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

It was clear they were both very used to fighting opponents that theoretically outmatched them. They both took on fights other people said were impossible, and they were both still alive. They had both clearly been knocked down before. It meant they didn’t have to worry about being too rough, about knocking each other over. Although… he highly doubted the fight would be won until one or the other had the other pinned. Falling didn’t count as a win – they both got up too quickly.
His eyes narrowed just a little bit as Kelsier began to circle again, and he reacted accordingly. His form, fortunately, hadn’t suffered over the course of the fight. He wasn’t tired yet. The thrill of the fight still ran through him, easing the aches and pains from where Kelsier had struck him, the bruises he was bound to have from falling, even if he picked himself back up.
“What?” Nico asked, his tone easy, “You think I’d just give up?”
He tried to anticipate Kelsier’s attack, watching the way he leaned, the muscles working as he ran forward. He ducked out of the way, managing to avoid the first jab, though the second one connected. He let out a harsh breath, surprised by the sting, but he recovered quickly enough.
“Really, Dad,” he gasped, darting to Kelsier’s left as he attempted to avoid his next strike, “Don’t you know me better than that?”
The words were out before he could think about them, and he was so caught up in the fight that he didn’t seem to realize what he had said. He whirled, trying to keep Kelsier in front of him instead of… well, whatever the Mistborn had been trying to do. His eyes were wild, his smile still just as free.

(I gotta say I thought I might regret blinking in Zuko when he was a bit younger than canon, but older Zuko likely wouldn’t have bonded like this with Scarlet and tbh this is… giving me so much serotonin)


“Normal turtles? Ducks?” Zuko repeated, brow creasing. “There are turtle crabs. And lion turtles. I’ve never heard of just… a turtle.” Maybe his world was just… different than the planet Scarlet had grown up with. “Turtleducks are… well, they’re sort of fuzzy, covered with feathers, and they paddle around on webbed feet, but they have a shell that they can retreat into when they get scared.” Sometimes he wished he had a shell like they did – it would make it easier to bear the world, sometimes. But… no. He wasn’t a coward. He didn’t need to hide like that. His jaw set, but his expression softened again at the expression.
“Yeah,” he admitted softly, staring down at his lap. “They’re my favorites.” It was odd, having someone to talk to who actually seemed to care about his answers. Who wasn’t looking at the scar, who didn’t seem to see him as the banished prince or the less than perfect heir. Was this what it was like to be normal? Zuko still wanted to go home, he still wanted to earn his honor back, but… well, he wouldn’t mind the ability to have a few more conversations like this.
“Oh,” he murmured, frowning a little. He hadn’t considered that most people probably only had one home. “Yeah…” would Scarlet’s approach to the conversation change if he told her why they had multiple homes? That they needed to, for diplomatic purposes? That his father was the Firelord? Would she even know what the Firelord was? There was so much he didn’t understand about where she was from, and it seemed there was plenty that she didn’t know about his world either. “I’d like to go back,” he added after a long moment, deciding to leave it at that.
“We used to play beach volleyball,” he added, trying to match her positive attitude, even if there were things he couldn’t mention.
“Oh… no, I’m not technically the captain,” he replied, staring at the ground for a long moment. “The captain takes me where I want to go, though. So I can capture the Avatar.” He hadn’t stopped to consider that the captain might not be a fan of having to drag him around the world on a wild goose chase. He had caught the way the captain glared at him, but he hadn’t given it much thought.
Zuko hesitated for a moment, grateful that he seemed to have said the right thing about Scarlet’s brother. It made him feel… well, like he had done something right. He gave a tiny smile, beginning to relax just a little bit more.
“It is nice,” he echoed a little bit uncertainly. He wasn’t trying to hide his scar anymore. He was just comfortable in a way he hadn’t really ever felt in conversation before. Scarlet seemed to handle the things that were upsetting to him with far more grace than anyone in his world ever had.
“I’ve never thought about the fact that it glows,” he considered, letting the fire bloom in his hand for just a moment. “If you say it like that… it seems like a tool. Like… like light. Not just a weapon.”

Hook kept his brow raised as he watched the fighters in the ring, tapping his index finger to his flask absently as he considered Shade’s response. He glanced towards her innocently when she prompted him for more information. “I ain’t the one picking’ the fight here - you were there the first time I’d ever even seen him.” He took another swig between his words, giving a disinterested shrug. He realized that he could’ve left it there, but he figured it was best to be honest about what conflicts he got wrapped into nowadays. “The House put us at it sometime after, seemed like the bastard just didn’ know how things worked.” He chuckled to himself at that, hastily averting his gaze back to the ring to be certain he didn’t miss the ending.

Smiling was as strange to Nico now as it had been to Kelsier after Hathsin. Something about being around Kelsier, about letting himself be free and wild, letting himself fight like this… the smile came more easily. It was like Kelsier’s was contagious.
Nico rolled his eyes in response to Kelsier’s taunts, preparing to duck out of the way of whatever the next attack was. He was ready, he was learning how Kelsier fought, what moves he was inclined to use against Nico, what Nico would have to use to try to use Kelsier’s weight and speed against him. His eyes narrowed a little bit as he waited.
The attack didn’t come. Nico didn’t think, didn’t look to see why Kelsier look startled, just moved forward and kicked out to sweep Kelsier’s legs out from under him. He was breathing hard at the effort as he slid past, aiming at the back of Kelsier’s knees to bring him down.
He crowed triumphantly, scrambling up to his feet in time to place his knee on Kelsier’s chest, successfully pinning him down.
“I win!” he gasped, sounding actually surprised by that. It hadn’t been a sure thing, that was for certain. It had been a hard fight, but incredibly worth it. He didn’t know what had thrown Kelsier so off balance at the last moment, but part of the fight was taking advantage of whatever came his way. He didn’t think Kelsier had thrown the fight purposefully. Another thing they needed to talk about… eventually. Not now, though. He pushed the thought out of the way, instead standing up and offering Kelsier a hand up. He didn’t realize what he had said. He didn’t realize how much more pressing that conversation was.

| Hector | PIT FIGHT |

Hector nodded, taking in Kaladin's explanation of his world. He almost wanted to ask what war Kaladin was fighting in, but at the clench of his jaw he decided to leave it for now.

"A spar, of course." Hector said, just to confirm. "I have my own war to go back to where the fighting's real enough, as I'm sure you do as well.

Hector watched as the fight finished up, Kelsier startling at something and Nico seizing the opportunity. While he'd initially thought Nico would win, the course of the fight gave him his doubts. Kelsier matched his skill. In truth, Hector had been impressed with both of their fighting. Light and quick, with impressive reaction time.

“Of course,” Kaladin responded, glancing at Hector. “A test of skill, not life or death.” He had killed a lot of people in his life. His hands… his hands had been meant for saving people, once. How little he had known when he had dreamed of being a soldier… but no. He was saving lives. That was what he had told his father, so long ago. There weren’t just people who saved lives and people who ended lives. Sometimes, there were people who ended lives in order to save more.
“Any ground rules you’d like to lay down?” he added after a moment, tilting his head. “It seems… injuries go away when you finish the fight. But if there’s anything we should avoid… we might as well discuss it now.” He’d never been allowed to duel before… he wasn’t sure how this was supposed to work. He’d only done practice sparring with his men. He was anticipating this would be something like that.

Nico stood back up, face flushed and expression genuine. He wouldn’t have said anything like that to throw Kelsier off. He wouldn’t have said anything like that at all, if he had been thinking. He still hadn’t quite processed that he’d said anything out of the ordinary. He was still too caught up in the slowly dying thrill of the fight.
He tilted his head a little bit, noting the change in Kelsier’s expression. He didn’t quite know why it had happened – perhaps Kelsier was just disheartened to have lost. It had been a good fight, an evenly matched one… it could have gone on for much, much longer if Kelsier hadn’t been distracted by something. It could have gone on for much longer if they’d had powers and weapons. They’d have to try again when they were both at their most powerful. This… this had just been a good trial run.
He dusted himself off, waiting on Kelsier to get up before they moved back to where they had been standing before. It had been a long time since he’d fought an opponent as skilled as he was. It felt… good. He was still finding it hard to shake the smile from his face, though another glance at Kelsier told him they would need to talk. Soon. His own smile faded and he moved to grab his jacket from where he had thrown it.
He grabbed Kelsier’s mistcloak while he was at it, slinging it over his shoulder so it wouldn’t trail too much on the ground.
“Here,” he murmured once he got close enough to Kelsier, passing the mistcloak over. He looked up, trying to meet Kelsier’s gaze. He didn’t know what was wrong. If he had… well, if he had, he may have turned bright red and turned the other direction. He wasn’t prepared to deal with the nebulous thing between them when tere was plenty in his world to worry about already.

Kaladin nodded. Those were all reasonable things. The sorts of things that would make it an even battle while maintaining both honor and dignity. The more time he spent around Hector, the more he found he liked him.
“Only with my men and only to practice,” he replied after a moment, shifting a little bit. “Mostly with spears, but sometimes unarmed. Not while I was training, but… since I got my own squad, they have to know how to fight if disarmed.” Hector hadn’t asked for that level of detail. Kaladin hoped he didn’t mind getting it anyway.
“Shall we?” he asked, tilting his head once the pit was emptied.

Nico grinned again, though his smile didn’t last quite as long now that there was no fight to fuel it. He glanced over at some of the others, dipping his head a little at Shade and Hook. Not so much as a bow as to just… acknowledge them, acknowledge he had seen their fight… this was a fun room. Surely the others around him were having fun as well – although Enjolras looked at least a little bit uncomfortable. He couldn’t help but wonder why the House had chosen to blink him in – Nico wasn’t sure he had ever seen him in a fight. He didn’t doubt he could hold his own, but he couldn’t see him initiating a friendly spar with any of the other blinkers. Then again, it wasn’t as though Percival and Sherlock’s spar had been friendly.
As he stepped all the way out of the ring, he blinked. The pain seemed to disappear – kind of the House to heal them between spars. It was a near certain sign that it was encouraging to challenge more than one person. Nico cast a nervous glance at Hook, then one at Kelsier. He wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if Kelsier decided to challenge Hook to a less than friendly spar…
“It was fun,” he agreed, glancing back at Kelsier as he shrugged his own jacket back on. He shoved his hands in his pockets, making his way towards where he had been standing to watch before. Should he ask? Would that be invading Kelsier’s privacy? He swallowed, uncertain how this was meant to go. He had burnt off some of the tension his world had created, but he had someone managed to create even more tension here. Were the two of them really going to end up talking here?
At least Kelsier was smiling now. Maybe that was a sign they could keep putting it off…

Kelsier | Pit Room | strider

Kelsier didn’t pay Shade and Hook much attention as he left the ring, the pain fading away to nothing as he did. Nice of the House. He shook his head a little, coming to the same conclusion as Nico had, that they were supposed to fight more than one person. Well...Kelsier was more than willing to go again. With Nico or anyone else. Might be fun to see if he could humiliate Hook, after all...then again, Myrnin was also here. It would be interesting to see if he could beat the vampire in a fight with no powers. Maybe he just wanted to try his luck with everyone here.
He did notice Sol...he frowned a little, eyeing her for a long moment. Hopefully she wouldn’t get dragged into a fight. Not that he was underestimating her, she’d nearly taken his finger, but still. She seemed to rely on intimidation more than anything.
He caught the glance between himself and Hook, and he couldn’t help smiling a little. Okay, so he hadn’t talked to Nico about his grudge against Hook...was that another thing they needed to talk about? Really? As though they didn’t have plenty of those already...they didn’t need more things. They really didn’t.
Kelsier joined the demigod, standing where he’d been before it had been their turn to spar, he looked up when guessed that more people would be fighting soon enough, and if he wanted to challenge anyone else, he’d have to do it in a little while. He was content to stay where he was for the moment, anyway.
He glanced at Nico, noting his expression. They...needed to talk even more urgently now. How could Kelsier tell Nico what he’d said? He didn’t know if he could...had anyone else heard? No one had reacted. Maybe no one had been close enough to hear.
He also thought he deserved a rematch. Not that he was about to say that just yet.

| Hector | PIT FIGHT | with Kaladin IN THE PIT |

In his own world, Hector was fighting for what he dearly loved- his country, his family, his people. It was what gave strength to his limbs and what kept the blood pumping through his heart. Although he hadn't wished to start the war, and indeed, remained deeply angry with his brother Paris for starting it, losing the war meant losing everything he held dear. He couldn't imagine fighting just to fight. "Of course they're good men. They have a good leader. I hope you succeed in your goal."

Hector readied himself and dropped into a fighting stance as well, well balanced, solid. He saw how Kaladin stood- as a spear fighter himself, he recognized it. He approached quickly, hoping to give Kaladin little time to react as he aimed a punch at the man's torso.

</div>Myrnin | Fighty fight | <Raintalon>

Slightly interested, Myrnin looked at Sol with a puzzled expression.
Finally, what he said was, "How many cheese crackers do you have?"
He'd gotten the memo that this room didn't allow things like super strength. He didn't have to deal with human reflexes for long at least, that was one consolation, though he was decently sure that he would have a slower response time.
So long as his heart didn't suddenly start beating again, he'd probably stay mostly sane with this set-up. Even still, there was Sol's little dance.
"I have no idea what I'm betting in return, but if that's the goal you want to set, I don't see an issue."
Said the man who was used to breaking ribs of people who could heal within a couple hours. That was fine.

| Hector | PIT FIGHT | with Kaladin IN THE PIT |

Kaladin dodged, Hector's punch glancing off his side instead of landing, and he turned as quickly as he could as Kaladin returned a pair of blows. He managed to dodge the first fully but not the second, feeling Kaladin's fist glance off his side with just enough contact to smart. With Kaladin reaching for his right he punched with his left, aiming for Kaladin's right shoulder.