Warily eyeing the incapacitated vampire, Louise slowly stepped around the beast and began to descend the stairwell. Perhaps she would find the girl that was being bullied and find out if there was any mettle to the waif.
"Where are you going?!" Madison demanded, worry and confusion obviously driving her to forget her station. Understanding that she was a bit emotionally overwhelmed, if not quite agreeing with the reason for those emotions, the pinkette chose not to make a big deal out of the outburst.
Pausing at the landing between staircases, she explained, "If you and the Protectorate wish to risk contaminating yourself from that thing's presence, that's your prerogative. I on the other hand, wash my hands of this."
"You can't just leave!" The hysterical teen shouted, but Louise easily disregarded her words and continued down the steps. It would be needlessly dangerous to remain so close to an undead creature, the diseases those things carry was part of the reason Londinium fell so quickly after all... then again, Madison had already established a lack of concern over disease.
At least the coward was smart enough to have a sense of self preservation, this idiot's going to get herself ki- Oh, what's this?
Louise paused when she was about to round the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Her skin was tingling in an unmistakable way that meant somebody was pressed against the other side of the wall. A quick look around showed that there was a classroom door just outside of view from the steps, but as she tested the knob to find it unlocked, a scrapping sound emanated from within and the door refused to budge.
Undaunted, the pinkette braced herself and cast a weak spell to increase her strength, easily allowing her to throw open the door and knock over the barricade of a few desks and a filing cabinet. Peering into the dingy room, trying not to breathe the dust and mildew caused by neglectful maids, she spied a somewhat familiar mass of dark hair vanish through a broken window. It would seem her target had come to her.
"Halt!" Louise shouted as she rushed over to the window and saw her target fleeing along the edge of the building. Paradoxically, the girl ran faster upon hearing the demand, causing the pinkette to grimace in distaste at having to climb out the filthy window and give chase.
Following the waif proved more difficult than she had imagined and soon she was huffing in exhaustion as she followed the only visible path between the academy and it's perimeter fence. The brick building was an unorthodox shape, likely from poorly planned expansions over the years, leading to several ninety degree angles along the exterior wall and she was quickly losing sight of her target.
Why was fighting a small army of serfs and Reconquista mages so much easier than chasing an academy student?!
Unwilling to give up, she put on one last burst of speed to catch sight of the girl before casting Blind.
With a surprised shriek, the girl tripped and slid across the pavement, allowing Louise to gradually close the distance. Doing her best to avoid emptying her stomach, the heiress sucked in air and collapsed to her knees as the blinded teen quickly became accustomed to her situation and stood back up. From her spot on the ground, Louise watched the girl orient herself to defend against attack... if she didn't know any better, she would think the girl could see just fine.
I'd be more impressed if I didn't feel like I was dying. Louise thought, fighting against dry heaving. It took a while to steady herself, during which she needed to use Telekinesis to drag the other girl back by her ankle when she slowly tried to flee again.
"If you're done running away, I would like a word with you in private." She said once she was finally able to speak and stand. The sheer amount of bugs in the area did nothing good for either her nerves or stomach and when one landed on her face, she nearly lit herself on fire.
"What did you do to me?" The girl demanded, ignoring the words entirely. Her entire countenance seemed wrong in some subtle way now that Louise could function enough to notice. It went beyond how the spectacles made her eyes appear comically large, her large mouth, ungainly limbs, or the rest of her still developing features. No, the teen seemed to lack something that Louise couldn't quite put her finger on. The silence must have stretched too long, as the girl grew agitated and asked, "Well?!"
"Oh, right... I'm sorry." Louise replied on reflex, flushing at having lost herself in thought. "It's just a simple illusion to stop you from seeing, I couldn't keep running much longer."
Removing the spell caused the girl to flinch before sighing. Swatting at a bug that landed on her bare arm, the pinkette decided introductions were in order. "Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, mage in training. Like I said, I really would like to talk to you, so please don't make me chase after you again."
"Okay... S- Taylor, I'm Taylor Hebert..." The girl said awkwardly, looking around for anyone listening. "What um... what did you want to talk about?"
Deciding not to ask why her first name was an occupation, it was fairly common for surnames after all, Louise answered her question instead. "Well to start, I suppose I should ask why you were spying on me."
"I wasn't spying!" Taylor denied before quietly adding, "I didn't hear anything until... at least, not anything that made any sense. Did you use your powers on Madison?"
Giving the girl an odd look at the guilty hope in her voice, Louise shook her head. "No, why would you even think that?"
"Well you took her to the roof and then I heard her screaming and some shouting, what was I supposed to think?" Taylor asked hotly. "If you didn't hurt her, why the screaming?"
"Oh, that... I tried killing her friend." Louise explained easily.
"What?!"
Ignoring the girl's shock, Louise turned toward a small shed that stood near a strangely painted area with two hooped posts. "I would like to sit down, let's take this indoors."
Magic assisted strength allowed her to tear the lock off the door and she soon was seated on a folding chair. It was a few moments before Taylor followed, but morbid curiosity won out in the end. Following suit, the waif unfolded her own seat and asked, "Aren't you friends with Madison... and a hero at that, why would you try to kill Emma?"
"Of course not, that girl is hardly even servant material." Louise scoffed, causing the other girl to start. "Besides, that red haired harlot would be dead on sheer principle if she'd given me a reason. No, the friend wasn't Emma, it was Shadow Stalker."
As soon as Louise finished her sentence, she noticed a faint buzzing building up and saw far too many bugs buzzing around the general area. A veritable swarm had gathered in the time since she'd arrived at the school and now it was becoming almost worrying.
Now, I know cities aren't exactly the cleanest, but this is ridiculous. She thought in exasperation as she closed the doors with Telekinesis.
"Shadow Stalker? That's even worse!" Taylor asked, before going eerily still, making Louise uncomfortable. "Wait... Madison is friends with Shadow Stalker?!"
Nodding, Louise voiced her own confusion on the matter, "I know, isn't it strange? How could she be friends with one of those things?"
"'Things?' What do you mean?" The other girl's confusion was coupled with a lull in the buzzing.
It's almost as if they're connected to her emotions... Oh, I guess that makes sense, she does have the same hair.
Changing the subject for a moment, Louise asked, "Are you one of the Undersiders perchance?"
As the sound of distant sirens grew closer, the dark haired teen confirmed the suspicion when her breath hitched and she asked, "What?"
"I know you people have this strange obsession with masks and costumes, but with all the bugs acting so unusual, I had to ask." Seeing the wide eyed horror on the girl's face, she held up her hands to quell any outburst and quickly added, "If it makes you feel any better, I don't really care if you're a criminal."
"Really?" Taylor asked stiffly, to which the pinkette shrugged. It wasn't as if she followed these people's laws. "You're... not what I expected at all."
Shrugging again, Louise rubbed at her legs as they began to ache from her earlier exertion. "I'm sure you'll be thoroughly disappointed in the rest of your heroes soon enough. Speaking of which, do you know what possessed the Protectorate to accept a vampire of all things into their ranks?"
"What?" Taylor said once again.
Did I mess up the illusion and ruin her hearing? Louise wondered before repeating, "A vampire. I only ask because those people frequently interract with my friend Victoria and I would be displeased if they risked her life over a creature like Shadow Stalker."
Choking on her saliva, the dark haired girl fell into a coughing fit. "Y-you think... Shadow Stalker is a vampire? That's... how on Earth did you come up with that idea?"
"It's readily apparent to anyone who isn't an imbecile." The mage answered with a haughty sniff. "Turning to shadowy mist, covering every inch of it's body from the sun, and there was blood on it's lips when Madison took off it's mask... not to mention how unnatural it's skin is, it's almost black!"
Taylor didn't have anything to say for a long while, just staring at the pinkette while thinking hard. Louise waited patiently for a response, hoping this girl wouldn't be as suicidally stupid as Madison and understand the problem. After almost five minutes, during which the buzzing grew back to audible levels, Taylor asked, "Did Madison say Shadow Stalker's name when you attacked her?"
"S'oaf or something." Louise said offhandedly. "Why?"
Enraged screaming, ranting, and far too many bugs were all she received in answer as the other girl lost whatever control she'd had during the strange conversation. Unfortunately, the bug repellent enchantment Louise was told was on every set of X-com fatigues did nothing, prepare a Fire Cloak. As it was, the raging girl didn't seem to notice the almost ever-present sirens getting even closer or the fact that whoever Madison called would probably find the swarm of bugs suspicious.
Status: Healthy
Magicka: (12380/14000)
Choose 1:
[] Other than making peaceful contact with one of the Undersiders, this whole conversation had been confusing and mostly useless. Cast Recall and see if Hinata has returned.
[] Slap Taylor to snap her out of her fit and leave before Shadow Stalker's aid arrives to be annoying.
-[] Go heal people for money.
-[] Go poke Bakuda's spell effects with magic
[] POV Switch: Cattleya
[] Write in.
We can't leave good minions behind after all.
