[The Scene: The Boathouse! The People: Claire and Miya! The time: Mid- afternoon! The MiniSession: Start!] (I'm so minimalist. Summer hates it. Ahem.) * Sally lounges across the couch in the boathouse, as only Miya and Claire were there to begin with, trying to read 3 Musketeers through her sunglasses. * Miya doesn't even try to figure out where Sally came from. She's alternately sitting and lying on the floor, with book, spiral notebook, and pen out. The book is aternately open and closed as she lets go of the pages to write. Or doodle. Or both. * Harry peeks into the boathouse with black eyes and black hair, looking at all the busyish people, then goes in, carrying around a book or three. * Miya doesn't look up or comment, as she's currently staring at her book - she does that - as though it'll suddenly and magically make sense. * Harry gravitates towards Miya, which is hopefully away from Sally, and has a seat as well. Phaw! I thought this would be easy enough a read, but sheeze! Must have read a modernized copy when I was younger. *sits up and rubs her forehead in frustration* I mean, the turns of phrase are neat enough, and remind me of the original versions of "Alice in Wonderland", but boy is it heavy reading. * Yu-Mei sets mode: +o Grysar * Alex steps in through the door. "Heavy reading?" * Miya snaps out of it, looking up and around with wide white eyes. "Huh?" And then she notices Alex and curls, trying to stare holes into her book again. * Alex blinks and flinches a little as Miya shys away from him. * Claire is sitting in the room playing Final Fantasy 4. The real one, not the cheap half-finished American version. * Eric strolls in behind Alex, whistling Billy Jean and holding his book. "Eh, what's going on here?" It doesn't exactly leap off the page at you, if you know what I mean. I'm only halfway through the second chapter, and I've been at it for *checks the inside of her left wrist, where a watch is barely visible under her sleeve* almost three hours now. I keep losing track of what's happening. It can't be THAT hard. * Miya tries to make herself more invisible without disappearing, if that's possible. * Alex flips open his copy and begins reading without bothering to sit down. The actual version is much better than this English-translated copy. Probably. * Claire kills an Imp. "It's as true for books as it is for games." Perhaps. I hear lots is lost in translations. Maybe the original version keeps the sequence strung better? * Alex reads from the book, "On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, in which the author of Romance of the Rose was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second La Rochelle of it." Okay, you're right. That is kinda awkward. Eh, yeah. It's not basic stuff. -That- little gem I had to read 4 times before it made any kind of sense to me. * Eric grins. His book also has another thing inside of it. Cliff's Notes. * Harry mutters to himself, "Awkward is right," and opens a thickish paperback book, without the paperback. But all we've got assigned is the first chapter so far, right? Finishing the second is gravy on the cake, good for getting ahead. *stretches langorously, then scoots over to just one side of the couch* Come on, come on, there's plenty of room; let's finish the assignment so we can avail ourselves of the lovely games in here. ( Tell me you did not just say something about putting gravy on cake. ;_; ) (She did. Eew.) (Hey, when you're starving...) Gravy on cake? Ew. Ya know, I should try that sometime. Gravy on cake... * Alex walks over to sit near Miya as he begins to dig into the rather meaty text. ( Sally's a bit brain-scrambled. Or she's just wierd. ) That's disgusting, Eric. Unless it's a dinner cake. Well duh. What else would it be? * Eric makes a sofa for himself and lies down on it, starting to read. * Miya blinks a few times as the cuter Alex (admit it, he's got more levels of appearance) sits on the floor next to her, looks at him blankly for a moment, and sort of stares at her book. Not read so much as stares. * Harry looks over at Miya, then back at the destroyed little open book, then reaches over and taps her on the shoulder. * Miya yelps and vanishes without really thinking about it, reappearing gracelessly on top of the couch and falling onto it, then *not* keeping her balance somehow and tumbling off. "Ow." * Sally opens her book to her bookmark again (the bookmark actually is a pink affair with a unicorn on it), and stares at the page - maybe reading, it's hard to tell - for about a minute, before sighing once more and turning around to look over the couch at Miya. "How's it goin', Miya? Oh, I see you've got help already." (Well, it's over the couch now.) (Or something.) ...whoah, I didn't think you -could- fall like that. You okay, sweetie? * Claire glances back. It's a semi-active time battle system, so she doesn't get killed while doing it. The hell? * Harry smiles a little and says, "Jumpy, Miya?" * Miya scrambles to her feet, picking up her book. "Sorry! Sorry. Um." She looks down. "Sorry." Hey, it's okay. What's got you so jumpy? * Miya mumbles something, still looking at her feet. What? *leans closer to try to hear Miya better* * Alex blinks. "I didn't catch that, sorry." * Eric chuckles. "Eh..." He looks over at Claire's screen. "Man, I'm sorry. You have the *bard*." * Miya speaks a little louder. Just a little. "Um. I mean I'm just trying to read it." So let us help you. That's what friends are for, yes? * Claire blinks. "I do? Oh, yeah." She keeps him hidden off screen most of the time where he can't get killed; that's all he's good for. Yeah, no need to be so jumpy, sweetie. (I coulda sworn he had an actual decent ability in the original version.) * Miya blushes. "I mean I- um, never mind." She goes back to her old spot, on the floor with her notebook and doodles and pen. ( Beats me. I never played it ) (I _think_ he had a mass-potion ability.) (Which wasn't _that_ useful, but it was better than song and hide.) * Harry mms faintly, then when she comes back over, says, "Sorry, didn't mean to make you jumpy." It's okay. * Sally peeks over the back of the couch at Miya's floor-spot. "How far've you gotten?" she asks in a friendly tone. * Miya bites her lip, hesitating. "Um..." She opens her book and points, probably wishing she could disappear without actually teleporting. It's the bottom of the first page. Personally, I find that the environment helps for reading difficult texts; namely, it pays to limit the number of distractions. * Harry nods a little. "Sure..." The more, the marrier I say. If it didn't make Alex go crazy, I'd put on some music. ^_^ That's very considerate of you. * Alex looks down at Miya's copy of the book. "Which part're you having trouble with?" Eh, 'course AW. * Sally nods at Miya's pointing. "Would you like some help? Someone to read it to, perhaps? 'S how my brother and I got through The Hobbit; read it to each other." * Miya says in a very small voice, "All of it?" * Harry looks over at the page Miya's on, then offers her, and possibly Alex, the book he had opened, with his thumb pointing at a point. He didn't have to flip any pages to get there, either. I remember The Hobbit. Tolkine's way too into description, though. Never read it. I saw the cartoon, though. Cartoon is weaker than the book. A lot weaker. Ugh, the cartoon's even worse. *[grins]* Just for different reasons. * Miya blinks at the book, then smiles hesitantly. Besides, if we all take turns reading aloud, it'll go faster. Definitely. * Harry smiles back a little, and says a little under his breath, at Miya, "If I'd known you were having trouble, I'd have brought my japanese translation book." Don't worry, we've got at least three people here who speak Japanese, I think. * Miya nods at Harry's words. She looks like she's still considering disappearing. Eh, and if you really can't understand it after we go through, I've got some notes that may help too. * Sally is now known as CheshireCat She might not have such trouble if you people would give her a chance to actually read it. * CheshireCat slides up next to Miya, where she can read Miya's copy of the book, too. "'Sides, you're not allowed to be worried about it. You have to pet the kitty while we read." * Harry looks a little hesitant, then chuckles after what Claire says. * Miya looks up at Claire, then down at the kitty curled next to her. "Um." * Miya rubs Cheshire behind the ears a little. Eh, Sally, I think Miya needs to work on this with fewer distractions. She doesn't seem the type who likes'em. Wanna go read somewhere else? ~_^ (Where we can play some music? From bad 70's movies?) (Eric's hitting on Sally!) (Eh, so? ~_^) * Alex curls up against the end of the couch, on the floor, and begins slowly wading through the awfully dense text. (It's about time!) ( Somebody's gotta do it, and it ain't gonna be me. ) * CheshireCat looks at Miya, silently asking her opinion of matters. * Harry lets the torn up book rest between Miya and him, and opens his own copy of the book. It looks heavily marked, which is even more reinforced by him pulling out a pen. * Miya stops petting her. "Um, I don't mean I don't like you, but... um." * Miya fidgets. "Yeah." 'Sokay. ^_~ Just trying to help. *[grin]s, then scoots over to Eric's couch, where she hops up to see his book and waits expectantly to be petted* * Alex sighs a little and just leaves everybody alone. * Miya glances at Alex out of the corner of her eye, not that he can tell, since it's impossible to see where her pupils are. (We love white eyes, yes we do!) (They're awesome.) ( Even cooler than wrap-around sunglasses! ) * Eric pets Cheshire and picks her up at the same time, standing up. "Eh, I can tell how this is going to end up." He smirks. "Let's get going so as not to bother them." ^_^ * Alex isn't watching Miya anyway. * CheshireCat purrs distractedly. * Harry gets to reading. He seems to be referencing the other book a lot, and marking up his copy a lot too. * Miya relaxes a little as people leave the room, and slowly... eventually... ends up turning the page. * Eric walks out of the boathouse, carrying the purple cat in his hands. * Claire fights the antlion. ( Miya and Claire's actions are reminding me of a certain flash movie... ) ( http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/164193 ) * Miya stares at this one for a long while, then gives up. "" It's only barely recognizable, even to those who know Japanese, but she sure sounds defeated. * Claire blinks. She shuts the game off, then floats over to Miya. "What part?" Don't worry about the game; she just saved at the last save point. * Miya looks up at Claire, then down at page two. "All of it?" * Harry opens his mouth to say something before Claire jaunts over. Then he just looks at his book and starts reading/marking again. * Claire peers over Miya's shoulder. * Miya is, sure enough, on page two. ( http://www.online-literature.com/dumas/threemusketeers/1/ <--if anyone needs chapter one) ( Got it, actually. ^_^_v ) * Harry frowns at the book himself, looks over, and marks again. * Claire reads it aloud, in Japanese. * Miya listens, but she still looks confused. "That's so... um, complicated. Why did they make it complicated?" Does it make more sense that way? Kind of. It's translated from the old way of writing. It's like if it was written in old Japanese, you see? ( They made it complicated 'cause they got paid by the word! <_< >_> <_< ) (Oh so true.) Oh. ... I wasn't good at reading those, either. ( And, given some of the words they used unnecesarilly, I'd venture bigger words got "overtime" pay. ;) ) ( I should note that the style also works very well for essays where you have to write x-amount of words. ) Translation isn't everybody's thing. ( It does. ) I'm not surprise. Old Japanese is even harder than old French. (I never got the hang of it.) (Read it, sure. Write it? Nuh uh.) ( I have! But I write more comprehensible BS when I'm space- filling. ) * Harry rubs his head, then looks between the books. "I'm just glad it isn't that bad now." * Miya nods. "And then, um. My teacher would be up in front of class, and he'd make everybody read a part of the book, and... um, I'd always trip over the words when my turn came up." She giggles a small, nervous giggle at the memory. "And some people laughed, but it was kinda okay." It's just class, so it doesn't really matter. * Miya looks up at Harry, then Alex. "Doesn't matter?" It's just class. Nothing really important, y'know? * Miya looks back at her book. "Well... um, it's kinda where you spend most of your time?" That doesn't make it important. Just time consuming. Guess we know someone who'll be getting an F. Don't be so sure. * Miya sighs. "It'd be better with pictures." Well, you could watch the movies, I suppose, but those are never as good as the book. ... Yeah, okay. * Claire shrugs at Alex and goes back to explaining it to Miya. * Miya listens and tries to follow the translation with the words in the book, then rubs at her eyes. * Alex snaps his book shut. "I would like to pronounce this book difficult to read." Do you need a break? * Miya grumbles, "But it's better than the movie." She nods, though. "Um, maybe." It's hard? Listening to one language and reading in the other, when... um, I don't even know if I'm reading? * Harry marks some more as he progresss, and says with a frown on his face, "Yes, it's hard." I'm not trying to read it aloud for you, Miya. Just help you out. You're supposed to be reading along. * Miya squirms a little. "I'm trying." I'll slow down a little. Okay. How do you switch so fast? Practice. Oh. You'll get better the longer you're here, I bet. You're already pretty good, anyway. * Miya blushes. "Um. Had to learn it in school. I guess I'm okay at talking." It's usually easier to talk than read. That's why we learn to talk first. But if you don't practice, you won't learn how. So, try reading some more. * Miya sighs. "Okay." And she goes back to staring at the page. If you have trouble, ask me and I'll help you. * Harry continues marking and reading. I'm gonna go work out for a while. Try to read some more tonight. Laters. * Alex waves his way out of the pool house. * Miya glances up. "Okay. Bye." * Miya looks back at her book, then up to the shapeshifter. "Um, I think Harry's having some trouble, too?" She clamps her mouth shut, almost as if she isn't sure she should have said that. * Claire blinks and looks over at Harry. "Are you having difficulty?" * Harry looks over at Miya and chuckles, "Should I have made it more obvious? Yeah." He looks over at Claire and gestures at the coverless book. "Dictionary." Ahh. * Claire shrugs. "Well, I'm afraid I can't help you with that. There's no use in translating English into English. Oh. * Miya shifts into a more comfortable position. "I mean easier words." * Harry frowns slightly, then says, "Not really, no, but that's OK. I'm getting the--" he snickers, then shows his copy to Miya. * Harry has marked half the words with different words that don't suck. * Miya looks, then giggles. * Harry reaches down and grabs the dictionary, shaking it. "Book looks like a nightmare, but at least I'll be able to read it later without this." It's a fine book once you can get passed the words. But the whole book's words. * Harry chuckles, then says, "No, I mean it looks like a nightmare, with pen in every margin I can find." * Claire shakes her head. "The words are words. The book is a story." * CheshireCat is now known as Sally Try to imagine the scene in your head. That should help you to understand it, too. * Miya looks at her book for a moment, then switches her gaze to her notebook, and inspiration hits. "We could draw it?" Draw? Sure. * Harry blinks and then chuckles a little before saying, "Even working together, that would take all night, though." I'm not much of an artist, but perhaps I could model. * Miya giggles. "Sure! Acting and stuff." She looks back at her book, then asks the question that's been bugging her all this time. "And what's a Doon Kwixotey, anyway?" It's a reference, I think, but I'm not sure to what. A reference to another famous work Don Quixote was a knight who lost his mind and charged down windmills. * Harry looks at his book carefully. "... that doesn't have anything to do with this." Are we going to have to read that one? Windmills are cool. Who knows? I'm sure we could find it at a bookstore easily enough, if you're curious. It's a rather famous work. * Harry points out, "They have a good library here, and Hank said anyone can get in." Hm, I'd forgotten. * Miya nods. "I just like windmills." She smiles. "I saw pictures of them!" They actually have them where I'm from, you know. * Harry rubs his head. "I've only ever heard of windmills..." * Miya seems much more animated now that it's not about big, scary words. "In France? Really? Maybe we can go there. Did you have them near your house?" Er.... No, they're mostly out in the countryside. Oh. Then you lived by a city? * Claire nods. "Paris. Or close to it, at least." * Miya smiles. "Cool. I, um, wasn't from a city or anything. But there weren't windmills, either." * Harry whistles. "Wow. Paris. I've... heard about Paris." Well, we didn't have ... uh, rice fields? * Claire nods to Harry. "It's a lovely city." * Miya nods. "Lots of rice." She makes a big gesture; well, it's big for her. "We need rice here. They keep forgetting to buy it." Well, I'm sure there's a Japanese restaurant somewhere in New York. * Harry nods back. "Yeah, that's what Ericka said..." he trails off, then says, "Who does the shopping? Maybe you should bug 'em until they get rice." * Miya blinks. "Oh, um. Yes. But it'd be nice if rice is here, so I can make it and eat it if I want to? Because... um, we don't go to restaurants very much." She tilts her head. "Who's Ericka? I mean, if you want to tell us and stuff." * Claire shrugs. "Probably Eric. He likes to cook." (... That's funny, smashed together.) (Yup!) ('Who's Ericka?' 'Probably Eric.' 'Oh, you have a pet name for him? So cute!' '...') (Ericka turned into a guy. It's one of his, eh, powers.) * Harry looks over at Miya and says, "Um? Oh. Old friend. Well, not old, just haven't seen her for a while." * Miya nods. * Harry seems a little sad about that, then looks between the two and says, "So, Question I've been meaning to ask. On a scale of 1 to run away screaming, would it be weird if I looked like a girl around you two?" Um... * Miya looks at Claire, then back to Harry. "Not really?" Um... * Harry smiles a lilttle and then looks over at Claire, who is no doubt watching the green haired girl whine about how she hates fire. * Claire shrugs. "Whatever you're most comfortable with. * Claire isn't playing right now. OMG! (Blasphemy!) (Hehe!) ( It's not really Claire! ) (Mystique must have swapped with her at some point.) * Harry smiles a little, then shifts. His face softens up, his hair gets shoulder length, still black, his eyes go blue, and all sorts of other changes, into an even shorter (but still taller than Miya!) teenage girl. "Thanks." * Claire doesn't run away screaming. * Miya doesn't either! She just tilts her head and smiles a little. "You're welcome?" * Harry frowns and pulls her hair behind her. "Well, I'm still getting used to... uh, being able to do that with anyone looking. And then the gender thing too... well." She chuckles to herself. Um, well. It's kinda cool. I mean changing into stuff. But it makes it kinda hard to make sure it's you and not someone else joining the school? I have to wonder why you'd want to change gender like that? * Harry shakes her head and smirks a little. "Well, he wasn't being too picky. And I think they have something..." she trails off and looks over at Claire. "'Cause it's... easier. When you look differennt, you feel different." * Miya blinks. She looks a little confused. * Claire tilts her head. "But couldn't you just change yourself and stay male?" * Harry smirks a little, "Yeah, but that means being male. It's... sorta like makeup, I think. Not that I've ever had makeup, but I read this one article and..." she trails off and says, "Well, it just does." * Claire looks at Harry oddly, then shrugs. * Miya speaks up hesitantly, "So are you really a guy or a girl?" ( Most shapeshifters are actually 30-year old guys pretending to be girls. ) (Ha.) (This really makes a lot of sense.) * Harry laughs a litlte nervously and says, "I was wondering how long it'd take someone to ask that, once I pulled this little stunt." She rubs her hands together a little, then says, "Well, it's sorta confusing, but... well, if you want it easy, I was born Harriet. So girl." * Miya blinks a couple times, then just says, "Oh." * Harriet licks her lips and then pulls at her hair in annoyance. "It's confusing when you spend time as other people. Ow, why can I never grow my hair in without tangling it?" * Miya giggles at that before she can stop herself. * Harriet pulls at her hair a little more, then makes an exaggerated sigh and smiles at Miya. "They're just too small." She puts her hands together in front of her and says a little exclaimatory-like, "So!" She glances down at the abandoned books. "Reading." Yes, reading. * Miya blinks. "Oh yeah!" She flips to a blank page in her notebook. "Okay, um. Reading and drawing. And stuff." * Harriet blinks. "Oh, we're drawing now too? Uh. I left my stuff in my room." * Claire gets up and starts acting it out. She's quite good, if you consider she has no props and is doing basically a one-woman play. I have a pen and... * Miya gets distracted by Claire's acting. She smiles. * Harriet looks over at Claire too. "Wow, she reacts fast." Beat. "Do you have all this memorized?" I read a good deal while most of you were playing sports earlier. But I've also read the book three times before. * Harriet grins. "Well, that'd help." * Miya nodnods. She starts doodling, too, pretty much what Claire did, frame by frame. The doodles aren't extremely pretty, but they work. (It's the Three Musketeers comic!) ( "Behold the Three Musketeers!" "Which one's Aramis?" "The stick figure on the far left." ) * Harriet is thoroughly unhelpful, lacking a book, but does try to follow along in her book. (Darn tootin'.) * Harriet looks down, then up and says, "I'd, uh, help act, but I don't know the book very well." She peeks over at Miya's drawings. * Miya keeps doodling. She adds a windmill in the part that mentions Don Quixote JUST BECAUSE. * Miya looks up and grins a little. "It's a lot more fun when it doesn't mean big words." And looking them up. * Miya nods. "That too." * Claire nods. Are there windmills in this book, too? I, uh, don't think so. Horses and swords, so far. * Miya looks a little disappointed. "Oh." My sister is an expert swordswoman. * Harriet looks nervous. "I don't think I've ever seen a sword. Well, maybe once in a book." * Claire chuckles. "I tried pretty hard to learn how to use one, but all I ever managed to do was to hit myself with them." I saw them. I just... um, never learned how to fight with them. * Miya giggles. * Harriet chuckles. "Well, then, stay away, I say!" These swords are different, right? They're not like Japanese swords. * Claire sighs. "Just another thing I can't..." She blinks at Miya. "Hm? Oh, they're straighter and lighter, for one handed use." Oh. Um, anyway, you don't have to know how to use a sword. I don't know how to use a sword, and I can fight if I want to. * Harriet nods slightly, but doesn't chime up with any comforting advice on how she beats things up. ( All you need to do is turn into an anvil and land on them.) (... I really don't like that plan.) Do we need to know how to beat things up, for real? Um... I don't think so? * Miya fidgets. "I mean, I know 'cause I-" She stops herself, then finishes lamely, "'cause I know." But it helps to defend yourself. * Claire nods. "I know how to as well." Although it's not hard when I can literally make people go away. * Harriet chuckles a little, then says, "Well, I usually just run." That works, too. Yeah, but it doesn't get people beat up. And sometimes people need a good beating. Well, um... you can tell me if they do! I can kick them in the face. And Claire can make them fly. * Harriet shakes her fist and looks a little angry, then laughs. * Claire snickers * Miya gets to her feet and stands, all 4'8" of her. "Like this." She makes like she's kicking an invisible person in the face; since there's nobody on the recieving end and she's not trying, it isn't particularly scary or neat. "Ya!" * Harriet watches her, then shakes her head. "Well, I can kick, but I'm not exactly--" she coughs a few times, then frowns. "Strong. Can take care of myself, though." * Claire nods. "Speaking of which, I'm kind of hungry. * Miya blinks, and her stomach grumbles a bit. She looks down. "Um, me too. Want to move to the kitchen?" * Claire nods. "Sure." * Harriet smiles a little nervously and says, "Um, yeah, okay." She shifts back into a male-looking form and picks up the books. [And so they went to eat.] (You know Eric was in the kitchen, right?) [They killed Eric, then ate.] [But they didn't eat Eric. Because eew.] [Totally.] [Laaaaame]