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

Starling | Living Room | Numquam

“Eises,” Starling repeated, shoulders relaxing in relief at her friendly response. Looks like I won’t lose my head… yet. “Nice to meet you.” His eyes turned to glance toward the hallway—the one he and Arlo had walked down last time he was here. Lined with mysterious (and sometimes deadly) doors.

“Not yet,” Starling admitted with a wry grin. “I… disappeared before I had the pleasure of charging into a possible death trap.” He was clearly teasing, wrinkling his nose playfully. Star was pretty sure they had a word for the phenomenon where you left and appeared in the House, but he couldn’t quite remember what it was. “I’m guessing you’ve experienced some? What were they like?”

Starling | Living Room | Numquam

Starling scratched the back of his neck after Eises’ question, suddenly reminded of the dire situation back home. “Rank 1 of the Avian squad. That means I’m the Designated squad leader,” he explained, his smile coming across a little more strained than he intended. He gave a chuckle and shrugged. “Although I don’t know if I’m the right guy for the job.”

After hearing Eises’ description of the rooms, Starling got a similar impression to that when talking to Arlo and Orpheus: they were a big bag full of candy and razor blades. Sounded like the doors were a death trap, and probably more trouble than they were worth.

And yet… somehow, Eises’ seeming confidence made Starling itch with curiosity. Both she and Arlo had been willing and ready to go into a room straight off the bat, and Starling couldn’t help wondering about it…. Maybe Eises had powers, too? She certainly wasn’t a normal human. And truth be told, the House was a good distraction right then. Starling couldn’t help being the tiniest bit grateful that he had a second to actually THINK… and be far away from his real world problems.

“You know what? Let’s do it.” He nodded resolutely, sure he was walking into a slaughterhouse. But what did he really have to lose, when home was filled with half-spectra monsters and escort missions into the depths of Spectra territory? He was as good as dead, either way. “Let’s just hope we get the candy and not the razor blades.” The corner of his mouth quirked up.

[[ Mordecai (2) || living room || @shrikestrom ]]

“Very far north,” Mordecai muttered as he appeared in the living room, his head bowed slightly, gloved fingers tugging his hood lower to make sure the person he was speaking to couldn’t see his face. Except that the person he’d actually been speaking to was gone, as was the entire street, replaced with the dimly lit room he’d been in only a few moments before and a different person. He couldn’t say he was surprised he didn’t recognize her, up to this point the House had refused to let him see the same person more than once and he saw no reason for it to change now.
“Uh… Hello,” he started slowly. Meeting people in general wasn’t particularly comfortable for him but what concerned the shade most at the moment was her expression. He wasn’t very good at reading people but he was pretty sure he knew what that meant. “I… I presume you don’t yet know what’s happened to you?” He asked carefully. Might as well check, just in case.

It appeared he’d been correct… Well, at least that meant her icy expression had been because of the House and not himself. Not too bad of a start, so far nothing had been thrown at or around him this time. “I will try,” Mordecai replied with a nod, letting go of his hood and lowering his hand to his side when he realized he’d still been holding onto it.
“I must admit I… am still trying to understand it myself,” he started, figuring he should at least be honest. He might not be the best person to explain the situation, but there was no one more experienced there at the moment and not trying to explain felt wrong, even if it was likely he’d only imagined her and the rest of the House, so he would at least repeat what others had told him. “Apparently this place the called the Paradox House… No one seems to know how or why but people from, uh,” he paused, considering his words. Unfortunatly there really wasn’t any way to make it sound less obsurd so he just said it, “Different worlds and times…They’re brought here for various amounts of time before returning to the exact moment they were taken from.”
The shade waited a moment before waving a hand in the direction of the doorway. “There’s no known way to leave before you’re sent back but there are a lot of strange rooms… There can be anything behind the doors.”

[[ Mordecai 2 || living room || Shrike
“I can try to answer any questions you may have,” Mordecai offered, relaxing a bit when he saw how the girl was reacting. Not bad… pretty good actually, considering the information he’d just givin her. Well, assuming she didn’t blow up at him once the initial shock wore off.
He nodded again to her first question, then tilted his head slightly. Uniform? And as for the Burrows… He had no idea where that could be. “No… I don’t believe I’ve head of it. Is that on Xaphorda?” The shade didn’t really want to get on the topic of where he was from, it was a bit hard to discuss since he didn’t even know where that was. “I was at the edge of a town near Old Kirro when I was sent here this time.” He still didn’t see any sort of similarity between blinks. 

[[ Mordecai (2) || living room || Shrike ]]

“I have, yes… though I always seem to get sent back before I have a chance to learn anything to help me understand the purpose of this.” Mordecai could help but sound a bit disappointed. Some sort of sign as to whether he was imagining the whole thing or not would have been useful, some type of explanation that made more sense than ‘it just’s what happens’, though he figured that was the whole point of calling it the Paradox House. In a way it would be almost fitting if it was real, after all, how many other things in his life was he still searching for answers to?
Again the shade nodded. It was odd seeing how words so common where he lived- including the name of the world- seemed foreign to everyone he mentioned them to here. “Hmm, I see… Ra’Seirri? Shades?” He tried curiously. This girl seemed to be human, but from what he’d seen lots of the ‘worlds’ the others were from had humans but were completely different from his own.
“Aboveground?” The shade tilted his head. “Yes… do you live underground?” He’d heard of underground cities in some countries but as far as he knew they were ancient and hadn’t been used in a long time. That said, no one had lived in the part of Kirro he often stayed in for a long time either.

Kestrel | Living Room | --cato phoenix

"The purpose, huh..." Kestrel's frown reappeared as she considered it. Was there a purpose to this? It was just a dream, right...? She gave her head a little shake, as if to clear it. "So, what DID you see in those rooms?" she eventually asked, eyes flicking to the hallway. It was a little dim and dusky to see much in that direction, but she noticed the outlines of a few doors, each looking different from the next. Kes had to wonder if the rooms were really as random as he seemed to believe. Maybe there was some sort of pattern she could find that would make this all seem... a little more sane.

Listening to the other blinker throw out a few words she didn't recognize, Kes rubbed her temples. Well, the word "shade" was common, obviously, but the way he said it made it sound like it was referring to something special. Honestly, if she hadn't seen the guy appear in front of her out of thin air, Kes might have assumed he was messing with her. It definitely sounded fake, didn't it?

"How do you say that first one again? Rahsheerie?" she asked, knowing she butchered it. She gave a deep sigh. "Well, anyway... I haven't heard of either. What about you? 'Spectra' ring a bell?" She raised a brow, giving him a pointed look. Not knowing what Spectra were on Earth was like not knowing how to breathe. It either meant you were dead, or were about to be dead. There wasn't much of a life expectancy for people who didn't know how NOT to get eaten.

On top of that, Kes couldn't help looking a little taken aback at the easy way he mentioned living aboveground... and his question about living below. The Hunt was hundreds of years ago. Most humans hadn't seen the sun in almost as long. The idea of living above as if it were easy, when humanity had basically been hiding in fancy bunkers for generations... was almost laughable. But Kes wasn't the type to laugh. Instead she just looked tired, brow creased in growing confusion. Did her brain really invent this guy? "Yeah, I do. We all do--humans, anyway." She shook her head. "Our cities are called the Burrows. That's where humans have lived since we were driven under the surface a few hundred years ago." She had never thought she'd have to explain basic human history to someone, but he really seemed not to know. It was definitely weird. "Does that... really not ring any bells?" For just a split second, a note of concern flashed across her face, before it went stony again.

Kestrel | Living Room | --cato phoenix

“Maybe you’re right,” Kes agreed, turning to look towards the hallway with her arms crossed firmly over her chest. “But if there IS a reason, looks like no-one’s figured it out yet.” She didn’t think searching for answers was POINTLESS, per say. It just seemed like a long shot. If no-one had figured it out yet, that either meant they were all idiots or answers were hard to come by. Or maybe both.

“Hmm.” She gave the stranger a curious look as he described the two rooms to her. It seemed like he wasn’t super experienced in that regard, either.

Maybe he's just smart enough to avoid them, Kes thought. The talk about magic powers should have been surprising… but after everything she’d heard so far, it didn’t phase her. The rooms really did sound random, though, at least with only two points of reference to go off of. But maybe there was some big overarching pattern that they were missing.

“You’ve mentioned other people a few times now. What are they like?” Kes asked, skeptical about the kind of people who would end up in a place like this. If the hooded guy had only been into 2 rooms, she figured he must be getting his info about them from someone else. “Do they just… appear here and throw themselves into a possible murder-room?” It sounded ridiculous to her, but not beyond belief. Some people had a major death wish. That was why the Undesignation rate was so high nowadays.

“Rah-say-ree, huh…” Kes’s face was dubious for a second as she listened to his explanation of the term. It was hard to believe... but she wasn’t going to say that to his face. Magic just wasn’t something that got brought up in the Burrows, unless you wanted a bad rep with the Governors. Playing make-believe was against the unspoken rules. “What’s a shade?” she asked instead, raising her eyebrows. Maybe that was his “world”’s version of a Spectra or something.

When the topic of Spectra was brought up, Kes sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was still kinda spooked that he didn’t know any of this.

Just a dream. It’s just a dream–it doesn’t have to make sense.

“The Spectra, they–” Her voice cut off for a second as she thought of how to explain. “Well. I mentioned that we live below ground, right? They’re the reason.” That was as good an explanation as any. “We don’t like them much.” A wry smile ghosted on her lips for a second after making the understatement of the century. More like we would be happier if they were all dead. “Anyway… these ra’Seirri you mentioned–they’re fighting the humans?” That was interesting. And supposedly the “shades” (whatever they were) were enemies of both. Which of the two was the equivalent of the Spectra, then? “Sounds like trouble. How do you fend them off if they have… magic?” Her voice was laced with disbelief as she said the word.

“Actually,” Kes added as an afterthought. “Do you have a name? Or a nickname. Something to call you so I don’t keep thinking of you as ‘The hooded guy?’” The avian squad had all come up with nicknames for each other until they passed their Designation Exam. Kes’s was Twintails, for obvious reasons. She was quite fond of it.

Starling | Snow Room | Numquam

Since Starling had been chosen back home, none of his friends had had a positive word to say about his new leadership position. It wasn’t exactly that they didn’t support him… but rather that everyone had been borderline CONVINCED that Kes was going to get the job. Kes was their squad’s star student, and what did Starling have? A winning personality?

Everyone was just so confused… Star was doing his best to make things work, but it seemed impossible. First moving aboveground, and now working alongside some half-spectra monster? Things looked grim for the avians. And Kes being a sour, sore loser wasn’t helping at all. Starling smiled at Eises’ advice, appreciative of having someone give him a chance.

“Thanks. Sounds like you have more experience than I do,” he laughed. “My friend, Kes… she was the shoe-in for the position. We all kinda assumed she was going to be chosen.” He scratched his neck sheepishly. “But I guess I’ll just have to figure it out myself. This was the Governors’ decision, after all.” The Government Branch was said to have never made a mistake when Designating… but Starling had to wonder if there was a first time for everything.

“Hmm…” Once in the hallway, he was again floored by just how… unreal it seemed. How crazy. It looked like it continued endlessly until engulfed in shadow—an infinite number of possible doors and possible dangers. And he was walking right into it.

“And this idiot is our new squad leader? Lucky us.” He could almost hear Kestrel’s snide voice in his head. She would NEVER let him live this down, if she knew.

“What about this one?” Starling finally offered, pointing at an ancient looking, rough wooden door. It looked like something out of the Old Texts. “Seems promising, right?” Eises seemed fine with letting him choose, so Starling just steeled himself and twisted the knob. “Here goes.” His teeth were clenched so tight together it almost hurt.

Dying on my first try would be a little embarrassing.

When Starling stepped through the doorframe, his scenery suddenly changed again. It was… a little like blinking, but different.

His eyes hurt for a second as they tried to adjust to the brightness—everything seemed to be a stark, piercing white color. The ground, the sky, the tall trees that surrounded them. After the dim light of the House, it was like looking directly at the sun lamps. It took a moment for Starling to finally see, and when he did, he tried taking a step forward into the strange, chilly landscape. His foot dragged on the ground, like it was caught on something.

Looking down, Star realized he was wearing odd, thick clothing. A hat, scarf, coat, boots… Warm stuff, like what people in the Old Texts would wear in the “cold climates.” Definitely not what he was wearing back in the House. His feet appeared to be stuck in a big drift of…. What was the word? Cold, white stuff, the kind that came down from the sky aboveground. Star glanced to the clouds, and saw wispy flakes floating down around his face. His eyes grew wide in wonderment. “What—?”

Star could only tear his eyes away for a second to make sure Eises was still following him. He wouldn’t want to get stuck in the room alone. But his hands were reaching up, feeling the odd tingling sensation of the cold ice from the sky. “What’s this called, again?” Star asked with a breathy laugh. He hadn’t quite taken the time to evaluate his surroundings, but nothing had attacked him yet. Maybe they were safe.

“No one that I’ve spoken with so far,” Mordecai agreed. Maybe they’d given up over time, or maybe they had no explanation because it was all in his mind and if he didn’t understand how it could be possible, none of the people he imagined could either.

He wished there was a bit more he could tell her but it was a bit difficult when he never seemed to stay very long so he tried thinking about what the others had told him when he’d started blinking. He was trying to remember if Eises had mentioned any to him when the girl asked another question, interrupting his thoughts.

“Oh uh…” he paused, thinking over the blinkers he’d met so far. Eises, the ones in the office with the magic papers, Nico, Zuko and a few others he hadn’t gotten the names of. “They… seem alright? I mean, I haven’t really had any problems with them.” To his surprise. “Sometimes the rooms can be dangerous but there’s quite a few that aren’t… Still, it’s best not to explore them alone. There seems to be no way to predict them so it’s best to have someone who can fight if needed.” He pretty much repeated what Nico had told him a few blinks before, it had seemed like good advice.

When shades were brought up he hesitated to answer, looking away. If she really didn’t know about them he could, if he wanted, describe them to be completely different. It was something he’d thought about while in his own world. If the people in the House didn’t know about shades and he didn’t tell them, or if they weren’t real at all, maybe there was a chance the House could be safe for him… But if the House was real and he was able to appear in it, was there a chance that other shades could? If so, not telling them would be condemning them to an almost certain death, and quite possibly putting their entire worlds in danger. The shade looked to the human again. Regardless of what it might mean for him, he couldn’t risk doing that to someone. “All beings produce a type of energy… Shades are immortals that seem to be… incapable of producing or retaining energy of their own, so they hunt humans and ra’Seirri to feed on theirs, and create more of their kind. They were human once but the transformation alters their minds… They have no human emotions left, just an insatiable hunger for energy. If you ever see one…” He trailed off. Just because explaining was right didn’t make it easy. “You should run… Assuming you have no way to kill it without getting turned yourself. They’re faster and stronger than humans and they have their own type of magic.”

Mordecai listened as she talked about the Spectra. She hadn’t quite explained what they were but he got the idea. “Ah, I… think I see. They’re… a predator to humans where you live?” The idea made him think of how Shades were in Xaphorda, though it was hard to tell how similar they might be without more details.

Her next question threw him off a bit. He might not have been the best at talking to people but he didn’t really need to be to realize she’d basically referred to him as human. Should he correct her? In his world he would be most easily be accepted by humans if he himself was also human so maybe it was best if he didn’t tell just yet… After all, she was already learning a lot of new information and seemed to be under the impression that ra’Seirri were a problem.

It took a few moments for him to realized he hadn’t replied. “Uh, yes… ra’Seirri do have magic but they aren’t invincible, human weapons still work against them… Both sides are more than capable of causing destruction when they want to.” For the most part it wasn’t the ra’Seirri or even the shades responsible for the destruction of Kirro’s capitol.

The shade nodded, almost laughing at the comment. The way she’d said it was rather fitting considering the fact that he technically didn’t know his name. “You can call me Mordecai… and you?”

| Eurydice | Blanket Fort Room | Orpheus |

Eurydice could tell that Orpheus was a musician. The way he had fallen into a rhythm of tying the knots of the fleece spoke of his familiarity with plucking the strings of a lyre. As a musician, his comfort with creating something was something that Eurydice lacked. Eurydice was more used to seeing what the world had to offer, the beautiful and the ugly, rather than changing it or adding something to it. It felt… uncomfortable to see the visualization of her actions- the knots that were pulled too tight, or the strip that had been cut too thin and then tied together. Or at least, that’s how she used to think about it. But the gentle way that Orpheus talked about it, the joy he found in creating… she could see the beauty in it. The blanket hadn’t existed before them. And now they were making something. “I could see it existing in my world, too.”

An amused smile flashed across her face when he humored her more practical mindset. “Yeah.” Eurydice placed a hand on the fleece as she shifted, shuffling over to the other side of the blanket. She looked down at the smooth edge of the fleece, realizing she’d forgotten to bring the scissors she'd been using with her. “Oh, can you-” She gestured to the scissors, holding out her hand, palm up.

Kelsier blinked, unable to stop the shock that flickered through his expression at that question.
“The House itself…” he repeated slowly, as though the words came from a language he’d never heard before. He had never wondered that, no. It had never crossed his mind to wonder it, but now that the words were out there, could he say it wasn’t possible?
And what if it was? What if all this was the work of some child, with more power than anything should have? He knew the kinds of rooms there could be, here. The kinds of rooms he’d never even been a part of, though he’d heard enough to know what they’d been like.
He felt an unexpected pang, and he found he didn’t know what to do with it.
“If it is…” he said, and stopped, trying to find the words. It was rare for the Survivor to have nothing at all to say, but here he was.
“I’ll have to think about that,” he said finally, looking back at Nico, his frown still replacing the smile he usually wore.
He sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes. He still struggled to believe how short of a time it had been for Nico…that room, their very first one, had happened no more than a week ago for the boy. So much had happened in that time, for both of them.
He didn’t open his eyes as Nico continued. Was it trying to appease them? He had survived so many things by clinging to what he knew, refusing to allow doubt to seep in, and it bled into everything he did now. When he’d been in Hathsin, losing his grip on stubborn, arrogant determination for even a second would have meant death, as it had for countless people before him.
The idea of wondering, even for a second, whether the House was the enemy? It didn’t feel right. It felt like losing that grip.
He shook his head a little, and opened his eyes to give Nico a small smile. “Oh, it didn’t give me to you, you know. I did that all on my own. Whatever it’s plan was, or is, we’re people. We never quite do what we’re supposed to.”
But it was harder to hold onto the smile than it had been a moment ago, and this one slid away before he could snatch it back. He looked away again.
“I’m not asking you to promise me anything. I’m not asking you to give me that, because I know you can’t. I’m just telling you that you’ll come back, because I know that you will. You’ll see.”

Sal Fisher | Sleepover Room | strider

Sal didn’t have time to do more than toss Zuko a glance in response to that, but he was good enough at Looks that he thought his eyes would be sufficiently devastating.
He couldn’t tell how much of the track was left. He’d never actually climbed the mountain before, and it threw him off enough to make the trail feel new.
He kind of liked that.
“No, but you are winning, and I'm bitter and sour and other adjectives about it,” he replied, and swerved, missing a shiny thing by less than an inch.
Which turned out to be a good thing a moment later, as Zuko slowed to a stop in front of him.
He hesitated, then slowed too, letting his character coast to a stop beside Zuko’s, looking out at the muted colors on the horizon.
“Wow,” he breathed, very softly.

[[ mordecai || living room 2 || strider ]]

“That was what it seemed like,” Mordecai replied with a nod. “Though I didn’t have the chance to test it myself… I saw a human pick up a paper about teleportation, then teleport to a different part of the room,” he explained. He remembered the odd way he’d been drawn to the one on ice magic. Had it just been that hearing Eises talking about her own had made him curious? Shapeshifting had been another option though and that might’ve given him the chance to be human, if only for a little while, so why not that? A few blinks had passed since then and quite awhile in his own world but he still wasn’t quite sure why he’d made that choice.

Brushing the thought aside, he returned his focus to Zuko before his distracted mind could lead him into another ‘Shadow of Kirro’ or ‘Zhukov’ slip. His head tilted slightly as he listened to the boy continue about the rooms he’d been in. “You mean… you see the same blinker often?” He sounded a bit surprised. “I’ve… yet to see anyone here more than once.”

So far he’d expected that it might just be because it was easier for his mind to keep creating new people for him to run into than to recreate them exactly the same as the last time he’d seen them and further develop them since he imagined he would learn more about them over time if he had the opportunity. Of course, seeing the same person multiple times and having someone else say they’d seen the same person multiple times were completely different things, so it probably didn’t mean anything.

“What types of rooms?” The shade asked as he stepped into the hallway. His gaze trailed over the many doors as he considered the options. Did it actually matter which one he tried? If he was imagining the whole thing anyway it seemed like the room would be the same regardless of which door they used, possibly even if it was real, depending on how it worked