Only Echoes Answer Us PV Dinara Lucey Finished

Interactions | @Remy Alto

His actions hardly ever matched up with his words. One would think that someone in pain would be doubling over groaning, yet it was truly surprising for Dinara to see that Remy's signature bright smile hadn't budged despite his little exclamation of pain.

It could be the stark contrast from the sheer gloom of the Abandoned Toilets, but the boy's smile somehow grew even larger. Or perhaps it was her imagination? She couldn't see what the boy had to be grinning about, anyway. Afterall, he couldn't have known what she was thinking!

Dinara's little inner monologue justified to herself that the foreign feelings that she felt were still very much hers, in the sense that Remy likely had no idea of it. Besides, she reasoned, if the magnificent Dinara Lucey didn't know how to handle something, no one else would be able to, either. Except for Professors and her mom, that is.

The already dim bathroom was barely illuminated by the few rays of sunlight streaming in through what remains of the few windows. If they had waited any longer, the lighting would be less than ideal to catch rats. Not that there was even an optimal lighting for catching rats, but that would be digressing from the duos adventures.

The art of rat catching was one that required immense skill and precision, as well as loads upon loads of dumb luck. The girl didn't have to know that, of course, as she stumbled out of the bathroom stall after Remy.

She also wouldn't know about Remy's internal thought process, though if she did she'd more than proudly agree that she was by all means a lioness. However, this could not be further from the truth. Dinara may have all the ferocity of a lioness through her speech and false bravado, but in reality her bark is much worse than her bite. There's not much strength in her to do much damage to anyone (apart from the poor spider). In fact, the male, who very much resembled a lithe snow leopard, would likely be able to overpower Dinara with decent ease.

Looking over to the male, she cocked her head. She may have spoke with much gusto when declaring her plans for rat domination, but her knowledge on how to achieve that was... little, to say the least. Dinara assumed that it must be somewhat similar to catching fish, an activity that the Luceys often did together. Which would then mean...

"For starters, we need some bait, amirite?" In an effort to mask her utter lack of knowledge, Dinara's dialect dropped to form a slur of words. It was something that she had done many times when she spoke too quickly; likely a consequence of her spouting things that didn't really pass through the (already minimal) brain filter. A bad habit, if you will, that carried on from her lack of concentration in learning diction in the past that often comes back to haunt her in presentations.

"Do you happen to have anything on you?" her brows knitted in concentration as she felt around her pockets for a possible bait. Feeling something, she pulls it out with a triumphant shout of delight.

"TA-DAaa..."

Her shout quickly trailed off into silence when she realised that she had pulled out life-sized, gummy rat aptly labelled 'Jelly Belly Pet Rat Gummi Candy' -- one of her favourite treats from the muggle world, though it couldn't have appeared at a more inopportune time. Dinara stared, rather dumbfounded at just how bad her timing seemed to be.

Reducio

For reference, I present: the JELLY BELLY PET RAT GUMMI CANDY!

Interactions | @Remy Alto

It wasn't that Dinara happened to carry about lil knick and knacks for no reason at all. It just so happened that she had received a parcel from home containing said Pet Ret Gummi Candy, which happened to be with her at a rather comedic timing. The kind-hearted Huffle, while not particularly inclined towards rodents, had enough of a conscience to not wish cannibalism upon them, even if it was towards a sugared form that they wouldn't recognise, anyway.

"Well, I don't see what other choices we've got," she stared back as solemnly as she could, despite the laughter that threatened to bubble up from within her in response to Remy's. She was absolutely serious about rehoming these rats, and Dinara would make sure that the playful Mr. Alto got the message.

Sighing heavily, she deftly caught Remy's throw and stuffed the gummy rat back into her pockets. There was no way she could bear to watch the sewer rats devour one of their own! Frowning, she paced around frantically, no doubt scaring the poor sewer rats into retreating further into the little pipes they called home. Since there was no bait, what would be the next best thing to do? She was mildly horrified that Remy would even mention bugs, truth be told Dinara was still mildly traumatized at the cold-blooded murder that she had committed earlier. At this, she pulled a face towards his statement, silently muttering a quiet 'rest in peace' for the poor spider.

Racking her little brain for a better solution, Dinara eventually figured that the next best solution would be to scare the poor little buggers out of their homes. How else would they manage to get the rats out? Heaving another deep sigh, she raised her head to meet his eyes. It wasn't exactly the best plan, but what else could she do in a situation like this?

"We don't have any bait, unless you'd like to offer to stick ya head in or summat," her words flew out of her mouth like a rapidly firing gun, her thoughts churning too quickly for her mouth to keep up. "This may not be fantazstic, but we could knock the pipes to kind of..." pursing her lips, Dinara struggled to find way to phrase her idea in a better way than simply 'chasing the rats out'. "...Invite the rats out."

Shrugging her shoulders, she eyed the rundown walls. She was sure the pipes ran through them somehow, though she couldn't claim to know the specifics. Her old nose wrinkling habit was once again back, signalling that she was very much deep in thought. It may seem silly to others, but Dinara took this self-proclaimed mission very seriously indeed! She had no idea why, but it just seemed important to her that she help Remy with his seeming passion for performing for sewer rats.

Interactions | @Remy Alto

It hadn't even crossed the girl's mind that there would be a possibility of consequence if someone caught her screaming at pipes. Afterall, she wasn't breaking any school rules. The odd behaviour or two from a student couldn't be reason enough to give them detention, would it?

A little swell of pride welled up in her as she caught Remy's affirmation that her logic was right, even if she had to catch it from his barely legible mutters. He seemed to have caught on to the plan perfectly -- the grabbing motion was just what Dinara had pictured! She nodded enthusiastically and started mimicking his action, grabbing at empty air as fast as she could to showcase her prowess.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right! This is the best plan EVER!" the warm hazel eyes seemed to sparkle as Dinara inwardly patted herself on her back for coming up with such an ingenious idea. Really, someone ought to hire her as the Hogwarts advisor; she didn't doubt that she'd lead to school to absolute new heights!

Quirking an eyebrow at the boy, she let out a small 'hmph'. With a snotty expression on her face, she crossed her arms. How dare he question her reflexes! She ever did catch a dragonfly with her bare hands back home! Never mind the fact that it was likely an aged dragonfly just trying to have a peaceful flight around the garden, it didn't discount Dinara's achievement of having caught it at all.

Remy's unexpected scream did spook Dinara into landing on her rear; not exactly the most dignified of reactions that one would've seen. Boy, the volume was certainly unexpected from Remy's lean frame! Quickly springing back up and stationing herself right by the nearest pipe to Remy's screams, she squinted as she waited for a blur of motion.

Tensing up, Dinara screamed as well -- though it was for an all too different reason. Something did bolt out, and her hands flew out in an equally fast blur of motion. A vague flash of sensation brushed her palms and for a second, Dinara grinned triumphantly.

This was the second before all chaos ensued.

It seemed as though the two idiots' attempted kidnapping of Mr. Sewer Rat had led to an utter revolution of the SRK (short for sewer rat kingdom). To give some credit to the rats, they weren't attacking the kiddos, they were likely just running from having two giants invade their home space.

None of these thoughts even crossed Dinara's mind. She was running on pure adrenaline. For the two rat catchers, this was more or less the equivalent of striking the jackpot. Immediately lunging at the nearest rat (who happened to be quite the massive chonk), Dinara yelled out, desperately hoping Remy would catch her message.

"QUICK! THIS IS OUR CHANCE! GRAB ALL YOU CAN!"

She shrieked as she made a wild grab at one of the unfortunate rats who happened to scuttle within her line of sight. Dinara could only hope that their rat catching adventures were going better on Remy's end.

Interactions | @Remy Alto

The whole scene seemed almost like something that was right out of a movie. At first, Dinara could hardly believe her eyes. In the midst of all that chaos, Remy had actually managed to snag a rat! Quite literally in the palm of his hand as well! There was no denying that Dinara was impressed -- it was, by all means, an impressive feat to have managed to catch one of these squiggly rodents.

Apart from Dinara's surprise at Remy's seemingly superhuman reflexes, she found it somehow endearing that the usually cold boy seemed to regard the little filthy, germ-infested sewer rat as if it were a treasure. The pure joy that radiated off him was utterly contagious, and Dinara couldn't help but smile as she watched the boy handle the rat. To any outsider, it would've been an absolutely darling moment if not for the fact that the sewer dirt had already gotten all over both Remy and Dinara, as well as the fact that the poor rat was obviously terrified and ready to bolt whenever possible.

Of all the names he could've chosen, Sharon seemed like a rather... Ordinary, if not a rather odd name for a pet rat, of all things! Still, the girl decided to simply let the overjoyed boy have his moment. It wasn't in her place to judge how other people wanted to name their pets, though one could possibly argue that Dinara's taste in pet names wasn't that much better; with Pinkydoodle as the name that she was absolutely fixated with should her parents eventually relent and allow her to get a Pygmy Puff.

It seemed as though the rat stampede had cleared, save for poor 'Sharon' who had very aptly nipped Remy and quickly disappeared off into the shadows. Dinara felt her heart skip a beat as she watched the crestfallen expression on the male's face, though she reasoned that the bulk of her worry came from the rat bite on his finger. Rat bites weren't contagious, were they?

Of course, anyone that even had half a brain (which surprisingly included Dinara) would know that rat bites were indeed not contagious, not even in the slightest. However, it was the only justification she could think of for the feelings of worry that welled up inside her! That, and that there was an injured person in front of her, even if the person was her self-proclaimed rival Remy Alto.

Rushing forward, she dropped to her knees and grabbed the wounded finger, staring at it intently. It didn't seem too serious or anything, but hey, what did Dinara know? She was no St. Mungo Healer. Staring wide-eyed into the boy's eyes, her bottom lip trembled in fear. What if he turned into some Ratboy?! That would be horrifying.

"Are you okay? Like, are you okay? Don't die on me I'm not really sure what to do?" Her eyes were wide with panic and her tiny hands clasped Remy's injured finger. Not exactly the most useful person to have around in cases needing first-aid, that's for sure.

"Okay, look, if you don't die I'll go the Magical Menagerie with you to look at as many rats as you want!" Dinara nodded furiously, her hair bouncing around wildly. ]"Just don't die on me, yagottat*?"

While this was indeed a promise borne of Dinara's sheer panic and fear of having a dead Remy on her hand, the Lucey's were known to uphold the concept of promises with utmost solemnity. As long as she's said it, one can be sure that the little girl would go through leaps and bounds to fulfill that promise.

*yagottat = ya got that

Interactions | @Remy Alto

If anyone else was capable of gaining access to Remy's private thoughts, they'd more than likely chortle at his dramatic narration of his lost love with 'Sharon' -- Something that could possibly rival even the cheesiest of chick-flicks. Had it been Dinara, she'd have been incredibly touched by the whole situation, drawing parallels between Remy's lost love to some sappy Muggle movie known as 'The Journal' or 'The Notepad' ... Something along those lines, at least! The girl had been all too impatient to actually watch the movie, she'd simply remembered her brother and some girl she didn't particularly like sniffling together while staring at the TV screen.

Remy's embarrassment had been completely missed by Dinara (no surprise there), who continued to stare at him, stricken with worry. Mostly for the sheer fact that she wouldn't want to be stuck with a dead body and incriminated at the scene of crime, and surely not any other reason. That's what Dinara had already brainwashed herself to believe, anyway; if you don't have a personal motive for doing something else that benefited others, others would view you as weak. A flawed philosophy, to be sure, but it was nonetheless a philosophy that Dinara had somehow picked up from her interactions with the more nihilistic students in Hogwarts.

Of course, despite her stubbornness and what not, Dinara ultimately reacted instinctively as opposed to actually using her brain. True to her house, she could never really leave someone in need of help to rot and perish alone.

Which was also why when Remy cupped his hands of his face, the girl quite nearly slapped his hands off his face. "Why would you TOUCH YOUR FACE WITH THE INFECTED RAT BITE?!" the words were more of a barely legible screech than anything else, really, as Dinara recoiled in shock and fear. Rat fever?! Honestly the girl had never even heard of such an obscure illness, she grew up in a relatively safe environment that wasn't plagued by rats and the like. Was this really the start of having her friend turn into the rat-version of Spiderman?

Fortunately for Remy's face, he had already started his less-than-realistic theatrics by the time Dinara even had time to react. Had he been a second slower, a small red handprint would likely have stated on his face for the next few days to come, but the boy's little performance had very much saved him from Dinara's worry-induced wrath. Instead, as he fell, she grabbed whatever fistful of robes she could reach and started to tug at Remy in a pathetic attempt to drag him to the Hospital Wing. Nevermind the fact that he absolutely towered over her, and that the Hospital Wing was one floor up from where they were -- the stubborn lass was determined to try.

The coughs were what actually led Dinara to spring into action. "No time for last wishes! You're not dying on my watch. I'm not gonna be arrested!" She rolled over on the floor beside him, not caring too much about the grime that stuck to her clothes. Dinara had realised that she wouldn't be able to budge someone that was built so much bigger than her, and had very intelligently decided to change tactics. With her back facing the dying boy, she started to kick against the floor, trying to use her body weight to shift Remy. "MOVE!" One could be sure that if he had been truly injured, he'd probably have died by now due to just how roughly Dinara handled him.

If Dinara wasn't met with any resistance from the boy, she'd likely be able to budge him a total of 3 inches. If the boy had decided to push back, Dinara would likely be the one that was being scooted across the room instead.