tree trunk. Hector himself skidded a few feet, leaving a trail like a comet in the snow. He sat up and let out a whoop. Maladict's tube ahead of him was empty now too, and Hector figured he'd either bailed and was up ahead or he'd fallen off somewhere along the way. Oops.

The facsimile Sandalphon ignored Spinel's protests, not giving her the time of day by looking at her, instead searching around for some kind of exit. That was, until he felt his body jerk back when something started pulling on two of his new appendages.

His hooded head swung around to face the insolent mortal who dared lay her fingers on his wings, his red eyes burning with anger. "Get your hands off of me! I had no quarrel with you!" He was tempted to summon one of his blades to deal with her, but resisted the urge. No use wasting the effort.

Instead, he simply recalled the feathered limbs back into his body, causing them to vanish in Spinel's grip. He then turned back around to fully face her, stepping back to put some space between the two.

Now she had his attention.

The copy quickly recollected himself, now glaring at her with a somewhat amused expression. "'Those are his wings', eh? Is that what he told you?" He cast a side glance at his real counterpart, who was still motionless on the floor. Letting out a scoff, "Hmm. I'll let you in on something. They don't belong to either of us. They were all stolen off the very backs of their original owners."

While that was true, at least to this version, it wasn't the full picture either. Since he came from the past, he would've never known his future counterpart had voluntarily been given the wings again later. Regardless, He was revealing this information with a very specific purpose. To try and mess with Spinel's head. Get her to doubt the one she was trying to stand up for.

The scowl he'd shown earlier returned as the other pink thing started talking to him too, stealing his focus from the real gem. She was acting like all this was entertaining to her, which he found grating.

Still... She was offering a tempting proposal. Thinking about it, this would be a prime chance get a taste of the power these new wings had.

The false Primarch looked back at Spinel, then again at her clone, debating on his next course of action. Finally he nodded, one corner of his mouth raised with a crude smile. "I can do more then that."

The wings of the Tetra-Elements again grew from his back, and he rose into the air. To start, he only slightly tapped into their magic, trying to get a feel for the power now surging through his body. Truth be told, it was almost overwhelming... But he'd be lying if he thought it didn't feel great.

He couldn't help but start laughing again, but this was no simple joyful chuckle. It was dyed dark with cruel glee. Fully channeling his new power now, he loomed over the two gems, his blades appearing at his sides as he readied a cast of Ain Soph Aur.

Instead of aiming them all at the real Spinel, like her copy was probably expecting of him, one set was also pointed at the fake. Speaking with phony uncertainty, "Apologies, but you two do look quite alike. I'm afraid that I'm unsure which one I was supposed to 'knock some sense into'."

The false archangel raised an arm forward, about to direct his weapons to strike, only to freeze when a very familiar voice hit his ears from behind. What it said cut down into his core, completely shattering his composure and causing his eyes to widen in unbridled fury.

"'What mismatched plumage... How befitting for a spare Primarch.'"

---

To think, I would ever end up using that bastard's words to prey on my own insecurities... What utter nonsense.

Barely regaining consciousness a mere moment ago, Sandalphon was already struggling to push himself up, his arms visibly straining from the effort. He was covered in scratches thanks to the rough treatment he'd received, but paid no mind to his own state, staring daggers into the back of the artificial copy of himself threatening Spinel across the room.

Just as he thought- no, knew it would, the slander he threw at it received the exact result he wanted. Getting it away from his fellow blinker. Letting out a shout of rage, it instantly forgot about it's original plan of turning on both Spinels, calling off it's attack and whirling around to fly at him like a hate fueled arrow. He barely had time to get up into an unsteady standing position, before his copy greeted him with a kick to the gut, knocking him back off his feet and sending the archangel once again skidding across the stone floor.

So this is what it was like for Micheal and the others...

Had a human received that blow instead, it definitely would have crushed them. Hell, it had been enough to cause some reasonable internal damage to it's target, who wasn't, and much more durable. The Primarch broke into a short coughing fit when his trip came to an end, propping himself up on a elbow while he struggled to catch his breath amoungst the throbbing pain surging from where he'd been struck. Just as he managed to do so, something from above came down hard on his chest, forcing him back to the floor.

The fake Sandalphon now stood over it's real version, one of it's boots firmly keeping him pinned to the floor, mouth twisted into satisfied smirk. The pair remained like that for a moment, one triumphantly gloating down at the other, while that other returned a strained look of defiance. Obviously choosing to savor it's seeming victory, the false angel's next actions were slow and deliberate. It drew it's main sword from the sheath hanging at it's hip, and pressed the blade's tip against it's foe's neck with just enough pressure to draw blood. The real one's hands, meanwhile, flew up to grip the sword, trying to prevent it from moving any further.

The seal is broken... Just need to keep it busy... A bit longer...

-Forgotten Temple
zeph!

mintedstar/fur
Eises' ears perked up at the sound of Myrnin's voice and twitched in response to his nickname. The tips of her mouth raised in a cat-like grin, her embarrassment gone. She patted down her trench coat to get as much snow off of it as she could. "Y-yeah! It's been...almost a year for me?" Eises recalled she had much shorter hair when she last saw the man, it really was that long ago. "I've been doin' too much! The Istra and my Paistra keep me busy, been in too many fights." She was going to say she'd been in more fights than she could count, but she probably could count them all if she put in a little effort. "W-What about you?" She hadn't talked to Myrnin too many times, now that she thought about it, she barely knew the man. 

Eises was quite focused on Myrnin that she almost didn't notice the subtle movement behind him. Her face stiffened momentarily as she gazed slightly to his side, seeing if someone else had blinked in. She knew the movement came from around one of the sculptures, but where exactly? She guessed either it was some animal that happened to be a part of the room, or a shy blinker hiding behind one of mounds of snow. At least, she hoped. The way the lion statue looked at her was a little weird, however. Whoever made these sculptures really captured the eyes of a predator....Almost a little too accurately.

She turned to see what Myrnin was talking about. "These sculptures don't seem too bad. I can do that in my sleep." It was true that Eises could make figures out of ice, in fact, making gems out of ice was how she scammed people for money. Whether she could actually make something akin to an animal sculpture was left to be seen. Maybe it was exaggeration. Her ice gems were detailed enough to fool a lot of people, so maybe there was a bit of truth behind her claim.

She looked at the sculptures to her side and laid her eye on a monkey sculpture with its palm out. Eises took out her hand and, in a flash, summoned a relatively big ice gem. It was so sharp and clear that it looked real. She walked over to the iced-monkey and placed the gem in its palm. Just before she was going to change the bottom of the gem so it could stick to the paw, the monkey sculpture snatched the gem. Eises took several steps back in surprise, her eyes wide (it wasn't like you could see her right eye under her eyepatch, however). 

"Not snow covered," said the once magpie, shrugging his shoulders. As soon as he had turned back into a human, he had lost a majority of snow had been lost when the bird had flown up into the trees. 
"I turned into a bird after I won the race," Maladict said, eyes narrowing and shoulders hunching just a bit as if thus was a way to muscle confirmation out of Hector.
Then he looked at the trails they had left in the snow and shrugged. They really did need to travel back to the Lodge now. Before Hector froze. 
"We can probably leave the sleds here," he said, glancing back at the sleds. "The House probably wants them back anyway." It was what other, older blinkers would say, right?
Maladict started walking along the trail of snow.

Ougi - lodge - sam, sherlock, those around zange

Ougi half-turned to Sam but kept her head down, as if offering him less friendliness now that she had to interact with him in the presence of others. “If you could tell me precisely what her last wishes were, I’ll gladly comply.” Where someone with less commitment might mean it sarcastically, there was a little truth to Ougi’s statement. She genuinely would comply, though perhaps not gladly; her bets were that Zange’s wishes were too vague to follow.
“There isn’t much I do think yet. I’m not that hasty. But I do know some things with the given information,” the student told Sherlock, holding down her skirt in a particularly strong wind—not that it mattered, as her skirt never seemed to get too out of place no matter how many backflips she did. “Based on the cyclical nature of time travel, the reason we were all singled out is because we were here. In other words, she knew us because she just now met us.”
Her black hair flowed slowly and caught sprinklings of snowflakes. Her glazed eyes hardly seemed to register the blinkers who flew by on sleds, enjoying their time outside of this dark mystery.
Then, unprompted, Ougi approached the body and began to search it. “If it is still here for a reason, we might as well find out why,” she explained. Regardless of whether Ougi was comfortable handling a regular corpse, it was one of her theories that the bodies that blinked into the Paradox House were not the blinkers’ actual vessels. In other words, she assumed what was left behind of Zange was no more than a dummy.

A hint of bemuse crossed Vincent’s face as Julius introduced two unfamiliar places. He noted that the man used their names in manner that suggested - should he be from the same plane of existence - that he should know where they were. He exhaled with a soft huff of laughter at Julius’ question, absently picking at his scar while they continued to walk. “Ah,” he hummed in agreement, still smiling slightly. He didn’t bother offering a name of his own, as it seemed pointless.

The idea of Julius’ world something entirely different than his own was both terrifying and intriguing. It provided him with a lot to process, mostly about what the house was giving him access to; a discussion of which seemed far too philosophical for his taste. After all, thinking too deeply about the science of magic sounded like a good way to upset his comfort theory - that the house was, and would continue to be, nothing but a very peculiar, and serial, hiccup in his psych. Knowing that this was likely false was something better left suppressed.

“Elisia,” he said thoughtfully to himself, as if summiting it to memory. He then glanced back at Julius, both hands returned to their position behind his back. “Is that of common place?” He asked, eyeballing the viper’s tail as he spoke.

Ghost | Outside the Lodge | Numquam


A familiar dark shape suddenly blinked into existence flying fast about twenty feet above the asphalt. Or what used to be asphalt. Alarms triggered on Ghost' visual as the night time city was suddenly replaced by midday sunlight glistening off of a blinding blanket of snow. White balance completely washed out, the shepherd threw his thrusters into reverse to try and slow down. Instead, he collided with the crown of an evergreen. The trunk bent and cracked under the force before several broken branches, a pile of snow, and one salty robot fell into the soft powder piled around the roots.

Numquam

If Ghost had possessed lungs, the air would have been knocked out of him. As it happened, he was suddenly and violently shoved further into the snowbank, jamming one of his wings at an odd angle against the solid roots of the tree. At first, he assumed the top of the tree had come down on him as well, but then the weight removed itself and the sensors not blinded by snow or clogged with pine needles recognized a familiar biosignature.

Retracting the undamaged wing, Ghost climbed to his feet, shoving away yet another tree branch and trying to shake the snow from his fur. His right wing whirred and clicked but remained halfway extended. The shepherd examined it momentarily with a dark look before turning his gaze on the person who had squashed him. His attention was drawn to the pendant around her neck, catching a glimpse of light before it faded too quickly for him to get any sort of solid reading on it. So instead, his eyes turned to the girl's face.
"What was that?"