What Are You Doing Here? (Isla/Louis & Az/James)

[James Florian]

"Yes, I'm positive." James said in response to Azalea who looked at him as if he spouted another head. The truth was it was a lie, one of the biggest he's ever told. He did not want to go and break into the school records because there was just too many risks. He could get caught and be sent home in shame. Even if that didn't happen he could get detention, and once word of that reached home James could be pulled out of school by his mother. He wouldn't put that past her if she became too upset over the news that her little angel was being a troublemaker... again. So keeping that little tidbit of information in mind, James knew the stakes were a bit higher for him since he already had a pretty serious disciplinary record. And yet at the same time he didn't want to really back down. Yes he personally did not want to do it, but that feeling wasn't strong enough to make him recant his offer. It was weird. James couldn't really explain it, but he had a feeling it had to something to do with the princely nature everyone described him as having. Maybe it was the chivalry instilled in him that made him feel the need to put the "safety" of his friends above his own. Though he already knew he really just wanted to prove to Isla he didn't mean the nasty things he had said in the library that day. 

Plus in the back of his mind he still had that little smug thought about since he was a prince who was poised to take the throne, what could this school really do to him? Having powerful parents did have it's advantages sometimes. 

"I understand that if I get caught I can get into some serious trouble, but I'm willing to risk it. Who knows, maybe there'll be something that we didn't know before." James responded to Azalea's question, but he kept glancing between the two princesses. Both of them seemed to be in some sort of stage of disbelief, and James understood why. Here he was, the seemingly perfect prince who stuck to the rules for the most part, volunteering to get himself kicked out like he was instead offering to be the first one to present a project. He could understand Isla's silence and Azalea's questioning glance.

Though when Louis spoke up, James saw this whole plan crumble beneath their fingers which caused the prince to breath a silent sigh of relief. So now it looked like if the others agreed with what the shadow kid had to say then James wouldn't have to break all the school rules, but the memory of him offering too would still stay in their minds. It was a win-win for the Prince, but he had to at least appear as if he was still for the idea, "But what if they haven't gotten rid of it? What if one file in there holds the key to blowing this mystery wide open?" James questioned the group with an eyebrow raised. There. He did his part and he hopefully sold the act. Turns out the Shadow kid wasn't the only one who could lie. 

He listened to what Isla had to say and when she was done the prince cautiously asked, "Well where do you think the answer is?" It wasn't an accusation, it was just an honest question that popped up in his mind as she spoke. James himself had an idea of what Isla was talking about, but he still hoped he was wrong as he cautiously eyed the woods around them. 

Although James was somewhat okay with breaking the school ways, there was no way that he was going to break his promise to Grove. He told the lumberjack he would stay away from the woods. He promised him. He'd rather die than break his promise to his best friend. So James really hoped that Isla was not speaking of the forest. Because if she was, that would put him into a rather sticky situation...

[Azalea]

Well that wasn't quite what the princess wanted to hear. James was really set on doing this, and it didn't seem like there was any stopping him. He'd be expelled for sure if he got caught. The princess's pretty features formed a very worried look but she said nothing, feeling it pointless.

Thank goodness for a third party. When Louis spoke up, the relief washed over Azalea like a wave. She visibly relaxed as the harebrained scheme was set aside so definitely. She wracked her brains for an answer to Isla's statement. Where on earth should they look. What was she missing?

"The forest? Really? I've never been in, but I'm almost certain people live there. Remember the chimney smoke James?" She alluded to their earlier flight above the trees.

[Louis Facilier]

When Isla responded, Louis couldn't tell if she was lying or not. It was easy to feel the tension in the air, in fact it was impossible to ignore. It wrapped around each person in this group, fogging everyone's eyes and making it hard to breath. Like as if some monster lived in the hatred rolling off these two and if any of them moved, if any of them spoke, it would lunge out through the grey smog and attack them. So everyone was deathly still, waiting to see what would happen, who would be the first to move. Not so surprisingly, the one who felt the most at home in the lion's den was the poor, brave soul. He simply nodded at Isla and said quietly, "Alright." 

Just like that it seemed as if the "fog" disappeared as the topic was seemingly dropped. Not that it really was, because everyone could still sense it in the air, but the royals stopped speaking of the sudden lack of a friendship between the detention buddies. So that was Louis' signal to move on too, though didn't mean his curiosity dropped it too. 

He was actually rather surprised that the gems had bothered to listen to him at all, after all he was the odd man out here, but it had seemed if the princesses at least had listened to logic and decided that breaking into the school records was what it appeared to be to any outsider; a bad idea. "Yeah, you do." Louis then said to Isla with a slight grin, almost like he was playfully teasing her like Eli would, and he didn't mean any harm by it, nor was he trying to point something out, it was just a lighthearted thing to get them all to hopefully grin for a moment. This atmosphere was unnerving. "Not that it's a bad idea, it's just not a good one for right now." Louis clarified when Isla began to look crestfallen, which for some reason really bugged him, "Maybe it'll be better to bring that idea up again when you have something more concise like a name." He said with a slight shrug, carefully watching her to see if her reaction would change. 

The conversation did though, and Louis stepped back a bit to let the gems figure this one out. Frankly in his mind this plan was no better than the school records, but he wanted to see if they would figure that out themselves. If they were speaking of the forest, there was no way the three of them could cover enough ground in a timely manner. The woods were huge and were designed that way to keep outsiders out as well as keep the students penned in. If there really were strangers in the woods, the gems would never find them. They didn't know the outdoors. They knew palace walls instead.

He was tempted to say something,  but why would he end the fun of getting to see the prince's squeamish face as he regarded the forest around him. Ah is the little prince afraid of the dark woods? Louis slyly thought with a sly grin. Aristeides would love to hear that.

"The forest eh..." He said quietly as he waited for Isla to clarify so it still seemed as if the New Orleans native was still a part of the conversation.

[Isla Triton]

Isla wasn't sure if Louis believed her or not. But he accepted her answer and moved on, which she was grateful. Isla wasn't ready to discuss how just not alright she was. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk about the fight she'd had with James in front of James. It would be better to keep it to themselves.

Isla glanced up at Louis when he agreed that they were conspicuous. But it was playful and unexpected causing her to smile at him. She hadn't expected Louis to tease her. "Oh hush," she responded lightly. But she listened carefully to Louis' idea and she had to admit that it was a good one. She nodded. "That's a much better idea."

Isla looked at James alarmed. "The woods?" she asked. "I'm not going in there. That's an even worse idea than breaking and entering. She shook her head. "I could maybe get through a kelp forest, but a tree forest not so much. And you'd get lost too. Unless you know any woodsmen, there's no way to get in and out of that forest without getting lost. And it's not worth the trouble."

[James Florian]

James saw the worried look on Azalea's face and it took him a moment to realize she was worried about him. She was worried about what could happen if they really broke into the school records and how James would most likely be expelled if he was caught. However she didn't really need to worry, after all it seemed like Louis had convinced them all not to do it. Or at least not now. Besides even if he did get caught James could claim he got lost or he was sleepwalking. He wouldn't breathe a word of the real plan. The school would have to buy it or they would have one angry mother on their hands, because there was no doubt in his mind that his mother would buy whatever story her son gave her. Especially since they hadn't seen each other in so long. Sure he would feel guilty about lying to his own mother, but if it meant his friends didn't get into trouble and/or he didn't have to leave them then James could live with it.

"Chimney smoke?" James asked with a clearly puzzled face as he tried to recall whatever Azalea was taking about. When he did remember it was clearly shown as his expression changed. "Oh, yeah over the forest there was a tiny plume of smoke rising above the trees. It was earlier in the day and I don't remember seeing it on the way back. Did you Azalea?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. James certainly wasn't paying attention there was something bigger on his mind at the time, but that didn't mean Azalea wasn't.

When Isla and Louis decided to start teasing each other, James felt kind of awkward. As much as he disagreed with the pairing, with the way he was raised that was what was defined by his parents as a "personal moment." James was usually sent out of the room whenever his parents decided to be all lovey dovey or he just left. There were more interesting things to do then watch his parents be lovebirds after all.

However the teasing quickly stopped and Isla focused his attention on him. Immediately after she stopped speaking James threw his hands in the arm to show his innocence, "Hey I said nothing about the forest. I can't even go there anyway. I promised Grove I would stay away from there." He didn't care what the others thought about his reasoning, he swore to Grove what must've been a thousand times during their meeting in the gardens. Grove had his reasoning and James trusted it. He trusted Grove with his life.

"And before you ask, no Grove won't bring you guys out to the forest. He may be both a miner and a lumberjack, but not in these woods. He won't go anywhere near there." His eyes were slightly widened for reasons nobody, not even him, knew. Maybe it was just some sort of odd protective state his mind was in when Isla mentioned woodsmen and it being common knowledge that the dwarfs' son had been raised in the forest, but that was a good forest. It was a safe forest.

Seacombe Halpworth's? Not so much.

[Azalea]

"Alright, so not the records or the forest." Az said decisively "but where do we look. Every line of investigation has its risks. It's clear the school don't want us knowing but I'm not convinced they're fixing it either. They're just keeping people out of the village."

The princess had no idea what to do next. Seemingly they now had a "villain" on their team, though she wasn't sure she should call him that in front of Isla. Maybe that would help, or maybe it would hinder them further.

She also knew that the prom would be a major distraction for them all, perhaps they wouldn't do anything at all. But there was a little thought at the back of her mind that told her not to completely forget about this.

[Louis Facilier]

Louis grinned at Isla’s smile when he lightly teased her for being a princess and hence being the center of the spotlight. Luckily for him she didn’t figure that part out, that he wasn’t exactly being all friendly and whatnot, but hey why not just roll with it? No harm no foul, right?

He listened quietly as they fleshed out the forest idea only to have the prince shut it down. Which was undoubtedly a good thing too, because again it was a big forest and it only appeared to be the four of them. (Okay five if they dragged along this Grove guy the prince mentioned, but still that was besides the point.) There was too little of them and too large of a forest for them to feasibly search in a timely manner. So when Azalea asked what their next plan of action would be, Louis spoke up and suggested, “Why not stay here and see if anything going on in the village could be spotted? Like you know if they lead whoever they arrested out or if anyone of importance goes in?”

He paused for a moment before clarifying his idea, “The forest should give you reasonable cover and if you’re quiet enough you shouldn’t be caught. Besides the village seems to be the place where everything is currently happening. It would be foolish to go searching in other places when all of this just happened.” Louis said as he motioned towards the now closed off village. He carefully watched each of his new “comrades’” faces to see just exactly what they thought of this plan. Since after all they would be the ones to carry it out. Louis had no intentions of sticking around to watch the village of all things. He had better things to do after all.

{{Writer's Block DX}}

[Isla Triton]

"We're missing too many pieces of the puzzle," Isla said with a sigh. "And I don't know where to find the pieces we're missing." She shook her head. It was confusing and befuddling to not have any idea of where to begin, but they were looking for a pearl in 6 dozen oysters. And there was a chance there wouldn't even be a pearl to find.

Louis' suggestion was a good one and she looked at him appraisingly. She had underestimated him and she wished she had told him everything that was happening sooner. He was already a good ally. "But wouldn't we stand out like sore thumbs? They're going to have security up here within the hour to keep curious students away. We need a better vantage point where we won't be caught watching."

[Azalea]

Azalea was listening intently, hoping that someone would come up with a good idea. As Isla agreed with Louis and lacking a better option she piped up again. "There's a clearing not too far from here, we could go there till the bulk of security has passed and then continue on" she suggested, not mentioning how she knew that or how they had come to be there. Although she never asked, she assumed her carpet would be of some value to certain other people who she wasn't sure she trusted yet, whether her friend did or not.

"It's far enough in that I don't think we'd be seen but we could still hear everything. It might not be so good for seeing things though" she conceded, unsure of where exactly this was all going.