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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jun 27, 2019 17:20:49 GMT -5
Kelsier stepped through the door and squinted against the sudden warm, golden light flooding over him, and the strong smell of plants and earth made his nose twitch. He sneezed once, twice, three, four times in a row and took a step back, where the door had been replaced by more soft, vibrant plants. And the flowers. Hundreds of them probably, in neat rows and every color he could imagine and several he couldn’t until he saw the,. Brightly colored somethings fluttered from flower to flower, some landing and spreading their wings to the strong warmth of the sun. It would have been breathtaking for anyone. Clearly, it had had the same effect on Nico, because the demigod was actually smiling. But for a man who had only ever seen a small, smudged picture of what a flower looked like and who’s plants were brown, not this deep emerald green, it was almost more than he could process. He found he had fallen to his knees, and he reached out slowly and touched a tiny, deep purple flower. A tear slipped from his eye as he blinked, and he didn’t move to wipe it away. The tiny creatures seemed to have noticed how still and quiet he’d gone and taken it as an invitation because he found they were landing all over him. His head. His hands. His shoulders.... For once in his life, Kelsier had no words.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Jun 27, 2019 17:45:24 GMT -5
Nico turned to look at Kelsier, scaring the blue morpho that had landed on him earlier. Something in him softened, no matter how hard he tried to force himself to turn around and head deeper into the room. This... watching this intimate moment, wanting to explain what species all of the butterflies were... this was everything Nico was afraid of, yet he couldn't force himself away. So instead of saying anything or walking away, Nico took a happy medium and sat down on the ground a few feet away. He thought for a moment before smiling softly to himself and pulling something out of the bag he kept hidden under his familiar brown aviator jacket. It was a small vial of something - nectar, and he had learned at some point that, while deadly to mortals, certain insects seemed to like it as much as normal nectar. Perhaps more. Especially butterflies, perhaps because of their connection to Psyche. Nico didn't know, but he poured a small drop on a leaf and handed it to Kelsier. "They like it," He explained to the man. "Easier food than flowers, I guess." Not that Kelsier was having a hard time getting butterflies to come near him, but Nico figured it was the only nice gesture he could manage. He let his eyes drift shut and, due to the heat of the sun beating down on them, shed his jacket and let it lay among the flowers, revealing the dozens of scars that marked both of his arms. He was so pale he seemed to almost glow in the light, but based on the rapture on his face, he didn't seem to mind. He settled back down into a seated position, watching the tiny insects swirl around him. The slow rumble of laughter built in his throat as a glasswing alighted on the ground next to him, so delicate he could see through its wings.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jun 27, 2019 18:50:23 GMT -5
Kelsier was only dimly aware that Nico hadn’t moved on without him, so it was surprise he felt first when the demigod offered him the leaf. He accepted it, still silent as words failed to express this moment. The light brush of tiny wings against his skin. The warmth of a sun unhindered by thick mist. The grass was soft in the opposite way the velvet couches at a ball were; grass was light and soft and just the slightest bit uncomfortable in a way that made you feel real. Slowly, he held out the nectar. He had time to breath in before they came for it, red and blue and green and everything in between and beyond, flashing by each other so close it seemed impossible that they didn’t collide. His hand trembled as enough landed on it to hide it from view, but they stayed they stayed. The Mistborn felt more than heard Nico’s laugh, then realized that was because he was laughing too, while tears still slipped gently from his hazel eyes. “I just can’t seem to figure this place out.” He said finally, his voice low as though he hadn’t spoken in years. He looked at Nico, seeing if the boy was as covered in the flying flowers as he was.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jun 27, 2019 19:03:37 GMT -5
“Thank you.” Tsu said, pleased to have her name praised. Skeleton-quirk moved on quickly and so did she, and as he introduced himself her eyes widened very slightly. “Joey. That’s not a Japanese name.” She noted out loud, considering him with new fascination. “What do people call you when you are a pile of bones?” His next question distracted her and she looked, checking first to make sure she hadn’t missed any street signs. “It’s not surprising if they want us to be confused.” She pointed out thoughtfully; if this was a test, it would be testing their ability to figure out where they were and how to escape. If it wasn’t a test....well, they still had to figure out where they were and how to escape, so right now it didn’t really matter, did it? “The street could be a trap, too.” She continued. She tilted her head towards the building at the same time she looked back at Joey. “I think we should go in and learn as much as we can.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Jun 27, 2019 19:04:01 GMT -5
Nico watched, eyes wide and vulnerable and far more alive than they'd been in any time since he'd first met Kelsier. There seemed to be humor and amusement there that was otherwise absent. Yet he watched, laughing to himself as the butterflies swarmed, taking in the nectar and hiding Kelsier's hand from view. It was bittersweet, almost. To have come from a room so traumatizing and then be tossed in here. Yet it wasn't the worst room he'd ever been in by far, and this... well, this just felt like a beautiful gift. He murmured something under his breath that may have been something like "Thank you, Persephone," as he took in all of the flowers, despite his usual distaste for the goddess and the fact that she probably had no control over what appeared in the House. Nonetheless, she had tried to be kind and he had tried to return the favor, if only to patch up any familial disputes. "It's always like this," Nico replied with a small shake of his head in response to Kelsier's comment. "It's more of a home than my world is, sometimes, and it's unpredictable. But I don't hate the House. How can I, when it gives us rooms like this?" His voice was quiet as he turned to meet Kelsier's gaze. For the first time, perhaps, he actually looked like a kid rather than a small, cynical, hardened adult. He was, in fact, being swarmed by the butterflies, but not for the same reason as Kelsier with the nectar. He had put the small vial away, not daring to risk using up much more of it. Yet the insects covering him were different than the ones near Kelsier, though the difference may not have been noticeable upon first glance. Nico knew why, though, and for the first time he didn't really mind. After all, regardless of their reason for choosing him, the ones around Nico were just as pretty as the rest.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jun 27, 2019 19:34:29 GMT -5
Kelsier would be struck by the sharp contrast when he thought of it later, but for now, he could only barely wrap his head around what he was seeing. Nico, it turned out, was also covered in the winged flowers. Kelsier noticed that the ones surrounding the demigod were slightly different than the ones drawn to him, but they were no less beautiful and it could have been a coincidence anyway, so he didn’t mention it. Instead he watched as the nectar disappeared and the butterflies stayed, thousands of fragile wings moving gently up and down. “You don’t hate the House.” Kelsier repeated softly, thinking about everything that sentence meant. That despite what they’d just been through, he found this gift to be enough. To be worth it, even. And yet trust isn’t worth the possible pain of betrayal? He thought, and he looked up to watch pure white clouds sliding away across the horizon. He breathed out and smiled. “No. I guess I don’t hate the House, either, when it comes down to it.” He admitted, and in the openness of the moment he went on. “Do you know, I've never seen green plants before? Mare had a picture of a flower, so I recognize those, but it didn’t do them justice at all. It didn’t get the smell of them or how soft they feel.” He looked down. “I’m the only one in my whole world who will ever sit in a field of grass, covered in living flowers.”
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Post by <Raintalon> on Jun 27, 2019 19:34:52 GMT -5
"yEs. . ." Anika responded. As she spoke, her long tail gave another swish. After he'd given his suggestion, she lifted her head to take a glance at who all was here. For a moment, she accidentally lifted too high: everyone was visible, but they all looked like little specks on the ground. It did deliver a bit of a nostalgic feeling, though. The last time she'd been this high up was when she was in flight. She'd promised herself that she'd been fine with how things had been going, but oh, the memories this brought back! A bittersweet feeling settled in her heart as she gazed at the surrounding scenery. Broke out of her trance by another head's growling, she lowered slightly. The blinkers had branched off into multiple groups now - the flaming lady and a skeleton man, the musician, mysterious creature that she didn't recognize, and man in dark clothes, and then lastly Bigby and herself. "HMm. . .tHAt seeMs lIke A pLaN. . ." the dragon said, finally lowering her head back to the ground. Bigby nodded, pleased with himself for gaining Anika’s cooperation so quickly. “Alright, then. It’s a plan.” He groped at his pocket for a cigarette again, an instinctive movement once again frustrated by the House’s confiscation. Damn...he could really use one right now. Slowly, he began to walk, taking easy, even strides down the cobblestone as he surveyed the groups for an opening. ”So, Anika - tell me about yourself. What were you doing before you were brought here?” he asked, partly as an information-gathering exercise, and partly just because the silence was a bit awkward.
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Post by »ƑαƖcση on Jun 27, 2019 19:39:24 GMT -5
“Oh,” Orpheus replied, reddening a bit. Perhaps he hadn’t quite heard properly. Either way, it was water under the bridge now; no changing it. And Arno hadn’t seemed to mind the misunderstanding too much. He didn’t want to acknowledge that Arno could be right about this being the afterlife. He had a lot more he wanted to accomplish still… he pushed the thought away. He would deal with death if it turned out that this was, in fact, the Underworld. Right now, it was seeming more and more likely that it wasn’t. “Unless everything I’ve ever heard about life after death is wrong… then I’m fairly confident that we’re just somewhere strange, not necessarily dead.” He used Arno’s hand to hoist himself the rest of the way up, wincing again at another noise from his guitar as it hit stone. He really hoped he hadn’t ruined it with that… he would have to worry about his instrument later though. Now he just needed to look around and see if he could tell anything about this place that hadn’t been obvious on the ground. So far, other than most things being obscured by the fog, it looked about the same. “Are you alright?” He asked, concern filling his face once he registered that Arno’s expression was one of pain. When he kept talking instead of mentioning it, though, Orpheus looked back down at the ground and frowned. “France?” He repeated, confused, as though it was a word he had never heard before. He wasn’t entirely sure what Arno was talking about. “I live in Thrace. Where is France? I’ve never been further south than Thebes. Yet it must be south for you to speak Greek, Thrace is so far north that nobody above us does…”
"Yeah I'm fine. I think. Depends on the whole underworld thing, yes?" Arno replied with a wry expression. That feeling... for some reason he felt it hadn't truly gone away, simply settled back into whatever dark place it was hiding in. But he didn't mention that to Orpheus, the young man seemed nervous enough already.
Arno listened as he spoke, the Frenchman's brow furrowing as he tried to make sense of what Orpheus was saying. "Greece... you mean from the Ottoman Empire? While I can speak some East Asian I assure you that I have not said a word to you in Greek." At this point he switched into the rudimentary Greek that he knew, his French accent clear almost immediately. "Enoough to tradee, yea? Speek tu a preety girll perhaps. I can ask: pardon, madame, du yu speek French?" He shook his head, confused. "I don't understand. You say you've never been to France, yet I hear you speak plain French. You say you hear me in Greek. Which of us is wrong?"
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Post by mintedstar/fur on Jun 27, 2019 20:05:41 GMT -5
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," muttered Kid. "Do you mind just holding still-" He cut himself off as he was suddenly dropped down to the hard ground from a rope which no longer existed here. Kid's body hit the ground, against the uneven cobbles, and the breath was pushed from his body. Muscles ached. And then the sensation faded and Kid raised his head. His vision was partly obscured and when he reached up to brush whatever it was away he saw his hands. Then he froze and said dryly - because that was really the only way he could talk, "This is out of some minor nightmare I've had." His voice was almost sandy and he slowly turned his hand, and looking at the loose, linen bandages over it and his arm. It was easy to assume that the rest of him looked the same. He felt fragile. He was impressed the House hadn't have him break on impact. He was still some form of immortal though. It was just a mummy one. "Monster room?" he asked no one in particular. He sounded, for lack of a better word, conversational. As if he was talking about the weather.
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Post by --cato phoenix on Jun 27, 2019 20:11:44 GMT -5
"I see..." Lucian murmured as his gaze drifted to the strange, multi-headed dragon creature. Though he'd seen some dragons before, he'd never seen anything quite like this one, and he'd definitely never heard of one speaking... What could it mean? Maybe Maverick knew something about it, but how would he explain how he'd found out about it? Pushing thoughts of strange dragons aside, Lucian returned his attention to the blinkers he'd been speaking with. What was important now was that he figured out where he was and why he'd been brought there. It seemed as though no one knew any more than he did about the place. "No, I'm not transparent... and I can't do this," as he reached the end of his sentence he raised his hand again and waved it through the other blinker's head.
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Post by Sησω on Jun 27, 2019 21:35:22 GMT -5
"WaNdERing tHe bOneyARd. . .i WaS as aLivE aS eVEr beFoRe I cAme hERe. . ." Anika responded, "wHere dID yOu cOme fRom. . ." While still creepy, her ghastly voice was beginning to be more of an annoyance than anything. Even questions came out almost blank.
(Sorry for short replies, I'm travelling and on mobile)
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Post by mintedstar/fur on Jun 27, 2019 22:10:32 GMT -5
"It isn't toilet paper," Kid assured, looking up. It was a skeleton he didn't recognize. Then again ... when did a skeleton look recognizable? The voice didn't, however, sound like anyone he knew. "I blinked in," he said. "And I'm not usually like this. Just like I'm assuming you're not usually like that either." His voice was very raspy. It was like something that might come from a tomb. "I take it you are new." He might have smiled were it not for the fact that he couldn't actually feel a difference between when he did and when he didn't. "Welcome to the shambling hoards of the Paradox House. At least for this room. For this room, we're shambling hoards. Sometimes there are some outside of the room too, but then they're just vampires and so forth."
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jun 27, 2019 22:57:13 GMT -5
Another universe? Tsu hadn’t considered that a possibility. She still didn’t, really, unless some new villain had a very strong quirk, but it seemed like a bit of a leap to assume that. “Oh?” She croaked, and turned around to follow his gaze to the man wrapped tightly in bandages. He did seem much more at ease than anyone else, so she started towards him, pointing at the flaming horns on her head as she did. “I’m not usually on fire.” She informed him, relieved that she wasn’t the only one who’s appearance was abnormal. Wait a minute. Did that mean the rest of these people might not actually have quirks that explained their looks right now? “I don’t know what a Paradox House or a Vampire is.” She told the man, stopping not far from him and glancing back to see if Joey had followed. “Do you know why we’re here?”
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Post by HᥲꙆƒꙆɩɠᖾt on Jun 28, 2019 0:48:27 GMT -5
Sandalphon simply stood by and watched Elliot do... Whatever it was he was doing. The other man looked like he was trying to sense something, although what exactly was unknown. Before the archangel could open his mouth to voice his concerns when his fellow blinker stopped breathing, he was cut short when Elliot spoke up again.
Two ways underground? What good was that going to do? Unless they led at least a few dozen feet into the earth, the only thing that would come of hiding down there was that they'd all end up buried alive when it caved in from the force above. And Elliot didn't seem to even know if they went down, or where exactly they were besides somewhere on the current floor... Or from the sound of it pretty much anything important about them at all...
"That's it?" The Supreme Primarch didn't look too optimistic about the whole thing, the pitch of his voice raising slightly in exasperation. "How do you expect us to go off of so little information?" He could feel himself growing agitated, mostly at how desperate the situation was, but he held his tongue knowing protesting more wouldn't help at all. As terrible he felt as Elliot's idea to stay here and search was, these 'trap doors' were the only lead they all had so far.
After a few seconds of pondering on it, "...Fine. But I hope for all our sakes this madness bears fruit." Letting out a sigh of begrudging acceptance, Sandalphon turned back towards the doorway, flashing a quick glance over his shoulder. "Leave the room we just came from to me." He said before briskly taking off back down the hall, his clothing trailing behind him as he vanished from sight through the door. The thought of what he was about to do sent a hint of anguish into his core, as he didn't want to ruin such a pleasant area, but it was to try and get the others to what was hopefully safety.
A few seconds later, the crash of a shattered window resounded through the house. From the gaming room the rest of the group was still in, the pool table from the mancave could be seen flying through the air and into the pool below. That wasn't the end of it as more items, stools, tables and couches came following after as the archangel within rushed to clear the floor, trying to find any signs of a hatch.
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Post by »ƑαƖcση on Jun 28, 2019 1:56:21 GMT -5
Ghost appeared in the living room, a burst of electricity arcing from his body to burn streaks across the floor. The bot dog had his teeth clamped a large black cable, about as thick as a man's arm and around five feet long. Most of the fur around his head and neck stood on end, giving him a rather comical appearance. As soon as he registered the flow had been cut, Ghost's jaws opened and he dropped the cable onto the floor. The dog took a couple of steps away before sitting down, trying to unscramble his logic center after the power surge. As far as he could tell no one was nearby, but he wasn't quite able to tell, his senses all relaying an absurd amount of static.
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Post by Auransky on Jun 28, 2019 2:09:22 GMT -5
"We can't openly call them morons, no matter how much they act like it." Rowlin was in a longterm facepalm, twitching his right eye to a recent suggestion. He was about to reply, but he couldn't find the words to fill the dead air. He stretched his shoulder back, feeling a strain against his back. He took in a deep breath, gritting his teeth, still unable to say a thing. Slowly opening his eyes, Rowlin flinched seeing a room full of electricity sparking out of control. Furthermore, his heart raced rapidly seeing a loose spark of electricity flying his way. His deep breath turned in to a sudden rapid breath as he quickly tripped backwards, falling over a coffee table. "oof..."
((Jump in Clo))
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Post by »ƑαƖcση on Jun 28, 2019 2:40:22 GMT -5
(Hey clo!! Sure, go for it Full disclosure, idk how much longer I'll be awake. Most likely I'll just vanish sometime within the next hour lol ) With the source of electricity gone, the sparks fizzled and vanished. Ghost worked to try and clear the feedback inside his own head. Something loomed large in the static, causing a spike in data before suddenly disappearing. The dog's head jerked up, pinpointed towards the disturbance. He might have pulled off a convincing display if he had manged to actually look at Rowlin, but instead he was looking at the empty space Rowlin had been standing in before he fell. Unable to realize he was in the House, Ghost didn't speak, hoping to pass himself as an unfortunately located stray. Sure it was unlikely a street mongrel had wandered all the way to the sublevel of the communications tower, but no one ever suspected the dog, right?
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Post by --cato phoenix on Jun 28, 2019 2:41:15 GMT -5
(hey clo! we're all in the living room!)
"I'll take first watch," Arlo said as she appeared in the living room near the doorway, readjusting the fabric scraps wrapped around her hands. She really regretted not keeping an extra pair of gloves in her coat. A sudden burst of electricity caused her to look up and wave a ball of energy into existence, only to let it dissipate when she realized that the burst had just been the result of an unfortunately timed blink. "You two alright?" she asked as she approached the other two blinkers. She wasn't sure if she'd met either of them before but she thought she might have seen the dog around the House at some point.
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Post by Auransky on Jun 28, 2019 2:57:00 GMT -5
Rowlin initially felt a strain against his back, but now being awkwardly positioned against the coffee table, he felt a heavier strain, and a throbbing pain just awkwardly pulsing along his spine. He twitched his eyes, as a natural response to the physical pain. "Payback duly noted." He softly muttered, then lifted his head at the voice of a young woman, asking if he was alright. "Maybe..." he replied. Next, Rowlin tilted his head further back to see how much room he had between the table, and the wall. Some room.. He observed, then adjusted himself, so that his hands can reach the floor on the other side of the table. With his hands over his head, he lifted himself into a bridge, his back now hovering over the table. He kicked his feet into the air, to get his back away from the table, and quickly recovered himself through a handstand, thanks to the wall associated closely to the coffee table. "Y-Yea... think I'm fine," he commented, as he handstand away from the coffee table to a clearer part of the room. Once securely away from the wall, and the table, he let his feet fall back down, to reland into a bridge, before using his hands to push himself back upright. Standing back up, Rowlin took a brief moment to straighten his clothes, and briefly check for any injuriesk, before returning his attention to Arlo and Ghost. "Fine, perfectly fine." he assured --cato phoenix »ƑαƖcση
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Post by mintedstar/fur on Jun 28, 2019 3:21:01 GMT -5
| @ mint: I miss you too!! Glad to hear you've been doing some creative stuff! I have been drawing a bit more as well!! And trying to learn a bit of the Chinese art style. I also tore through Feet of Clay the first week I got here, but I stopped so I'd have some more to read later lol. I'm almost finished with it. | (Yep! I wrote something with Sam recently and then I've just been playing around with some other stories. Next month I'm doing the full length novel with Arthur and Myrnin. ^^ Ooo! I've love to see your drawings! Pfft. I'll have to get more Terry Pratchett books to you I guess. XD At least for next time. Also, the show Good Omens came out and I'm dying to show you if you haven't seen it. It was a book co-written by Terry. Guess you'll have to start the MV books and see if you can stand them I guess. Pfft.)
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Post by mintedstar/fur on Jun 28, 2019 3:29:55 GMT -5
Lark ®Hawkpath®"The Paradox House," explained the mummy who was Kid, his voice far more patient than anyone should give him credit for. "Is like a side universe. Where everyone just ends up for a short period of time." He nodded at Joey. "Matt? I know two Matts here. But both have been coming in for a while and would have given you accurate - or legit - information." Nodding, he felt, now that he had done it, was far more stiff than it should have been. Like if he bent any limb too much it would put unneeded strain on it. "The side effects are sometimes what you see now. It will shift your body or abilities. Think of it ... like a test. It's not something you'd usually face in your own world and if that's the case than this dimension wants to see if you can handle it. Sooner or later, you'll just disappear back to your own world and no one will even have noticed you were gone." And then he waited, because it was never as simple as just explaining that.
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Post by ~∂єѕтιиу on Jun 28, 2019 3:30:56 GMT -5
What in the hell are you fools doing awake))
Peter watched as Lucian lifted up his hand, trusting that the man would do nothing harmful despite to suspicious surroundings. For a moment, however, he worried that somehow he’d managed to instinctively dodge without meaning to, and for moment he began to apologize for the reaction before Daud sunk his hand through the ghost chest. So...apparently he hadn’t dodged. “Geez,” he muttered, looked at Daud’s submerged hand with wide eyes. He’d been suspicious of the alterations this place was making, but this seemed remarkably extreme. And frankly, he seemed remarkably untouched. The idea almost made him more anxious. He looked around for the others, progressively growing more distant. “Well, we might just have to, uh, work with that for a minute. Until we figure something more out, it’s still awesome though man.”
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Post by »ƑαƖcση on Jun 28, 2019 3:33:00 GMT -5
Ghost found the error causing so much static feedback and rectified it, his eyes suddenly focusing on the people in the room like he had been trying to do in the first place. At first all the dog noticed was a person with feet for a head - no wait, he was upside down. Then the rest of the room came into view, the living room of the Paradox House. So that's why the cable died. Ghost looked up to see if he recognized either of the two humans. The male had a small file, his name was Rowlin and he wasn't human. Oh. The female was... familiar. The dog narrowed his eyes, searching for memories. She was very familiar, and there should be a lot of information on her, but he couldn't find anything. In any case, there was no reason to hide here. "I'll live." He replied to the girl, getting back to his feet. "Who are you?"
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Post by --cato phoenix on Jun 28, 2019 5:39:52 GMT -5
[[ Living Room || Arlo || @auransky »ƑαƖcση ]] Surprised, Arlo blinked a couple of times as the blinker who'd fallen on the coffee table flipped onto his hands and walked upside down to a clearer part of the room. She'd seen people blink in all sorts of ways, but she was pretty sure no one had done that yet. "Nice trick," she said once he'd returned to his feet. "Are you kind of new here? I don't think we've met." She was pretty sure she hadn't seen him before but the last few days had been a bit of a blur and while she'd seen a lot of newbies recently, he didn't seem to be surprised or confused by the House or the talking dog, so she figured he'd probably blinked in at least a few times before. "You on the other hand," she continued as she looked over at said talking dog, tilting her head slightly. "I've seen you around the House? We might have talked a bit... but I can't remember when. I'm Arlo Crimson."(hopefully this isn't too messy, i'm really tired so this'll probably be my last post for tonight)
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