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

Kelsier | Dreams Room | strider

Kelsier didn’t look up as the dream faded away into just that - a dream. It was exactly like waking up and not being sure which reality was the real one for a long few moments, as memories collided and then faded into the background.
He didn’t move, just tried to catch his breath as the sobs shook him and closed talons around his heart and lungs, making it almost as hard to breathe as it had been for the other Nico. He wasn’t dying, but he felt like he was.
Memories caught in his mind like flies in a web, and he couldn’t shake them off. Bianca’s death...his own attack on Nico...Nico’s attack on him...they’d had a bad first start in the House, but it didn’t come close to comparing to what he remembered of the dream.
He knew Nico deserved a better dad. But at least he wasn’t really responsible for his sister’s death.
He looked at Nico as the boy came closer, the steady heartbeat waking up his wandering mind.
He blinked, the tears on his face still as real as the body had been moments before. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t Nico, not the real Nico…a House version, that was all. He couldn’t quite manage to speak at first, even though Nico’s words soothed the unbearable pain he’d felt moments before. He just looked at him, relief slowly filling his own eyes.
“How much history did you get?” He managed in a strangled voice at last, concentrating on Nico’s heartbeat as best he could. He needed to know. He needed to know how much the House had inflicted in Nico.
One memory in particular demanded his attention. A memory he’d been too distraught to think of before.
A stab wound.
Very near a lung.
He met Nico’s eyes.
“It was my fault. Your death was because of me. Again.”

| Victoria | Bubble Room |

Victoria darted around, running through a patch of particularly low hanging bubbles. She turned back towards the group, making sure to run past Vincent (maybe he'd see that running was really fun!), her gears creaking as she did so. She almost wiped out as the rough metal "paws" of her back legs skidded on the glassy surface.

"Oh, I'm Victoria! Oops, I forgot to say all the stuff like hi, and about the House- but you've been here, right? So that's all okay." Victoria paused and splashed back over to Rue, her tail wagging. "You can jump really high!"

"I think those count as negative amounts of bubbles popped!" Victoria protested in good humor. She darted over to Noah, jumping up to pop the bubbles he'd made with her snout.

L | Chess Room | strider

Trust came much less easily to L. He knew he was withdrawn and hard to talk to, he knew he was seen as cold and uncaring most of the time, and really, that was as it should be. In a way, he worked hard to make that reputation as it was, and even if it isolated him, or was worth it to stay alive. He’d rather be alone and breathing than stabbed in the back by a friend any day.
“Mm...I can help somewhat, but mostly it’ll just take time and practice,” he explained, considering the board with open curiosity. If he didn’t have a strategy, what was his motivation for his movements? Was he just testing what he could do? That was smart, he decided, for the first game. You could learn a lot about your opponent by testing things, and he was probably learning about L’s strategy whether he intended to or not.
He moved a piece, putting Orpheus’ defenses under attack while carefully backing up his own. It wasn’t a foolproof move, but it would be difficult to escape the attack unscathed, and he was curious how Orpheus was going to react to such an attack.
He was good at playing offense. It wasn’t easy, of course, but he’d had a lot of practice, in more ways than one.

L | Chess Room | strider

L looked up, a little surprised as Orpheus spoke. He was right, of course - L though in terms of strategy, even in life - but that didn’t mean he’d expected the analysis. From most people, the comment would have probably made him redouble his efforts to be unknowable, closed off, cold. But...for some reason he couldn’t quite pin down...Orpheus’ remark made him feel warm, seen. It should have scared him. It did, a little bit, if he was honest. But it felt good, growing close enough to someone that they could correctly predict things about you. It felt good, being known, just a little bit. He nodded a little, tilting his head at Orpheus instead of the board. The game existed, but it wasn’t on the table. It was sitting in the chairs.
“You said, a while ago, that you’d like to hear my thought process,” he said after a moment, his voice somewhere close to shy. He met Orpheus’ eyes, his own dark ones serious. “But you’ve already guessed it. Yes, I think in terms of strategy in everything. My...reputation...in my world, is calculated. Everything I do is watched and judged, even if no one knows my face. And, obviously, some people tend to judge rather harshly.”
His hand lifted to his short blond hair for a moment, then lowered again. “But you don’t think that way, do you? You think...in terms of connections, and how your actions affect things. In terms of meaning. Even the riddles you solved. You did it by thinking of what each word could connect to. That may be why this game is difficult for you.”
He looked at the board again, and casually made his move, chasing the pieces back even further. Then he looked up, focusing on Orpheus again.

Orpheus glanced over, frowning a little bit as he heard the note of sarcasm in her tone. It didn’t quite hit how he thought she meant it to, but it was still there. He had thought it fun to put the little fort together, and as far as he was concerned, it looked cozy and nice. Especially given he still felt a little chilly even with the blanket pulled over his shoulders. With any luck, the temperature wouldn’t change much more. Orpheus was fairly certain he had gotten more than his fair share of cold from the House, and he didn’t want to put Eurydice through anything like the blizzard he had faced with L.
“Maybe it’s stronger than it seems,” he whispered, lightly batting at one of the fabric pieces hanging from the couch. It swayed a little bit at the motion, but it didn’t fall. That was good enough for Orpheus, and he shot Eurydice a quick grin before allowing his expression to return to something more serious.
“You’re welcome to come in,” Orpheus added, scooting over so there would be plenty of room for Eurydice as well. “It’s a little warmer in here, I think. Or maybe it’s just my imagination. But… you’re right. It would be a lot nicer with candles.”

Kelsier | Museum Room | strider <Raintalon>

Kelsier stepped back, dagger in hand, as they released him. He hated this. He wanted to fight something, he wanted a war he knew he was on the right side of, and technically, he had one. He just didn’t have a weapon.
He turned his back on them and moved forward, falling to his knees beside Nico once again. Pulling him gently into his arms, then straightening up and turning back to Hange,
He didn’t speak. His heart wasn’t in it. He just waited for them to lead the way.

Samuel | Hallway | <Raintalon>

Samuel blinked in, looking up a bit at the ceiling. After a second, he frowned and glanced around. Clearly the replacement of the ceiling in his view had not been something he expected.
He pulled hesitantly at the sleeves of his sweatshirt and then looked around. He was in the hallway, he knew that much. But he wasn't sure if he should go back toward the living room or into a room. Shifting from foot to foot, he looked around again, but then stepped toward a door, resting his hand on the door handle, preparing to open it.
He would have liked it if someone else blinked in. That seemed like it would be more fun. But maybe going into a room would be fun as well.

Nico’s eyes widened as someone appeared right where Touka had been. Ah… he had seen Matt around before, he was fairly certain, but he didn’t think they had ever actually spoken. That was alright. Matt seemed significantly less capable of fighting off a cyclops than Touka was, but that would have to be okay, too. Nico was tired, but he could fight well enough for both of them. Hopefully.
“Monster,” Nico replied, voice low as the cyclops rounded the corner. “You know anything about fighting?”

Nico nodded, not letting Kelsier’s hand fall from his heart just yet. “Yeah, that was Hades. I doubt… I doubt that was directly from your mind, unless you’ve been picturing him like that for a long time. It was probably just the House deciding it would be something fun to throw in to make it more realistic.” He was trying to sound like it hadn’t bothered him, but it did. Every time Nico saw Hades in the House bothered him on some level, but this was… this was a lot more than that. This was the Hades that had told him that he would rather Bianca be the one to survive. This was Hades before Nico had managed to win him over. He had forgotten how frightening it was to face that Hades, and he hadn’t even been the one fighting him.
That wasn’t the important thing here. The important thing was that the dream had impacted Kelsier more than it probably should have, because Nico couldn’t quite reconcile the history Kelsier was talking about with the man in front of him. Or even with the man who had held the other him close as he died.
“I’m sorry,” Nico replied, his tone possibly a bit harder than Kelsier deserved, “How many innocent children have you murdered to date? Because as far as I’m aware the answer to that is none. And whether you would or not, you haven’t.” It was a distinction that mattered to Nico. Because he knew he was capable of killing people himself. He knew he had the powers to do it, but he hadn’t, and that felt like something of an accomplishment.
“If you think I’m going to blame you for doing things in a world that isn’t real, you’re wrong.” It was hard to say, but it was the truth. He didn’t want to imagine Kelsier killing Bianca. Fortunately, he didn’t have to. “The House is getting in your head,” he murmured, as lightly as he could. “Trying to convince us that just because a version of yourself did it, then all versions of yourself could end up there, too. I won’t give it the satisfaction of believing that it’s right.”

Orpheus stood back, mildly nervous as Theta pulled on one of the drawers. He wasn’t sure what to expect, and even though nothing had been dangerous yet there was always the chance that something would turn out to be… he bit his lip, more than content to let Theta take the risk (although he knew he would regret that if his new friend got hurt). When it didn’t seem like anything dangerous appeared, he drew a little bit nearer, tilting his head a little bit to study it.
“It doesn’t look edible,” he commented, frowning a little bit. “But… then again… the other thing didn’t look edible either, so…” he took one of the packets, opened it up, and popped the disc thing out. It was odd looking, and he didn’t really know how to react to it, but the other thing had been tasty, so…
It was clear immediately upon biting into it that the thing was not meant to be edible. He made a face, taking it out of his mouth and trying to get rid of the weird textured thing that had transferred from the disc to his tongue.
“Don’t eat it,” he added after a few moments, in case his expression hadn’t made that clear.

| Eurydice | Blanket Fort |

Eurydice watched the fabric sway at Orpheus' touch. Fair enough, it did stay up. She scooted into the fort, reaching up to touch the soft blanket ceiling.

She sat facing the entrance with her legs stretched out in front of her and tapped her feet together a couple of times, looking at the fuzzy socks the House had whisked her into when she'd blinked in.

"So, does the House do other good rooms like this?" Eurydice asked. She'd already asked about the bad ones. Might as well ask about the good ones, too.

Theta looked down at the bag as well and pulled one out, at least pleased that Orpheus had tried to eat the disc before he had. He took the disc out of the pack as well and turned it over in his hand. There was a picture on one side and then a reflective side on the other.
"Maybe it is a sort mirror?" speculated Theta, turning the disc this way and that, so that both her and Orpheus could see the reflection of themselves in the ... glass? 
Theta couldn't help noting that he looked grubby. But he also noticed that reflection had little rainbows in it as well, which was very nice.
He did turn the disk back around again, puzzled and showed that to Orpheus. "Does yours have a weird animal imprinted on the other side?"
A pause.
"And do you know what 'Shrek' means?"

Orpheus gave Eurydice a warm smile as she joined him in the fort. It was cozy, as far as he was concerned, and Eurydice entering meant there was more body heat to keep their little space warm. Orpheus figured he could stay there quite comfortably for a long time, if given the choice. Of course… it was the House, so he didn’t think he really would be given the choice. Not that he considered himself an expert on it, yet.
“Mm,” Orpheus replied, considering. “You saw the Lodge, I thought that was pretty nice. Except some of the people there weren’t very nice, so maybe that doesn’t count. The living room is pleasant enough, if you have nice company. There was actually a room where people were fighting each other that seemed enjoyable, if you’re the sort that likes fighting. I asked someone when I first blinked in if it was even, between the good rooms and the bad rooms. It’s not, but… I’m going to make it even. And then there will be more good rooms.”

Nico gave a small smile at that, though it was more forced than he wanted it to be. It was weird, seeing Hades. Weird knowing that Kelsier saw him like that, at least a little bit. Otherwise Kelsier wouldn’t have killed him so easily. There were memories Kelsier had, he knew, memories that probably involved Hades. Memories that weren’t real. But it didn’t change the fact that Hades had treated Nico like that in the past. It wasn’t’ something that he could just erase because he didn’t like it. He had fought hard to earn his father’s pride. It wasn’t until much later that he had realized that you shouldn’t need to earn a parent’s affection. Kelsier was proof of that.
“You know that’s not fair,” Nico murmured, searching Kelsier’s gaze. “That wasn’t permanent, and it was a misunderstanding.” Although… after how quickly he had taken Nico down in that room, it really wasn’t too difficult to imagine him killing Bianca. The thought made Nico sick, so he tried to push it away. He didn’t think about Bianca every day anymore. She was there in the back of his mind, she never left, but he had started to move on. Sometimes he wondered whether she would like Kelsier. He wasn’t going to ruin those thoughts by imagining her dying at Kelsier’s hand.
He was about to say something else when the room started fading and Nico’s eyes went wide.
“Kelsier…” murmured, watching the room fuzz and shift. “Dad!” He grabbed for Kelsier, panic filling him as the bottom of the room seemed to open out from under him, plunging him down, down…
Nico snapped awake with a sharp gasp, his breath coming hard and irregular. He glanced around, one eye immediately moving to his eye as he realized he couldn’t see out of one of them. Oh… that was right. He bit his lip, glancing at Kelsier’s tent a few feet away. It hurt, having dreams where he was alright. But… he needed to get used to it. Dreams wouldn’t bring Kelsier back to him. They would just make his absence harder to live with.