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Pokémon League
Dark-type Gym Leader
Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Fluttershy
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Post by Louise Dumas on Jul 6, 2018 18:10:45 GMT -8
It was a beautiful day outside Louise's Castle, well as beautiful as it could be. The barrenness of the local area made a perfect day like this a lot like all the other days, but it didn't bother her very much. She spent most of her time inside anyway. Despite this, she was considering planting some flowers outside the castle for awhile now, but didn't seem to fit with the rest of the building's image. She figured that a beautiful day like this would be perfect to immortalize in a painting. It was around noon when she set up her easel outside the castle, and looked down at the town of Carrefor. Luckily her land was positioned on a hill looking over the rest of the town, so she had a lovely view to try and recreate. Upon choosing a large canvas and beginning the process of painting, she hopped to work.
To an observer, she almost seemed a bit normal in this moment. Her eyes were more alive than usual, as the creative juices always managed to get a rise out of her. These were the moments that Louise lived for, idly being able to paint a beautiful summer day. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be receiving a visitor today, meaning that she would probably be ill prepared. She was usually pretty good at scheduling out her challenges so that everything could be prepared, but she wasn't as good when it came to normal people who just wanted to visit her.
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Pokémon League
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Haberdasher
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Post by Val Leclair on Jul 6, 2018 20:24:07 GMT -8
Val stood on the hill beside the castle and examined their surroundings.
So this castle was the home of the new Gym Leader in town, huh? Interesting. The place certainly was grand, sticking out from the rest of Carrefor as it did. A castle on a hill, looking down on all the town's residents, literally if not figuratively... Val could respect that. Not a bad way to live, by any means.
There were probably certain social niceties that a Professor should bestow upon a newly-appointed Gym Leader residing in their hometown. But Val wasn't exactly one for social niceties. No, they had other things on their mind as they wandered towards the castle--namely, certain rumors about this "Louise Dumas" that were floating around town.
The rumors probably amounted to nothing. They were probably just the musings of some bored townsfolk, intimidated by what was outside their comfort zone, by what they could never fully understand. (Val had been there, done that, got the t-shirt.)
But on the off-chance the rumors were true... well. Val was just dying to know whether vampires had an aura.
...Probably not literally dying, though.
Hopefully.
Val approached the front of the castle while still lost in thought, mind racing as they weighed theories about the auras of the undead.
What could be on the other side of those doors?
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Pokémon League
Dark-type Gym Leader
Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Fluttershy
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Post by Louise Dumas on Jul 6, 2018 22:20:54 GMT -8
Eventually, Louise managed to hear the sound of a visitor approaching her doors. She heard a familiar knocking sound, and made her way to greet the individual. The large door eventually creeked open and stood there was Louise. She was dressed in a simple purple dress, combined with a dark black cloak. She looked a bit overdressed for the weather, but she usually stayed inside most of the time. She looked a bit confused as she saw this individual and surveyed their form ruthlessly. Her eyes looked empty, yet somehow controlling at the same time. There was little fire in them, but the way they moved and interacted gave the vibe of cunning. "Please, come inside. Allow me to prepare you some tea," she said calmly before leading Val to a red velvet couch in the foyer.
Once her guest was seated, Louise made her way to the kitchen to prepare some tea. Due to the size of the castle, Louise pretty much completely left Val's vision while she left to go work. Thus she was left alone in the unsettling manor. While the architecture and choices of furniture were beautiful, it was hard to look past just how cold the whole scene looked. Like a winter breeze had been trapped for months, the whole room lacked the warmth and care that could be felt in a typical home environment. It just didn't feel very lived in, especially with the low levels of lighting, and lack of natural light. Eventually, Louise did return with a cup of tea, along with another glass for herself. However this glass did not contain any tea. It was inside a glass of a wine crimson wine, which Louise simply adored the taste of. She gave the tea to her guest, before taking a seat on a comfortable chair diagonal to where her guest was sitting. "So... what brings you to my residence?" she said retaining her calm persona as she sloshed the wine around a little bit in her glass.
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Pokémon League
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Haberdasher
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Post by Val Leclair on Jul 7, 2018 19:09:28 GMT -8
She had an aura, clear as day, just like everybody else.
Val wasn't sure whether they should be disappointed by that. They had known better than to expect otherwise, really, and yet they still felt a little let down.
Her aura was dark, very much so, but so was Val's own--and aura colors didn't always mean what one might think, anyhow (Val had learned that lesson the hard way over the years).
And now they were sitting next to the woman that much of Carrefor thought was a vampire... Val had hoped to learn more about the new Gym Leader, to be sure, but they hadn't quite planned on what to do when (if?) they got this far.
And yet, here they were, face to face with Louise herself.
Val swished around their own cup of tea--they weren't a huge tea drinker, preferring black coffee when desperate to stay awake, but they weren't one to turn it down when offered either--as they considered their response to her words.
Well. No use in beating around the bush now.
"People have been saying you're a vampire, or something of the sort. Had to see for myself." After a moment of hesitation, they added, "You seem alive enough to me."
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Pokémon League
Dark-type Gym Leader
Loneliness will sit over our roofs with brooding wings. |
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Fluttershy
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Post by Louise Dumas on Jul 7, 2018 22:39:28 GMT -8
Louise certainly believed that this would be an interesting guest so far. Lately, she had been getting and better at her hospitality, which allowed her to meet plenty of new people. Upon hearing the comment about her being a vampire, she giggled a bit creepily. She had gotten that question so much, and she never really liked to set the record straight. After all, fighting a vampire gym leader would be much more interesting than fighting a normal one. Taking a sip of her blood red wine, she made some deathly eye contact with Val. She then responded by saying, "I'm sure any vampires wouldn't be particularly happy if they heard you calling them dead. After all, they would most definitely be quite alive. Maybe even more so than you and me. However, I cannot say that I am a Vampire, despite what the townsfolk might have you believe."
She then got up onto her two feet once more and messed with her cloak a bit. "Come, allow me to show you around my home," she said enticingly. She wanted to make sure that her guest felt quite welcome, despite the unwelcoming nature of the home. The tour was quite lengthy, and took Val through all of the very gothic and surprisingly frightening aspects of the home. All the while, a pair of dark red eyes stayed locked on the pair. While the owner remained completely hidden, their presence still eerily hung over both the Countess and her guest.
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Pokémon League
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Haberdasher
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Post by Val Leclair on Jul 25, 2018 17:25:26 GMT -8
So, between her having an aura and her outright denying the rumor, the whole vampire thing was pretty much shot down at this point. Not that Val would tell anybody as much. For one thing, they didn't have much of anyone to tell; for another, if the townsfolk wanted to scare themselves silly over some baseless rumors, Val wasn't particularly inclined to stop them. And Louise didn't seem to mind mention of the rumor much; if anything, she almost seemed to enjoy hearing of it.
All in all, Val had to respect the way she handled that particular point of conversation: no blubbering or gasping or "how dare you"s, just a bit of abstract speculation before a fairly straightforward denial. Val had to admit as well that Louise was right to point out their own less than perfect word choice; what counts as living grows murky around some points, as Val well knew from their personal research, and it made sense that vampires might be another point where what exactly counted as life became unclear.
Perhaps they would never know for sure if vampires had an aura, but it was still a point worth considering.
Val remained more or less silent during the tour, despite the growing feeling that something (someone? no, that didn't seem right) was watching them besides Louise herself. It was probably just a Pokemon on the loose, or possibly just their imagination. Nothing more inexplicable than that... probably...
(Not for the first time, Val wondered what their life might have been like if they were born with psychic powers instead of aura ones; a spirit sensor would probably have had a field day there.)
At the end of the tour, however, Val nodded and said a single word.
"Nice."
They meant it, too. (They wouldn't have said it if they didn't mean it.) Sure, the castle was a bit spooky (...more than a bit, really), but it was also beautiful; Val couldn't help but think that it was in an entirely different league than the pigsty that passed for their own home. It was almost like a painting come to life, with little of the lived-in feeling of normal homes, almost no clutter to get in the way of what must have been some gothic architect's grand vision.
It was quite the place for a young woman to live all alone... for a couple different reasons.
But Val would have traded their own lodgings for it in a heartbeat.
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