Locked Away to Rot (History S3)

Listening to Professor Odqura detail their lesson, Irina couldn't quite decide what to make of it. Her first lesson, down in the dingy dungeons, and one of them gets locked up? What kind of school is this place? The ghost was transparent at best, but down in the dungeons with so little light she wasn't much more than a few streaks of pale blue light, outlining her face and the general shape of a human teenager. But it cast some light for her (and the others) to see by, so she wasn't going to complain.

Alliances, she told herself. He wants to see how we go about fumbling over each other. That should be easy enough to test. Leaning forward over the key the professor had dropped before them, she pokes at it with one hand, which of course sails right through iron and ground alike. Repressing the urge to see if that was a snicker from behind her, she tried again, with the same result.

Dangit, she explained this to me, why can't I do it? Pulling a crystal pendant out from underneath her shirt, she fiddled with it idly as she tried to remember her brief lesson on being a ghost. Weighing the crystal which sat in her hand as if it were floating in midair, she then considered the key. I can do this. Reaching out once more, this time with both hands, she grabbed the air around the key instead of the iron itself, and this time when she pulled back, the key floated between her hands.

As fast as the usually slow ghost could move, she quickly tossed the key through the bars of the cell door and followed it inside to talk to her classmate, the small amount of light she cast following her into the cell.

Needless to say, when the feluis arrived to class that day, this was the last thing he'd expected - shackled and locked away into a dark, dank cell. And, even if he was merely an object of demonstration for the class, the young creature was notorious for believing such acts. As far as he was concerned, he really was locked away to never see sunlight again.

Lunie whined, loudly and irritatingly, face pressed against the cold bars to look longingly out at the rest of the class to see which one would decide to show one glimmer of mercy. It was so cold - even his poofy yellow fur failed to shield him from the biting chill.

His ears pricked at the nearby clatter of a key on the stone floor, before he glanced up to see an unfamiliar girl - and the light she seemed to radiate. He gasped in fright, falling backwards onto his backside, looking up to her with a sort of pleading awe. "A...Are you here to rescue me?!" he asked, his eyes wide and eager.

Whatever else the furred creature before her might be, Irina could see he was obviously still a little kid. The pleading in his voice did nothing for her opinion of their professor, who could've chosen a better candidate for prisoner, or at least a less impressionable one.

The blue outline of the ghost hung her head and scuffed at the dirty floor with her shoe, which of course made neither noise nor contact. She debated how to answer the kid's question, then made a split second decision and squatted down to be on eye level (as eye-level as transparency would permit, at least). "I was hoping to talk to you," she told him, trying to choose words with care. "If we're going to play at being in jail, I want to know who you are. I don't know you well enough to want to let you out and get in trouble, but maybe when I know you a little better, I'll think it's more important to let you out."

Sitting cross-legged opposite him, Irina propped her chin on her fist, elbow braced against her knee. "I'm Irina, and I guess I'm supposed to be guarding you for this lesson." Mentally kicking herself, she chewed on her lower lip. "Do... do you think I should guard you?" Not her best presentation ever, but hopefully she was walking the line between pointing out that this was, in fact, just pretend, and doing what the professor had instructed.

As the girl stooped down to his eye-level, Lunie peered at her rather odd form. Well, there was nothing odd about a human girl, but Lunie did wonder if she was even there at all. She seemed.. almost see-through. The feluis wanted to reach out his shackled hands to feel, but he stopped himself. A figment of his imagination?

He hesitated a moment before returning his gaze to the girl's face (or what he could see of it). He recalled Professor Odqura's instructions earlier... "I'm your best friend." Though to him, the line was thin between whether it was pretend or real. One could question if there was even a line at all.

"I think.. It would be very nice to set me free." He raised his arms to show to shackles clearly. "Not.. not comfortable! I don't..." His lip quivered as he spoke, and he returned a pleading sort of glance towards the kind girl. "I don't want to stay in here!"

Irina could accept that the humanoid animal would pick up on that best-friend particular point of the instructions, so she smiled and tossed the idea of letting him go around in her head. It'd certainly be a nice way to get on his good side, and having rubbed a couple of her classmates the wrong way already, good side was the preferred option.

But she wasn't stupid enough to think she could get away with it, not with the others standing right outside, Emperor Odqura, too. If she couldn't release him, what options did she have left? Leaving him alone after coming in to talk was out of the question. Staying... what, and play word games? She'd have to go get something if they were going to kill time in a more friendly fashion. A board game, perhaps? The idea wasn't fully formed yet, but she prodded it into flourishing, all she had to do was wait for it to blossom into a good idea.

It certainly wasn't particularly nice of the professor to chain him up in addition to locking him away... then she directed her gaze downwards at the shackles and she voiced a quiet 'hmm'. "Well, I might be able to get those off you, but you'd have to hold really still. I'm not very good at this ghost thing yet." Ah, crap. She'd been warned about how her offhand 'I'm dead' comment wasn't a great way to start with people, but it seemed to keep popping out without her awareness. And then it clicked. She knew all sorts of board games, word games, and make-believe games... she'd played them often enough with kids at each place her parents moved to. Universal kid stuff. Her companion might not be human, but he was definitely a kid.

She extended her hands towards the feluis' and leaned in closer, but waited, letting him make up his mind about her offer to free him of the shackles. "I've got an idea," she whispered, making sure no one 'standing guard' would be able to hear her. "I could make it fun for you to stay here, so I would be doing my job guarding you, but you'd enjoy it. What do you think? Could you stand that?"

Ghost thing? The feluis still didn't quite understand the concept of 'ghosts', or for that matter, 'death' at all. Some people went away and never came back, some got really hurt... but it never progressed beyond that. So it came as no surprise that he was remarkably baffled by her mention of it. Maybe ghosts weren't really dead at all. Or maybe she was simply babbling about ghosts for no reason.

His shackles jingled together like Christmas bells as he raised his hands to his chin in contemplation. If she took them off... wouldn't she be setting him free? Did she want to do that? An optimistic smile grew on his face, and he held out his hands readily, nodding fervently.

It wasn't until her later remarks that his enthusiasm deflated. Her offer was a kind one, but he'd been looking forward to the prospect of actually being free. As in, not being locked in a dingy cell for the rest of his life. He tried not to look disappointed, but the emotion slipped through anyway - his ears drooped slightly, his brows scrunched and his smile became rather forced. "Oh..." She wanted to.. 'guard' him. Just like the others.

"I think.. I think it would be very nice if... it was little fun." He nodded. "But I really not want to be locked in here... at all! Not for the rest of my life...!" He paused a moment, before tilting his head inquisitively. "How do you make it fun anyway?"

Clearly the young... whatever he was didn't understand the concept of the assignment Od had given them. That made this harder. "Oh, you'll only be in here till the end of class... you know, I don't know your name. Sorry, I guess that's bad manners, I should've asked earlier." If a transparent glowy blue silhouette of a girl could blush, she'd be reddening.

"But this is just a big game," she continued quickly. "Professor Od... Odqura... is trying to see if we are the kind of people who do as we're told, or if we want to stick together with our friends. It's a test... he's not going to make you stay in here after class is over. He hasn't really arrested you, it's just pretend." She stumbled over the foreign name, glancing over at the door to see if he'd heard her. Not that she thought the professor would stoop to making a big deal of it.

"Well..." Irina paused for dramatic effect and then grinned. "I was thinking you and I could have a tea party and not invite the guards."

After her decision was made, sealed and ingrained, Audi stepped away from the bars to where the key was. Well, where it used to be. It seemed that while she was busy hesitating somebody had snatched it. She looked around, eyes trailing over the vaguely illuminated silhouettes of her classmates, but none of them seemed to be holding it. Perhaps they had hidden the key, and if that was the case, she had no issues with it.

With a shrug, Audi turned around and approached the cell again to peer at the helpless cat-person, maybe steal a rough nudge if she could reach him. What she saw made her eyes widen in shock. How--? Quickly she turned her head and made sure that yes, the door was still closed and the lock was still in place. Looking back to the pair she narrowed her eyes in anger. Sure, she understood that it was all pretend, and that the yellow thing would be let out after class. She also understood that he didn't understand that and it caused him suffering. Since he was a fellow student, she couldn't actually do to him what she'd do to a cat in different circumstances... so this was the next best thing.

And now the ghost girl - who wasn't Aisling, how many of them were around? - was offering him a tea party. That would not stand, now, would it?

Audi leaped forward and banged her palms against the bars. They were somewhat rusty, so she'd expected them to make a loud 'clang', but sadly they were still firmly embedded in stone. She drew her breath in with a hiss and shook off her hands, then pressed her muzzle between the iron rods, lips curling back to reveal large teeth.
"Get out!" she snarled, then put her arm in to hopefully grasp some part of the cat person. What would she do next... she wasn't sure.

It certainly didn't feel like a game. He looked to Irina doubtfully at her words, wanting to believe her, but not entirely convinced. If it were, then why would the professor lock him away? Sure, he could assess the other students but... why him? What had he done wrong? It was so awfully unfair - and his disappointed sort of pout remained on his expression.

"Lunie," he mumbled. "Don't call anything else..." It was a request that he all too often tagged on the end of his introductions - a force of habit.

It was her suggestion that, yet again, brought a surprised light to his eyes. "Tea party?" he echoed with wonder. He'd had tea before - he very distinctly remembered his meeting with the sphinx lady a while ago. Oh, it had been wonderful! A delighted smile started to blossom on his face, but before he could even start to shower her with words of gratitude, there was an interruption, in the form of a tall, rodent figure baring its teeth against the bars next to him.

He immediately flinched at the unexpected sight. Was he in trouble?! The guards had seen! Oh, and his new companion would get in trouble too...! He tried to blubber a few pleading words, but they mostly came out as a few unintelligible wails. A hand latched onto his ear, and he remained still, staring wide-eyed in worry at the figure. Oh, hadn't she stared at him for a few moments and rejected him? Her cry of 'get out' did briefly confuse the feluis - he really did want to get out. He only whimpered, waiting for justice to be served for something that he'd apparently done wrong.

About to reply to Lunie's introduction, Irina's thoughts get derailed by a sudden shout from outside the cell. "Leave him alone!" she replies with some annoyance, having trouble believing that someone would take this so seriously. "And why should I? There wasn't a stipulation we couldn't interact with Lunie, just that we didn't release him. I haven't."

With a full change of mood, Irina smiles at Lunie. "Let me take those off." She reached out to stick ghostly fingers through the locks on the shackles. "It's nice to meet you, Lunie, though I'm sorry this class assignment has upset you so much." What might be a frown appears on her face as she studies the locks' mechanism, replaced by a grin. "There!" Unfortunately only one cuff opens, which provokes the return of the frown, but it doesn't take her long to focus harder and get the second cuff off. "Ah. There we go."

Since Audi is presumably still sticking her face through the bars, Irina speaks carefully, for the benefit of both. "If I'm supposed to guard Lunie to pass this class, then I choose to pay more attention, inside the cell. By taking the key, I've also made it easier for others to pass. However, nowhere did Professor Odqura specify that I could not make his stay in this cell comfortable, even fun. So I will do exactly that. Lunie won't leave the cell until Odqura says the class is over..." She tries to smile comfortingly at the feluis, but being almost fully transparent makes that rather hard. "But we'll enjoy ourselves rather than taking this any further than necessary."

"Lunie..." Irina hesitates. "To get tea for you, I'd have to leave for a bit to go get it. Do you want that, or should we think of a different game to play instead, so I don't leave? It's up to you."

Audi scowled at the ghost, but couldn't come up with a rebuttal immediately. Well, sure, it wasn't specified they couldn't interact with the prisoner, but she was taking it too far...
Her grip on the cat's ear was firm, the claw on her thumb digging into the delicate hairless skin on the inside. She considered pulling the ear towards her in a jerk, but for all she knew, it could do some real damage. Face still pressed between the bars, she stuck her other arm through and tried to reach a different part of the other student. Her attempt fell short, though - the iron rods blocked her, and she'd have to let go of his ear if she wanted to reach him.

Audi hissed in frustration, retracting her free arm and clutching the bar instead. The key being out of her range, she had no chance at getting into the cell to stop their stupid party. The other girl's next words made Audi roll her eyes in exasperation, then she locked her asymmetrical glare on the see-through form. "Imprisoned as punishment." she scoffed, offended at the fact that she was forced to explain such a simple concept. "Tea not punishment."
She then turned her head to scrape her teeth against the iron in frustration, causing a nasty metallic noise. If only it was more rusted, she'd chew right through it...

The bar underneath her tightly curled fingers softened ever so slightly. Barely noticeable in the dim light of the dungeon, veins of reddish orange spread on the metal around her hand.

Completely oblivious to what occurred, the ratgirl finally made her decision and squinted with determination. In one quick movement, she let go of the cat person's ear and shot her other arm through the bar to grasp at his shoulder instead. It was a difficult maneuver and her fingers merely ran down the yellow fur instead of getting a hold of his limb. Immediately, she tried again... but stopped half-way through, seeing the three red marks that her previous attempt had left. Audi's eyes widened as she gasped in terror. But--! She'd hardly touched the thing! Nervously, she glanced in the professor's direction. Oh no. She took a small step back to put some distance between her and the proof of her crime.

Lunie was still blubbering about something that even he couldn't understand, although it was likely to be pleas to let him go. The stinging of his ear, while hardly worthy of a real injury, was desperately hurtful to the cowardly feluis. It stung! And the rat's face was beginning to unnerve him, pressed to the bars like that. He would pleadingly look towards Irina in her attempts to persuade the rat-person.

When his bounds were severed, a relieved sort of smile made his way onto his face, flexing his hands and his claws gratefully. His wrists could breathe now. It did help, were it not for the fact there was still an unkind claw latching onto his ear.

He did find himself exchanging confused glances with both the ghost girl and the rat girl. One of them appeared to be 'good', in that she was willing to provide some sort of entertainment for him, just so that the stay here wouldn't be quite as tedious. The other was stubbornly convinced that he'd commited some sort of terrible crime and deserved to be locked away to rot. However, the thing that disappointed him most, was that both of them seemed to believe that he should remain here behind these bars, even though he'd done nothing wrong. That he shouldn't be free at all. It was that which didn't make him quite so eager to accept Irina's kind offer.

He merely kept his head rather ducked as the two seemed to battle out their arguments. As Irina addressed him, he only gave her a dejected sort of glance. "I don't want to be alone... with..." He looked unsurely towards the more defiant of the girls.

The ear was released, but he wasn't even allowed time to react in happiness before she latched out again. He cringed his eyes shut, feeling the brush of fingers against his fur, afterwards feeling an odd sensation where it had touched. When a second attempt didn't arrive, he peeped his eyelids open to see Audi standing back, before looking towards his arm. He gasped at the sight, easily mistaking it for the same. And again, he was immediately baffled, knowing that he hadn't even felt any pain. "Uuuh...?!" Brows creasing upwards in concern, he was unwilling to touch the strange mark, and instead, would only look towards the other two figures for some sort of guidance, or reassurance.

"Good God, back off!" Irina cried, well before the rust incident marked Lunie's fur. "This is an exercise. A class exercise. It's pretend. If it weren't my first class here at Lillegard, I'd let Lunie out for all the trouble he's getting, and take the failing grade. I can't believe you're taking this so seriously. Has it occurred to you that you're actually hurting a kid?"

She would've gone farther, but Audi's maneuver forced a change of plan, one of which Lunie may or may not have approved. At the wrong angle to see the marks left by Audi's fingers, Irina quickly steps through Lunie. He was surrounded for a moment by something that might remind him of mist, a sort of damp, heavy air that's not dense enough to choke, but thick enough to be easily noticeable. Cool to the touch, whatever body the ghost girl had wasn't too different from the air temperature in the dank cell. Irina's glare at the rat didn't give Audi (or Lunie for that matter) much of an idea as to what she sensed during this process, but the ghost's passage pressed the cat person backwards until the ghost stood between him and the bars.

But before she can start her tirade at the rat, she noticed the expression on the girl's face. Hardly thinking it could've been her anger that shocked the rat girl, Irina turned around to see what she was looking at. Lunie didn't look any different to her, and the marks on his arm pass her inspection, she merely assumed that he had brushed against the cell door, which (in her assumption) must be rusty. "What's the matter?" Irina asks the kid, ignoring Audi for the moment.

Mentally blocking out people's speeches was something Audi was really great at - so none of Irina's rant registered. Not only did she talk too much, she was also a ghost - so she couldn't actually do anything apart from complaining.

Except she did.

But then again, it was not what caused Audi to freeze with hesitation. It was the fact that the boy's mewl did not sound terribly pained, and the ghost did not seem concerned after seeing the marks... maybe it wasn't blood...? She raised her hand to her good eye and saw the whole of her palm colored red. Her sight wasn't very good even in better light than this, so she still wasn't sure, but a quick glance to the iron bar confirmed her suspicion. The spot where she had grabbed it earlier was now splattered with a thin coat of rust, shaped similarly to her curled fingers but spread a little beyond that. Weird...

Still, even if she was the cause of that damage, it wouldn't get her in nearly as much trouble as clawing another student, and she exhaled a sigh as her shoulders slumped with relief. She found that the brief scare toned down her anger.

That didn't mean she didn't want to rub the cat person the wrong way anymore, of course. Far from it.

Audi took a deep breath and stepped towards the bars again, malice ruffling her fur. She'd have to, somehow, get the ghost to stop being a relief, however small, to the yellow thing. But how...? For now, she chose not to act, merely standing by the cell and watching the scene inside.

Lunie, looking towards Irina, listened to every word of her little speech. He wanted to greatly appreciate it, he wanted to thank her for standing up for him so loyally, he wanted to feel grateful for her thoughtfulness and her kindness. Only that he didn't. He just felt a bitter sort of feeling, hearing but a voice inside him that begged to not just be regarded as a mere 'kid'. The feluis, in all his wimpiness and his depedence on others, wanted to prove that he really could stand up for himself like a grown up should. And Irina was taking away that opportunity. It was wonderful, robbing away the responsibility that he would've been reluctant to claim otherwise, but wonderfully frustrating. Indecisively, he remained silent.

The oddest sensation, however, was when Irina had stepped through him. Despite her transparency, Lunie had supposed that she might've at least have had some solidity to her. But no, it was all just.. air. He was... breathing this girl. Was he?! Briefly panicking, he held his breath, but was thanfully pushed backwards, where upon he was rewarded with ordinary air again. An experience that he was certainly in no hurry to repeat.

For now, he would turn his attention to his shoulder, in which the marks were situated. Of course, their red shade were all too easily mistaken for a nasty wound, but he managed to swallow his uncertainties and inspect it anyway. Besides, it wasn't nearly painful enough to be a wound, and Lunie's sight in the dark was adept enough to figure that it didn't really look like a scar at all, even with the misleading colour. His opposite hand brushed over the marks, in which most of them would manage to flake off. It was okay.

He looked back up towards Irina again at her question. "Nothing!" he all too quickly chirped in response, though the high-pitched answer was far from cheerful. In fact, his wide, cat-like eyes kept glancing back at the rodent, not entirely trusting her, despite the apparent safety of the bars. His green gaze returned to the ghost. "Nothing. It is fine. I am not hurt," he replied, his voice wavering and uncertain yet.

"But her..." A shivering claw gestured towards her. "I... I think she will try and hurt. Again. I don't like her..." Of course, let's taddle on her to someone more responsible instead of dealing with the problem himself. Such an act of bravery. Lunie's head hung low.