Closed Cat Terror! PV Piérre Marchonné

@Kim Sato (Aoki)

House Colours: Slytherin

The sun through the branches, the gentle breeze in the air that caused his green-seamed robes to flutter ever so slightly... it was almost a picturesque scene, especially with the boy who clung so tightly to one of the only things that he could sense with his periphery as he looked to the skies. Piérre looked down. They weren't that high off the ground. He could probably just jump... they could jump. The point of fears were that they were something to grow from; to overcome and become victorious over. Piérre had lost his fear of heights a long time ago, after he got stuck while climbing trees one too many times. Perhaps, then, it was because of this knowledge that he suspected nothing as he continued to scritch Puffie, booping its nose lightly with a gentle finger and then scratching both under its chin and the top of the delicate creature's head. Piérre remembered how he once wanted to have one of these little critters as a pet... but how he had not really had the money or the ability to care for the creature enough to ensure that he could make one happy. Figaro, the tough old kitten, fit his active lifestyle much better at the end all be all.

There was a flicker of movement, and Piérre's hands reactively reached towards it; it was the younger boy, though, leaping towards the Britalian and quickly cinching his arms around Piérre's waist before suddenly...

They were both in freefall as branches switched Piérre's back with tough extensions of fresh springtime growth. Piérre felt the back of his neck cradled by the blonde boy, holding the kid close to Kim so as to refute him the ability to move or slip away from his grasp. Emerald eyes widened a bit as a small smile crept across his face. "Wouldn't it be fun if we could fly." He whispered breathlessly as his fingers attempted to defy gravity as they trailed to his wand. He intended to cast the spongify spell, to cause the two of them to bounce as opposed to crash if they hit the ground; his fingers withdrew the yew wood covered in their own green buds and newly sprouting leaves, but as he tried to maneuver the angle so as to point towards the ground, the tip of the wand accidentally bumped against the boy and caused Piérre's grip to be jostled just enough for the entire implement to be thrown from his hand and towards the ground before both of them.

The puck's eyes flicked towards his empty left hand and a small intake of breath left him. Eyes softening, the boy realized that he would have to ensure the safety of the both of them in a different way.

And this boy that had been scared in the tree, who was perhaps scared of falling, came before him.

The Britalian was not brave, he was quite the coward. He wasn't tough and able to take a beating either. He was small, lithe, not intended for combat. Not intended to be a protector.

But there was something that he was; he was terrible at being what others expected him to be.

With a very calm breath, as the ground came closer and closer in the span of these five seconds that felt more like five minutes, Piérre did the things he had to do very quickly and without time to either spare or lose. His own right hand crept behind Kim's neck to protect his spine from being violently jostled, and his left arm cinched around the midsection, pressing the boy's entire body into his own so that they formed a dense ball of flesh ready to take the impact first on Piérre himself. Piérre's heart was beating quickly, and he could barely feel the other kid's own against him as the Britalian pressed the boy's head into his right shoulder near the pygmy puff that was (most likely) ready to leap away when the ground closed in enough. Even his long legs tangled swiftly around the other kid's own, trying his best to make sure that anywhere they could impact it was Piérre who took the brunt. Piérre could not escape because of the boy's actions, but this boy could not be harmed now because of the Britalian's own.

The tree looked so high above the both of them now, Piérre's emerald eyes sparkled as he braced for impact by relaxing and allowing his entire form to become flexible in preparation for the subsequent whiplash and shock force. "Well, call me Icarus." He whispered quietly, his fingers tangling in the boy's hair ever so slightly so that he could keep the kid's head secure as--

Silver bengal Figaro leapt out of the way as the mess of the two boys came crashing to the ground on top of some uncleared debris, particularly a nasty-looking broken off branch that had no doubt been previously hidden beneath the snow that had by now melted. One prong of its was pointing directly upwards.

With a thun-kunk! Piérre landed on the ground heavily, the weight of the kid only expediting the amount of damage that would come of the fall. It was very funny; though Piérre felt that he had most certainly been bruised up and taken some level of pain, it didn't really register with him that he could have hurt himself. He felt right as rain. With Kim pressed to his chest and his breath coming quick and heavy the same as his rapidly pounding heartbeat, Piérre was dazed for a few seconds before he glanced to the kid to make sure that he was alright. "S-see? Not all that bad, right?" A grin. "That was kind of fun, wasn't it?" He giggled a bit, feeling adrenaline run its course.

The Britalian had no way of knowing that he had landed directly on top of that sharp branch at the roots of the tree; that that one upwards facing prong had managed to skewer Piérre's left shoulder. Kim would be the one to notice the branch if he truly did manage to scramble to his feet in preparation to run away; how a part of it appeared to disappear into Piérre's left shoulder and not come out the other end and how a few rivulets of red traced their way down the branch and dripped to the ground. How Piérre's arm had been completely dead over his midsection in his attempt at escape. Kim would also observe the boy's green-trimmed yew wand around three or so feet away from the location of their fall, which was being guarded by Figaro himself.

Piérre seemed oblivious to it; perhaps he just hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary except for the extreme pressure in his arm, as if he had simply been punched too hard and now numbness was talking hold... It hurt, but strangely not as bad as one would have thought. It was odd, though, that his extremity now felt heavier than lead and that he was finding it difficult to maneuver it.

Yes, the Britalian had been half-impaled by this branch, and while he wasn't bleeding badly, he had taken a rather severe injury from this fall and subsequent piercing damage. (-94; Piérre HP 406/500 as a Third year). How would the once tree-confined lion react to this? Perhaps he would run away. Piérre would not have blamed him if he did.

@Kim Sato (Aoki)

House Colours: Slytherin

The Britalian blinked rapidly as he became aware of that strange pressure in his shoulder that was slowly transforming into a dull throb and then a slight searing sensation as he started to slowly realize that something was in his shoulder, something that should not be there. Inhaling sharply through his teeth, the third year's face twisted slightly in pain as he tried to move his legs. Unfortunately this only resulted in a jostling of his shoulder, a motion that extremed the excruciation that was becoming more and more intense every passing second.

Yet, those green eyes fixed Kim's with genuine confusion and curiosity. "S-sit still? I-wh- why? I'm o-okay." He said with shaking confidence. He watched with a bit of concern as Kim approached and attempted the third year healing spell on the boy, only to have the spell fail. Piérre could have sworn that instead of helping, perhaps Kim had hurt him even more with the well-intentioned attempt (-20hp due to auto-critical fail). Holding back a small whimper of pain, Piérre tried to focus instead on the words of the younger blonde boy; he was asking Piérre if he was able to heal his own wounds... take it easy, he was hurt?

"Hurt? No, no... I'm fine! Really, I am!" He tried to sit up only to release the pressure of the branch half-impaled in his shoulder's joint and thereby cause a lightning bolt of pain ripple through that vicinity in response to his action. With an uncontainable yelp this time, Piérre laid down again, his eyes wide as he finally did come to terms with the fact that he was indeed quite a good deal more injured than he was usually comfortable with. Did he have... a branch in his shoulder? "M-maybe I'm no-not." He stammered as the pressure was replaced and the pain edged off slowly. "I think... I got impaled... haha!" Despite himself, Piérre chuckled a bit at how funny it was. Truthfully it was the only way he was able to cope with such a serious situation. The only way he was able to properly compartmentalize was though his slightly tense laugher despite the very unfortunate situation. A little bit of humor never hurt anyone after all, surely...

And he could patch himself up, right? Surely that was within his realm of ability.

"I think... I think I can cast with my nondominant hand." Piérre finally considered his options. After all, his dominant hand was his left, and that was currently the side that was thoroughly incapacitated by the most pressing injury that he had on hand. He creased his brows in concentration as he bit back another yelp. Green eyes flicking over to his cat, Piérre extended his right arm towards his feline, indicating towards his yew wand with his joined index and middle finger. "Figaro... Confireire. Confer/Give" He requested politely with the command that his familiar was beginning to learn quite well by now.

With a small purr, Figaro gently picked up the wand that he had been guarding between his forepaws, gathering it into his mouth and then trotting most plainly past the (most likely jumpy) Kim and dropping the implement into the boy's open and waiting hand. With a smile, Piérre praised his familiar with a positive command word. "Bravo, Figaro, bravo." He murmured to his beloved pet before trying to awkwardly position the wand in his right hand's fingers and then angling it towards the injury. He could heal himself... or...

It would probably be better to stop the injury from bleeding first. "Ferula!" He commanded the slightly overgrown yew implement. Without a complaint, colorful yet gauzy bandages leapt from the wand and tightened around the boy's entire arm; they were just tight enough to stop the bleeding and to bind the branch to his arm, but just weak enough that they were neither painful nor could induce a further dislocation. With a small wince yet a glow of pride, Piérre glanced at Kim, speaking surprisingly softly despite his circumstance as his feet began to wiggle a bit in continued amusement. "Hey, I'm going to need to cast Diffindo as closely to the branch as I can so that I can stand up yet also maintain the pressure it has in my joint. Please guide my hand so I can cast the spell precisely?" The boy requested politely, extending his wrist towards Kim and allowing his hand to remain loose and easy to direct so that the boy could guide him more easily. "I'm not very confident with casting precisely with my non-dominant hand." At least he was voicing his position clearly and concisely.

Through this all, Piérre had not mentioned once his desire to go to the Hospital Wing... indeed, it seemed almost as if he was actively avoiding such a predicament or trying to ignore such a suggestion as that. "I'm... pretty sure I have all the tools in my toolbox that I need to take care of myself; I just need to take the time I need to do all these steps correctly so I don't make it worse. Boy am I glad I got my Tetanus shot as a child... haha!"

When Kim guided his hand correctly, Piérre tried to look him in the eye as if to silently ensure that the boy was not leading him astray in an aim that could hurt him if not properly angled. After a deep breath, steeling himself in case he hurt himself further, Piérre incanted the severing charm. "Diffindo!" Hand shaking, Piérre's aim was quivering as the cutting that came from the implement came in shards and chips. He would not form as clean a cut as he liked, but he would manage to roughly hew out the branch into two halves that he would be able to stand with. Taking a shivering breath, Piérre pressed the severed part of the branch stuck in his shoulder and tried to stand. "N-not as nice as I would have... have liked, but I g-guess it works?" He tried to jest at the situation before smiling towards Kim far more brightly than a person would have expected an individual freshly partially-impaled to smile. "Thank you for helping me. I think I can take care of myself from here." He nodded emphatically. "Do you have any bumps or bruises? Did you have fun? I think it was totally worth it, if you ask me." Piérre couldn't help but laugh. It was moments like this that reminded him that he was truly alive, that he was really truly experiencing life to the fullest in a condition unabashed and unashamed of enjoying it.

The Slytherin fake mused to himself out loud as he nodded once more to Kim before walking away very, very slowly so that he didn't stumble or hurt himself further. "I'll probably have to find some hydrogen peroxide... maybe I could sneak in and grab some... I'm certain I could get a potion if I had to... Maybe a healing spell is good enough... I'll just have to keep an eye out for infection; bandages will be very helpful..." Piérre stopped in his tracks as Figaro ran in front of him and the boy remembered Kim.

With a small turn back, Piérre offered another trophy-winning smile. "You'll never see just how beautiful something is until you see it from another angle... Life's too short to be scared of heights." A wink. "You only die once, after all. May as well go out with a bang, uh-huh?" Perhaps he wasn't an adrenaline junkie, but Piérre was not known for being careful or precise. He quite loved the chaos of life, the things that were unpredictable and beautifully strange. It was this that he had often tried to make apparent to all that he ran across, to what level of success he could never be sure but had to hope that he had made a difference.

But he would not go back to risk his life a second time in a place that he knew to have shed blood once. That Hospital Wing was a place of death and curses. No matter how much Kim tried to assuade the boy or convince him that it would be best for his help to have his injury inspected by the nurse, the Britalian would politely turn down every offer with deflective remarks, the most prominent one of which being that the nurse "Wouldn't want to see me, really. I'm his worst Hellion." and "I'm certain that others need his help more than me. I can take care of myself, I've done it in the past." Piérre would not be so foolish as to die there if he could help it. His lifeblood was better spent elsewhere, surely...

Such as trying to teach Kim how to fly, Piérre supposed.

After Final Remarks from Kim, Piérre Exits the Thread

@Kim Sato (Aoki)

House Colours: Slytherin

Hand still focused on maintaining pressure, Piérre snorted at Kim's remark that he didn't have a choice about being scared or not. Sure, he recognized that there were some occasions when a person had a crippling fear... but even those were called 'phobias' for a reason; they were irrational fears that had no right to be feared. "Sometimes fear is fun." He remarked. "You can choose to make your fear into a fun thing. Why do you think that boggart-banishing spell works like it does?" Another smile, though in those green eyes a small shadow passed with a flicker and was gone. "If you can make something funny out of your deepest fears, all other fears become a laughing matter as well." And gradually the smile faded again into an almost morose mood. "Because it sucks to live your life in constant terror. You lose all your time to worrying and you never really get to live."

Yet, another giggle came from the boy as Kim mentioned the possibility of coming back in the shape of an intangible spirit. Of course he knew that that state of being was considered by some to be worse than simply passing on, that it should be mourned or at least considered undesirable by those truly not afraid of death, but... "If the universe wanted me dead by now, I would probably already have a grave in Italy all set up for me." He took in a small breath as the small tug on his sleeve just barely agitated the injury. Not enough to hurt terribly, but enough to smart just a little; just enough to make him remember he was alive and very, very happy. "I'll hold you to that. I'll come back just for you so that you can bug me all the time, uh-huh?" He grinned again. "Even ghosts must need someone to keep them entertained or active. Imagine sulking around all day like the Baron, whew! Naw... I'd rather be more like the poltergeist." Piérre called back to mind images of the Slytherin house ghost and the nonsensical nonsense-maker Peeves. One could suppose, I guess, that Peeves was a sort of role-model for the boy, or at least a troublemaker that another troublemaker looked up to.

All of this was distraction, naturally. Perhaps the boy wanted Kim to forget the fact that he was not intending to personally go to the Hospital Wing. "Besides, I got my tetanus shot as a child. A little wood isn't gonna kill me without a hard fight unless I'm a vampire. And you missed my heart, so you've gotta live with me for a little while longer yet." He promised to the blonde Gryffindor.

The pygmy puff leapt from the shoulder of the Britalian to his rightful owner's, and Piérre smiled after the little pink puffball. It was certainly a cute little bugger, that was for sure. Nowhere near as good as his own dear Figaro, of course, who was scrabbling up his body again but stopped short when Piérre commanded him to stop. Obviously the feline was a little jealous, and the boy couldn't really blame the kitten. How dare he give his love and affection to a fluffy rodent, after all? Even if said fluffy rodent was soft and sweet and wanted nothing more than love and affection.

Putting up a confident façade for the rest of the bystanders to see as the boy made his way through Hogwarts proper and back to the Niffler Nook to treat his wounds. He would not really notice Kim tailing him, as while the kid tended to have a keen eye for spotting outliers, he wasn't really a pro at realizing when he was being tailed and managing to hide himself from prying eyes--yet. All the while the kid was babbling to himself about ghosts and boggarts, not totally nonsensical but seemingly engaged in some sort of roleplay or other theatrical representation of those two beings. Was it shock or was it simply the thing that this boy did to cope with his circumstances? Well, Piérre was an odd one; this would not really be the first time something like this would be observed by a few of the student body. Active imagination begetting eccentric behaviors and all.

If Kim cared enough to tail him back to the common room, it was there that Piérre unceremoniously ripped out the branch with little more than a whimper and then set to work with a pair of swiftly cast Reparifors upon himself (21 & 25 Wisdom worth 75hp, respectively). By magic, the wounds healed, and the boy looked no worse for wear than when he had first left to head out for Figaro's daily walk. Observing the hole in his robes afterwards, Piérre let out a huff before stating aloud to himself. "Well, I guess it's time to pull out the needle and thread again..." And would then breeze off to the security of the Niffler Nook where he kept his sewing supplies.

Piérre Exits the Thread (For Real This Time)