| Title: Distractions along
the River. Time: Thursday, March 18, 2004 The Thespians: Lien Nguyen, Toby Darling, Samson (NPC by Pascal) and Pascal Curio Location: Scattergood Grounds - River Notes: This was my first chance at NPCing Samson, and Pascal's little attitude change while her familiar is around. It's kind of weird, playing her so gushy and 'cooey' and... civil. -_-;; Anyways, included the little bit that Lien and Toby were RPing before I came back online to play. |
| +---[ Scattergood Grounds - River ]------------------------------------------+ | | | The rippling waters of a fast paced river cut across the landscape, | | rushing over occasionally visible rocks 'neath its surface. The width | | varies as much as the depth does; at times it stretches wide and shallow, | | then slim and deep, then other combinations, but always seeming to go | | roughly the same speed: fairly quickly. The water's banks differ as well, | | from sandy and low to pebbly, to grassy and high with a foot drop to the | | river's surface. The slim path narrows more, the trampled dirt hardly | | visible under a collage of weeds and grasses, while on the opposite side | | trees from the forest grow, some stretching directly up against the | | water's path. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| Pretty warm, this evening, for winter in the Colorado Rockies. Lien Nguyen has chosen a seat by the riverside, on a rock above the snow, red cloak draped over her shoulders, but with the hood down, so that her two thin pigtails can be seen from the back as she gazes, not at the river, but an item which she holds and turns over thoughtfully in her hands--a long, black feather. Her bookbag sits against the rock at her feet. |
| Lovely evening it is tonight. Toby is out for a stroll that just happens to take him past the river. He stops for a few moments in the cool night air, watching what little he can see of his breath and what he can see of the water rushing past. He takes in the sights: rocks, trees, water, a girl who looks a lot like Lien sitting on a rock... "Oh. Uh... Hi, Lien?" he says from beside her rock. |
| At the voice, Lien glances up briefly at Toby, a blank look on her face and something more friendly than anger in her eyes (guilt? apology?), though these turn almost immediately to the river. She slips the feather into her pocket and maintains her silence. |
| "I take it you're not talking to me yet? Okay, that's fine." Toby climbs up onto Lien's rock and sits next to her, purposefully intruding in her personal space bubble. "Nice night, isn't it? The river and the snow and stuff." |
| If he wanted her to move, it doesn't work. The girl just draws her knees up onto the rock and wraps her arms around them. She told him when she'd start talking to him again, and though she feels bad about giving him the cold shoulder so long, she's very serious about this issue. Still, after a very long pause, Lien's head moves a little in what -might- be the most minute of nods. Or maybe she just has an itch. |
| "Yup. Nice night. It'd be a really good night to sit on a rock and talk with a friend, don't you think?" -nod- (Toby) |
| This time there's definitely a small nod there. But Lien still doesn't say anything, and she continues to stare out at the river, avoiding his eyes. It -would- be, wouldn't it. |
| Toby Darling stares at Lien, which is uncomfortable for /most/ folks he knows when it's at such a short distance. He's determined to get her to say /SOMETHING/ to him. "I can be just as stubborn as you, Lien. I can sit here all night and talk your ear off. Just like you can sit there and ignore me all night. But, really, which would make the both of us more happy?" |
| In reply, Lien drops her legs off the rock and bends down beside it to rummage through her back and pull out a book. Pulling her legs back up, she sits cross-legged, opens the book on her lap and begins to read. |
| "Ooh, whatcha reading?" Toby turns so that he is fully facing Lien, also sitting cross legged. "Wait, don't tell me, you'll just hold the book up, right? That won't work if I'm not looking." He closes his eyes very dramatically. "See? I can't see." |
| A page turns. Lien doesn't look up to see that Toby can't see. She really -doesn't- seem angry, or even like she's deliberately ignoring Toby. If anything she looks a little sad, but she's still not responding. One hand reaches into a pocket, bringing out a quill, which she sucks on as she reads. If she IS reading. |
| Her will is too strong. Toby opens his eyes to see that not only did Lien not say anything, she did not hold up the book and is now sucking on a quill. With a sort of mock, sort of serious air of defeat Toby uncrosses his legs and moves to stand up. "Alright, I'll just be going then." You may have won the battle, Lien, but the war is far from over. |
| The quill is removed from her mouth and Lien looks up to blink at Toby slowly for a moment. Then she shrugs and looks back at her book. It wouldn't be that hard to get her speaking to him again. If he did it, she might even go all girly and give him a hug or something. But as things stand... well, she has a book. |
| "Goodnight, Lien!" Toby slips off of the rock and walks back toward where he came, continuing his walk along the river. He's still within earshot if Lien /really/ wanted to say something to him, but even he doubts it. |
| Oh, of course Lien WANTS to say something. But she's not going to. She doesn't even look up to watch the boy leave, her eyes are on her book, and they've gone all watery. |
| Bah, enough with walking. Toby finds his /own/ rock to sit on a few dozen yards upriver from Lien's. Appearing outwardly happy he plops upon it and pulls out his own book from his pocket of his robes. The cover says "Magical Theory in the Late 20th Century" but the inside is very much an X-Men comic book. |
| Head ducked, Lien blinks a few times, draws an uneasy breath and shakes her head, eyes refocusing on the page. She reads a moment, then takes the quill and carefully underlines a sentence, writing a little note in the margin as neat as her shaky handwriting can make it. Just don't think about it, and don't look at Toby. Though she does look up and note that the sun is setting, and that it will be time to go in soon. Her glance, as it goes back to the book, catches Toby--but he looks fine, right? Right. |
| It's a perfectly good evening, good enough for the hunter to come out at night. The grasses rustle along the path, and since it's not quite dark enough, the sleek black shape of a cat is made out. A quiet hiss is heard from a patch of grass closer to Toby, and then he strikes. Or, pounces rather clumsily. A cluster of crickets flies up, and more hissing is heard to the point where it might almost be annoying to someone trying to read a book. By this time, Samson, Pascal Curio's cat, has made it closer to Lien. |
| "Huh?" Toby turns around to find a clumsy cat pouncing... er... flopping at something. He giggles a little and goes back to reading his comic book. He flips a page: "Yes! Get 'em Wolverine!" Apparently his favorite hero just did something really cool. |
| Initially, Lien's head comes up to look at Toby after his outburst. Samson provides a convenient distraction, however, so, holding a finger in her book to keep her place and tucking her quill behind her ear, the girl leans down over the edge of the rock, pigtails dangling over her shoulders, and stretches out her hand to him. She'd TALK to him, but apparently she's still not in the mood. She doesn't want to rub it in to Toby any more than she has already. |
| Why is this boy yelling? A loud hiss, and the cat instinctively jerks his head in Toby's direction, but for the most part, the long grasses shield his body. Food? Does the girl offer food? A rather large meow from the grasses, and then Samson hops up onto a rock that's a few feet away from Lien, his bright green eyes staring at the girl indifferently. In fact, his stare is almost contemptful. Another meow, and if the owner were revealed, they could question whether Pascal got her attitude from her pet, or vice versa. |
| Toby is distracted by a meow coming from over in Lien's general direction. .oO("Did Lien just yell at me? No, that was the cat")Oo. He watches as the cat jumps up on the rock and mutters mostly under his breath "Watch her talk to the cat and not me." |
| She doesn't talk to the cat. She just wrinkles her nose at it in the very same expression she uses so frequently on certain people who delight in getting under her skin. Fine. Whatever. Lien looks back down at her book, though by now she's read the same sentence three times. Her shoulders sink in a sigh. How much do you want to bet her that some Higher Power sent that cat to make her feel more guilty? |
| Samson does not outwardly show that he even hears Toby muttering, but his left ear twitches slightly toward Toby's general direction. What, has Lien stopped paying attention to him? That will not do, especially if the girl has food. The cat shows not Pascal's maliciousness, not now anyway, as he hops off of the rock, and jumps onto another one even closer to the girl. A loud meow again, this time with a 'pay attention to me' tone in the sound. |
| Toby Darling tries to ignore the cat. He's a bit jealous that Lien's paying more attention to it than she is to him. Just read, Toby. Read. |
| Again Lien's eyes rise from the book. At first she begins to scowl at the cat again, but then her expression softens and she gives it a weak smile. "Hey," she says, very softly. "You're a pretty little guy, aren't you?" She beckons to him. |
| Samson's next meow seems to echo in agreement with Lien's comment, and he makes the easy jump from his rock over to Lien's, and sits down next to her, licking his left paw, coincidentally the only part of his whole body that's not black. Once he's done there, he meows again, and then nuzzles up against Lien's side, while staring at Toby with his bright green eyes. If possible, Samson almost seems to be mocking Toby. (Pascal) |
| Is it just him, or is that cat... staring at him? "Oh, shut up, you." If the cat weren't sitting almost on top of Lien Toby'd throw something at it. Instead he just makes a mean kind of gesture toward the cat that resembles a backhanded slap. |
| Shut up? The only person who was making any noise was Lien, and the girl winces, deliberately not looking back at Toby. It's like another little jab to remind her how mean she's being to him. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, she looks down at her book again, pulling the quill from behind her ear and sucking on it. Her other hand scratches Samson absently behind the ears. |
| Samson flattens his ears against his head, and from Toby's viewpoint of the cat, it would seem as if the cat is glaring at the boy. From Lien's viewpoint, however, it would seem that the cat is enjoying the attention he's getting from the girl. Suddenly, however, the cat starts as a very familiar, and quite possibly /dreaded/ voice floats in from the Mountain Lake area. "Samson?" It's Pascal alright, and she comes strolling into the area, looking for her cat no doubt. "Samson, are you here?" The cat suddenly jumps away from Lien and Pascal quickly takes the cat into her possession. "Aww, baby, where have you been?" She coos. Coos?! Pascal? Cooing?! The cat nuzzles against her chin, and it seems that the girl hasn't yet noticed the two readers at opposite sides of the area. |
| Ah, no wonder the cat was giving him the evil eye. Toby is suddenly once again conscious of the extra bit of nose that he has on his face- thanks to none other than Pascal, of course. "That's /your/ cat?!" Toby seems to have forgotten that he's not speaking to Pascal. But now that he remembers he'll be sure to be a little less social. He goes back to his X-Men comic book. |
| An uncomfortable feeling clenches Lien's stomach and she looks up from her book AGAIN. Pushing her glasses up with the back of her hand, she glances over at Pascal and a look somewhere between surprise and disbelief fixing itself on her features. What is... what is she DOING? And why isn't she that nice to HUMANS? |
| Pascal Curio seems rather preoccupied with Samson right now. She's got this disgustingly genuine smile on her face that actually makes her look rather pleasant, but that quickly fades as she takes notice of Toby, and as she sets Samson down, her gaze wanders to Lien, as her cat has found his way back to the girl who was giving him so much attention. The cat jumps back on the rock and sits, staring expectantly at Lien, waiting for the shower of attention to continue. "Yes," Pascal says, that same sarcastic tone creeping back into her voice. "That's, /my/ cat. Do you have a problem with that, Toby? You better not have done anything mean to Samson." She's dead serious here. |
| "Better have not done anything mean to the cat? What about me!? Why is it okay to do something mean to a person (he points at his nose) but it's wrong to be mean to your stupid cat?" Why does Toby always find himself becoming angry and vocal when Pascal's around? |
| "He's a nice cat," says Lien softly, contrary to Toby's raving. She hasn't even glowered at Pascal yet. She looks a bit too weary to do this. She also hesitates to shower affection on the creature with Pascal watching, given their relationship, but how can she disappoint him? Her hand returns to scratching his ears. |
| Poor Toby seems to have forgotten that he's punched Pascal in the arm, yes she scared him but he HIT HER. She looks at him square in the eyes, her own narrowed, and she calmly says to him, "What do you want me to say, Toby? What would you like to me say?" Her voice raises just a little. "Tell me, /exactly/ what you want me to say." A final glare at him, and her eyes shift just slightly so she's watching Lien and Samson carefully. The cat looks rather content, and nuzzles against Lien, his tail flickering back and forth as the younger girl scratches him behind the ears. A loud rumbling purr escapes from the cat's mouth, and a rather satisfied expression sweeps over Pascal's face. |
| Toby Darling scoots back a little bit on his rock, slightly intimidated by the glare he's getting. What does he want her to say? Timidly, yes, very timidly: "Maybe 'sorry for blowing up your nose?'" |
| The satisfaction on Pascal's face is enough to make Lien a little bit nervous, but the cat is purring and it's possible that the older girl DOESN'T have anything sinister planned, and besides that, Lien is too tired to care too much. She strokes Samson's back before her hands return to the area behind his ears--why, compared to usual she's downright jovial. And the peace is so nice, wouldn't it be nice to keep Toby from getting himself hexed AGAIN? Sigh. "...Toby..." the girl says quietly, a warning tone. |
| A few, slow, long strides and Toby finds himself face to face with Pascal. However, she doesn't seem to have the usual sour attitude and 'I'm going to hex your socks off' aura about her today. In the background, the cat continues to purr loudly, and actually looks like he wants to crawl into Lien's lap. If one were smart enough to put the connection together, they might want to see the cat around more when Pascal is. "So, you'd like an apology then, Mr. Darling?" She says, her voice coming out smoothly. "How about you apologize for punching me in the arm then?" Of course, that last question isn't so much a question, so if Toby wants an apology... |
| "... uh ..." Toby rolls his closed eyes ever so slightly as he sighs. "I'm sorry for punching you in the arm after you scared the living daylights out of me." There, nice and to the point. Wait, what was that other voice? Did Lien just SAY SOMETHING to Toby? Inside his heart skips a beat and a silent "yay! I win!" is thought... but Lien talking to him is going to have to take the back burner until the psycho hex-happy girl is no longer right in his face. |
| With a sigh of something like relief, Lien's shoulder's slump and she smiles faintly, giving the cat a nice scratch/stroke under his chin. Okay, so Toby's apology wasn't PERFECT, but at least it was there, right? And Pascal's mood seems better than usual. Maybe Toby will come through this unscathed. |
| Samson has made his way into Lien's lap now, and seems rather content to just sit there like a dead weight, keeping the girl from reading anymore of her book. He turns over in Lien's lap, exposing his belly to her. A semi-pleading look from the cat, as pleading as a cat can get, is given to Lien. Looks like he wants a belly rub. Pascal, on the other hand, looks at Toby steely, before taking a step back from him, probably to let him breathe. If she didn't appreciate that last little bit tacked onto his apology she doesn't show it. "Apology accepted," she says a bit stiffly. "And I'm sorry for enlarging your nose like I did." Mentally she adds, 'I should have hexed all your hair off instead,' but no one needs to know that. But would you look at this, her wand as appeared in her right hand. "Shall I undo the effects?" Question is, does Toby trust her to? |
| Toby quickly ponders his options: 1- Wait for the effects to wear off eventually (which could take DAYS) or 2- actually TRUST Pascal. There's no more bad blood between the two of them, is there? Perhaps he could trust her. "Um... sure. I mean... Yes, please." |
| Tummy rub? How on earth can Lien resist a face like that? Even if it IS laying on her book? She obliges, though as she does her head turns over to watch Toby and Pascal. She can safely say that she wouldn't let Pascal near her face with a wand if her life depended on it. Surely Toby's advisor or one of the other teachers could have fixed it? (Always with the teachers, this girl.) |
| It is taking almost every ounce of Pascal's energy to not trick Toby again and to make his face even more disfigured. She may enjoy trickery and suffering from other people, but she's smart enough to know when to reel in, and when not to. A pointed look at Lien, just to make sure that the younger girl is watching. A light mutter of an incantation under Pascal's breath, and she gives Toby's nose a gentle tap with it. "There," she says, stepping back again. She doesn't have a mirror, but he can probably feel the difference for his nose is back in the right proportion. She's distracted slightly from a rather long, drawn out, and extremely satisfied meow coming from Samson, and she finally turns to Lien, addressing the girl with more civility than Pascal may ever use again. "He really likes you." |
| Toby squiggles his nose a bit. Yup, it feels pretty normal. "Thanks." Wow, she didn't toy with him more. He leans to the side to look around Pascal and calls over to Lien over on her rock: "Hey, Lien! My nose is fixed!" He grins from ear to ear and leans back upright: "You're not quite so evil after all, Pascal." He really doesn't mean that to sound as bad as it probably does, but hopefully Pascal will get the point. |
| Lien looks down at the cat on her lap and grins, giggles a little bit. He's cute. She does look back up at Toby and nods. "That's nice, Toby. Real nice." Swallow. Weak, halfway sort of smile. She's not altogether pleased to be speaking to him again, as it means her bargaining chip went out the window. |
| Toby's jaw drops. Was that a real, complete sentence from Lien? He leans around Pascal again. "Lien! Do you realize you just said something to me!? Somethin' that was a compete sentence? With a subject and verb and everything?" (Which is totally unlike his own last sentence. Oh, the irony.) |
| Not quite so evil after all. Toby's words ring in Pascal's ears, and she smirks slightly at the boy. If only he really knew. She doesn't do nice things just for the sake of being nice. As Toby looks around her, she takes another step back so that she's not standing in his way. That and by doing so, she's got a view of both Toby and Lien without having to move her head back and forth too much. She looks over at Lien, and then at Samson, who is clearly milking Lien for all the attention that he can get. |
| "Yes..." says Lien hesitantly to Toby. Head bowing, she looks down at Samson; her hands are still moving, because it's almost as soothing for her as the cat. Her head, though, finally jerks back up to snap over to Toby. "Just, please, -please-, don't do anything stupid, okay?" Well, she's just as paranoid as ever and her voice carries a tinge of desperation. |
| Stupid? Toby do something stupid? Never! "What do you mean by 'stupid?' When have I done something stupid?" Does he really believe that he hasn't done anything stupid? Perhaps he really /is/ that naive. Or maybe he's just trying to make Lien talk to him more. Gotta make up for lost time, you know. |
| Well, now that Toby and Lien are talking to each other, Pascal seems to find this a rather appropriate time for her to head back to her dorm, or where-ever she goes in the evening. She gives a slight snap of her finger, and Samson's head jerks up. He seems rather hesitant to leave though, and gives Lien another nuzzle, before hopping off of her lap, and heading back into Pascal's arms. That smile crosses her face again, and she's a little too distracted now to even wave at the two as she walks back towards the dormitories. |
| Lien watches after Pascal as she leaves, an odd expression on her face. This has been a side of the older girl she never imagined. She almost wonders if ELIJAH might be nice sometimes... but, no, surely not. Finally she looks back at Toby. "You have," she says, and swings her legs off the rock to stand up and scoop up her bookbag, sliding her book inside. "And if you get yourself OR me killed, I'll NEVER speak to you again." With this threat she turns to follow in Pascal's footsteps--the sun's almost down and it's COLD out there. |
| Toby is left to sit alone with that message of doom. He needs to ponder for a second or two to figure out exactly what it means. He yells after Lien as he stuffs his book back in his pocket and stands to leave: "Hey, Lien! How would you talk to me if I were dead or if you were dead?" He runs after the girls, as the dorms are all in the same direction. |
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