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

Kelsier | Trust Exercise Room | strider

Kelsier’s smiles were one thing he gave freely, and to anyone. He gave his deadly ones to his enemies, the ones that could kill better than knives. He gave his softer ones to the people he cared about, the people he would die for without a moment’s hesitation.
What about Nico? What sort of smile did he give him? Not his dangerous ones, no, they were past that, but were they at a point where he could give his gentle, friendly grin? He didn’t think so, not yet anyway. They were neither friends nor enemies, dangerous nor safe, and he didn’t like not knowing. He was supposed to know where he stood with people, like he did in his world, where things were so much simpler and he knew what he was doing. Not like here, where every time he tried to act on what he thought he knew, he was wrong and someone paid for his blunder. Nico’s death still weighed on him, though he acted like it didn’t, because there was nothing he could do about it now besides try and heal their relationship as best he could.
No, he didn’t expect them to ever be friends. But he was grateful for how far they’d come. Nico hadn’t walked away, even though he knew more about Kelsier than most people in the Mistborn’s own world, even though he knew the deep secrets that could only have been torn into the open air by force.
If only he knew where they stood now. They’d managed to trust each other, sure, but was that just the House sticking its thumb into their lives again? He briefly considered whether the House had messed with their emotions to make them trust each other, like some overpowered Soother, but he didn’t think so. He would have felt it.
Right?
“One day.” He agreed, raising a mischievous eyebrow at the boy. “We might learn from our mistakes and stay on the safe side. One day we might outsmart the House and break out of here, never to return. Or maybe we’ll burn it all down and walk away.” His expression went a shade more serious as he continued, thinking of everything they’d been through, everything they’d seen. Both together and alone. “But until then, we’ll probably just keep going right into rooms, and seeing what happens. Because we’re both in constant danger anyway, right? Where’s the fun in avoiding adventure?”
That was how he thought of it, anyway. No use avoiding danger when it followed you like a hungry dog.
He laughed lightly as Nico continued, and his eyebrows raised in spite of himself. He was impressed, even if he wasn’t going to admit it. “You’ve had a busy life.” He commented, the edges of his lips quirking up in a playful smile. “I’ll have you know, I’m going to win an impossible war, so that one’s taken care of. I’ve traveled long distances in remarkably short periods of time, too, not halfway around the world maybe, but I feel like it should count. Haven’t raised the dead, though.”
He paused, considering that. “Nope. Definitely haven’t raised an army of the dead. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.”
He continued, looking down at his skates. They were, indeed, very hard to walk in. What was the use of shoes that made walking so hard, anyway? That seemed...oddly counterproductive. At least, until he got to the ice and realized how fast he could now go.
It was a lot like flying. The ice was so smooth under his feet, and the skates were perfectly made for sliding over the slick surface, faster than he’d expected. When he managed to stop, it was more accident than it was on purpose, but was he about to admit that? Of course not.
Until Nico asked him how he’d done it, and his expression faltered slightly, his lips pursing as he tried to think of some way to sound cool and still admit that he probably couldn’t do it again.
“I didn’t mean to.” He admitted finally, giving up the attempt. “Or...I did mean to, but I don’t know how I did it? I was trying to stop so I just kind of leaned a little and I think maybe the edges of my skates scratched the ice. Maybe.”
When he looked at Nico, he saw, once again, a boy who’d been through too much and forced to grow up far too fast. But this time, he also saw a hint of another boy. A laughing boy, who played on the ice and drank hot chocolate afterwards, a boy Kelsier wanted to get to know.
He smiled. Maybe, maybe, maybe something good could come of this. He could hope, anyway.
He watched as Nico moved, sliding around on the ice and seeming to get the hang of how to steer. The Mistborn turned to keep watching him, then sucked in a surprised breath as his legs nearly slid out from under him, even though the movement had been barely even noticeable.
He laughed again, and pushed off, sliding towards the center of the rink, away from the protection the walls offered. “Bet you can’t catch me!” He called, glancing over his shoulder to shoot Nico a bright smile full of childish mischief.

Myrnin | His own personal hell - I mean Arena Part 2 | ®Hawkpath® strider

It was like a distant spark of light danced in Myrnin's eyes as he almost recognized what he was doing. There had been a boy - and he knew the boy's name had been Nico but that hadn't mattered to him - and then the body of the man - and he'd known the name of the man too, but that hadn't mattered either - was gone. He also knew how that happened, but like he was treating the whole situation like object impermanence, he turned away.
His hand was wet and sticky with blood. He looked at it, knew what it was, and dropped the weapon he was holding. It feel to the ground.
The silver knife still hung at his belt.
Myrnin half wiped the blood on his coat, while also licking it away in other cases. His eyes were a very pale, watery gold, his mind still invading anything nearby. Nothing was, until L came closer.
Myrnin turned, his hand dropping to his side.
He frowned, a couple of thoughts joining up with each other to connect the identity of the blinker to a couple of emotions.
Guilt. Sadness. Horror.
Myrnin shuddered, the gold in his eyes flickering back to green for a second and then to gold before slipping into a pale green. The sick feeling in his stomach was back, even though it was distant. Myrnin could smell Kelsier's blood and it made the feeling worse. Looking across the grass at L, he blinked at the detective before taking a step back.
Fear. Fear was growing, larger and larger.
He'd slipped into it without doing anything. He hadn't tried reading anyone's mind, or manipulating any memories, or any of a couple other reasons. He'd just ... lapsed.
No, no, no. What had he done?
The memory of Nico's expression was sharp and vivid. He hadn't been attacked. Myrnin had hurt him. Whoever Kelsier was, he wasn't an enemy.
Myrnin stumbled, like the world was pressing down at his shoulders. He hadn't decided what he was going to do in this room. He hadn't made any choice at all. It had just happened. But he wanted to be him. He had to him if he was here. There wasn't anything else which he wanted more than that.
If he wasn't himself ... that happened. That happened and he could see Kelsier's smile at Nico and Myrnin couldn't deal with that.
He glanced at L and took another step back. No. No, he couldn't explain. It was dangerous to be around people until he was sure he was him again.
"Stay back!" Myrnin shouted, voice jumping an octave until it broke. Then a final step and he was blurring toward the woods ...

Nico took shadow jump after shadow jump, finally ending up in a clearing that seemed (key word, seemed) deserted, and finally let himself collapse onto the ground again, Kelsier beside him. There was no underworld here. He couldn’t burn the body with a funeral shroud like he would in his world, as it would alert the other blinkers to his position and also potentially start an actual fire. That was the last thing he wanted. He looked around once more to make sure that there was nobody else around before he forced himself shakily to his feet. He might not be able to do this the right way, and he really had no idea whether Kelsier would need his body in order to come back, but it felt wrong to let the body stay as it was.

“I don’t know your religion,” he whispered to the body. “I know so little about you.” It was true, he didn’t know as much as he should have. He knew the kind of man Kelsier was, and he knew his secrets, but they had only ever had one opportunity for small talk. He didn’t know why, but he found he wanted to know.

“I know you shouldn’t have died,” he added quietly, trying to gather up as much strength as he had in him. The shadow jumps – especially dragging dead weight – had been more effort than his body was prepared for.

“I can’t give you a proper sendoff… I don’t know if I’ll see you again…” and he wanted to. He wanted to talk to Kelsier about all of this. He wanted to ask Myrnin what had happened, he wanted to break into Myrnin’s world and find a cure for those gods damned golden eyes because even if he wasn’t willing to admit it to himself, this wasn’t Myrnin’s fault. The Myrnin he knew didn’t do this. It would take a long time for him to let himself acknowledge that truth.

Finally, Nico took a deep breath and closed Kelsier’s eyes, trying to fix up the collar of the now bloodied shirt so it covered up the wound. It felt disrespectful, not to have a shroud… he couldn’t let himself think of that. If he couldn’t give Kelsier the right sendoff for his world, he might as well give him the closest approximation to the Greek one he could. There was no underworld here to join, he knew that, but he had to do something with his shaking hands.

The words of Greek burial rites left his lips almost silently as he held out his hand and a chasm began to open under the body. Kelsier’s body was slowly lowered down into the earth, and as soon as it was deep enough the earth closed seamlessly back into place. Flowers… were there flowers anywhere? Fatigue was pulling at Nico’s consciousness as he searched, but he soldiered on until he found one. It was small and not particularly vibrant, but it was better than anything Kelsier had in his world, so it would have to do. Carefully – hoping he didn’t kill it with his powers as he did so – Nico dug into the soft ground with his hands and lifted the delicate flower up, roots and all. The dirt at the top of Kelsier’s makeshift grave shifted enough to make room for the earth and roots, and Nico set the plant gently down. A delicate, too fragile headstone. It was all Nico could think to do. He wiped his hands on his bloodstained jeans, taking a step back to look at it. It would have to do.

Nico squeezed his eyes shut and forced in a breath. The simple task had taken more from him than he cared to admit, and he needed to rest before he was cornered here. The boy slipped off his jacket and settled down into a crook in the roots of one of the nearby trees, tucking the balled-up jacket under his head like a pillow.



Even though he knew what the outcome was going to be, Orpheus still wasn’t prepared to see it. He clapped a hand over his mouth as he watched the flash of a knife and heard the thin, tinny screams coming from the screen. No. No, this wasn’t happening, because that was somebody he knew, that wasn’t just a stranger. His brown eyes widened in fear at the unmoving body on screen, and the look in that boy’s eyes as he whisked it away with him. The room suddenly became a lot more real for Orpheus, especially as his surroundings began to change ever so slightly, revealing screens following every blinker. The one that was black – the one that said Kelsier – it made his heart stopped. He still remembered being in a room with him, he still remembered they way Kelsier had reassured him when he was most nervous.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, like magic, stood Kelsier.

“You’re alive,” he gasped softly, trying to see any trace of blood or injury on the man. How could that be, when the body was still so clearly visible in the room? More for himself than anyone else, Orpheus softly plucked another few chords, hoping the music would still his beating heart – and hopefully remind the others in the room that they were okay. They were alive, which meant they didn’t have to do what the House wanted. The thing was, as Orpheus and L had discussed so clearly last time he was here… he had no idea what the House wanted. None of them did, not really.

Orpheus turned his attention to the screens. L was approaching the man who had murdered Kelsier, which… didn’t seem like a good idea. Then again, of everyone Orpheus had met in the House, it was L’s judgement he trusted best. For a man used to distrusting, if he trusted someone enough to get closer to them after they had just killed someone… Orpheus wasn’t going to question his decision.

The gentle chords broke off suddenly, a muted cacophony of strings as the world seemed to upend itself. The screen that had featured L front and center was fire and dust, and then… and then nothing. Just tattered cloth. Orpheus recoiled as though he himself had been struck, staring at the screen in shock and horror. Kelsier’s death he had seen coming. It didn’t make it any easier, but at least he had time to dread it before it occurred. This… this was just not fair. Neither of them deserved it, but Orpheus had spoken to L twice and Kelsier only once. Though he became easily attached to everyone he met, it seemed he had developed a soft spot in his heart for the detective. Perhaps because he had inspired Orpheus’ plan. A plan that – like L – had just been blown to pieces by the House. Who was he to make this fair? Nobody could, let alone one musician from a small town who had big ideas for the world (or worlds, as it were), but no way to enact them.

Myrnin | His own personal hell - I mean Arena Part 2 | ®Hawkpath® strider

Please stay with me.
It caused the wild-eyed vampire to pause, half turned. Now he looked like a feral animal. Not a lion or wolf or some apex predator, but a deer. A deer caught, not sure whether it should run away or not.
It was his friend. It was L. It choked at his throat, seeing him coming, but one of his hands rose. Just a little, the beginning of a gesture to signal that he would wait for the detective. Maybe ... maybe he would be able to know what to do - what choice Myrnin could make. A way to scrub the image of what he had done out of his head, a way to keep his choices his.
Then the world exploded.
More than the world.
Myrnin wasn't that close to the blast, but the sound wave hit him full in the face, bringing him to his knees. His ears rung, his vision swam, the world shook around him even though the shaking was all in his brain. His breath caught in his throat, choking. He blinked, and blinked, and tried to focus enough. Smoke filled the air, stinging his nose. More than that. More than just smoke.
Myrnin choked, hands pressed against the earth. The world still shook, his ears still rung with a deafening roar, but a new sound joined it.
A keening howl that started in the back of his throat and echoed in the air, pain and grief and fear and anger and a thousand other things blazing through him. His eyes at once shifted again.
Red.
Bleeding red, tears and fear and so much anger. Directed at the House and its stupid games. How it had finally found a way to make him feel powerless. How it had finally worked out a way he couldn't act like he normally did.
His fangs were out, his howl directed at the dirt and grass below him. It was only for a second, but in that second he didn't sound any different from a wolf and looked just as hunted.
Then just as quickly he was on his feet, racing toward the forest, his form shifting into a blur. Running. Running, and running and not stopping.

---

Samuel | Hunger Games Viewing Room

Biting his lip, he mumbled in an even low voice, "I'll figure it out. Find somewhere."
His words cut off when he found himself in the House. He took a step back, almost running into one of those white walls. But then he composed himself.
"What's happening?" he asked, looking from the few faces in the room. They all looked shocked, though he wasn't sure what had happened to do so.
He took a step away from the wall, stepping toward the screens. He looked over them, watching the chaos flooding the images on them.
He'd missed L's death, and was instead left with the image of torn up ground and not much else.
He turned back and looked at Orpheus and the faint noise of music. Then looked at Kelsier.
"Is something going on?"
He didn't know anyone here, anyway.

| Victoria | Hunger Games Room | Heading into the forest with Shade |

Victoria whined, her chain tinkling as she flattened her ears back against her head. She didn't like this. She nodded, sprinting after Shade as the fighting broke out. The wolf kept up easily, her gears falling into a steady rythm of clicking with the occasional rusty screech as something bumped into something else in a way it wasn't quite supposed to. She kept herself at Shade's side, close enough to feel safe yet never bumping into her or accidentally tripping her.

The wolf felt her heart become more at ease as she entered the trees. Broken sunlight streamed through the leafy boughs, causing the steel wool on her shoulders to glisten irregularly. "So I suppose we gotta find a place to camp for the night. I like camping. Or I guess I usually do. Not right now, though. 'Cause usually camping has marshmallows and hot dogs and campfire songs and maybe canoeing and stuff like that. And we definitely don't have a canoe. And we probably don't have any marshmallows either because marshmallows are nice things and the house isn't really being very nice to us right now. So it probably didn't give us marshmallows."

Ononoki - Hunger Games Room, into the forest - The Doctor and Gin

The doll girl had not lowered her gaze from The Doctor when she called her a friend, and her eyes widened ever so slightly at the remark.
"...Are we friends?" she asked simply, passively. She had no hopefulness in her voice, but no dread either. But there was a listlessness to her tone that had never been there before, paired finally with a drift of her gaze away to focus on nothingness.

Even when an explosion echoed around them, she did not so much as flinch, as if immune to the feeling. She only walked on, now accompanied by two more people than before when she had just stepped off the platform. She supposed if The Doctor trusted Gin for now, then so would she. The Doctor could be her sub-boss, and Gin could be her sub-sub boss. There. Thinking about it that way allowed her to function again.
"Cover... get away from the center, I said with a posed look," she murmured to copy Gin and followed him as well as his instructions. Ononoki strolled to safety with her pigtails swaying and her mouth a straight line, void of emotion. "We should be careful," she added ominously, "There are people everywhere."

Czeslaw - Hunger Games Room, in the trees - Shade and Victoria

There was a hollow, resonant thwack as a single crossbow bolt pierced through the canopy and rained down on the forest floor at lightning speed. It came from slightly deeper in the woods, and was aimed at Shade.

Knowing he would not be able to reload the crossbow while positioned on this tree limb, Czeslaw stashed the mechanism on his back with the strap around his torso and crept closer to the tree's main trunk. He would stay poised there to be sure those below did not see him, but his eyes were sharp and on the lookout in case they did. Making chase was the worst case scenario, and the boy was only attempting to end this quickly. If others could see him past the foliage, they would know immediately that he was on-edge.
If he was successful, no one would see him at all.

| Victoria | Hunger Games Room | Someone Shot Shade... Shit |

"Oh, yeah, and I can help hunt stuff!" Victoria cut in, only to freeze as she heard the whistling of a bolt. The moment she heard it, Shade was yelping in pain and lurching against a tree. Victoria cowered away, lowering herself to the forest floor, her ears flattened. As soon as Shade started sluffing off the bags and looking at the wound, Victoria ran over. She looked at Shade nervously, then looked to where the bolt had come from. She sniffed the air, and she smelled people. People besides Shade. A low warning growl sounded in her throat- though such a hostile sound sounded decidedly out of practice. She stood between Shade and the direction the bolt had come from, and looked back at Shade. "You're hurt... this is a really bad start. Is someone gonna shoot again? I dunno who even did it, but they just shot and we weren't even bothering them, or gonna take anything from them, 'cause we even have stuff to share..."

"I guess you gotta... get it out of there or stop the bleeding or something... I dunno, the Inventor always fixes me up so I never gotta think about that stuff and know how to fix it. Whenever I get hurt... I just go to him and he helps me." Victoria rambled. "Wait! I could still do that! I could go find someone to help us!"

| Enjolras | Hunger Games Room | Heading into the woods for the World's Worst Camping Trip with Vincent |

Enjolras drew back as Myrnin started towards Kelsier. Yep, time to get out of here. He took a step back, his gaze still drawn to the scene as L approached. As the explosion sounded he flinched, taking quick retreating steps into the woods.

He reacted almost insantly as Vincent pushed him, grabbing at the other blond's arm. "Don't touch me." He pushed the hand away. He was normally a bit tense, but with the murders in the background and the uneasy smirks that Vincent was giving him was enough to make him quite stand-offish.

He made sure to watch where Myrnin had streaked off to, and was glad to see that it was in quite a different direction.

"Myrnin will be one to watch out for. And whoever the other one streaking off into the forest was." Enjolras commented as he walked. He threw the man walking behind him back a glance pointedly, as if highlight the manner in which he followed behind.

Shade | HG Arena | Cloverleaf

When Victoria didn't leave after saying she would, Shade blinked, then smiled genuinely when she came to nudge her hand for more scratches, which she was happy to give. Setting the bags back down, she lifted both hands to give the wolf dual-ear-scratches. With nails like her, scratches and pets were really very fabulous. "I'll be okay, I appreciate your concern, though," she said, scritching not just her ear but around and under her jaw while she was at it.

"Its okay if you don't find anybody, we'll make do if we need to. Don't stay gone too long," she said, scratching under her chin and then giving a gentle pat on her head to round it all off.

Vincent | HG room, Enj gets a shit roommate | Cloverleaf

Vincent glanced back in surprise at the sound of an explosion, whistling softly to himself. The House wasn’t playing games with this room - well, it was, but the sakes were impressive. Blinkers were going to start panicking, getting violent, and getting unpredictable. It was going to be a delight to witness...if he could stay alive.

The blond’s eyebrows shot up at Enjolras’s sharp response, pulling back his hand in a defensive manner as he scowled him. The Frenchman would need to be a temporary thing, or he was going to get testy too quick. He could appeal to the man if he wanted to, but after seeing him get tossed around in the Murder Mystery Room, he didn’t seem valuable enough to spoil his fun over. They could use each other to steady themselves in the new room for now, and split paths as soon as he felt endangered.

He listened to him talk with a pursed smile, scanning his back with a look of amusement and vague interest. “Hange?” He asked, tapping the air around his eye in reference to their googles. “Huh,” he hummed to himself, a sound that suggested he had a thought on the matter, and the following silence suggesting he wasn’t going to speak up about it. Instead, he quirked an eyebrow back at the man as he looked back, his smug smirk still on his face. The new throwing knife was still in his right hand, twirling absently in his fingers as he waited for the man to prompt the next stretch of conversation.

| Enjolras | Hunger Games Room | In the woods with Vincent |

"Hey, you allied with me, remember? Our best bet is to stick together..." There was an unsaid For now. in his sentence. Enjolras turned forwards again, curls bouncing as he did so. He pushed aside a branch, holding onto it as he passed so it wouldn't slide past him and thwack Vincent. The temptation was there- but he figured it wasn't worth getting shanked over.

"Yes. Hange." Enjolras tested out the name, nodding as Vincent indicated the goggles. He heard a noise and looked over, scanning the trees. Nothing, apparently. He raised his eyebrows expectantly at Vincent's thoughtful hum. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Vincent | HG Room | Enj

Vincent tilted his head at the man’s defensiveness, looking ever-so-innocent as he found it necessary to define the situation. He smiled as he turned back, curls bouncing about in his fit. “Where else could I possibly go?” He sighed, flicking the blade in his grasp again. He followed behind him without ever passing a second glance towards the branch, though making a mental note of his intelligence.

He lifted his chin slightly at the question, seeming to think about it for a prolonged moment. He had no clue what Hange’s situation was, and he didn’t have much to theorize with. It was doubtful Enjolras had anything beneficial to contribute to his thoughts, so there was no real point in speaking up on the matter. Luckily, all the excitement had him feeling chatty. “Do you often see humans act like that?” He asked the man with a grin. He was mildly curious if it could be the House’s way of spicing up the game - perhaps something contagious? They’d need to put an end to that if it was, since becoming a feral animal didn’t sound too desirable. Either way, they were just another threat on the table at the moment.

Ononoki - Hunger Games Room in the forest - Arlo, The Doctor, Gin

While The Doctor talked with Gin about surviving in the trees, Ononoki's mind seemed completely blank, but she was listening all the while. In fact, there were always thoughts running through her head that no one else saw or knew about. And right now, she was thinking about mentioning that she could survive in the trees too. She was thinking about whether it would be useful to know, that she could jump fifty feet in the air and cling to a branch this instant, and no matter how long it took for the final tribute to croak, she would be poised there and not even request water or a break.

Unable to gauge how useful that information was to The Doctor and Gin, she opted to say nothing. She instead turned her attention and her body toward the hidden Arlo, silent other than the sound of the peat under her yellow galoshes during her pivoting steps. Much like when she first saw The Doctor chasing her, she now wondered if the person hiding in the foliage wanted to kill them. The best move when faced with an unfamiliar stalker like this might be to kill them first. She prepared to do so--which only entailed a preparedness to raise her arm--but waited first for orders from either of her companions, orders which would never come. So instead she was left standing still, facing the direction of the stranger and making herself a perfect target.