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

Joey blinked into the now active living room, sitting on a purple bean bag. Decked out in his disguise, face covered with his skull like bandana. A sharp karambit twirled effortlessly in his left hand. If he hadn't known any better he would have pocketed it earlier, maybe he wouldn't have made eye contact with the clueless detective. In his peripherals he saw the shape of a young, fit man and a resting child right by....
Momentarily he locked eyes with Matt, only to get careless and as a result the karambit stopped by embedding itself in his palm. He let out a disgruntled mumble at the clumsy little mistake he had made, discouraged to look back up.

The young man didn’t seem too bothered by Kaladin’s glare, and he didn’t really know what to do about that. It could mean he just… didn’t mind, but it could also mean he was acting like a stereotypical lighteyes. He frowned, then reluctantly let go of his spear.
“Hey,” he returned, voice somewhat uncertain. He looked at Rue and then at Joey, eyes narrowing a little as he watched Matt to see what his reaction would be. A person’s reactions to things could tell a lot about them. The boy – Matt – seemed to be nice to the girl – Rue – at least. They all had such strange names, it was probably going to take a while for him to get used to those. Nobody was fighting here, at least. He crossed his arms after a moment, not minding if he seemed a little stand-offish.

It was nice, knowing that Ronan probably had some secrets he didn’t want to share. It meant that he was less likely to ask Zuko about his own. They could exist without delving into each other’s private lives. There were some topics that they would have to avoid, but that was perfectly fine with Zuko. He didn’t want to talk about his past. He didn’t really want to talk about girls. Ronan hadn’t asked about either, which made him a far cry better than most of the other people Zuko had met in the House. Most of the people he’d met in his world, actually.
“Turtles sound weird,” he said, making a bit of a face. He made sure to keep his voice low, doing his best not to scare the duckling away. “Long tails?” he added after a minute, trying to figure out what that would even look like. It didn’t quite make sense in his mind – scaly tails reminded him of snakes, but… he shook his head, trying to clear the image. It didn’t matter. Maybe he’d see a turtle one day.
“Turtle ducks bite too, sometimes,” he said, gold eyes moving from the turtle duck to Ronan’s. “But I guess… only when they protect their ducklings.” It seemed they weren’t terribly different between worlds.
Ronan seemed used to this, used to dealing with baby animals. Like the other things they hadn’t mentioned, Zuko avoided asking about it. A small smile slipped across his face as the turtle duckling made a pleased sound and shifted to lean into Ronan’s touch, ruffling its baby feathers.
“It likes you,” he added, something surprisingly gentle in his eyes.

| Victoria | Living Room |

Victoria appeared suddenly, appearing on the floor near the couch. Her ears perked up as she felt the warm rush of air and musty smells that meant she was in the House. One of her back legs was hitched up at an odd angle, and she swayed on three legs as she got used to the blink. Frost covered the gears and chains, and frozen chunks of ice seemed to be gumming up the system. She sat down hard, falling a bit with a little oof.

"Hello!" She barked, looking around at the various blinkers. Ooh, a good chunk of people today! Interesting.

Matt | Living room | ®Hawkpath® Cloverleaf strider Lark |

"Hey...." repeated Matt, letting the tension hang in the air for way longer than he was comfortable with. His skin was prickling with the awkwardness of the situation, and if there was anything he was supposed to be good at, it was diffusing awkwardness.

"Hey, look, it's Victoria!" he said a bit more loudly than was strictly necessary considering the size of the room, kneeling down to wave to her on her level. "Tori, hey! Remember me?" he repeated, forced tone giving way to genuine happiness as he focused his attention on the dog. "Oh boy - c'mere, let me get some of that ice off your gears, huh?"

Rue | Living Room | strider <Raintalon> Lark Cloverleaf

“Yep,” Rue confirmed, nodding a little. “Nice to meet you, Kaladin.” She looked back at the dog - Tori? - and then at Kaladin, considering him. He seemed nicer than her initial impression had suggested...she breathed out. Wasn’t like she would have to worry about Peacekeepers unless she managed to escape, anyway. Which she was going to do, she reminded herself.
At least no one seemed to be new. She really didn’t have the energy to explain things at the moment.

“I haven’t seen any of the people here before,” she added, shifting into a more comfortable position on the floor. “Usually there’s at least someone I recognize a little.” She kind of wanted to see Noah and Myrnin again...she could use a friend at the moment. Then again, maybe she could make a new friend here.

| Victoria | Living Room |

Victoria wagged her tail excitedly as Rue answered her. She perked up as Matt got down on her level and called her name. She tapped her front paws against the stained carpet in excitement, her usual excitement a bit constrained by her current situation.

"Oh, thanks!" She shifted her position so her off-kilter set of gears were easy for Matt to reach.

Victoria looked around- she vaguely recognized Joey, having seen him around, while Kaladin and Rue were new to her. It looked like the House was switching up the cast of blinkers today.

“I thought I was hallucinating, at first,” Kaladin told Rue, a small smile on his face. “I thought I was going mad.” He didn’t sound particularly upset by that fact, it was just… a fact.
“It was more or less explained to me. I don’t really know the difference between that room and this room, but Hector was able to answer most of my questions.” Did Rue know Hector? It seemed that there were a lot more people who blinked into this… Paradox House… than he had originally thought. There had been a lot of people in his first room, and there were a lot of people here, too. He didn’t know most of their names, but… eventually he would start learning those, if he kept blinking in. Probably.
“I still have questions,” he told Rue with a small shrug, not letting his posture fall for even a moment, “but I have a feeling I’ll start to figure those out by myself the longer I stay here.”

Shade | PITFIGHT | @/des

Shade hummed and nodded in agreement as she watched them, intrigued as ever by the style in which they clashed. But when Hook slumped onto her side, giggling like anything, she just had to turn her attention to see what on earth had gotten him so trembly with his amusement. 
She was not disappointed.
Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the scene with Myrnin and the child he'd been rough housing with and she smirked slightly, then grinned, then found herself chuckling quite a bit as well. Distantly she hoped the both of them were alright... it was unclear what would happen if you fought outside the ring, if your wounds would heal or not. Perhaps if they stepped into the ring and back out. Seeing Myrnin trying to tickle his attacker off him absolutely rattled her and she dissolved into a fit of laughter as well, leaning back against the pirate to keep the both of them up. "That kid is ruthless, my gods," she wheezed.

| Hector | PIT FIGHT | FIGHTING WITH KALADIN |

Hector saw Kaladin's expression as he hurried to block the punch. He was glad that he'd been able to block it. He was good, with quick reflexes. The spar was exciting, and for Hector, as he'd predicted, the crowd had melted away to the back of his mind- his whole world right now was footwork, blocks, and blows.

Hector didn't back off as Kaladin pushed back at him- it would have been a good strategy if Hector hadn't outweighed Kaladin- he pushed back forcefully, hoping to not give Kaladin a moment to go on the defensive. He aimed a blow at Kaladin's torso with his left, hoping to unbalance him further.

Rue | Living Room | mostly strider

That made sense. He couldn’t afford to go crazy, therefore he wasn’t going crazy. She wished food worked like that…
She knew something about hallucinations, based on what she’d learned about tracker jacker venom, but she didn’t see the need to tell him that. He wasn’t hallucinating. Making him doubt that for no reason was just cruel.
“Some of them, yeah,” she told him, and memories overtook her for a second. It was hard, sometimes, to differentiate between her world and the Hunger Games room she’d been in, but some things had been different there. Notably, she’d met Myrnin.
And also killed Myrnin.
She shook her head a little. “Some of the, are really bad,” she explained quietly, looking away. “But some...some are good. And you can’t tell which will be which.”
She blinked at his next question, frowning a little. “You mean like...eye color?” She asked curiously. “No, not really. I mean people notice eye color, especially if they’re paying attention, but...no. Yours does?”

Rue | Living Room | strider

“No, no, it’s okay,” Rue looked up, trying to assure him she was fine by forcing a smile she didn’t quite feel. “I mean...the worst room I’ve ever been in? It was just my world. Really, I’d rather live in the House than anywhere else I know of.” She shrugged a little, trying to sound nonchalant about it, though she wasn’t succeeding that well. “I’ll survive,” she added, in case that helped.
It was nice, having people who cared. But it was also dangerous. If she didn’t make it, if being a vampire didn’t save her...she wanted as few people to have to grieve her as possible. She wanted to be forgotten, if it would mean less pain in the world.
But she wasn’t going to die. She wasn’t. So she wouldn’t need to worry about making friends here. The relationships on her own world were too late to be helped, anyway. She hoped Katniss didn’t grieve too much.
“Oh,” she added, thinking about what he’d said. “That’s not fair. I didn’t choose to have dark eyes, anymore than you did.” She frowned, then shook her head firmly. “That’s just stupid.”

Rue | Living Room | strider mostly

Rue hoped she hadn’t made him too wary, but then, maybe it was best if he was wary of the House. If he knew what it could do. She hadn’t known, not at first, and look what had happened.
“I don’t think people’s worlds are rooms very often,” she told him, watching his expression carefully. Was he worried about that? He seemed like he knew what it was like to have a bad world. It was too early to make that call, but Rue still thought she could tell that much about him, just by his expressions as she explained. She was pretty good at reading people, after all.
The smile helped. She managed one back, letting herself relax again. He was nice...nicer than a lot of people she’d met. She felt safe with him, and she didn’t often feel safe.
“One of my best friends has blue eyes,” she added firmly. “And the other one has bright green ones. If I’d assumed they were bad, I’d have never gotten to know them.”
Her smile widened a little. It was easier to think about anything but her own world. “I’m glad you think it’s stupid, too. That way you can make more friends here.”

Matt | Living room | all those ppl but tori rn |

"Yeah, sure," said Matt happily, gently grabbing onto one of her gears and pushing his fingers through the little slots to dislodge the snow and ice.  It wasn't that different from fixing a bike or car, he realized - winter was bad for anything mechanical.

"You gotta keep these dry and oiled, or they'll rust on you," he said gently as he scrubbed away the grimy city snow from the fur around her legs.  "At least, when you're inside.  Outside just be careful these joints don't freeze up or you won't be able to walk right - here, these are all loose cause of the ice."  Carefully, he pulled a screwdriver from his pocket and began to work on some of the screws in her leg, tightening them where they'd been loosened by being frozen and unfrozen repeatedly.  This weather was hard on everyone, he guessed.

"How you been, Tori?"  he asked, mostly to keep up friendly conversation while he worked.