Étoile glances nervously about as she bends over (sticking her butt unnecessarily high in the air while she does it) to pick up the clunky antique looking revolver.

"H-hello? Is... is anybody here? Lady? Are you playing a new game, Lady? [i]l-lamassie[/i] is scared..."

But there are no replies. It's just her in the empty ruins of a Disneyland restaurant, alone but for the heavy weapon in her hand and the tattered remnants of the picnic she'd been dreaming of all week. She lifts the gun and holds it to her chest like a treasured stuffed animal, and pushes all of the air out of her lungs. 

This is the first time she's let her mask drop since she first met Marianne. When she looks across the way to where she knows her targets lie waiting, her eyes don't smile with the calm servitude of Tamytha's darling little star, or the silly and unfocused glee of [i]lamassie[/i], or even the hot fury of her alter ego. The real Étoile's fury is cold. Her eyes are dull and filled with lethal intent. Jezcha, [i]espèce de raté[/i], you ruined everything. She'll make you wish you'd drawn Marianne instead of her.

Then she sneezes, and that girl disappears and leaves frightened little [i]lamassie[/i] back in her place. She carefully gathers up all of Lady's belongings back into her pack, and drags it with her as she trots off to find her mistress, making exaggerated sniffing sounds as she goes? See, Lady? She can track, she can!

The sight of Lady, all trussed up and dangling precariously from a pole like the mermaid on the prow of a ship, makes her squeak in horror. 

"Ohmygosh and goodness! Oh! My Lady, please hold on, I'll save you from the humans who did this to you! Oh gosh gosh gosh! Oh!!"

Étoile, of course, is not a natural born huntress. If you want one of those, get a Lynx of course. But did you think she's been taking naps whenever Marianne came out to do her work? Of course she sees their hiding places! Of course she knows where to look! But she minces closer on trembling legs, trying to hold the heavy pistol out in front of her like a pro but needing two hands and an awful lot of bobbling to do it. 

Every slight noise seems to frighten her. Oh no, oh no! Is that a shrub, or a monster lurking over there? She squeezes her eyes shut and holds her head away from the gun as she fires a wild shot into absolutely nothing. It's a strange gun that lacks the sharp report she knows from movies, but fires with a dull popping sound instead. Still, it makes her jump three feet into the air at the sound of it. And that's her one, besides. 

She spins in a slow circle, waving the gun in front of her for protection when, oh gosh! Oh no! Silly [i]lamassie[/i], you shot right at one of Jezcha's hunting buddies! The shot scares her so badly she bobbles the gun and almost drops it straight to the ground, and in her mad scrambling she somehow manages to fire it twice more at the area her most exalted companions are hiding. If you were watching, you'd be forgiven for missing the tiny moments where her gun arm suddenly straightens and her aim switches from incompetence to (well, not quite) deadly precision. It's only just long enough to find a center-mass shot, and she is such a very silly girl in all. 

Now she runs toward her Lady, yelping and sobbing and waving the gun behind her as she goes. Pop! She hears more than sees a body slump against something hard. Pop! She has to assume she just missed. And that's two. She sprints all out, clearing the distance between her and Lady with frightening alacrity before... she trips on the ditch they dug and lands flat on her face under Lady's tender feet. It takes her a few moments of squeaks and groans before she regains her feet to fumble at these too-tight knots. 

"Oh gosh, oh gosh, My Lady I am so sorry! I'm so sorry! I am! Are you all right? We have to go, we have to go, let's get out of here, please I'm so scared! Oh, I'm here, but... please!"

Her mask falls away again without her realizing it. But though her eyes aren't smiling, it isn't fury that's dancing in them right now. You would have to be the biggest idiot in the whole universe to miss to miss the spark of love that flickers in that look.

[Defend: [b]9[/b]. Étoile takes Influence over Tamytha, but escalates the situation]