~ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ~ a paradox house side rp

“Got it,” Hinata replied, nodding forcefully as he disconnected the blue wire. He was doing his best not to touch any of the other wires, suddenly paranoid that if he managed to knock any of the wrong ones loose, he might kill them both immediately. It slowed down his progress, which just sped up his heart – there were too many things that could go wrong, and not enough time to get this done. Eventually, he managed to disconnect the yellow wire as well and switch the two, only daring to breathe once he was certain the job had been done.
“Okay,” he managed, voice shakier than he wished it were. “I did it, and we didn’t blow up, so… so what’s next?” He hoped there wasn’t much more that had to be done, because his hand was getting sweaty with anxiety and he wasn’t sure he would be able to pull the wires reliably for too much longer.

Hinata’s eyes widened as Hera’s voice suddenly cut off, panic filling him as he realized she might have just… well, when computers glitched out like that, it usually meant they had died. At least to Hinata, who had no expertise in fixing computers.
“Hera?” Hinata called, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. The countdown timer was still ticking down, so he didn’t have that much time to worry about his new friend. (Friend? Could you be friends with an AI? Hinata wanted to be, even if it wasn’t customary. It wasn’t like AI was common in his world, so maybe what was customary didn’t actually matter).
“Pick up the bomb and turn it over,” he repeated, trying to kill time and pretend like he wasn’t alone in the room. He very gently turned the black wire, waiting for something else to happen. Waiting for his friend to come back and tell him what to do, or for the room to explode.
“Hera, are you okay?” There was panic in his voice, and he made no attempt to disguise it.

“Hera!” Hinata exclaimed, the relief in his tone practically tangible. “Hi! I’m glad you’re okay!” If she had been corporeal, he would have hugged her right at that moment. Well… maybe not right at that moment, as they had less than a minute to defuse the bomb, but… soon.
“I’m here. I can hear you, too, though… you probably already figured that out…” he was babbling now, but he figured it didn’t really matter so long as he got done what he needed to get done. He took a moment to take the wire out of the port and remove the back of the case. “And I did what you said. The back is off now.”

“Oh… okay, okay, okay, okay,” Hinata said, his voice going up at least an octave as he tried to process what she had said. If he moved it at all… then he was going to blow them both up. No pressure. He could feel his hands slipping where he held the bomb, but he needed to be able to hold it up to do this… before he could unplug it, he wiped his hands off on his shorts, hoping that would be good enough. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was… this was no different from hitting a perfect spike. (Okay, so it was very different. If he were to hit this like a volleyball, then they would both die. But it was the frame of mind that mattered). After a long moment, he turned it back over and carefully unplugged the blue wire. He was hyperaware of the way his body moved as he breathed. Aware that the slightest movement could kill them both. Then, with as much precision as he could, he pulled the black wire he had unplugged and slotted it into the outlet he’d just pulled the blue from.
“Done,” he managed, voice shaking.

“AaaaaaaALLLLL RIGHT!” Hinata shouted, jumping up in the air and punching it with his fist as the bomb proceeded to not go off. “We did it Hera! We did it, the bomb didn’t go off!!” Hinata grinned, doing a rather ridiculous happy dance as he celebrated their collective success. “I uh… I’d give you a high five or a fist bump or something, but that… yeah. But I’m giving you one in spirit!!”

Hinata grinned as he realized that the lights flickering was the equivalent of Hera’s response. He hadn’t known that she could do that, but he thought it was pretty cool – she was probably more in control of things here than anyone else was, even if she couldn’t see.
“It was close, but we did it on time!” Hinata replied, giving a large thumbs up that he realized several seconds later Hera couldn’t see. He frowned a little as the room around him began to shift and change, a large expanse of tiles spreading out in front of him. They all seemed to have different shapes and symbols on them, and there was nowhere to go but forward.
“Uh… Hera…” Hinata managed, frowning a little. He tilted his head then reached into his pocket and threw something out over the tiles. It settled on one that flashed red, and arrows shot out from the walls to hit exactly where someone would have been standing if they had stepped on that tile. “Any… suggestions?”

(oh wow didn't realize how long it had been since anyone was here- if anyone wants to rp some time i'm down p much whenever ^^ was the hopscotch chasm ever finished?)

(late reply bc i kept getting sidetracked today but sounds good! i think i'm here now as long as i dont get distracted again)

Anyone here? Percy muse bit me.)

(Sure thing! Not sure if you're on right now? o: )

It had been several days since the shade’s last appearance in the odd house and he was starting to wonder whether it had grown tired of whatever game it had been playing, or if perhaps, the whole thing had been nothing more than dreams. It had certainly seemed impossible, looking back on it… although the book he’d dropped into the void when he’d been there before had still been gone when he’d returned to to old city. That said, he was still surprised when he walked around the corner of a delapitated building and into a dimly lit living room.
He paused and looked around, finding the room about the same as he remembered, though he seemed to be the only one there this time. Did that mean the others had successfully made it across the path they’d been following before? Or… well he hoped they had made it across at least, though he wasn’t sure why he had been sent back to the first room.
The shade stepped toward the door again but hesitated with his hand hovering a few inches from the handle. He wasn’t the most comfortable around others- nor were others usually comfortable around him- but if anyone else appeared here and panicked there was the chance that they would run out the door and fall, not expecting the drop off. He didn’t want to risk that. He could at least wait a bit to see if anyone else showed up.

The shade froze mid step at the words as someone else did indeed appear in the room, then carefully turned to face the speaker making sure to keep his gloved hands visible. Technically he didn’t need a weapon, but the person who’d just appeared didn’t nessicarily know that so it seemed like a good enough idea. The other man looked vaguely familiar… he didn’t think they’d spoken directly before but he was pretty sure he’d seen him there at some point.
At the question Mordecai tensed. “I, uh…” He started, only to stop again. A simple question, yet one he’d been trying to avoid the whole time he’d been there. The one he wished someone else had an answer for, because he honestly didn’t know. He remained silent for a few seconds before finally continuted. “I am… someone who is stuck in same situation as yourself.”

The shade glanced away. So… he wasn’t getting away that easily. He should have figured. “Look… it isn’t…” he paused again. “I do not think it matters what I’m called… I don’t even know who you are… or where we are. Or why we’ve been sent here,” he replied, trying to stay calm. He didn’t like conversations that could potentially put him at risk of endeing up in a fight but he also wasn’t ready to give up and admit the truth so fast.
“Correct,” The man’s other question was much easier to answer. “It has not been. If anyone is still inside… they may need help.” Or they might be dead… or falling through the infinite darkness below the odd stepping stones… If there was really no end to it would they eventually be sent back to where they came from? What exactly would happen if they did? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “Do you… do you know if any of them reached the other side?”

“Hmm, true… it should have been impossible for it to have been endless yet… there was no visible end in sight,” He murmured. He was glad to hear that the other blinker didn’t think they were dead at least. He might not be comfortable around others but he didn’t want anything to happen to them. He wasn’t particularly comfortable being alone either, honestly.
At what the shade hoped was his last attempt at learning his identity, he shrugged. “Nothing in particular…”
He turned slightly to consider the door again, frowning behind his mask. “I am… not certain,” he decided finally. “If both you and myself were on the other side of it last time, then were sent back here… perhaps the others have disappeared from there already and will also be sent to our current location…” He had noticed that whoever or whatever was in control seemed to be trying to keep them together to some extent. Each time he’d been sent to an empty room it had taken less than a few minutes before someone else arrived. “…In which case going through the door may have the opposite effect.”