| Title: Beancurd Szechuan Time: Sunday, March 28, 2004 The Thespians: Andrea Lehr, Jeneva Katri, Lien Nguyen, Toby Darling and Wally Valentine Location: Allis Memorial Center - Room of Scents |
| +---[ Allis Memorial Center - Room of Scents ]--------------------------------+ | | | Apple, vanilla, morning breath - the different smells are enough to bombard | | anyone entering this swirling, airy room; twists of smoky scents of all | | flavors drifting about, but oddly enough none escape outside the doors. The | | walls are a mosaic of pears, apples, tissues, and corn, all painted | | together in what appears to be magical paint, as each flashes occasionally, | | sending out another spurt of fine aroma into the open. The russet rug is | | soft and cushy, releasing puffs of cinnamon, coffee, or Earl Grey Tea wafts | | every few seconds. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| Wally should become... an outlaw! He could rob the rich and feed the poor and... wave around a stick! ...not that Lien would do any of that! ...not -indoors-, anyway. Cough. No, seriously, cough. The little sixth grader steps into the room, nose buried in a book (not, surprisingly, Robin Hood) and gets a face full of Old Women's Stale Perfume. Cough, cough, cough. Nose wrinkle. There are reasons why she avoids this room; they're the same reasons why she should watch where she's going, rather than reading while she walks. Silly reasons. Lien steps forward, hoping to get a whiff of something like... Fresh Air, and pauses to take in the two older students with her head inclined to the side. She doesn't know them. |
| Oh god, girls are /so/ weird. Wally just looks at Jeneva with a rather disapproving look, even as the girl seems to warm up to Wally. He usually doesn't hold grudges against people, but Jeneva's going to be one of those that he's not going to openly seek to chat with. He very, /very/ quietly mutters under his breath something about not liking and attitude, but that's about all that can be made out. She's even made him forget about the beancurd szechuan as well! "I don't know what I want to become. I'm only eleven." He slightly remembers about beancurd as he turns and spots Lien. All of that little anger he had in his big body before is completely gone now and he beams at the girl. "Hi!" |
| Jeneva Katri looks at Wally as he mumbles about not knowing what he wants to be, Jeneva opens her mouth to say something to him but closes it promptly when another girl enters the room. She may have been able to spar with the boy, but she's not sure about the girl yet so she will keep to herself. Instead Jeneva moves to another picture and breaths in the smell, still intrigued with the room. |
| Yes. Lien's gift at witty repartee is well known throughout the school. Mouth like a sword, that girl. ...NOT! If she was, you think she'd have so much trouble with two certain people who will remain nameless for Lien's protection? The girl looks at Wally thoughtfully--she hasn't really met him before, even though he's in her grade and her advisor group, and for that she feels a little bit guilty, but he looks cheerful enough. "Hello," she returns, offering him a polite smile and then turning a similar nod on Jeneva. "Hi." |
| Now, if Jeneva weren't standing by Wally and ready to verbally attack him for every word that came out of his mouth (or so Wally is thinking at the moment), the boy would ask Lien to take a deep breath, and see if she can smell beancurd szechuan. He looks back at Jeneva who's currently more preoccupied with the pictures, and then turns back to Lien. She looks nice enough, and well, she's shorter than him. That doesn't happen very often. "I'm Wally Valentine," the now turned friendly round boy says to Lien, sticking his hand out towards her for a shake. He seems to have forgotten that only a few moments ago, he was snubbed by Jeneva while doing the same thing. |
| Jeneva Katri continues to wander around the room taking in all the different scents. The conversation of the others is not far from her mind, she listens but feels she does not want to intrude as of yet. Possibly one of them will give her something to talk about in a minute. She doesn't hear Lien say 'hi' and takes in deep breaths, how was it possible that this room was keeping her from her studies. |
| One of Lien's unfortunate virtues is that she is, in fact, entirely too polite for her own good. Just ask Billy Asterik. She takes Wally's hand--she has a very weak handshake--and gives him another polite smile. "Lien..." She hesitates, wondering if she should bother with the surname. Well, might as well. "Lien Nguyen." Her gaze drifts to Jeneva, who either ignored or didn't hear her greeting. "And what about you?" |
| Wally is still rather regretting that little outburst he made towards Jeneva. How juvenile of him, even if he is just eleven years old. "Pleasure to meet you Lien. Have you ever smelled beancurd szechuan?" He finally ventures the question, but it trails off as he follows Lien's gaze towards Jeneva. He leans closer to Lien and actually manages to say, "That's Jeneva. She's very... smart." Try as he might, he can't summon up that energy to say anything bad about her anymore, no matter how rude Jeneva was to poor fat Wally. |
| Now Jeneva has heard the girl ask her name and so she turns towards her. "Names Jeneva Katri" She says talking over the comment of the beancurd, "and he's been saying this room has smelled of that stuff all day, but I honestly don't know what he is talking about." She moves closer and notices the book in Lien's hand. "Reading I see, wonderful book I might add." |
| It's rude to interrupt people. Really, it is. (Lien knows a lot about manners. Just the other day you could have caught her telling Toby that it's not nice to set people on fire.) Still, she saw the book and it IS a wonderful book, and the girl simply cannot help but beam and nod back. And as for Wally... "Um... beancurd... I don't know, maybe." Blink. That's a random question if she's ever heard one (and she has). "...have you?" |
| "I think I smelled it today, in this room," Wally answers back rather quietly between Jeneva and Lien's talking. He knows not to interrupt, because most of the time no one really listens to his interruptions anyway. He looks towards Jeneva, and then at Lien, then at the book that Lien is holding. "What book is it?" |
| BOOK! Oh, what a joyous thing, people care about the book, they are asking about the book, they are NOT MAKING FUN OF THE BOOK! "I got it at the library--it's about the history of magic in America, and it starts out with all this stuff about the native shamans and stuff and then it goes on to things like Salem and stuff, and it's really cool!" Beam! Nevermind that neither other child probably cares. Lien loves her books. |
| Jeneva Katri glances at the book and then at the girl speaking. "Was it written by a Muggle? You know you can't trust anything they write." she nods at the book. "I have a really good book my mother gave me written by a witch that actually lived through the Salem trials, of course it's really old and such, but full of details you don't normally get." |
| "Are you reading it for a class?" Wally, again, ventures another question about the book. Unless it's a fairy tale or something like that, he usually assumes its for a class. But the way Lien talks about it... He darts a look over at Jeneva, a rather docile glare if one can even call it that, as she speaks about Muggles. His grandparents, on his mum's side, were Muggles. "What's wrong with Muggles?" He asks quietly. |
| "Of course it wasn't written by a Muggle--what Muggle would write a history of MAGIC? Honestly..." Pause. A glance at Wally. Back to Jeneva. "But just because they don't know about magic doesn't mean you can't trust anything they write!" Lien is willing to give the other girl the benefit of the doubt and guess that she was probably just referring to what Muggles write about the Salem witch trials, but still, a nerve has been struck and Lien is stinging slightly. "My mother and father are BOTH Muggles." To her credit, she doesn't add a 'So THERE'. Wally's question passes unanswered, but the answer is no, she's not. |
| "I was not attacking Muggles as people, just what they write about magic. I mean you can't expect them to know what really happened at the trials, nor can you expect them to really know anything about magic. Unless, of course, they have magical relatives." Jeneva Katri looks unperturbed by the two and their sudden jumpiness about Muggles. "I assume by both of your reactions that you have Muggle relatives? I believe an uncle of mine married a Muggle not long ago." Hrm, enough talk of Muggles, and books, that kind of talk only reminded her that she should be studying for her classes tomorrow. "Well it was lovely to meet both of you, but I really must be off to study for tomorrow. I have spent enough time away from them as it is." She nods a good-bye to both students and takes in the smell of the room one last time before heading out the door. |
| Wally doesn't like Jeneva. He looks at Lien almost helplessly, and sighs, the motion causing his multiple chins to jiggle just slightly. He wrings his stubby fingers together and just tilts his head to the side almost apologetically. "Well... she's..." and a pause. "Smart?" Well, she is. "She likes to hang around with smart people," he continues to talk, ducking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "Don't think she likes me much." He squints his eyes and can do nothing but shrug again. |
| Lien is a smart person, or at least, Billy thinks so. But she doesn't look like she would much like to hang around with Jeneva, either. Her nose is wrinkled up and her hand is clenching her book rather harder than usual. It's this touchiness that makes her such a fun target for the aforementioned unnamed people. "Well, that's her problem then, isn't it?" Lien replies primly. Not that she has much reason to like Wally much, except that she has developed sudden (and slightly undeserved) bad feelings for the girl which make her quick to disagree with her. |
| Wally is carefully examining Lien's expression, and he just regards her form, taking in the rather tensed up hand and the book. He might as well try to change the subject as best as he can, and he starts off with yet another shrug. "Are there any good stories in that book?" He asks, his voice squeaking just slightly. Not yet started puberty, so his voice is still rather high and feminine. Kind of a constrast when one looks at him. |
| Wally must not be as stupid as he looks; he caught on quickly enough to the best way to distract Lien, anyway. "Oh, lots," the girl says. "Like, the Native American shamans... well, when we all came over and everything, we saw that they had firewater, but the Muggles get that all wrong and they started calling WHISKY firewater. But, actually, firewater's used for Divination and stuff. It's very cool--I heard we get to use it when we get to that class! Of course, that's not until eighth grade, but..." |
| Listening with as much interest as he can, Wally smiles at Lien rather broadly. "Are you going to take divination in eighth grade then?" He asks her, of course, politely waiting until she's done all her talking. "The book sounds awfully interesting," he continues, though he'd much rather prefer a good fairy tale or two, but he's not sure he should mention that to Lien. So instead, he'll continue to bombard her with questions. "What other sorts of books do you read?" |
| "Oh yes, I just hope I can do it. They say if you haven't got the gift, well, that's all there is too it, but I think it's worth a try, don't you?" Thus far, Lien rather likes Wally--most people would have told her to shut up ages ago. "I read anything," she says. "Everything. My favorite book right now is Robin Hood, have you ever read it?" |
| Wally Valentine flushes a faint shade of pink and shakes his head. "No... I've never read it." He pauses and tilts his head to the side, trying to think of some sort of consolation prize he could offer Lien. "I've seen the movie many times though," he says after a moment's pause. "Does that count?" Well, seeing as how it was the Disney version, and Robin Hood was an fox... well, we'll see. |
| Toby Darling pokes his head into the door of the wonderfully smelling room, sniffing a bit. Apparently he was drawn to the room by the scent of something good. Something very yummy perhaps. -sniff sniff- "Mmmm, that smells good." He follows the smell enough so that he is now all the way in the room before he realizes that there's somebody in here. All at once, he snaps out of his scent induced daze. "Oh, Lien! Uh... other kid! I didn't realize you were in here. Heh." He shrugs innocently as he gives the room one last sniff... pizza, perhaps. "What's going on?" |
| Could Toby be smelling... bean curd szechuan? Wally is saved Lien's babble about how the movie's okay but the book's so much better and the movie hasn't even got Will Scarlet in it by Toby's entrance--the girl looks over at him, takes him in and offers a hesitant smile. Last time she talked to him he nearly started to cry. "Oh, hi Toby. This is Wally. Wally, this is... my friend Toby. Toby Darling." |
| Will Scarlet? Clearly a name that's alien to the boy who's only seen the movie. He just nods at Lien, almost losing himself as she just continues on her little tirade about Robin Hood. He turns to look at Toby, that same large smile he greeted Lien with greeting Toby, and his fat hand is thrusted forwards towards the other boy. "It's nice to meet you Toby. I'm Wally Valentine." |
| "Good to meet you, Wally." Toby takes the boy's hand and gives it a good, firm, greeting handshake. "You've met Lien already, I take it? She's cool. You can trust her." Toby gives Lien a quick sideways glance and wink. He is, of course, referring to the last conversation (where Toby started to cry) where Lien assured him that, yes, she does trust him. |
| Lien smiles weakly in response to Toby's wink. She still hasn't figured out what all that babble about Austria meant. A whiff of something strong and unrecognizable, but vaguely reminiscent of the things you smell on Work Crew in the chicken coop distracts the girl so that she spends a few moments in an eye-watering cough before dropping lower to bring herself nearer to the homey smells of the rug. "This room," she says, still recovering, "is sure something." |
| While Wally may not necessarily be the brightest crayon in the box, he looks rather skeptical as he sees Toby wink at Lien. People didn't usually do that to each other unless... but the boy keeps his mouth shut and just smiles, hamming it up. "Thanks," is his only real response to Toby's 'advice'. Thankfully, that smell that caught Lien so off guard passed by the larger boy, and so he just looks down, rather concerned at the short girl. "What did it smell like?" |
| "What did what smell like?" Toby raises an eyebrow. "Oh! The smell that brought me in here? It kinda smelled like... Chineese Food. Spicy Chineese food." He licks his lips as he has a seat on the rug, and leans against the wall. It looks like he's found a good spot to hang around for a while. "I could really go for an eggroll now." |
| It WAS the bean curd szechuan! Wally should feel pleased. Lien is too busy shaking off the smell that just hit her. "Something... FOUL." No pun, of course, intended. She straightens up and glances nervously at Toby. "But, look, I've gotta go, I've... got lots of studying to do, you know, that essay in Defense Against the Dark Arts and stuff..." Cough. Lien... flees, for lack of a better word. Oh well, Toby--at least she -trusts- you, right? |
| Wally Valentine waves his stubby little fingers at Lien, never forgetting his manners. "It was nice to meet you, Lien! Have a good study period!" He turns to Toby and his face grows entire seriously. "You probably smelled the beancurd szechuan. I smelled it when I first got here as well." He nods, and then takes a look around the room. "I think I need to get going as well. I've got some studying as well." And by studying he means eating. "It was nice meeting you Toby, have a good day!" And with that, the fat little boy pads off heavily towards the kitchens. |
| Toby waves to Lien and then Wally as each makes their escape from the room of yummy ness. Toby has no idea what Lien was cringing at. All he can smell is yummy stuff. And so, content with the scents, he dozes off sitting against his wall... the scent of beancurd szechuan fresh in his nostrils. |
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