That was Lazare’s voice closer to the front of the house, which meant that they’d probably brought more than one friend. Not only that, but they’d resorted to try and scare her into saving the world?
It was just really annoying now, why be so impatient? Aren’t there better things for them to do? Her aunt was surely going to be annoyed if she found anything here in tatters. They would hopefully not do anything that destructive, but it was more on Emilia’s actions and how she went by dealing with this.
Only a single pair of footsteps were getting louder, so perhaps she had not been found yet. She still wanted to take her shower, but with people in the house, there was no hope. Hopefully it would take time for this person to find her and search and every room, and hopefully they wouldn’t turn over every item in sight. She’d need to confront them before then, but that would probably just increase her chances of being whisked away to save everyone.
"Come on, you fools! Surely you want to kill me more than her? I mean, if you're near a window, look outside! Tell me what you think." Lazare shouted, still trying to find Emilia or the followers. They heard footsteps coming towards them and raised the sword in preparation. It might be Emilia, but better safe than sorry. That ended up being a good thing because it was not Emilia. One of the followers threw themselves at Lazare, attacking with such ferocity that they were momentarily surprised. "Oh, one of you decided to show up! How fancy." Lazare blocked a blow with their sword, searching for an opening to turn into literally anything other than a living person.
"I don't know who you are," the follower growled, "but you are going to pay for what you did."
"Okay." Lazare tapped them on the arm and they turned into glass. They stepped around the follower, still searching for Emilia and the other one. "You'll never guess who I just turned into glass, other follower of Crin's!" They yelled, keeping their guard up.
(Sorry- got sidetracked watching a CRISPR documentary.)
Emilia hoped that Lazare was joking this whole time, and if someone was turned into glass, they better not shatter.
It seemed apparent that this whole day was going to go to waste too. Since the house had been broken into- quite literally this time, and she’d had a couple of visits from Lazare, and it was barely 10 in the morning. If she wasn’t in her aunts house, she would have done something sooner. The footsteps upstairs were getting louder now, but she was still skeptical about confronting them.
“What did I do, to get this … ?” She muttered to herself.
(You're good! I was pretty busy with school today, so it's cool.)
Lazare growled in frustration, wondering how they were going to find that other follower. If they changed their form, they might be able to get through the house faster. Maybe if they were incorporeal… Yeah, that might work. Lazare sent the sword away and turned themself into a sort of ghost. They started zipping through the house at top speed, trying to find where Emilia and the follower were. To their utmost horror, the follower was really close to Emilia, almost on top of her. They had to do something. Lazare made themself visible and corporeal again, then walked forward and tapped the follower on the back. They whirled around, sword swinging towards their neck. Lazare ducked under the blade and kicked them in the shins. "There you are! What did you think you were doing?"
"Protecting Crin's movement." The follower answered stiffly, taking another swing at Lazare. They jumped out of the way and summoned the sword again. Yes, they should probably finish this quickly, but they hadn't had been in a good fight in a while. Definitely not one where someone who they liked was about to be killed if they didn't finish off their opponent right then. Emilia would be fine.
“You’d better fix everything after this.”
Emilia was less than happy to find Lazare ready to fight. Who knows what happened to the rest of the house. Her thoughts were that they’d better not get stains anywhere, regardless if they could magically remove it, and she sure as hell wanted to just have a shower.
This prank did seem a bit elaborate to Emilia though. All the reason to be more skeptical. The acting was pretty well done, as well as the props, and how they had gone about to get people to do this. Unless this wasn’t a prank … which didn’t seem too far out of probability. But it seemed more reasonable for her to try and be fooled into helping the gods.
"Wow, what a way to thank someone for saving your life," Lazare grumbled, letting the follower push them back a little. They cut the follower on the arm, causing them to yelp in pain. Despite all the fancy swords and masks, the follower was really not that good at fighting. It wasn't even fun. Even though they had left most of the followers outside alive, they weren't planning on letting this one keep their life. After all, they'd gone after Emilia. Lazare knocked the sword from the follower's hand and stabbed them through the chest. Since Emilia seemed to care a lot about how the house looked, they didn't let the follower bleed too much. Before they hit the ground, Lazare turned them into air. There were no bloodstains on the carpet, so they looked at Emilia. "So, are you going to say anything? Like, maybe, thank you?"
“Why would I thank you? The only reason any of this is happening, is all on you. You think I’d appreciate some random god walking in on my life and wasting my time?”
Emilia had reached the highest level of irritation out of these past few days. Lazare clearly had no idea how annoying this situation was. She wasn’t part of some storybook where she’d willingly go on an adventure to save the world. Or at least at a moments notice.
Right now, was a shower. Emilia was pretty sure she’d told herself to not deal with anything until afterwards. One step at a time, before she ended on Crin’s side out of pure spite. If any of this was even real.
"Okay, fine, it kinda was my fault," Lazare admitted, sighing. They were the one who'd led Crin's followers to Emilia, and stopping them from killing her just canceled it out. "But at least you aren't dead!" Lazare said, shrugging. "If more people come, would you be able to fight them off?" They had the feeling Emilia wanted them to leave– when did she not– but they didn't want to leave her if more people came after her and she couldn't take care of them. "If not, could you possibly go back to your apartment? They don't know you live there." Lazare leaned on their sword, staring at Emilia. "Or if you don't want to leave, I'll just go fix the door and make sure you're not going to get murdered. And stay out of your way," Lazare offered. "Your choice."
Emilia ruffled her hair, and turned back around. Top priority was a shower. After all this, she just needed to take a shower. No more interruptions, she’d just get through her day and forget that any of this even happened.
She shut the bathroom door, making sure it was locked. She wanted to punch something, but again, this wasn’t technically her house. What happened yesterday was something that should have just been forgotten and moved on from. Apparently they had other plans, and kept pursuing. She wished she still had her childhood mentality, where all she wished was to go on an adventure to save the world. Now, not so much. This was a golden opportunity to young Emilia and probably to a lot of other people. What were the chances of being the chosen one?
Now, Emilia just wondered how Lazare had even found or chosen her in the first place. Were they some kind of stalker? Why did they expect so much from her? There was still something she was missing here, but she didn't think that it mattered.
Lazare was waiting for a verbal response, but Emilia shutting and locking the door seemed like a reasonable answer. It seemed it was time they learned how to fix a door. They couldn't really remember how the door looked before it was completely destroyed, so they just created a new door that looked close to what it was before. After closing and locking the new door, Lazare sat down and leaned against it. Perhaps they should've killed all the followers, just so they couldn't tell anyone else about Emilia. Then she would be safe, right? Lazare stood up and opened the door. A little way down the street was the pile of followers, though they were sure a few were missing. They must have gotten away. Curses. Lazare waved their hand at the pile and the bodies disappeared. They closed the door and leaned against it again. As soon as Emilia left the house, they would make sure no one was following her and then leave her alone. From what had happened that day, it was clear she was safer without them.
Emilia wished farewell to a relaxing shower. It seemed she was saying goodbye to a whole lot of relaxing and peaceful activities today. All the more reason to be annoyed.
At this point, it would have been better to just start supporting Crin. Whatever they were up to, whether good or bad, Emilia could just show up. Might as well end the world before Emilia forgot about peacefulness altogether.
She forced herself through her shower, it longer holding its stress relieving power. She might as well head back to her apartment. As she had intended to do this morning, and then replace the water for her flowers. Hopefully it wouldn’t be filled to the brim with business cards and glitter.
Lazare kept thinking, resting their head on the door. Seeing as how much Emilia seemed to be annoyed at them, their best bet for getting her to join their side was to leave her alone. Maybe walking her back to her apartment was out of the question, but they could at least still join her while invisible. Just to make sure no one killed her before she got back. And they might do well with just taking out every last trace that they existed from her life. Lazare groaned, covering their eyes with a hand, then sighed and pushed themself upright. With a snap of their fingers, every last trace of them disappeared from her apartment. All the glitter and business cards were gone, except for one that would appear if she ever changed her mind. They weren't going to totally disappear, but she wouldn't know that they were there. Maybe one of the other gods would do better, anyways. They always made people angry at them. Well, while Emilia refused to help the gods, maybe Lazare could go around and kill as many followers as they could get their hands on.
Emilia decided against blowdrying her hair, and just let it dry on its own.
She didn’t bother hoping for being left alone. It hadn’t worked any other time, so she gave up on it all together. It would have probably been a lot more helpful if her aunt had been here. That was only a maybe though. But she might’ve have been able to receive some guidance from her about what to do. Order could have been restored in the lands, and it would hopefully be so, when her aunt returned.
Or … was she in on this too? She could end up just worried about the house though. Her aunt was definitely someone who would pull anything like that.
With a sigh, Lazare turned themself invisible and incorporeal. They drifted through the door and glanced around the street. It was empty of any followers, which was good. When Emilia came out, they would be ready to follow her to her apartment and keep away any followers. Then, they would go away. Leave her alone, and if they did come back, they would make sure she didn't see them. Maybe they wouldn't kill all of Crin's followers, after all. The followers could cause a lot of trouble and make Emilia see that Crin was evil and had to be stopped. But a few would have to go, just as payback for causing them so much annoyance. Lazare nodded, crossing their arms over their chest for a few minutes before getting bored. To remedy that, they started doing loop-de-loops in the air.
(Sorry for not replying yet! I don’t want you to think I’m abandoning this. I’ve just got this chunk of school work that I procrastinated about to the last minute that I need to get over. I’ll reply as soon as I can!)
(Alright, thank you for telling me! Good luck on the school work. :)
(As it turns out, trying to get a Renaissance painting done in such a short amount of time, was not worth the paint fumes. I finished some huge projects now, so I should be back to responding regularly.)
Emilia went to check her phone, hoping for messages from her aunt saying she’d be back soon.
Though a part of her was probably thinking she’d find messages telling her to go and save the world. It was definitely a possibility that her aunt had set up everything too, or … worked with the gods to just try and get her to be more useful. Her aunt probably could be a god too. At this point, either Emilia was unknowingly in a coma or … she’d really messed up in some other way.
She only found two new notifications. To her relief, once was a message from her aunt and the other from settings to update her phone. After opening the message from her aunt, she felt as if she could finally relax properly. All it was, was to refill the water tanks and to clean the windows if she had the time. Her aunt knew she had all the time in the world though.
(Alright!)
Lazare completed so many loop-de-loops that they started feeling dizzy, which really wasn't a good feeling. They stopped, wobbling slightly in the air as they waited for their vision to go back to normal. Why couldn't Emilia just hurry up and get to a safer place? They didn't want to spend all their day waiting around for her. There was stuff that they could be doing at the moment. But alas, they had brought this on themself. It was a sort of punishment, maybe. Lazare sighed loudly. Would it hurt if they just stepped away for a few minutes? There were no people on the road, even, to keep them occupied. Maybe they could just mess with the colors of the buildings along the road for a while, though. They'd change them back as soon as Emilia appeared, but for now, it would be a way to keep them busy. It would be too much of a risk to leave her alone.
With nothing to lose from cleaning the windows, Emilia decided to go and do that.
It would’ve been more helpful if her aunt had told her when she be back. Emilia needed someone to vent to, and probably whatever magical advice her aunt could whip up. But also to tell her where the window cleaners were so that she didn’t have to use a cloth and soapy water.
Even if she could technically just text her about it, she didn’t want to bother her or have to wait for a reply. She was also hoping against the possibility of her aunt wanting to surprise her or whatever. Not that Emilia disliked her aunt, but Emilia just could not take anymore. Probably for the next several months.
She located a bucket from the shed, and got it to the sink to fill it with water. While she waited she searched the endless contents under the sink, for the right cleaning supplies.
Lazare was busy waving their hands at the buildings around them, changing the colors to wild, clashing shades. Then they turned them to wild, matching colors. Maybe they could put something near the house that alerted them if anything or anyone moved near it. Then they could go somewhere else and come back if Emilia left. Lazare searched their memory, trying to remember where they'd put something that could do the trick. They eventually settled on something and placed it above Emilia's door. Lazare remembered to change the houses back to the original colors at the last moment, then zipped down the road. Maybe they could actually go do their job for once… or go visit the Underforest. They hadn't been there for a while.
Emilia tossed her cloths and cleaning chemicals up the stairs. Such a safe and great decision, she had decided. Then hefted the water bucket up and over to the first window upstairs. She didn't want to make more than one trip up stairs, so clearly she'd done well. At the very least, the chemicals didn't spill everywhere.
She added what she deemed a good amount of chemicals to the water, then pulled on some rubber gloves while she waited for the solution to mix in. Now it was just down to cleaning, she decided she could probably wash her apartment windows too. The greenhouse that was somewhere outside could probably be washed too, but her aunt didn't say anything about it. So that was a no-go.
Emilia could probably clean the rest of her apartment, mainly to waste time. There were definitely some things that hadn't been cleaned for awhile though. Thinking about what she might find, was not pleasant.
Lazare decided on going to the Underforest. Doing their job was boring, and they didn't want to have to do anything boring for a good, long time. Lazare swooped up, then dropped towards the ground. There were better ways of getting to the Underforest, but hurtling through the ground was so much fun, they couldn't ever refuse. It took a little longer to get there, though. Emilia hadn't made any sudden movements, though, so it was fine. Lazare finally reached their destination. A whole forest was spread out below them, filled with all sorts of different trees. There were fir trees, rainbow eucalyptus, sandbox trees, redwoods, wisteria trees… the list went on. Everything about the Underforest was amazing, and Lazare couldn't help but smile a bit. Finlai may be the most annoying god they'd ever met, but she did know how to make something beautiful.
Emilia was nearly done with the first window. Her arms and back ached, and she only cursed the ‘top to bottom’ cleaning rule.
Big windows were nice, but to clean them, wasn’t as nice. Why her aunt made her clean the windows wasn’t a very nice thought either. It was probably convenient for her aunt, and Emilia needed to be productive, but if her aunt hired someone to do it- it would probably be better done. Though, at the very least, she only needed to clean the insides of the house windows. Cleaning the greenhouse would only be nice after it was done as well. Since the whole thing was basically a window.
If Emilia was brave enough to use money, she would’ve hired someone herself. But this wasn’t all her choice. She didn’t have any close enough friends to help out either. She’d just have to expend all her energy and anger to clean them.
Their feet touched down on the soft ground and Lazare let all their disguises melt away. Even if people saw them, it didn't matter. Anyone here was dead, anyway. They didn't care. Lazare wandered through the trees, their thoughts turning back to Emilia again and again. What if their device didn't work? What if Crin's followers were super sneaky and bypassed everything? What if she got taken surprise and couldn't fight back? Lazare shook their head. They didn't know what was worse, being eternally bored but being able to see that Emilia was fine, or not being bored but constantly worrying about her. Lazare groaned with frustration and twirled in a circle. Why were they like this?
Emilia decided she didn’t want to waste another day, even if this was for her aunt. The quality of the clean windows would just have to decrease. It’s not like it mattered that much, since they’d probably be collecting dust already by the time her aunt returned.
Though, Emilia tried her best to keep the water from dripping all over the floor and base boards. Apparently only the windows should be cleaned, so there was no sense in getting the soapy water anywhere else.
She wondered what her aunt was up to at this time, since time differences were also likely in place. Wherever her aunt went- if it was far enough. She dared to reflect on the past day, then cursing herself for still thinking about. She flinched and glanced over her shoulder, still expecting someone to be there. Then cursed herself again. She wanted to desperately move on, but it weighed at the back of her mind.
Lazare continued walking through the forest, still feeling a bit uneasy. They were almost ready to go check in on Emilia as quickly as they could when someone appeared in front of them.
"Finlai!" Lazare exclaimed, trying to stop their mouth from twisting into a grimace. Given her face, they hadn't succeeded.
"What are you doing here, Lazare?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Just, you know, appreciating the beauty," They said, waving at the trees around them. Finlai narrowed her eyes at them. Apparently she didn't believe them, which was typical. Lazare was about to make a weak excuse and disappear when they got alerted to someone moving near Emilia's house. It might just be a mailman or someone walking their pet, but better safe than sorry. "But I gotta get going now, so… nice seeing you!" They snapped their fingers and disappeared, reappearing in front of Emilia's house– invisible, of course.
Emilia watched water leak out onto the floor, figuring that there was probably water under the bucket from it dripping over the sides. Unless there was a crack in the bucket- but that was unlikely.
She draped the wet cloth over the edge of the bucket and went to get a dry. She was probably, subconsciously, trying to drag this on to avoid something. She could’ve brought up another couple of cloths, or she could just clean this up later. Though she definitely hadn’t been struck with the inspiration to save the world.
No Emilia … stop thinking about that.
She cursed herself a third time. Why did everything have to be thrown off all of a sudden? She needed her aunt to return faster.
Lazare glanced around the street, looking for whatever had triggered the sensor. They let out a huge sigh when they saw that it was just someone walking their dog. The dog had probably gotten too close or something. Lazare turned around, ready to leave again when they saw a group of very suspicious people walking towards Emilia's house. They quickly turned themself visible again and took a few steps back towards the door. It didn't take long for the group to notice them, and it took even less time for them to recognize Lazare.
"Hey, it's you!" One of the followers yelled, pointing at them. "We got ourselves a jackpot!"
"Uh, hi. I was just leaving, if you don't mind." Lazare gave them an apologetic smile and took a step towards them. With a terrific screeching sound, a dozen swords got unsheathed and pointed at their face. Lazare flung their hands up and stepped back.
"So what are you going to do?" They asked, looking around at the followers. "Kill us or take us hostage?"
"Unfortunately for you, the boss wants you alive." The follower sneered at them. Lazare made a split-second decision to go along with them for now. This could be a chance to see if Emilia could take care of herself against the followers. They'd be there all along, just in case something happened.
Emilia finished soaking up the water on the floor and went back to cleaning the window.
She expected her aunt to not want her to still be here when she returned. Though, it couldn’t technically be all her fault if she didn’t know how much time she had to clean the thousands of window panes. She also expected her aunt to want a clean house- clean meaning that everything was where she left it.
With the idea of Lazare and their prankster friends, or whoever they were, still coming to trash the house- Emilia worried a bit. If something happened here, out of her own control, she’d never be able to repay her aunt. So she just had to hope that the house wouldn’t randomly blow up or something.
Lazare let their hands get tied behind their back and stood patiently while the followers discussed how to go about getting Emilia. They probably thought that their voices were soft, but Lazare could hear every word of it. They had no idea why the followers were thinking so much about this– if it were them, they'd just break down the door or something. The followers finally decided on ringing the doorbell first, because:
"That way, we don't have to go looking through the house," one of the followers reasoned, looking around at the rest of them, who were all nodding. "And if that doesn't work, we can always break the door down." There was another round of enthusiastic nodding, and the followers broke their huddle. One put their hand on Lazare's shoulder, maybe to keep them from making a run for it or something. And another one pressed a small knife against their side, which was overkill, in Lazare's opinion. The leader– or who Lazare guessed was the leader– reached out and rang the doorbell. From what had happened so far, Lazare was pretty sure Emilia would ignore the doorbell. That might actually be a good thing.
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