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

The Doctor | Spaceship Room | »ƑαƖcση <Raintalon> Razzle Dazzle

The Doctor glanced over as a new person blinked into their little group. It hardly mattered, in her opinion, who she was, but she recognized her. They had talked once or twice, hadn't they? One of her earlier rooms, she knew that at least.

"Hello!" she said brightly, despite the fact the situation wasn't very bright. "Long time no see. I take it you're doing alright?"

She adjusted her stance, glancing at Matt, and then at Volt. Then she looked back at their new friend. "Don't suppose you have any suggestions?"

Then she turned on whoever these House people were - she assumed they were House generated anyway - and said very firmly, "Matt is correct."

The current alien raised their weapon and continued to level it at Matt. "Do you have any phyical evidence that this is - who the hell is that!"

The weapon shifted, pointing at the girl. The Doctor hurriedly stepped in front of her.

There was a hesitation in Myrnin's eyes which showed just how little he was believing Touka. But he had no reason to press. For the most part, she seemed happy. He just wasn't sure why she might be lying about it. He glanced at Rex, seeing if he had picked up on it, but for the time being Myrnin couldn't read his face.

"Same old chaos then," he said brightly to Touka. Then he shot a look at Rex. "Ah, yes. Dying you say." He sniffed. "Can't say I know the feeling. I have no plans to die any time soon."

You remember what she said, don't you? said a voice in the back of his head. You're more likely to disappear than Rex. Worse ... what if you don't?

But he was brought completely out of these thoughts when Touka started crying. He turned swiftly, blinking several times, and then leaned forward. One of his hands fell on Touka's shoulder and he hesitantly asked, "Touka ... Touka, what is it?"

He looked at Rex, trying to gadge what the other man thought of this.



------




Samuel blinked and humphed a bit as Daud walked right past him. He didn't need much of an excuse to leave the presense of the dead body and the odd situation that was Ougi and Sherlock. He dodged around the oddity, casting her a look, prepared to move past all of them without waiting.

"I'm Sam," he said to Daud, right behind him ... then he paused, glancing back at Ougi, hesitated, and then sighed. He turned back, his fingers brushing against her shoulder as if trying to nonverbally convince her that she should come away. That there wasn't anything she could do ...

Ougi - lodge outside - sherlock, samuel, anyone near the lodge entrance

Ougi's black gloved hand wrapped around Zange's arm and in an instant the scene was enveloped in a swath of shadows. From the outside, it appeared to be a miniature black hole of sorts, sucking in the sleet and snow from the storm like a vacuum. There was no way to see the blinkers inside, but anyone near enough to try would be pulled closer by a violent wind.

Inside the shadows, gravity began shifting. It was as if the atmosphere were rolling around them, indecisive about which direction was up. The precipitation that entered was the most dangerous element, whizzing by at incredible speeds and seeming to solidify into sharp crystallized shapes. They clinked and clashed, the sound consuming the entire zone. Just as she was before her death, Zange was surrounded by shadow. Now was the opportunity for it to give her back her strength, or at least give Ougi a sign that they were one of the same. Now was the time for this power to do something, anything. But to Ougi's surprise, it seemed to do nothing at all. As soon as the student registered the threat she herself had created by summoning these shadows, she immediately released Zange, and Ougi's limbs cast themselves wildly around before bending and stiffening in place.
With that motion, the glasslike shards of ice whizzing through the air were cut down further. The threat was literally turned to dust, at least for the most part, but it was still cutting in and out of the black hole in the snowstorm. As long as the student concentrated, she could maintain a more habitable atmosphere. Even the winds were dying down, and the gravity changes slowing.

Squinting through the chaos, past a wince, Ougi's pale face somehow turned even more ghostlike.
"What are you doing?! You were supposed to go inside!" Was this a dream? Or were Sherlock and Samuel here with her? Even overcoming the shock that they found their way into this mess, she didn't know humans--technically a vampire as well--could survive it. Her surprise was more obvious in their surroundings than on her face. When she spotted them, the shadows swirled more harshly and the wind sliced through to throw them all off-balance. She reluctantly stayed in place and put her arms out to regain control. Finally, the nearly complete absence of gravity allowed them to move around, as if floating in space. It was clear on Ougi's face that she wanted to reprimand the other blinkers, but she merely had to close her eyes and focus, leaving one angrily twitching eyebrow. "Just let me get us out of here," she mumbled under her breath.

Matt | Spaceship room | »ƑαƖcση mintedstar/fur Razzle Dazzle |

"Woah woah woah, okay, okay," said Matt hastily, eyes widening. Instantly, almost without thinking, he stepped into the dead center of the group, so that all the weaponry that had just been drawn was trained on him instead of the people around him. "Everybody just take a second, this doesn't have to go this way. You guys - " here, he pointed at the House-generated people, "I meant what I said, we don't mean you any harm. She - " he pointed at the little kid who had just appeared, "she's with us, she's, uh...my cousin. Yeah, sorry we didn't tell you about her earlier, she's super shy and everything and didn't wanna go through introductions. But look, she's just a kid. She's not gonna hurt you. And you guys - " here, he turned, racing the Doctor and Volt taking shallow breaths as he kept talking despite not knowing what to say or whether or not anything he was doing would work. "C'mon. Put the arsenal away. Nobody here wants a fight, so just...stand down, everybody. Please?"

Charlie | Living Room | Nightwisher

A small, hooded figure blinked into the living room, moving quickly and carefully across the green carpet. They were pretty much completely hidden from sight by an over large black cloak, and their hands were in their pockets. All that could be heard was their breathing, which stopped abruptly as they became aware of their new surroundings.
The soft ground was the first thing to tip them off. They stared down at it, their mouth slipping open slightly as they realized the hard, sticky floor had been replaced with old, stained green carpet. Which was impossible, but more importantly, meant that probably other things had changed as well.
They threw back their hood, revealing pale skin, dark hair cut very close to their head, and equally dark eyes that were very round at the moment. They appeared to be about fourteen, but it was hard to tell, especially since their eyes seemed much older.
The room had changed too. It looked like something out of a movie, with couches and chairs sitting around a sparse, yet comfortable living room. There were tables here and there, and bookshelves stuffed with so many books it seemed impossible that they all had something in them.
Charlie Rhyes turned, their mouth still open. When they realized they were not alone in this impossible house, they took a step back and fumbled in their pocket, then brought out a flip phone and held it up like a weapon.
“Where am I?” They asked, and their voice didn’t tremble. They sounded cool, controlled, in spite of the fact that they obviously had no idea what was going on. “Don’t move, or I call for backup and have you arrested for stealing government property.”

Charlie | Living Room | Nightwisher

Charlie didn’t move, their eyes fixed as unblinkingly as a cat’s on the only other individual in the room. And he didn’t back down, not even when he saw their face.
That wasn’t good. Anyone who recognized them should have cut the crap immediately and backed off, apologized, and left. That confirmed it. They hadn’t been stolen, not by this person anyway. Reluctantly, they lowered the phone.
It had been a bluff anyway. There was no way they were calling anyone who knew them.
“I don’t know what pork rinds are, but they sound revolting.” They said stiffly, ignoring his jab at their life choices. What did he care what they ate? But it didn’t matter, because as he moved on, so did they, slipping into the new subject easily. “I’m Charlie R-“ bad idea. Try again. “I’m Charlie. Hi. I just said I don’t know where we are, didn’t I? Did you forget?”
They didn’t even smile as they said the last part, a completely neutral expression resting on their thin face. “If you’re asking me to guess, I’d say....”
They stopped, frowning. What could this be? All the possibilities that came to mind - dream, afterlife, and thief’s safe house - didn’t add up. If they’d been taken, they wouldn’t have just been standing in the exact same posture they had been before, right? And it couldn’t be a dream or the afterlife, because neither of those things were possible for Charlie to obtain. So...
“...magic.” They decided after a moment, and their eyes widened again, this time more out of wonder than fear. “It must be magic. I mean, what else could it be? Even with a teleportation device, I’d have experienced some delay in between my previous location and coming here. It has to be magic!”
They smiled suddenly and looked directly into Kai’s eyes. “What’s your name? Are you magic, too?”

Charlie | Living Room | Nightwisher

The kid didn’t blink as Kai called them out on their close call. They didn’t call any attention to it at all. Actually. It was as thought they hadn’t noticed it at all. They had, of course, but acting flustered or upset would only call more attention to it, which was the opposite of what they wanted. So they ignored him, and hoped he’d leave it alone. They may not have been willing to call anyone, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do it if he happened to find out who they were. If he knew that there was something to be gained here.
That was the main difference. As long as they were just a weird kid to him, they were safe, but the minute they turned into something else there was no telling what might happen. So they just looked at him, watching his expressions very carefully.
“Yes, magic.” They insisted, annoyance springing up behind their tone as he failed to engage properly. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Unless you have another idea?”
He didn’t. He was just messing with them, they could tell. They watched his actions, eyes following the book as he tossed it aside. The temptation to run over and look at it was almost too strong to resist, but they did it, mostly because that was much closer to the stranger than they wanted to get at the moment.
Then he answered their real question, and their eyes snapped to his face again. Kai. The name fit him somehow. And of course he was magic, that made sense, things here were probably more likely to be magic than not, but...
Oh. “Yes.” They answered a little too quickly, looking him in the eye as they said it. They had to blend in here, they had to be careful, even without a name things could go very, very bad here if they messed this up. Their face was a mask, carefully formed to look as innocent and trustworthy as possible, and they could only hope he believed it.
They walked over and pulled a book off the opposite shelf, flipping through it in much the same way he had. It was...blank? That didn’t make sense. Why would anyone go to the trouble of making a blank book?

Zacharie - lodge outside - no one, yet

Zacharie blinked into the Paradox House with a start. He had been striding in one direction when caught off guard by the change in surroundings. Without warning, he was slapped in the side of the head with a gust of blizzardy wind. This sent him stuttering toward the nearest building, which he recognized immediately. Just like the old days... It appeared that the Paradox House was currently in its lodge season. Unlike some blinkers, he had practically never had a bad experience at the lodge. All of his memories of the place were simply joyous and full of sledding. Then again, such memories did bring back memories of Ciel for him, and he cast his head down at the thought.
"Best not to linger..." the merchant said aloud, much like an NPC in a video game, and hiked up his backpack on his shoulders. It seemed too bulky to carry, but somehow he accomplished the feat. His white sweater flapped harshly in the wind and he kept his head down, letting his shoulders and his cartoonish toad mask take the brunt of the weather. On his way toward the door, which was currently shut but outlined in warm light, he passed a strange black hole-like thing that he decided to pay no mind (lol). Like the traveling salesman Zacharie was, his first order of business was not to get out of the snowstorm, but to knock on the lodge door and wait patiently in the hopes that someone would answer it.

Crutchie | Hallway | Nightwisher
“’ey, you’ve got a dangerous world, and it’s been two years for ya, so ‘e might be fine,” Crutchie replied, allowing himself a smile. You didn’t survive life on the streets without letting yourself be optimistic about things from time to time. Keep your hopes high and your expectations low. The House also had a way of defying expectations. Unless you had actually seen someone die, you assumed they were still alive. Even then, there was about a fifty-fifty chance they’d come back to life at some point. Some people thought he was too optimistic or idealistic, but he had seen what the world could do to people, and he chose to keep looking on the bright side anyway. Around the House, at least, that seemed to pay off.
Two years. Crutchie had to take a moment to think about that. Two years ago, he hadn’t even known the House existed. Two years ago he was just a normal newsie selling papes to whoever would buy. It had been… well, it had been a crazy two years. It had its terrible moments, that was for sure, but he didn’t think he would take back the time the House had given him, even if he’d been given the option. The House let him escape his world and meet some great people, and he couldn’t imagine what would happen if he stopped blinking. If he had to adjust to normal life for two years before being pulled right back in to the nonsense. “That’s a long time,” he said after a while. “I ‘ope your world’s been a bit kinder, then.” He had never been fully aware of the exact danger Shilo’s world posed, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it wasn’t keen on giving her a break. He hoped the past two years had been better than the ones Crutchie had been aware of. “See anyone else you knew before you stopped blinking?” He wondered if there was anyone else still around from Shilo’s era – he wondered if he would’ve even known any of them.

Zacharie - lodge - legosi

The logs slumped together in the fireplace and crackled when Zacharie shifted the kindling. Within a few moments, the flame had caught back on and even brightened the area somewhat.
"Oh, school? I've heard of such a thing." He had never attended himself. Why would he need to? But there were plenty of books on the subject, ironic as it was. On the topic of things Zacharie had heard of, he seemed to have no qualms with Legosi being a wolf, and treated him no differently than a regular person. This is why he said what he said next.
"You're in the Paradox House. It's full of strangers, with even stranger ideas. But they can certainly be delightful. I would offer you something to eat or drink, but if you're like any of them, you probably won't be interested in smoke or raw meat." He was standing now but still held a long, sturdy stick that was burning flamelessly at one end. He used it to gesture to his backpack. "Speaking of wares, I give a discount to all the newcomers here." Not technically a lie, but he had no idea how many blinkers his discount had missed.