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

Zuko tensed at the sudden appearance of others near him. He was never going to get used to that. He watched as the blond-haired boy stood up, gaze quickly sweeping over his clothes. Not the Avatar, probably, and not familiar. That was the nature of spirits, though. He tensed, staring at the boy like he expected him to attack. Would fire bending work against a spirit? Was the boy even a spirit? He looked human, but so did everyone here. That one girl had looked human after she’d put away her tentacles, so maybe looking human didn’t mean one actually was human.
He swallowed, glancing at the two girls who were coming nearer. He hesitated, trying to keep his eyes on everyone all at once – it was difficult, given how many people there were here now. Fortunately, the only one who looked aggressive was the boy. But… the one girl was dressed in yellow, and yellow was an air nation color, wasn’t it? He felt his back against the wall, overwhelmed by the feeling that he’d managed to corner himself unintentionally.

Sasha | Inside the Lodge | strider Cloverleaf Lark

Sasha stayed where he was, trying hard to keep track of everyone at the same time. He felt exposed, vulnerable, surrounded. Maybe he should attack first, like he was being trained to do, like everyone kept telling him to. Attack first. Don’t let them get the jump on you.
There were too many though. And he didn’t have his blink down.
Too many people. Too many people. They were everywhere.
“Back off.” He snapped, straightening up and fixing them all with a glare. He hoped they couldn’t see how he was shaking. “Back away, right now.”

"Can't we have a normal Christmas around here?" Archer complained, his fingers raking through his orange hair as he blinked into the lodge. Seriously, what does lucha libre have to do with Chri––his thoughts came to a sudden halt when he realized that he was no longer in Chaldea. Instead, he was in a rather crowded, bustling lodge...and were those kids over there about to duke it out? An exasperated groan left his lips, and he massaged his temples. Can't he get a break for once?

Harue | Inside the Lodge | strider Cloverleaf Hawk

Harue's head tilted at the two boys, then there was another girl, one that she only now spotted in the corner of her eye. She was still as a statue. Kyubey had barely mentioned the dangers of those who were under the influence of, well, something. Foolishly she took a step forward tucking away her gem in one of the spacious pockets her stiff jacket had. "No one's forcing you to do any of this." The magical girl stated briskly to Sasha, it sounded odd for her to say it like that. Her voice was like that of a whisper, otherwise, none would pay attention to it. Besides her earlier movement there were no visible weapons on her person nor did she bear any markings of allegiance to whoever else was in the lodge. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the young man in dark armor - that did not look comfortable to wear.

Dipper | Inside the Lodge | Dusk

Dipper blinked into the lower level of the lodge appearing not in his usual attire. There was somehow not a speck of dirt on him this time around. Instead, he wore a white t-shirt and red shorts, including red flippers and a silver whistle hung around his neck. It dangled there, replacing a fraction of the journal's weight now that it was not with him - a real shocker. Wrong outfit for the wrong season. Before his eyes were a few blinkers he'd never seen before in the house and it looked festive this time around. "That's weird." He said to no one but himself yet here was standing right next to Robin, when noticing the archer he offered him a shrug. "Uh, h-hey, I didn't I'd ever see you again." Dipper could briefly remember when they'd met back when those gnomes were the least of his worries.

"Hm?" Overhearing a familiar voice, Robin glanced to the side and raised his eyebrows when he saw Dipper. Oh right, wasn't he that really curious kid? What a surprise to see him still running around the House. "Huh, it has been a while, kiddo." He offered him a lazy wave, before tilting his head. "Dunno if it's my imagination but you look a little taller compared to the last time I saw ya."

Archer bit the insides of his cheek to stop himself from chuckling at Dipper's joy. Man, he hasn't changed one bit. Still, he was relieved to see that nothing bad has happened to the kid.
"Tall as me?" Caught off-guard, he pointed at himself, his eyes widening. Crap, he wasn't used to this kind of attention from kids. "Eh, as long as you eat plenty of food and get enough exercise, I'm sure you have a decent shot." He answered after sheepishly clearing his throat.

L | Lodge | strider

L knew most people didn’t interact with the same people he did. He knew that it was uncommon to be so aware of the worst of humanity, so aware of how bad things could be, how bad people could be. L rarely interacted with people who didn’t have any ulterior motives, and if he did, he probably didn’t realize it, because though he protected people, he didn’t trust them. Humans were worth protecting. Humans mattered, they mattered to each other, but they also just mattered...mattered. That was why he tried to stop the people who seemed bent on hurting them.
He would have agreed with Orpheus that people were more than what they could offer. Of course they were, they mattered for so many other reasons. If only the people he interacted with on a daily basis shared the sentiment.
Looking at Orpheus now, L believed he wasn’t afraid of the House. Was that foolish? Was it foolish to believe that he could win this? Maybe, but L’s heart wanted to believe it anyway. He shook his head. When had believing his heart ever been a good idea? He knew better than that, he knew he had to keep himself in check, he couldn’t just go believing whatever anyone told him.
Would believing Orpheus could succeed really be so wrong, though? Was allowing himself to believe in someone other than himself likely to end with him being let down or betrayed? He almost let out an irritated sigh at his own frantic thoughts, but he didn’t. Instead he just watched Orpheus and nodded once.
He did look forward to making more music. That had actually been fun, and he didn’t have fun very often. If his friend was willing to teach him, then he was willing to learn, even if it meant doing something he was less naturally skilled at. His comfort zone was death and violence and criminal activities and people in power. Stepping out of that was not as easy as he might have guessed it would be.
He watched Orpheus, closely, as the other man spoke, and his eyes widened just a little bit. It was easy to forget how young he was, sometimes, but in that moment he actually managed to look his age for once, because Orpheus seemed so genuine and human and he found a part of him wanted to risk it. Just this once.
“Yes.” He murmured, his own voice soft and thoughtful. His eyes met Orpheus’ and they didn’t flick away. “I suppose you will. I don’t often believe in people. I don’t often believe in anyone but myself, truthfully, because I at least know my own heart and I have no way of knowing anyone else’s. I may understand motives, for example, and I may follow someone’s line of reasoning, but to believe in someone...that requires more.”
He hesitated. “That being said...I’m finding that I might believe in you, Orpheus. Not that I think what you’re trying to do isn’t difficult, perhaps even impossible, but then, I suppose my own aim - justice - is hardly any different. I solve cases, even though I know there will always be more waiting for me. Perhaps this is similar.”
He didn’t blink. “You’re correct.” He said, nodding. “The House will likely test you and push you no matter what you do. I don’t have enough information to say whether it will be worse if you challenge the House itself, though it might be. I’ve more been focused on trying to figure the House out than I have been on trying to make it fair, but I think our goals may actually be fairly similar.”
He followed Orpheus’ gaze to the cookies, and his expression brightened a little. “That does sound good.” He agreed, imagining what Orpheus had described. “I think some of our own desserts are similar, in fact.”

Hange/Quincy | Museum room | ®Hawkpath® |

"Really? You can tell that?" said Hange quietly, turning to regard Quincy with renewed interest. They smelled normal enough...they could hear a heartbeat, too. What was Nico able to sense that their vampire senses were missing?

"I cannot tell on a physical level," they continued, still quiet mostly just because Nico was being quiet. "But you would seem to be correct. They seem to be acting oddly for a blinker..."

House generated, then? Now that was an intriguing possibility. They'd been wanting to get a closer look at a House generated person for some time.

-

Quincy straightened up, clasping their hands together in front of them as they were addressed. "Oh, my favorite? So hard to choose, there are so many wonders here...hm...I would have to say my favorite is near the end of our tour." They winked. "I'll keep it a surprise for now."

“Yeah,” Nico replied, shrugging. “I can see how alive things are, and the House is good at creating things that are almost alive, but not quite.” He hoped that made sense. And that it wasn’t terribly rude to the House person who was being exceedingly polite. Or, rather, that they hadn’t heard it.
“Thanks,” Nico deadpanned, glaring at Kelsier for a moment. “Now it’s definitely not going to be a pleasant surprise.” He crossed his arms, looking between the three others. If there was some sort of tour… well, either it was an actual tour and it was going to be fascinating, or it was a trap. If it was a trap, it was probably better that the three of them who weren’t House-people stuck together.
Still… part of him wanted to trust Quincy. They seemed nice enough, and they seemed eager to take them on the tour. Hopefully, following Quincy wouldn’t backfire on them. Knowing the House, however… it definitely was going to.

Sasha | Lodge | strider Cloverleaf Lark

Sasha narrowed his eyes, trying to think fast. If he could make it outside, that would probably be best. He didn’t trust any of these people not to attack the moment he turned his back, and he couldn’t tell for sure how armed they were.
Still, he’d rather not kill everyone if he could help it. He didn’t believe for a second that they didn’t want a fight. Maybe it was the adrenaline from his own world, but he was tempted to just attack and deal with the consequences later.
That was stupid. There were too many of them. Maybe they thought they could make him trust them and then kill him later...
He wasn’t going to put his weapon away. He didn’t know if he’d have time to draw it again. Still, Eurydice’s words were true, what did he have worth taking?
“Where am I?” He asked finally, his voice higher than he’d intended it to be. At least it wasn’t shaking. “What kind of black magic is this?”
Black magic. Like what he had. Had he somehow done this by himself? He didn’t know exactly how his abilities worked...maybe in the heat of the fight he’d done something.

Harue | Lodge | Strider ®Hawkpath® Cloverleaf

Harue grappled with the reality this boy had a knife and not once did she feel threatened. Maybe she should ask a few more questions about the contract but something told her she would be thinking of other things. Sasha did ask a question, one she was not pleased to ask. She frowned but her attention stolen by the girl in dark clothing, turning around she noticed that there were more people. More people led to more variables leaving her to tense up, the collar of her jacket popped out. "Why would it be called that?" Yes, such an odd name.

One person with a blade was easy to deal with, but dealing with a crowd would be boring. Well, they had some life in their eyes which contradicted what she knew. Sasha and armor boy might know, the former's high pitched voice reminded her some people still knew about magic. A shame he wouldn't be alive to hear the truth if he wasn't careful.

“The Paradox House?” Zuko echoed, tilting his head as he looked at Eurydice. “This is the Spirit World.” Shouldn’t that have been obvious? You couldn’t just appear somewhere unless there was some sort of bending behind it, and the only thing that was capable of that was… well, the Avatar, but also the spirits in the Spirit World. His mother had told him about it once, when he was little. He flicked the thought away, annoyed by its intrusion now of all times.
Unless… it was possible this ‘Paradox House’ was part of the Spirit World.
He was curious what Black Magic was, too, but he wasn’t going to give in and ask. He had to consciously stop his hands from clenching into fists by his sides as he looked between the three, trying to keep his cool.
“You’ll go home, soon,” he said, crossing his own arms. He was looking directly at Sasha. It was all he was willing to offer. Let the kid figure out the rest by himself. Let him be as lost as Zuko had been – well, as lost as he still was.

Harue | Lodge | Clo Strider Hawk

"You think you go back home." Harue was equally as dismissive of what see had been told. All this blabbering was a messy game of telephone gone plain wrong. For reassurance, she pulled out the gem she had placed inside her jacket. No signal. In her hand is held a faint shimmer, it was the same color as the gem that was on the back of her black lace bow wrapped around her waist. Whatever Eurydice was thinking, they weren't on the same wavelength. "A-anyways," She shuffled uncomfortably. "I didn't think of going back home. Not yet, not to Spirit World, which is a world of spirits?" The young girl looked up from soul gem, glancing at the fire bender as if he were the one with answers. Maybe Zuko was onto something. Harue thought names were helpful, people assigned names to things they don't understand all the time. She did inflate a little when it seemed they were back to square one.