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

“I know you do.” Noah’s voice was quiet. He couldn’t agree. Life was something very specific and precious to him, and although he knew Rue considered what she had living, he couldn’t. Once you died… well, you could achieve an approximation of life, but never life itself. He didn’t have a word for what he and Rue had. Even if he did, he doubted that any one word could encompass both of them. They were the same, but they were so, so different. Because Rue still had to eat. Rue could still be killed, technically. If you forced him to give an answer, he would have said that Rue was a lot closer to living than Noah would ever be. Still, he couldn’t help but see the parallels.
“Does it matter what word I use?” He asked softly, not quite looking at her. They had gotten most of the larger shards picked up and more or less put back together. There were still hundreds of tiny shards that he wasn’t sure they would ever be able to pick up, but what they had was certainly a start.
“Choosing to keep existing isn’t selfish,” Noah replied firmly, finally looking up at Rue. “Selfish is deciding that your existence… or something you have… is worth more than someone else’s existence.” He was thinking about Whelk again. The last friend he’d ever had. Why was it that friendships tended to go south without him noticing? Well… he supposed that this one was entirely his fault, even if it had just been a misunderstanding. “I’m glad you’re still here. And I hope you never have reason to regret your choice.” Coming from someone else that might have sounded passive aggressive, but from Noah it was genuine. He really hoped that whatever life as a vampire meant, it didn’t mean being aware of yourself as you slipped from humanity. He couldn’t see the future. He didn’t know. But he was still afraid of what Rue might become. I hope he added silently, that you never become something the you from today would despise. Was that a selfish wish? Perhaps. She could still be happy, even if she became something she wouldn’t like. But Noah didn’t want her to have that kind of happiness. Not at the expense of the girl who was his friend. But that was a future that Noah need not worry about. It wasn’t his future, and who was he to have a say in Rue’s?
He was silent for a few more moments, just taking in what Rue had to say. He couldn’t ask her to apologize for her choice. He wouldn’t do that, not when he understood now what the choice had been. But he did listen to her apology for the misunderstanding. That had been half his fault. He wished he could take back their whole last conversation. He wished he could start over and ask her calmly what she had done, ask her and genuinely listen to her about why she had chosen what she did. That would have saved a lot of heartache. The worries Noah was currently holding close to his chest would be the same, but at least… at least they’d still be on good terms without any of this… uncertainty.
“I said that before I understood,” he replied, shaking his head. He forced himself to look at Rue for this part. “And I didn’t mean you, I just meant…” he gave a heavy sigh, staring momentarily at the ground. “I’m scared for you,” he admitted softly, “Scared that you’re going to become something that isn’t you, and I didn’t want to watch you lose yourself to it, because you wanted it or… or something. I didn’t want to see you hurt people and enjoy it. I thought… when you said you chose this… I thought that was what that meant.” He shrugged, turning his attention back to the snow globe. Carefully, he tried one piece against the other, frowning as their sides didn’t quite line up. “I’m sorry I misunderstood so deeply.”
He watched her carefully, his attention mostly on her hands and the shards she was holding, but also on her eyes.
“It would be rather hypocritical to judge you for being a dead thing,” he returned very quietly, trying just for a moment to catch her gaze, “especially considering you didn’t have a choice to stay alive. I’d rather you be here and dead than dead and gone.”

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about?" Myrnin asked, in all seriousness. He didn't have any idea. He just blinked at Rue in confusion. "What sort of sign?"
Then he headed after Vincent, glancing back to see that Rue was following. What a weird comment.
He did enter the hallway without any hesitation. This made things a bit easier for him, all things considered, since it meant he had a purpose. More than that, he actually could aim for a door.
"I'm opening a dooooooooor," he purred.
He rested a hand on the handle, then slowly pushed the door open. He glanced behind him and then sort of ... tiptoed into the room.
And was at once hit by a blast of snow.

®Hawkpath® ~∂єѕтιиу | hallway/then snow | Myrnin

Rue | Lodge | mintedstar/fur and ~∂єѕтιиу

“Right.” Rue grimaced slightly as her attempt at a joke failed horribly.
Note to self: don’t joke about things you don’t understand.
She shook her head slightly, then followed Myrnin, giving Vincent a quick glance as she passed him into the hallway. She didn’t trust him. Her gut said she shouldn’t start.
She stepped into the hall, following Myrnin, then stopped when he did and looked curiously at the door. She didn’t have time to say anything, though before he stepped through it, and she hesitated only a moment before following.
The cold slammed into her and she let out a little gasp, stumbling to the side as her feet suddenly sank into the soft snow. “Cold!” She yelped, straightening up and hugging herself. Then she realized she couldn't actually feel it like she should. Which was...
Nice. 

@/stri

Hook raised his eyebrows in mild surprise at Nico’s response, not having expected such a strong response. “Aight,” he drawled, speaking mostly to himself as he scanned the hallway for anything of interest. He wasn’t expecting to find anything out of the ordinary, though it allowed him to stay occupied as he ignored the feeling of eyes on his back.
He slowed his pace as Nico spoke, glancing back for a moment before stopping in front of the door they were nearest. “Why not,” he shrugged and pushed it open, stepping in without another word.
For a moment he felt like he’d blinked out, his breath catching briefly as he expected the world to shift back into the pace it had been in before. But, as he stood with the comfortable sway under his feet and soft wind in his face, he came to the slow realization that he wasn’t standing aboard his own vessel. He gave Nico a mystified look before quickly moving to the side of the stranger ship, studying the railing briefly before looking out to the display of endless ocean. He leaned back, puzzled, then turned an awestruck eye around the deck, then the masts, then the stern. “She’s massive,” he muttered, the hint of a grin coming across his face.

Museum room | Hange | ®Hawkpath® strider |

Hange Zoe blinked into the House, hunched over a small bottle of something, intense concentration in their dark eyes as they poured the contents from one vial to another. They were so absorbed in what looked to be an incredibly delicate process that they didn't notice their blink until they had finished. They straightened up, blinking in surprise, and shoved the bottles into their breast pocket, distracted by their new surroundings.

Where....oh! Oh, this was a museum. They recognized the layout of the glass casings and displays instantly, but that wasn't all - it was a museum, for certain, but it was much, much better than any they'd ever visited. Some of the objects here they didn't even recognize, some looked to be incredibly old - most if not all of these things were probably priceless. Any historian would kill to have them in their collection.

Suddenly, they squealed with laughter and began to move, running in great bounds from one piece to the next, delighted with what they were seeing. They pressed their nose against the glass of one of the displays, containing what looked to be a scroll, written in a language that wouldn't translate. It looked ancient...

A sharp, victorious laugh broke across the room as Nico blinked in, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he stood, black sword covered in dust and hanging at his side. Shadows were seeping out of it and the scepter in his other hand was still glowing purple. His smile faded just a little as he realized where he was and carefully leaned the scepter against the wall. All you needed to do was add a plaque off to the side and it would have appeared to belong in the museum – it was just as old as anything else there, and probably older than a fair bit of it. If he could’ve, he would have been happy to just leave it there.
There appeared to be two other blinkers there, and Nico gravitated towards Kelsier by habit. Since when had it become habit? How many times had he met the other blinker? Enough to care about him, evidently. Enough that he trusted him over the blinker he had seen from afar but never actually interacted with. He tugged lightly on the chain-link bracelet around his wrist. No matter how often it happened, he was still nervous around people he didn’t know very well.

It didn’t take a lot to get Nico excited. Somewhere deep inside (perhaps not that deep), he was still the kid who knew ever stat of every Mythomagic card, who studied history for fun, and who wanted to be a pirate before he was old enough to understand that first and foremost, there weren’t really pirates in twentieth century Italy, and that the god of the sea would probably kill him, given the chance, because he wasn’t supposed to exist. It took a lot more to make Nico visibly excited. This room, however, was almost enough to do it. He took a second to remind him that Poseidon couldn’t kill him here, and then another to remember that he’d just been on a boat for at least two weeks and nothing bad had happened. No need to be afraid of ships.
Once that was out of the way he lurched forward towards the bow, trying to see over the side of the ship. A look up at the sails (and the flag, conveniently sporting the Jolly Roger) nearly stopped his heart as he tried to stop himself from bouncing up and down with excitement.
“Is this a pirate ship?” Nico demanded, barely able to contain his glee. It was just like the Argo II, but so much cooler because it was a pirate ship. And there was nobody around to maintain his reputation for. “I’ve always wanted to be on one of these!”

Touka | Dog sanctuary room | mintedstar/fur |

Touka tore herself away from squashing the husky mix's cheeks to look at the dog Myrnin had pointed out, and smiled, recognizing it immediately.

"You really had one of those?"  she asked, kneeling down and patting the ground to get it to come over.  "It's a corgi.  They're nice dogs - I had a neighbor that had one once, when I was little.  He'd always run out to see us when we walked by the house."

She sat back a little, absent-mindedly petting the corgi on the head as she looked out over the field, amazed by the sheer number of dogs.  They seemed to be healthy and happy, too - apparently even if the House liked tormenting the blinkers, it had it in it to be nice to animals, at least.

She closed her eyes and let herself feel the breeze as it washed over her, digging her free hand into the dirt and grass while her other hand continued petting the dog.

"This is a nice room," she said to Myrnin, turning to glance over at him.  "Makes you kind of uneasy, doesn't it?  Knowing the House."

L | Lodge | strider

L blinked in, holding an ice cream cone in one hand and a small bag with what appeared to be ash inside it in the other. He was looking at the latter object, a light frown resting on his face, giving him an older expression. It was easy to forget the detective was nineteen with that expression on his face.
“Watari, do you think...”
He broke off, looking up as cold assaulted him, and immediately sucked in a breath as wind pulled his hair out of his face and back. He immediately lifted one leg, balancing carefully like a flamingo. He had thought about what he would do when this happened again. This would minimize the damage to his feet. He would switch in a couple minutes.
Wait.
He couldn’t walk one legged....
“Ah,” He said quietly. It was his version of a swear.

Music, loud and upbeat, joined the quiet howl of the wind as Orpheus appeared, carefully strumming the lyre. The tips of his fingers were red and raw, and this time not from the frostbite. Grateful to see the House, he let himself stop playing and shifted the instrument to his back. It took him a moment to process the snow, but once he did his heart began racing and he tried to shove his fingers into he pockets of his pants. He needed to keep them as warm as possible, if last time was any indication. He would lose feeling there, first.
It didn’t take him long to spot Λ. It wasn’t as hard this time – the wind was still stirring up the snow, but it wasn’t actively blotting out his vision like it had been.
“I didn’t know the House ever repeated rooms,” he called to his friend as he drew closer, untying the bandana from his neck just as he had the first time. Maybe it would be more effective this time. Although… this time they didn’t have a door to go towards, unless Λ had seen one. He offered the other end of his bandana to Λ, trying to hide the slightly darker red spots where his fingertips had stained the fabric. He didn’t want Λ to worry about that, at least not until they were safely inside somewhere.

L | Lodge | strider

L looked up as music reached his ears, immediately placing it as Orpheus’ for the simple reason that no one else could play like that. So the room wanted a do over, did it? What was it trying to accomplish by repeating this experience? Granted, they didn’t know for sure that this was the same room, but the cold still made him desperately want to go back to his nice warm dark room where he could sit and work in silence.
It wasn’t as bad, yet. He could still see his ice cream cone. He tucked the small bag in his pocket, then reluctantly lowered his foot as he gave into the fact that it wasn’t going to work. So much for that idea.
He watched Orpheus come closer, considering his friend for a long moment. He looked exhausted, and no wonder, from what he knew of the situation he was in. The crew he was with. The detective may not have known everything, but he knew more than enough to know he disliked the people Orpheus was currently surrounded by, and he knew that the sooner the situation were resolved, the better.
He accepted the end of the bandana. “It’s not quite the same.” He pointed out, nodding at the snow. “It didn’t start the same. Perhaps it won’t end the same, either. Not all snow is as...unpleasant as what you’ve experienced. I-“
He broke off, eyes catching on Orpheus’ end of the bandana. His hand flashed forward and took the musician’s wrist in a gentle but firm grip, and he flipped the hand over, inspecting the tips of his fingers.
“How long have you been playing?” He asked after a moment, his tone completely different now. There was a definite edge to it, and his expression was hard to read, but intense, as he searched Orpheus’ eyes.

@/stri

Hook raised an eyebrow at Nico, still failing to understand his strange response to being on such a vessel. Even as the teen elaborated, the pirate looked puzzled, if not somewhat amused by his bizarre claims. “Surely you learned to keep that sentiment to yourself,” he chuckled, now thoroughly humored by the idea. He continued to consider the ship with a smirk, nodding a bit with Nico’s words. “We’re lucky she’s missing her crew,” he mused, cocking his brow at his skinny company. He could hold his own in a fight, but a ship this size likely carried an impressive number of able bodies.
He gave a more thoughtful look at the other blinker, who - strange as it was - seemed genuinely excited by their situation. “Should we look around then?” He offered, seeming pleased that he was in a room he was so comfortable with.

L | Lodge | strider

A quick glance around told L that this was not the other room. The trees gave it away, as well as the consistency of the snow, which was considerably soft and less icy than it had been before. A different room. A different ending. Hopefully one that would end in significantly less discomfort for them both. He shifted, the snow already beginning to hurt his feet, though not as bad as it had been. That was just because he hadn’t been there as long, though, not because the snow wasn’t cold.
He sincerely hoped that frostbite wasn’t something that was going to happen again. It had, thankfully, disappeared upon blinking back, but that hadn’t meant he hadn’t wrapped himself in a blanket and drank cup after cup of tea, trying to get warm again.
He didn’t let go for a moment, still inspecting Orpheus’ fingers, his eyes narrowed. They looked bad. They had to hurt. And Orpheus clearly played a lot as it was, which meant that the amount he was being forced to play was much higher than it should be. He didn’t know how much people normally slept, but he guessed that Orpheus wasn’t doing it nearly enough.
“Is it the frequency or the intensity of the music? Or the length of time?” He asked, his tone tight with worry and something else. He wanted to kick the crew. All of them. Preferably at the same time.
He paused, then allowed himself to be slightly reassured by the hand squeeze. It was difficult not to be when Orpheus was looking so genuinely concerned for him.
“I can walk.” He said, glancing down at his feet. “This snow is slightly different. The wind also isn’t as bad.”
He wasn’t lying. He really was pretty sure walking wouldn’t be a problem unless they found themselves trapped for an extended period of time. He hoped that wouldn’t happen. He didn’t need to spend another three days trying to convince himself he wasn’t cold.