| Title: Just another day of interruption. Time: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 The Thespians: Lien Nguyen, Elijah Cruise, Kit Gerring and Pascal Curio Location: Allis Memorial Center - Auditorium Notes: I have plans for Pascal and Kit. Evil plans that no one else knows about but me. And knowing me, I will probably forget these plans. Christ. |
| +---[ Allis Memorial Center - Auditorium ]-----------------------------------+ | | | A vast catacomb of what appear at first sight to be stiff backed oaken | | chairs stretch out, lined in neat rows but movable, allowing for users to | | change the seating positions should need be. The rug is an enchanting | | azure, smooth as an untossed sea yet soft as the down of a baby chick. | | Toward the front of the vast room, a platform with stairs on its left and | | right sides rises up, the area for speakers and presenters to get the full | | attention of those watching. About the stage, several rows of enormous | | curtains - yellow, red, black, and green - can be drawn across, as well as | | partial dividers, allowing for a vast amount of events to be able to | | occur. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| The chairs, before Pascal Curio had come in her and had her way with the room, were arranged in neat rows. For the most part they still are, save for about ten chairs in the very centre of this vast room. The chairs have been carefully rearranged so that they make a circle, almost as if they were getting ready for a game of musical chairs. The backs are facing in, the seats facing out, and a black cat, with a single grey paw sprawls upon two of the chairs, while there seems to be a figure seated inside the little niche created by the chairs, mumbling away. Lately Pascal's been having a hard time trying to find somewhere by the lake so that she can be by herself, and so she's had to resort to this area, but she doesn't seem so much pleased by that. Her mutterings are unintelligible, but they carry with them an air of frustration and anger. The cat, Samson, on the other hand, is fast asleep snoring gently while his companion is wide awake. |
| A small, wide-eyed figure appears in the doorway, even smaller when being viewed from all the way across the auditorium. Her eyes are immediately drawn to the disturbance in the neat rows of chairs, but she hesitates to approach them, guessing what she'll find there, partially from the cat and partially because sound travels very well in this room. The inverse is also true, so when Lien does gather up the nerve to walk ever so slowly toward the chairs and the cat and the muttering, her winter boots, though she steps softly, can probably be heard pretty well. She takes a seat on one of the unmoved chairs near Samson. |
| A pale green eye opens from the cat, and Samson lets out a rather loud 'meow'. If Pascal didn't realize that someone was in the room, she realizes now. The sound of a book slamming shut is followed by the muffled thud of it as it drops to the ground, and a rather low growl sounds. "What. Do you want?" Pascal leans back against one of the chairs, coincidentally being the one that Lien is sitting on, and so the chair doesn't slide back at all. "Come to pity me? Come to pity the poor little Pascal?" Wow, she sounds rather bitter today. |
| Don't get mad. Don't get mad. Think like Father--HE wouldn't get mad. It's actually easier than usual. Well, a little. If Lien keeps staring at the cat and doesn't turn around to look at Pascal. "I was just worried about you," she says quietly, eyes still lowered. "Last time I saw you you didn't look so good." Don't kill her! This is a GOOD thing! She never worried about ELIJAH when HE didn't look so good. |
| All this mushy caring business, combined with the fact that Toby touched her only recently is enough to make Pascal sick. Lien can't see her face from her current position, and Pascal wrenches to face into a disgusting scowl, and takes a deep breath. Only for Samson, only for Samson, and as she thinks that, the cat has found his way into Lien's lap, and the purring starts. 'Pay attention to me, not Pascal,' says the cat's face as he stares up at Lien. "There's no need to worry about me, Lien. I'm a big girl," Pascal says, her voice sarcastic, but she's got it checked still, so not as sarcastic as it could be. |
| The cat has the right idea. Almost automatically, Lien begins to pet, scratching behind the ears and then moving on to the tummy. Cats... cats... "Do YOU eat birds, Samson?" she asks him quietly. "Big scary monster like you?" She's not ignoring Pascal, exactly. Just... waiting. Surely Pascal can't stay mad forever... right? All Lien wants to do is be nice, for once. |
| Don't get Pascal wrong. She's not exactly mad at Lien, persay, just mad in general. Samson on the other hand is just an attention grabbing hog in the form of a cat. He purrs loudly and meows back at Lien, batting a paw in the air as if to say, 'birds are yummy.' When he can catch them anyway. Pascal remains quiet, either perfectly content with, or not caring that Lien hasn't responded. The scowl's slowly fading from her face; she doesn't have much reason for it to be there when it's quiet. After a few moments of heavy purring from the cat, the sound of pages flipping in a book are heard from inside the circle of chairs. |
| "Yeah... scary cat. Scary." Lien spends a little more time murmuring to the cat, then sighs softly. "It might seem like a weird idea, you know, but it's not going to kill you to have somebody caring whether you're all right or not." She's still not looking at the older girl, still keeping her head ducked and loving on the cat. Crazy birds. This cat is just SO evil. |
| "I don't care, so why should anyone care about me?" That's the only reply from Pascal, and she turns another page in her book, trying to make the rustling noise louder to cover up her speaking. Her voice is kept light, but underneath it it's quite possible that she almost resents having to say that. Still, her throat is cleared, and she says no more. Samson meows loudly, almost in objection to what his companion said, and continues to bat at the air, trying to aim for one of Lien's braids. |
| Because not everyone has a heart made out of ice? Lien doesn't say so. Instead she half smiles down at the cat on her lap and doesn't say anything for a moment, until finally settling on, "Well, somebody has to." Yeah, okay, so, it's probably not too impressive to the oh so jaded and aloof Pascal, but Lien doesn't really care. |
| With his arms at his sides, and a half-smile on his face, Elijah traipses into the Auditorium and catches sight of Pascal... and Lien. His half smile slowly spreads into a full smile as he sees the beloved Oompa. He apparaches the girls, swinging his arms as he moves. "Ladies," he sneers as he crosses his arms. "Pascal... Oompa..." they are both given a nod of acknowledgement. Oh the things he could do! He could... he could make her green again! No, that's already happened. Public embarrassment seemed to be the best bet. It was just a matter of slipping it into conversation. "What's up?" |
| "I didn't ask for friends," Pascal's voice starts out rather light as if she's said this once too many times. It quickly grows flat and stony. So does her gaze, but Lien's not facing her, so she can't see. "I don't ask for and I don't care for people caring about me, so you're not going to find that reciprocated on my end." Just to get that all straight, and she's said to even as Elijah walks into the room, not realizing that he even did. Eli's new to Samson, and so the cat sits up quite abruptly in Lien's lap, his ears flattening against his head, those green eyes of his narrowing. Then he hisses. "Elijah. How are you," comes the greeting from inside the circle of chairs. Samson hops down from Lien's lap, and darts into the circle with Pascal. |
| Ohh... shoot. Not only has the arch-enemy of the Nguyen clan at Scattergood School for the Magical Arts just walked into the room, but Lien has been abandoned by perhaps the only friendly face in the room. She tries to shrink down in her chair, but finds that it is made of wood and not very accommodating. She mutters something that could, conceivably, be interpreted as, "Hello, Elijah." It could also be conceivably be interpreted as a much mangled, "Go away, wouldja." We report; you decide. |
| He glances at the cat and then back at Pascal. Wow! It's true, people /did/ look like their pets. Well, at least their eyes were similar. Elijah quickly shrugs this thought off and shakes his head as he does so. He narrows his eyes. Pascal /did/ look like a cat, and not just her eyes, but also her features. Weird. Maybe that's why she got along so well with animals? Again, Eli shakes off this thought. "I've been better. Although I am pretty darn good." He winks as he says this. He'd be better. Soon. An eyebrow is raised at Lien, "You're like four feet tall, and you're telling me to go away? Yeah, not real intimidating." He shrugs and then narrows his eyes at Lien. "Besides, I just wanted to see how /Pascal/ was doing." They were allies, right? It was his duty or something. |
| Gah! Enough with people and wanting to know how she was. Pascal manages to main a cool exterior, though for the most part her attention is focused on cooing to her cat quietly. "Baby, what's the matter? It's just Elijah, he's nice." Nice, right. Nice in the dictionary of Pascal Curio is, another story. She stands up from inside the chairs, and sets Samson back down, who immediately rushes back to Lien's side. Not because he wants to be there for Lien while she's surrounded by Elijah and Pascal on both sides, but because he wants attention; he's got that look on his face again after all. "I'm doing fine, thank you, Elijah. You've scared my cat though." She darts a look at Samson, and then moves a few of the chairs to come out of the circle now, the work she was doing inside forgotten. "And you?" |
| Poor Lien seems to be taken with a terrible fit of coughing. Are those the words, "is not" mixed in? Surely not! The younger girl greatly appreciates the return of her furry friend, and recovers quite quickly from her cough. She gives the cat a little hug and a grateful scratch behind the ears, then her shoulders hunch and her head looks down. Maybe if she ignores Elijah, he'll go away. Yeah, right. |
| "I am very well..." His green eyes flash with momentary anger, however this quickly subsides. He had to be cool, calm and collected. For now, anyways. A glance is given to the cat. "Your cat will be fine. I'm sure." Elijah gives Lien a sideglance and shakes his head. So annoying. In some ways he was glad that Lien was Billy's friend, it simplified things. He swore revenge, and he'd get it. One way or another. Sooner or later. While he's thinking through his revenge, a somewhat sadistic expression takes over his face - his eyes emerald eyes widen, his eyebrows furrow, and an involuntary smile begins to form on the edge of his lips. Shaking his head he comes back to reality. "Lien," that's right, he used her /name/! "What kind of drugs do you try to sell, anyways?" Elijah won't let this go. Not yet anyways. "And... why you so short, Professor Farreau caught you again?" Oh, cheap shot, Eli. |
| Kit Gerring enters a room in standard Kit fashion . . . without any regard for who might be inside, nor what she might find there. She's just as messy as when Elijah last saw her, except this time without the robe, merely the thick wool skirt and half-tucked men's shirt, hair every which way. A professor asked her to go get some form of magical amplifying device from the auditorium -- which Kit promptly took as an excuse to get out of class and go wandering around for as long as possible before having to return. She was still a little new; she could claim she got lost easily enough. Pale eyes slide sideways as she strides past the group, eyeing over Lien and Pascal in turn, then falling on Eli. A prompt grin sparks, and she gives a saluting wave. "Heya, dragon breath." Better than dragon butt . . . |
| This is probably the first time that Pascal's caught Elijah interacting with other people. Usually it's just the two of them chatting, and slowly getting on each other's nerves or something. She catches the look in his face, and shifts her weight to one foot, tilting her head to the side as she just mentally files that away. She's unclear about that flash in his eyes, but her own gaze follows his to the cat. At the comments directed to Lien, however, Pascal keeps her mouth shut. She already told the girl her situation in this, and merely stands off to the side while Elijah starts to push buttons. Never forgetting that while Elijah's making fun of Lien, Samson's right in the middle. The cat looks at Elijah again and positively glares at the tall boy. Both the cat and Pascal turn to look at Kit though, as she enters, and Pascal can be seen visibly biting her lip in an effort to not say anything about Kit's appearance. Best to just keep quiet in groups of two or more sometimes. |
| Growl. Mutter. Lien hugs the cat again. She's -trying- not to let him get under her skin, because she -knows- he loves that, but... it's -Elijah-, and it's -hard-. "I like it better short," she says, "because then I don't have to look at you all the time." Okay, so it's lame. Witty retorts were never the girl's strong point. Not until hours later, anyway, or when she's laying in bed at night. Her eyes shoot up at the addition of Kit's voice--not ANOTHER one? How many ARE there? |
| Elijah Cruise turns quickly at being called dragon breath, but he relaxes greatly when he sees it's Kit. His expression softens, and his strangely sadistic expression melts into a friendly one. His lips curl up into a toothy grin, "Kit Gerring." He shrugs, Kit was pretty much the only person /allowed/ to get away with that. And only because somehow she'd earned that right. "Looking a little disorderly today, eh?" he winks. All in good humor. Apparently he /can/ be nice when the right motivation is there. A glance is given to Lien, and he just shrugs, "That's cool." His temper seems to have subsided, for now. |
| Just *try* it, Pascal. Kit is already mentally taking the other two in, categorizing quirks in case of battle -- a seeming habit of hers. Who cares how she dresses, anyways, geez? You'd think it was a matter of national security the way people stared at her sometimes. And yeah, she's got her eye on Lien too. You watch yourself too, shark bait. This is that tentative time where Kit decides if she likes someone or she doesn't. Grinning openly at Eli, she flicks her hair in mock-flirtation, posing -- visibly joking. "Eh, yeh, you noticed. Left the shirt out just fer you 'cause I knew you liked it so much last time. And bed-head . . . gonna be the latest fashion, y'know." So. A few steps closer brings her to the edge of the circle of chairs. " 'M I missing the school board meeting?" |
| Ahh, so that's Kit. Thanks for the introduction there, Elijah. Strange how Pascal just suddenly falls quiet, but there she stands with her arms crossed in front of her chest, just judging the whole situation mentally, green eyes flashing away she continues deep in thought. Her eyes dart back and forth between Lien, Elijah, Kit and of course, Samson, but she seems slightly amused by the comment that Lien made towards Elijah. The lack of a response on Elijah's behalf is also noted as well, and so a conclusion is made that the new disheveled girl had something to do with this all. While all this goes through her mind, Pascal takes a seat on one of the chairs, one separating her and Lien. |
| Even Lien seems a little surprised that she got away with that one. Maybe some of Elijah's skill with pressing buttons comes in handy with keeping his from being pressed. Or maybe it... was just lame. At any rate, it leaves Lien just fine but a little disappointed. Yeah, because getting dangerous people mad at you is SO rewarding. Scratching Samson absently behind the ears, the youngest member of this little meeting looks up and examines Kit. Well, she's seen stranger. "Hello," she says. Finally. |
| "I knew it!" Elijah beams. "You knew you would see me here and you planned for it! Brilliant!" he winks again (also in mock-flirtation). "This fashion will be walking off the runway any day now." He glances at the others, "Nope, no board meeting, just some people sitting in a circle." A pause "Oh, Kit, this is Pascal Curio. Pascal, Kit Gerring." Another pause. "And this is Lien... I can't pronounce her last name." He points to each as he introduces them. "You can join us if you like. Of course, I'm actually interfering here. I just got here." He shrugs and leans back in his chair. His posture is completely open, not closed like usual. He glances at Pascal, "This is that girl I was telling you about." He turns back to Kit, "All good stuff, don't worry. No one has preconceived notions of who you are." A glance is given to Lien, and Elijah is still smiling. |
| Kit Gerring snickers at his reaction, appreciating the fact that he's playing along. "'Course. It was all planned. Divination experts, we are. Dun even have t' take the class." As for the other two . . . Kit snorts, but nods pleasantly enough as she steps into the circle. "Sure they don't. They got ideas from the minute I walked in with my high fashion -- though thanks fer the good word." No sitting like a lady for Kit; she plops easily into one of the chairs, body immediately finding the comfortable position. "So I'm skipping class until they call out the army. Interfering sounds a lot more interesting at the moment. What's the discussion 'bout?" |
| Eyebrow raised, Pascal gives Elijah a silent nod, and then she turns to look at Kit. She just sits there and stares at Kit carefully. In fact, she stares for quite a while before she finally leans forward and smiles slightly at the other girl. "Elijah's told me /so/ much about you," she says casually stretching the truth just a little bit. No one seems to be trying to stir up trouble, so she might as well throw a few dungbombs in the cauldron. She drums her fingers on her knee, and Samson scurries out of Lien's lap again, to rest in Pascal's. The cat gives Kit a curious look, but still eyes Elijah warily, finally allowing himself to settle down as Pascal hugs him close to her. "Well, we're discussing high fashion now," she says casually, "Why stop?" |
| Yes! Why stop? The alternative is going back to Lien's drug dealing habits, after all. No need to do that. Aaand... there goes the cat again. Lien is now surrounded by possibly hostile upper years, and the door is half an auditorium and an obstacle course of chairs away. Well, she'll just stay here then, shall she? And hope that they keep up with this Not Paying Attention to the Little Sixth Grader thing. |
| "You must have an extraordinary gift of foresight, Kit." A pause, "Or you're stalking me." Elijah chuckles at the thought of it. Eli shrugs, "Well, all geniuses are first labeled crazy, anyways, right? Even fashion geniuses." His smile fades slightly at Pascal's comment. He hadn't told her much at all about Kit other than she was cool. It fades even further at the continuation of this topic. This was something he hadn't anticipated. "I-uh... so..." Come on, subject change! "Nice weather..." Wow. Talk about the weather. That was far from discreet. |
| "Stalking, definitely. I'm the rustle in the tree outside yer room." Pale eyes flicker to Pascal, still looking pleasant enough, but a glint ripples through the depths. Kit senses challenge in this girl, and unfortunately she's the sort that usually rises to meet it. "*Did* he?" she inquires in the overly polite tone that one uses at her mother's tea parties. (Don't ask; she didn't want to be there.) "So what've you done t' contribute t' the fashion genre?" Oh, yeah, Eli. Nice weather. It might storm soon. As for Lien . . . she might be shark bait yet. |
| While Lien may be trying to make herself invisible, Pascal has far from forgotten that the little sixth grader is still there. "So I hear you're doing drugs, then," she whispers rather loudly to the girl, loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. "I didn't realize you had that in you." She sits back up straight, and just as Kit, she completely ignores the comment about the weather, only giving the boy a look that speaks, 'nice try.' So Kit won't back down, and neither will Pascal. Either that or Pascal's testing. She's got a rather amused smile on her face, that actually only has amusement in it; nothing hidden behind that, amazingly enough. "I'm afraid I don't /do/ fashion. I was hoping I'd be taught something by the more," she pauses and gives Kit a rather pointed look, but she's still smiling, "The more fashionable, today." |
| Lien forces a weak smile for Pascal and whispers back. "Just selling. I'd cut you a deal, but you're too tall." And for the first time in at -least- a few days, Pascal gets that nose wrinkling, distasteful look that Lien used to give out so freely. She also shoots a quick glower at Elijah, who started that whole mess--not that she expects him to notice. |
| Girls! So confusing. At least boys would just hit each other and be done with it (until the next time when they had to rearrange the other's face). Girls on the other hand had to do this dance. Elijah runs a hand uncomfortably through his hair. He was starting to get a headache. Why? Because of the apparent tension. "I..." he stands up. "...have to go to class..." That was a lie. But the tension was too much for the boy. There were a few things he couldn't do, and one of them was handle females. He nods at Kit, "We'll have to talk sometime soon." A lot had happened since he'd truly talked to Kit. The whole Valentine's Day Dance incident for one thing. Then Elijah nods at Pascal, "Nice meeting your... cat." He didn't even like cats; they ate birds. And Lien too gets a nod today, "Uh... stay... ungreen..." He considers adding 'drug free', but leaves that alone. Then he scoots to the door, opens it and runs outside. |
| "Eli . . . !" Kit twists in her chair to follow his retreating form, eyebrows knitted and clearly puzzled, even somewhat distressed. (You might be two if you were left with two girls that probably didn't like you.) What the . . . The boy could take dunking a love potion in the school's punch, but not two girls sizing each other up? Geez . . . criminy . . . And of course this makes her relationship with Pascal *so* much better. Her expression isn't nearly so pleasant as she looks back to the other girl, almost as though blaming her for Elijah leaving. Elijah is one of the few people she's found that she's been able to stand, that actually has some sort of brain, and now he runs off without a chance for her to really talk to him. Meh. "Watch and learn, then." A hand flicks through her hair -- an irritated gesture. |
| Hey. Pascal wasn't even nice to Elijah when she first met him anyways. Boys were a little too weak up in the mind area on occasion, and Pascal shrugs off Eli's quick departure, leaning back towards Lien and hissing out, "Damn," in response to the sixth grader's comment about the drugs. Samson visibly relaxes in her lap as the male leaves the room, and as soon as Elijah's gone, the black cat hops off of Pascal's lap, intent on searching underneath all the chairs in the room for a mouse or something. "Gees, and just when the conversation was getting interesting, he leaves," she mutters sarcastically, letting the cat go. A look at Kit, completely ignoring expression on the other girl's face as she says, "Did I scare him off?" Oh, and then she winks at Kit while she's at it. "Oops." Seems as if Elijah's departure has loosened Pascal up as well, not just the cat. |
| Why anyone on Earth would be UPSET that Elijah Cruise has left the room is completely beyond Lien. Her shoulders un-hunch slightly, as though his leaving lifted a load of them--probably did, if you come down to that. Well, let them tussle over that. That's their own problem. Lien drops down off her chair and hunkers down near the floor to peer at Samson through the chair legs. He's probably the nicest person here, in her Professional Opinion. |
| Weak, Pascal. Kit hardly seems impressed, her features deadpan. So far this broad seems like one of those fluffy girls who like to giggle all cutsey while secretly sniggering at you behind their hands. Kit mutters a word in Welsh beneath her breath -- likely nothing complimentary, pushing off her chair. "Well, it's been a regular English tea party," she remarks with a shrug. "But I gotta go. Professor'll call out the hounds eventually if I dun come back. Nice meeting ya, kid." This last bit is directed towards Lien on the floor. Nothing for Pascal. Pascal is merely annoying. The kid hasn't done anything to seem quite so bad. Moving toward the door, Kit casts a wave over her shoulder, not looking back. "See you 'round." And she's gone. |
| Clearly Kit doesn't know Pascal, but the latter can definitely live up to the cutsey image for as long as it pleases the former. Pascal's reaction to Kit's departure is about the same as Elijah's, and she leans over towards Lien. "Well. I think I've found my new best friend," she comments sarcastically, the look in her eye clear that she's got some disgusting thought in her head that would best not be shared with the audience at present. A snap of her fingers, and Samson reappears again, looking for food, no doubt. "I need to learn a new language," she suddenly says, the cat jumping into her lap. "I'd like to be chicken enough to say nasty words to people in a language they don't understand." |
| Getting back up into her chair and brushing dust from her robes--now that Samson's not on the floor anyway--Lien examines Pascal, with a good deal less sympathy than before. She didn't particularly appreciate that comment about her doing drugs. She shakes her head, though. "You need to learn -her- language," --a nod in the direction of the departed Kit-- "so that when she insults you in it, you can get right back at her and then watch the look on her face." Nod. She probably read this in a book. Though her grandfather has been known to mutter things in Vietnamese... maybe it's a fantasy. |
| A laugh suddenly erupts from Pascal's mouth as she stares down at the smaller girl. "You're not kidding me, are you?" She says with a good deal more animation than she usually uses in her voice. She calms down somewhat, and is given a strange look by the cat, who slowly edges back towards Lien. "I didn't expect that coming out of your mouth." With that she falls silent, seriously thinking over what Lien just told her. "Elijah says she's not half bad," she finally admits the girl, though she'd probably have said it to thin air all the same, "But apparently she's rather testy." A shake of her head and a rather disappointed look. "Too bad. I thought she'd be more fun than that." She being Kit, of course. |
| With a little cough, Lien focuses in on Samson and pats her lap. She does look rather pleased with herself for getting a laugh out of Pascal, though. "She seemed nice enough to me," the younger girl says, fully aware that "nice" and "fun" are completely unrelated in Pascal's world. But, she was the only person beside the cat who hadn't managed to work in a little dig at some point during this encounter, and Lien appreciates these things. |
| Lien has hit it on the button. Nice and fun. Totally different. Pascal seems to still be thinking about this whole learning Welsh situation as she stands. Samson's attention is diverted from Lien's lap and he saunters around Pascal's ankles. "Oh, I'm sure she's a perfect angel," Pascal says without much conviction. "But I'm sure she'll be queen bitch around me for some time." Just a little feeling she had there, is all. A wink at Lien, and a slight wave. "I'll have having myself some fun. She'll keep me on my toes." And with that, the older girl walks out of the auditorium, clearly with some different feelings towards Lien. |
| Lien watches Pascal leave with her head cocked to the side thoughtfully, and finally decides that this didn't go as bad as it could have, even with Elijah showing up. In fact, she gives a satisfied nod and gets to her feet, setting to awkwardly moving the chairs back into their neat little rows. Sure, the house elves could do it easier, but Lien feels like it. When the rows have been straightened, she gives ANOTHER satisfied nod and makes her own way out of the auditorium. |
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