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

Matt | Pride room 2.0 | ®Hawkpath® strider |

Matt blinked into the living room, lying on the floor, his arms spread out to either side of his head.

"I don't care if it's 90 degrees," he began. "I don't care if it's 200 degrees, or 1000 degrees. I am not putting on a T shirt."

L Lawliet | Pride Room | strider

L nodded, guessing Orpheus wouldn’t recognize the term. He would explain it, then.
It wasn’t going to be anything like the price Orpheus was thinking of.
He wanted Orpheus to feel like they could be part of it too, if they wanted to be. So they lived in a much different time. So they didn’t experience the same things L and other people like him did. That was fine. In an ideal world, no one would ever be told they were wrong for who they were. If Orpheus was a little closer to that, they should hardly be shunned for it.
“I think you would like it,” he replied softly, giving a tiny smile. “It’s...well. It tends to be hot outside. Because of when it is. But it’s also a place where there is a lot of happiness, and truthfully, I think there could be more of that in the world. It’s a side of humanity I don’t see often.”
He lived surrounded by death and pain. He saw the desperate people, the grievers, the murderous, the lost. He rarely saw happiness, and when he did, it was often twisted.
But he had seen pride before. And he he knew that it was proof that after the fire burned out, things could still grow back even healthier then before.
“I’d take you,” he answered, a bit sadly. “I haven’t gone in a very long time. I think...it would be different, with a friend. Better, perhaps. I may bring pictures at some point, when that’s possible again.”
He didn’t mean to say ‘when’ instead of ‘if’, but he did anyway.

“Oh,” Orpheus murmured, trying to take that in. They couldn’t imagine being shoehorned into a profession at the age of twelve, but they supposed they had chosen what they wanted to do with their life when they were much, much younger. But nobody had collected data on them and forced them into it, they had just… been drawn to music. They had played it whenever possible, had bugged Apollo until they learned everything there was to know. They were surprised Apollo had been willing to keep teaching them, but they supposed that passion like that was hard to come by, especially in small children. Apollo had been surprisingly pleased by Orpheus’ desperation to play.
“Which… branch are you part of?” they asked after a long moment, hoping that was an appropriate way to steer the conversation. Starling’s world sounded very different from theirs, and though they was trying not to judge it too harshly, the no music rule was a dealbreaker for them. They weren’t sure they would be able to live without music. It was as vital to them as oxygen or water.
“Is there no… retirement? I mean… the chance to take off of work when you’re old enough and just… explore the world and see things, or just find a couple of hobbies that make you happy and not have to worry about going out and doing work? I mean… does your home have no town elders who pass on stories and do little else?” It was incredibly foreign to Orpheus, though their tone was laced with curiosity rather than judgment. It was just somewhere different. Somewhere that Starling was probably quite attached to, and Orpheus didn’t want to question that or offend him. They were just… curious.
“My world… well, I suppose we have jobs, but they’re more casual, and you can move from one to another pretty easily. Sometimes people become apprentices in a trade they’re passionate about, or in a trade their parents think they would do well in, so they train under a master for a long time until they’re good enough to either take over for the master or set up shop somewhere else. But I don’t think that’s very similar to your Designations.”
Orpheus took a breath, their thumb brushing over a guitar string as they listened to Starling’s explanation. “I’m not too surprised,” they admitted, though they were a little disappointed. “I’ve considered the fact that my gods may be dead in the future. If there’s nobody around to worship them, if there’s nobody who remembers who they are, what power do they have to live off of? So it’s… well, I think it might be likely that nobody in your world has spoken with a god.” It was odd, thinking that their gods might not be around at some point. They were so lively and powerful in Orpheus’ time…
“Yes.” It was much easier to talk about music than the death of their gods. “Here,” they added, handing over the guitar so Starling could try holding it. “If you press down in certain places, different notes are produced. And… as long as you want to learn, whatever pace you learn at is fast enough for me.”

Spook | Pride Room 2.0. | strider <Raintalon>

Spook looked up sharply as he caught sight of someone...appearing out of nowhere.
He backed away. This wasn’t anything he wanted anything to do with, this...this unknown. This wasn’t Allomancy, at least not any kind he knew of.
He didn’t speak, but he did jump as the person on the floor sat up and spoke. His eyes darted between the strangers - he’d dropped the spoon, his only weapon - and waited. Whether that was for an attack or an explanation, he couldn’t tell.

Matt | Pride 2.0 | ®Hawkpath® strider |

"Oh boy..." muttered Matt in dismay, as both newbies reacted with complete and utter panic to the situation. "Okay, so, this is the Paradox House, and it's kind of a place? But also not, and it's really really big and there's no way out but it's fine because you'll blink back to your own world eventually, and no one can really agree on what it is exactly and I dunno either cause I'm not a scientist but I feel like it's some kind of pocket dimension? I saw a documentary on those one time so I guess they're real and stuff. Anyways."

He took a breath, offering the newbies a second crooked smile. "If you guys need to like, scream, or swear, or anything, that's cool. I'm Matt."

“How can something be both a place and not a place?” Wylan asked, the scientific part of himself winning out over the nervous part. He still didn’t know where he was, and he didn’t think he trusted Matt, but he was being nice so far. It was possible that was just because he had singled Wylan and the other boy out as easy marks, but… but something about him seemed genuine in the easy, calm way that criminals never were. Wylan would know, having worked with enough of them by now. Having practically been one now. He didn’t have to like it, but crime paid. Well.
“Screaming sounds… like a bad idea,” he added, crossing his arms over his chest to hide the fact that his hands were shaking a little bit. “I mean… this place has to belong to someone, right? And we’re probably not supposed to be here…”

Spook | Pride Room 2.0 | strider <Raintalon>

Spook was inclined to believe Matt. He didn’t know whether that was a stupid instinct...it probably was...but he couldn’t help it. He never met people this...genuine. Even people like Hammond had an angle. Matt probably did too, but Spook couldn’t for the life of him tell what it might be. The other boy seemed closer to Spook, in that he didn’t seem to know what was happening at all.
He flinched as Matt looked at him, taking a small step backwards. “What’s a documentary?” He blurted out, blushing as he realized that was the least relevant question he could have asked. He didn’t expect to be understood, anyway.

Kelsier | Dreams Room | strider

Kelsier didn’t move from his crouch, didn’t move as he waited for hands for seize him and pin him down. Why weren’t they coming?
They knew. They knew he wouldn’t attack again. His hatred had been enough once. But doing it again, trying again...that felt impossible. It was much harder to try and stitch yourself up when you were aware of how much it was going to hurt. It was much harder to face something you were afraid of after it had bitten you already.
Kelsier had lost Nico. Had seen his body. Had felt him go limp. Now that he knew that pain...was he capable of doing it again?
He couldn’t tune Nico’s voice out, no matter how much he wanted to. He had to listen to Hades do his absolute best to break his heart
He would never, ever admit to anyone that Hades succeeded.
“I think,” he said finally, voice steady. “That you’re going to have to do much better than that if you want to break me. Now get out of my sight.”

Nico didn’t know what he expected. Part of him hoped that he might be able to shock Kelsier back to normal. That he might be able to say the right thing to bring him back, because nothing else had worked. He was tired. He was so tired of his dad being right there but not being able to do anything to save him. This… this man wasn’t Kelsier. It was a shell of Kelsier, and Nico kept cutting himself on the shards Hades had broken it into. He thought he might hate Hades, more than he hated Kelsier at the moment. More, even, than he was used to hating himself. It allowed him a breath of fresh air; a moment away from the guilt.
“Since I met you,” Nico managed in a soft, still garbled voice, “there were three things I wanted out of life. First… to fix the mess I made. I don’t… think that’s possible. Two… to not be like my father. To be… to be better than him. To fix what he had broken. And… and three? To make you proud. And I haven’t… I can’t do any of those things. I’m sorry.” He angrily wiped a tear from his cheek, turning on his heel to leave the tent. He told himself he didn’t if Kelsier attacked again. He was lying.

Zuko liked happy things. He liked the idea of not thinking about the things that made him and Sal sad… he didn’t want to say any topic was off limits because that was something the grown-ups would say, but he did think it was probably for the best to avoid the things that might hurt either one of them. Sal deserved better than to be sad.
“A sleepover?” Zuko asked, tilting his head at the unfamiliar term. “I… I don’t know what that is. But I like the idea of you coming to see the palace! You wouldn’t like my little sister very much – she’s mean – but we could play and do stuff and I could show you the palace while Azula plays with her friends. And nobody can make me play with them cause I’ll have a friend of my own there, and being a good host is more important than playing with Azula, because she already has friends. Perhaps Zuko was getting a little too excited about this, but it had been a while since he was excited about anything. He just hoped Sal didn’t mind.
“I think you’re a good friend,” he informed Sal, nodding sagely. “You’re nice. I would like… a sleepover.”
He was pointedly ignoring Ronan, now. He would rather spend time getting to know Sal and being his friend than being bossed around by someone who wasn’t even polite enough to say ‘please.’ Iroh would have hated him. Ozai would have loved him. Zuko was conflicted. He admired the kid, he just hated being told what to do by people his own age. He didn’t like being called a jerk, either, but he thought Azula had probably said worse.

“Yep,” Newt confirmed, giving a rather serious nod. “At least… when I have nightmares and I think about whether or not I’m dreaming, I pinch myself. And if it doesn’t feel real, then I know that I’m in a dream and that whatever is in there with me isn’t real. But if it does feel real, then I just pinch harder, and if I wake up, then I know I was asleep. If I don’t, then I was probably awake and just… letting my imagination be mean.”
Newt wanted to help, too, especially if his new friend was doing it. “I think he meant all of us,” he replied, eyes widening in awe and shock at the force with which Juuzou moved the table. “Nice!” he commented, looking up to give Ronan a thumbs up as he began to push some of the tables closer together as well.

Noah looked up at Ronan as he crossed his arms. He was clearly disappointed that very few people had taken them up on their offer to stack the tables. Didn’t they understand that it was going to be fun?
“If we stack the tables we can all be really tall and we can jump between them and it’ll be really fun!” he exclaimed loudly enough for everyone else in the room to hear him. It was a very different strategy than Ronan’s, but maybe one of the two would work. Or maybe both would work and they would have everyone’s help in no time.
“We shoulda had the idea sooner,” he grumped, pursing his lips and rocking back and forth on his heels. “If we had, we would’ve been able to get everyone to help us before they had all split off and started different conversations. Also, my mom would say you have a potty mouth. I like it. It’s exciting.”

“I guess there’s a difference,” Nico replied uncertainly, frowning a little. “But we were learning in history class that people thought the sun was controlled by a god a really long time ago before they learned that the Earth spins. So they thought it was magic for a really really long time, but it wasn’t, really. It had a scientific explanation. I think. I asked my teacher why the Earth spins but then she got mad at me for asking too many questions so I had to stand outside the classroom and I missed the end of what she was saying. But basically… I think magic is just science that nobody has explained yet. I don’t think the difference is really that big.”
He shook the thought away, not wanting to argue with his new friend. He might be wrong, anyway, and Varian seemed pretty sure he was right… he would ask Bianca when he got home. He trusted Bianca would have the right answer. She was always really smart.
“Really?” Nico squeaked, eyes wide. “You’d let me do that?” He was caught up in the euphoria of Varian saving an exciting part for him that it barely registered that Ronan had said a bad word.
“Don’t be mean!” he said, crossing his arms as he turned to Ronan. “We’re busy!”

Wylan frowned a little bit, unsure why the other boy looked so afraid. Okay… maybe he did understand. He didn’t know how they had gotten here, he just knew that they were here now, and wherever it was, it seemed nice. Well… with the exception of the boy yelling not nice things. He wasn’t going to pay that any attention, because the other boy was alone, and it was more important to make him feel less alone than it was to have fun pushing the tables around. And he was second-guessing idea of pushing around tables wearing nothing but his underclothes. He was already going to make his father mad if he saw him having taken the fancy dress off.
“Hi,” Wylan murmured softly to the other boy, pulling his knees close to his chest. He wanted to ask where they were, but he figured it would become apparent with time. This was where he would normally say his name and ask if the other boy wanted to play, but… he didn’t really want to say his name here. He didn’t like his name much at all… but maybe he could invent a new one! “I’m… Wylan,” he decided after a moment, shrugging the name on like a jacket. “Do you wanna be friends?”

Sam looked up as well, not exactly sure what to make of what he was seeing. There were indeed brittle looking planks of ... wood? 
"That does not look safe," Sam agreed. "I vote we only jump to those if we really need to."
This seemed like a safe enough bet, all things considered. Sam at least hoped it was, at any rate. He wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to either of them.
He did look up and scan the various platforms though. Other than the rickety wooden ones, he still saw some solid ones like the one they were standing on.
"Let's go for that one," he said, pointing. He squeezed Nico's hand again. "On three."
Again, he counted, "One, two, three!"

Czes - amp room - L, Orpheus, unconscious Hook

Czeslaw's eyebrow twitched as L got up out of his chair. "Yes I know you two trust each other, but to be frank, what has that got to do with me trusting either of you?" There was some kind of foul play here. L was acting strange. Well to be more accurate, he always acted strange, and what was wrong was that he was acting like someone else. An expressive, positive blinker that Czeslaw didn't think really fit in that detective's body.

And now Orpheus was backing away?
Why couldn't Czeslaw decipher his expression anymore?
WHAT was going on?

"You two can drop the acts." He decided against lowering his sword. This was all a little too suspicious. "What's going on here, are you planning something?" The kid looked between Orpheus and L, as if he couldn't afford to look away from either of them for too long. He wasn't one to confront people like this. Instead he always kept his opinions and feelings to himself, no matter how much they wanted to come to the surface. But in this room he couldn't seem to stop himself. "Right after we knocked him out, you two started acting... suspicious," he said bluntly.

L Lawliet | Chess Room | strider

“Mm,” L replied, nodding slightly. “Thirty. That seems right for the time I’ve known you, which is helpfully the time you’ve been blinking in. Of course, time doesn’t reall6 work the same way between the two of us, but it seems relatively steady. There haven’t been any major blips, anyway.”
He gave a small nod. “Yes, this is my 84th blink,” he replied simply. “It never occurred to me not to keep track. Numbers are easier to keep track of the time...I couldn’t tell you how long it is between blinks, for example, but the blinks themselves are easy for me. Numbers tend to be important. You never know when you may need a license plate number. Which...makes no sense to you, does it? Suffice to say it’s a number that is sometimes important. It would be helpful if I knew whether there was any pattern to the times I blink in, but as far as I can tell, there isn’t. I’ve often marked down when I blinked in, in case that shed any light on it. No luck.”
He trailed off, glancing at Orpheus again. “Oh,” he replied, surprised that he’d forgotten to vocally connect it back to their other conversation. He was more exhausted than he’d thought. “I was wondering how many blinks you’ve met strangers in. It seems that you’ve blinked in with me a significant percentage of your total blinks. I’ve noticed that since meeting you, there’s a high probability that you’ll be there when I blink in. Perhaps the House is interested in our relationship...it’s likely not a coincidence. If we assume that the House is one or more beings, there’s motive. But the point is that you tend to meet people and spend the majority of your blinks with them, coming across others with less frequency, though not never. That’s how it is for me, at least.”
He shook his head, abandoning the thought and making a move on the board without looking at it. He knew what he was doing, and he didn’t foresee any problems.
Trust was very different once you had lost it, even if it had been a completely unrelated event with a completely unrelated person. And L had been betrayed many, many times. At some point, it was expected that there would be a betrayal, and then you stopped trusting at all so as not to be hurt. It was an effective coping mechanism, he knew, but not a free one. This...if he’d forgotten how to trust entirely, he wouldn’t be here now.
He gave a tiny smile as Orpheus spoke.
“I’m glad “ he said quietly. “I think that in order to trust, you have to decide that the chances of being betrayed are outweighed by the benefit of that trust. You have an 11% chance of betraying me. Those are acceptable odds.”

Spook | Pride Room 2.0 | <Raintalon> strider

Spook blinked, eyes widening as he was understood by both boys. Matt, especially, shocked him...he didn’t look like the sort of person who would understand slang, but maybe that was wrong. Apparently that was wrong.
“You can understand me?” He whispered, the actual explanation almost lost in his surprise. “Both of you?”
He didn’t know what a movie or a play was, either. He had no idea what Matt was talking about, but somehow, being able to communicate helped a little. He was still ready to bolt. But he could also pay attention.