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

Oh she was coming closer now. Myrnin could smell Eises much better than she could smell him - his scent was almost exclusively based on where he had been before he blinked in and the clothes he was wearing, vampires didn't have much of a scent. Myrnin had just been very unlucky that before blinking in, he had been among a press of bodies in New York. He smelled like humans. He didn't like it. He couldn't see Eises changing to become more wolf like - he just assumed that he was hidden enough that he wouldn't be discovered.

The cow moved on, as did the fox. The snow around him had remained in the same state as before. He didn't have any body heat, so none of it had melted. He was going to get bored here soon unless Eises got closer. He could tell where she was and it was near enough to see him if he moved. He remained where he was, hidden by the snow. He kept a careful ear on her heartbeat, however. 

What was she doing? It was very curious. She wasn't moving close enough to him. Had she spotted him? Or was he just being paranoid?

Nah. No, it was fine. She would have called him out if she had seen him, he was sure.

(Whoops, short.)

Rue | Statue Room | everyone

Rue blinked in about a foot off the ground and flying forward at a terrifying speed, her mouth wide in a silent shriek of both fear and rage as her small body hit the ground and rolled.
She tucked her arms and rolled to a crouch, trembling all over. Her dark eyes darted around the room and quickly took everything in: Statues. People. A tall gate surrounding the whole place. It looked neither safe nor dangerous, which made it automatically dangerous in her mind, because that was the default setting. Her whole body ached, not just from the fall but from everything she’s been forced to do over the last couple of days, and she felt something else, too. Something she hadn’t expected to feel.
She felt angry.
She pushed herself shakily for her feet and stared around, eyeing the people like they might come up and punch her at any second. And she thought she’d had trust issues before all this....

(Oh you're fine. <3 I myself have written a monster.)


"I really didn't," Myrnin said with a sigh. "I acted after a lot of thought. I analysed the room and the people in it. I weighed the risks. I fished for information. I did many of the same things that you did, L. I simple saw the mystery and the culprit  differently then you did."
The block he took was nearer the top and the top of the tower proceeded to list a bit more, only this time in the opposite direction. 
It almost tipped. Myrnin blew on it a bit. It didn't.
L ... was right about not asking for help. Myrnin looked away. "You're right about that," he murmured. He didn't ask for help. He didn't think to. He'd been mostly alone until the House had decided to blink him in. Now all the choices he had to make seemed to revolve around the safety and consideration of others. It was tiring. But he also didn't want to disappoint.
"I noticed," he said instead. "That you hate being wrong."
Not something he personally blamed L for, however.
Myrnin did have to pinch the bridge of his nose. L was thinking like a detective. What should he have suspected, he supposed?
"Yes," he said. "That's what you thought."
Then he pointed at the tower. "Your turn."
"But," he said after a second, "it isn't relevant. L ... when you enter a room, your thoughts are 'how do I solve this and be right.'" Myrnin leaned forward, eyes meeting L's. "When I enter the room, I think about the people in it. As people. I'm very emotional, yes, but it has a purpose. I look at you and I don't just think 'could he have done it?' I think 'if he did do it, what will I do? what will that mean? what is the House trying to do? who will be most hurt by the end of this room?'" He sat back again. "If you wanted to know what I was thinking in that room, the first thing was 'what happens if one of my friends did it?' It doesn't particularly matter in the long run if someone is killed within the House. The Arena Room has not been the first or the last room when blinker turned on blinker. It isn't unusual to sometimes have to kill a friend. But that room was different ... we didn't know the consequences. The best I could deduce was the stakes." He waved his hand. "Out of the people in the room, who would actually enjoy killing someone else? There weren't a lot of options if you think about it like that. So, the House likely had a constituent. You do x or I'll do y. In which case ... it had us try and be a hunting party when the person being hunted likely didn't desire to do the deed."
Myrnin rested his chin in his hands.
"L ... You, Touka, and Shade were in that room. Do you understand how that felt? Over a fifty percent chance that one of the friends I care about might have been put at risk. I wish you had all blamed me. I wanted you all to. I didn't want to see the House hurt you."

(Hi! It's cool- I hope everything's alright uwu.
I'd be down to continue the room if you are!
HᥲꙆƒꙆɩɠᖾt)

Nico | Trust Exercise Room | ®Hawkpath®

Nico was used to entering rooms, far more used to it than Kelsier was. He’d been doing it since he was ten years old, risking his life for whatever the House wanted to show him. Whatever the House thought they deserved to be put through. It wasn’t all bad, a fact which Nico found almost impossible to forget. When he needed a distraction from the chaos of his world, the House was more than willing to provide him with something to take his mind off it all. Even if that “something” was deadly and painful and made him reveal his deepest secrets to a stranger. Except… not a stranger, because Kelsier knew more about him than most of the people in his world who had known him for years. Perhaps that was more on Nico than the House, though he was loathe to admit it. He kept people away for a reason, he didn’t want the House getting its hands in his relationships with other people. With Kelsier… well, with Kelsier it was too late. It already had. But, Nico reminded himself, it was Kelsier who made himself someone worth trusting, not the House.
These thoughts and more echoed through Nico’s head as Kelsier came closer and closer, less a dark form and more a real, actual person. A person with a heartbeat and breath in his lungs and an aura that Nico could see. Alive, so alive, and that could all end if Nico so much as put his foot in the wrong place and fell, losing his hold on the rope. Fortunately, he thought he had a pretty good grip. Nico continued to hold steady and walk forward – faster, once he heard Kelsier ask for it – and Kelsier continued to not fall. Equilibrium, it seemed. Both of their lives in the balance, and neither willing to give in to the distrust the House had possibly tried to foster in them. If it thought they were going to let the other fall… well, then it had another thing coming. The reason Nico kept hanging on had nothing to do with the Skaa. Nothing to do with Kelsier’s world, other than the fact that Kelsier resided in it. He didn’t have to know how many lives rested in Kelsier’s hands to know that Kelsier was someone who was worth saving, if only because he’d been kind. Kind and understanding to a degree that Nico was finding… quite difficult to comprehend.
And then Kelsier dropped and Nico almost rushed forward. By the time he had processed it, Kelsier was already on the ground, unharmed. Though Nico was definitely uncomfortable with the sudden proximity, he didn’t take a step back. This time it wasn’t some display of strength, merely a challenge to himself. A challenge that was quickly forgotten as Kelsier stepped back and increased the distance, and Nico let himself breathe. Kelsier hadn’t needed to step back. He hadn’t needed to remember the way Nico’s breath hitched when someone got too close, but he had. Nico didn’t know for sure what to make of that. Just the fact that he knowingly took a step back, not threatening Nico’s boundaries… that in and of itself deserved a thank you that Nico didn’t know how to put words to.
“Easy?” Nico replied, voice indignant as he processed what Kelsier said. It had been terrifying, and also he was half convinced Kelsier was going to jinx it. Then again, the House seemed to do what it wanted no matter what people said, so maybe he didn’t need to worry about the latter. “Speak for yourself,” he added, but hidden in his voice was a thread – just a thread, something frail and almost undetectable – of amusement at the situation. “I suppose…” he frowned, looking up at the cliff they had both just made it down, “It was easier than the climbing wall back at camp, but that’s just because there’s no lava on this one. Or arrows being shot at you.” He glanced at Kelsier and almost smirked, daring the man to determine how many of his words were little lies told to keep Kelsier guessing at the strangeness of his world, and how many of them were actually true. It was, perhaps, even more amusing considering every little detail Nico had a tendency to drop was true. It all just sounded bizarre.
Words forgotten only a few moments after they left his mouth, Nico looked around to see if there was any hint as to what they should do next. There was nothing obvious now that they were down the mountain, and for a brief moment Nico wondered if they had even come down the right way. But they had the ropes and harnesses around them in order to get down, and they had taken the only logical route, so… that wasn’t the issue.
“Thank you,” Nico murmured after a long moment of silence, his tone somber. “You could have found a way down yourself without waiting for me, or trusting me to help you once I was already down… you could have gone first and made a run for it, or something, but…” Gods, Nico was bad at this. It wasn’t often he had to rely on other people in such a substantial way. Sure, he had pulled his weight – er, Kelsier’s weight – here, but it was different. In his world, they had no choice. Here, Kelsier, in spite of everything, had chosen to help. “Just… I appreciate being on the ground. Thanks to you.” He shut his mouth, hoping that would suffice. Hoping he hadn’t made things weird, or said too much. He hadn’t looked at Kelsier as he had spoken, too uncertain what he would find in the man’s expression. By all logic, they should hate each other, but here they were, alive at the bottom of a mountain because they didn’t.
It was a good thing he had been looking away, it seemed, as his eyes caught on something in the distance. A hut, perhaps? Nico couldn’t see it that well, though he figured that was as good a place to go next as any. He scarcely waited for Kelsier’s response before he turned and began to head towards it.

Gin | Statue room | ®Hawkpath® |

Gin's frantic attempt to remember what the place he was currently trapped in was called was cut short by Rue hitting the ground a few inches from him with a heavy THUD.

"AAH, NO, I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE H- " began Gin, waving his arms as he blurted out a frantic explanation, thinking he was about to be dragged off to who knows where, only to stop, realizing the person who had startled him was just a little girl. Not particularly Amanto looking, he noted, and she'd just appeared. She looked worried. Maybe she was like him...?

Stepping past the little pink person to his left, he approached Rue, more curious than anything. "Hey," he said dully, sitting down on a nearby crouching statue's shoulders and giving her a lazy wave. "You alright?

Rue | Statue Room | <Raintalon>

Rue looked up sharply as someone addressed her, someone unfamiliar and...well. He didn’t look all that excited to be here. She guessed he was probably one of the more experienced blinkers, based on how apathetic about all this he looked.
She was anything but apathetic, however, and took a careful step back, widening to distance between them.
“Hey.” She answered cautiously. She didn’t know whether he was a threat, after all. He could have been anyone, and he might be thinking about a fight, despite his sleepy appearance. “I’m fine, thanks. Just...fell.”
It sounded lame to her own ears. Who went flying through the air when they tripped? But she didn’t really want to talk about her situation at the moment, and she really didn’t need to look weak. Never mind being thrown, that would get her straight up killed before she even set foot in the Games.
“Are you alright?” She asked a little desperately, grasping for anything to change the subject.

Rue | Statue Room | <Raintalon>

Rue had the feeling she was being studied right back, which was...unnerving, to say the least. Not that she wasn’t used to it by now, but after so many years of being invisible, it did kind of get to you, being stared at.
Still, he wasn’t immediately attacking her, which as a good sign.
She was still nervous, but she drew herself up anyway and stared back, watching him cautiously but not in terror. She wasn’t telling him the whole story, and she wasn’t going to. It would have to be good enough for him.
She blinked. To her surprise, it seemed to actually be fine with him. Well, he wasn’t nosy, she had to give him that.
She shrugged. “Some people look fine when they aren’t.” She pointed out, and left it at that.
“I’m Rue, by the way. What’s your name?”

Orpheus | Statue Room

Orpheus turned as he heard a voice loud enough that it may have been addressing him.
"Victims?" he replied, his voice rising about an octave. He clutched his guitar close to him, looking around for some kind of threat. Okay, maybe he wasn't the best under threat, but Ougi had put him at least a little on edge. Orpheus took a deep breath, calming himself and looking around. There was nobody being attacked at the moment, and it seemed that there was nothing other than other blinkers - none of whom seemed to be looking for a fight - and the strange statues. Then again, Orpheus wasn't so new that he thought the House wouldn't hide an attack in something seemingly innocent.
Thinking for a moment, he took a step away from the nearest statue, wanting to be prepared in case they attacked.

Rue | Statue Room | <Raintalon>

Rue narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t follow up on that little comment. He was right, of course. It was entirely possible that neither of them were actually fine. It just hit a little too close to home, that was all.
Was she fine? That was a matter of perspective, she supposed. She was still breathing, after all, wasn’t she? She was still alive. Not everyone could say that.
His response to her asking for his name surprised her, interesting...so either something to do with names was important (or dangerous) in his world, or he specifically wasn’t sure he wanted her to know his. Could be a power thing.
She realized she had no way of knowing what he was trying to hide without asking. Which she wasn’t going to do, so they were stuck for the moment.
“Gin.” She repeated, tasting the name. Sounded Capital to her ears, but obviously those rules didn’t apply here, and she couldn’t judge someone based on what they were called. So she offered a small, friendly smile instead, hoping that whatever they were keeping from each other, they could still get along.
“Kanji?” She repeated, and a frown clouded her expression. “Sorry, I don’t know what that is. Um...it’s a kind of plant.”

Orpheus | Statue Room | Mostly Razzle Dazzle

Orpheus did not easily dislike people, but he would say that Ougi was certainly starting on the wrong foot. He watched her for a second, trying to think of a clever retort. None came. He wasn't a coward though, and he dislike the assumption that he was. Just because he wasn't the most intimidating person in the world didn't mean that he was easy to hurt. He liked to think he was stronger than he appeared, but maybe that was just arrogance.
"As long as you aren't directly threatening us, I think I'll be fine," Orpheus replied after a few moments, voice back to normal. Still higher than was probably expected, but it didn't hold the same panic as before. Surely not everyone here could fight - based on the people Orpheus had met so far, he couldn't think of anyone other than Arlo who appeared to be a warrior of any kind. Therefore, the House wasn't going to make them fight... often, at least. Or so Orpheus hoped.

Kelsier | Trust Exercise Room | strider

If Kelsier had been in more rooms, maybe he would have been more careful with what he said. But the truth was he was still rather new and not used to the situation yet, despite everything he’d already seen in this place, despite all the people he already knew. Most of the people actually seemed nice. Maybe that was part of the reason Kelsier loathed the House, and everything it did, even the good parts. Because it brought them all in and it hurt them, and then it acted like it could make it all better with a few butterflies and a flowers and sunlight.
Not that Kelsier hadn’t loved the flowers. Having none in his own world, he had been brought to tears by the sight of them. But, and he could never forget this: they did not make up for what the House had put them through right before. Nothing could make up for the pain, physical and mental, they’d both endured in that room. No matter how nice the House pretended to be, it was just a bully with too much power, and Kelsier planned to find a way to stop it.
He hadn’t told anyone. He had barely even come to the conclusion yet himself.
But something so cruel and powerful shouldn’t exist.
When he stepped back, he’d done it out of courtesy to Nico, because he remembered all too well how the boy had flinched away from anyone too close, and he thought he was probably the last person in any world Nico would want near him. After what he had done before, he doubted he would ever be allowed within a foot of him, and he thought that was more than fair, really. He had killed him, after all, and he had been smiling when he did it.
And they were still here, still trusting each other, and not because of the lives each of them held. Because of them. Because they were people, real people, and they actually didn’t want the other to die. Somehow, impossibly, it seemed they really had moved past that first awful room.
“Well, we didn’t fall, right?” He pointed out airily, a grin on his features as Nico expressed his indignation. He probably was going to jinx it, but it would be worth it to call the House out on it’s lame challenge. Oh, climb down a mountain and trust each other, so hard. Except they had done it, and they were down, and they were fine, they were both fine. Not that Kelsier was surprised that Nico hadn’t dropped him. He had known the boy wouldn’t, for the simple reason that he trusted him. And that trust, that feeling that had been shattered before...maybe he gave it too easily. But maybe, maybe he gave it to the right people.
He almost choked at the next words. “Lava?” He repeated incredulously, raising his eyebrows at the boy. “Arrows? Are you sure this is your camp and not the people trying to kill you? Because it sounds like someone was trying to kill you.
He shook his head. He didn’t think Nico was lying, but he did think that anyone who was shooting arrows at you probably didn’t like you very much. Nico had implied that the people back home didn’t like him very much, but he hadn’t thought it was that bad. Not shooting-arrows-at-your-head bad. Maybe he’d misjudged….
Or maybe it was just training. Intense training. How old was Nico again? Kelsier had his doubts about their system of training children, and he thought he’d like to have a word with whoever was in charge, which would probably never happen.
Kelsier looked around as well, noting the changes in their surroundings. Now that they were down, he had expected something obvious to show up, like a door or a monster or something. But there was nothing, nothing but rock that he could see.
He looked at Nico. The boy looked so small, standing there, thanking him for what? Treating him like a person? Not abandoning him? The Mistborn was surprised to be thanked at all; though he often was in his own world nowadays, he doubted he would ever get used to it. He had been a thief and a liar for too long, he supposed.
“You’re welcome.” He replied, and gave a bright, boyish grin. “Thanks for not dropping me. You could have walked away once I helped you down, and I wouldn’t have been able to do a thing to stop you. But you didn’t. You helped me down and now here we are, ready to take on whatever happens now.”
He had no idea what the House would throw at them next. But he thought he was ready to find out.
And they didn’t hate each other at all. They actually were making progress, and Kelsier couldn’t help being glad.
And then Nico was off, and Kelsier was following, even before he saw the hut in the distance. Not that he thought Nico wouldn’t just take off in a random direction after thanking the man who had killed him, but he was relieved to see they had a destination.
He caught up to the boy easily, keeping a good distance between then as they headed for the building. Hoping it wasn’t something awful. Hoping that maybe the House would actually be nice to them. And Kelsier thinking about everything he would lose if he ever managed to tear this place apart.