What Goes Up Must Come Down (Luthais, Gwen)

Luthais was clarifying the details of the latest assignment for a couple of students who'd approached him at the end of class. A girl with braided brown hair behind them said, "Uh, Professor Wistari?"

"Please wait your turn, Naliyah," Luthais said without even glancing at her, recognizing her voice. Wait... he also recognized her tone. She used that one when she was afraid of getting in trouble and of how irritated Luthais might become. Did he even want to know?

Probably not. At least not yet. He was about to continue his explanation to the first two students, but unlike him, they had looked up at Naliyah's prompting, and they were still looking. Whatever it was, it seemed like he'd have to deal with it now. He followed their gazes, and surprisingly, Naliyah was not the final destination but another signpost, also staring wide-eyed at... the window?

There was some sort of strange creature-- no, it was a light(? -- the ends of her hair seemed to be blue?) elf, face distorted by being pressed against the panes. How had she even reached this ledge? This was the fifth floor. 

He strode over to that side of the room to examine the situation. Fortunately, this window didn't open outward, but it didn't open inward either. It was the type that slid upward, and since the elf outside seemed to be leaning on it to keep from toppling off, opening it would still be risky. Then the part of Luthais's mind that had stayed stuck on "How had she even reached this ledge?" figured it out: he remembered there was ivy on the building walls. Good, he could manipulate that to catch her if she fell. As usual, he had seeds to grow vines from on him, but it was more convenient to use what was already there.

"I am going to open the window slowly," he called through the glass so that the other elf would be ready. With that said, he began to gradually lift it up.

Unsurprisingly, the elf on the other side seemed to be losing her balance as Luthais shifted the window bit by bit. That was not a problem; he would just have to get a magical grip on the ivy out there--

"Professor, I think she's falling!" gasped one of his students behind him.

Aurea lend him the patience to tolerate those who stated the obvious. He was the one who was right there at the window; did that student really think he had not noticed? Not to mention, distracting him during a dire moment to point out said dire moment-- was there anything more counterproductive?

When Luthais focused again in the next breath, his heart skipped a beat at the realization that he did not sense anything growing against the side of the building. He couldn't help his brain flashing back for a second to the question of how the girl had managed to put herself in that dangerous position, but his fingers were already reaching blindly toward the bandoliers around his waist. Plucking a seed out, he quickly infused it with a surge of energy, and the newly grown plant shot out through the small open gap to hopefully latch around the girl's wrist before she fell. Unfortunately, in his haste, Luthais had not been able to consciously choose which seed to use. While it turned out to be a strong and sturdy type of vine, it also had small and sharp thorns along its length.

((Eep, hope this is ok ;;; Btw, is there any specific method you'd like to use for OOC communication? I normally go with Skype myself.))

Luthais heard various surprised reactions behind him from his class as the vine rooted itself inside. He tuned them out to take stock of what had happened. The plant had successfully grabbed onto the girl, good, but oh... there were thorns. It felt rather awkward to make such a mistake in front of his students, who were of course paying rapt attention to the action. Hastily, he sent another pulse into the vine, forcing it to retract its thorns. At least he hadn't taken out something useless for the current situation, like a flower of some sort.

"My apologies. I have this completely under control," Luthais said, a bit more loudly than necessary to reassure his students that their professor wasn't struggling with such a simple rescue after they'd all heard about his experience with the giant beanstalk last month. He hadn't helped to spread the story, but the rumors had run wild anyway, and he was pretty sure they all had ridiculous expectations that he now somehow had to live up to.

Speaking of that time, the type of lifevine he had used then would certainly be useful now. Luthais carefully picked out the seed this time and grew it, opening the window wider and sticking his head out so that he could see where it was going. He directed it to curl about the girl's waist and to pull her up and inside when it was secure.

((Got it~ <3 And just so you know, I forget if I already told you, but I'm going on a volunteering trip for spring break starting tomorrow which will last for 5 days. I'm not sure how good or bad my Internet access will be during that time, so sorry for possibly slow replies in advance! ; u ; ))

"Did the professor use the wrong plant on her again?" whispered a student a little too loudly. Luthais wanted to turn around and give him a warning glare, but he figured his attention should be primarily focused on the person who'd just gotten out of a life-and-death situation. Admittedly, he could see where the student was coming from, though. Even given what she had just been through, the stranger from outside was still acting rather oddly, as if under the influence of some sort of weak plant poison. The thorns couldn't have hurt her that badly, could they have? After all, she had climbed her way into the room perfectly fine, flashing him a gap-toothed smile along the way.

"Are you able to stand?" Luthais asked, extending a hand down toward the prone figure on the floor. If not, he supposed he could use the vines to carry her along. Was she possibly in shock? Luthais did have some minor medical knowledge because of the time he had spent assisting his second sister, Carayna, who was an experienced Druid. "I can take you to my office to take care of your injuries." It wasn't like cleaning and disinfecting wounds or applying bandages was anything complicated that required specific healer training. In fact, Luthais was rather familiar with the procedure since there were often students in his classes who didn't take the proper precautions when handling plants that weren't exactly harmless.

Speaking of his students... "Do you not all have another class to attend?" he said sharply to those still watching. They jolted at the reminder, taking note of the time, and then hustled out of the room.

Luthais started to grow more concerned when the girl didn't even answer but blinked, startled, when she suddenly sat up. Even then, it still took her another second of looking in a different direction-- was she dazed, or had all the blood rushed to her head too quickly when she changed position?-- before she finally looked at him and confirmed she could stand. Then rather than do that with his proffered hand, she shook it a lot while shooting up by her own power. Reviewing the incident in his memory, Luthais was pretty sure she hadn't hit her head at any point but... perhaps something had happened to her before that in the process of getting up there in the first place.

Once she let go of his hand, Luthais frowned as he realized some of the blood from her cuts had gotten on him. It was less the uncleanliness-- that he took care of with a simple bit of water magic, leaving his hand free of stains again-- and more the fact that he was the unintentional cause of the bleeding in the first place. Speaking of which, he withdrew the vines now that it was clear he would not need them to support the girl anymore. Seeing that she was sucking on one of her wounds, he said, "There is no need to do that. I can clean and disinfect your cuts for you. Please follow me." As he started walking out of the room, he added, "You are welcome, but how did you reach such a precarious position to begin with?"

Did she just put the ivy's existence in the past tense, then claim to have climbed up using it? Luthais decided that yes, he would have to take a look at her head as well as her hands. He was about to ask her to elaborate when she did so on her own, but what she said only contributed to his confusion. As a Wizard whose focus was on plant magic, he was pretty sure he would have noticed if the ivy on the building had some sort of mysterious disappearing ability, especially if it was right outside his own lecture room. It must have been some external force but if so, why had she not mentioned one? You would think someone who climbed up so high would definitely take note of anything destroying their only way of getting down right below their feet. It wasn't like it could have been some sort of slow subtle method given that she hadn't been stuck up there for very long; although he hadn't seen himself when she first appeared at the window, Luthais's students would never have paid any attention to him during class if she'd appeared before it ended.

Well, there was no point in speculating when he could just ask, that is, if he could get a straight, clear answer out of her. "What exactly happened to the ivy?" he said as he opened the door to his office and gestured politely for her to enter before him. Inside, the walls were neatly lined with shelves of books and various plants. The same kinds of items also sat on the desk across from the door, and on the wall above it was a picture of Luthais's family. There was, predictably, an earthy smell in the air mixed through with floral scents.

Luthais's eyebrows twitched. Cut it all off? Well, it was not an uncommon occurrence, but Luthais found it rather pointless. (Well, except when Ileth explained to him that it provided potential intruders with an easier way to climb up to windows, but anyway...) He did not believe ivy would not significantly affect the structural integrity of the well-built Academy, even if it did start creeping into the brickwork. (Maybe he should question Ileth about it the next time they talked; architecture was her field, after all.) Plus, the walls looked better with ivy on them in Luthais's opinion; barrenness was an unattractive quality. Even if he wasn't into plants grown for decoration, he didn't see the need to cut down wild plants growing relatively harmlessly of their own accord.

"Would it not have been better to climb to the top first and then 'clean' on your way down?" Luthais said. 'Clean' wasn't a word he would personally choose to use about getting rid of plants. He supposed that was a rather rhetorical question to ask now given that she had already gotten stuck... unless she had more ivy to cut off. "How are your cleaning tools by the statue?" By all rights, the way she'd explained what happened, she should have still had them on her. "Did you throw them down when you found yourself stuck at the window?"

If he remembered correctly, he had placed the disinfectant spray on this shelf... Yes, there it was. Picking it up, he stepped in front of the girl again. "Please hold out your hands."