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

Eises nervously and lightly scratched her cheek. "I-It's not like I had a choice...If I knew anything about this necklace when I found it, I don't think I'd mess with it in the first place. Now I can't take it off..." Her voice trailed. Who would've guessed that a random golden necklace found in the forest would have a malevolent spirit slumbering within? Eises would have never believed it was possible, much less have the same spirit be able to possess you. Whether she liked it or not, Calibris was now a permanent part of her.

She then tried to think how Evina would word this. Maybe approaching it differently would make Ghost understand a little better. Things like magic didn't exist in his world after all, so perhaps she should use terms he was more familiar with. "I-It's like...um...if you put on a ring and it installed a different robot's files into you, like a computer virus. And the ring like...becomes impossible to take off! The more you try to take it off, the more damaged your files become! And the virus will never go away, and sometimes the virus takes over? B-But you can also sorta talk with the virus, so you try to work on yourself to control it 'cause you don't want it taking over?" That would make a little more sense, right? Eises wasn't very confident in this new explanation, and she wouldn't be surprised if she just made herself look silly instead. It may have been obvious that electronics were not her strong suit. "E-Er, can you even get viruses? Your world has computer viruses, right?" 

Eises clenched her teeth at the terrible sound and quickly got to her feet. She didn't stand fully upright and was still crouched over, but just enough to allow her to move out of the way. She stumbled at the last minute and fell face first into the snow. One of the thinner branches from the now fallen tree managed to land on her legs, its twigs poking into them. Her ears flattened and her left eye started to twitch in irritation. "I-I-I'm not this clumsy in battle, I swear." She could dodge a couple of projectiles with flips if she wanted to, but dodging an entire tree in the House? Nonsense. 

The way that Eises talked about this person in her life amused Myrnin. He was glad to hear she had friends. Or at least he hoped this boss person was a friend, at least somehow.

"What's your charges name?" he asked instead, voice turning dry as he continued to play with the ice crystals.

He dropped one as soon as she mentioned his childhood, looking shocked. Luckily, there was plenty of snow. Not so luckily one of the small ice creatures decided to grab it almost at once and make off with it. Myrnin watched it, stalling more than anything. Then he glanced at Eises with hesitation in his eyes. "I can't remember it, honestly. Not unless I focus. And if I do, I tend to remember the man who changed me." His words were blunt, open, but also very wary, as if he expected Eises to bite him. Then he shrugged. "But that was - what? - when I was twenty-five? Hardly a childhood. I assume I had a family. I know they sold me to Gwion. That's about it."

He tossed the remaining ice crystal between his hands and pretended he didn't care. At least she had been talking about the dress. Maybe that would distract her.

The ice sculpture monkey was having none of the chit-chat and started to climb Myrnin's pants, aiming for his shoulder with an attention that Myrnin did not interrupt.

"Very interesting," he said, nodding at the purple crystal. He wondered if it had to do with fire.

"Magic? Depends on how you define magic. You did see me do something once." He glanced at her, maybe a bit surprised. "You were there when I read your mind." And saved her, but he left that part out. It hadn't really been completely her. He had ended up not completely ... him ... either by the end of that room. Yet another thing he didn't want to think about.
The monkey reached his shoulder and started to try and catch the ice bird. The sculpture was having none of it. Myrnin didn't seem to be acknowledging either of them.

The nickname was amusing. Myrnin turned around again, still rummaging through the various items but using his free hand to point to the newest blinker. "I like that, but I've heard more original. Trap-door spider is more original, honestly."

He looked back at the cases of items and pulled out a rather large knife. He tested the edge, then set it aside on a different shelf. Then he reached in and pulled out a hand cheese grader and seemed to decide to keep that.

"Myrnin," he said after a second, "is my actual name."

He tucked the cheese grader under and arm, picked up a knife (this time a slightly smaller one), and headed back for his own table. He still hadn't gotten any food.

Then again, he was once again closer to the smell of blood. He sighed a bit and pressed his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose. It didn't help very much.

"I take it you're both human?" he asked. He hadn't really inquired much about Crutchie, though he assumed that he was. Then again, human didn't exclude powers. "Without magical abilities or so forth?"

Sam nearly stumbled on the return, not really able to process the shift until the wind started to whip his clothing about. He gasped, not from the cold but from the very distinct difference.
He spun a bit, not toward the group but away from it, trying to get a sense of what was going on. They were back. Ougi looked frazzled, Sherlock looked purposeful, and Zange ...
At some point, the body had disappeared. Sam swallowed, unnerved. What was that about? Where had the House taken it? Did that mean all that could be done had been?
"We need to get inside!" he said, voice rising to be heard over the wind. Snow blew into his eyes, blinding him, and he had to use his sense of scent to work his way closer to Sherlock and Ougi again. "Come on!" It was almost pleading. Both of the other blinkers seemed too caught up with themselves to really take care of their own well-being now.

Myrnin | Lodge | <Raintalon> Iceclaw

Something in Myrnin crumbled. It was like a plastic bag, pushed together so much that the space it took up felt wrong and unnatural. He held his breath, hoping it would help, but instead it was just Touka's cold hand, clutching his.
He felt trapped. She was trapped and it was him who felt cornered. It felt like his fault. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't, because this was the House and it was as isolated as an undiscovered island.
"No," he whispered. He didn't want to lose her. They had grown up in the House - or she had and he might only have learned. He could feel anger blooming through his chest, along with desperation, but all the while it was just the same plastic bag feeling crumpled up in him.
Slowly, he pried his fingers away from Touka's grip and took a step back, looking shattered but doing so anyway. "I can't do this," he said, voice strained. "I can't." He couldn't just accept there was nothing to do. He couldn't even take Rex's side and try to find some way to make Touka's last blink better.
He wasn't used to death. Coming from a vampire that was rich, but it was true. He didn't need to have friends who could die, but he did. They always did, and he always outlived them. But at least then he could fight the people who hurt them, or accept that he couldn't fight every disease. This was different. There wasn't a way to reason out of it. Instead he was stuck with this. A present which was wrong.
"I need to go," he said, eyes darkening shade by shade.

Sherlock | Winter Lodge | Razzle Dazzle and mintedstar/fur

Sherlock sucked in a sharp breath as the wind slapped him in the face, greeting him back to the storm they’d left mere minutes - or had it been longer? - earlier. He stumbled and caught himself, then straightened up and scanned the other two with undisguised concern in his piercing eyes.
They were back. Aside from the cuts lacing Sam’s arms and face (and Sherlock’s, for that matter) they were alive and unharmed, good as they’d gone in. A glance at Ougi’s face made him suspect that wasn’t common for what they’d just gone through.
“Are you alright?” He asked Sam, eyes taking in the shallow scarlet wounds covering his body. Then he looked at Ougi, who was on her knees, and his sharp expression softened into something nearly kind.
He stepped towards her and slipped his coat off, draping it around her shoulders. She looked like someone in shock, and he didn’t have a blanket, which was what people had used on him when he was in shock, so he figured a heavy overcoat would be the next best thing. Assuming she was in actual shock and something magical and bad hadn’t happened to her, anyway.
He offered her a hand. “Sam’s right.” He called over the wind, and glanced at the way the storm was coming through narrowed eyes. The wind blew his black curls back from his face, and he looked back at Ougi. “We’ve got to get inside before anything else. Come on, we can think about what just happened in a couple minutes.”
The body, he noticed suddenly, was gone. As though the House had been waiting for something like this to happen...or as though it had decided to stop them from getting anything else off of it.
Interesting. He wanted to think about that more, but the icy wind was insistent enough to make even him decide to get to shelter first and ask questions later.

"My...charges?" Eises had never heard the term being used that way. She tilted her head, "You mean the Istra? Her name's Alistra...u-um if you mean the company I work for then it's The Echo." There was also the Mulidais and her Paistra, and even though those were supposed to be a secret, telling Myrnin wouldn't do any harm. It's not like he was from her world and could do something about it. She wasn't opposed to telling him about that.

"Change...?" The wolf assumed that by 'change', Myrnin meant emotionally. Going with that conclusion, she related all too well. "T-Twenty-five being part of your childhood? H-How old are you?" Was he one of those people who were in their 40s but looked to be in their 20s? Of course, she still didn't know that asking for age and weight was considered rude. Eises then looked disheartened for a second, "You were sold too?" Her ears flattened and she looked away for a few seconds. 

"Y-Yeah, um, here." To make up for the previous questions, she had her palms face upwards and within seconds a crown made of Serian appeared. "I-I used to make these as a kid too, when we played kings and queens." She planned on giving it to him, but her fingers pointed inwards and stiffened suddenly, causing the crown to crack and fall apart. "R-R-Read my mind?! When did you read my mind?" She wasn't mad at all, but moreso surprised. She didn't think something like that was even possible. Due to Calibris being in control during that room, Eises had no recollection of it happening. She barely remembered anything from the room in fact. This was when she would black out completely while Calibris was awake. 

"O-Oops..." Eises didn't mean to break the crown. She decided to use the broken pieces to make another small and horned mouse in one hand. With the other hand, she made another Serian crown and had it float over to Myrnin. With the creation of another mouse, the ice-lion from before leaped at her hand. Eises yelped and stepped back, narrowly dodging the large feline as it landed near her. It shook its haunches again before leaping again, this time for the ice-bird that sat on her hand. It squacked as she ducked, once again barely dodging as the lion leaped over her head. The ice-bird started flying away, and she watched as the lion chased after it. She didn't realise that during this time the ice-monkey had gathered a snow ball, and by the time she straightened up her back, it threw the snowball right at her face. 

--cato phoenix

Eises stretched her arms and rested them on the top of the sofa. I'm sure she'll understand, usually she listens to me, and I don't think she'd want to see me get hurt. She continued to stare blankly in front of her while she became lost in thought with a hint of stress. It was a little odd not finding another blinker here already, but she also enjoyed a bit of the silence.

She nearly jumped from her skin when someone blinked right in front of her. It was if the House had heard her thoughts. This damn place could give me a little warning at least. A soft beeping before someone blinked in would have been great, something to signal. Eises looked up to the stranger, and noted his skin briefly before he pulled his hood down. Was that a mask? Paint? She decided not to stare and only looked in his general direction.

"A-Ah? I-I take it you're new here?" Eises slowly got to her feet. Sitting so casually while talking to a stranger would be a little rude. "U-Um, welcome to the Paradox House?" She was terrible with giving explanations on the fly. Of course she had to be the only other blinker here when a new one appeared, just her luck. Leaving a bit of free time one of these days to practice the same explanation sounded like a good idea.

She exhaled deeply before continuing, "I-It has a habit of just calling people up whenever it wants, I-I don't really know why..." The House's decisions were always something she never put too much thought into. Trying to figure it out would just give her a headache. "B-But you'll be able to go back home like nothing ever happened, s-so don't worry! You can call me Eises." Did I miss anything? ....I missed something, didn't I? She fell quiet for a few seconds to think. "O-Oh! U-Um -" She then pointed to the hallway door, "-there's a bunch of doors through there. Don't go in them by yourself."

[[ Mordecai || Living Room || Numquam ]]

Already, Mordecai had a few ideas of what would happen when she noticed him; If she was a Shadehunter, she would attack him, if not, she would most likely run away screaming, or maybe stay there, frozen in fear and try to plead for her life. Unless by some miracle she hadn’t realized what he was yet, she probably wouldn’t be answering either of his questions.

He watched her reaction as well as he could without looking up and revealing his face again. Considering the way she jumped and momentarily froze looking in his direction... she had seen him. Or maybe she didn’t and she’s just shocked by the way you appeared out of thin air, he reminded himself.

When she finally spoke, her words confused him. They just... weren’t making sense. New here? New where? It was like she understood why he was there but hadn’t expected him either. He could sense something else- maybe someone else- nearby as well, but the energy of the building itself made it difficult to pinpoint. Was it enchanted to make it harder for a shade to sense energy? Maybe it was a trap, just a really strange one.

Mordecai tensed as the odd ra’sierri- he wasn’t sure what else she could be- got up from the couch. She didn’t seem aggressive though so he doubted that she was a Shadehunter... Unless she was just a distraction and the other energy he sensed was the hunter.

“Paradox House...” he repeated thoughtfully, trying to remember if he’d heard those words before. The shade tilted his head slightly as he listened to Eises’ explanation. Honestly... she sounded kind of crazy. Unless he was misunderstanding something, she seemed be under the impression that the building they were standing in was alive and that it had brought him there by itself. It did seem to have a very strong energy of its own, but that had to be some sort of illusion or enchantment... right? Why should I believe her? he asked himself, Why do I feel like I should? It was true though, he did feel like he could believe her, despite the fact that she was a total stranger stammering what should have seemed like nonsense.

“Oh, I, uh... nice to meet you,” Mordecai replied, blinking a couple of times as he refocused on the conversation. It had been awhile since he’d actually spoken with someone and though he had asked, he hadn’t really expected her to tell him who she was. It just seemed so... normal. “So, you’re saying that this... House, brought me here?” He asked, hesitantly placing his hand on the wall behind him. It should have been impossible, but it did feel alive. Curious, he glanced in the direction of the door she’d indicated. “Why, what’s behind them?”

Zacharie and Ougi - Inside Lodge - Sherlock, Legosi

Zacharie uprighted himself when the great wooden door swung open. It was powered so strongly by the blizzard outside that it continued its trajectory and whacked into the wall with a booming clang. The merchant nearly flipped the tray of snacks on the ground as he stumbled to his feet to get a better look at who had arrived. One of them blinked out on the spot, but two more were there.
“Oh, hello there. You must be from that big shadowy mass outside,” he presumed rather casually. “Good to see everyone is all right.”

Ougi was fading back into her old self, stepping into the room with Sherlock and Samuel but avoiding the fire. Ordinarily one would run to it first, but she was the opposite of something warm and bright. Especially right now. She held the coat Sherlock had given her over her shoulders, with no intention of returning it.
“You two are absurd,” she mumbled, finally allowed to be upset about their intrusion earlier. They could have died. It would have been idiotic of them, to say the least.
She approached Zacharie and Legosi and gave them both a curious look, based on their appearances alone. One with a mask, and one an upright wolf. Had she seen either of them in the Paradox House before? “...Hello.” With that, she continued her streak of refusing to introduce herself to new people, especially before they introduced themselves.

(Nah, it's good uwu- also, hope you're feeling better!)

Spinel looked a little confused at his response. However, she didn’t let that faze her; she smiled back, before turning to the blue glow. “Mm-hm,” she mumbled with a slight dip of her head, before adding in case it was helpful, “They came out of the gemstone over there.” This made her pause- was there a gem in there? Reforming maybe?
She didn’t get much time to think about this, however, as Sandalphon’s duplicate came into view once more. She frowned slightly, concern edging her features. Meanwhile, her copy stared at him with smug satisfaction, as though trying to goad him; a fact that was made blatantly obvious a moment later as she pouted when Sandalphon stepped up. Darn, guess she’ll have to wait for more fun. Ah well.
Their reactions to the information the fake spilt were clearly contrasting. Spinel just looked confused and unsure on what, if she should, say. Her fake merely narrowed her eyes, keeping a mental tab on it in case it would be useful later.
Other than that, both of them descended into silence, watching as Sandalphon replied to his copy, only for him to summon his swords once more. The only acknowledgements to this action were a dark look, and a hand clutching her gem for Spinel.
“Alrighty,” the latter replied, before tacking on a small, “Good luck!”
With that, the gem stepped back and began to watch, eyes wide.
Her copy, however, had different plans. Her magenta eyes went back and forth, watching the battle with absent-minded interest. Her thoughts were mainly consumed on what was going to happen next. It seemed like a losing battle for the real Primarch- if he did get defeated, then she’d probably launch herself at the fake anyways. A challenge, per se; he’d probably also be a bit weak with luck. If Sandalphon did win, however, she had a far different idea; she knew that she would probably get poofed or shattered herself; why not? She was a spare, not the real thing, correct? No, she’d have to do something big, something that would be one last punch instead of sitting on the sidelines any farther. Hm.
The fake kept watching, letting her thoughts broil and stew in her head.

HᥲꙆƒꙆɩɠᖾt

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

"Nobody has to shoot anybody if we can just calm down for a second!" shouted Matt, exasperated, as Volt called back to him. "Listen, every - HEY!" He protested loudly as he started forward, only to be immediately dragged back to the ground by the doctor. Practically seething with frustration now, he scrambled in the dust, trying to reorient himself so he could see what was going on.

"Doc!" he said, rounding on the person next to him. "This is insane! There didn't need to be a fight in the first place, if everyone had just waited half a second before pulling out all these weapons! I can still salvage this, but you gotta let me out there! Please?" He glanced back and forth between Doc and Ononoki, desperate. "This can't go on long without somebody getting hurt!"

Eises sheepishly scratched the back of her head, "I-It's a little weird at first, but you get used to it..." She wouldn't be surprised if he didn't believe her at the moment. She remembered how during her first blink, she assumed there was a hallucination spell at work and Ferre was simply part of it. It wasn't until her second blink that she fully believed him. 

"Y-Yeah. I-I don't think anyone knows why it brings us here, I just go along with it. T-There's nothing to worry about at least, time freezes in our worlds when we're brought here." Eises wasn't kidding when she said it was as if they didn't leave their worlds. It was convenient for the most part, but awkward at other times. The memories of blinking in when she was a bloody, broken-boned mess made her want to grit her teeth.

"Er...how to explain..." The wolf was surprised with how well she was explaining so far. "The doors lead to really random places, s-sometimes it looks like a regular room, but sometimes it's...an entire forest or a different building. Sometimes they don't have anything bad, b-but other times it's dangerous." That was another thing the House could have at least done for them, some kind of warning of what type of room you're about to enter. Eises really wasn't fond of surprises, which was a little ironic considering how often she ran into them. "You'll never know what you're gonna get until you enter." 

Did I get all the bases covered? Her mind was going a little to fast to think properly. "A-Ah! What's your name, by the way?" Eises couldn't believe that wasn't the first thing she asked. She knew she was forgetting something. He wouldn't get offended over that, would he? Memories of interacting with the rich Theians in Vers were a little too fresh in her mind.