Welcome to Gaia! ::

After a quick return to her dorm room, Aurian made her way to the Undead dorms where she and Maritess had agreed to meet. One arm clutched a glass jar close to her chest. Slung over her other shoulder was a bag with a fresh, and most importantly dry, notebook and friends.

"Study the dust bunny, huh?" Aurian muttered to herself, giving the small creature a dubious glance. How would such a small, weird thing teach them anything about the human world? Sighing, Aurian gave a shrug and continued into the Undead dorm. It wasn't up to her to question the crazy practices of Professor Savage. Like on the boat, she would just have to do her best to survive.

Inside, Aurian gravitated to the walls. She felt so out of place here. Prickles rose on the back of her neck, feeling the stares of dorm residents as she passed, staring at the lost-looking first year. Aurian squirmed under the attention, wanting more than ever to melt into the shadows to avoid the direct gazes.

It took too long for her to arrive at Maritess' dorm room. Relief washed over Aurian as she knocked on the door.

By the time the reaper arrived at her dorm room, the winged ghoul had changed into a dry blouse and was towelling off her damp, long hair. Her legs, with the help of the various hands Esmerelda left them with, had replaced her drenched clothes with something that looked like it was missing a couple more yards of fabric to Tess.

"You're seriously not wearing that outside, are you?" Tess narrowed her eyes on her lower half. Only to be cheekily answered with a hip-thrust. Maritess was not amused. So when she answered the door, she was still giving the hip-swaying pair of legs a death glare over her shoulder.

"Yes?" Tess asked, tone clipped until she remembered Aurian was there for the Human Studies assignment. The second year ushered the reaper in. "Ah! Yes! Aurian! Come in, come in, pardon the mess." It was routine for Tess to apologize for her room despite there being no discernable mess.

Aurian rocked back at the first, brusque answer. Had she knocked on the wrong door? But then the other ghoul seemed to remember who she was, growing decidedly less chilly. Aurian was a little awed. Maritess must be very good at scaring others.

Well, that was what Aurian was here to learn. Sort of. Somehow. She eyed the dust bunny again, wondering just how studying it was going to teach her to scare humans (or kill them, considering she was all about the Reaping).

"Thank you," she said, giving Tess a bright smile as she entered. At the warning, Aurian peered around, looking for any trace of a mess. Her brows lowered, nose scrunching slightly as she searched. Unless there was a mess hiding under the bed...? Aurian turned a puzzled face back to Tess. "It's, uh, not so bad?" she offered. "I mean, um, it's fine."

It was less about Tess being good at scaring others than it was simply being accustomed to suppressing her real feelings and putting on a facade. She had enough practice back home growing up with her parents and continued to practice it with certain students at school. For the moment, the only thing Tess was hiding was her irritation for her less-than-proper lower half.

"O-oh, thank you. That is very kind of you to say," she smiled at the reaper ghoul's comments on her room. Yes, Tess knew her room was rather neat but she liked it when others acknowledged this fact.

Legs, quite frankly, couldn't give a scragg's a** what her winged counterpart thought. In fact, she was more interested in their partner. Sashaying up to the reaper, the pair of legs gestured for a writing board from the numerous hands skittering about their room. Hellooooo~ she scribbled out, the letters somewhat wobbly. But given she was writing with her toes, some sort allowance can be made, yes?

The dust bunnyies in their jar seemed to squeak and hop about, trying to escape from glassy their confinement.

"They've been restless since we got here. How have yours been?" Tess asked, gesturing to the reaper's own dust bunnies.

If Aurian was impressed and confused by Tess, that feeling only doubled when the 'roommate' walked forward. While the legs were writing, Aurian's head swung from Tess - only a flying torso - to the legs, back again... and again.

"Um, hi?" she answered when she saw the wobbly sign being held up. She didn't want to be rude, but she just knew that if her eyes were any wider, her eyeballs would fall out (and that wasn't a nice feeling, because she wasn't one of the Undead). "It's, uh, nice to meet you."

Turning back to Tess, she said, "Are they yours? I mean, is that you? Or, are you her?" One way or the other. It made sense to Aurian before she had opened her mouth, promise to Jack.

It was almost a relief when the conversation turned to the dust bunnies. She eyed Tess' three, then held up the jar containing her own. "They seem to have grown... very quickly." Aurian eyed them, brows drawing down and together. "I hope they don't get big enough to break the glass."

They'd been enough trouble when they were tiny. Just imagine what larger, angrier dust bunnies would do to Tess' nice clean room.

Maritess suppressed an annoyed sigh. She thought when she finally reunited with her lower half the questions about her body would stop. Instead, the questions had simply changed in form but inevitably it was simply variations to: Just what is going on with your legs? But rather than make her irritation known, Tess only continued to give Aurian a pleasant smile.

"Well, Legs and I are the same person, but at the same time we aren't. I'm a manananggal, yes, it's quite a mouthful, and no, you don't need to repeat it," she giggled, it was another point of irritation for the winged ghoul as so far, no one has managed to properly pronounce the name of her kind. "My kind severs at the waist and our lower bodies act autonomously. At least they do initially. I hope to be able to regain control of myself in the coming school year."

Unlike Tess, Legs did not have any problem expressing her annoyance. Not over Aurian's question about her and her upper half but because the reaper ghoul turned her back to her! Just because she didn't have a mouth to talk to? Was that it? A foot stamped down on the floor, as if demanding attention.

Maritess ignored Legs, focusing instead on the dust bunnies, "Do you think they multiply just as quickly? I've heard some of the adults back home talk how certain species multiply like demented bunnies. Could they have gotten that saying from these things?" she mused. "I do hope the jars Professor Savage provided us are of decent quality... if they did break the glass, well, I have an army of helping hands who will wring them senseless if need be."