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

| Victoria | Blender Room |

Victoria tilted her head as she watched the girl stack up large frozen fruit chunks. It seemed like the blinkers were small, and everything was large. She peered through the glass, though the way it bent and curved warped the view of everything outside. But it looked like the vague idea of a kitchen.

"Wait, who else knows we're in here? Are there other blinkers out there? Should they know where we are?" Victoria asked. She shifted her stance, her paws feeling quite sticky.

"Hey, we could always try to keep stacking those to get out." Victoria said. It was a pretty good idea, and maybe it would work.

Ronan | Blender Room

Ronan looked at the dog as she spoke up, stating the obvious for anyone. He wished a talking dog surprised him, but he was pretty sure they were standing in a giant blender, so it really didn’t. Dreams were like that. Only, he reminded himself, this wasn’t his head. He didn’t call the shots here. Probably.
As far as he could tell, whoever was dreaming this (or had dreamt this) was a lot more creative than he was.
“Peachy,” he deadpanned to Rex, though his eyes were on zombie girl and Martha the Talking Dog. “I love being turned into baby food. Do you see where you are?”
He turned, looking around until he caught sight of a vaguely human shaped figure outside the blender.
“Hey!” He yelled at her, walking over to bang on the glass. “Hey! Don’t press anything. Don’t press anything, got it?”

Sam | Zoo Room | strider

There was a second before Sam opened his eyes were he just thought about what he might see next. Then, very slowly, he opened them. It was all he could do not to smile - so he didn't try to stop himself. So instead he grinned. Both at the aviary and then at Nico.
"It's amazing!" he said, sounding as excited as he looked. "I wonder how many birds there are in here!"
He looked toward the toucan and continued to smile. "Come on!"
He both waved his hand and awkwardly indicated Nico's hand in almost the same go. He didn't make any move to touch Nico, but he looked excited enough that he did ... sort of want to hold Nico's hand. And also just speed walk toward the sign and read about the bird. Which was practically what he did. He hurried toward it, bouncing on his heals, and looking back at Nico happily. "What sort of bird would you like to see?"
He was switching between looking at Nico and looking at the birds.

The Doctor | Hurricane Simulator Room | ®Hawkpath®

Tricking Spook didn't even seem to be on the Doctor's mind. She entered the door right behind Spook. To her surprise, however, the room beyond was metal and there were bolts in the wall. She scanned it, a bit reminded of a space-ship hallway. It was the right sort of shape. The difference was that there seemed to be a lot of things within the room which didn't really match up with the idea ... like what appeared to be a giant fan on the other side of the room, covered by mesh. Along the walls, floors, and even the ceiling, there seemed to be various handholds. The Doctor had just enough time to note that there also seemed to be two hatches to either side of the fan before there was a buzzing, electronic sound.
Then the fan kicked in.
"This is going to be interesting," she said, sounding a cross between grim and excited. "I think it's about to get very windy in here."
As she said that, the hair around her ears started to blow back.

Sam was dying. Sam was dying. It was one thing to see that he was a vampire. It was one thing to know that the thin grey outline around him meant that, in a way, he was already dead. Now, though, that thin grey had expanded into a menacing black, consuming the boy as he continued to drink Hades’ blood. It wasn’t blood. It was ichor. There was no way vampires could drink that and still be okay… fear pulsed through Nico as he realized the severity of the situation. He had wanted to believe that they would all be alright. He had wanted to believe that Kelsier could beat Hades, but… but this… Kelsier was gasping for breath, his aura week and uncertain. He might still die, if the side effects were bad enough. Sam was the more immediate concern. For the first time in Nico’s life, pure hatred towards his father bubbled up in his chest. He had been mad at Hades before. He had felt shame for not being the child Hades wanted him to be. There were any number of things he had learned to hate about himself because of his father, but he had never hated the man himself as much as he did in this moment. He had spent so much of his life trying to make him proud, trying to prove that he was the son that Hades deserved. He didn’t want to be Hades’ son anymore. He didn’t care about making him proud. All he cared about were the friends that were dying at Hades’ hand.
“I will be,” Nico murmured to Kelsier, looking over him once to make sure he was still alive, to make sure he was going to stay alive. Careful was something he wasn’t sure he could afford to be. His powers were waning, he couldn’t afford to use too much of them at any given time, but… there was no time to hesitate, now. There was just… Hades and Nico and Sam and Kelsier, and the fact that both Sam and Kelsier were going to die if he didn’t do anything.
Uncertainty boiled up in Nico’s heart, but he shoved it bodily away. It didn’t matter now. What mattered was saving his friends. Nico got to his feet, eyes narrowed into slits as he reached out with his powers and grabbed Hades’ soul. It was slippery in his grip, different from any other souls Nico had felt… he hadn’t touched many, but he knew that Hades’ was different. Gods couldn’t die. Not in the same way mortals could, at least. It didn’t mean there was nothing Nico could do. Closing his eyes, Nico wrenched Hades’ spirit out of his body, leaving the god’s still form to topple to the floor. He had been holding out strong against Sam… it didn’t matter now. It wasn’t loss of ichor that was going to kill him. It was Nico taking his soul out of his body. Godly forms weren’t bodies in the same way human bodies were. They were manifestations of the god’s spirit. Now that Hades’ was in Nico’s grasp, the body shrunk down to the size it had been before, then disappeared. Nico heard screaming, but it didn’t seem to register that it was his own. His eyes snapped open as the room began to quake, a chasm opening up beneath where Hades had been standing. Close to Sam. Too close to Sam. The god’s spirit was drawn towards the chasm like it was a black hole, and the moment he disappeared down into it the floor rumbled as the chasm began to close itself.
Nico’s skin was translucent, the shadows around him coalescing into him. He looked more like a boy made of shade than the human boy who had been there just moments before. It took a lot of power to separate a human spirit from its body. It took even more, it seemed, to kill a god. The chasm closed, nothing more than a small crack in the floor to prove it had ever been there. It was quiet. Too quiet, almost, as the screaming stopped, as the shadow boy fell, his body scarcely making a sound as it hit the ground.

Kelsier | for Sam Room | strider mintedstar/fur

This was wrong. This was all wrong, and Kelsier knew it was going to get worse before it got better. His plan had been working. It had been so close to working, and this…
He’d felt this before. This was exactly how he’d felt when he’d been caught trying to steal from the Lord Ruler. The exact same moment when his heart stopped and his stomach felt like he was falling.
He could have beaten Hades. That wasn’t pride, that was just fact. He could have done it, and he could have protected them, and he hadn’t.
He didn’t have time to think about that now. He could go over every action and mistake he’d made later. For now…he was going to salvage this as best he could.
His head and lungs ached. He ignored it as he pushed himself to his feet, ready to do whatever he needed to do.
He froze. And then he watched as Hades’ body collapsed, lifeless, back at its regular height.
Nico di Angelo was killing a god.
Nico di Angelo was killing Hades.
Kelsier had been in awe of the boy’s strength before. He’d killed an Inquisitor, hadn’t he? That had been meant to impress him, he guessed, since the House had also allowed him to show off at the same time.
Now…what a shallow thing that had been. What a low thing to be impressed by. He hadn’t known him, then. Not really. Not like he did now.
Because he hadn’t felt anything for the Inquisitor. He hadn’t had any reason to hold back.
Because an Inquisitor was not a god at all, even if it wasn’t human anymore.
Not only was Nico physically capable of killing Hades, but he was prepared to go through with it. Knowing that, if Hades remembered this, there would be hell to pay.
Knowing that if the House chose, it could probably leave him dead at Nico’s hand. Permanently.
He looked at Nico. Watched him, not Hades, as the chasm opened. As the soul of a god was forced into the ground.
If I didn’t love him, I’d be afraid of him.
He almost didn’t look away. He almost didn’t see.
But there was movement at the edge of his vision, and it pulled his attention. Forcing him to look.
Sam.
He didn’t hesitate. He had learned a long time ago that one moment of hesitation was a death sentence, and not for him.
He burned pewter and ran for Sam, diving forward and knocking him away from the edge, as hard as he could. If he slipped in in his stead…
Nico had been prepared to sacrifice everything for the two of them.
Why would Kelsier be any different?

Kelsier | Living Room | strider

Kelsier blinked in, a pensive look on his features, his mistcloak fluttering out behind him as though he’d been standing in a breeze. The mist was gone, of course…he always wondered whether any of it ever blinked in with him and just disappeared in the light, or if the House was too precise for that.
He turned, taking in the living room, which was empty at the moment. Not that it often stayed that way, once he’d appeared.
He sighed lightly and moved forward, towards the books. Probably there were people who had or would like to go through every one of them, but he didn’t. If the blank books meant something, the House was going to have to try a little harder to get him to solve it. After all…there was always going to be another secret.
It didn’t stop him from picking one off at random and flipping it open. If he’d had anything to write with, he might have impulsively signed his name, but he wasn’t in the habit of carrying writing utensils on his person. Not that he was above stabbing someone in the eye with one. He just had better things to stab someone with.

Zuko’s eyes widened a little and he turned his attention back to his drawing. He didn’t know what a check was, but he doubted that what he was drawing looked like… oh. A small smile pressed at his lips as he turned back to look at Sal, arms crossing. He clearly knew what it was and was trying to beat the House at its own game. A small piece of paper fluttered down from the ceiling – a check for one million dollars, made out to someone who was most definitely not Sal Fisher.
“Is that… what you thought it was going to be?” Zuko asked, tilting his head. “I don’t know what a check is, but… guessing money was a good idea.” He had a feeling that the House wouldn’t be too generous, but it did seem to acquiesce to guesses that weren’t really guesses. Especially if the odd looking piece of paper was really what Sal had asked for. Zuko had a hard time believing that it was worth anything, but he supposed money worked differently in other people’s worlds. He had seen paper money used in the House before, and even that had been weird to him.

Sal | Pictionary Room | strider

Sal looked up, eyes widening as the paper actually made an appearance. He had genuinely not expected to be able to get away with that, but…a grin slid over his face as he caught it, and he glanced at Zuko, enough mischief in his gaze to make up for the lack of the rest of his face.
“Actually? It is,” he told him. “I didn’t actually think that was going to work. I…”
He caught sight of the name and broke off, staring at it. And then he burst into light laughter.
“I think I kind of love this place,” he managed once he could speak again, glancing at Zuko, a grin on his face, visible or not. “I’m taking this home and looking up the name first chance I get. I don’t know how your world works as far as money goes, but if this person exists, they’re going to have a really, really good day.”

“If the House lets you blink back with it,” Zuko replied with a small shrug. He wasn’t sure what the odds were of that. The House had an odd relationship with object permanence. Sometimes the things you were holding blinked in with you, sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes you could take things out of the House, sometimes you couldn’t. “I hope you do. And I hope you find whoever belongs to that name.” He frowned a little bit, looking back at his cloud drawing. He wondered if the House would allow more things like that to appear. Things that weren’t guesses but that were parading as guesses.
“That’s money?” Zuko asked after another moment. His curiosity was getting the better of him. “It doesn’t look like it’s worth much. We use coins and things in my world. Things that have actual value themselves.”

Nico looked up at Kelsier, eyes wide as his words hit home. When was the last time anyone had cared what happened to Nico di Angelo? He knew that wasn’t quite a fair question to ask. There had been people in the House who had cared for as long as he’d been blinking in. This felt… different, though. This was everything Nico had yearned for in his world, everything he had believed he would never have. This was what he had hoped Hades would be, before he had learned the truth about his father. Hades didn’t care unless you could prove yourself to him. Kelsier was once again proving himself different.
Nico looked a little bit like a deer caught in the headlights. He was frozen in place, tears welling in his eyes, expression completely lost. He didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t sure he deserved this.
“I… I know,” he managed quietly, barely managing to keep his voice from breaking. “I’m okay,” he added, and it wasn’t a lie. He was, in the grand scheme of things. The quest he was on was only going to get harder, though, and he had a feeling he might need to break eventually.
“I might take you up on that. Later, I mean. For now…” he tilted his head in the direction of the hallway, then shoved his hands into his pockets as he started walking towards it.

Sam | for Sam room | strider ®Hawkpath®

Everything happened at once. At least that was how it felt to Sam's addled mind where nothing was making much sense right now. All he knew was that the edge of his vision was going dark and, after a second, his grip slipped away.
Or was it Hades slipping away. It was hard to tell. The only thing which Sam did know was that he was slipping too. In more ways then one. Maybe his little tumble away from Hades helped in having Kelsier save him. He didn't know. He wasn't aware of it.
It took a second for his tunnel vision to clear - for him to see that he was in a dangerous situation. He found himself grabbing onto Kelsier, trying to drag him away just as much as Kelsier was trying to pull him away as well. There wasn't a lot going on in his head other than getting away from ... whatever had happened. What had happened? What had happened?
He felt so lost. Completely caught up in his own headache, in his own weak limbs, in the fact that he couldn't hold himself up longer than a couple of seconds.
"What?" he asked. "W-what's h-happened?"

Nico wasn’t entirely certain what had just happened. He wasn’t entirely certain where he was. His body felt cold and hot at the same time. He felt real and incorporeal. He didn’t know if he was awake. He didn’t know if he was alive. Using that much of his powers… he could feel the edges of his consciousness waning. He wasn’t going to be able to stay awake very long. It was like… like he was a piece of rope and he was fraying at the edge. Nico gave a quiet groan, just barely managing to push himself to his forearms.
There, ahead of him… Kelsier and Sam. Safe. Alive. That was all he had been hoping for. That made it all worth it.
It hit him, then. He had killed Hades. He had killed his father. It didn’t matter if he thought of Kelsier as his dad now. He couldn’t change the fact that Hades was his father. He couldn’t change that he was going to have to go home and deal with the consequences of this… he leaned his head back, letting his eyes close once again. He had done what he had intended to do. He had killed someone he had always considered unkillable. He… he didn’t know what to do now. What would his world do without anyone presiding over the Underworld? Nico’s head was spinning… it was hard to keep sitting up let alone thinking… he let himself sink back down, his breath coming in shallow gasps. He had saved Kelsier. He had saved Sam. That was what mattered.

Nico glanced at the door, then gave a small nod. It was just like all the other doors in both feeling and appearance, but he figured it was as good as any of their other options. It was just a door. They all were. Hopefully, the House would be nice to them this time and give them a room that wasn’t like the last one. He shuddered at the thought, remembering the feeling of grabbing onto Hades’ soul. He had been lucky that the Lord of the Underworld was still alive and well. At least… he hoped he was. Was it possible that Nico was having a hard time controlling these ghosts because his father was no longer in charge of them? That thought was more frightening than Nico could contemplate, so he pushed it to the edge of his mind. He could think about it when he wasn’t spending time with Kelsier. He could think about it when there was something he could actually do about it.
Nico squared his shoulders and stepped through the door, glancing to his side to make sure he and Kelsier were walking in side by side. Only… Kelsier wasn’t there anymore.
It was dark. Darker than Nico had anticipated. He reached for his sword, panic gripping him as he realized it wasn’t there. Where… was he? His clothes had turned into something threadbare and filthy, and there were people up ahead… Nico glanced behind him, eyes wide as he realized there was someone watching him, one hand on a staff that looked like it would be very unpleasant to be hit by. Where was he? And where was Kelsier?