Chupacabra
New Mutants
Alejandro Rivera
And from my tortured shape No comfort, no escape
Posts: 104
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Post by Chupacabra on Mar 16, 2009 20:52:34 GMT -5
Alex hurried down the hallway. "Did you always walk that fast?" Alex asked jokingly as he scurried past the Rec room. He made it to the kitchen and limped in. He winced at the pain of his thigh. He sat down and rubbed his injured leg. He sat back and took off his shades. He looked at Leah and smiled.
"Is the tea cold yet?"
Alex had laughed at his little joke. Leah had always made Alex forget about his problems. I don't know what it is about her. I actually feel like I don't need a charade around her. She is like a best friend. He thought about all the times she would be there for him like when he had the first upset with his team. They had bumped into each other and Alex remembered how nice she was in the restaurant and thanked her for that. And it just snow balled from there. Then he thought about how Dr. McCoy looks like the cookie monster from one of the shows the kids watched.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Mar 16, 2009 21:23:34 GMT -5
"So when I was really little I would go visit my Sobo. That's Japanese for grandma. She had this little tea house in her garden and I though it was the coolest thing ever. She would do this Japanese tea ceremony as a way to honor guests. I don't remember the whole thing and don't really have all the right stuff, but I wanna do it for you." Leah said as she rummaged through the cabinets and finally found a big steel bowl and a soup ladle. "Go sit at the table."
"Ok, so before the guests are received they purify themselves with water. Nobody talks, so please don't say anything until this is over." she said earnestly. "I'm going to fill this bowl with water, and then you take the soup ladle and ladle the water over your hands. My Sobo said this purified the world outside for the special tea spirituality." She paused and handed him the bowl and laddle. "Oh, yeah, and I'm supposed to bow to you and stuff. So yeah, then I prepare the tea and serve it to you and it's supposed to represent four different things, tranquility, harmony, and I forget what all." She paused knowing she was forgetting something and then it came to her. "We're also supposed to lock the doors to keep out the unclean world that isn't tea." So she went to the doors and locked the front door and then to the door into the rec room and latched it. "There's also supposed to be some food, rice, soup, and fish, but I don't have that so we'll skip it."
"Alright we're off." Quietly she bowed to Alex and then taking a spoon she tapped it against a glass to make the sound of the traditional bell that is rung to start the evening tea ceremony, after the ritual meal that they were skipping. She then got another pot and filled it with water from the tap. Right, she thought, the fresh water goes in the jar, the mizusashi, sobo called it. With the jar filled she took the pot with the water and put it on the stove and lit it so that it would boil. Alright, think. What the freak do I do next?...That's right Soba got a bowl and a whisk and some white cloth and then put them around the water jar..she said they represented yin and yang. So she got herself a bowl, found an old whisk in a drawer, and took some coffee filters. Then she got the tea out of the cabinet and broke open the tea bags, dumping the tea onto the coffee filters. Soba also cleaned everything off with some cloth...fukusa I think she called it. Grabbing an old dish towel Leah cleaned off the bowl and the whisk; she had completely forgotten, had she ever known, that the fukusa is supposed to be silk and a lot cleaner than her dish cloth.
So now I make tea, right....nothing else I'm forgetting? She thought with some annoyance. This ceremony takes forever. Using a scoop, she scooped the ritual three scoops of tea into the tea bowl for Alex and then another three for herself. She then checked the water. Once it was boiling hot she turned down the stove, ladled it into the bowl, with just enough to dampen the tea and create a thin paste. After that she furiously whisked the paste so that it became a thick soupy liquid. At this point she should have passed it to Alex for inspection, had him taste it, and then added the rest of the water. But not remembering this detail, she then poured the rest of the water in, stirred it again, and then poured the tea from the bowl into two cups, sloshing it on the counter as she went along. Then she bowed and presented Alex with his tea cup and said, "It's done hon, you can talk now."
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Chupacabra
New Mutants
Alejandro Rivera
And from my tortured shape No comfort, no escape
Posts: 104
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Post by Chupacabra on Mar 16, 2009 21:46:38 GMT -5
Alex watched Leah intently as she tried her best to perform her ceremony. She looked as if she was remembering her childhood as she went on. Alex had clean his left hand and what was exposed of his right hand like Leah had asked. Alex thought This ceremony must be special if she is going through all this trouble. I really feel honored.
When he was presented with his tea and told he could speak again he bowed back and said, "Domo arigato gouzaimas." It was one of the few things he knew how to say in Japanese from the anime he had been watching lately. He took a small zip of his tea and smiled at Leah. "Wow, this is amazing. You should find out the rest of the ceremony and maybe one day we can do the whole thing. So you remember this from your grandmother?"
When he said grandmother he remembered the door in his dreamed labeled that. His head began to pound in pain. He put the tea down and rubbed his temples. He saw the door when he closed his eyes when he winced in pain. He opened his eyes to get the image out but he could still see it in his minds eye. He dug in his pocket for the pain killers Dr. McCoy gave him and took out a pill and dry swallowed it. But his head continued to pound.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Mar 16, 2009 22:03:24 GMT -5
"Douitashimashite," Leah said happily. "Yeah doing the whole thing would be great. Maybe Ms. Frost will let us build a tea house somewhere out of the way! That would be cool." she continued excitedly. "Yeah, I remember it from my grandma before...well before my Dad killed her. He killed pretty much everybody" she said softly and shuddered at the memory. Yet she was not so lost in her own thoughts as to miss that Alex had set down his cup and was holding his head. "You going to be ok? Do I need to call Beast" she asked as the New Mutant swallowed a pill without even picking his tea cup back up to wash it down.
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Chupacabra
New Mutants
Alejandro Rivera
And from my tortured shape No comfort, no escape
Posts: 104
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Post by Chupacabra on Mar 16, 2009 22:15:06 GMT -5
Through his pounding head ache he heard what her father had done but it did not register in his thoughts. His head was on fire with pain and would not simmer down. "I don't know. My head is just in ridiculous pain. All I see is the door. The Door. That Damn DOOR!" Alex bashed his cast into the wall next to him making a loud thud. The pain wouldn't stop. He looked at Leah and how worried she was. It calmed him down a bit but His head still felt like it was hit by a freight train. Alex attempted to stand but the pain threw his balance into disarray. He was on his hands and knees sweating. "Leah, I'm sorry for ruining the ceremonial tea time. But I think something is wrong." Alex said worriedly still seeing the door.
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Katana
Acolytes
Leah Okami
Posts: 258
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Post by Katana on Mar 16, 2009 22:23:20 GMT -5
Suddenly Alex was screaming about a door, whether the one from his dream or the door to the kitchen Leah was not sure, and he seemed doubled over in pain. As she reached out to calm him he started banging his cast violently and then fell to all fours and stated the obvious, that something was wrong. She ran to the door to the rec room, unlatched it and screamed in to Chase and Sky..."Quick, get Beast...it's an emergency." She then went back to Alex and said to him bruskly, "I don't think it is save to leave you alone...can you walk? If not I'm carrying you and we are seeing Beast now."
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Chupacabra
New Mutants
Alejandro Rivera
And from my tortured shape No comfort, no escape
Posts: 104
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Post by Chupacabra on Mar 16, 2009 22:32:33 GMT -5
"Ugh, more time in the med lab" Alex said half laughing through the pain. He slowly got up and used the table as support. His legs felt like rubber. Weather the pain was physical or mental he knew that something was not right. He gestured for Leah to come closer and said softly, "Ugh, I can walk but imma need support." The pain would not subside but the longer it was there the more he could fight it. It was just the door that irritated him the most. He wanted to know more about himself and it frustrated him that he couldn't remember.
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