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

There. The sound of a voice, breaking through the oppressive silence of the place Nico had walked into. There were too many people for it to be this silent. But… these people… they were scarcely people at all. They were all alive, they were all moving, but they were all just shells of themselves. Nico took in a deep breath, focusing on the sound of Kelsier’s voice.
“Dad!” Nico gasped, relief flooding through him. The guard started, raising his staff at the sound of Nico’s voice. Evidently, speaking too loudly wasn’t a good idea here. He cast his gaze back towards the ground, not wanting to get much closer to the others. They were alive, and they were desperate. Nico didn’t want to know what they would do to a boy they didn’t know. One who was talking to someone who wasn’t there. It didn’t seem like the guard had heard Kelsier’s voice, after all. He didn’t know where Kelsier was, but he had a bad feeling about the place he had walked into. There were ropes leading down into the darkness, and Nico didn’t want to imagine what was down there. Was it like Tartarus? Were there unspeakable horrors? He crossed his arms over his chest, doing his best to pretend like he wasn’t on the verge of panicking. His arms… hurt. Confusion rocked through Nico until he glanced down, gaze catching on the dozens of scratches coating his forearms. Oh.
“Shit.”

Nico didn’t want to contemplate the idea that had occurred to him, but it made too much sense for it to be false. He was in a dark place underground with people who looked like they had lost their will to live. His arms were covered in the same tiny nicks that had formed Kelsier’s scars. The guards looked cruel, and the others – prisoners, Nico assumed – were shying away from them like they didn’t even want to be seen by them. It all made too much sense. Nico thought he might hate the House for it.
“I don’t think you’ll like the answer to that question,” Nico whispered, stepping forward. He figured he would rather the other prisoners think him mad than be beaten by a guard for speaking when he shouldn’t be. He curled himself into a corner where he could watch everyone else there. How long before he was called to descend into one of the pits? How long before he had to look for the geodes Kelsier had mentioned? He didn’t even know what they were supposed to look like.
“I think… I think I’m in Hathsin.”

Nico couldn’t hear what was going on wherever Kelsier was, but he had a feeling it wasn’t any more pleasant than Hathsin was. There was nothing else that made sense… he was here, which meant… where was Kelsier? What was he facing? Was he in his own version of something from his life, or was he in some horror from Nico’s memories? There were a lot of them, but there was really only one thing comparable to Hathsin… a chill ran down Nico’s spine, and he found he didn’t even want to give voice to the idea. If Kelsier was there… he shook his head. Kelsier was the most competent person Nico had ever met. If Kelsier was in Tartarus, he would be able to survive it. He would probably survive it even better than Nico had been able to. Maybe Kelsier would be able to avoid being captured.
“I’m okay,” Nico whispered into the connection, half wanting to cover his ears from the desperate sound of Kelsier’s shout. It was clear that Kelsier didn’t want him here. To be fair, Nico didn’t want to be here. He just… didn’t see another option. He had to get out somehow, but there wasn’t an obvious way out. Maybe the only way out was through the other’s experience. Could Nico force himself to Snap? Could he make himself Mistborn so he could escape? How had Kelsier found access to metals?
It didn’t seem like it was going to be that simple.
“I’m just… in the main area, I think. People are sort of gathering, but nobody is talking. I don’t think I have to go down into the actual Pits yet. I’m fine.”

Nico listened to Kelsier’s instructions, glancing at the prisoners warily. He didn’t really want to hide a geode in his mouth, but… was there any better place to hide one? It seemed unlikely. He didn’t know how long the other prisoners thought he had been there. Was he a new arrival, or were they just looking at him like he was insane? He was talking to himself. It seemed likely that new people tried to talk to the others that were already there. Nico didn’t have any interest in making allies or friends. The only thing he cared about was getting out and finding Kelsier. He didn’t want to think that Kelsier might be in Tartarus, but where else could he be?
“Dad?” Nico gasped, taking the sudden hard breathing as a sign that something had gone wrong. So he was in Tartarus. And he had been attacked. Hathsin might have been spirit-breaking, but there were things in Tartarus that weren’t meant to be seen by mortal eyes. There were things that had nearly driven Nico over the edge into insanity. Kelsier was already half insane (for the first time, Nico had to wonder if that was a result of Hathsin). What harm could Tartarus do to him? Nico didn’t want to dwell on that.
“I’ll avoid everyone as much as I can, I promise,” he said after a moment, grateful that he hadn’t decided to edge any closer to the prisoners. He was at a nice even midground, though he would need to get up and join the rest of the pack the moment the guards decided it was time for them to move. They were conferring with each other now. Nico figured he didn’t have very much of a break.
“Drink the fire,” he said after a moment, biting his lip. “It’s… it’s going to burn, but it’ll heal your wounds. Probably. I think you’re probably a demigod now… otherwise you wouldn’t…” he frowned, uncertain if he was right. If Kelsier was mortal, he would kill him by instructing him to drink the fire. “I don’t know. I don’t have any powers here. I need you… I need you to tell me if you can see the aura of life starting to form around the… the monsters that are growing from the ground.” Nico knew how unpleasant they were to look at, but he didn’t have a choice. “If you can… then you need to drink the fire. It’ll heal any wounds you have. And it will keep you alive.”

They were both going to keep advising each other hon how to survive the impossible. That was the thing about where they had both ended up, wasn’t it? Nobody was meant to survive Hathsin. Before Nico, nobody mortal had ever survived Tartarus. They were places that were meant to be un-survivable. Just because they had both managed to survive them didn’t mean that they knew how they had done it. It was a matter of stubbornness. It was a matter of wanting to live more than anything else. It was a matter of being more certain of your own strength than you were certain that the place you were in was going to kill you. It wasn’t a specific set of actions that led to surviving places like these. It was a mindset. And, more than anything, it was a lot of luck. The best they could hope to do was survive for a short period of time. How long usually passed before the House blinked them out? Would it be better to just die here and let the House bring them back eventually? Nico didn’t believe that was the best course of action. The House may have had a habit of bringing people back from the dead, but there was never any guarantee of it. Maybe the House wanted to see if they could survive this. Maybe they wouldn’t be interesting to it anymore if they failed.
“Did you drink it?” Nico asked, pulling his knees close to his chest. He wanted his jacket, but that had disappeared when he had entered the room. He still hadn’t managed to fix the hole in it… it was an odd thought to be having when he was likely seconds away from dying, but it didn’t matter.
“Oh,” Nico murmured, standing up as the guards started to move towards him. He immediately started ambling towards the others, doing the best to look like he wasn’t intentionally avoiding the guards. He wasn’t going to slack off. He wasn’t going to give them any reason to hurt him. Hopefully, none of the prisoners would target him either.
“If you run into Nyx… avoid her. Just… walk the other way. She can see your worst fears. She can see what would make you miserable, and she won’t hesitate.”

Sam | for Sam room | strider ®Hawkpath®

It was with, what looked like, great struggle that Sam slowly sunk to the ground. The effort seemed to be completely devoted to not falling to it.
Sam did however find himself focusing on Nico. It was like a bit more of his own view grew dark however. That was what was wrong. There. Over there. Something was terribly wrong and Sam could feel it tugging at him.
It also seemed a very distant wrong. Everything was hard to move in a timely fashion, but he tried. He pulled himself forward, inches by inches.
"Nico?" he seemed to half choke.
Or was that only something he thought? Was he just thinking he was moving? Was he actually moving?
It was a struggle, but after a while longer, Sam was nearby. There. He was ...
"Nico ..."

Nico was aware of several things, but also nothing. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, could feel the way his hand threatened to sink down into the floor because it wasn’t quite there. He heard voices, but they sounded distant and foreign. It was almost as though they were speaking another language. Nico tried to latch onto the voice, his mind struggling to translate the English into a language he was more familiar with. He had always wondered why the House decided to translate to English for him when it was his third language. Surely one of the others made more sense…
“Sorry,” he mumbled, doing his best to focus on Kelsier. His vision was glazed and blurry, and he wasn’t entirely sure he was saying the words out loud. “I guess… I lied. Didn’t mean to…” his eyes drifted shut, finding it much easier to exist in the dark than it was to try to catch features of Kelsier’s face and forge them into a shape that made sense.
He heard Sam, too, and an almost-smile formed on his lips. He wanted to offer his blood to Sam, but… he wasn’t sure he was entirely human at the moment. If he gave Sam blood tainted by shadow, would he just make it all worse? He let out a soft sigh, his eyes twitching beneath his eyelids. One hand reached for Sam, the other grasped Kelsier’s shirt in a loose fist.
“Alive…” he whispered, clearly still out of it. Alive. They were both alive. That was all that mattered.

Kelsier | for Sam Room | strider mintedstar/fur

Kelsier shook his head, waiting until Nico had taken hold of his shirt to gently leverage the kid into his arms, forming what was hopefully a much more comfortable place to lay.
Nico was right. They were alive. Everyone that mattered, anyway.
“Hey,” he whispered, shaking his head a little. “No apologizing. I’m the one who should be sorry. I should have been able to protect you…both of you.”
He hadn’t. In a way, he guessed Hades had won after all.
He glanced at Sam. He didn’t know for sure how to help him…he didn’t know what he needed. He was a vampire, though. So maybe he had a guess.
“Do you need blood?” He asked quietly. “You can have mine. I’m human. I don’t think being Mistborn should change my blood.”
Somehow…they’d made it.
“We need to get out of this room,” he added quietly, eyes straying to the crack in the floor. That was all that was left of the chasm, now. He looked away. “Sam, can you walk?”

Kelsier | Switcharoom | strider

Kelsier stepped towards the river again, watching the flames as they slid by. He didn’t want to drink too much of it, but his shoulder was on fire, and he had a bad feeling about leaving any wounds he had if there was something he could do about them. He was a lot more likely to die of that than he was of the flames.
He knelt next to them and carefully scooped a little more into his mouth. It burned, but he thought he could feel it strengthening him, healing the wounds he already had…maybe that was just wishful thinking. But it hadn’t killed him, so he had to assume he really was a demigod.
“Mare…” he breathed out, hesitating at the name. No description was going to do her justice. How was it possible that Nico didn’t know what she looked like? It made sense, and yet it felt almost impossible.
“She’s…tall. Long, dark hair. Dark eyes. But don’t get yourself in trouble looking for her. People down there are ready to kill for less than a searching glance.”
He straightened up, turning to look around as he moved on. He’d have tried to take some of the fire with him, but his vials were gone, and he wasn’t sure that was such a good idea anyway. There were a lot of rivers. As long as he kept one in sight, he would be fine.
He could see how a place like this could drive someone insane. He could see the way it pulled at his mind…no, it wasn’t a place meant for human eyes. He wondered if it was a place anything was really supposed to see. Maybe even the monsters here were insane because of it.
“One thing I never told you,” he said quietly, his eyes moving constantly. He couldn’t count on sound to tell him if something attacked.
He saw movement and turned, barely taking out a monster in time. He didn’t have time to congratulate himself, though, as something hooked itself around his foot and pulled.
He went down hard, gasping as the thing began to drag him over the rippling ground, faster than he could react. He mounted a curse as he fought, as silently as he could, kicking at it and trying to right himself enough to stab at it.
Once he was on the ground, it seemed every monster decided he was no longer a threat. Or maybe he’d never been a threat. Maybe he’d just been something to toy with.
And they were coming for him.

“Yes,” L told him simply, shrugging a little. “At least, under these circumstances.”
He didn’t elaborate, he just watched as the drawer opened, and whatever was inside caught Vincent’s attention. It could have been a weapon, but there was no need to overreact to it. Vincent had nothing to gain from killing him here. And while some people would have killed him regardless, just because they were capable of it or because they thought it would get them out (and technically it might), he didn’t think Vincent was that sort. It was too…decisive for him. He barely knew the man, but from this and the last room they’d been in together, he had a feeling he knew more than most people would have.
He leaned forward, inspecting the cards. He didn’t recognize most of them…he narrowed his eyes at them. He couldn’t be sure they were real games at all.
He reached forward and plucked one box from the stack, holding it up to the light. He didn’t really look much like normal playing cards to him, if he were honest, but that didn’t matter. He lowered it, shifting it to a different spot on the table.
“I can’t have a preference without knowing what these are,” he noted, looking up again. “Do you recognize them?”

Eliyen watched as one of the blinkers walked over and started hitting the glass. He was saying something but she couldn’t hear very well. “Don’t stress about what?” she called back, then shrugged and laughed. “Why would I, I’m not the one that got stuck.”
The elf glanced around the room as she started to pick up the cards she’d dropped. She wasn’t particularly concerned about the situation but that didn’t mean she wasn’t curious. It seemed to be an oversized kitchen, though more elaborate than the ones she’d been in in her world. “What is that anyway?” she asked, unsure if they could really hear her

Kelsier and Mare | Switcharoom | strider

Kelsier knew from long experience that being knocked down was one of the worst things that could happen in a fight. One you were on the ground, you were at an automatic disadvantage, and not one easily fixed. You could be pinned, or much, much worse.
Fighting monsters was no different. He could get shredded in a second if they caught him on the ground.
He was slipping towards one of the dark things the monsters had come out of. If he went in there, he wasn’t coming out again.
He kicked at the claw around his ankle, but it didn’t slip. He could hear them all coming out at him, ready to pounce.
He gritted his teeth and turned, dagger gripped in his hand. He didn’t have a clue wheat was going to happen, but…
He stabbed the ground, hard, and held on.
A sharp gasp escaped him as he stopped, the claw yanking on his ankle and his hand clenched around the hilt of the dagger, which had thankfully buried itself into the ground without causing any bleeding. Did that mean it wasn’t actually skin? He didn’t have time to wonder before they were on him.
If he’d had any metals at all, he’d have shot coins at them. But all he had was a couple daggers and a mistcloak.
A mistcloak…
He kicked one more time, managing to dislodge the claw right as something pounced. He rolled to the side, ripping the dagger out of the ground in time to stab the thing, then pushing himself to his feet and backing off. They were still coming for him, but he grit his teeth and didn’t flinch.
“Still here,” he gasped. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I’ve been killing monsters for most of my life.”

Mare was aware of several things at the same time.
One, that she needed to find a geode, and soon. It was better overall to find them later in the week, of course, since that made you less of a target. That stopped exactly no one from putting maximum effort into searching the moment they were sent down.
Two, that she did not recognize any of the bodies yet. And she was even looking at them. The ones with faces stared back at her, and for all that talk of final peace, they didn’t look any happier to her. Just empty. She was not tempted to allow herself to join them.
Three, that she was being followed.
She didn’t actually look. She didn’t need to. How long had she been on Kelsier’s crew? She hadn’t gotten there out of special treatment. She knew when she was being tracked.
There was a reason Kel hadn’t believed her, after all. They both knew she was better than that kind of mistake.
She was still right. But she did understand where he was coming from.
He was probably going to attack her, once they were further in. But staying near the surface wasn’t any safer, so further in she went.
It would have been a lot easier if she’d had a geode. Most people weren’t willing to risk a fight once they had what they needed, and Mare wasn’t against keeping another soul alive for a little bit longer. But she hadn’t found one, and that story was told often enough to render it useless, even when it was true.

Kelsier and Mare | Switcharoom | strider

Kelsier breathed out, stabbing at one as it attacked and then turning to slash at another one. He didn’t know the details of what had happened here, before. He hadn’t wanted to press, when thinking about it was clearly not easy. Now, though, he could have used all the information he could get.
It didn’t matter. He got the basics. Don’t die.
He needed to get back to the river. The air was beginning to feel odd in his throat…toxic, right, that was why he was beginning to struggle with it. He wasn’t quite surrounded, but they had clearly gotten the message that he was present.
“You know, they aren’t the only ones that had that thought,” he muttered, gritting his teeth as he took out a couple more. They’d regenerate fast enough, but if he could kill them once, he could kill them again. “Revenge, I mean. How many of these are the same ones that hurt you, I wonder?”
He sliced again, a little bit more viciously this time. He felt his mind shuddering at the sight of them, but it didn’t matter.
They were too late to steal his sanity, anyway.
He’d have given anything for tin, even if it would make the wounds hurt more. He had an idea, and he was pretty sure it was going to get him killed.
The thing was, he was Mistborn. Not only was he basically nocturnal, he was used to about the worst seeing conditions imaginable, between the ash and the mist.
He didn’t know for sure how bad it was to be seeing these things, but he had no intention of letting it crush his mind. He ripped off a strip of his mistcloak the second he had time, and wrapped it over his eyes, tying it off.
He could hear them.
Another one attacked. He stabbed forward, dispatching it quickly, then whirled and stabbed again behind him, hitting flesh. What he wouldn’t have given for a vial of pewter…

Mare didn’t expect to be spoken to.
Well. She didn’t expect to be spoken to without being threatened. She knew how this worked by now. Give it to me or I will kill you. No one down here had the energy to be creative about it, and the it in question didn’t need to be specified.
Kelsier hated it, but she always did as they said. She could always find another one. She was actually pretty good at it.
It took her a moment to realize the person behind her was not actually speaking to her. She listened for a long moment, trying to hear a reply, but as far as he could tell it was only them headed this way. He sounded younger than she’d expected…a pant stabbed through her. He was barely even a teenager. How has he ended up in a place like this?
Kelsier was angry because he had been betrayed, and because he had been caught. Mare felt that there were plenty of worse things to be angry about. But they didn’t talk anymore, so of course she never expressed that to him.
She hesitated as he spoke again, stopping in her surprise. This time…it actually was directed towards her.
She turned, eyes wary as she looked at him.
He was even smaller than she’d feared. How long had he been down here? There was precious little compassion left to live on, and as much as she hated to underestimate anyone, she had to wonder how he’d managed to avoid being killed.
“That’s right,” she confirmed a moment later, her voice cautious. “You have me at a disadvantage, I think.”

Nico listened to Kelsier, wishing he could respond but knowing that doing so now would just make him look insane. He already looked insane, if he were honest with himself. He was a pale, scrawny kid who very clearly hadn’t had enough to eat in the past several years of his life. His growth was probably stunted and his hair was shaggy and falling into his face except where he had cut it himself to make sure it didn’t keep falling into his eyes when he was trying to fight. He wasn’t anything impressive to look at. He probably fit in quite well with some of the others in the Pits, though… desperate and tired and just trying to survive. At least he wasn’t mildly transparent anymore. The House seemed to have kindly taken away that problem. Nico didn’t know what Kelsier was doing, he was just aware that he was fighting. And the fact that Nico was talking to Mare was probably distracting. Was there a way to temporarily disable the connection they had to each other? That… was a worrying thought. Nico didn’t want to have to figure out how to get the connection back when he was fairly certain it was the only thing that was going to pull them both through this room.
Nico did his best to ignore the dead bodies near him. He was used to the dead, but usually he didn’t spend very much time around their bodies. He befriended their spirits, the parts of them that still seemed alive. The parts that had eyes that burned with the same feelings they’d carried throughout their lifetime. The bodies just looked… dead. They were cold. Too cold. It was one thing for vampires to be cold. It was quite another for actually dead bodies to be.
Part of Nico wondered what Mare saw when she looked at him. In another world… she could have been his mom. In another world, she would have had to adjust to Kelsier adopting a child from a different world. In another world, she would be more than just a memory and a flower drawn on a piece of paper.
“I’m Nico,” he said quietly, not advancing at all. “I’m not… trying to attack you, or anything. I just… I know Kelsier.”