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

| Victoria | Blender Room |

Victoria yelped and ducked as the blaster shot hit the wall, failing to break it.

"Uhhhmm..." She looked down at her metallic claws, but surely she wasn't stronger than a ray from some sci-fi blaster. "I think that's a no from me."

She stumbled as the fruit underneath her started to shift. She jumped to a watermelon cube that looked sturdier and more balanced. Once all four feet- well, two feet and two hunks of metal- were on the cube, she jumped. The wolf could jump farther than the average wolf, but she just barely made it near the top of the blender, not close enough to push off the lid.

Dipper | Living Room | strider

Mentioning Hook left some dread lingering in the air as it wasn't tense as it were. There was something innately awful just by bringing up the dastardly pirate, the image of him sneering and cursing everyone in a ten-foot radius. Yet Dipper didn't even tempt Wylan to offer his own thoughts on the malignant brute as there were other conversations to be had.

Instead of furthering that discomforting subject, Dipper paid close attention to the demolitionist's prompt reply. "Most people with powers are confusing, they're okay but it takes a while to get used to them." Dipper acknowledged the more quirky individuals out there wandering around the confines in the house's past, present, and future. Not quite negative but it was up to interpretation. "I've been saved in a tight spot by them, sometimes it's straight out of a comic book. Other times, well..." He rubbed his elbow, trying to coax the truth out of himself.

"If it's a bad room, there's a chance it could be bad for a while."


Dipper sighed, "That's the problem with having no powers, you get the short end of the stick." He averted his eyes upon being asked what he was a part of himself. To which he could only respond with a rather simple answer. "No. I'm no big hero like every other person that blinks in." Self-awareness was one heck of pain to deal with. "I'm not some super genius, I'm not rich, and I'm not that much of a leader. I'm just a kid trying to get through a crummy summer." Dipper frowned, the color draining from his face. Just like that did he remember summer wouldn't last that much longer, remembering he was at the mercy of Gideon - Hook was somehow more preferable to deal with than the little brat. "Hey, at least you know something cool? That count's for something." The brunette added on quickly to his stark confession.

Orpheus blinked in surprise as they felt their arm grabbed. They had never seen Loki before, but it seemed that the god had a fairly good idea of what they were doing. At least they seemed to have an idea of what to do to avoid getting stuck here forever. Although Orpheus would have liked to stick closer to Rue (they knew she was probably capable of taking care of herself, but she was still technically a child. Orpheus certainly didn’t trust Hook to look out for her, and they had the sense that Asami had no idea what was going on here. She wasn’t exactly a safe bet for making sure Rue was safe either. Still, there was something comforting about being with someone who at least seemed to know what they were doing. Orpheus had never been in a room like this. They were lost as to how not to stand out.
At least there was no hook hand or clearly not human being anymore. Although it didn’t seem fair that Asami had to change herself so drastically. They supposed it wasn’t fair to Hook, either.
“Maybe we’re just socializing,” Orpheus protested, though they didn’t try to take their arm back from Loki.

hook - office room

The pirate kept his head up as he navigated the unfamiliar area, his confidence being his only source of any sense belonging. He kept an inconspicuous eye on the foreign technology as he passed each cubicle, as well as on the strange creatures that serviced some of them. They looked human, but their features were distinctly and even jarringly plain. Certain aspects that he could see of their faces - all lit by the same white screens of their little boxes - were entirely identical to the person’s next them, or others had features that were just missing all together. It was like the House had generated the concept of a human silhouette and then forgot how a face should look on a three dimensional plane. It was odd, because he knew the House was capable of faking more believable forms…it was almost like it had decided these creatures weren’t worth its time.

It was unsettling, but he said nothing as he found a random place to sit with a comfortable distance between him and the others. The cubicle itself was completely devoid of life, but he was more interested in the fact that his box’s screen was dark. He took a deep breath as he prepared himself to process the situation, then looked hesitantly down at the keyboard. More scrambled f[oops]ing letters. The alphabet seemed to have no uniformity to what he’d seen before, and the absence of any recognizable patterns made the whole thing seem even more stranger to him than it actually was. He glanced over the ‘person’ behind from him, noticing that they were simultaneously working with a semicircle attached to a cord. He quickly located the one on his own desk, and was pleasantly surprised that the moment he moved it the screen in front of him leaped to the same white light as the others.

L tapped the table lightly, eyes fixed on the other blinker, who seemed to be watching him with the same sort of attention. He looked…almost amused. Which made sense, since they were already playing a game, even without the cards.
What are you thinking about…? he mused, leaning forward ever so slightly. Not enough to unbalanced him, but enough to be noticed.
He knew a test when he saw one. He had set up enough of them. His eyes shifted to the cards, and he studied them, considering what move he wanted to make. Vincent was good. He was very clearly trying to turn this around onto L. Shifting the attention, being the person behind the camera…so an observer type, then. Why? There were a lot of reasons someone could want to stay out of the spotlight. It was too early to tell exactly what motivated Vincent. It was actually too early to tell if his first impression was anywhere near correct, too.
He considered the cards, then began to rearrange them, placing them quietly in a different order. He couldn’t be sure there was a pattern, or that the games were connected, but he was curious to see if they would look different, or if they were possibly connected somehow, one big game instead of several smaller ones.
Of course, if not, it was a perfectly reasonable use of time, anyway.

Asami | Office room | @ anyone |

Asami, for her part, hadn't paid much attention to the people in the room. She had noted that they had a strange appearance, but that seemed to be the case for many of the humans here. Some had horns, some were irregular colors - humans without a proper face seemed to her just another iteration.

She began to meander around the room as the others moved around her, rummaging through drawers and being constantly tempted to use her true form - her human body was clumsy and weak. With her tendrils, she could pry the face off of one of these machines and see what was inside...she was curious about that. But that was when she noticed that the machines were all sitting on tables. And the tables had chairs pulled up to them.

"Don't put things on the table unless they're food," she said, repeating words she'd heard before. "Don't move the chairs, they need to stay at the table."

That being said, she sat down, and began to bite the corner of one of the clunky desktops, trying hard to remove a piece of it with her jaw. Some food was difficult to eat, but this seemed to be a bit more than usual - it was hard, and wouldn't crack with her using her human jaw strength. She continued to gnaw on it, though. Maybe it was one of the types of food that dissolves.

Nico glanced at their hands once more, then gave Sam’s a light squeeze of reassurance. It was hard to know when physical contact with someone would cause him to panic, and when it would be perfectly fine. Now, though, it seemed okay. He was with someone he trusted, and he had the freedom to escape if he really wanted to. He didn’t think that would be the case here. He thought he liked holding Sam’s hand, though he wasn’t sure what made it so different from holding anyone else’s hand.
“Frogmouth?” Nico asked, tilting his head a little bit as he leaned in to see better, only to realize why they were called that. It was an apt name, and Nico couldn’t help the tiny chuckle that escaped him.
“I guess it has to be helpful, somehow,” Nico replied, tilting his head as he took a moment to read the sign. It failed to elucidate exactly what evolutionary purpose the oddly shaped mouth served. “Maybe nature likes playing practical jokes.”

"It looks like a Midgardian office. So they'll be filling out paperwork, or doing meetings, or whatever." They knew a bit about Midgard- enough to get a guess, but not enough specifics to know what exactly they might be typing up, or what would be the best activity to blend in seamlessly. Loki opened the box of paperclips and started hooking two of them together as they talked, then unhooked them- not for any pretense of office work but merely something to do with their hands. "Depends on what the group- company?- does."

Office work. Blend in. Loki thought of what they could do to appear busy. They pulled out a pack of sticky notes and a pen. Hmm... They uncapped the pen and wrote

Weekly meeting changed to

They paused, then looked around for a window to gauge the time from the sun. Except... there were no windows. The beige walls and popcorn ceilings were stifling. No matter, they could guess a generic time.

Weekly meeting changed to 2:30pm.

They grinned mischievously at Orpheus, held it up for them to read, and then began looking around for a calendar or schedule to paste their note to.

| Loki | Office Room |

"If it's already at 2:30, then I expect they'll be doubly confused." They stuck a note to a schedule blocked out on a nearby whiteboard. They rolled their eyes at the weekly outline. Thursday- Thor's day, as it had used to be called. Lame. Um, hello, where was Lokiday?

Loki shrugged, turning back to Orpheus. "The ones with mouths might. Better think of a good lie before you do, though."

"Breaks to go outside? Probably not. What a sad, futile little life." They smirked after they said it, though, not feeling much concern for the Midgardian workers. "Besides, it's the House. I think it just makes them, or takes them from somewhere. Is there even an outside for them to go to?"

Loki paused. Their hands- messing around with the sticky note- stilled as a horrific thought dawned on them. The office workers had varying levels of faces. Some had smooth ovals, others had molded features, like a child at play with clay. And some even looked... almost human if you didn't squint at them too hard. Like they were in varying states of losing who they were. Sure, they looked like they fit in, and they were all wearing standard office clothes, but then, so was Loki. In a quieter voice, stilled to something more serious, they said to Orpheus, "Wait- I think some of them might be blinkers. Who got noticed- trapped here. Or were pretending for so long they started to wear down and become part of this whole thing."

| Loki | Office Room |

"If they're stuck here, then we can get stuck here too." Loki countered, much more interested in saving their own skin than rescuing possible former blinkers. If they weren't smart enough to get out, that was too bad. But... they were curious. About what the office workers talked like. What they remembered, or didn't. If any of them still were trying to escape- more than just escape notice. "But if they were caught, then yes, maybe they can be convinced to tell us what made them stand out."

But they also knew it was very possible that some of the office workers were original workers, ready to rat them out if they spoke too plainly about anything. They would have to be careful. And keep an eye on the other blinkers in the room. The girl was talking to the dude at the water cooler- hopefully coming up with a cover story for the kid in the office. Kids didn't work nowdays on Midgard, right? That was all done away with. They scanned their green gaze back over the office cubicles as they listened to Orpheus. With their height they could see into them a bit. The one handed man was at a desk, looking decently close to an office worker. The other blinker, who looked like a child too young to be working- was she just going to? Loki held back the urge to roll their eyes as Asami chomped on the desk. Ok, hopefully someone would start making excuses for her. Perhaps Loki or Orpheus would have to step in if too much attention was drawn to her.

"Right, right, I saw the memo too! I'm still finishing up my paperwork for tomorrow's meeting, though. How about you?" Loki's voice was suddenly different- jovial and false. With Orpheus' urgent whispering and their watchful gaze, their unease seemed to attract attention. A worker passed them, expressionless, features drooping as if they were an overwarm wax figure. The worker nodded to them. Loki nodded back, a fake smile embittered with an ironic twist.

Sam | for Sam Room | strider ®Hawkpath®

There was no real way for Sam to claim that he was okay. There was far too many things going on with his body right now to make that claim. At least he thought it was getting better, albeit slower than he'd like. Though that also meant that he was still seeing the same dark patches at the edge of his vision.
He wished that he could clear this up. Be better for Nico.
"I - I'm doing better," he said to Nico. Though that wasn't at all true. It was only true enough that he hoped Nico wouldn't worry so much and he hoped that Kelsier would be able to take on more of Nico's problems. He looked at Kelsier to indicate that, but sadly assumed that the mistborn wouldn't listen to the silent glance.
Then he looked back at Nico and smiled. It was meant to be reassuring. What it actually was was just sad.

Rue | Office Room | Mostly Iceclaw

Rue hesitated at the question, a stab of regret shooting through her. For all practical purposes…she no longer had a mother. She certainly was never going to see her again, not if she wanted her to live. Going back to eleven when she was supposed to be dead would just get absolutely everyone in more trouble than they could imagine, and they had very well stocked imaginations by now.
But that wasn’t what Daud meant, and she didn’t want to get into it, so she just shook her head a little. “I’ve heard of coffee. I don’t think I’ve ever had it, unless I did without knowing what it was.”
Her eyes caught onto one of the forms walking around, and surprise shot through her, but she didn’t flinch or stop moving. It was the House, and she was very good at keeping any reactions she might have to her surroundings purely internal. How much would it take to stop blending in? Would a flinch be enough to trap them here?

Nico leaned forward a little bit so he could hear Mare better. He was obviously concerned about what was going on on Kelsier’s end of the connection, but for now it was quiet. Hopefully that meant that Kelsier was going to find someplace safe to hide and rest, not that he had been taken. He had to believe that Kelsier would give some verbal indication that he had been overwhelmed and taken. He had to trust that Kelsier wasn’t going to get hurt and just expect Nico to find out somehow after the fact. He wouldn’t put that past Kelsier, but… it was important to know, even if there wasn’t much Nico could do. Nico could at least advise Kelsier on how much ambrosia he could have. He could try to run Kelsier through the materials that he kept with him on a day-to-day basis. If this room went exactly like Nico’s experience in Tartarus, then Kelsier was going to need the packet of pomegranate seeds Nico had carried around in his bag for ages. Hopefully it would have as many as Nico had carried when he had first been taken, not the amount he had left after his own trials. Hopefully, Kelsier wouldn’t see them and just think of them as a snack. Fortunately, that didn’t seem likely. It wasn’t as though pomegranates existed in Kelsier’s world in the same way. He likely wouldn’t even recognize them as food.
“Maybe you’re not,” Nico replied after a moment, looking up at the skyless ceiling. It didn’t make hm feel any less pressed in. “Maybe there’s someone else who believes it, who looks at the stars and sees beauty, who imagines what it’s like to see a flower for the first time… maybe there’s someone else out there who knows, who would love to bring the Larsta faith back with you. It’s… a bit of a stretch, I suppose, but… there are plenty of things people aren’t willing to admit to because of the Lord Ruler, but… people have thoughts of their own. Maybe there’s someone who found out about the Larsta faith separately from you.”
Slowly, Nico took the picture from Mare, fingers tracing along what he assumed to be pencil lines. It wasn’t the same as the one Kelsier carried, but it was pretty close.
“Do… you have a favorite flower? Have you seen more than this type?”