Cell Accomodation

(( continued from: https://aalc.rpg-board.net/t310p30-a-lack-of-accommodation ))


Od led the two quarreling girls into the detention cell where the Headmistress was supposedly overlooking some poor child's punishment. At the entrance to the sub-level, he had procured a wooden torch with a flame to lead the way. He pushed open an old cell door as they approached in the dimly lit hall. It was a dank cell with the standard cold packed dirt floor and damp stone walls. Somewhere, a lonely drip echoed steadily and miserably in the dark. The heavy silence made it obvious that they were the only ones down here, and Od hummed in annoyance.

"Well I suppose she is yet to arrive." He held the bar-door open politely to allow the girls inside the detention cell. "We will only have to wait for a brief moment, I am certain. I will thank you for displaying patience, as it will deliver your solution with a much preferred ease."

A notch in the stone wall by the door offered a hold for Od's torch, which he settled into place. The modest lighting revealed a wooden bench against the back wall of the small cell.

Through their trip, Solasta would continuously aim all sorrts of threatening glares at her accompanying room-mate, ones which implied, 'stay out of my face', or 'this is your fault'. All while she believed Odqura's back turned, of course.

Her glowering red eyes narrowed in dissatisfaction at their rather... lacking environment. After stepping around the room, examining her surroundings with disapproval, she levelled another glare at the offending dean. 'Patience' wasn't quite the most adequate word to describe her current state - her bare feet impatiently tapped the floor, her tail lashed in an aggravated manner, and he'd audibly exhale as if the whole matter was tiresome and bothersome.

The lack of lighting was beginning to annoy her to the point were Solasta stubbornly believed that she could provide her own instead. Gripping her own tail near the tip, she allowed a small flicker of fire to bloom at the very tip. It did burn a little, but it was the sort of feeling Solasta had no problem in brushing aside. "Dis bettah not be no trick," she sneered mistrustfully at Od.

Larita's heels had clicked steadily against the stone floor as they walked. She was not unaware of Solasta's glares, but chose to ignore them, her chin raised and jutted as she pointedly kept her attention away from her roommate.

She stepped past the door that Od held open and into the dirty looking cell. Her nose cringed and she spun to look at the dean with narrowed eyes. "You want us to wait here? Are you insane? Though if this is a new room for my dear ex-roommate, then I approve." She crossed her arms over her chest and leans her weight onto her right leg, jutting out her hip with some display of attitude.

She flinched away from Solasta's fire display, taking a step sideways. Great, not only was she huge, she could set the whole room on fire. Larita wanted away from her as soon as possible. She ignored Solasta's comment about the trick, not believing that any administrator would be so foolish when they knew how rich her father was. "How long are we going to have to wait? I have unpacking to do, and I haven't even been introduced to my servent yet."

His smile was nothing but cordial. "Me, entertain trickery?" Od scoffed goodhumoredly as he casually pulled the cell door closed again, the old metal hinges sighing tiredly with the motion. "Evidently, we are not well enough introduced." Because if they were she might expect it, was left unsaid.

The metal bolts clicked cheerfully into place, the resounding thrum, of the heavy lock echoing off the cold walls. An old iron key swung twice around the dean's index finger before disappearing into a trouser pocket.

Drawing in a short breath, Od delivered his instructions like he was quickly debriefing them a casual business meeting. "If I return and find anyone dead, the other will find this cell to be their new permanent residence. Do try to settle out your disagreements, I'll be back in a couple of hours." The time span was stated with an unpromising frown and a halfhearted shrug. It meant he'd really get back whenever he got around to it. He spun confidently on his heel, intent on wasting no time in returning to the warmth of the castle above.

"Put a sock in it!" Sikasta irritably snapped at Larita's dreadfully boring comments. Just how much longer did she have to endure her presence? This 'Everly' person better come soon or--

Her train of thought came to a sudden crash at Od's fleeting proposal, watching with shock as, just like that, he departed the room. She stiffened, before lunging off in the direction of the gates, gripping the bars with both of her hands. "YOU!" she screeched after him, fire springing alight around her knuckles. "You get yo' feathereh ass back heah or ah'll... ah'll eat yo' parents for breakfast! Ah'll stab yo' face! Ah'll set yo bed on fiaaah!"

Her yelling began to die down when she realised that the Dean probably wasn't returning. The fires around her hands extinguished. She probably wasn't going to melt the iron bars with it, and if she did, she'd probably lose her hands as well.

Her fiery gaze whipped around to land an accusative glare on Larita. "This is all yo' fault! If yo' hadn't been sah freakink whineeh...!"

He did not just.... Larita stared at the place where Od had just been a moment ago. It didn't make sense. What made him think that he had the right to abandon them here? No, this must be some kind of joke. He would be back. As she thought, her mouth fell open, her face blank and disbelieving. When Solasta turned on her, she snapped back.

"My fault?!" she shouted. "If you hadn't tried to take my bed, I wouldn't have had anything to whine about! This is entirely your fault! And now you've dragged me into the middle of this!" She stormed forward, looking out through the cell bars while still staying as far away from Solasta as possible.

"Professor this isn't funny!" she shouted. "PROFESSOR! Get back here right now or I'll.. I'll sue you!" When there was no response, she turned her attention back to her roommate turned cellmate, aiming an accusatory finger in Solasta's direction. "You. You get us out of here right now! Break the door or something!"

At the accusations, she bared her teeth with spite. "Yo' would'a enjoyed sleepink on de floor!" she snapped back haughtily.

Most of he pleadings were met with the roll of her eyes - she was going about it all wrong. Well, it wasn't as if Solasta's attempts had reaped any better results, but she wasn't about to call any attention to that.

However, Larita's demands caught her by surprise, and she gaped at her in shock. "Us outa heah?!" she echoed. "Why di 'eck would I want to help you? When I get out, ah'm lockink you back in heah! Den I have have de room to maself!" She didn't seem notice anything wrong with blurting out her plans to her cell-mate, success was guaranteed anyway, she believed.

Despite her claims, she strolled over towards the gate anyway, eyeing it up and down as if it were made of foam rather than iron. Then, with a swing of her leg, she gave an almighty kick at the door.

CLANG!

The door burst from its hinges, toppling... No, that didn't happen, no matter how much she willed it to. What did happen was that an ugly whine of pain echoed from her throat the moment her foot connected with the metal, and she fell backwards onto her posterior, cradling her rather sore foot with both hands. "Dat... did not work!" she needlessly exclaimed.

Larita crossed her arms over her chest and waited while her cellmate first ranted and then readied herself to break down the door. She didn't doubt that she would be left in here if it were up to Solasta, but with a broken door, Larita was betting that she would be able to get out anyway. At the resounding CLANG, the girl jumped back, expecting some sort of massive explosion. But when she looked up, everything was as it had been, with the exception of Solasta's sore foot.

Larita stormed up to the door, examining it in hopes that the other girl had at least loosened something up. But the door still looked solid. In her frustration, Larita turned. "You're completely useless!" she shouted. "What good is all that ugliness if you can't even knock down a stupid door?!"

Ignoring her cellmate's pains, Larita scanned the cell with her eyes and shivered. She wrapped her arms around herself. It was cold and dark, the main source of light having been the torch that left with Od. The expression on her face fell into something a bit more frightened than angry. The walls of the cell were stone and looked even more impossible to break through than the bars. But there was something that caught the girl's eye. There was a dark space in the wall that looked as if a stone or two had gone missing. Larita rushed forward, and lowered herself into a squat in front of the space. It was low, just above the ground, and only big enough for her leg to fit through, at most. But it was most definitely a space. Still, where did it go? The only thing Larita knew for sure was that there was no way she was going to stick her hand in there to find out.

"Hey!" she called, looking up. "Put your hand in here and see where it goes."

Solasta continued to massage her foot, occasionally prodding it with a finger as if to assess the pain. It wasn't really that bad. Larita was less than sympathetic but she hadn't expected half as much. However, her comment on ugliness did ruffle her feathers, and she aimed a glare out outrage at her. "I'd like to see you kick yo' foot against it! Wimpeh!" Snorting in satisfaction, she unsteadily rose to her feet again, brushing aside what she felt was merely a temporary soreness.

The darkness was bothersome, but it did hold one advantage at the very least. She wouldn't have to see Larita's disgustingly perfect face. Jealous? There was no way she was jealous, she tried to convince herself. She was fine the way she was.

Her discovery did induce curiosity in her though, and she squinted to where she was. A hole in the wall? Hardly big enough for any grand escape scheme, but perhaps something of use. She was keen to investigate, but as Larita commanded her, she was entirely reluctant. She was no puppy dog to be bowing down to commands.

"Yo' know what?" she snapped. "Do et yo'self! I ain't sticking not'ink in dere! Unless yo' too scaredeh..." Her tone became rather snide at the last words, as she gave Larita an expectant glare.

"Me? No way, there might be spiders in there or something equally disgusting. I don't have all that..." she motioned to Solasta's entire body. "Fur to protect my flawless skin." She pouted and rubbed her forearm as if she had already been bit by something.

She shrugged and raised her arms helplessly. "But if you're too scared then I guess we could just hang out together in here and wait for Professor Od to come back and get us." Raising her eyebrows, Larita glanced towards the cell door where Od had stood only moments before. "But he may be a while."

It wasn't the cleverest of moves, trying to turn Solasta's own if you're too scared tactics against her, but it was all Larita could think of at the moment. She was beginning to think that it would be a while before the professor came back, and she wanted to see what was beyond the cell door, but she wasn't willing to stick her own arm in the hole to find out. At least not yet. She supposed that if Solasta continued to refuse, then she would have to do something. But first she wanted to see if this last effort had any effect.

Spiders? If spiders was actually the best excuse that Larita that scrape up, then Solasta certainly had little to be impressed with. She'd encountered many venomous spiders in her lifetime, but she'd lived in these regions long enough that no such dangerous resided here. It was pathetic.

"Yo' are scared of de little hole ruinink yo' skin," she snorted. "When realleh, yo' should be afraid of me." Flexing her wrist in a threatening manner, she stepped towards Larita as if she were about to make some sort of move. Her words, however, made her furrow her brows. A foot or two away from the shorter girl, she bared her teeth. "Pah! You're de scaredh one. I will show you who's nat so scared."

She probably hadn't even realised that her persuasion had been backfired, but she crouched down next to the hole, sticking her hand within. Cold stone. Big surprise there. But it went a little deeper...

Soon, she found her whole arm was wriggling around in the abyss, trying to find the end, or at least something of interest. It was around then her fingers brushed something fluffy, and she yanked her hand out in time to see a flash of a wormy rat's tail scurry out the hole and vanish into the darkness of the room. her eyes tracked the room briefly, having no idea where it went. "Dumb rat," she grumbled, before glaring up at Larita. "See? Now dat wasn't sah hard, was it?"