Luna Maximoff (i_feel_you) wrote in marvel_nextgen,
@ 2011-01-25 00:23:00

Entry tags:

After some food and more socializing, Luna made due on her promise to show Eli the library. She led him through the halls of Avengers Mansion, until they reached the library.

"This," said Luna, "This is were I spend a large majority of my time. I can often be found here. ...I have considered moving my bed here, sometimes. But I don't know if that would go over well with the rest of the team." She blushed. "Sorry...you wanted me to help you find books on vampires?"

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

blinkandmissme
2011-01-28 01:30 am UTC (link)

"In the capital, the honest man is walking about the streets toward the castle, because he has never seen a place like it in his life. As he approaches, he notice the princess looking down at him. He looks first left, then right, as he is not sure the princess is looking ath him. When he realizes she is, he is about to call out to her until he trips and falls face down in a giant puddle of mud. This puddle of mud puts other mud puddles to shame. It is huge, and sticky and could hold four grown men at once.

The mouse, beetle and catfish see this and take pity on the poor man. He was kind to them when he did not have to be, and so they decided to return his kindness by trying to help him up from the puddle. So now you have a catfish pulling him one way, a mouse whispering for him to rise, and a beetle pulling him another way while the man himself is struggling helplessly to get out of the mud." Eli says, showing Luna the man's desperate struggle to save face.

And then Luna will hear a peal of laughter in the story that may or may not sound much like her own.

"Laughter, genuine laughter rang across the rooftops as the princess witnessed the sight before her! She laughed so loudly that the king came running unable to believe his ears. When he reached her, she pointed at the spectacle in the street and told her father that she wanted to marry that man immediately." Eli says.

So the king had the honest man brought in, but something about his was different after the mud. Where once he'd been nondescript and barely worth notice, he now stood tall, proud and handsome, looking much like a prince.

Safe to say, the Princess and the honest man lived happily ever after, and he made her laugh ever single day of their lives." Eli says.

"The end."

The Prince in the story carries the princess away and he might bear a passing resemblance to Eli.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 01:58 am UTC (link)
	Luna became entranced in Eli's rendition of the story. If Eli looked at her at all while he was telling the story, he would see that she was truly fixated on his story. When it was over, he would see a very contented smile on her face. She let out a sigh. "I have heard that story many times, Eli, but I have never heard it so beautifully before. Or vividly." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 02:18 am UTC (link)
	"I am glad that you enjoyed it, Luna. You are an excellent audience." he says. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 02:23 am UTC (link)
	"Only because you are such an excellent storyteller, Eli. Do you greatly enjoy fairy-tales, Eli?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 02:41 am UTC (link)
	"I do enjoy fairy tales. Are you going to share one with me, Luna?" Eli asks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 02:47 am UTC (link)
	"I shall," she said. "Are you familiar with the story of Thumbelina, Eli?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 03:22 am UTC (link)
	"Very vaguely. I am guessing it has something to do with a thumb? I have not heard it before." Eli says. He sits and waits for Luna to begin, his attention fully focused upon her. He knows this is going to be good. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

i_feel_you
2011-01-28 04:14 am UTC (link)

Luna smiled, letting the story come to her mind before she began.

"Once upon a time, in a small village, there was a lonely old woman who so desperately wanted a child. One day, an old beggar woman stopped by her cottage and in exchange for a hot meal, offered her a barleycorn seed, promising that if the old woman planted the seed, she would get her heart's greatest wish. The woman planted the seed, and watered it everyday, and one day, a beautiful flower grew, and a tiny girl, no larger than your thumb, emerged. The woman named her daughter Thumbelina, and raised her with love and care as her own daughter, and Thumbelina was happy.

One night, as Thumbelina slept in her walnut-shell cradle, she was kidnapped by toad, who thought that she would make a most beautiful bride for her son. Thumbelina awoke in the toad's home, and was very upset when the toad informed her of her fate. She cried, missing her mother and wanting to go home. A fish and butterfly, who saw how sad she was, took pity on her, and helped her escape, sending her adrift on a lily-pad until she was rescued by a stag beetle. The stag beetle, thinking she was pretty, rescued her from the lily-pad and took her to his friends. However, his friends did not approve of her, as they thought her to be ugly.

Alone and sad, Thumbelina wandered the forest, seeking shelter from the colder weather. Eventually, she was taken in from the winter cold by an elderly field-mouse, and in gratitude, helped the field-mouse take care of her home. Everyday, Thumbelina went with the field-mouse to visit her very wealthy neighbor, a mole. The mole became quite taken with Thumbelina, and as the mole was very rich, the field-mouse began to make arrangements for her to marry him. As the mole was very old, and hated the sun, which Thumbelina loved, she dreaded the day of wedding, and the only solace she found was taking care of a swallow, who had found himself in the mole's burrow in an attempt to escape the bitter cold.

On the day of her wedding to mole, as she went to say farewell to the sun, the swallow, in thanks for her nursing him back to health, offered to take Thumbelina with him somewhere warm for the winter. Thumbelina accepted, and they flew to a field of beautiful flowers, far away from the mole's forest.

In the field of flowers, Thumbelina met a prince about her size, with wings. The prince fell in love with Thumbelina instantly, and asked her to marry him. Thumbelina, who had also fallen in love with the prince on first sight, accepted, and he gave her a pair of beautiful wings, and a new name, May Blossom. Together, they flew from flower to flower to greet the spring and lived happily ever after."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 04:22 am UTC (link)
	Eli's grin is fit to split his face in half at the end of the story. "That was a wonderful story! I was sad tha she did not see her mother again, but it was interesting how people seemed to fall in love with her wherever she went." Eli says. "Do you know any others you would be willing to share with me? I like the way you tell stories." Eli admits. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 04:38 am UTC (link)
	"I like to think that her prince took her back to see her mother," Luna said. "At least, that's always how I've painted it in my mind." "I know many others, if you would want to hear them. I have an entire book of fairy tales in my room, actually. I could go get it, if you'd like." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

blinkandmissme
2011-01-28 05:15 am UTC (link)

"Yes, I would like to hear any of them. All of them. I will wait right here for you to return." Eli says, nodding at her suggestion.

When she goes, however, Eli thinks about it and decides that something is missing. When Luna returns, there is a pot of steaming tea on the table and a cup has been poured for her.

There is a bottle of honey in the shape of a bear next to her cup.

"I thought it might be nice if we could try tea here first. If you enjoy it here, then we shall go to England." he says.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 05:34 am UTC (link)
	"I will be right back, Eli," she said, getting up from the table and going to her room. When she returned, she came back with her book of fairy tales, sitting back down next to him. "That sounds like an excellent plan, Eli," she said, opening the book to the table of contents. "Is there anything of interest that you would like me to read first?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 05:38 am UTC (link)
	"Surprise me. I want to hear the tales that you find most interesting." Eli says. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

i_feel_you
2011-01-28 05:50 am UTC (link)

"I will share with you one of my personal favorites, then," Luna said. "It is called, East of the Sun and West of the Moon."

Luna added some honey to her tea, taking a sip of it before she started to read.

"A White Bear approaches a poor peasant and asks if he will give him his youngest daughter; in return, he will make the man rich. The girl is reluctant, so the peasant asks the bear to return, and persuades her in the meantime. The White Bear takes her off to a rich and enchanted castle. At night, he takes off his bear form in order to come to her bed as a man, although the lack of light means that she never sees him.

When she grows homesick, the bear agrees that she might go home as long as she agrees that she will never speak with her mother alone, but only when other people are about. At home, they welcome her, and her mother makes persistent attempts to speak with her alone, finally succeeding and persuading her to tell the whole tale. Hearing it, her mother insists that the White Bear must really be a troll, gives her some candles, and tells her to light them at night, to see what is sharing her bed.

She obeys, and finds he is a very handsome prince, but she spills three drops of the melted tallow on him, waking him. He tells her that if she held out a year, he would have been free, but now he must go to his wicked stepmother, who enchanted him into this shape and lives in a castle east of the sun and west of the moon, and marry her hideous daughter.

In the morning, she finds that the palace has vanished. She sets out in search of him. Coming to a great mountain, she finds an old woman playing with a golden apple. She asks if she knows the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon. The old woman can not tell her, but lends her a horse to reach a neighbor who might know, and gives her the apple. The neighbor is sitting outside another mountain, with a golden carding-comb. She, also, does not know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but lends her a horse to reach a neighbor who might know, and gives her the carding-comb. The third neighbor has a golden spinning wheel. She, also, does not know the way to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but lends her a horse to reach the East Wind and gives her the spinning wheel.

The East Wind has never been to the castle east of the sun and west of the moon, but his brother the West Wind might have, being stronger. He takes her to the West Wind. The West Wind does the same, bringing her to the South Wind; the South Wind does the same, bringing her to the North Wind.

The North Wind reports that he once blew an aspen leaf there, and was exhausted after, but he will take her if she really wants to go. She does, and so he does.

The next morning, she takes out the golden apple. The daughter who was to marry the prince sees it and wants to buy it. The girl agrees, if she can spend the night with the prince. The daughter agrees but gives the prince a sleeping drink, so that the girl can not wake him, and does the same the next night, when it was the price of the carding comb.

But trying to wake the prince, she had wept and called on him, and some imprisoned townspeople in the castle told the prince of it, and the third night, in return for the golden spinning wheel, the princess brings the drink, but the prince does not drink it, and so is awake. He tells her that she can save him: he will declare that he will not marry anyone who can not wash the tallow drops from his shirt since trolls, such as his stepmother and her daughter, can not do it. So instead, he will call her in, and she will be able to do it, so she will marry him.

The plan works, and the trolls, in a rage, burst. So the prince and his bride freed the prisoners captive there, and took the gold and silver, and left the castle east of the sun and west of the moon."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-28 06:04 am UTC (link)
	Eli looks, for all the world, like a child who is being read stories at the library. His expression is full of wonder and he seems to be imagining the where this castle could be. "I really liked that one, Luna. How do you feel about the 'classic' fairy tales, like 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Hansel and Gretel'?" Eli asks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-28 03:39 pm UTC (link)
	"I enjoy them," she said. "I like the ones that most people haven't heard of, but I do like the 'classics' as well." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-29 12:29 am UTC (link)
	"Are you a fan of stories that have been adapted into movies?" he asks. "I have not actually been to a movie theater, but I hear they are nice affairs, at least the older ones." he says. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-29 12:40 am UTC (link)
	"Most of them, yes," she said. "Some of the Disney films stray away from the story, but they are still enjoyable." Luna took another sip of her tea. "Maybe...we should make a point to go to a movie theater at some point? Though not right now. The movies released in the winter normally aren't that great, though they are some good ones." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-29 01:21 am UTC (link)
	"If we do this...can we get popcorn? I am told you are supposed to get popcorn when you go to a theater and I'd like to see what the fuss is about." Eli says. "What is your favorite movie that you've ever seen in the theater?" he asks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

i_feel_you
2011-01-29 01:29 am UTC (link)

Luna smiled. "Yes, we can get popcorn. It's part of the theater going experience, after all."

"Anastasia," she said. "I know that it completely goes against historical fact, but...I love the story. And the music. And the romance...I think it's the 'giving up her title for love' in the end that does it for me.

And if you have never seen it, and I just spoiled it for you, I apologize."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-29 01:47 am UTC (link)
	"No, I have not seen it, but I would still see it anyway so that I could form my own opinion about it." Eli smiles. "I try not to take too much on face value. I try and many times, I succeed." Eli says. "I would like to see Phantom of the Opera. That looked really interesting." he says. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-29 01:55 am UTC (link)
	"You will have to see it sometime. I love it." She smiled. "I think Aine has that on DVD. I could see about borrowing it from her sometime." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-29 02:12 am UTC (link)
	"I would like that very much. It sounds like a good movie." Eli says. "How long have you and Aine been friends?" Eli asks. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	i_feel_you 2011-01-29 02:27 am UTC (link)
	"It is," said Luna. "The play is better, but the movie has merit." "About five years," Luna said, "We met in college, were we roommates our freshman year." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blinkandmissme 2011-01-29 02:30 am UTC (link)
	"College sounds interesting. I think I might try it someday, just to see if it is really the way people say it is." Eli says. "Did you two become friends quickly?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)