Waking up the next morning, Louise rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around. With a start, she noticed that she was bundled up in a blanket between Victoria and the short ridge that ran around the edge of the rooftop. At some point during the night, she must have fallen asleep and now she was stuck with the awkward choice of trying not to wake the other girl or relieving the pressure in her bladder. While Vicky's warmth was quite pleasant compared to the chilly breeze that had come in during the night, the call of nature won out.
Wiggling around in her little cocoon of fabric, she slowly inched her way free enough to use her Levitation vest to escape. Once that was done, she made her way to the water-closet. On her way back, she spotted a familiar head of dark hair among the crowd. Seeing Hinata helping pass out little brown rectangles to the masses of commoners, Louise marched over to the younger girl and snatched the mostly empty box from her hands, causing her to squeak in alarm.
"What do you think you're doing?" The pinkette asked, jabbing an accusing finger at the girl.
"Ano... I was just handing out breakfast." Hinata mumbled, poking her fingers together.
"Exactly!" Louise growled, whirling around to scan the crowd. "If you were an adult that would be one thing, but you're not! Which of the filth thought they could get away with forcing a noble's daughter to do such a menial task?"
"Eh?"
"Point me to the bastard, I'll sort them out for you." She continued, fingering her sword dangerously.
"N-no! I... I wanted to help." Hinata protested softly, putting her hands up as if to shield herself.
Giving the girl a studying look, Louise grasped her hands in her own and asked, "Honest?" At the other girl's nod, she sighed, "Fine... But if anyone tries to force you into something you don't want, just tell me and I'll punish them. It's the least I could do after you saved my life."
"Eto... I didn't-" Louise cut her off with a glare. "You did. Those aliens would have done terrible things to me, but you stopped them. My honor as a noble demands that I offer you my support. Now, come with me."
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A short while later, the two of them were sitting on the stone wall that Victoria had been been building. The spider-girl herself was returning most of the box Louise had taken, saying something or other about sharing and fairness... Louise wasn't really listening, being more focused on the strangeness that was her own breakfast.
"Isn't it odd that somebody thought putting pasta in a bag was a good idea?" She asked, stirring the cheese covered noodles before popping the spoon in her mouth. None of the packaged meals were really suited for a proper breakfast, but at least they tasted good. "It can't stay fresh very long, can it?"
Hinata shrugged slightly, nibbling on a muffin. "At least they aren't ration bars." She said absently, starting to raise a hand to her head before stopping. Louise nodded in agreement, having tried one of those disgusting things Espinoza mistakenly called food.
The man must not have a working tongue.
"I'm back!" A sudden shout from behind caused both heiresses to jump to their feet and were assaulted by a flash. Blinking away the spots in their eyes, they saw Vicky grinning with a datapad in her hands. Taking a moment to realize that she was brandishing her cheesy spoon like a weapon, Louise blushed and sat back down. Looking to Hinata, the spider-girl asked, "Are you OK?"
Awkwardly fidgetting at the attention, the white-eyed girl stammered, "I-it's nothing... I... this headband is uncomfortable."
"Give it time, I already knew a little bit of Albionese and it still took weeks for me to internalize it's magic." At Vicky's snickering, Louise raised her brow. "What?"
"Albionese? That just sounds stupid, it's called English."
Huffing in annoyance, Louise finished the last of her noodles and incinerated the pouch. "Maybe to you, but your 'English' sounds stupid to me. It's like some bastardization of the word Elvish." She argued.
"Does that mean your world has elves?!" Vicky asked, earning a nod. "That's so cool! Are they short like Santa's or tall forest people like Legolas? Do you think Tolkien knew? Oh, Taylor's gonna be so pissed if one of them's named Galadriel."
"Enough, Stop!" Louise shouted while Vicky kept rambling. Eventually the pinkette floated up and put both hands over the excited arachnid-girl's mouth and in her most authoritative tone, commanded, "Shoosh!"
Vicky stared wide-eyed for a moment before a playful look crossed her face and Louise felt something coarse and wet on her palm. Shrieking, the youngest Valliere removed her hands and shook them in a futile effort to get rid of the feeling of saliva on her skin. Ignoring Hinata's giggling, she wiped her hands on her pants and glared at the smirking blonde. "You're despicable."
"I've heard worse." Victoria said with a shrug before leaning forward with interest. "Now, Elven hotties, dish!"
Slowly tilting her head in confusion, Louise simply stared.
What? Hotties? Is she asking if they use fire magic? And what do dishes have to do with anything?!
Now it was Vicky's turn to huff. "Oh come on, you know what I mean! Hottie, hot, attractive, good looking." Crossing her arms under her chest, she asked slowly, "Did you meet any cute elf guys?"
"What?!" The pinkette shrieked. "They're monster who've slaughtered my people for over six thousand years!"
"Well, yeah... that takes away some of the charm... but even Jack Slash was kinda cute, in a roguish sorta way, y'know?"
Throwing her hands in the air, Louise shouted, "Why would I even think something like that?!"
"Ok, touchy subject... jeez, no need to bite my head off." The blonde replied sulkily before turning to Hinata with a bright smile. "What about you? Any cute boys in your life?"
The Hyuga's eyes widened and her face turned a bright red as she stuttered helplessly. Deciding to be helpful, Louise pointed out, "She mentioned someone named Naruto while we were on the aliens' ship. Perhaps they are betrothed?"
Barely managing to catch the girl as she fainted, Victoria turned to Louise and asked, "She's like... twelve, why would you even suggest that?"
"What do you mean? I was promised to Viscount Wardes at a much younger age." Louise responded in confusion.
It seemed like the sputtering, incoherent noises from the spider-girl would go on for a while, so Louise eventually decided to practice her magic. Removing her enchanted vest and looking around to make sure nobody else was within sight, she cast her Fire-cloak spell. Victoria was startled out of her odd behavior by the sudden flames, but it only took a few pained words to explain what was going on and soon they were surrounded by a set of waist-high walls of stone. After a few hours with Victoria and a newly awoken Hinata watching in quiet worry, Louise managed to reduce the negative effects of the spell to only be slightly painful rather than cause blistering agony. More importantly, she was confident that it wouldn't destroy her clothes anymore... though her current outfit was badly scorched and full of holes.
At noon, her practice was interrupted by the familiar figure of Espinoza walking up to them, his power armor conspicuously absent. Putting on her vest once more, Louise rose to greet him, getting an M.R.E. to the face for her trouble. Seeing her reaching for her weapon, the man raised his arms in surrender. "My bad!"
Snarling, she tore open the package and sat down on the wall. "Be more careful, idiot."
"Don't be like that
Princesa, you know you like me." The hispanic man replied, tossing food to the other two as he took a seat next to them. Well, most of them... Victoria was forced to stand behind the wall because of her lower body.
"Don't be absurd. I simply dislike you less than the rest of your ilk." Louise corrected him, poking at the contents of the bag in her hands. Why was Joe sloppy and who thought to name their food after him? "A dog that knows it's place is better than one that doesn't, even if it needs to be beat on occasion."
Sighing as she dropped her meal into the gaping maw of her lower body, Victoria spoke up, "Sounds like you just don't want to admit it."
"No one asked you." Louise replied, poking her tongue out at the other girl. Changing the subject, she said, "I would have traded meals with you if you'd just asked... I don't think I want to eat something with the word 'slop' in the name."
"Nah, it's not that. Nothing tastes right anymore... I thought maybe my sense of taste would go back to normal now that I'm more human again, but nope. It all still tastes like crap."
"I don't like seafood either." Hinata commented. "I'd probably starve if everything tasted like crab."
Espinoza started laughing at that, causing the younger girl to blush. "Not crab, crap! She said it tastes like shit." He said around the food in his mouth like the savage she knew him to be. Swallowing the another large portion that should have made him choke, he stood up to leave.
"Can we not talk about such things while I'm eating?" The Valliere sneered, setting the packet of shredded meat and sauce aside. "I don't even want to know why you know what that tastes like."
"Wuh? No, it's a turn of phrase!" Vicky protested.
Giving the blonde a dubious look, Louise decided to get back to her practice, food could wait. Throwing a rock at the retreating man, she asked, "Do you have a moment to talk before you go back to work?"
"For you,
Princesa? Of course." He replied with his irritating smirk.
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It was almost four in the afternoon when Sergeant Baker watched through his binoculars as the distant overpass collapsed. One of the support collumns had been hit with several large explosions, causing a cascade failure to drag almost a mile of suspended roadway to the ground.
"Fuck!" He shouted down from his post on the steeple, slamming the binoculars onto the table, probably breaking the damned things. "Tessa, we've got a problem."
Down below, the former raider flipped up her welding mask and looked up at him questioningly. "Clint being an idiot again?"
"That's Lieutenant Clint and you better get that through your head." Baker reprimanded. "And no, that's not it. The recon team we sent North to check on that explosion that happened last night just got wiped out."
"The fuck? How in the hell did that happen, they were just supposed to be observing!"
Shaking his head ruefully, he answered, "Must've been spotted by whoever's tearing up University Point. Bastards didn't even have a chance to react before they got an overpass dropped on their heads."
Tessa let out a low whistle and the two gave each other a long look. "Not it!" They both shouted at the same time, before Tessa shrugged and went back to work on her power armor. Sighing to himself at her behavior, Baker began mentally preparing his report to the Lieutenant. Probably better to keep the insubordinate woman from interacting with their leader anyway.
Nighttime activity:
[] Sparring/training with Hinata.
[] Write in.
[] Volunteer the group for a scouting mission.
[] South.
[] West.
[] North.
[] The pharmacy.
[] Find Cattleya and force her to join your group.
[] Talk about pets.
[] Write in.
[] Write in.
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A/N: Louise has now (mostly) completed her Firecloak spell. Louise learned Shaped Charge: Focuses the energy of an explosion in a singular direction. Sacrifices AOE for penetrating power.
