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

Hook - @/kat

Hook blinked in, standing in the center of the living room. He stumbled as the world shifted around him, responding with a shout of frustration without a moment of hesitation; immediately recognizing what had happened without needing any time to process it. Within the same irritated breath, he threw the dagger that was in his hand down at the floor, angrily catching his breath as he glared at where it embedded itself in the floor.

He eventually drug his gaze away from the blade with a sigh, glancing around to be sure no one was about to yell at him for his fit of anger. Thankfully, he seemed to be safe. The only other blinker present was a stranger, who he stared at for a few seconds with a scowl. “Don’t go in any alone,” he said simply, before sheepishly wandering back to muscle the knife back out from the wood.

"A bit," Myrnin said dryly, right back. "But maybe I'm just more interested in having you be dragon bait. After all, aren't you the better one for that? I taste like a corpse."
A beat.
"Do you taste like a corpse? What with being not quite human?"
He wasn't inclined to find out (right now), but he suddenly sounded very curious about the answer. "What are you, anyway?"
Not that he remotely expected a straight answer.

| Eurydice | Blanket Fort Room | Orpheus |

Eurydice watched Orpheus finish up his side of the blanket. They were close to each other, both at the corner of the blanket. It allowed her to hear more of the intonation in his quiet way of speaking. She could tell that his mind worked differently from hers, but it seemed strange to her. To understand or appreciate what went through someone’s mind and still not fully understand it herself.

“Well, if you’re human, then I imagine you wouldn’t ever get to that point.” She said pragmatically, not able to follow along his musings as far as the hypotheticals he offered. She sat back on her heels, looking at the half-finished sides of the blanket. She could see how the knots started to get more even down the line as the two of them had gotten used to the weight of the fabric.

"Not half bad." She commented, the edge of her mouth quirking up into a smile. There was a sharpness to it, though, a sarcastic twist to her words. Like she was hesitant to call it good. Not wanting to insult him, or herself for that matter, but not quite liking it. Not liking the way his ideas felt, the way he sounded so certain and so hopeful when the world wasn't really like that.

"Curiosity," Myrnin said. Then threw Vincent a bone, as it were, just curious about how he'd try to manipulate it. "And because if I drank your blood and it's a type of poison to me, then it may be entertaining to know what other parts of you are adding to that harm. Makes me deathly curious as to how you might affect me. But for that I'd need to be a bit more aware of what you are."
He reached out to a door, opened it, and stepped through without much further comment. He just figured that Vince would follow along.
He was almost instantly faced with crystalline white around him.
Snow.
Lots and lots of snow.
And in the distance, a rather familiar lodge.
"That time of the year again," Myrnin murmured. 

Vincent - Lodge - @/mint n clo

Vince smiled faintly, quietly pondering how he wanted to go about dancing around the topic. His eyes narrowed with a cold intrigue at what the vampire went on to say, smiling more blatantly now. “Is that it?” he asked in a feigned mystified manner. The blond raised his eyebrows as he watched Myrnin’s back, wondering what he wanted him to do with his information. Admittedly, it was a tempting incentive for a more genuine conversation…

He said nothing for now, not feeling that he needed to yet, and merely followed the other blinker’s lead. He squinted at the white expanse before them, eyes struggling to adjust before Victoria darted past his legs - startling him a bit. “Evidently,” he chuckled quietly, his hands wrapping around his arms as he braced himself for the cold walk.

Still near the doorway, Mordecai spun to look back into the room when he heard the blade striking the floor, one gloved hand reaching for something hidden by his cloak as his gaze swept over the person who'd appeared, an unfamiliar man with a hook for a hand- an odd detail for his mind to add if this really was a hallucination. He seemed human, Mordecai noted, though there was something a bit odd about his energy. Still the most human of the people he'd met so far at least.

The shade didn't spent much time around people and wasn't the greatest at reading them, but even so it was pretty obvious that the other blinker was agitated about something. At least he already seemed to know about the House, unlike the last two he'd met. "Yes... I've heard," he replied, remaining by the doorway. He moved his hand from his cloak but cautiously watched the stranger go to retrieve his knife. He felt like he should probably be saying a bit more but he was still getting used to the idea of talking to the friendly blinkers who didn't throw knives when annoyed, so he wasn't sure what exactly to say. 

Vince - Lodge - @/mint n clo

Vincent was quiet as he watched Victoria prance through the snow, preoccupied by his own descent. Luckily, the lodge seemed to be gracing them with a light, windless snowfall - but that didn’t change the fact he was wholly unprepared and poorly dressed for such weather.

He glanced at Myrnin as he spoke, letting out a chuckle that released a cloud of warm air into the snowy surroundings. So many questions, it made him wonder what the vampire was thinking about. “Why are you so insistent I’m something other than human?” He asked slyly as he displayed his slightly shaking hands to the other blinker before wrapping them around himself again. “Do you really not feel it at all?”

He turned his gaze back to Victoria as she kept on barking, looking out into the impressive snowy horizon. It was a lot of space, rooms like these always made him so fascinated by the House’s mechanics.

Myrnin | Lodge | @/des and clo

"I mean," Myrnin hummed, slightly confused. "Part of you isn't, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't ... be like you." He waved his hands around but wasn't exactly sure how to put it at all. This was very complicated, if he was honest. He waved a bit and then indicted his neck. "This. When I did that. That wasn't human."
There was no sign of a bite on his pale neck, but what he did have were a couple goosebumps. His body was certainly reacting to the cold, but he wasn't.
"No. I don't," he said. "It's ... like that information doesn't reach my brain or anything like that."
He watched Victoria prance around for a second, then looked toward the lodge and pointed at it.
"Do we wanna go there?" he asked the wolf.
And Vincent too, he supposed, but honestly he was more interested in seeing Vincent's reaction to the snow.

Vince - Lodge - @/mint n clo

Vincent watched the vampire gesture, his eyebrows raised. “Ah,” he said, looking at Myrnin’s neck, “just my blood then?” That made sense, he knew, considering that his internal functionings where a mystery to anyone other than his doctor - but to him that had never made him less human. Perhaps it did.

He kept his arms tight around him for warmth, nodding slightly with Myrnin’s words. An odd advantage, not feeling the cold, but the fact his body was still reacting meant he couldn’t be outside for much longer than any other human in this weather. His eyes narrowed on Myrnin at the question, a bit annoyed he was suggesting to say outside longer. He didn’t say anything, of course, but the glare was noticeable.

“You’re probably right,” Kelsier agreed, though his eyes still followed the butterflies as they trailed across the open air. “It’s a thought the House could stand to consider now and then. Not invading people’s privacy.”
It hadn’t done this, though. It had made it possible, but it had allowed them to choose for themselves this time. Kelsier would have been grateful if he hadn’t known very well that it didn’t deserve that. It did what it wanted, and he refused to thank it for not being the worst it possibly could be. No one thanked him for not murdering them, did they?
He paused. Perhaps he needed a better analogy, actually.
He nodded a little, letting the butterflies approach, though he wasn’t sure whether he was making it happen, or they had just decided to. He smiled, watching them land on him, then turning his head a little to watch them land on Nico, too.
The last time they’d been here, they’d been enemies. Uncertain allies. Threats, at least.
It seemed impossible to have become family this fast, even though Kelsier knew it had been faster for Nico. But here they were, anyway.
“Oh, it’s not that I don’t think it reveals anything about me,” he said, turning his smile on Nico, one eyebrow arching. “But not the same things an unconscious dream would. Both are important.”
His smile deepened a little, a playful spark coming into his eyes. “Probably fortunate for me that you think so.” He told him. “Since who I am on instinct wasn’t someone you liked all that much. But I think you’re right.”

“I don’t think the House is familiar with the concept of privacy,” Nico replied, a slight smile pulling at his lips. “I mean… you know it’s here right now, probably listening to everything we’re saying. And everything we’re thinking, for good measure.”
Nico shifted, watching Kelsier for a long moment. He didn’t know how much control the Mistborn really had over the dream. When Nico had first tried, he hadn’t had very much control at all. It had taken a lot of practice to get better, and he hadn’t really had the opportunity to practice much. He usually used his dream powers to visit people, rather than changing what they saw. It wasn’t like Kelsier had no training, though. He just had… a different sort of training. Part of Nico was curious how much of an overlap there might be. What techniques worked for both Mistborn and demigods? This could be an informative experience for both of them, if they found skills that overlapped. Kelsier might be able to give Nico some idea on how to better control his powers. Nico might be able to give Kelsier some hints on making his powers a little bit stronger. They’d have to try that out more when they were both awake.
“To be fair,” Nico frowned, arms crossing as he lifted a finger for a particularly vibrant butterfly to land on, “The House manipulated your instincts in that case. If you had met me in any other situation, your gut reaction would have been much different.” He knew Kelsier well enough know to know that the dangerous side of him, though always lurking just underneath the surface, was directed. Just because it had been directed at him once didn’t mean that its instinctive direction was wrong.
“Although,” he added, his expression lightening, “I have a feeling you might’ve tried to mother me, and that would’ve let to me disliking you a lot more quickly.”

“Plays,” Zuko replied, obviously a little bit more comfortable now that the conversation had shifted to familiar territory. “I know about plays. We used to always go see this one theatre troop when we were on vacation on Ember Island. They were never very good, but… I really liked the play. Maybe that’s why I could tell they were really, really bad.” He gave a bit of a sheepish smile, then let his eyes narrow as he watched Sal’s movement. It wasn’t perfect, but it was clearly better. Well… the lunge was worse, but the lunge could be worked on. The sword placement was a lot better.
“I think I’d like to play a video game, at some point. If the House lets me.” He had a feeling that making so many requests of the House might come back to bite him, but… he couldn’t help what he wanted. He just wanted a chance to experience things with Sal, especially if they were things Sal liked.
“Here,” Zuko added, moving forward so he could make the necessary adjustments. “Don’t… try again, yet.” He hesitated for just a moment before he moved down and lightly adjusted Sal’s stance, then straightened up and gently grabbed Sal’s right wrist so their arms were at the same angle and Zuko could guide the direction of Sal’s hand. “When you lunge forward, you’re guided by the movement of the blade.” Zuko lightly pressed against Sal, trying to get his body to move the way Zuko’s did instinctively. “You’re fighting it, right now. You don’t trust your body to catch you while you strike, which is why your lunge is a little awkward.”

“So… when you play video games,” Zuko asked, frowning a little, “Do you have live actors in front of you, or is it more of a choose-your-own adventure storybook type thing?” He wasn’t sure he was picturing it right, and he found himself a little too drawn into the idea of imagining Sal doing things that gave him enjoyment. He could more or less picture a guitar – it was an instrument with strings, and Zuko had seen stringed instruments before – but he had no idea what to make of video games. He couldn’t help but hope that the House would be willing to show him what video games looked like, even if he was fairly certain he would be pretty terrible at them. Maybe Sal could teach him how to play, just like Zuko was teaching him how to fight. Zuko tried not to think too hard about the layers to that thought.
“Exactly,” Zuko replied, oblivious to the way Sal was blushing. “That was better,” he commented, lightly adjusting Sal’s wrist so that he wouldn’t have to strain his muscles so much to keep the sword from dipping down. “Eventually you learn to follow the swords and trust that your body will keep you up. See…” he shifted, guiding Sal into a strike with the right sword. He twisted his body, used to the way using his right eye gave him better clarity. It wasn’t the only reason he was trying to show Sal a right-handed strike, but he certainly found it easier to demonstrate. “Just… follow the weight of the blade and watch where you want to strike… your body will do the rest.”

“Right,” Zuko said, though he was fairly certain he didn’t actually understand it at all. There was no use in trying to get Sal to explain it if there was no way for him to visualize what Sal meant, though, so he decided it was probably best to leave it alone for now. He tried to picture playing with toys, but all he could imagine was the doll Azula had burnt up almost as soon as Iroh had given it to her. She had never been one for toys, and Zuko had always liked sparring with Lu Ten and learning how to use a knife than he had any other sort of playing. In a nation at war, the best thing he could imagine being when he grew up was a soldier. He had never anticipated being in line for the throne, but he wanted to be a general as great as his uncle. He had spent most of his childhood playing at battle (or watching the turtle ducks with his mom) than he had actually playing games. Azula had always been the one who liked playing games, though her games usually involved manipulating people into doing what she wanted. Or trying to get Zuko into humiliating situations for her enjoyment.
Zuko was lost far enough in his thoughts that he didn’t immediately sense when things started to go wrong. It took him a moment to realize Sal’s head was jerking back and forth, and another moment to realize that underneath the prosthetic, Sal couldn’t see, at least with his right eye. Or maybe it was just that he couldn’t see as well. Zuko had lost his balance a fair number of times as he tried to compensate for his own left eye – he could still see out of it, but it was itchy and dry, and sometimes blurrier than his right. Something had stopped Sal from being able to see where he was moving, and Zuko wasn’t fast enough to steady the swords as they fell.
He was, however, able to catch Sal as he started to go down, his back leg shooting out instinctively to give him a wider stance and more purchase on the ground. They swayed for a long moment before Zuko adjusted his grip on Sal to stop him from falling prey to gravity.
“You okay?” he managed, breath coming hard.