☼ ᴾᴸᴱᴬˢᴱ ᵀᵁᴿᴺ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴸᴵᴳᴴᵀ ᴼᴺ ᵂᴴᴱᴺ ᴵᵀ ᴰᴵᴱˢ ☀ - Stri and Socks

Nico hesitated for a long moment, then gave a small smile as he held out his arm for Sam. It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid of Sam’s touch, it was just… he had the chance to prepare for it. He had the chance to offer it himself instead of having it sprung upon him.
“Ready?” he asked, giving Sam just a moment to prepare before he began skating just a little bit faster. His primary goal was to get Sam gliding so he could feel the wind pulling through his hair without having to worry too much about falling.

—
Nico appeared, arms crossed as he looked at someone across from him. He looked shakier than he had the last time he blinked in, the relief on his face tangible as he noticed he had been (temporarily) rescued from the pressure of his world.
The room he found himself in was strange. It… looked like it was trying to be Greek, but not quite succeeding. There was a fountain with a Roman statue in the middle of it… Nico approached, glancing in the reflection of the water and starting when he realized his head was on fire.
Wait… what?? He reached a hand up towards the blue flames, eyes widening a little at the realization that he wasn’t burning.

Nico looked over at the sound of a voice, frowning a little when he looked at Sam’s clothing. The House had certainly decided to… do something for this room, though Nico couldn’t fathom what it might be. It was like someone had decided to have a toga party without having much of a clue what togas actually looked like. At least Nico’s fit his aesthetic fairly well.
“Hey, Sam,” he commented, giving his best approximation of a smile. “I… don’t actually know what the House thought it would accomplish. Although the fire hair is kind of growing on me.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Nico replied, unable to keep all of his disdain out of his voice. “I mean… like… very loosely. I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else it could be, but it’s kind of like if someone tried to be Greek and just… didn’t want to put in all of the effort.” He shrugged a little, trying to come up with a better analogy. He himself had never been to Vegas, but he had a feeling it was something like seeing the Eiffel Tower in Vegas and asking if it was supposed to be French.
“We could… you know, I don’t actually know. But there are pathways and stuff we can explore. I’m not sure if there’s anything specific the House wants us to find here, or if it just wants to confuse us.”

“You’re not wrong,” Nico replied, a hint of a smile touching his lips. “I mean… that seems like something the House would do. But at least the room doesn’t seem to be actively malicious.” Saying that out loud, he knew, was practically an invitation to the House to make it dangerous. But for now, he trusted that they would be able to explore with minimal incident.
“Right,” Nico replied, glancing down at his feet. “I don’t know. Normally?” He knew that wasn’t a helpful answer, but he didn’t have any to offer. “With much more difficulty,” he added, the tiny, shy smile returning for a fraction of a second.
“It looks like there’s light over here,” he added, pointing down one of the paths the House had left open to them. He had no idea whether light was good or bad, but he figured it might be smart to at least try to go down he path the House seemed to be suggesting. Although there was something to exploring everywhere else first…
“We should save that one for last,” he said after a moment, having to resist the urge to reach for Sam’s hand. It struck him that the urge was strange for him, but he wasn’t going to give voice to it now. “Will you guide me through the other ones if it gets too dark to see?”

Bump