| Title: The aftermath (With Lien) Time: Monday, March 22, 2004 The Thespians: Lien Nguyen and Pascal Curio Location: Scattergood Grounds - Mountain Lake Notes: I missed the original RP with the tengu, Lien and Toby by about an hour. :P Damn work. |
| +---[ Scattergood Grounds - Mountain Lake ]----------------------------------+ | | | A crystal-clear mountain lake laps its waters up against its shoreline, | | stretching out in an immense expanse to cover a good portion of land. The | | water's edge holds various terrains, at one point it splashes gently upon | | a sandy beach, another a grassy bank stands a foot above the pool; large | | rocks are scattered here and there to sit upon, including partially | | immersed in the water, as well as large trees of various types that | | provide shading. On the eastern edge of the lake a daunting forest grows | | right up to the tarn's edge, and there visible a small river merges with | | the lake, coming at an odd angle from the north. The dirt path that cuts | | through the area seems to stop about here, becoming so overgrown by | | grasses that it no longer is visible. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| It's one of those cold days, when the sun is shining, but its rays don't seem to penetrate the earth at all. Frost upon the blades of grass are slowly turning into dew, which makes it all that much harder for a student to sit upon just to relax. Pascal Curio doesn't really seem to mind the moisture all that much, or she's put a charm onto her robe to keep it dry. The teenager sits rather close to the edge of the grassy bank, the heels of her feet barely even contacting the lip of the bank. She's curled up in a ball so tight, her knees hugged to her knees so close that she looks as if she could lose her balance any moment, but she doesn't. Her eyes are narrowed, the usual deep emerald green colour clouded over with some sort of emotion (worry? pain? anger?) but the rest of her face is lost from view, shielded by her robe. |
| Red cloak tugged tightly around her shoulders, which are hunched more than usual, Lien Nguyen shivers her way out to the lakeside, looking as though she'd rather not be here, but also as though she's looking for something--probably Pascal. Her eyes catch the older girl quickly enough, but she hesitates to go to her. Pascal would want to be alone, certainly, and probably wouldn't take too kindly to intrusions upon her solitude.... Lien approaches anyway, maintaining a respectful distance. "Pascal?" Is this calling her by her name and sounding concerned thing gonna turn into a habit? |
| The ball that Pascal has managed to make her body seems to shrink even smaller, if at all possible, as Lien's calling of her name reaches the older girl's ears. Pascal shifts her weight, leaning forward ever-so-slightly, and then backwards again before she can lose her balance and tumble into the ice-cold lake. Her head turns, and the rest of her face appears, the colour of her skin is that same pale colour that she once was when she was passed out in the forest. Usually, in such cold, the cheeks would flush red as blood rushes to the area, but Pascal's entire face is devoid of colour, except for her eyes, and of course, hair and eyebrows. "Hello, Lien," she says coolly; not a hint of sarcasm, or any sort of regular Pascal attitude is found in it. |
| "Hi..." Taking the fact that Pascal hasn't even snapped any rude comments as invitation enough, the smaller girl finishes her walk forward to squat in the grass near Pascal. What can she say, though? 'Are you okay?' doesn't work, because she's obviously not. But from the look on her face as she watches Pascal, one would almost think that Lien was worried about her. "Look..." she begins hesitantly... but she doesn't know where to go from there. |
| Just thinking about that entire ordeal makes Pascal's stomach turn. The sounds of her transformation will probably stay with her for a rather long time, and if Lien were to look closely, she'd be able to see some rather dark rings underneath Pascal's eyes; this girl definitely hasn't been sleeping. "Look, what?" Slight sarcasm detected here, and she looks away from Lien. "Nothing happened. We didn't go into the forest. We weren't stupid, and nothing happened." She drops her forehead onto her knees, knowing that saying nothing happen won't ever erase what did happen. So, if Lien were to try to bring it up again, it wouldn't be hard to get Pascal to talk about it. |
| "Yeah, um..." Oh, gosh, why her, why now? This isn't nice. Lien stares at the ground. "That's kind of what I needed to talk to you about..." She pauses, but decides the best thing would be to just keep going as long as Pascal will let her and not stop to make her try to say anything. "You'd like to forget about it, I bet. I think I would." She scratches her ear and breathes. "The tengu came back and found me and Toby." Pause to wince at the way her grammar came out there. "He said... he said that we," and here Lien stretches the truth to include herself, to avoid some awkwardness, "we either needed to promise never to tell anybody that we saw him... or that he would wipe the memory. He's gonna come to see you too, and... well, I thought... anyway, I thought you should know so you could... think about it." |
| Lien brings up an extremely valid point. She's definitely caught Pascal's attention, as the girl raises her head rather abruptly, her eyes flashing, but clearly not with the same gusto as they used to. She tilts her head to the side and looks at the girl very carefully, her eyes narrowed. After what seems like much too long, Pascal finally breaks her gaze and looks back out to the lake. "What to do, what to do," she mutters quietly, more to herself than to anyone else. She can't really hide her curiosity though as she asks Lien with a rather flat, emotionless voice, "What was that thing, anyway?" |
| "A tengu. His name's Sukaku, he told us." Lien doesn't cower much under Pascal's gaze, but she is relieved when she looks away. Lien looks at the lake too. "Japanese. I read about them in the library. Couldn't find out a lot there--nobody believes they exist anymore. I... I think they want to keep it that way." Her hand pokes at the cold ground. "You can't blame them, really, when you look at what's happened to the centaurs or the goblin or the merpeople. Humans don't get along very well with other species. ...or even with each other." |
| Having tuned Lien out after she said the word 'library', Pascal just nods distractedly now, still staring out at the lake. Some 'mmhmm's and 'uhhuh's are randomly weaved into Lien's words; Pascal doesn't even seem to hear the mention of the other creatures. Her posture has relaxed somewhat, and instead of being cured into a ball she's sitting a bit. As much as she'd like to forget that anything ever happened, she can't. Something's twisted in her mind. She looks back at Lien, completely changing the subject all together again. "So I promise not to say I ever saw him. Then what?" |
| "Then you don't say you saw him. Ever, to anybody. Or..." How did he put it. "Or his mother comes and wipes ALL of your memory and probably turns you into a mushroom." It would sound comical, were not the tone of the scene and of Lien's voice so heavy. "But... look, I'm not saying it's a good idea, but... well, you're just not... you don't look so good, and maybe if you did let him get rid of the memory..." She trails off uncomfortably, acutely aware that it shouldn't really be any of her business. |
| Aww, is widdle Lien scah-wed for poor Pascal? If Pascal were feeling more like herself, she'd respond with something sarcastic like that. But clearly she's not feeling, or looking, like herself, but she'd rather die than admit anything like that to anyone, especially Lien. There's just something about all that GOODNESS around the younger girl. "I'm fine, thank you for worrying, and I can keep my mouth shut just fine about it as well," she says, slowly getting herself on the defensive as her voice comes out sharper than it should. Still, it contains that element of thanks in there, and knowing Pascal, it probably shouldn't be overlooked. "Besides, you should be more worried about Toby spouting off his big mouth." |
| "If Toby tells anybody I'll kill him," Lien says, with such sudden vehemence and such a serious tone that it's almost startling. Face dark, she pulls herself up to her feet. It softens, though; the girl isn't angry with either Toby OR Pascal. She just has very--almost unaccountably--strong feelings about this issue. "Just think about it, okay?" she asks, clearly meaning to leave now. |
| "Nothing to think about. I like having my mind un-tampered with, and I won't say anything," Pascal's voice returns to its flat emotionless state, yet she fails to add, 'not that I have anyone to tell, or who cares to hear anyway.' At Lien's little threat to Toby, Pascal does register some secret delight, but all the same, it's not as strong as she would have liked it to be. She doesn't move her head as Lien stands, but her green eyes dart to the corner so that Pascal can look at the younger girl out of the corner of her eye, to watch her departure. A slight nod of her head is given, the only sort of goodbye Lien'll get today from her. |
| "Okay," says Lien. That's Pascal's decision and it's of no concern to her. She turns to go but adds softly, "And I believe that you won't." The younger girl, of course, knows nothing of Pascal, and it's not some sort of logical conclusion she's made. She just does, and she can't help thinking that it might do Pascal some good to have someone express a little confidence once in a while. She walks back towards the school, hugging her cloak around her against the cold. |
| A noise, very similar to a grunt is heard coming from Pascal's direction at Lien's last comment. At first, she doesn't look back at the red cloak as it heads back towards the school, but slowly, oh so slowly, Pascal's head turns, and her green eyes clear up slightly as she focuses on the sight of the younger girl as she heads back. The emotion in Pascal's eyes is rather unreadable, and the fact that her face is shielded once again inside her robe doesn't help at all. |
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