| Title: Trapped, like the non-Elijah you are! Time: Monday, April 05, 2004 The Thespians: Sukaku Karasuno, Lien Nguyen and Pascal Curio Location: Allis Memorial Center - Library Notes: Danger! Danger! They're onto you! |
| +---[ Allis Memorial Center - Library ]--------------------------------------+ | | | An immense area stretches out both upwards and horizontally. Squarely | | shaped, the library is carpeted in speckled blue and gray, except for a | | five-foot strip extending around the walls, which has been tiled in | | reddish tan and light russet squares. In these areas shelves reach upwards | | to thirty feet overhead, spaced apart by long, one-foot wide windows. | | Periodically a large wooden ladder is visible, should one wish to risk | | their neck for one of the dusty volumes perched so high. Occupying a space | | near the front wall of about twenty square feet abound round oak tables, | | supported by four thin legs and surrounded by chairs with blue cushions. | | The rest of the room holds what must be hundreds of bookcases, all packed | | with books of old and new, various sorts separated into labeled cases and | | those placed in similar sections. | | | +-[ Exits: ]-----------------------------------------------------------------+ |
| Gather round children and be very quiet. We'll be taking this (not very) rare opportunity to observe the (not so) elusive Lien Nguyen in her natural habitat. What she thinks she can gain by surrounding herself with half a dozen books all opened and spread out at once nobody knows. She has to sit on her knees in her chair just to be able to reach the ones farthest from her on the table as she works steadily with a practiced... okay, clumsy thumbing through pages and sucking in deep thought on the end of her quill. Can you say geek? |
| Depends. What kind of geek? Pencil pushing geek? Textbook thumping geek? Keyboard smashing geek? We digress. Seeing as how Lien is well, Lien, one would automatically assume that the first place to look for the girl would be library, and so that's why Pascal Curio's male form suddenly comes striding rather cheerfully into the room. Probably because he's just overheard a few students comment about his favorite little button to push being in the library. "Oompa!" He calls out rather loudly, ignoring the crowd of 'shhhs' that suddenly come from all around. He reaches her table and takes a seat across from her without even asking, sitting in the chair backwards, legs sprawled in regular 'manly' fashion. "Whatcha doing?" |
| Pascaaaal! You ruined her train of thought! At the familiar cry of, "Oompa!" (perhaps the hunting call of the fearsome Cruise?) Lien jerks violently and ends up jabbing herself in the roof of the mouth with her quill. Owww... Her eyes water with the pain, but she manages to look at Pascal and give him that special scowl and bespectacled glare. "What does it look like I'm doing, Elijah? Go away, I need to work." Ow... |
| Oh, Pascal saw that alright, and it doesn't help but bring an even wider grin to his face as he fights the urge to snicker rather darkly. "Oops, sorry about that Oompa." He watches as her eyes water, and feigns a tsk. "Aww, don't cry now. Be a strong girl." Snicker. He folds his arms upon the top of the chair's back, and stares at Lien rather intently with his green eyes, them narrowed slightly in thought. "Work is for the industrious (copyright Lien Nguyen), and you, Oompa, I wouldn't figure as being industrious." He leans over and looks at several sheets of paper with writing on the. "Devising a new drug formula?" |
| Still wincing (and with a barely audible, "Shut up, Elijah" about the comment on the tears), Lien snatches up her notes quickly, shuffling them irritably. "I'm researching Switching Spells and how they might apply to humans, and if you don't mind, I really have a lot to do. Haven't you got anything better to do with your time?" She -tries- to go back to the book she was previously pondering. It's rather difficult with Pascal-as-Elijah sitting across the table. |
| WHAT. THE. HELL. Is Lien doing researching Switching Spells? Pascal's back stiffens just slightly, but he keeps his arms crossed on the chair's back. His eyes continue to narrow ever-so-slightly as he continues to peer over the top of the chair, now looking at the books before the girl in an attempt to see just exactly what she's doing. "You're researching switching spells," he says slowly, trying rather hard not to sound suspicious. "May I ask why?" Oops, and now the recovery. "You're trying to switch Billy into the body of a superhero, I'm guessing. Because he'll never be one, at this rate?" |
| SLAP. The papers come down hard against the tabletop and Lien's eyes snap back up to Pascal, nostrils making a sound not unlike a very small bull. Remember, Pascal? There's a button there! "I told you," she grits around clenched teeth, "leave Billy alone. Just because he's a little bit different from you and he's smaller than you, you think you can pick on him." Pause. Fume. "It's none of your business what I'm researching for. Go away and leave me alone." |
| Shit. "Okay, okay." Pascal completely backs off. Need to give a little and then pull to get the information you want. "Alright. I'm leaving Billy alone." His voice sounds rather gruff, and that's about all the apology anyone will be getting from him today. "You're just researching a Switching Spell... why, then?" This whole thing sounds rather fishy, and it's also rather safe to say that Pascal has not only taken over Elijah's body, but his paranoia as well. "Extra credit report?" A wink, and he can't help but put that in there, his tone light and teasing. |
| Wait. Did he just back down? No "boyfriend" teases? Not even any DEFENDING himself? Lien blinks at Pascal, nonplussed. So much so, in fact, that she replies promptly without even thinking much about it. (Score one for Pascal.) "Su--my friend noticed something funny about Pascal and I want to find out what." Blink. Blink. Wait. Finally Lien has the sense to looks suspicious. "Why would YOU care about my research?" |
| "Oh, so it's /not/ an extra credit report." Pascal's face falls into a stony expression at that, but at the same time, he didn't know what else to say. Apparently Elijah's been acting weird, and that's not good, even if the month is almost up. He uncrosses his arms from the chair's back, and stretches them out on the table, almost /too/ casually. "I'm not interested," he says blandly, and right away changes the subject. Might as well talk about 'Pascal'. "What's wrong with Pascal? How's she acting funny? What... she's not being a bitch like she usually is?" |
| Lien frowns. She doesn't approve of cursing. But then, she doesn't approve of Elijah at all, so he might as well. Accordingly her tone is cold, but she does still answer. Maybe it's not worth the trouble and possibility of pain just to be contrary. "She didn't remember something that she couldn't possibly have forgotten. Sukaku thinks it wasn't her at all. I think so too, but it's awfully difficult to find out with you sitting over there like some kind of hawk, so if you'd PLEASE go away?" |
| Pascal isn't nearly done with Lien, and as the younger girl mentions Sukaku, the blood drains slightly from his face. He ducks his head to pretend that he's reading from one of the texts, upside-down of course, but all this is just to get a split second to recover his 'mask.' First question, of course is, "Who's Sukaku?" His tone is a little bit thinner than he'd like, and he clears his throat, and continues with the questioning. "Maybe she was just, having issues or something. I don't know. Girls her age get PMS or something, and turn extra bitchy and moody." Shrug. |
| "You don't know everything, Elijah." (As though it's Elijah who has know-it-all problems.) "Sukaku's my friend. You met him. And both of us know that this wasn't something she'd remember wrong. It's impossible." Lien sorts her books with a vague air of self-importance. "Even Pascal's not THAT good at lying." |
| "What, so you suddenly know everything about Pascal now? You know that she's not /that/ good at lying?" Pascal suddenly snaps rather abrupty at Lien, frustrated with the fact that there was no way he could have prevent Elijah's slip up with Sukaku, and frustrated with Lien having to be a bloody goody-two snoop who has to know everything. Damn kids. His face contorts into a sneer and he frowns at Lien. "You don't know what she's thinking. I know her better than you do." And indeed, Pascal does. And well, so does Elijah, honestly. |
| Yes. Lien has to know EVERYTHING. That's why she's surrounded by more books than should be legal, researching something that isn't even school work. "She can't tell even -you- everything, Elijah, I'm sorry." More book fidgeting, as though she actually expects to get anything done during this conversation. "And she isn't that stupid. It couldn't have been her. Unless you have a better solution?" |
| Grumbling under his breath to the point where his words aren't even audible, thanks to Aspen's spell, Pascal continues to glare rather sharply at Lien, carefully shifting his eyes back and forth between the girl and the books. "I know more than you think, Lien," he says quietly, and then shuts his mouth for a few minutes, just mulling this over. "So what? You're trying to tell me some alien has taken over Pascal's body? Right." Another pause, and then a gleam comes to his eye. "Why don't you just run to a professor, like you always do?" |
| "If I was talking about aliens I wouldn't be researching Switching Spells." Lien's tone is somewhere between annoyed and 'gosh, aren't you an idiot today, Elijah?'. "And maybe I'm researching them because I want to find out if I'm right before I go taking up someone else's time? Like /you're/ doing at this very moment. If you haven't got something useful to do--" and she obviously thinks he couldn't possibly "--go do something useless somewhere else." Lien's going to get herself killed someday. |
| "Elijah-san is very curious." Sukaku has a strange habit of popping up somewhere around Lien, it seems. "So many questions, yes, indeed . . ." This time he emerges from between the stacks -- the bookshelves. More exploring? Probably . . . but it's getting a little eerie, the coincidence. |
| "I've never seen you research something before you go running to a professor," Pascal mutters loud enough under his breath so that Lien can hear. The last part of that sentence, "like the goody two shoes you are," is not heard, because he's said that in his head. "I don't understand what you're saying Lien," he says, faking nice, and turning his chair around so he can rest his hands on top of the table, one ankle propped up on his knee. "You say Pascal's not Pascal. Well," he inserts a rather long pause for dramatic effect as he strokes his chin (oops, he's going to need to shave), "So who is Pascal?" He tilts his head to the side, and at that moment hears Sukaku, and catches sight of the boy as well. "Why shouldn't I have questions, Sukaku?" He stares rather pointedly at the boy. |
| "That's the question, isn't it?" Okay, now Lien's just annoyed. Except, Sukaku's here, and that's better. The girl glances at him... then back to Pascal. "You ARE asking a lot of questions. When did you start caring about the books I read?" In her experience, the books just get made fun of and possibly stolen. Nobody cares about what's IN them. "Whoever it is, though, it's just as much of a jerk as she is." |
| "No reason at all." Sukaku's tone is light as he pads over to the table, peering down at Lien's papers. Yes, he's nosy. This is why he has a long nose, of course. "But I think your interest would have been satisfied long ago instead of asking one question after another." Look at him, getting better at English. Though still very . . . formal. The boy needs to learn to use contractions. |
| "I'm not interested in your books, Oompa. Don't give yourself /that/ much credit," Pascal drawls sarcastically, now a rather large frown upon his face as Sukaku approaches their, actually Lien's, table. Great. "Do you even go to this school?" Pascal suddenly asks Sukaku, trying to change the subject of course. The last thing he needs is for Lien to ask him why he's so interested if he's not interested in the books. Not like he could say why, anyway. |
| "You could've fooled me." Lien isn't keen on Pascal's subject change either, because she gets a little paranoid about Sukaku and prying into why he's here. "If you're not interested, why are you still here when you could be out beating up somebody half your size?" Like... her. Maybe THAT'S why he's here! |
| Trapped, like the non-Elijah you are! (Part 2) |
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