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

“Promise,” Nico echoed, the word ringing through him as he leaned his head against Kelsier’s chest to make himself a little bit easier to carry. He hadn’t been conscious when Kelsier had carried him the first time, and he hadn’t ever expected it to happen again. It was nice, he decided, though he didn’t know entirely why. Perhaps it was just because he was tired. Perhaps because he knew he couldn’t walk himself. “You’ll find me then?” he asked, voice tiny as he shifted his gaze to meet Kelsier’s. He didn’t know if Kelsier would be looking at him, but he hoped he would. He didn’t… he didn’t want to risk dying here without the last thing he saw being either being Kelsier’s eyes or the stars. He couldn’t see the stars the way Kelsier was holding him. “When you’ve saved the world, you’ll find me,” he clarified softly, trying to hold back another cough. He didn’t want to get more blood on Kelsier’s mistcloak, which he knew was a stupid thought. Kelsier wouldn’t even notice.
Nico breathed out, the feeling of calm washing over him. It was frightening, but also… nice. It felt like the moment he had realized that home was with the crew. That home had never been Hades, or Minos… he curled just a little bit closer, unaware that Kelsier was using emotional Allomancy on him. He might have noticed the touch of it if he hadn’t been quite so out of it, but most of his energy was focused on trying to survive.
“Do you think… when you kill the Lord Ruler… that everyone will be able to see the stars?” Nico asked, the words sounding tight and thin as he struggled for breath. “Do you think Hammond will be able to show his kids the constellations? I… I want to see the constellations that used to exist, but… but Sazed said they’re probably different now.” His heart seized at the mention of Hammond and Sazed. He had betrayed them. He had betrayed them all. A sob rose up in his throat, but he tried his best to push it down.
“You have to tell the crew I’m sorry,” he whispered, letting his eyes close for just a moment before the feeling of falling fell over him and he forced them back open. He wasn’t going to give in like that. He was going to fight for as long and as hard as he possibly could. For Kelsier. For the world he promised to build. “Breeze was right,” he added softly, stifling a cough that sent a shudder down his small form. “I did betray you.”
Nico was silent for a long moment, letting the feeling of the mist settle over his skin as Kelsier kept moving forward. He hadn’t stopped to appreciate how at home he felt in the mist. He hadn’t stopped to consider that maybe this was what being Mistborn was.
-
Nico followed a few steps behind, glancing up to see if he could see the stars. He couldn’t. It was an odd thought, that so many people were blocked off from them just because they didn’t have the right bloodline. No wonder Kelsier wanted to fix things. He lingered for a long moment in front of the Keep, gaze darting to the body that lay in front of the doors. It looked like Hades. He’d have to ask Kelsier later how he knew what Hades looked like, but for now… he jogged ahead a few steps, trying to hold onto Kelsier’s elbow as he brought the dream version of Nico somewhere. To see the sunrise, possibly? This couldn’t end well, but there wasn’t a single thing Nico could do about it.

Rue | Bubbles Room

Rue watched the others as they noticed her, expression cautious. She didn’t really know anyone here...or she didn’t until Noah appeared.
She hesitated a long moment, then offered a small smile and waved back, determined not to let their past get in the way of...whatever this was. It had only been about three minutes ago for her, but they’d talked, and she was determined not to lose one of her only friends.
She glanced at Victoria as the dog approached, and she couldn’t help smiling a little. “Hey there,” she said softly, waving to her. “This seems like a nice room, huh? So far, anyway.”
She wasn’t stupid. It could turn bad. But if that was a reason not to enjoy something she’d never enjoy anything again.

Vincent hummed in response to Victoria, remaining quiet as the others quietly greeted each other. He spent the time while attention was generally away from him to reach out towards one of the bubbles, watching to see how it would react to his presence if he hovered his fingers near it before popping it. The bubbles were unusually stagnant, seemingly not bound to any force weighing them back to the ground - so they just floated in the wind until popped. Interesting, but not particularly useful.
He slipped both hands in his pockets and shifted so he was facing the others, quietly watching to see if they were going to initiate any sort of plan.

| Victoria | Bubble Room |

"Yeah!" Victoria answered Rue, tail wagging. Victoria bounded over and slid to a stop, splashing Noah as he crouched down. She looked up at Rue, then back to Noah, sensing a bit of tension. But after a few moments she was back into play mode.

"Betcha I can pop more bubbles than you! Or you!" She said to the both of them. "Or you!" She added, turning towards Vincent.

L had seen Orpheus’ passion the very first time they had blinked in together, and though Orpheus had seen L succeed a great number of times, he didn’t think he’d seen L actually enjoying anything before. He couldn’t be certain he was enjoying the chess game either, but… he seemed more at ease than Orpheus had seen him before, even considering the disguise and the other circumstances of his world. It was nice… refreshing. It was about time, Orpheus considered, that the House actually let L enjoy something.
Orpheus glanced up, sensing there were things L was thinking but wasn’t saying. Advice on how to play? A comment on the move he had made? Whatever it was, L didn’t say it out loud and Orpheus didn’t push. If it was important, he figured L would say it.
The move L made baffled Orpheus. Not that he had any reference for what made a good move and what made a bad move, but he had left a piece at least partially out in the open. Orpheus could take it, if he wanted, but something like guilt burned in the pit of his stomach. That seemed mean, even if it was just a game. He wouldn’t have thought it was mean if L did it, but L knew how to play this, and Orpheus didn’t want to do something inappropriate by taking the piece. Instead, he moved a second piece, fortifying his defenses a bit more. He didn’t think L had a piece that could get past there, but he could be wrong. He was already starting to mix up which piece could do what. He pursed his lips for a moment, then looked up at L, head tilting as he watched for a reaction – and watched to see if he could catch whatever thoughts made L take his next move.

Kelsier | Dreams Room | strider

It had been a long time since then, that first time Kelsier had carried Nico. A long time and a lot of things that had changed in a way that couldn’t be turned back. Even if they’d wanted to...they couldn’t be who they’d been before. And Kel didn’t want to be that person before, anyway.
There were two versions: one with Nico and one without. Two versions of him, and two versions of the world. That was why he didn’t believe Nico would be alone, even if he had to leave...they’d changed each other, and so they each held a piece of the other, no matter where they went. Was that wishful thinking? Maybe...but Kel felt he was entitled to it.
“Of course I will,” he answered softly, his steps quick and smooth at the same time. “I’ll find you again. I’ll look as long as it takes…I’ll never give up. And I’ll find you.”
He wouldn’t have used the Allomancy in most conditions without asking, but...if eve there was a time, it was now. He didn’t think Nico was in any condition to be asked that question right now. And he wasn’t sure he would let Nico stop him, anyway…he probably would, but he wouldn’t like it. Better not to ask.
He looked at Nico as he spoke, eyes softening a little. It wasn’t fair, he thought suddenly. It wasn’t fair that Nico was so young and his life was being stolen away just like that. It wasn’t fair that there was nothing they could do to stop it. He deserved so many more sunrises, he deserved a life in the light as well as the dark, and this...well. It was a poor excuse for the life he deserved to have. He blinked back the tears that threatened his eyes again, his determination not to let them fall wavering but not falling. He refused to do that to Nico.
“I’ll tell them everything,” he promised, his voice soft and, for the first time, tremulous. “Everything, Nico. I’ll tell them how you tried to save them all.”
He let a moment pass.
“Different isn’t so bad,” he answered softly, shifting Nico’s weight a little as he moved, not quite running but not quite walking either. “Maybe they aren’t the same constellations, but they’re still constellations. And they won’t be around forever either. I think...you should see them as they are now. Maybe the present can be just as beautiful as the past, yeah?”
He breathed out, letting anothe moment pass.
“Yes. I do,” he said quietly, eyes focused ahead of him. They were close...would they make it? Yes. He promised himself they would. No...he promised Nico they would. “I think that everyone will see the stars again. They’ll look up and see the lights that were there all along, and they’ll wonder how they ever thought they were in the dark. And I’ll tell them about a boy who saw them for the first time and tried to leap up and touch them.”
He was trying to keep talking, because he was terrified of what would happen when he stopped, now. He knew he couldn’t stop it. But he wanted just a few minutes more...was it so wrong to try and draw these moments out as long as he could? Was it so wrong to try tho freeze time itself?

L | Chess Room | strider

L was actually enjoying this game, even if it had only barely started. He hadn’t gotten to play a game wring friend in...well, not recently, the passage of time once again eluded him, but he could tell it hadn’t been anytime particularly close to now, and the point was that he was actually enjoying this quite a lot. He hadn’t had fun in a while, either...okay, he had had a little fun in some rooms, but not like this. This was what he was good at where he excelled, and he was more than a little pleased that his best friend got to experience it with him.
He wasn’t sure yet how much he wanted to say, but he would mention something pretty soon, most likely. This was a learning curve for Orpheus, he reminded himself not just a game he’d been playing all his life. It wasn’t a fair game, so it didn’t hurt anything to help a little.
He watched carefully as Orpheus made his move effectively avoiding the trap. Interesting that he’d seen it but he hadn’t stopped being very defensive with his movements...maybe he hoped he could just wall himself in? No, that wasn’t likely. He had to know that wouldn’t work, so…what then?
“Your strategy is interesting,” he noted out loud, his eyes given nothing away. He made a move, protecting his other piece - might as well if it wasn’t going to be take, right? - and looked at Orpheus, gaze bright with the competition now. “I should warn you against being too defensive, it could hurt you in the long run. Although I was once defeated by someone who played similarly, so perhaps my advice isn’t the best.”
They’d been doing chess for most of their life, though. He doubted Orpheus had a master plan yet. He’d likely have the beginning of a strategy, at best, since he hadn’t even heard of this game about ten minutes a ago.

Orpheus had a feeling that this was going to be much more fun for L than it was for him. He didn’t really have a problem with that – what was fun for L would certainly be enjoyable for him, but in a different way. He was happy that his friend was having fun, even if the activity they were doing was still a little bit baffling to him. He had picked up how the pieces moved, but he hadn’t yet learned how to think more than one move ahead, and he didn’t know how to read any of the moves that L made. He was flying blind, but he thought that was probably okay, at least for their first game.
Orpheus wasn’t looking for traps. He hadn’t even considered that a trap could be an option, but he would probably start noticing them if L kept setting them. Or… well, chances were he would probably fall into one, and then he would notice. For now, he was taking the game at face value, trying to think one move at a time. That was useful for keeping track of the pieces and how they moved, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t serve him in the long run. From the way L was looking at him… Orpheus had a feeling there was a lot going on underneath the game, though he didn’t know how to read any of it. Perhaps he would ask L after, when that didn’t count as cheating.
“I’m not really sure I have a strategy,” he admitted, a small smile touching his lips. “I should probably figure one of those out, though.” He looked up, meeting L’s gaze and giving a small nod. He didn’t want to attack, not yet. He wanted to see how L went about attacking. Perhaps… well, one wrong move wouldn’t throw the game, would it?
Orpheus moved a piece almost directly in line to be captured by L. He wanted to see how he did it. Maybe he could learn from it. Or maybe he would be able to tell for sure whether it was mean or not.

vince | bubs
Vincent kept his hands in his pockets as he watched the vampire, wolf, and stranger discuss their plan. He raised his hand dismissively to Victoria’s challenge when she barked back to him, “Play without me,” he said simply in response. He had no interest in indulging in whatever the others were doing, but he also figured it was worth something to be the one paying attention if anything went wrong.

Kelsier | Dreams Room | strider

Kelsier would tell them. He’d tell them everything, he’d make sure they wouldn’t see Nico as a traitor, because he wasn’t one, not really. He had done the best he could,
Nico would never talk to any of them again. But Kelsier would, and he would tell them everything Nico had done, every move he’d made, and he’d tell them why. And if anyone was still confused on whether Nico was a traitor, they’d most likely find themselves ignored, at best.
It was an odd feeling, being here in this moment. He knew it wasn’t going to last, he could already feel the present slipping into the past, and he didn’t want it to. He just...wanted to freeze time and hold onto Nico forever
He listened, steps quick against the ground, his own exhaustion pushed to the back of his mind where it couldn’t distract him. “They won’t forget,” he promised, and he couldn’t quite keep his voice steady anymore, couldn’t stop it from shaking. “And I’ll name every constellation. I’ll name them and tell stories, and when people look up, they’ll remember them all. I don’t need to make up stories, Nico. I already have plenty.”
He needed to go faster, but he couldn’t jostle Nico too much, he couldn’t make it any harder to make it than it already was.
He could feel Nico fading, and panic stabbed through him, desperation that he couldn’t control. He needed to make it to the dawn. He had to, he couldn’t...he couldn’t…
He was dying. But he couldn’t die without seeing the dawn one more time.
Then he heard Nico’s words, and his heart finally shattered.
“I love you, too, kid. I love you, Nico,” he managed to reply, his voice strangled its sobs he wouldn’t let free. Tears broke free and he blinked and looked away, not to let them overwhelm him.
And then he saw it. Light, touching the sky, breaking over the horizon.
It was a new day.
“Look, Nico, look!” He exclaimed, and shifted Nico so he could see it, holding him so the light touched his face and burned away the shadows. “Look at it! I told you we’d make it! Didn’t I tell you?”
He stared at the light, joy filling him to the brim, as if somehow, this made it okay again. As if somehow the dawn could heal what pewter couldn’t. He gave a light laugh, the tears still escaping down his face at the same moment, betraying his joy.

L | Zombie Room | strider <Raintalon>

L could tell Watari didn’t believe them, which was fair. He’d have been surprised if he did. He was just telling him so he had something to fall back on when he inevitably found something he couldn’t explain. It was better to give the information than not, even if he wasn’t believed.
“It’s alright, there’s a translator. That’s why he can understand me even though I’m speaking Japanese.”
He almost continued that thought, but he barely stopped himself in time. It wasn’t like he could admit that he knew what languages Watari spoke, was it? That would be bad. Watari would have questions if he suspected L knew him, questions L was a bit wary of answering. Besides...he was a little worried about messing with time.
He nodded and headed for the staircase as Watari pointed it out, peering up it into the gloom. “Not blocked,” he said after a moment, and headed up, bare feet light and movements cautious.

L | Chess Room | strider

Maybe someday the House would make L attempt to write a song, or poetry. He was sure he’d be very bad at those, his brain didn’t really work that way. He was focused on the game, now, not thinking of what the House might do, aside from his internal calculations of how dangerous it was. If the House found them interesting, then it made sense that it would like to see them do interesting things, right? This seemed to count as an interesting thing.
He was trying not to let himself get too into the game. He hadn’t let Orpheus see that side of him yet. He hadn’t been fully relaxed around him before, but when he wasn’t dying anyway. He wasn’t sure he was ready to be now, and he did feel that he might be, if he let himself. It was...an odd feeling. The idea of being completely relaxed around anyone was unusual for him, anyone but Watari. He could tell that was one direction this room could take.
Was it a direction he was willing to let it go?
He shook his head, pulling himself back. It was just a game. He didn’t need to overthink it.
“It will naturally take time,” he replied, leaning forward to see the board better. He didn’t quite understand what Orpheus was doing - was it a trap? He didn’t see anything - but after a moment’s hesitation, he decided to take the piece. He moved his own, taking it and then looking back at Orpheus with open curiosity.

Kelsier | Dreams Room | strider

Kelsier’s passion was what he could do, the hope he could bring to the Skaa. His passion was his mission, the end goal of all of this planning and careful execution.
He was just a man in a god’s shoes, a man trying to fight a god’s war. But he hadn’t lost yet, and he wasn’t going to. He’d done terrible, terrible things. He didn’t regret most of the lives he’d taken, but Bianca? Of course he regretted what he’d done to her. He’d regretted it for longer than he’d thought of Nico as a son, or even an ally.
He didn’t know Nico’s life was also on his hands. It was probably for the best that he didn’t find out.
“If you look closely, you can see a boy and a man,” he murmured, voice soft and gentle as he obliged. “The boy was the man’s son. They didn’t always know each other, and once, they hated each other, but the boy was impossible to hate, and the man slowly realized he’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. So he trained the boy, taught him everything he knew, and the boy tried and tried and tried to do what he did, but it didn’t come easily to him. So one day, the man took him past their training spot and told him to look up.”
He took a breath, forcing himself to continue.
“The boy saw the stars. He leapt into the air, trying to touch them, and he was so human in that moment that the man knew he’d done the right thing by teaching him. And slowly...slowly the boy learned how. And when he did, they chased each other sometimes, across the rooftops, leaping like the mists themselves gave them their power, like nothing could ever stop them or come between them, because it couldn’t. It tried, but it couldn’t come between them. And so, some say they still chase each other across the sky, forever caught in a cosmic game of tag.”
He fell silent, voice falling into nothing as the world lit itself on fire.
The ash caught the light and burned like it had been set ablaze, the sun cut through the dark, bathing everyone in a warm, impossible light. Nico was right, he thought, gazing at it as he breathed in the air as it was, not as he was going to make it. It wasn’t fixed yet. The world was broken and gray.
And yet, standing there...it was beautiful, too.
He looked down at Nico again, making absolutely sure he could see it too. He could...the wonder in his eyes never quite stopped making Kelsier’s heart full.
“I promise,” he whispered, looking out at the dawn once again. “I promise. I’ll show them. I’ll make them see it, too. And then I’ll show you too. Yes..the world is more beautiful than even I could have imagined.”
He stared at the light for a moment longer.
“...Nico?”
He looked down.
And then he was on his knees, with no memory of having gotten there. Holding Nico close, he didn’t let go as the sobs he’d managed to choke back until then broke through his defenses and wracked his body, shaking him like a twig in a hurricane.
It was a new day. But only one heart was beating. Kelsier didn’t look at the world around him anymore, didn’t look at the fire faded from the ash, leaving it as gray and flickering as ever before.
He only looked at his son’s body and felt himself shatter in the light of a new dawn.

Kelsier | Museum Room | <Raintalon> strider

Kelsier considered them, eyes narrowed and bright with anger he wasn’t trying to control. First, he considered how he might kill them. He didn’t know how to kill a vampire, he hadn’t been watching when Myrnin had died in the arena room, but he figured beheading was a safe enough option. He hadn’t yet met anything that didn’t die when you removed its head.
But they were no nobleman. And, regardless of how he felt right now, they weren’t an enemy. He hated the House. He wanted to tear it to shreds and then burn what was left, but Hange wasn’t the House, and killing them here wouldn’t hurt it.
Are you enjoying the show yet, House?
He stood still for a long moment, weighing his options. Maybe he knew that the moment he didn’t have anything left to fight, he was going to break. Maybe he was trying hard not to look at Nico’s body.
He released them a moment later, giving a cry of pain and rage that wasn’t directed at them anymore. Exhaustion crept in, but he ignored it as best he could, allowing his eyes to flick down to the child’s body.
What would he think of Kelsier if he saw him now?
“Then let go of me,” he breathed, his voice tense but edged with defeat. He didn’t pull again. “Before I cut off your hand.”