[center][u]Althalus & Mar: Rtron & Fallenreaper[/u][/center]

Althalus spent the long moments waiting for Mar to appear at the end of the crowd watching the antics of those students who had decided to get as drunk as possible as a way to recover from Satori's demonstration. One small Snow Elf was particular entertaining, giggling and stumbling her way after a Golem and Auriel. Althalus smiled, apparently the little elf wasn't prepared for so much drink. If he had any luck at all he would be just as bad. Preferably worse by the end of the night. By the time Mar slithered out of the Dining hall, the hallway outside was mostly empty. Seeing as there wasn't a bustling crowd to blame anything on, Althalus decided to have a little fun. With the smell of human everywhere, this should be easy.

Activating his silence rune, he walked over to behind Mar, careful to keep out of her field of vision. When he was within armsreach, he tapped her on the shoulder, leaping out of what he assumed was tail range almost immediately afterwards. Deactivating his rune as he did so. "Looking for me?"

Mar continued to whip her head about, no sign of Althalus to her frustration and disappointment. Her mind was stilled laced in the unnatural calm made by the pollen spores as they still settled on her skin, whitening it only slightly more. It made her itch a bit to only a mild annoyance, enough to keep her from wanting to flick out her tongue and risk it affecting her other senses. She had just been considering leaving when her body stiffened upon being touched at the shoulder. It was a surprise to find someone or thing had found their way into her personal spot without her notice. 

Her calm mood slowly vanished and her body reacted instinctively, even slowed by the pollen's effects, as she whipped out low. Ear hadn't registered it was Althalus when he spoke until after she felt her tail smack into the leg and send the man falling on his ass, his hands up defensively. This time his voice reached her attention when her hiss died down. 

Althalus was sure he was out of tail range. And he paid for that assurance by hitting the ground ass first. To his credit, he did manage to ge this hands up to ward off another blow, speaking after the first initial curse of surprise. "Ow! Okay, no more sneaking up on you, I get it!" He grinned up at her. He deserved, he knew he did. Picking himself up, slowly, he held up his hands in a sign of defeat. "Alright, my fun and games are over. I've got the rune, and you've got the room. If you don't know where the room is, well...wandering might do us some good. If you do, then lead on!" He waited for her, tossing the flask of Lunar between his hands in minor impatience.

Mar wanted to send Athalus into the wall but restrained herself from hitting him again. Though he had the rune, she didn't need any bloodshed which could provoke the teachers, already on edge from the feast, coming down on her. It won't be pretty. She forced herself to relax and place her attention on the pollen's faint effect once more to aid her. Her tail retracted back behind her while Athalus's words reached her. Her voice stated coldly her views on his trickery. 

"Be sure that you do. Next time I will send you into the wall for such a foolish action." She warned then noted his impatience. "Stop that, it's distraction and rather unsettling. Seems you and Aramir suffered from the same anxiety that affected some of the other students." 

Without a farther word, she started to slither towards the Gate entrance and turn towards the dorms. However when she arrived, Mar took the part to the side of the building and leaned over to a marked stone just in front of some bushes. She pushed aside the leaves to reach and withdrew her weapon as well as a small trinket Althalus would instant recogonize, his coin. The Naga had intended to return to him after the feast, a fact he never asked for it back and she had forgotten it was still within her hand. 

Althalus shrugged apologetically. "Obviously, I need to change my sense of humour when I'm with you." Yeah. That was going to happen as soon as he grew wings out of his head and flew over the moon. Reflexes, those he could change quite easily. He gave a short laugh at her final words. "Anxiety is a nice way to describe it. Personally, I'm going to try to drink this so called 'never emptying flask' to the last drop, and hope that I'll get drunk enough that I'll completely forget the entire demonstration where the bitch decided to go riffling through my memories. Perhaps the night if it's potent enough."

He followed her through the school until she stopped in front of a marked stone. When she pulled out his coin, he immediately spoke. "May I have that back, please? I found myself missing it earlier tonight, before Satori decided to send me into a nightmare." Not to mention that coin has been with him ever since he ran. One side even had dried blood on it. Some memories are terrible, but they're not meant to be forgotten.

Mar carelessly tossed the coin at Althalus, her eyes not bothered to examine it through her tongue had caught the aged smell of blood upon it. She chalked it up to his biped oddness. Unlike her scythe which was a tool and weapon for her, the coin was useless and held no attachment for her. So the point in keeping it wasn't high in her head.

"This way..." she stated and moved again, her body started around towards the buildings back. Her path drew closer to the forgas nearby and wasted little time. Her body had already started to feel slightly cold from the lack of heat and sun, her earlier warm dampened when she lithered outside. Finally they reached her room which turned out to be an underground cave of sorts, the entrance a simple yet wide hole that allowed her to crawl in. She decided to allow Althalus to go first as she didn't like the notion of someone coming in behind her. 

"After you." She said, her scythe pointed to the hole. 

Althalus, far too used to people treating the things he valued as expendable or trash, caught the coin quickly without a word. It was returned to it's normal place next to the list of names. Following Mar, his good humor still intact. It didn't take long for them to reach her 'room'. Which was apparently just a cave in the ground next to the forge. Althalus shrugged as she let him go first, crawling down it fairly quickly. As he grew closer to the actual room, he became more and more aware of a faint light. Finally standing up inside, it was revealed that the light was glowing mushrooms. "Interesting..." Althalus muttered as he stepped to the side to allow Mar through, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. 

It was a rather bare cave, all things considered. "It's sad that this is one of the more comfortable places I've slept in, isn't it?" 

For the first time in several months, Mar felt the closest thing to home since she arrived. Her eyes easily adjusted to the dim lighting within the room as it cased her body in a blue light once she cleared herself of the entrance. Her body easily could've risen to it's max height of nine foot if she chose to yet she remained within a relaxed stance, her head turned towards the man. "It has always suited my needs so why change it. Choose an area that's yours and from my understanding with the staff, it will slightly alter it. Hopefully it doesn't interfere badly with the currently settings." 

Althalus glanced at the wall next to him curiously. If what she said was true, he should have a place to-Before Althalus could even finish the thought, a small indentation where he could hang his mask appeared next to him. Althalus wasted no time in placing it there, where it would remain for hopefully a long while yet. "There. That's all the changes I need to have. The mask was getting too much recognition for my taste." Placing his back against the wall, he sat down and opened the flask of Lunar. "Now, I am going to get well acquainted with this flask, and hope it sends the last few hours of this night into a black abyss that I'll never remember. Before I do, however, this belongs to you."

He pulled the rune from his pocket and tossed it to her, unable to keep the smug look from his face. "And you doubted I could do it..."

"You are a male who's yet to show me otherwise." Mar stated in her usual tone, her eyes caught the rune tossed at her. 

Instantly her tail flicked up and wrapped about, catching it easily without so much as turning to face him. She held out her hand which it finally dropped it within and despite it on the floor beside her. The Naga worried little about dampness or water underground, mainly since it was dry and desert like materials which went into the creation. For a moment she rubbed her hand over the wall's rough exterior, her mind was lost a bit during the slight homesickness the sandy walls had brought on. She lingered there for a moment before she returned to the fact she wasn't alone. 

"Where are you sleeping so I know where to avoid." 

Althalus shrugged. "Fair enough." He didn't bother trying to challenge her rather skewed logic. The flask was still there, temptingly opened. Before he could try and put his theory to the test, however, he needed to answer Mar's question. Where would he be sleeping? Glancing around the cave, Althalus decided that the current patch of floor he was sitting on wouldn't be any different to any other patch of floor. "I'll just sleep right where I am. There doesn't seem to be much of a point of choosing a new one, does there?" He took a swig of the Lunar, feeling the ice cold liquid go down his throat. It was pretty much the polar opposite of Dragon Spite or Ember. 

"Care to join me?" He offered, indicating the drink.

Mar looked at Althalus as if he asked her to jump off a cliff. Her lips turned up into a frown, her eyes narrowed and her hand rised to decline his offer. "No, I've seen enough bipeds make a fool of themselves today and I don't' intend to join you." 

Her tail had started to curl up underneath her, shoulders rotated a bit while her body nested down to get comfortable. "Try to keep the volume down or my tail might find and silence you." 

"Suit yourself. If I do happen to get too drunk, feel free to use your tail. Not that you would seek my permission or feel bad about it, I suspect, but nonetheless you have it. Try not to break anything though, I rather like waking up without half of my skull caved inwards." He took another drink of the Lunar, fully prepared to begin his journey to oblivion in earnest, when a thought hit him. "So, you didn't get a horrific vision from our friendly Psychomancy teacher bitch? You don't seem angry or upset enough to have gotten one. Odd. Lucky too, but primarily odd." Why would Satori have spared Mar? The entire Hall was thrown into chaos and nightmares, yet she remained unaffected. 

Mar's eyes had been just about to drift off when Althalus's voice caused them to snap back open. Her head lifted towards his direction as she listened to his words, commented on the oddness of it. She too had found it strange about the fact everyone was sent into shambles yet her and a selective few remained untouched. The Naga had a unease feeling about it but chose to cast it away. 

"One of the Students I was talking with broke down. It was strange to see such emotion wildly tossed about and displayed over such an event. Something I'm not use to and likely I hope never will." Her voice sounded hard against the idea, the notion seemed so alien and unsettling that her fingers had tighten against her hard scales during her thought. 

Althalus noted her discomfort with the idea of blatantly displaying emotions. "For your sake, I hope you do get used to it. The rest of us haven't been raised from birth to keep rigid control of our emotions at all times. Most of us are a fairly open book. And, to be fair, even the most controlled of us would have lost it under those circumstances. I certainly did. Your friend may have thought that they were over the memories, or perhaps they had been avoiding remembering. Regardless, no on expects to have the worst moment of their lives suddenly replayed in front of them, and twisted into a far worse thing than they could have imagined. A word of advice? Don't mention this night to your friend ever again. Pretend it didn't happen. People don't like to be reminded of their pain, not when they're trying so hard to forget." Almost unconsciously, he reached into his pocket and touched his coin. "Some people, that is." He added softly. 

"Pain I understand but it's unNaga like to display it, namely when you lack control over it. I hope I never stay long enough to understand such matters or worse, display them in such extremes." Mar said with blunt disgust, her jaw rested upon her tail. She pulled up her arm to use as a softer place to rest her head, her other upon the scythe's handle. The fingers gently felt the smooth handle and it's design, one she had chosen herself as a young Naga for her first weapon. It was the last reminder of her homeland. 

"Bipeds are so...odd." She added, more to herself then him. 

Althlus smirked. "You happen to be the only Naga, well, [i]desert[/i] Naga, in the school. It would be decidedly odd if we all upheld ourselves to your standards. If you don't learn to understand, then you're going to be in for a long, uncomfortable stay here. Emotions are displayed frequently, in varying degrees. And you can't keep yourself distanced from us forever. Especially not now that I'm your roommate. Cavemate." He tooka nother drink of the Lunar, before laughing gently at her final words. "I believe the feeling is mutual, my dear. Most 'bipeds' don't know anything about the Naga. And you don't understand much about us." He gave her a toast with the flask.

"This will be a learning experience for us all then, won't it?"

Mar just mentally shook her head at Althalus reasoning, the actual act would've too energy wasting for her and pointless with him. Creatures of all shapes and size had different way to react, show emotion or none at all, but it didn't make it easier to understand. Her body merely sighed quietly while she answered him. "It might be for the best to keep things as such. If Naga and bipeds were meant to get along then it would've happened a long time ago. I can only hope my time here is brief." 

Her body twisted around, her back turned to him clearly telling him she had no more words for him. It took a few minutes as her mind drifted off into slumber. Barely a sound erupted from her, eyes closed and skin dowsed within the heat created by the forge's furnace. 

"I very much doubt that." Althalus said, quietly. She, apparently, didn't know just how long it took to understand magic. Years, certainly. Then again, what were mere years to someone who was going to live, and likely has lived, centuries? As the Naga drifted off into sleep, her breathing turning more regular and deeper, Althalus continued in his quest to out empty the flask that claimed to be a never emptying flask. When oblivion finally claimed him, the flask wasn't even half empty. 

Still, he slept very well.