Open Containment Breach

[Ryan Fisk]

It had taken some fussing, but Ryan had finally been able to set up Balfour, his streeler, in the perfect light to actually get his study underway. The lighting in the tower at times was fantastic, but if the sun got on the wrong side of the castle it was awful and Ryan needed to be able to see perfectly to properly document Balfour's colour changes. The Streeler was an impressive magenta right now and Ryan was hoping to see if the snail had any sort of pattern to its colour changes and what it might indicate.

He'd been distracted, carefully trying to describe the magenta colour of Balfour's shell rather than watching Balfour's terrarium too closely which was an amateur mistake. Looking up, Ryan's heart sped up when he realized Balfour had managed to shift the terrarium lid enough to slowly crawl loose, making its way onto the armchair Ryan had set it on. Scrambling to his feet, Ryan looked around the lounge for something useful to put on his hands, the thick gloves they'd bought at the Menagerie with Balfour still up in his dorm room. The lounge was slowly filling with a vile smell as Balfour's toxic slime trail began melting through the chair upholstery and it didn't seem like Balfour was going to alter its slow, yet determined course anytime soon. Ryan could only watch, fascinated as the slime ate through the fabric, while Balfour slowly slid along the chair's arm, dropping to the side table next to it with a dull thump.

 

[Elizabeth Addams]

Elizabeth had been reluctant to come to the student lounge to begin with. She liked to be up in the common room or in the library, but she just needed more space and to not feel as though she had to be really really quiet. With a sketchbook bigger than her face spread out in a double spread on the table in front of her, there were an array of oil pastels scattered wherever there was a spare bit of desk. She'd noticed Ryan come in with his little bug friend, but only because it was bright pink. She'd been distracted for a little while, watching it as it was crawling up towards the lid, although Ryan hadn't seemed to notice. After a few minutes, the snail suddenly broke free, landing neatly on the side of the arm chair. Elizabeth watched memorised as the fabric began to dissolve under its touch. Glancing back down to her sketchbook she'd been drawing the Streeler, when it was still in his home at least, although her drawing was no where near as pretty as the real thing. When Elizabeth glanced back up, Ryan was looking at it too, and sliding out of her seat she walked across the room towards him, eyes fixed on the glowing, somewhat globby, mess it was making. "Woah.. that's amazing," she whispered, leaning forward to peer in and get a closer look, hands resting on her knees. The bug continued its journey, landing on the table too. At this rate there were going to be a lot of holes.​

 

[Augustus Westwick]

Augustus had been wandering around the castle on his own, taking in whatever he could see. He was actually supposed to study for Charms, but he hadn't really been in the mood. He'd been hoping to find someone he could spend some time with, either Addison or one of his roommates. To his surprise, he actually spotted Ryan in the student lounge. After a moment, he approached the other boy, only to stop in his tracks when he realized what was happening. He'd been able to se the streeler up close many times before, as it was in the same dormitory as him, but it had never been out of the terrarium before. And now, he could easily see why. He stared with wide eyes as the slime started to eat into the chair, and then the side table. His gaze darted to Ryan. "Would... levitating help?" He suggested quietly. Though maybe this had been the point? Was Ryan trying to figure out if the slime could destroy every surface?

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan didn't look away from Balfour's slow progress, simply nodding even when someone else joined him, though he did recognize their voice. He was only shaken out of his observation when he heard Augustus speak up as well, suggesting they levitate it and Ryan somewhat guiltily remembered they did actually need to stop his streeler before it melted too much, as interesting as it was.

"That's a good idea," Ryan said, pulling out his wand before pausing. "No wait, what if we just fling streeler slime everywhere," He said with a frown, lowering his wand. "Maybe we could flip its tank back over it?" He offered, stepping a little closer to the grisly remains of the armchair Balfour's terrarium was still sitting on. They'd have to be extra careful, the last thing Ryan wasn't was to accidentally touch the streeler. And besides, taking their time meant Ryan might get to see what would happen if Balfour made it to the floor. "Do you think it'd eat through the stone too?" He asked slowly as Balfour edged closer to the edge of the table.

 

[Elizabeth Addams]

Elizabeth wasn't sure how long they'd be able to keep it in the air for, although maybe they could at least get it back into its cage, so she nodded at her housemates suggestion as her eyes were still glued to the streeler. "You could flip it, but then you would never know," she said, sort of mostly curious to try and put it on the floor in the first place. "If it does, you could use him to like, break into places," she suggested as her mind went for a wander. Looking at the mess it had made of the couch, Elizabeth took her wand out of her pocket. They might have been first years but how hard was it to say a word that should, in theory, fix things like this? Weren't all spells just fancy versions of their real names? Besides they were wizards so it wasn't like it could go so wrong that they couldn't then fix their fix. She pointed her wand at the mess of the couch, clearing her throat and thinking of what sort of word might hide the mess the streeler had made. "Fixius.." she said, confidence in her voice to see what, if anything, would shoot out of her wand. As the tip of her wand sparked, she thought that she had done a good thing, although that quickly dissolved when the blue spark turned into a blue flame.​

 

[Augustus Westwick]

Sorry guys I forgot to watch this thread

Augustus was quietly pleased when Ryan said he'd had a good idea, but then he backtracked. Augsustus supposed that they really should be careful, and he wondered if the Headmistress had thought this through when she allowed students to have a Streeler. Fascinating as it was, Augustus was pretty happy with his own little golem pet instead, even if he wasn't sure if everyone would count it as a pet. "Maybe..." Augstus said hesitantly when Ryan asked if it could eat through stone. "If it does... that would be bad." He mumbled glancing at the girl shyly before emuttering his next sentence. "What if there's a classroom under here?" He mumbled. A Streeler coming through the ceiling would be bad, wouldn't it? He felt his anxiety increase, and he bit his lip. The girl said that they could use the animal to break into places, which was fair. But then tried a spell that didn't seem to work. Augustus gasped when there was a flame instead, he jumped back a bit. "S-should I get someone?" He asked, gaze moving back to Ryan who he kind of felt was in charge here.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan had never considered the practical applications of Balfour's slime, mostly just viewing it as an interesting obstacle to caring for the streeler. But now, watching as Balfour slowly dissolved its way across the furniture, Ryan was fascinated with the possibilities. "It could be amazing for accessing places that are charmed too tight to break into," He said excitedly, crouching down to try and squint at the underside of the table Balfour was currently melting through without getting too close. "Do you think you could find some sort of material to make a container from to store it?" Balfour's terrarium had some sort of protection on it obviously to contain it, but Ryan hadn't thought to ask Professor Summers at the time what it was.

He paused in his excited observations when Augustus mentioned that they might need to be concerned about any classrooms below them, if Balfour could melt through stone. The fall might also harm the streeler and Ryan couldn't have that. Grabbing a pillow from another nearby couch, Ryan shuffled over to hopefully slide it into Balfour's current trajectory and buy them sometime. "You're right.. We should act fast-" He mumbled, pausing when Elizabeth attempted some sort of charm he didn't recognize. "Did you meant to do that?" He asked, watching the blue flames curiously.

 

[Elizabeth Addams]

Elizabeth thought the boys were actually trying to be pretty smart about this whole ordeal, and she appreciated that they were trying to come up with solutions rather than just making a big joke of it like she could imagine a few other students doing instead. The Ravenclaw peered over her shoulder at them both, wide eyed and with a little shrug, "Yeah, totally." It wasn't particularly convincing but she didn't want to admit that she had no idea what she was doing. If it had worked, she would have looked very good in front of them indeed. "No.. no don't get anyone," she said quickly, moving to grab a cushion and start viciously batting at the flames in the hopes it wouldn't spread too much. After some heavy wafting she did manage to put it out, but now the couch was both dissolved, black, and smelt like burnt Streeler. She wrinkled her nose, laying the cushion precariously on top of it for a moment. Out of sight, out of mind, right? The first year peered over to see that Ryan had given it a bit of an extra layer with another cushion, although it wouldn't be long before it was in there too. "Can you touch its shell?" she asked, wondering why they couldn't just lift it up and pop it back in his house. Well, its second house. ​

 

[Augustus Westwick]

Augustus felt like he really should get someone, but Ryan didn't say anything about it, and the girl said he shouldn't. So the boy stayed rooted on the spot, watching the flames in alarm. He sighed in relief when the girl, Elizabeth he thought, managed to put them out. But the streeler was still definitely a problem. "Should... I run to get your gloves?" He asked Ryan , wondering if the boy would respond to him this time. He knew this was all pretty fascinating to watch, but he couldn't stop imagining the streeler dropping through the stone floor on some poor person who had no idea what was happening. But without the go ahead of either of the other Ravenclaws, Augustus didn't feel confident making any decisions.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan tilted his head, watching Elizabeth mostly succeed in burning the armchair, at least what Balfour hadn't managed to melt, before hiding it under a pillow. At least things didn't look quite as dire with some of the damage out of sight. "I don't think burning things helped at all," He said plainly, though it had been interesting to see that the streeler slime was apparently flammable. "We can't pick it up, it's got toxic spikes on its shell too, see," Ryan said, eager to move over and point out Balfour's very cool spikes, vaguely outlining them with his wand and Balfour continued his destructive trek across the table. He glanced up from his demonstration when Augustus asked if he could get Ryan's gloves, having forgotten that now there was more than just him, one of them was free to leave. "Oh. Yeah. Please. They're by my bed, just watch out, my backpack bites," He said, turning his attention back to Balfour when the streeler cleared the table, landing on the floor with an ominous thunk. "Maybe hurry," Ryan added, keeping his eyes on the streeler so he wouldn't miss it if Balfour could in fact melt through the floor.