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 Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 11:35 am
Not too much time had passed since he took seat on the old wooden bench that lay propped up against a wall. Had it been for anyone else to be gathered in the classroom he might have rose to his feet and investigated what they were talking about. Instead he heard nothing but things that girls always end up talking about, and with that he knew to maintain his place and silence on the bench.
ZhongXian was not going to interupt the chatter; they did not even notice him ever few minutes when he peeked in with a smile. He found some of it entertaining. After all, he had not been to the academy in ages- having not been here put him out of the loop at to what many students his age were talking about.
Personally, he did not mind. It felt as if many of them were distant, split apart into their separate worlds as they served their family.
His mind had drifted far off somewhere else when he felt the small thump of feet on his lap, then the purring of a small creature. Shaking his head Zhong looked down and noticed a small cat curled up in his lap, licking it's leg as it waited to be petted or receive some sort of attention.
'Sumu!' he smiled as his hand went instinctively to the creatures back. He had been plenty distracted and off in his own world, but the sight of the creature meant Eiji was not far behind. He enjoyed Eiji more than anyone else that he had met- personally for his joy of adventure.
Pulling his hands gently through the others hair he smirked as thumping feet came flying down the hall. Zhong was not expecting Eiji to jump over him, but when he did the lunarian ducked to avoid impact.
He had no quarrel or rebuttal to the other, instead he held Sumu up accusingly. "You are looking for Sumu are you not?" he smirked, returning the cat to his lap without any intention of letting it go.
"Beware of the room behind me, women gather in an unlikely fashion, chatting about the normal feminine things." he warmed, returning to his former position.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:00 pm
A boy? Well, how exciting. Really. Yue resisted the urge to snort in derision. "How would she tell you that she has handsome friends, sweetpea? You just met her. Maybe if that's your first priority you should open with that, next time. 'Hi, my name is Suzu, do you have hot friends?'" Yue smiled at Suzu, perfectly aware it would be infuriating. Today, apparently, Yue Lao didn't feel very much like behaving herself, nor making lasting connections. The boy was a new factor, but she doubted he would like her, so she may as well make his enmity deep-seated and unquestionable. "Don't get me wrong, sweetpea; at least you're easy to please."
Yue leaned forward on the edge of the desk, cupping her chin in her hand and resting her elbow on her knee. "I hope we make cake. I could go for some cake, right now," Yue mumbled, mostly to herself. She felt she was her own best company, often, especially when she spent so much time making others resent or loathe her. One thing made her act a little nicer, though: orange cake. It was so hard for her to find it that she would pretty much do anything to taste some. She doubted that they would make orange cake in a cooking class, seeing as that was baking, but she didn't feel the need to verbalize that knowledge. What good was an aspiration if she was always second-guessing it. She almost expected Suzu to point out it was a cooking and not a baking class; that would have made her smile. She'd get to learn these people yet, inside and out. It wasn't hard to unravel a person; you just had to be observant, patient; needling them like she did, testing people, it was the easiest way for Yue to find what they were really made of. What good was calm? Only in conflict did people show their true selves, that was what Yue believed.
Suzu was turning out to be short-tempered and vapid. Kotone seemed sweet and shy; Yue thought that she would get a toothache if she spent much more time with the girl. The thought of meeting people like those two girls made Yue giggle to herself. Then there was Miki; Yue couldn't read her yet, but she seemed to be on noone's side but her own. It was good that way. Yue could play devil's advocate, she could sit on the sidelines and tease any of these people until she was bored or punished. Even at punishment, it probably wouldn't stop. It was a little weird. If Yue Lao had a group of friends to lead, she would seem like a bully. It was never her intention, however, to dominate any of them; what she wanted was to shock, tease, coax the true nature out of every one of them, the rawness that hid inside.
"You, new boy, what's your name? I must have missed it. Sorry, unfamiliar, not new; clearly you know little lamb," Yue nodded in the direction of Kotone, a predatory grin snapping into place.
Yue perked right up when Miki very nearly offered a fight if they had P.E. together. That would be exhilarating. She was still burning with excitement when Suzu chastised her, "Oh, sweetpea, I don't see a thing wrong with what Miki said. If you took offense, maybe you're too sensitive," Yue winked at her. "Besides, you're the one who can barely control your temper. I hardly know you, and I can tell that already."
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:21 pm
Miki looked the boy up and down once more and sighed. Most people do take what I say as offensive. I'm use to it by now...
“It’s actually not my temperament that makes me blunt, I’m usually rather happy. It’s in my nature.” She waggled a finger at Suzu. “Temperament-wise, you’ve got the most uncontrollable one, Yue has the most sickeningly calm, and Kotone is, obviously, the most gentle.”
Miki gave Suze a wide smile, showing rows of teeth. It wasn’t the same as the tight smiles she would use when she was annoyed. This smile made most feel very pleasant to bask in. Miki figured Yue would not care for her giddy little smiles, and it made her beam all the more.
“Aww, Yue, I thought we already had this conversation. Of course there would be no cake in cooking class, because as you put it, it’s ‘not proper food at all’. That would be baking class. You know, the previous class…?” Miki cocked her head to the side, smiling as she placed her hands on her knee, bringing it up to her chest.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:13 pm
Zhēnzhū frowned slightly. Apparently the boy hadn't heard her? she opened her mouth to repeat herself, but a shape hurtling through the air over her head stopped her in her tracks. Her eyebrows climbed up into her hairline, and she blinked furiously.
Somewhat big-eyed now, she inspected the newcomer- it had been a boy leaping over the benches. Apparently the cat that now sat in the sprawling youth's lap was his. No matter. She cleared her throat, intent on being heard this time.
"HELLO. MY NAME IS ZHENZHU," she said, loudly and slowly. "I'M NEW HERE, AND I THINK THAT I MAY BE LOST. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU COULD HELP ME?" She bit her lip hopefully. What he'd said just registered with her. 'Women's things'. She wasn't sure what those things were, but she had a sinking feeling she was going to find out. It would be just her luck to be in that class...
She glanced down at the note on her hand, and sighed exasperatedly when she realized that she'd accidentally wiped it off on her shirt. "I think I'm supposed to be doing something involving food," she mumbled, to an agreeing growl of her stomach.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:22 pm
Kotone’s diffident state had subsided a fair bit over the course of interacting with Suzu, Yue Lao, and Miki. However, she was still having trouble forming and expressing thoughts verbally, her speaking still not keeping up with her company well. She was well aware of this and feeling more sorry about her continued incompetence and minimal progress in improvement in it. Her mind had not formulated thoughts to speak in time to Suzu’s words in those moments, which was then followed by Suzu’s notice of a new arrival in the room.
To her slight surprise it wasn’t someone unfamiliar. Her gaze had went from Suzu to him upon hearing his voice and realized Suzu had been motioning to him and she had next responded with a smile and spoken greeting after he had addressed her and was taking a seat. “It’s good to see you again as well, Sir Huang-Fu,” her soft-sounding reply mixed with the cheerfulness, as much as her quite under-the-weather state today could accommodate, she was accustomed to greeting those she knew with.
She felt that most of her few just barely passable executions today was due to the factor that they were what she was accustomed to executing. The disappointment inside her raged on, but she reminded herself that she’d said she’d try harder to improve and avoided succumbing to the urge of hanging her head and sinking back down into depression’s depths.
Her gaze then traveled to each of the girls as they spoke and greeted Huang-Fu. Still she found herself hard up in chipping in to the conversation, her eyes looking somewhat lost again as inside herself she was still struggling to piece together what she could say.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:38 pm
Huang relaxed and took the seat closest to Kotone in fear of being overwhelmed. He was in a classroom of ladies, and by ladies he meant very attractive redheads with similar but different holdings and attitude. The one he had been called to the table by, introduced herself as Suzu, the one next to her as Miki and the one introducing herself as Yue.
Cocking his head at the one named Yue, he frowned before answering her, "Hello Lady Yue, as Kotone said, my name is Huang-Fu of the Lee's Legion family. A pleasure to meet you all." He kept a frown though as he was quickly overwhelmed with just how many women had been staring at him and shifted uncomfortably, "Ah," Huang turned back to Suzu and gave her a odd stare before shaking his head, "She wasn't rude, or anything, i take no offense when its just strangers."
"Ah so this is the cooking class..." He turned to Kotone nervously, "I am not adept at cooking, are you Lady Kotone? If so, i might need your guidance this time around." He would stick to familiar ground for now, just until he could get a read on the girls. So far though, he was still confused onto who was geniuenly talking to him.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:47 pm
“Meeyaaah” Sumu meowed at being held, his tail flicking and his hind legs wiggling. After being placed down he got all comfy in Zhong’s lap again. His tail curled around his body up to and under his chin.
”Hm? ... Oh yes! Sumu! Damn cat....” For a minute there Eiji had completely forgot what he was even doing until Sumu was mentioned. He stomped over to regain his pain in the a** friend, who seemed to be comfortably placed nd not moving any time soon. Glaring down at Sumu he cleared his throat, ”Excuse me, I do believe you have something of mine?” He placed his hands against his hips as Sumu looked back up at him, meowing again. ”I’m not taking a meow as a valid answer, sir.” Eiji rebutted seemingly ignoring Zhongs presence.
”What?” he rhetorically questioned back at Zhong. ”Why would there be a womenly gathering now? There’s a class going on?” he added as he peeked into the classroom. Needless to say Eiji was not late to any or even had any class during this time slot, so it's normal that he was not aware. It's not everyday he goes running around the Academy chasing after his stupid cat. ”Oh look, you’re right.” The room was a cooking class by the looks of it and it was indeed filled with female lunarians. Well.. ”Hay wait a minute. You lied. It’s not filled with women.. I see a man inside.” all but one. Eiji seemed a bit down by this piece of information.
Overhearing the conversations inside Eiji laughed a bit as the single male lunarian spoke amongst the others. "Being the only male I guess doesn't mean you're the only male. How he's talking makes him out to be more lady like then anything. Maybe you didn't lie. Maybe this room is filled with women."
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:54 pm
"I am not short tempered..."
Suzu muttered to herself.
She knew that was a lie she got annoyed very fast at times.
However this was getting to her more than usual. She felt like these people were ganging up on her. She had not been anything but friendly with these people and there was just no warm atmosphere with them at all. Nothing more than the first words that came out of their mouths were welcoming.
She did not want to be here.
Damn her master.
Damn this place.
She looked at Hung one more time and smiled. Not saying anything but looking to the side. He was really cute. However he seemed more interested in Kotone. This was fair enough, for now. She was lost; she had never met people like this, not a situation when she was not allowed to hit them with something very hard. Suzu was by no means violent; however she had a low tolerance for girls like the ones in this class.
She was just going to ignore them, stick to Kotone like a lost sheep. She blushed and looked to the side when Hung addressed her.
"I am the other way around; I can forgive friends because I know them..."
She began and then stopped, maybe it was better if she did not state her opinion and he had looked at her oddly already. She was not going to give him more reason to think she was strange.
"Never mind."
Suzu really liked Kotone but even potential friends were competition when it came to men. She looked at the table, gliding her finger along it like people would move a pencil on paper.
Blue prints where appearing in her head. Maybe a idea for her next invention. Her world of mechanics and calculations was safer than this place. More familiar. She had enough of being picked on for one day.
Sod it all.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 3:00 pm
Yue couldn't help but smile, when Miki called her calm. Calm? Hm. That was a new way to look at what she did, manipulating her environment and feeling no remorse for her ostentatious behaviour. She really wasn't bothered by their reactions, nor her own actions. Shameless. Instead of being frustrated by Miki's smiles, Yue was pleased; she returned every too-sweet smile in turn. Yue edged a little closer across the desks, getting almost imperceptibly closer to Miki again. A snicker snuck out of Yue when it wasn't Suzu, but Miki, who called her out on her desire to bake a cake. So it was Miki who wanted to show her the error of her ways, now? Yue found that thrilling. Perhaps between the two of them, they might actually get someplace. "Miki, Miki baby, if I want it to be baking time, I'll make it baking time," Yue Lao fluttered her lashes at Miki, smiling still, more of her teeth showing than before. She had purposefully used the word baby, which Miki had been frustrated by earlier. P.E. could not come soon enough.
So Yue Lao had missed his name. If Kotone had said it, that would explain why she hadn't heard; Yue had begun to unconsciously tune out most of what Suzu said, which kind of accompanied Kotone. In her head, she could already see the threads which tied the two girls together, and then perhaps a third thread to loop around the boy, Huang?... Yue pondered that possibility, her lips pursed, fingers drumming her thigh. Perhaps not; Suzu was aggressive in a way that Kotone probably wouldn't appreciate, and Suzu seemed downright hinged on the approval of the boy, even though they'd just met. "Twice is the charm, maybe, Huang-Fu; at least I caught your name this time," Yue nodded, with a little smile almost reminiscent of the sting a papercut might provide, though it wasn't meant to be injuring. It was quick, sharp. Much like Yue's treatment of people.
Because she seldom did the caring or consoling thing, Yue had taken a long time to really notice how upset Kotone was. And then how lost she looked. "Little lamb, little lamb," Yue crooned to Kotone, "What's wrong? Can't bake a cake with a long face like that." Yue insisted on referring to cake, yet again, with a pointed smile at Miki. It really was strange that Yue's eyes never opened past half-shut. It was like she was constantly intoxicated, sultry, sleepy; depending on her mood, the half-shut eyes looked like they inferred any number of things.
Yue wanted things to start. She dragged her nail back and forth on the desk, not damaging it but making a kind of irritating sound, before getting bored of even that. "I want to light things on fire, Miki. I don't care what we're baking, or cooking, I just want there to be fire."
Suzu had muttered something which Yue hadn't heard, and said something about forgiving friends. It seemed like Suzu was too easy to break; she was becoming more and more sullen. It almost made Yue preen, to see Huang paying more attention to Kotone than Suzu.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:09 pm
“I-I’m practicing, but my cooking skills are still very average,” Kotone admitted in reply to Huang-Fu’s question to her, a slight, embarrassed tremble at the start of her sentence while she had continued wrestling inwardly to subdue the excessive outward manifestations of her lack of self-confidence that fought to be expressed. She then at that moment recalled the breathing exercises he mentioned to her before and suddenly closed and then gradually opened her eyes as she softly took in a breath a few seconds long and then exhaled in a soft whoosh from her slightly parted mouth. It was a desperate attempt, but it seemed to fan the small flames of the fire of determination that had been simmered down in her eyes. She then next gave a nod in affirmative of her willingness to accept his request to guide him, her gentle-sounding voice saying to Huang-Fu next, “I-I’m able to impart to you what I have knowledge of as best I can though, Sir Huang-Fu.”
“Suzu and I said we would work as a pair and cook together if that is the instruction for class today,“ she worriedly glanced at Suzu, because Suzu's feelings seemed to have been hurt, and offered her a concerned smile that she next gave her best attempt to also make into a bright, encouraging one. “The three of us can work as a group and cook together if you’d both not mind?” She looked from Suzu to Huang-Fu as she asked the question with a soft smile.
When addressed by Yue Lao, her hands came together in her lap and clasped each other remorsefully but refraining from averting her eyes to stare at her hands as she replied with her apologies. “Miss, Miss Yue Lao,” she looked to her and then Miki as well and also to Suzu and Huang-Fu, as she aimed to minimize the stammering brought about by her frequent insecurity as much as she could, “M-miki, Suzu, and Sir Huang-Fu, I’m very sorry for how I’m behaving in front of everyone. I’ve failed to keep my blue feelings in check and I’ll, I’ll really try harder to really get my feelings in check without further delay.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:19 pm
Suzu was annoyed, well more put back than annoyed but when Kotone addressed her a smile soon returned to her face. Meh, she was not going to let them get her down, she wanted to have some fun in this class. She stood up clicking her fingers.
"Yes! Let’s. I want to get started!"
She smiled looking around the room for components like bowls and such she would need to start the cooking. She might as well get started preparing now. To be ready when the teacher got here. She after searching found some bowls, spoons, knives and a chopping board.
"I cannot say I have never made this dish, what will we need Kotone?"
She asked peering over her shoulder to try and see the recipe that she talked about earlier. She would not comment again on Kotone apologizing, maybe pointing it out was not the best thing to do. She just wanted her to have some fun, heck Suzu wanted to have some fun.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 4:38 pm
Zhēnzhū abruptly got up off the bench, knuckling her back and deciding not to wait on a reply. She was late enough as it is, and these...upper classmen? She had no idea what they were- probably were busy. Yes, that must be it. Absently she tugged on her braid, pausing to survey the hallway.
Without preamble she marched into the door of the nearest room- and saw what the bench-leaping boy had meant. The room DID contain predominantly female Lunarians, surrounding the lone boy in the room. She watched him take a seat before scanning the rest of the class- there seemed to be cooking utensils around. Maybe this was the right place?
She cocked her head to the side quizzically, before marching up to the other girls' workstation. Stopping in front of it, she leaned with one arm on the desk, trying to maintain a casual posture. "HELLO," she blurted. "Is this the Cooking room? You see, I noticed all the spoons and what not but I wasn't sure, this is a pretty big building, and there might be other classrooms like this- BOY, isn't it big though?" She idly scratched at particularly annoying mud flake caked on her leg with her toe, shifting her weight to her other leg and removing her hand from the desk. Folding them together in front of her, she bobbed her head and quickly added, "My name is Zhēnzhū, by the way. I'm new here. I'm from Goshin Village. Well, you know, not EXACTLY from the village, although our farm is really close..." She rambled on, rather matter-of-factly, hardly giving time for a reply. She didn't recognize any of these girls- they could be from the village too, honestly, she never really spent much time around girls. "Are any of you from there? I think the entire Village Green would fit in some of these classrooms! Especiallytheonewiththewoodensparringequipment, Idon'tknowhowtouseanyofthatsoIhopetheygoeasyonme."
She finally stopped talking, out of breath. By the end of her little speech she was talking so fast the words had all but blurred together.
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:20 pm
Yue Lao cocked her head to the side, regarding Kotone seriously for a moment. "Little lamb," she began, trying to obtain and maintain eye contact, "Don't feel bad for your feelings, just feel them. Until you're done with them, and then you feel something new, you know? But don't regret what you feel, 'cause feeling anything is a gift. Just do it to its fullest, sad or happy." Yue paused. She nodded, and broke eye contact, grinning again at no one in particular and swinging her feet back and forth again. She was, however, paying attention. When Suzu started digging around places for cooking supplies, though Yue wondered how she'd known where to look, she took mental note of the location of items. She began to wonder where the food supplies were, and what she could mix into Suzu's food. Hot sauce, maybe? Without realizing it, Yue had begun to stare at Suzu, grinning madly.
It was interrupted only by a new girl, yet again, bursting into the room. This one was loud. Yue bounced to her feet, marched right over to Zhēnzhū, and yelled back, "HI Zhēnzhū. I'm YUE LAO. Don't forget it, kay?" Yue grinned, blew her a kiss, and then nearly whispered, "Most of us are new, too; come grab a seat? The school is pretty big, yeah, good thing this is definitely where the food is at." Yue flounced back to her place on the desks, grinning from where she flopped herself down, her legs pumping back and forth again idly.
((Edited to add a b tag I missed))
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:55 pm
"Yue Lao, got it."
Zhen nodded, obviously missing the joke, if there was one. She was kind of confused by the kissy face the other girl made, was this how girls greeted each other normally? The boys at home just tended to punch each other on the shoulder. And she certainly wouldn't blow kisses at them. Girls were weird. Herself excluded, of course.
Zhen gave the other girl a perfunctory once-over, and announced, "I'm sorry, I don't kiss girls, but this is how we used to say hi where I'm from!" She launched a friendly punch at Yue's upper arm, before moving to take one of the chairs.
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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 12:47 pm
Miki was surprised. For once, actually twice now, what Yue said wasn’t totally offensive. It was almost a consoling comment to Kotone. Almost.
“Oh don’t worry; with me here, there will defiantly be fire. And no doubt you as well, Suzu, appreciate fire? You do toil in front of one daily I assume as an apprentice blacksmith? I would like to see some of your work some time.”
Miki found it odd that Kotone felt the need to apologize for her quietness. It made her sad to see a girl so frail. She would never personally apologize for anything of the sort, even things much worse than merely not speaking and being gloomy.
"I'm sorry, I don't kiss girls, but this is how we used to say hi where I'm from!"
Miki nearly fell out of her chair in fit of giggles. She had never seen anyone so up front in such a happy way, and this crazy girl had chosen to be friendly to Yue out of all people. Not only that, she had greeted her with a punch. Miki was excited to see how Yue would react.
“Oh my, what a lovely girl!” Miki drifted out of her seat next to the newest girl. She was genuinely pleased with her. It was obvious that she had been raised primarily around men by her unrefined behavior, and that’s what made her appealing.
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