Wicked Ways -- Louis

[Cyrille LeFoux]

The Village was back - and, or so they said, better than ever. Frankly, not much short of bulldozing The Black Dragon could make it less dangerous - and even that probably couldn't make it worse. Not much could make The Black Cauldron worse, short of an attack of the plague (or some mean-spirited pixies; both terrible) or perhaps a meteor knocking over the last few dregs of rotted board and rusty nails that kept the place from caving in on itself. Cyrille was just glad to see it was open, if none the better for wear. He wasn't terribly surprised; none of the other buildings he'd passed looked much better than they had before the Village had closed down; certainly nobody was going to spend any money fixing up a place that housed villains and ghouls more frequently than they did rat catchers or cleaning staff. Passing by the front door, as was his habit, Cyrille crept around the back, hoping nobody had moved it -- aha!

The crates, long since empty of whatever they had originally carried, were stacked haphazardly against the back wall of the Dragon. Now, most people wouldn't dare risk life and limb climbing up the stacks of kindling just to get in the back way, but Cyrille liked to keep his skills sharp. There was an unfortunate lack of easily climbable trees at Seacombe Halpworth Academy - no need for the pampered little princes to get an idea into their head and then smack their crown when they fell out - and even less of an array of building he could easily sneak in and out of. Most required magic; Cyrille didn't have any. Very few people from his world did; witches, mostly, and some powerful, old, generally inanimate objects. There were the odd animate objects here and there, but mostly his world was a plain one, bereft of magic - so Cyrille couldn't inherit it, and he couldn't steal any, either, being half a man and half a boy yet, and the son of a known almost-usurper.

Left to his own devices, bereft of hook and crook, Cyrille kept his neaking skills sharp. He never quite knew where in the 'Dragon he would end up; the window, loosely boared as it was, seemed to have some kind of innate magic in it. Sometimes he swung a leg over and slipped through right into the kitchen; another time, it'd been the bathroom - thankfully, the mens', and more thankfully, empty. Sometimes the window acted as windows ought, and stayed stationary when people were trying to climb through them...but this was not that time. Instead of the dreary back hallway that the window actually physically connected to, Cyrille pulled himself out of the window and stood, dusting his knees off for a moment before looking around.

He'd been plopped into the balcony. Technically off-limits, it was where the brooding - and more dangerous - growing-to-be baddies lurked and glared and, presumably, plotted. Cyrille, as a rule, avoided it. He was a sidekick, and he was fine with that - no pressure on him to succeed (or rather, fail) and therefore very little attention paid to him. ...Excepting those times when he, say got into fist-fights with princely royalty. Dust mostly cleared from his pants, Cyrille only then noticed a figure, lurking at a nearby table.

tag: Louis Facilier -- notes: that's how Cy sneaks around the 'Dragon. took a liberty; hope you don't mind?

[Louis Facilier]

Louis Facilier was damn sick about hearing about that stupid fish prince everywhere he went. True he did reveal in the limelight of being the villain responsible for his disappearance and he absolutely glowed in the power of seeing hero and heroine alike cower in fear whenever he passed them instead of the typical sneer the "good" guys reserved for the "villains." It was easy to act like a jerk because after all these years it wasn't acting. He was glad to see those little gems squirm. They deserved to live in the same fear he did for all those years. It was finally time for the heroes to understand and suffer the same pain the villains and their parents went through. 

However, Louis mused as he absentmindedly drunk some strange amber liquid that may or may not have been compromised of Alcohol, had it come too high of a cost? It didn't take a genius to figure out that whatever relationship he had, or could've had, with Isla was finished. She was already so emotional over what had happened that she could barely stand to look at him, except when she came to beg for her cousin's life. However he knew that after Eli got out of the lake, he would never be able to even try and explain himself without him being hit upside the head. He was an idiot. He was stupid. And now as he downed another glass he was well on his way to getting drunk.

It was a game of sorts for him, the moment her face entered his mind he took another gulp, and Isla was on Louis's mind often. Although he would never openly admit it, he cared deeply for the girl, despite how gem-like she could be at times. Which in itself was quite a statement for the trickster since he had never cared for anyone other than himself before so for Isla to break down this huge barrier... why at this time last year he would have proclaimed that it was impossible and by this point next year he would say that it would be impossible for someone new to do that. After Isla finally pulled herself together long enough to really kick him to the curb, he would promise himself that he would never let anyone else get that close to him again. And if that did happen that would be a promise he would keep until he found out who he was without the stigma of being a nobody and having his steps dogged by a bag of shadows. 

Louis was moving onto the next glass when he saw someone fall from a long forgotten window, and it didn't take a genius to figure out it was Cyrille Le Foux. The little rat thought he was some big shot after fighting James Florian, but to Louis it wasn't that big of an accomplishment. It had ended in a draw, and besides everyone fought with Florian. That might have been the only physical altercation, but everyone had been subjected to the brutality of this medieval tongue or in Louis's case been a hair's breath away from being skewered on that precious little sword of his. --Seriously, he wasn't supposed to have a little necklace, but he got to flaunt a Sword? What the--

His mind was wandering. If he thought of one gem, his mind would always drift to another. So he took another as he once again focused on the villain's sidekick, oh wait Ari's sidekick, and internally laughed at the notion of Ari being so desperate to chose him as his sidekick. He offered no real skills and had too large of an ego. It was options like the french fool that made him partially glad his soul was tied to shadow demons. Louis was strictly an one man show, but that didn't stop him from allying himself with Ari for one plan. A plan that he sensed was falling apart at the seams. That's when Louis realized the opportunity here in finding out what Ari's gameplan was for the end. No doubt she told her sidekick, and such a braggart as Cyrille would spill his guts if he thought that Louis wouldn't tell Ari, and a drunk man can tell no tales can he?

Louis was not exactly drunk at the moment, he could still think articulately even though his thoughts were growing fuzzy around the edges, but that was all for the better. He could still feasibly be tipsy to the sidekick, but in enough control to remember what was said, he would just need a little acting to seal the deal. So leaning to the left slightly like he had really drunk too much and with a slight slur to his words he called out, "You should've done a back flip!" He even threw in a light laugh to help convince him that he had drunk too much. 

Oh this had better work.