Interview at Aeixxa

[Fallen Joy]

As Liyah was staring at the pack of guarding wolves, scrutinizing their movements and trying to find a way to get around their barricade, those keen ears of her, sharper than most animals, picked up on the sullen cadence of Professor Giroux's voice. The first stream of words wasn't what caused Liyah's attention to temporarily stray from her delinquent plans, but her animalistic tendency to draw her attention to emotional tones. Liyah shifted her head slightly and opened an ear to the professor's story. Her curious eyes lit up, and a nudge was made into Alexei's side to draw his attention to the ranting professor with a subtle point of her thumb. She knew Alexei's ears were not as good as hers but they would be good enough to hear the conversation if he focused upon on it. When the teacher finished her story Liyah turned to her peer.

"Did you hear that? Looks like there's an interesting relationship going on when our professor and the criminal. Exploring will have to wait till after our interview, I'll be pretty bummed if I miss this family reunion. Poor thing is scared out of her wit."

Once they entered inside the building, Liyah passed her time by continuously glancing around for routes to sneak off from. It wouldn't be hard for her to shape shift into something inconspicuous and set off on her own but that did nothing for Alexei's cause. Liyah tapped her chin within the shadows of her hood a few times. She would have to ultimately wait for the interviews to begin and see the wholeness of their situation. This didn't stop Liyah from memorizing their surroundings. Oh no, this girl would not get lost in a criminal facility even if her extraordinary tracking skills could easily bring her back to the classmates.

She would wait it out for now, following the rest of the pack towards this criminal who apparently had ties with her professor. That intrigued her far more than exploring for the time being. Curiosity on the situation may even spark a few unauthorized questions to emerge during her interview. It was a good thing Alexei's presence was there to somewhat tame her impulsive thoughts, for many of her ideas were diluted in light of him possibly suffering the consequences of her actions.

[Alexei]

As Liyah looked about for a way to in act her mischief, Alexei was simply staring about thoughtfully. No wonder the guards looked like prisoners, they themselves, were locked here as well. The nudge would bring his attention to Liyah, who then in turn, brought his attention to Ms. Giroux, and Mr Sassoon's conversation. He did not catch all of it, but he had enough to piece together. Liyah, was probably going to be curious about it, by the sounds of it, this little tidbit would make Liyah's need to explore the prison even greater. "What's your plan?" He would speak lowly, the guards as the walked.

As the entered Alexei would watch the guards, and then Liyah thoughtfully. She was at it again, looking for a route that would allow her to sneak off. He figured, as she tapped her chin, hidden beneath her hood, that she would want to interview the criminal, before her adventure would take place. No doubt she would want to ask questions, most of which, would probably not be the ones on the list. His eyes, and they glanced over hallways, would memorize them, he had become good at this sort of thing, it kept him from getting lost. And he did not need to slow Liyah down, without knowing his way as well.

Alexei, had no idea he was the reason she kept her impulsiveness tamed. Though, he felt differently about that part, he wasn't sure when she was being tame, or incredibly mischievous. He was curious simply, to see what she would do next, kept him on his toes at least.

[Mister]

“I’m very sorry Ms. Giroux.” He truly was and he could imagine her pain and he thought of telling her about his wife but he did not. “I just hope you don’t have high expectations. You won’t make them afraid or make them sorry because they are incapable of fear and sorrow. They attract vengeance but it is a wasted effort. They will not give you what you want and they will only enjoy you trying to get it from them.”

The warden lead them down a long hallway with metal walls and florescent lights hanging from the ceiling until they reached the end where there was a large steel door and the warden swiped his card and the door slid open with a hiss and on the other side was a small room with two doors on the far wall.

The warden ushered them in and they entered and the warden and the guards followed them in and the door shut and it was quiet. Mr. Sassoon looked at the warden and the warden nodded.

“Through the door on the left is the prisoner you will be interviewing and through the door on the right is where Ms. Giroux, The Warden, and I will be watching you. I’ve arranged for your peace of mind two guards to be with you in the room. It is quite possible some of you think you do not need this peace of mind, that what is beyond that door is someone you are not scared of, someone that will not test you. If you believe this then I am ashamed to be your teacher because those that believe they know everything learns nothing.”

Mr. Sassoon walked up to Liyah and Alexei.

“You two are first. Remember what I said earlier; you provoke him unnecessarily and you will be taken from the room and punished as soon as we arrive back at the Academy.”

[animosity!]

"S'quite alright, Mr. Sassoon, somehow. . . I will manage. I just know. . . I can feel that there will be a reunion of sorts today. One most unwanted. " Brigitte finished as they walked into the room. Her heart ached, pounded at the sudden feeling of the atmosphere of Aeixxa collapsing around her. The walls grew closer together. The ceiling dropped, florescent lights threatening to crush and carve shrapnel scars into each occupant. It was darker. Pitch black with swirls of faint illumination and Mortimer's voice echoing through the air and drowning out all others. . .

" . . . as we arrive back at the Academy." Brigitte stumbled against the wall, squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them as Federic finished. The room had returned to normal. She shook her head and composed herself once more. A sigh escaped and she offered a faint smile to the crowd, uncertain if anyone had caught her mild case of panic. The smile was reassuring, a real "go get em!" one with false confidence oozing from it. Mortimer was in there. Behind that wall, she knew it. She could feel it. It was time.



Mortimer sat calm, chains bounding his wrists to the table, his feet to the floor. No matter, he thought. The physical manifestion of shackling was nothing compared to the mental entrapment he was about to lay onto his new friends. . . Yes, friends. Even if by unwilling means they would become such. Every. Single. Last. One. Of. Them. Oh, but Briggsy. Briggsy would be his very best friend. Emotionally crippled, weak, sheltered. She would go down the fastest. He slipped into her mind already, even through the thick gaurded walls that sorrounded. So easily penetrated she was. He tapped unkept claws of fingernails against the steel table, and looked at the imagined watch on his wrist. Any minute now. . .


Feel free, everyone to consider Mortimer a npc character of sorts and include him into your posts to make it all the more exciting! : D

[Acies ab Vesania]

Chaflin waited outside with the others, suffering a strange feeling in his gut, a feeling he never experienced before. The sensation was not pain, nor was it discomfort in the truest sense. It was something new entirely, different and unpleasant, similar in ways to feelings of dread. The only way he thought to describe it was to think of butterflies trapped within the stomach suddenly becoming diseased, sick, and still determined to flutter away. The unease took hold of him in ways more powerful than most other emotions ever gripped him, perhaps more so than any other besides the day that he lost his closest friend. From that repulsive pit within his belly, ice spread to his veins and made him further at unease. The sinking pit spread from within, but the source felt without, an inexplicable knowing presenting itself to him, without cause or proof.

Swallowing the bile collecting at the back of his throat, Chaflin nervously shoves his hands into his pockets, trying to suffer his pangs of unease in silence. He hoped that time and the chance to adjust would remedy the sickness toiling just above his bowels, but time only inflamed his disquietude. The closer the group came to the cells, the more his dying butterflies fought to be free of their imprisonment, desperate to taste the air one last time before the cloak of death whisked them from this life to the next. Though he was unsure when it came to him and even less sure of how he came to know it, Chaflin realized that he was in grave danger. More than the peril associated with making dungeon crawls, he was acutely aware that something was wrong. Beyond the door that they now stood round, a portal leading into an empty abyss woven with the threads of pain and death, something worse than anything he could previously have imagined resided, waiting.

Prisoners cried out curses and pleas, using foul language and barbaric taunts, but their shouts soon faded, becoming nothing more than a faint humming trying to break through a persistent buzzing. The air felt colder in this part of the prison, the chill seeped through his cloth and flesh, sinking to his bones. Chaflin could see his breath, though his was the only one he could see amongst all others. Breathing in measured respirations, he drew the bitterly cold air into his lungs slowly. With each breath, the air took on a strange taste, growing strong with each passage. The smell of sulfur hung in the atmosphere, the taste of ash seasoned the stinging cold air. The rich odors of shit, piss, sweat, and blood faded to the background, becoming nothing more than aftertastes in a grander recipe. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Chaflin slowly became convinced that he and his classmates had walked straight into the bowels of hell. He could not know how, but the knowledge simply weighed on him in the same way that someone observes the sky to hold a blue hue, the awareness simply came to him, whoever it was that sat behind that door, was a force of pure, irredeemable evil.

Chaflin often felt anxiety in social situations, feeling awkward and out of place amongst others who lived in these areas all their lives. Chaflin occasionally felt fear from uncertain situations and minor dangers presented to him. Each of these fears was overcome, obstacles that he knew he would have to face or flee as a craven. Yet, these things were nothing but specks in a violent wind devouring everything in its path, trivialities hardly more than an inconvenience when compared to this. The feeling he had now was of pure terror, something that took root at the balls of his feet and spread to the top of his spine, nearly locking him in place. Chaflin faced daily challenges enthusiastically and with perseverance, using determination to succeed. This was an entirely different situation, a powerful force that he had no idea how to face.

The buzzing in his ears subsides, only to give way to a hideous roar that reverberated off his eardrums. The room begins to move, weaving in patterns suggestive of a liquid nature. Only the door remains intact, the dreaded door hiding forbidden secrets and a monster without a true name or face. Within the contours of the wood, a hideously featured face forms and peels from the frame, shaping a giant skull painted in human blood. Cracks run splinter the base of the head, each leaking more of the crimson effluence. The eye sockets glow in a strange, dark way, only a faint light breaking through from deep within the skull. The maw opens wide, spewing forth-billowing clouds of bloat flies and with them, the smell of old death. From the strangely lit sockets, maggots writhe and crawl, falling from their hole down to the floor, squirming as the land. The skull rushes out from the door, flying at and through Chaflin. He stands in place, trembling, nearly taken by shock as the putrid stench of evil continues to wash over him. There was evil at every corner of this prison, but theirs was nothing compared to this. This thing passed all of them and this thing intended to devour every soul foolish enough to face it.

Somehow, he knew.

[Fallen Joy]

Liyah tapped her chin curiously upon witnessing the warden use an identification card to enter the locked room, noting its placement within his pocket. She hummed quietly to herself, also noting that not all the guards had traveled into the secured room, possibly taking a position outside to guard. Several ideas swarmed through her head, from pick pocketing the warden to faking a panic attack. Ultimately they were all only useful in isolated situations, Liyah had to churn her mind in light of getting her and Alexei out of the room without suspicion. Sneaking out and in from a single cell room with limited students and security locked doors wasn't an option. She would have to be witty. And witty was one thing Liyah was.

A plan blossomed within her mind.

Alexei threw her from her developing thoughts with his question and Liyah produced a hidden smile. She had opened her mouth to respond before their professor's approaching footsteps froze the words upon her tongue. She listened to him with an obedient demeanor, lifting two fingers and offering him a gentlemen's salute.

"Don't worry, professor, I am too big of a scaredy cat to provoke some deranged criminal. Good thing my boyfriend is here to protect me, eh?"

A gloved hand overtly caressed down Alexei's arm and intertwined her fingers between his own. Her petite form leaned femininely against his daunting warrior structure, using her other hand to guide his head down and peck his cheek.

"He'll be looking out for me, won't you Ally?"

And with her hand still within his, she pulled him towards the unmarked room where the iniquitous man waited eagerly for them to enter.

Then suddenly her demeanor changed.

It was as they gradually opened the steel doors and the new air brushed across their faces that Liyah's confident feelings and carefree spirit brusquely plummeted to pit of her stomach. An invisible cold zephyr whispered across the vacuum of space and molested her body like the hands of some murderous apparition. Her breath caught in her throat, she froze in the middle of descending step, and instinctively her grip on Alexei's hand tightened a diminutive amount. Fear, hesitance, disarray, it all brutalized her body at once and Lyiah was temporarily paralyzed. The reaction happened in such a brisk amount of time that only the squeeze of her hand would be any indication of its occurrence.

Liyah's senses extended through many different levels; most notably, the animalistic spirits within her could easily feel the natural essence of those she encountered. The same 'sense' or 'feeling' that drove animals crazy before a catastrophe, made the friendly dog acts like a rabid beast, and the rabid beast a toy poodle. It cascaded down her frame like poison then whirled back into her mind with piercing shrieks.

Who ever it was, what ever it was, that existed behind that door..was pure evil.

Evil shaped in the form of a single man chained to a bolted table.

Her eyes rested on Montimer as she and Alexei entered the room, frozen upon the man with pure scrutiny, excitement, curiosity, and weariness. The wave of fear had long passed, only its abrupt sensation having imposed such a great effect. What was once fear was now filled to the brim with interest. What had turned this man? How did he thin?And most curiosity, what was his relationship to her dear professor? Liyah sat down on the other end of the table and the rattle of chains suddenly shimmered through her ears--the man was staring at the cups of his hands, trembling hands. A sense of discomfort washed over her, Montimer's hands were not quivering with fear, but with longing, and her keen ears were able to pick up the subtle increase of his breathing. Hot. Desirous. Liyah wondered just how long it had been since this man had been so close to someone from the outside. So close to a female.

The silence as deafening, it was one of those rare moments that Liyah had no idea what to say. What does one say to a criminal on death role? Yo?

The sudden sound of the door closing, an ostensibly booming noise in the quiet, made Liyah abdominals abruptly tense and her body startle slightly.

This seemed to catch the man's attention. He glanced up, misty eyes reflecting their forms upon glossy irises.

"Good morning...or is it afternoon? Forgive me, you don't see much day when you're locked in isolation. I do not know the time."

His voice was pleasant, almost as pleasant as the pacifying smile that soon spread across his face. It was too welcoming, even for Liyah.

[Alexei]

Alexei would turn from Liyah to look at MR. Sassoon, his expression thoughtful, but understanding. He would nod to affirm he understood, though what he sensed beyond the door prickled at his instincts, the one sense of his, that could rival that of an animal. What lay beyond the door was dangerous, but it was the same with the other prisoners, their taunts and jeers being ignored by the quiet boy. Liyah's comment on him being her boyfriend awarded here with a sidelong, and nearly confused look, though it disappeared just a quickly as it appeared, it was probably either part of her plan, or a ploy to mess with him more. He would do what he did best, take it in stride. Her fingers entwined themselves with his after trailing along his arm, he made an uncomfortable shuffle, but did not stop her. But when she pecked him on the cheek, he had to look away once he righted himself, he very nearly blushed.

But what kept him from doing so was the tight not of foreboding in the center of his stomach, he began to wonder if it was just the fact they were surrounded by murderers, or of what lay beyond that door. He would nod to er question, "Yeah." His voice was quiet, more so than usual, as she pulled him along closer to the door. The not in his stomach grew colder and colder. Tighter and tighter. The air that brushed their faces felt fetid and diseased, dank, and dark. He felt sick, but withstood it when Liyah's hand tightened around his own. He would give her a reassuring squeeze before they entered the room. What met his eyes were almost a surprise, but seemed to become fitting as he watched the emaciated man look up at them, and greet them. He may not have had the senses Liyah had, but his breathing and quivering hands gave him some knowledge, even he wasn't completely oblivious when it came to reading people's actions.

Alexei would make his way to the table, but did not sit down. Instead he remained standing, watching the man warily. Something in his body, every one of cells screamed to kill the man. His presence was as hungry as it was empty, but madness tainted the edges of his being. His instincts told him this man was dangerous, and if given he chance, he would leave them all something worse than dead. But he did not, control was of no issue to him, but the sickening feeling put him a little on edge. He would not return the greeting the man offered. Instead, he would watch him silently, warily, and dangerously. His self-control kept his desire to kill Mortimer well hidden, though Liyah might have been able to sense it. Especially sense he decided to stand next to her. Dark hues looked into glossy ones, his face held a distant expression, more so than normal. But he began to find Liyah's silence disturbing. She was rarely at a loss for words, and it looked like he would need to get things rolling. He wanted out of this room, not out of fear, but out of an innate desire to kill, to kill a being who's very presence was threatening.

"Hello." Would be his response after a long silence, he would offer no more in greeting than that.

[Mister]

(You may skip me.)