Ol' Louis Facilier had a.... Cow? (Crack Thread -- Isla)

[Louis Facilier]

Louis knew this school was weird. There was no denying it, not when you could see it in the students, teachers, and even the classes! This however was a first. This had definetely never happened before and brought the weirdness of this school to a whole new level. 

A cow had been found on the school grounds and it seemed to be attached to the heel of the most unlikely person campus, Louis Facilier. 

Louis had been the one to find it as he left his dorms a little earlier than the others to see if the village was open yet for him to grab some decent food and there it was on the woodland path just standing right in the middle fully intent on blocking Louis' path. Now the villain had tried to get the ugly, smelly, mutated horse to get out of his way, but it only worked to a moderate degree. It only moved so it could now follow Louis everywhere he went, baying softly as if he believed the shadow kid was his mother.

 It annoyed Louis to no end understandably, after all how was he supposed to keep up his evil bad guy rep if there was a stupid little cow following him everywhere? But nothing he did worked. He could run away, yell at it, even god forbid hit it, but it just followed him around like a lost puppy. So he decided to try a new tactic, ignoring it. 

He lied down on a garden bench, covered his face with his father's old cap, and tried to feign sleep; but there the ugly beast still stood not five feet away, mooing like the idiot it was. It tried moving closer, to nip at Louis' hat or clothes to get his attention, but he just swatted it away. It had to get the message eventually didn't it? 

Louis was glad nobody else was around, then nobody could see this hilarious yet completely frustrating sight. 

Too bad he was wrong in this assumption.

[Isla Triton]

Isla liked spending time in the gardens because they were an excellent place to start a still life drawing of the plants. Also, the plants in the garden were fascinating as compared to the garden she had grown up with and helped to carefully tend alongside both of her mothers.

But Isla was not expecting to find a big animal in the garden bothering a person. Although it didn't seem to be attacking, it was a fairly large creature. She peered at it and carefully edged closer to it, never keeping her eyes off it. Just in case it did attack she would like to be prepared to run away.

"What kind of animal is that?" Isla called to the person on the bench. She couldn't quite see who it was as the animal was obscuring them from view. "Will it bite? Or charge?" She hugged her sketchpad close to her chest. She didn't want to get too close to an animal that was going to hurt her of course.

[Louis Facilier]

When Louis heard another voice, almost immediately his body snapped right back up into a sitting position. Somebody had seen him with the beast, they were going to tell the whole school, and he'll never hear the end of it from anybody. Those stupid gems who thought they were better than him would tease him about it, the villains wouldn't take him seriously, and the sidekicks would take the gem's teasing to a whole other level. (Since after all they were sidekicks, what else would they have to do with their pathetic lives?) So Louis had to know exactly who saw them and what kind of deal he would have to make to shut their mouths. 

He was tense, rigid as a board you may even say, for a moment before he realized who it was and he visibly relaxed at the sight of the mermaid princess. She wouldn't go blabbing to the entire school that a calf was following him around. Isla wasn't that type of girl. "Ahh Isla I'm sorry I didn't see you there." He said as an attempt to make it seem like Louis was totally not annoyed and embarrassed to have a farm animal following him everywhere. He then reached down to the ground to collect his hat from where it had landed on the ground, and effectively saving it from the curious calf's disgusting, cud ridden tongue. He smoothly placed it back on his head, but apparently the brown speckled beast liked the hat so it craned it's neck towards the voodoo bokor's head where upon realizing that he couldn't reach it, the cow began to moo pitifully at the boy on the bench. Some would describe the sight as cute, but not Louis. The cow was smelly, and it was his hat. It was his father's hat. He'd rather walk on a bed of nails rather than let this, this thing anywhere near his hat. 

He lightly shoved the cow's head aside in hopefully what was a clear message of it backing off, but it was a baby. Babies listened to no one. So it kept reaching for the hat, as if it would suddenly grow as Louis looked over at the princess giving a soft faked smile to try and play off this situation as nothing at all. However to his surprise she seemed to be scared of it more than anything. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, clearly confused by her reaction until it dawned on him once more that she had probably never seen a cow before. She was the mermaid princess after all. "It's a stupid, smelly beast that doesn't know how to bug off!" Louis explained letting his frustration shine through as he tried pushing the cow away again. "But everyone else seems to call it a cow, or more specifically a calf." He clarified with a quick brush of his hair out of his eyes were the wavy locks had slipped out from beneath the hat's brim. Yeah try and act cool pretty boy, as if anyone can make being pestered by a little cow in front of a princess look anything less than embarrassing. You can try, Louis. You can most certainly try. 

"No. no it shouldn't." He reassured with a small shake of the head when Isla questioned him on what the cow was capable of doing. He paused for a minute before adding with a slightly puzzled look on his face, as if he wasn't sure of his own answer, "At least I don't think it's supposed too." Truth was Louis didn't know much about cows. He was a city boy after all, never setting foot out of New Orleans in his life. Cows weren't exactly a common sight in the french quarter after all. He thought for a few seconds as to how he could get rid of this stinky creature when an idea dawned on him. It wasn't the best, and it was sort of mean, but Louis really wanted to keep his hat so he said in the calmest and kindest voice he could muster given the situation, "Why don't you come over here and pet it? It won't hurt you, it's just a baby after all." He even threw in a shrug for reinforcement. 

He wanted the creature to imprint on Isla, let it follow her around all day. It was a baby animal after all, wasn't girls supposed to like those sort of things anyway?

[Isla Triton]

Isla watched as the person snapped up at her voice. She was astonished to find that it was Louis. Louis who didn't seem like the type to hang out with large animals. And he seemed surprised to see her there too.

She seriously considered the animal that Louis had identified as a cow. She'd heard sailors call manatees the cows of the sea, but this strange beast didn't look at all like a manatee. Manatees were fat and slow and good pals when all things were said and done. But then Louis did say that he didn't think it was going to bite her.

She tucked her sketchpad into her sharkskin bag and tentatively stepped towards the cow, reaching one hand out to settle on it's back. "Oh, it's furry." She stroked the cow gently. "It doesn't look too dangerous," she decided.

She smiled up at Louis. "Where did you find it? I didn't think we had any farm animals here,"she said, curious. Cows didn't just turn up out of nowhere. Someone was probably missing it, but it was kind of sweet even if it didn't look like a manatee.

[Louis Facilier]

“Yeah most farm animals have hair on them. Even the pigs believe it or not.” The New Orleans native elaborated when Isla seemed to be genuinely surprised that the cow had fur. Though he didn’t explain that all mammals had fur on them, because honestly Louis didn’t want to embarrass her or himself if it turned out that she did/did not know that little tidbit. No doubt the mermaid princess would have a chance to learn at a different time, or if it became clear she didn’t know it Louis would fill her in. He shook his head no when she also stated that it didn’t look dangerous, as he said, “No, it’s not dangerous. Just annoying and smelly.” He said as he waved a hand in front of his face. It was true the beast smelled. But it was a cow, what could Louis honestly expect.

"It was just in the woods." Louis responded with a shrug when Isla quizzed him on where the cow had come from. "The stupid thing was just standing in the middle of the path like an idiot. I tried to get it to move and it worked, just maybe a little too well." He shot the beast the dagger eyes as he said this. Inside he was practically seething that the cow had dragged him into this mess. Of course this cow would follow him around the school, and ruin his reputation as one of the school’s most terrifying villains. Then on top of that it just had to embarrass him in front of one of the school’s prettiest girls. (If not the prettiest.) He just wanted to strangle the creature or even better yet send it to a slaughterhouse and get some delicious t-bone steaks in return. However he kept his emotions in check, letting only a scowl and frustrated tone of voice show how he really felt about the beast. Why? He already knew that Isla was a huge animal lover. Within minutes she would absolutely fawning over the creature and she would have absolutely no problem taking it off his hands. Or at least that’s what he hoped would happen.

“So what do you think?” He asked in regards to of Isla’s opinion of the beast and a hopefully he would get an indicator to whether or not Isla would get attached to the cow or not. Thought the other way around would even be better.

Meanwhile the cow had momentarily lost interest in the voodoo bokor and turned his attention to the girl stroking it’s back. He turned around and shoved it’s face in her hand,rubbing the top of it’s head against the soft skin. It was a clear indication that it wanted her to scratch behind it’s ears almost like how a puppy or a kitten would command a human’s attention. Which was it basically was just on a bigger scale. His eyes though continued to watch Louis and it continued to pathetically moo at the boy for reasons only he understood.


[Isla Triton]

Isla hadn't realized that farm animals had fur. She was used to animals having scales or smooth skin and the few animals they had near by the school were birds and small forest animals. And they had horses as well, but those were large and skittish, so Isla tended to stay away from them. But other animals she wasn't sure of. "I didn't know that. Land animals are so weird."

She smiled, glancing up at Louis when he mentioned what a smelly animal the cow was. It did have a strong odor, but Isla didn't think it was worse than the horses. Maybe all land animals had a peculiar scent that people didn't like. "He's not so bad," she told Louis. She didn't mind so much.

It was pretty strange that a cow would be out in the woods by itself. Especially if it was only a baby like Louis had said. "I wonder what it was doing there?" she wondered, continuing to stroke the cow softly. Fur was kind of nice to touch and pet. It was different, but she liked it. "So now he's following you around like a little duckling," she deduced. "He's imprinted on you. Thinks you're his mother maybe?" she suggested with a teasing smile.

She happily stroked the cow's ears, scratching at it like she might scratch a dog. "He's pretty cute," she admitted, moving to stroke the side of the cow's neck. "He reminds me of the manatees back home. They're pretty docile like this too, but they're a bit rounder and flatter. I like manatees too."

[Louis Facilier]

Louis smirked at Isla’s comment about land animals being weird. It was true, every section of the animal kingdom had some weird oddity in it, from the birds of paradise with their weird butt feathers to frogs that can freeze themselves to survive winter. There were also the colorful baboons and flying squirrels in some parts of the world. Animals were like humans. There was a whole lot of them and all of them were so completely different. Even though some species may be “weird” and some were viewed as “normal,” each animal has their own personality and quirks like the cat that likes a particular spot in a house or a dog that only howls in her sleep. They were all different, and they were all weird in their own unique and awesome ways. None of them were truly “normal” after all no two snowflakes are alike so the same should be said about living breathing creatures.

“Yeah, you could say they are.” He said with a small chuckle as he thought about all the different types. “However,” Louis continued, “They got nothing on your type of animals. Hammer Sharks, puffer fish, that scary blob thing, you’re fishes are just as weird.” He lightly teased as named off all sorts of kooky creatures from the depths of the ocean. Land animals, ocean fishes, they were all weird, but it was a good weird. Otherwise everybody would only have trout swimming around and that’s no fun now is it?

He scoffed at her insistence that the beast didn’t smell. “Not so bad? He smells like manure! I can’t have that scent dogging me all day, it’s so disgusting!” Louis countered with a disbelieving tone as he regarded the mermaid princess and smelly knock off horse. Of course Isla wouldn’t mind it. She had never been around cows before. If only Louis could’ve been that lucky. He knew what a herd of cows smelled like when they got together. It was disgusting and it was all over this calf. Bah Louis would rather eat a thousand raw onions and then not brush his teeth for a week than be around cows and that's saying something since the voodoo bokor took an immense amount of pride in his appearance!

Louis just shrugged when Isla questioned what the cow was doing in the woods in the first place, who knew, who really cared. The lad just wanted it gone and he didn’t want to see it again unless it was on a dinner plate. Yes, yes Louis has no heart. I’m pretty sure we figured that out long ago. However Isla didn’t quite learn that little fact yet, and Louis had no intention on letting that change anytime soon so he never voiced that notion. The mermaid loved animals, no doubt she would be appalled if she realized that Louis only saw the cow as a piece of veal. (Which technically it was thank you very much.) Though maybe he could have done a better job at hiding his disdain when Isla mentioned the cow might think Louis was, god forbid, it’s mother.

Louis practically leapt off the bench with an expression that was a comic mixture of horror and disbelief. It was a funny sight especially with the next words to leave his mouth, “Oh hell nah! I ain’t got no milk!” He exclaimed for the first time ever he let his natural southern accent shine through and jumble up his words until they were undecipherable or at least they were to people who didn’t spend much time around those that spoke in such a way… Like Isla Triton. Oh this poor girl and what her not-boyfriend put her through.

He remained a little bit crazy dare I say when Isla went on to say how the animal was cute. “Take it then, because I don’t want it. I don’t want a cow following me all day.” He said with a slight southern accent, it was as obvious as the previous statement, but Isla would still pick up on it easily. (He is a New Orleans native after all, did you not expect him to have one?) As for the offer, he was serious. He didn’t want the cow. Isla liked the cow. So it was a perfect situation in his mind. Isla gets her cutesy animal and Louis got rid of a pest. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

[Isla Triton]

Isla scratched the cow affectionately. She smiled at Louis at his comment about sea animals. Humans didn't even know the half of it when it came to life under the sea. She had heard stories of squids bigger than her uncle's naval ships. Stories of deep sea creatures that glowed in the dark waters to catch their prey. "If only you knew," she replied with a grin. "There are stories of a pod of mermaids that live in the deep water, so black you can't see your hand in front of your face. And it's said that they're skin is so pale it is translucent."

Isla giggled at that. Humans hated the smell of manure, but Isla didn't think it was nearly as bad as the smell of rotten seaweed on the beach after a storm. "It's not as bad as rotting fish," she told him with a gentle smile. She shrugged. "I've run across a couple other things worse than manure."

Isla looked up in surprise when Louis jumped up suddenly, alarmed. Her eyes widened as he exclaimed something in a thick accent she had never heard him use before now. Her hands stilled on the cow as she looked at Louis strangely. "What?" she asked, looking as bewildered as she felt.

Isla then proceed to give Louis a look like he was crazy. "Take him?" she asked in disbelief. "I take the cow. I don't know the first thing about cows. We should just turn it over to the school and let them deal with it."

[Louis Facilier]

“Sure.” Louis responded in a slightly sarcastic, but completely non-believing way when Isla claimed that there were translucent fish out there somewhere in the deep blue sea. Louis honestly believed it was nonsense because after all back in the Great Depression fish like that wouldn’t be discovered for another year or so. Even then it wouldn’t be thought as true, unless Louis ever saw it right in front of him he’d always regard something as outlandish as it sounds as pure fiction. “I’m sorry, but I honestly think the palest thing in the world is that Florian kid and you still can’t see through him.” He laughed a bit at his own joke, but quickly shut his mouth when he remembered that Isla was not a villain. She would not find his joke all that funny, especially since the last time he checked they had at the very least mutual friends if they weren’t friends themselves.

Just the mere mention of rotten fish made Louis feel sick to his stomach. What kind of conversation was this? Why with the topics being transparent mermaids, manure, and now rotten fish it was just setting themselves up for one of them to puke. Which was just as disgusting as everything else discussed so far and that stupid cow combined. (However Louis also didn’t forget about the benefit of puking as well, it meant that he could get out of classes for a day or two which to any teenager was a godsend.) “Don’t remind me.” Louis said with a disgusted look on his face, he knew what fish smelled like. Fish is everywhere in New Orleans and although it tasted okay, the smell. The smell was awful. “They’re are plenty of more disgusting things out there for sure, but honestly in this place? This is probably the worst smell you can run across.” He then went to cover his nose because the cow’s filthy smell and disgusting memories in his head were about to overwhelm the poor kid.

However these thoughts were shoved out of his head when Isla questioned his moment of southerness. So instead of him hiding his face out of fear that he was going to barf, he hid it because he was afraid of the blush crawling up his cheeks. He never really ever let anyone hear his southern drawl, but it was quite frankly embarrassing. It sounded crude and rough, not the refined clear tone his job required in order to get people to trust him before he robbed ‘em blind. Now he couldn’t exactly do that if he sounded like he just crawled out of the bayou now could he? In addition he honestly hated it. He thought it made him sound like for some reason that he wasn’t smart enough, wasn’t worthy, of attending the same school as future kings and queens. It made him different, and any teenager would tell you that being different was a bad thing, yes it was a very bad thing indeed. So Louis hid the accent. He mimicked the clear accents of the students around him, and at some point it just became natural to speak as if he was from the North rather the South. However there were moments where his roots came back to bite him in the butt. This was one of those times.

“That was… uh my accent.” Louis said sheepishly while rubbing his neck, both of which made it clear that he didn’t want to speak about this topic. He was silent for a moment thinking that Isla would get it, but then he rushed to explain once he remembered that Isla probably didn’t run into many different accents under the ocean where her entire “country” was just one city. “As you know I’m from New Orleans, which is only a tiny part of my entire country the United States. Surely you remember this from those books I made you read, right? Anyway the United States is so big that the people who live there break it up into general regions which include the North, East, West and the South. Each area has it’s own different way of speaking, it’s all the same language it’s just the pronunciations that are different. That was the South’s accent you heard, it’s the most distinct of the different accents. I don’t really like it though, it’s hard to understand sometimes.” Louis finished his little monologue with a small shrug. He paused for a moment for the fish princess to soak it all in before moving on to explain why she heard it just then and never before. “I trained myself to not to use it because it’s just easier, you know, but sometimes if I’m really pissed or shocked it’ll just slip out. Like just now.” He finished with an indifferent expression on his face. Some people would view it as Louis trying to hide who he is or trying to change his identity --which was what he was totally trying to do for the record-- however that’s not how Louis saw it as. In his eyes he was just taking a bad part about him and just making it better. Better for the ears, better for his job, but a disaster for his cultural identity.

He shrugged and leaned back against the bench before saying in response, “Well neither do I, not every human is a farmer anymore after all.” They used to be, but people evolved to have factories and cities, there was barely any room in the Crescent City for a garden, let alone an entire farm. However she did present a good idea. (Well it was good for the students, bad for the cow because for all they knew the school could just turn the calf over to the kitchens.) “I guess that’s a good idea though, but are you sure you want to do that? This place has an awful track record for caring about it’s students. Who knows what happens with the animals. We never see them after all.” He said with an eyebrow raised. As much as he hated the beast, he didn’t want to deal with the guilt trip the two of them would find themselves on the next time cheeseburgers were on the lunch menu.

[Isla Triton]

Isla shrugged at Louis, her smile amused. She wasn't sure she believed the stories herself, but t was the ocean. Weird sea creatures could always be found in the ocean. That was just the way things were. She'd also never been allowed in such deep water because no one knew what lurked where the light couldn't reach. "Jellyfish are transparent," she told him confidently. "And don't tease James. He can't help being pale anymore than I can help being a mermaid."

Isla had to laugh at the disgusted look on Louis' face, as if he was remembering the smell vividly. Isla herself wasn't a fan of rotten fish, but she wasn't about to conjure up the smell in a vivid memory. She shrugged. "I don't know. He's doesn't smell half so bad as teenage boys sometimes," she teased playfully. There was some truth in her words though. Some boys didn't bathe often enough.

Isla hadn't meant to upset Louis with her question or embarrass him. She had just been taken completely by surprise. People didn't usually speak one way and abruptly change to something else entirely. A person's way of speaking didn't generally change, or at least not much in one moment. It might change gradually over time, but not all at once.

She nodded as he explained about accents and she started to grin. Her mom had a different accent than most of the merfolk in Atlantica. She had been part of a pod of nomadic merfolk that traveled the ocean. "I know what accents are," she told him, a bit amused. "We have them too. You should hear the accent in Pacifica. It's very different."

She tilted her head to one side, considering Louis and his words. He had changed his accent. She wondered at that. "Why wouldn't you want your own accent?" she asked. "You seem so proud to be from New Orleans. Why would you want to cover that up?" She couldn't understand why anyone would change something that seemed so trivial.

"Of course not," Isla agreed amused again. She knew enough about humans to know that just because they lived on land didn't mean they knew everything about the land and creatures that lived there. She gave the cow an affectionate pat on the head. "I don't think there are animals, other than the horses. And besides, they'll have some fresh beef to feed us. I don't know about you, but I quite enjoy beef."

[Louis Facilier]

"But you can still see those in the water, they're opaque. Not transparent." Louis countered when Isla tried to pass off Jellyfish as completely see through creatures. He may not be a water dweller like the princess, but even he knew a thing or two about the ocean. After all the New Orleans streets always stunk of fish and the city was below sea level. Fish was such a common thing in his home and he had seen a jellyfish before. They were pink, squishy and only see through if you squinted while you looked at it. Not at all like the mermaids Isla was trying to get him to believe in. He could also tell that he crossed a line when Isla scolded him on teasing that kid named after flowers. "Sorry, sorry. I'm a villain remember? They've trained us to insult the princes every chance we get." Louis said as he held his arms up in mock innocence. It was true after all. The villains were told to treat the royals like crap, Isla was the only exception to this for Louis.

He was also a little hurt by the comment that teenaged boys smelled worse than the cow. "Hey! I don't smell as bad as that thing. I showered today." He trailed off a bit at the end, folding his arms against his chest in annoyance. The cow smelled bad, Louis did not. It was Louis's job after all to make a good impression and smelling like a dumpster or in this case a cow was not a part of that. No doubt now Isla was going to lecture him on how now he knew how James felt for being insulted since he was too, bah. He didn't need a lecture on being nice or on hygiene. He had long accepted that he was one, and judging by his well kempt appearance he also had the other one under control.

"Oh." He simply responded when Isla stated that Alantica also had accents just like the United States did. It confused him a little though, based on what he already knew about the underwater kingdoms. "I thought you said though that it was just Atlantica, so wouldn't there be no accents?" He asked clearly confused because of the conflicting information she was giving him. Atlantica didn't sound like a big enough place for multiple accents, but maybe the ocean worked differently than the surface world. Maybe somehow also having legs effected the voice box too, which did sort of happen in Ariel's story, didn't it? 

However soon the conversation turned to Isla's questions for him about his accent that made him uncomfortable again. She already knew about the discrimination she had faced back home for the way he looked, however she didn't know about outcasting here about the way he sounded. "It makes me different." Louis said quietly as his eyes trailed down to his shuffling feet, clearly uncomfortable with the way this conversation was going. "When I first came here I talked in my southern accent, but no one could understand what I was saying because it was just so thick. Not to mention it was impossible to decipher when I started speaking French as well." He said with a small shrug before moving on to explain the real reason why he had worked hard on copying the accent everyone else here had, one that was understandable, that was accepted with open arms. "The other villains. well even at twelve they were quick to jump into their roles. They gave me such a hard time about the way I talked because nobody else at the school spoke like I did. It was just me. So they teased and made fun of me. I knew reasoning wasn't going to work, so I just changed to make them shut up." He concluded before he added quietly, more for himself rather than Isla, "It's been years since I heard myself talk like that." Louis could remember him being a little twelve year old boy standing in front of the mirror trying to copy how everyone else spoke and watching to see how his mouth moved to make the sound so he would learn to tuck away the one undesirable thing about his appearance away into the darkness rather than just embracing it like he should have. However after years of being discriminated against because he had different skin and no parents, little Louis was pretty desperate to be accepted somewhere for once in his life.

If Louis was drinking or eating when Isla said her last comment, he would have choked. He was just so surprised and shocked at what she said, Isla the animal lover being willing to send this little cow to it's death? "Who are you and what have you done with the Isla I know?" He asked with a small nervous laugh completely blindsided by this statement just like how he was surprised that Isla liked to eat fish. As much as Louis liked a good hamburger, he didn't want to see the beast on his plate. "I don't know Isla, I might have actually grown fond of the little guy," He said with a small laugh as the beast walked back over to the villain and started reaching for his hat again, baying softly at the villain. As if it's moos could convince Louis to hand over his precious hat. Not in a million years bovine.  

[Isla Triton]

"Not all of them," she replied rolling her eyes. It was just like a human to tell her what ocean animals looked like even though she was the one that actually lived with them. "Some of them are transparent. Some are opaque." As a mermaid she probably knew more about what happened in the ocean than any human ever would.

Isla raised an eyebrow at the remark about being trained to insult the princes. She herself was being trained to do many things at this school as well, but that didn't mean she was going to just take their word on it. "And we're not suppose to give villains the time of day either, but I'm an independent person who can make those kind of decisions for myself." In her opinion, the school was trying to turn them into mindless little drones who only understood how to be their assigned roles, but Isla wasn't going to fall into that trap.

She laughed at how put out Louis looked. "I didn't mean you specificlly. I was only teasing anyway," she explained with a smile. "Don't be offended. You're one of the boys with better hygiene habits anyway."

"Oh," Isla said, realizing that Louis didn't understand what she meant. "Oh, no, Atlantica is a city. It's kind of like the capitol city of the ocean, if that makes sense. My grandfather rules from Atlantica, but the ocean is so big that merfolk live all over the place. There are lots of cities. And there are plenty of nomadic merfolk as well who travel with the currents. My mom was nomadic before she met Mother." She hoped that explained everything a bit better. The ocean was a big place and mermaids of all kinds lived in every part of the ocean.

She became solemn though when Louis started to explain. He looked so uncomfortable telling her all this, but he was still telling her when he could have told her to mind her own business. Her heart went out to him. She could only imagine how awful the teasing was for him. She couldn't relate to that exactly, but she knew what it was like to not fit in. "That's awful," she told him softly because she didn't know what else to say. "I'm sorry."

Isla let the cow beg Louis for attention before she could respond. "Louis, back home I have to hunt if I want to eat," she told him with a bemused smile. "Animals have to be dead before you can eat them, after all. I don't know why that's so surprising. We're hunters. It'show we survive."

[Louis Facilier]

"But you can still see them if you look close enough." Louis countered uselessly. At this point he basically had to admit that Isla won because he didn't know anything about the ocean, but let's keep in mind Louis was a guy. Guys are known for doing stupid things all in the name of pride, especially continuing arguments they've already lost. Louis could admit defeat, but then he would have to admit to himself that he, Louis Facilier the only person on earth destined to follow his father's voodoo legacy, had lost to a princess. It didn't matter that Isla was different than other princesses or that he sorta, maybe, kind of liked her. At the end of the day she was princess, and he was a villain. His friends were the offspring of the world's scum and he was expected to be one of the worst because of the fact his dad was one of the worst. So he wasn't going to give in so easily, not this time.

There was also another indicator that Isla was nothing like the other princesses here, she completely rejected her princess status here. It was so easy for her to reject who they wanted her to be, but unfortunately Louis couldn't afford that luxury. Being a villain was the closest thing he had to a true identity here. If he tried to be good it didn't feel right, because he wasn't supposed to do it. Before coming here he was told that he was nothing. A penniless biracial orphan on the streets of Great Depression Era New Orleans? He didn't stand a chance. But here he was the son of Doctor Facilier, greatly feared villain and powerful Voodoo Bokor. Here he was worth something, sure it may come at a hefty price, but it was so worth it after being nothing for so long. He had to clasp onto this with both hands, drive his nails into it, and come fire or rain he wasn't going to let it go. He was never going to let it go, not in a million years.

So he didn't say anything, but instead looked away as his jaw tightened in an attempt to not spit out his true feelings again and have another disaster like what had happened in Minnie's Homemade Treats. Isla may feel as if she had a choice because she did, but Louis didn't. He had already changed, he went from the pitiful orphan Louis Baptiste to the powerful villain Louis Facilier and he had no intention on ever going back. Not over his dead body.

It was a relief though to hear that he smelled better than both the cow and other teenaged boys. He took a little pride in that and he openly relaxed in response to hearing that. He shot Isla a smile and said "Why thank you, unlike the others in Avalon hall I do know what soap is." He also added a small laugh in there. Sure it was poking fun at the other guys, but he wasn't naming names this time. Louis could be speaking about another villain, a hero, or possibly a sidekick. It didn't matter though, the whole hall absolutely reeked of sweaty, overactive hormones, and filthy garbage. There was a reason after all that Avalon hall explicitly stated that girls couldn't enter while Tintagel hall just merely suggested the boys stay out. This school expected the girls to be dainty little things that faint at the sight of blood, evil, or anything that hasn't been cleaned in a month. (Luckily though everyone was tougher than that.) While the guys just got a shrug since "boys will be boys." That included spending very spare moment playing sports or doing other sweaty disgusting activities that made them "men." It was really unfair and extremely sexist in his eyes. The other guys might be able to see how unfair everything was, but they couldn't understand it like Louis. He too knew how biased people could be over things they had no control over. Isla and the other girls should really go to the council over this, sure they probably won't listen at first, but if they were persistent enough or could get their parents involved maybe something would change. The school would surely listen to the kings and queens that paid their children's scholarship in full and gave monthly donations to students like Louis who weren't lucky enough to be rolling in cash. If the parents heard how awful this school was at education then they would no doubt pull their kids out and that would be a loss for the school with each precious gem lost. That seemed to be how the world worked anyhow, as long as people had money they thought they could do whatever the hell they wanted, but the moment that pile was threatened they would bow to any demand to keep it safe.

He nodded in understanding once Isla explained what Alantica was in comparison to the rest of the ocean. Immediately it made him think of Washington D.C. and how even though it was tucked away into one corner of the country, it still controlled everything and how rarely the president --their version of a king-- would rarely go more than a couple of states away from their white house. "So there's the capital and nomads, does that mean there are other cities scattered throughout the ocean or is it just Atlantica?" Louis asked curiously trying to get a full grasp onto how Isla's world was structured. Was it just one big city in an endless ocean? He didn't think so, that didn't make sense after all it was the ocean. There should be more than one city, but maybe there wasn't. He didn't know. Louis didn't live under the sea like Isla did. He only ate the fish that came out of it.

It was clear by Isla's tone that she had nothing else to say other than the old, annoying fall back of "I'm sorry." It was so clear by her over-caring tone and pained expression that it was the best she could come up with. He kind of wanted to snap at her like he did with Cosimia about not giving him that crap. However Cosi wasn't Isla. Even when she was emotional, Cosimia listened to reason. Isla? Not so freaking much. If he so much as voiced his frustrations at Isla he knew she would storm off and as much as he hated this conversation he like her presence. It made him feel strangely happy, despite the bad memories fresh in his mind. Oh it didn't make sense and he was so confused. However he saw a way to end it with a simple shrug as he said as nonchalantly as he could, "Whatever. It's in the past." He then tipped the hat back over his eyes and leaned back on the bench as if to solidify his stance on not caring one bit while it made him want to scream out in frustration. Hopefully the facade would work, otherwise he would have to work on his acting skills before he went back to New Orleans once again.

Louis scratched the cow behind it's ears, similar to how you would treat a dog before he said rather plainly, "But you don't play with your food before you kill it!" Not to mention Louis really doubted that Isla went out hunting for fish, she was a princess after all, there were other people to do that for her. However he didn't dare voice his thinking on that. It was like walking on eggshells with Isla, she did claim that she wasn't like a princess, she wasn't like a princess over and over again. But the moment you dared to mention royal duties or said something she disagreed with she would have a royal meltdown. Isla didn't care what people thought, she was always right while everyone else was wrong. She could do whatever she wanted, but the moment someone else stepped a toe out of line she became the queen of hearts from wonderland. Not to mention that she called herself normal and believed that she was on the same level of Louis socially, but there was always that snobbish undertone of princess quality always present and she acted like as if she was still a princess even though titles meant nothing here outside of classes. Isla was such a hypocrite, but strangely enough Louis was falling head over heels for it. Though he probably would have to mention these things sooner or later. He couldn't always be second guessing what he said or didn't say. "You can't be heartless enough to play with the cow, pretend to be it's friend, and then willingly lead it to the slaughterhouse. That's beyond cruel, and that's coming from a villain! That's just inhumane, and despicable." He said as made the cow move a bit closer to him. Sure he wasn't exactly too fond of the calf and wouldn't think twice about handing it back to the farmer, but to openly state you wanted the creature on a plate? That was too much, just too much. It was only a baby after all and the only chance they had for survival was to trust others. Louis didn't want to think of the little cow net time he sat down to eat a hamburger and then look over at Isla happily chomping away, thinking the same thoughts as him, but not caring about the fact that she had seemed to be attached to the creature. That image alone was enough to make Louis a little queasy. "I say we go down to the village and ask for the name of the closest farm they get their food from, which would be feasible to say this cow is from and then we find a way to bring them back ourselves." He suggested, but now it was his turn to be stubborn. Louis might not like the creature, but somebody had to stand up for the injustice of the situation and it might as well be him. He may be a villain, but he wasn't no monster. He did have a humane heart after all.

[Isla Triton]

Isla grinned at that. Louis really didn't have a leg to stand on and she was pretty sure he knew it too, but he was still arguing with her. It was kind of cute to be honest. He wanted to have the last word on the subject. "Well yeah," she agreed. "They're not invisible. That would awful. Just running into invisible jellyfish all the time." She scrunched her nose up distastefully at the thought. "Ouch." She had run into jellyfish before and it was not a fun experience.

She could tell that she had said the wrong thing. She kept doing that and it was very frustrating that she didn't know how to talk to Louis with making him mad at her. She had never had this problem before. Then again, she'd never been friends with a self proclaimed villain before and maybe she needed to do some re-evaluating of her conduct with him. But he didn't say anything she thought it might be better not to address the situation, so she too said nothing.

Isla laughed. "I don't think there's anyone who could deny that you take great pride in your appearance."She smiled thoughtfully. "I'm sure there's atleast one prince who could learn a thing or two from you." Louis definitely had that going for him.

Isla nodded, happy to talk about her home. "There are other cities. So many. My mom's told me a lot about them," she told Louis. "Merpeople gather in all parts of the ocean near the shores. There isn't any kind of civilization on the deep sea though. It's too deep and no light at all. But if you follow a coastline, you might see a merperson." She nodded matter of factly. She'd heard about all the wonderful places her mom had been, but Isla had never even left Atlantica before coming to school. Someday she wanted to travel and see other places, just like her mom.

Isla wasn't sure if Louis really meant that all the bullying and stuff was behind him or if he just didn't want to talk about it. But she nodded knowing better than to push. It obviously wasn't a comfortable topic for him and she could understand not wanting to talk about it.

Isla shrugged. It wasn't much use arguing with him at this point. Louis had never had to hunt to be able to eat before. He didn't understand that she could pet a cute baby cow without getting attached to it. She could spend time around animals and not be attached to them because that's how things were back home. Sure, there were plenty of animals in the ocean that they didn't eat, but also plenty that they did. Everyone learned from a young age not to get attached. But she wasn't going to argue with someone who just wasn't going to get it. She shrugged again at the suggestion to try and bring the cow back to the farm it came from. "Okay," she agreed easily. "Although I doubt they'll let us bring it home. We're trapped at this school, remember?"