"-ouise?" A quiet voice whispered in her ear as the warmth of her blanket vanished. Slowly coming to, Louise looked down at the odd weight on her chest. Hinata stared back in confusion, a light sheen of sweat on her skin after sleeping under so much fabric together. "C-can you let go now?"
Running her eyes past Hinata's face, which was smushed into her chest, she realized that she was holding the other girl in place. Blushing at the awkward position, Louise refrained from her immediate response of shoving the girl off and instead let her arms fall to the side. Yawning while Hinata rolled off and slowly sat up, Louise rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "My apologies."
"N-no... it's alright." The Hyuga replied, her cheeks red with embarrassment.
Neither one of them said anything else for several minutes, just shuffling awkwardly in place. After another few minutes, during which the early morning light began to peek through the mesh at the top of the tent, Louise decided to just get on with the day. Removing her top, she coated the garment with a thick layer of Frost, scrunched the material together, then heated it with a low blast of fire. Having always had people to do it for her or at least a spare set of clothing to change into, the Vallière girl was unsure if the shirt would come clean from her actions, but surely it was better than nothing. Once the top was dry, she did the same with her trousers and socks... she'd have to find a replacement for her silken undergarments, as those would be ruined if she even tried.
Dressed once more, she turned to look at her companion. The younger girl was still wearing her shredded, blood encrusted clothing from the day before, the mid-shin length pants no longer doing much to protect the girl's modesty and her tan jacket was stained with dark blotches. Raising an eyebrow at the child's blushing and shuffling, Louise held out her hand. "Come on, let's go find wash that filth off of you, then I'll search for a change of clothes you can use."
Taking Hinata by the wrist, she led the two of them to the edge of the roof and telekinetically pulled a bottle of water from down below. Ignoring the startled noises of the peasant who'd donated the liquid, Louise forced the blushing girl to remove her soiled clothes and sat her down to wash as best she could. Taking a moment to tear the sleeves from her own shirt, she tossed the material next to the bottle and answered Hinata's questioning look with a shrug.
"I thought you might use them to scrub yourself. They were irritating my skin anyway." It was true, the fabric had been a minor nuisance since she'd gotten her Djinn therapy. "Just stay here and wash up, I'll be back soon."
Once she was sure her orders would be followed, she leapt off the roof in search of clothes. Over on the tower, she spied the Inuzuka boy fastening a large bowl to the top as Trobror used his orange wrist device to give instructions. Beyond those two were hordes of peasants, some helping set up machinery, some filling more of those earthen cubes, some clearing the courtyard and beginning to till the earth for crops. Cattleya was there as well, using alchemy... Halkeginian alchemy to gradually revitalize the soil in order to help the plants grow strong.
With her sister's work just beginning, Louise was hesitant to interrupt such an important process even ignoring her remaining irritation at the older woman and instead chose to seek out Espinoza. After all, X-com's 'fatigues' were both durable and comfortable, two important qualities to keep in mind when one travels with Master Cynric. Her school uniform had been all but tatters by the time she'd switched to her current choice of attire and she'd had it replaced twice at the estate!
She found the man using his powered armor to stack additional cubic barriers to create perpendicular walls along the perimeter. "What is the purpose of that?" She couldn't help but ask as she approached, catching the attention of the workers, including a blushing preteen who she sneered at when he sent a shy wave her way.
Thankfully her least hated commoner finished his task before the child could gather his courage for another try. "Good morning to you too,
Princesa." Espinoza greeted warmly, as if she'd waste her breath wishing him a good anything. At her cross-armed huff of annoyance, he laughed, "Fine, fine... we're partitioning sections of the wall to protect against artillery."
Looking at it with her extensive experience with explosions, she could imagine trying to blow up the base. The interior walls would probably force her to cast another time for each section if she wanted to kill everyone... well, if she didn't just put more magicka into it that is. Nodding in satisfaction, she moved on to the purpose of her visit. "Give me your clothes."
One of the women working on the wall gave a whistle and Espinoza choked. Blushing as she realized what she said, Louise stomped her foot and growled, "Not like that, you perverted animals! I need a spare change of clothes for Hinata!"
"Erm... Well, that's... good?" The large man struggled for words. Taking a deep breath to keep from maiming the idiots, she glowered at Espinoza. Not knowing what else to say, he tossed a set of keys. "My footlocker's in the first tent to the right of the command center, just lock up when you're done and don't... don't dig too deep, yeah?"
Relaxing her expression to only a slight scowl, she nodded in thanks and used Telekinesis to tug the woman who'd whistled off the wall. Walking toward her objective, Louise smirked at the peasant's expletive-laden shouts. It didn't take long to find the black trunk labeled with her commoner's name and she quickly divested the man of a full set of grey clothes. "Don't dig too deep, huh?"
Looking around for any witnesses, Louise reached a hand to the bottom of the container and felt the edges of a thin book underneath it all. Slowly lifting the book from beneath the assorted items, she wondered what the man could be hiding.
Is it a diary of embarrassing stories? A list of foes to be assassinated? Blackmail on Bradfort? Could he secretly be part of a hidden society of mages who'd ruled his world from the shadows, this being his book of spells and... and... and why isn't she wearing any clothes?!
Slamming the trunk closed, Louise tossed the flimsy book to the floor as if it had burned her. She watched as the thing bounced and landed open, a red haired woman winking back at her as if mocking her inferior proportions.
------------------------------------
For the first time since she'd returned and let the invisibility fade, Hinata spoke. "Ano... are... are you-"
"I still have time to grow!" Louise snapped, one eye twitching as she watched the peasants scramble to stop the fire from spreading to the nearby tents. None of them could prove she'd done anything.
"I-I didn't say... I wasn't... I'm sorry." The younger girl said, ducking her head. Espinoza's clothes were far too large for her and it was rather ridiculous how tiny she looked with her arms barely reaching the middle of her sleeves. They'd had to cut off much of the pants just to stop her from tripping. It almost distracted Louise from the fact that after helping Hinata change, she could now add a thirteen year old to the list of those with more feminine figure than her.
Sighing, the pinkette put those thoughts aside and gave Hinata the best smile she could. It was rather pathetic. "No, I am. I didn't mean to yell at you. Are you sure you'll be fine with those? I could find something else, I'm sure."
"N-no, it's OK." Hinata replied with a shy smile of her own, the excess fabric of her sleeves flopping around as she waved her arms in denial. "This is perfect."
Louise gave her a strange look, but didn't argue against it. If her friend was happy with dressing that way, so be it. She didn't have it in her to upset the girl after nearly killing her yesterday, even if Vicky said it wasn't her fault... A noble is responsible for those under their command, after all. "Follow me, I need to introduce you to Vahlen."
The two of them quickly reached the doctor's lab, not having been bothered by Bradfort thanks to Espinoza's burning tent distracting him. Walking down the stairs with a hand in Hinata's to ease her nervousness, Louise knocked on the newly installed door. It was a few moments until a petite blonde woman answered. "Hello?"
"Greetings, we're here to speak with Doctor Vahlen." The pinkette replied smoothly, noting the blonde's panicked expression upon realizing who was at the door.
"Er... right this way." The blonde said, motioning them through the door. "My name's Carol, I work in high energy physics with Rupert and Hwang."
Nodding casually, Louise looked around at the polished metal gadgets and colorful vials. When they passed through the spot where a large vault door hung open, she guessed that the woman was waiting for a response. "Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, though I assume you already knew that."
"Umm... Yeah, I was in your class on potions back... back on Earth." Carol admitted. "It's no problem if you forgot, I sat in the back anyway."
"I wouldn't have remembered if you'd sat in the front." Louise shrugged, causing the blonde to slump her shoulders. When Hinata squeezed her hand, Louise looked at her and saw her pale eyes flick between Louise and Carol. Sighing, the pinkette said, "It's nothing personal, I simply don't care to memorize the names and faces of every useless commoner I meet."
Turning to Hinata to see the younger girl giving her a look of disappointment, Louise mouthed, 'What?' and got a shake of the head in return. Frowning, she pulled her hand free and decided to ignore them both as they waited for another door to open. When it did, she saw a large room with a table in the center and various spinning machines around the walls. In one corner was her Master, floating in a tank of Meld that sat on a small cart with wheels. Vahlen stood in front of the tank, injecting a red liquid into a small opening on the tank with one hand and holding her datapad with the other.
Not even turning around, the doctor asked, "Yes, what is it?"
"Hinata was injured yesterday and I thought it might be best if I brought her to see you." Louise answered, too used to Vahlen's personality to bother with being irritated at the lack of manners. "I healed her, but her wounds were submerged in one of the local bandit's blood and other fluids... I don't think my healing spell does anything for disease."
"I see... Very well, I will just need to finish up here, then we can run some tests." Vahlen replied, a disconcerting smile on her face at the mention of disease. "Up on the table, child. No need to worry, you wouldn't even be at the infectious stage yet, there will be plenty of time to study you."
The two girls exchanged worried looks, but Louise shrugged and nodded. Leaning in toward Hinata, Louise whispered, "Master Cynric seems to trust her."
"Indeed he does. I assure you girls, you have nothing to fear from me." The doctor said from across the room, doing anything but reassuring them by somehow managing to overhear what should have been a private message. "Carol, administer a tetanus vaccination while the girl waits. You can run along now, Louise... unless you wish to volunteer?"
"Don't leave me!" Hinata mewled, reaching out in desperation. Louise pretended not to hear her and made a hasty retreat. She'd heard all about how the doctor treated her volunteers from Espinoza.
Choose 2:
[] Attempt disenchanting the Levitation Vest to learn it's enchantment. (75% chance of success.)
[] Find replacement armor.
[] Spend time with-
[] Victoria.
[] Write in.
[] Practice magic:
[] Fire Cloak.
[] Alchemy research.
[] New spell effect: Write in.
[] Help set up defenses.
[] Write in.
