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xp_logsBackdated. Crystal takes it upon herself to prevent the latest arrival from suffering a fate worse than death.
Crystal headed down to the medlab, carrying a bag in each hand. She hadn't been quite sure what to get from the Japanese restaurant, so she had enough food from there for several meals. She held the other bag, the one easily identifiable as coming from a fast food restaurant, out at a bit of a distance. This one held only enough food for one.
Somewhere, Noriko had gotten an mp3 player. And somewhere, possibly from the same source, she had gotten a very large collection of Japanese pop, rock and punk music. And now, in the grand Japanese tradition, she was doing karaoke in her room. With dancing. To be fair, the door to her room was shut so she wasn't that loud, and she was perfectly in tune. But it was a lot of fast, upbeat Japanese that came floating down the hallway as she attempted to burn off some of the excess energy in her system in "productive" ways.
Crystal paused outside the door to Noriko's room. She knew nothing about this new student and didn't know if the girl would be embarrassed to discover someone witnessing her 'act' or if she'd be perfectly fine with it. Maybe she'd even want someone to join her. She hated to interrupt, but food only stayed warm for so long, and who knew how long Noriko would continue singing? Her signature gusts of wind rapped on the door.
It was, thankfully, a loud enough sound to at least be registered, otherwise Crystal might well have been waiting out there a while. Instead, the music was turned down slightly, and the door slid open to reveal a short, hyperactive Japanese girl with short spiky hair and an excess of black and plaid in her wardrobe. "Hai?" Noriko asked, blinking up at the strange blonde.
Crystal offered the two bags to the young girl standing in front of her. "I wish to save you from the horror of leftover Sloppy Joes," she said, not quite sure if the girl would understand her or if she even wanted her to.
Noriko didn't, but the bags smelled wonderful, and she'd learned a while ago not to turn down free food. Stepping aside she waved Crystal inside with a, "Douzo. Anou... Here you are." Which was the wrong phrase, but she didn't know that.
"Thank you." Crystal entered the room. "I do not know what type of food you like so I brought choices. Something such as what you might find at home. It is supposed to be authentic, but how well it compares to the food in Japan I cannot say. The other is, well, I believe the 'golden arches' speak for themselves in universal terms."
The words didn't, but the symbol certainly did, and Noriko really liked Makku, but the other bag made her more curious. They had Japanese food in America? There was a chair and she waved Crystal towards it with a "Sankyuu", took the bags and set them on a small side-table before pulling it in between the chair and the bed. Toeing off her slippers, she all but bounced onto the bed, crossing her legs under her and peering into the first bag. "Ee! Sugoi!" Crystal might not know the words, but the sound of delight and amazement was pretty much the same everywhere. Pulling out the platter of sushi, Noriko marveled - it didn't look half bad. Underneath there was, of course, a large container of miso, a platter of tonkattsu and a portion of oyakodon, which both seemed passable. "Hontou ni, arigatou sempai!" Well, she assumed the girl was another student at the school. "Sankyuu!" Clapping her hands together in front of her face, she bowed to the older girl, singing out, "Itadakimasu!"
Crystal had no idea what Noriko had just said other than knowing that she had been thanked and that the other girl was pleased by what she had found in the bag. Crystal, too, was pleased that the younger girl had gone for the Japanese food rather than the bag containing what was little more than grease and fat. However, she didn't know very much about Japanese culture and wasn't sure how to proceed. Was she supposed to offer a bow in return or not? Crystal didn't wish to do the wrong thing and risk offending the school's latest arrival. She'd certainly shocked enough people with the formal greeting and curtsy she'd given people at the school upon their first meeting and hoped people would be more open to different traditions and customs with Noriko.
Still not quite sure, Crystal bowed slightly with a small nod. "You are very welcome."
Nori grinned, then plucked up the two pairs of disposable chopsticks she'd found in the bag. Hesitantly she offered a set to Crystal. "Anou... Is know? Yarikata te nani? Ha... He... How! How to... is know?" Wrinkling her nose at the English she gestured with her fingers as though they were chopsticks, waving them above the food and miming eating.
"No silly foreigner making a fool out of herself today," Crystal told Noriko with a smile as she took the chopsticks. "I had plenty of practice using chopsticks a few years ago."
Noriko grinned as Crystal expertly broke them into two pieces, and applauded as she set them in her hand. "Sugoi! O-hashi jouzu, ne?" Popping open the container of sushi, Nori pulled out the small plastic container and upended the soy sauce into it, adding some wasabi and mixing liberally. "Hai, douzo! Here you are." And suiting action to words she snagged a piece of sushi, dipped it and popped it into her mouth.
"No plates? Of course not. I should have brought them myself, but I was not sure what you would be interested in eating. The lack of plates certainly does not seem to bother you, though." So saying, she copied Noriko's actions.
Given the lack of shared language, their impromptu meal was on the quiet side. Noriko seemed more pleased than otherwise by everything, although from the odd face she made when she took her first bite of the katsu, it was apparent that something was odd about the dish compared to what she was used to. But, being unable to explain, Nori simply left most of it for Crystal. Things got complicated, however, when it came to the soup. "Anou... kono miso... cappu wa?" She mimed drinking from a bowl in her hands.
Crystal picked up the bag from the Japanese restaurant and looked inside. "No spoons." She looked back at Noriko. "I see. Do you want a spoon or would you rather drink from a bowl? There is a small kitchen here, it should have something we can use. I will be right back." Crystal left Noriko's room and returned a few minutes later with two mugs and two spoons, offering one of each to Noriko.
Nori accepted the mug, but waved the spoon off. "Supuun iranai yo." It was a delicate procedure to pour out about half of the soup into the mug, and given the periodic shaking in her hands, Noriko was hesitant to try. "Anou... chotto tasukete, kudasai," she asked, eyes downcast as she held out the mug.
Crystal set the other mug and the spoons on the table, then picked up the container of soup and carefully poured the liquid into the mug being being held by the Japanese girl. "Drinking the soup it is then, yes?" She poured soup into the second mug, then offered the container to Noriko.
Some of the tofu and seaweed had come out when the older girl was pouring, but peering into the container Nori saw that there was still some left and grinned up at the blonde before dipping her chopsticks in, expertly snagging some pieces and dumping them into her mug. "Doumo," she said, bobbing her head in thanks before setting into the soup. It wasn't -quite- drinking the soup as Crystal would have thought of it; Noriko held the mug in front of herself at about chest level, using the chopsticks to pull out pieces of tofu and occasionally sipping the broth, slurping every so often and seeming totally unconcerned.
The girl was... slurping her soup. Well then. Crystal decide to try the soup Noriko's way, but minus the rather impolite sounding noise accompanying it. Eating the soup this way was rather... interesting. The girl really didn't seem to care about all of her slurping sounds, did she? Even though Crystal was sure she could comment on the noise without being understand, she didn't. Instead, she just sat there and finished the soup in her mug, not giving any indication of being bothered by Noriko's soup-slurping.
Finishing the meal with a sigh, Noriko set the mug down and stuck her chopsticks back into the little paper slip, folding over a corner and creasing it tightly. "Oishikatta! Honotou ni arigatou. Anou... kore wa doko kara? Ettou... Where?" She gestured at the food on the little table, then turned her hand back to Crystal. "Is make?"
"The food is from a restaurant not very far from here," Crystal explained, giving the name of the restaurant while doing her best to say it using the same accent as the people at the restaurant had. "It is very close, not far at all." She hoped that Noriko would understand at least a bit of what she had just said.
"Aaaa. Wakatta. I got it!" Again she clapped her hands in front of her face and bowed her head. "Gouchisousamadeshita!" Placing the lids back on the containers, Nori began setting the empty containers into the bag, quickly and efficiently cleaning off the table. She even wiped down their impromptu table with a napkin then dumped that into the bag. Standing up, she bowed again. "Sankuu! Sankuu! Yuushoku... nandake... Dinner is very sankuu." She looked about to say something else, then stopped and blushed bright red. "E.... Aaa, boku no sei ya... shitsure kedo... anou... namae wa? Is name?"
It was then that Crystal realized she had neither introduced herself nor given her name to the girl at all. She hadn't been quite sure what the girl would or wouldn't understand, knowing only what she'd read on the journal about the girl needing help with English, and then once she'd met her it appeared that the girl really didn't know much English at all.
"Oh, I am sorry. My name is Crystal. Crystal Amaquelin," she added as an afterthought.
Noriko knew that English names were backwards, and so the polite thing would be to call the girl by her family name, which was second. But that might be a tad difficult...
"Amake... Amaku... Amakuerin? Shitsureshimasu. Kurisutaru-san. Yoroshiku onegaitashimasu. I name Kikuchi Noriko." She tapped herself on the nose. "Noriko," she repeated.
It took Crystal a few moments to realize "Kurisutaru-san" was her. The Japanese put titles after the name, didn't they, and they put their last names in front of their first names, which was why Noriko had tried saying her last name before saying this rather unique version of her first name. Crystal was certain the younger girl had done the best job she could, and she didn't wish to embarrass the girl when Noriko appeared to have settled on something she was comfortable calling the older girl.
"Noriko," Crystal tried, again doing her best to imitate the proper accent for the name.
"Hai!" Nori chirped, looking pleased.
Crystal headed down to the medlab, carrying a bag in each hand. She hadn't been quite sure what to get from the Japanese restaurant, so she had enough food from there for several meals. She held the other bag, the one easily identifiable as coming from a fast food restaurant, out at a bit of a distance. This one held only enough food for one.
Somewhere, Noriko had gotten an mp3 player. And somewhere, possibly from the same source, she had gotten a very large collection of Japanese pop, rock and punk music. And now, in the grand Japanese tradition, she was doing karaoke in her room. With dancing. To be fair, the door to her room was shut so she wasn't that loud, and she was perfectly in tune. But it was a lot of fast, upbeat Japanese that came floating down the hallway as she attempted to burn off some of the excess energy in her system in "productive" ways.
Crystal paused outside the door to Noriko's room. She knew nothing about this new student and didn't know if the girl would be embarrassed to discover someone witnessing her 'act' or if she'd be perfectly fine with it. Maybe she'd even want someone to join her. She hated to interrupt, but food only stayed warm for so long, and who knew how long Noriko would continue singing? Her signature gusts of wind rapped on the door.
It was, thankfully, a loud enough sound to at least be registered, otherwise Crystal might well have been waiting out there a while. Instead, the music was turned down slightly, and the door slid open to reveal a short, hyperactive Japanese girl with short spiky hair and an excess of black and plaid in her wardrobe. "Hai?" Noriko asked, blinking up at the strange blonde.
Crystal offered the two bags to the young girl standing in front of her. "I wish to save you from the horror of leftover Sloppy Joes," she said, not quite sure if the girl would understand her or if she even wanted her to.
Noriko didn't, but the bags smelled wonderful, and she'd learned a while ago not to turn down free food. Stepping aside she waved Crystal inside with a, "Douzo. Anou... Here you are." Which was the wrong phrase, but she didn't know that.
"Thank you." Crystal entered the room. "I do not know what type of food you like so I brought choices. Something such as what you might find at home. It is supposed to be authentic, but how well it compares to the food in Japan I cannot say. The other is, well, I believe the 'golden arches' speak for themselves in universal terms."
The words didn't, but the symbol certainly did, and Noriko really liked Makku, but the other bag made her more curious. They had Japanese food in America? There was a chair and she waved Crystal towards it with a "Sankyuu", took the bags and set them on a small side-table before pulling it in between the chair and the bed. Toeing off her slippers, she all but bounced onto the bed, crossing her legs under her and peering into the first bag. "Ee! Sugoi!" Crystal might not know the words, but the sound of delight and amazement was pretty much the same everywhere. Pulling out the platter of sushi, Noriko marveled - it didn't look half bad. Underneath there was, of course, a large container of miso, a platter of tonkattsu and a portion of oyakodon, which both seemed passable. "Hontou ni, arigatou sempai!" Well, she assumed the girl was another student at the school. "Sankyuu!" Clapping her hands together in front of her face, she bowed to the older girl, singing out, "Itadakimasu!"
Crystal had no idea what Noriko had just said other than knowing that she had been thanked and that the other girl was pleased by what she had found in the bag. Crystal, too, was pleased that the younger girl had gone for the Japanese food rather than the bag containing what was little more than grease and fat. However, she didn't know very much about Japanese culture and wasn't sure how to proceed. Was she supposed to offer a bow in return or not? Crystal didn't wish to do the wrong thing and risk offending the school's latest arrival. She'd certainly shocked enough people with the formal greeting and curtsy she'd given people at the school upon their first meeting and hoped people would be more open to different traditions and customs with Noriko.
Still not quite sure, Crystal bowed slightly with a small nod. "You are very welcome."
Nori grinned, then plucked up the two pairs of disposable chopsticks she'd found in the bag. Hesitantly she offered a set to Crystal. "Anou... Is know? Yarikata te nani? Ha... He... How! How to... is know?" Wrinkling her nose at the English she gestured with her fingers as though they were chopsticks, waving them above the food and miming eating.
"No silly foreigner making a fool out of herself today," Crystal told Noriko with a smile as she took the chopsticks. "I had plenty of practice using chopsticks a few years ago."
Noriko grinned as Crystal expertly broke them into two pieces, and applauded as she set them in her hand. "Sugoi! O-hashi jouzu, ne?" Popping open the container of sushi, Nori pulled out the small plastic container and upended the soy sauce into it, adding some wasabi and mixing liberally. "Hai, douzo! Here you are." And suiting action to words she snagged a piece of sushi, dipped it and popped it into her mouth.
"No plates? Of course not. I should have brought them myself, but I was not sure what you would be interested in eating. The lack of plates certainly does not seem to bother you, though." So saying, she copied Noriko's actions.
Given the lack of shared language, their impromptu meal was on the quiet side. Noriko seemed more pleased than otherwise by everything, although from the odd face she made when she took her first bite of the katsu, it was apparent that something was odd about the dish compared to what she was used to. But, being unable to explain, Nori simply left most of it for Crystal. Things got complicated, however, when it came to the soup. "Anou... kono miso... cappu wa?" She mimed drinking from a bowl in her hands.
Crystal picked up the bag from the Japanese restaurant and looked inside. "No spoons." She looked back at Noriko. "I see. Do you want a spoon or would you rather drink from a bowl? There is a small kitchen here, it should have something we can use. I will be right back." Crystal left Noriko's room and returned a few minutes later with two mugs and two spoons, offering one of each to Noriko.
Nori accepted the mug, but waved the spoon off. "Supuun iranai yo." It was a delicate procedure to pour out about half of the soup into the mug, and given the periodic shaking in her hands, Noriko was hesitant to try. "Anou... chotto tasukete, kudasai," she asked, eyes downcast as she held out the mug.
Crystal set the other mug and the spoons on the table, then picked up the container of soup and carefully poured the liquid into the mug being being held by the Japanese girl. "Drinking the soup it is then, yes?" She poured soup into the second mug, then offered the container to Noriko.
Some of the tofu and seaweed had come out when the older girl was pouring, but peering into the container Nori saw that there was still some left and grinned up at the blonde before dipping her chopsticks in, expertly snagging some pieces and dumping them into her mug. "Doumo," she said, bobbing her head in thanks before setting into the soup. It wasn't -quite- drinking the soup as Crystal would have thought of it; Noriko held the mug in front of herself at about chest level, using the chopsticks to pull out pieces of tofu and occasionally sipping the broth, slurping every so often and seeming totally unconcerned.
The girl was... slurping her soup. Well then. Crystal decide to try the soup Noriko's way, but minus the rather impolite sounding noise accompanying it. Eating the soup this way was rather... interesting. The girl really didn't seem to care about all of her slurping sounds, did she? Even though Crystal was sure she could comment on the noise without being understand, she didn't. Instead, she just sat there and finished the soup in her mug, not giving any indication of being bothered by Noriko's soup-slurping.
Finishing the meal with a sigh, Noriko set the mug down and stuck her chopsticks back into the little paper slip, folding over a corner and creasing it tightly. "Oishikatta! Honotou ni arigatou. Anou... kore wa doko kara? Ettou... Where?" She gestured at the food on the little table, then turned her hand back to Crystal. "Is make?"
"The food is from a restaurant not very far from here," Crystal explained, giving the name of the restaurant while doing her best to say it using the same accent as the people at the restaurant had. "It is very close, not far at all." She hoped that Noriko would understand at least a bit of what she had just said.
"Aaaa. Wakatta. I got it!" Again she clapped her hands in front of her face and bowed her head. "Gouchisousamadeshita!" Placing the lids back on the containers, Nori began setting the empty containers into the bag, quickly and efficiently cleaning off the table. She even wiped down their impromptu table with a napkin then dumped that into the bag. Standing up, she bowed again. "Sankuu! Sankuu! Yuushoku... nandake... Dinner is very sankuu." She looked about to say something else, then stopped and blushed bright red. "E.... Aaa, boku no sei ya... shitsure kedo... anou... namae wa? Is name?"
It was then that Crystal realized she had neither introduced herself nor given her name to the girl at all. She hadn't been quite sure what the girl would or wouldn't understand, knowing only what she'd read on the journal about the girl needing help with English, and then once she'd met her it appeared that the girl really didn't know much English at all.
"Oh, I am sorry. My name is Crystal. Crystal Amaquelin," she added as an afterthought.
Noriko knew that English names were backwards, and so the polite thing would be to call the girl by her family name, which was second. But that might be a tad difficult...
"Amake... Amaku... Amakuerin? Shitsureshimasu. Kurisutaru-san. Yoroshiku onegaitashimasu. I name Kikuchi Noriko." She tapped herself on the nose. "Noriko," she repeated.
It took Crystal a few moments to realize "Kurisutaru-san" was her. The Japanese put titles after the name, didn't they, and they put their last names in front of their first names, which was why Noriko had tried saying her last name before saying this rather unique version of her first name. Crystal was certain the younger girl had done the best job she could, and she didn't wish to embarrass the girl when Noriko appeared to have settled on something she was comfortable calling the older girl.
"Noriko," Crystal tried, again doing her best to imitate the proper accent for the name.
"Hai!" Nori chirped, looking pleased.
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