Amarus lay across her bed, half of her dangling off. She yawned wide, her eyes blinking sleepily. When she was bored, Amarus found it incredibly difficult to stay awake. This was what she had to do, every time she wasn't in class, or wandering around into trouble: lie here, doing nothing, trying to motivate herself to get up. Being a Lotus Eater was a lot like being a constant sleepwalker. Speaking with others, attending classes, even basic interactions essentially felt very far away, like someone had hit the mute button.

Perhaps that was why she'd never bothered with any technological niceties. Amarus owned no skellyphone, no kind of laptop, and had never even seen a groanspring account. In fact, she hadn't sent a single text message. If her friends wanted to see her, she would probably just.. show up. Mostly because she spent all her free time wandering around the campus, trying to break into the other species' dorms. Once she'd considered climbing an entire tower to get up to where Muka was perched, just out of curiosity. Another time, she had scaled the bookshelves in the library, only to find out that the books bit quite firmly.

And she'd actually apologized to Zar for hurting the books. Amarus rolled over onto her stomach and draped her arms off the edge, wiggling her fingers at the dark space under the frame. Ashbel wriggled out from under to n** at her fingers lovingly, and she took the opportunity to scoop him up off the floor and cuddle him. He made funny snuffly sounds when she cuddled him. It was probably the most affection Amarus displayed towards any living thing, really. Well, living, dead or even undead, given the general state of the students at Amityville. She wasn't particularly affectionate with her other pets, as one was a ghost like her, and the other was reptilian.

Speaking of her Firelands Wyvling, Jin was asleep on her pillow again, but as soon as Ashbel appeared from underneath the bed he uncoiled himself and started to creep towards the two of them. She held Ashbel away from the Wyvling, staring at Jin. "I'm not going to let you eat him," she told Jin, her silver eyes unblinking. "You know what I always say: Family is not food."

The wyvling stared at her as if to say: No, I do not know that, because I do not speak your language. Amarus just stared right back, and they were experiencing a rather intense competition until Ashbel woofed in their faces, wanting to be set down. Amarus sighed and let him back onto the floor, following which he rushed under the bed again. Every time he stayed down there for too long, she had a very clean under-the-bed space and a very filthy foxfire.

Too much introspection made Amarus kind of nauseous. She rolled onto her side, slipped sideways and sat on the edge of her bed. "If you could have one wish, what would it be?" Amarus asked aloud, quietly. She tilted her head, bells ringing, looking across the room at Crow who was sitting on the floor. Crow was her ghost treat, and he liked to imitate bird movement. Around Muka, he'd imitated every single gesture; it was what he liked to do. So when Amarus tilted her head at the mini, he tilted his head back, which made the corner of her mouth tilt up in a smile.

Ever since meeting students at the academy, she had felt kind of defective; her manners were lacking, and it seemed like while everyone else found it easy to express emotion, Amarus' were cut off from her. She wiggled her toes and stared at her mostly-transparent feet. Being a ghost wasn't ever a choice she'd made, obviously, and she couldn't remember who she had been before, not even a little. All she knew was that plants responded positively to her attention, and she had a particular affinity for the kuji-kiri.

The kuji-kiri were probably as close to experiencing emotion as she could get: for a brief time, she was able to use the symbols which involved hand gestures in order to focus all of her purpose and action on one goal, one burning image. That helped her in combat. Whenever she needed to really focus her energy, she would picture whichever kuji-kiri suited her purposes. Rin, the kuji-kiri for power, was her favourite; it was also the one she found easiest to master. The last three of the symbols she used sparingly, if at all.

Enough sitting still. When Amarus was alone, she thought too much about the things she couldn't change. Thinking led to inaction, which led to either falling asleep or losing the will to do absolutely anything at all. Amarus reached down and wiggled her fingers to try to summon Ashbel again. He licked her fingers, but didn't come out. Amarus stood up, and silently prepared to leave.

Her room was extremely empty: she had no real possessions, no extra outfits, no technology, and no furniture except for her bed. Not a lot of fun for her minis. Amarus thought to herself: perhaps she should buy them some toys. Although she was fairly certain Ashbel had dug a hole out of her room from under the bed, or Crow had figured out how to open the door. There was no way they all spent time in this tiny room together while she was away.

Without pausing again, Amarus headed out. She should go to the maul and pick some stuff up for her little friends.