The school grounds, early afternoon

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia must have made an interesting sight walking across the grounds, that day. For one thing, she'd been unable to get all the dirt off of her in that spring, so she was still rather grimy looking. For another, she looked really, really pissed off.

And, of course, there was the fact that she had an artificial leg over her shoulder. That must have been weird looking, too.

[ooc: for those who know who they are. Absolutely fine for broadcast. Woo! Will be happening concurrently with the Tex post that will be going up when Tex-mun is available (I hope. . . .) and open for SP due to time zones.]

Comments

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn was sitting in a tree just enjoying the weather when she spotted Nadia. She stared at her and then jumped down from the tree to go to her friend.

"Nadia? What happened?"

[nadiathesaint]

"I just spent the last three days digging myself out of a hole. Now I'm going to go hurt the person who put me there."

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn frowned. "Someone put you in a hole?" She shook her head. "I'm coming with you, then."

[nadiathesaint]

"Suit yourself. He's going to try to take over Fandom. He's screwed."

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn laughed. "Yes, because taking over Fandom always works." She shook her head. "Who are we fighting?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Steerpike." Nadia hissed the name, her expression darkening even further.

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

"Don't know him. Should I retrieve my weapons?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shrugged. "He's probably going to go after Tex or Zoe. So carrying weapons may not be the best idea if you don't want to get in trouble."

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

Gwynn growled. As far as she was concerned, getting into trouble would be worth it if she got to thurt the person that hurt Nadia.

"Alright... no weapons... at least no obvious ones." She shook her head. "He's stupid."

[nadiathesaint]

"Yes. Very, very stupid."

[notafairmaiden.livejournal.com]

"You'll stop him and I'll be there just in case." She looked her friend over. "Besides the hole... did he hurt you?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shook her head. "But I'm thinking whoever owns this artificial leg is probably pretty mad, too. And these notes. And . . . okay, maybe not the magazine. . . ."

[nadiathesaint]

"Come on, let's go warn Principal Washburn."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Instead of heading right back to the dorms after library duty, Bridge decides to take the long way around, which apparently involves walking around outside. What? It's nice out.

"Um. Nadia?" he blinks, as she approaches.

[nadiathesaint]

"Hi Bridge. I got dumped in a hole for most of the week. Going to go get revenge. Want to help?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Like you even need to ask," Bridge says. "Who did this?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Steerpike." Nadia had never gotten his name right so many times in a row. "He seems to think he's going to take over Fandom."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"...He's been here long enough, he should know he's got no chance in hell," Bridge rolls his eyes.

[nadiathesaint]

"Yeah, well, apparently he thought part of the process was throwing me into a pit and leaving me to starve, so idiot or not, I'd still like to take him down personally."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"A perfectly reasonable reaction," Bridge agrees.

[nadiathesaint]

"We should go warn Principal Washburn, first."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Nadia had been chewing on things. Like you do when you're a rodent. So Walter decided to take her out where she could chew on trees and such.

So seeing not degu!Nadia had Walter... befuddled.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia noted Walter, and the look of confusion on his face. "Dios, I thought Steerpike had to have been lying about that part. . . ."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

There was the degu.

+

There was Nadia.

+

Steerpike.

=

"What did Steerpike do to you?" (And much mental headwalling.)

[nadiathesaint]

"Called me pretending to be you and then threw me into a pit out on the preserve. Which I just dug myself out of. I'm going to go kick his ass, do you want to watch?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter picked up the degu. "Can I at least hold him for you?" He knew better than to suggest that he kick Steerpike's ass for her.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shrugged, causing the artificial leg to bob up and down. "We'll see."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Leave me a piece of him. I took care of a rodent for the past few days waiting for you to do the Fandom thing and change back."

He nodded to the leg. "Why do you have a fake leg?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Because he threw it into the hole at me. I used it to dig out."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"He... what?" It didn't matter. "Tell me all of it later."

At least he wasn't leaving right now as had been originally planned.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia had been thinking of some very creative ways to dispatch Steerpike if he managed to make her miss saying good-bye to Walter, yes. "Does that mean you're sticking around for awhile?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Yes. I called home and spoke to Arthur a couple of days ago." He held up the degu and wiggled it at her. "I told him my girlfriend had turned into a rodent and I didn't want to leave until I was sure she was alright."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia eyed the rodent. "That's very sweet. Mind you, I'm still dealing with the fact that you thought I turned into a rodent. . . ."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"It's Fandom, Nadia. People turn into animals for no reason all the time."

It wasn't as though he didn't already feel like a dolt. "It even took your final in Spy Tech yesterday."

[nadiathesaint]

Okay, that got a small, tired smile out of her. "Still, this is the second time that I've gone missing and you didn't notice," There was no malice in the words, though. Just a sort of tired acceptance.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Lack of malice or acceptance or not, Walter had taken lighter blows that broke bones.

"I was waiting for you Sunday night after radio. Steerpike showed up with this thing, clothes and jewelry that looked like yours, and a story about seeing you turn into a rodent. I didn't not notice."

[nadiathesaint]

"Then we'll kill him and call it even, okay?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Quite. Just make sure that I'm the one who gets the blame if it ever comes to it. I dare them to try to come get me in 1945."

[nadiathesaint]

"Well, he mentioned taking over, so we should probably let Zoe know, first." and she headed off

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

Billy was stumping his way along from no place in particular to no place in particular when he saw Nadia with his leg.

"I knew it!"

[nadiathesaint]

"Good for you. Knew what?"

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Have a good time playing prosthetic limb ball?"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia just kind of stared at him blankly for a long moment. ". . . I've spent the last three or four days attempting to escape from a giant pit in the middle of the preserve after being turned into some kind of puppet by a demon after a nun, and the only digging tool I had was a fake leg that was thrown at me by my captor. I haven't had anything to eat since Sunday. I've barely had anything to drink. I'm sore, I'm exhausted, I'm cranky, and somehow, I think you might have just made it to second place on my list of people to hit with something heavy."

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Glad it came in handy." Billy said without missing a beat. Than, after a moment. "Sorry."

[nadiathesaint]

"S'okay." Nadia held the leg out to him. "Here. Now I have to go beat up the guy who's actually responsible."

[l1ttle-billy.livejournal.com]

"Can I help?" he asked, taking the leg and following her as quickly as he could.

[nadiathesaint]

"Yeah, sure, why not."