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

Sol | Living room | strider |

Listen. Feel it. Move without thinking. It'll be fine.

Sol blinked into the living room, oblivious to the emotional reunion happening moments from her. She had both her knives out, gripped firmly in each hand, and she was dead focused on whatever had been in front of her, swaying and dodging and striking out with incredible speed and agility for her age. But just as quickly, as her foot caught carpet instead of the hard floor she'd been standing on, she lost her balance, thrown off for just an instant, but long enough for her opponent to get a hit in.

Not good!

She leapt backwards and threw her hands up, trying to ensure the knife caught her arms and not her face, but when no hit came, she paused, panting heavily and turning her head, wide-eyed, to listen to her surroundings. Had he hidden behind something? She couldn't hear footsteps anymore.

"Students, follow me!" Riddle barked, raising his regal staff. His solemn expression wavered when he realized that he was back in the House, causing him to sigh in frustration. Good grief, he was right in the middle of an important ceremony too...

"Absolutely unforgivable. Ah, when I find the person involved in this, it'll be off with their heads...!!" He muttered to himself, rage flaring in his eyes.

Sol | Living room | strider Ver Million |

People didn't know that their smiles carried in their tone, thought Sol, remembering back to the girl she'd met before. It was lucky for her that people also didn't really control their expressions, because if they stopped making them on her account, it would probably make things harder to figure out.

"Oh," she said simply, immediately standing up straighter and lowering her hands, although she didn't put the knives away just yet. "Well, now my attack pattern's all screwed up. I'll probably get killed when I go back," she said irritably, if without the emotion one would expect to follow that statement.

She sighed, letting that go for the moment. "Anyway, who're you? I'm Sol and a she - HEY! Quiet!" she shouted on reflex, interrupting herself as someone else blinked in nearby. "If you're gonna cut off any heads, do it over there," she continued, pointing off towards a random corner that was a few feet away from herself and Orpheus.

Riddle cringed when he overheard someone shouting, and he directed his irritated gaze to...a child? How brazen, it seems like she hasn't been taught some manners yet. Shaking his head, the redhead pointed his staff at Sol with a frown.

"Telling me to be quiet when you're the one shouting. We are indoors, so please remember to use your 'inside voices'!" He scolded with narrowed eyes. For a moment, his gaze lingered on Orpheus, his frown deepening. So tall...honestly, it reminded him of the Leech twins. The thought of those irritating eels made the Heartslabyul Dorm Leader shudder.

Orpheus also had never heard of an “inside voice,” but he decided it would be best not to question it. He understood why the boy was warning Sol about being too loud, but he found he himself wasn’t particularly bothered by it. After all, one two people in an argument weren’t nearly as loud as a group of men who all thought themselves to be the “best” and were determined to be the loudest just to prove it. Orpheus had never had an issue with volume. If it got too loud, he was good at cutting through it with a well-chosen series of notes. If this escalated… well, he was grateful he had his guitar.
“Well…” Orpheus replied diplomatically, looking between the two, “It might be best if we all stopped yelling instead of figuring out who did it first? Because that seems… to be the shared goal between us all.” Orpheus had never really had to deal with conflict much at all, and he wasn’t used to it. Besides, even if Riddle hadn’t been yelling when he blinked in, threatening people’s heads was probably… worse. “And… I’m afraid I’ve never heard of an “inside voice.””

Solaris | Living room | Ver Million strider |

Sol crossed her arms, shooting an angry look in Riddle's general direction, but didn't push the issue any further. "Fine," she agreed huffily. "But he did yell first," she added, under her breath.

"Dunno," she said, following up on Riddle's question. "Everyone calls it the Paradox House, though. Apparently it takes us from where we were and puts us here." She turned back to Orpheus, suddenly curious. "Hey, do you know anything?"

“‘The Paradox House’?” Riddle echoed in a soft voice. The word didn’t ring a bell; no books at Night Raven College has mentioned such a place. And different worlds? How could something like that be possible? Honestly, it sounded like a bizarre dream, especially if it was charge of itself.
“I see, so it must be sentient, like the Dark Mirror...” He mumbled to himself, before perking up. “Ah, my name is Riddle Rosehearts. I’m the leader of the Heartslabyul dormitory.” He answered, swelling with pride. Even if they’re from a different world, surely they must know how prestigious his position at Night Raven College is!

“Nice to meet you, Riddle Rosehearts.” Orpheus gave a small smile, nodding to the other blinker. He could practically feel the tension growing between Riddle and Sol, and was painfully aware that there was literally nothing he could do about it. He could try to mediate the conflict, but… well, he didn’t think singing for them would really make much of a difference. He was bewildered about what the Heartslabyul dormitory was, but he figured asking would likely only hurt Riddle’s feelings more. After all, he had sounded like they should know about it, and it was pretty clear Sol was just as oblivious as Orpheus. He got the feeling Sol could be rather mean, but… in her defense, it wasn’t entirely one-sided. Riddle hadn’t been very polite himself.
“The hallway is this way,” Orpheus said, taking a few steps in that direction. The sooner they could get out of the living room and stop disturbing Touka and Myrnin (especially given the fact that he’d really only seen Myrnin in a murderous mood), the better. If Riddle Rosehearts and Sol wanted to duke it out there… well, Orpheus would still try to stop them, but at least neither of them were likely to get killed.

Steve | Living Room | StormSplash, Ver Million strider

Steve ducked instinctively as the wooden bat aimed for his lucious brown locks. The motion had carried over into the house when he blinked in the living room of all places. The brunette blinked his brown eyes trying to focus on what his current surrounding was like, thinking the fearsome wielder would go in for a second strike. The teen wore a black jacket with a popped up collar, denim bleu jeans, and a striped polo evidently rugged from the eventful day he'd gone through.
To his surprise he found balance against the wall, stumbling back meeting the wandering eyes of the other perturbed blinkers. Steve stifled a curse from fully escaping his lips, not because there was a kid around but because he was around others weirdos. He'd dealt with one earlier and had no desire in pursuing those from another world that wasn't his to being with.

Rue | Hallway | <Raintalon>

Rue laughed quietly, almost wishing she could admit that she was just teasing. “Not messing with you.” She said, and then her tone got a little more serious. “For me, quarantine zones sound just as crazy. And yeah, dragons sound insane, but wait til you experience all the other things in this place. Dragons are gonna seem mundane.”
She glanced at the other girl, hesitating. “Have you been in any rooms yet?” She asked finally, curious.

Sol | Hallway | ®Hawkpath® |

"I want to meet a dragon," said Sol, almost wistfully. "I read about them one time in this book I found, but I dunno if they're like that actually. In the book they breathe fire and fly and talk and stuff." She didn't know what 'mundane' meant, but she wasn't about to admit that to the other girl when she seemed so cool already.

"You mean the other places?" she continued as Rue mentioned the rooms, tilting her head a little at the other girl as she tried to figure out what she meant. "I've been in places that weren't here - once a big office building. But I just got dragged there from where I was before, I didn't go in a different room."

Rue | Hallway | <Raintalon>

Rue nodded, considering her. “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate from what I’ve seen.” She agreed, thinking back to the couple of dragons she had briefly met. “I don’t know if all of them are like that but the couple I’ve met were.

She nodded. “Yeah, the other places. Sometimes you blink right into them, but sometimes you go in by yourself by using the doors in the hall we’re in right now.” She had no idea how aware of her surroundings the other girl was, having never been blind herself, but she guessed that Sol probably knew more than most people gave her credit for. She hesitated, but her warning was deeply necessary so she continued. “The rooms can be awful.” She admitted, looking steadily at her new friend. “Like...really really awful. But sometimes they’re really good, too.”

L | Job Swap Room | strider

L stumbled, but he managed to keep his feet under him as the wind tore at him and tried to throw him down. How quickly he had lost track of Orpheus, how likely it was that the other blinker was either in his own world or dead. He couldn’t stop looking just because the chances were poor, though. He knew the House, for one thing. He knew the House didn’t care about chances, and even if it had, he wasn’t going to give up that easily.
He stumbled forward, the snow whipping his loose white shirt around his body, his hair flying everywhere but where it usually rested. All he could see was white. All he could see was endless white and he couldn’t see Orpheus.
He knew this was temporary, but that didn’t help much now, if at all. Life was also temporary, after all. He still thought it rather important to pay attention to it.
He breathed out, a shudder running through his entire body as the cold begin to take hold of him. How low was the temperature? He supposed he was lucky the House hadn’t decided to douse him in water before this room, but he didn’t feel very lucky, stumbling around with no idea where he was going and no protection from the cold but a thin shirt and jeans.
Orpheus. Orpheus didn’t know about snow. That thought made him stop, unsure of whether to continue or to stay still and make himself easier to find. He needed to find Orpheus, if the blinker was still here, he needed to find him as soon as he could, and that was what made him continue forward, shielding his eyes with one pale hand.
The wind snatched away any sound he might have heard, stealing away any chance he had of finding where Orpheus was. He had to squint against the wind as it threw sharp snow into his eyes and the cold seemed to cut through him like a frozen knife through his bones, piercing him to his core,
“Orpheus!” He shouted again, determined not to give up, determined not to let the House make him give up on another person. It could dump him in ice water and throw him into a storm, but it couldn’t make him leave someone to die. He wouldn’t leave unless he knew Orpheus had blinked out.
Not that he really had a choice in the matter, anyway. There didn’t seem to be a door.
Then he heard it. His nickname. He turned towards it, shielding his eyes against the harsh wind as he tried to scan for a human shape in the sea of white.
Then he saw it. Orpheus, struggling towards him, running despite the snow that must have made it very hard for him to navigate. He fought towards the other blinker, his feet quite numb by now, which made it hard not to fall, but he managed it. He was shivering badly now, the cold settling deep inside of him in a way it usually didn’t. He ignored it as best he could, but it was hard to think of anything but cold cold cold cold.
He raised his head as he heard Orpheus. So there was a door after all. That was good, that meant that they didn’t have to figure out what the House wanted from them, they just had to find where the door was.
“Where?” He managed to call over the howl of the wind, wincing as the snow stung his face. “Do you remember where it is?”

Orpheus could feel the wind buffeting him from every direction, could barely see past the snow thrown in his eyes, but he still kept moving, kept running forward, because if he lost sight of Λ again, what were the chances that he’d find him again? What were the chances that they would both die here in this room if Orpheus didn’t reach Λ soon enough? Friend or stranger or whatever in between Λ and Orpheus were, it didn’t matter. What mattered was they both needed to get out safely, and Orpheus knew where a door was. They just had to stay on their feet long enough to get there. Orpheus curled his fingers against his chest, trying to bring life back into the digits that were already going numb.
Once he started to get closer, Orpheus began to untie the bandana from around his neck, frowning intensely as his fingers slipped and pried at the ice that was already beginning to form at the knot. Eventually he got it undone, though it was almost snatched from his frozen fingertips by the wind. No. He made it the last couple of steps towards Λ, grateful he wouldn’t have to shout so much anymore now that they were closer. The wind still would steal their words, but it wouldn’t be impossible to hear. A poor consolation prize, but consolation nonetheless.
“Yes,” he managed, surprised to find his throat hurt. Was it from the shouting, or was it from the wind rushing in every time he opened his mouth to suck in breath after impossible breath? “Yes, I know where the door is.” He shoved one end of the bandana towards Λ, trying to offer a smile with it. He wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped to be – even as an optimist, it was hard to be hopeful when he felt like the cold was pounding through his very being.
“Take this,” he managed after a moment. “Just one end, so we don’t get separated again.” That would be the worst thing Orpheus could think of. “And… and so we’ll know if the other falls or something.” He didn’t want either of them left behind. If they were separated… Orpheus would be able to find the door again probably, but what would be the point without Λ getting out as well? He might as well have gone through the door when he first found it. He was shivering against the wind, desperately wishing his shirt had sleeves that went past his elbows. It was summer at home, he hadn’t needed anything heavier. Anything heavier might have been dangerous, actually, considering how hot it tended to get now. He wasn’t used to snow. He wasn’t used to the way it seemed to cut at him like tiny shards, or the way the cold burrowed itself deep in his bones and just made him sleepy. He had to keep moving.
“Are you okay to walk?” he asked suddenly, turning to Λ. If Orpheus’ bare arms and neck were hurt because of the snow, he couldn’t imagine the pain of walking on the sharp, burning chill of the snow settling on the ground without the comfort of at least boots. “If you need… we can find a way out without you having to walk…” Orpheus wasn’t very strong, compared to many of the men he was travelling with, but you couldn’t carry an instrument with you at all hours of the day without developing at least a little bit of upper body strength. Λ might not like it, but Orpheus was willing to carry him if that was the only way out. And Orpheus could already feel the snow and the cold wearing on him, making him wonder if it would be so bad to curl up and let the snow cover him, if it might be easier to just give in to the warmth of sleep. No, he thought again, pursing his wind-chapped lips. We are both getting out of here.