Afternoon at the Museum

[ohgoodgrief]

Who: Yang... and you!
What: It's time for a field trip to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, France. The afternoon is in the museum. But Yang took everyone at like 10 AM as an excuse to get out and see Paris.
Where: Paris! And at the Army Museum.
When: February 25
Notes: The following prompts are if you want to interact with Yang directly! Otherwise, please feel free to use this as an excuse to do threads in Paris! Yang's taking basically anyone -- heck, even other teachers, TA's, and RA's -- because he really just wanted an easy field trip after grading all the papers and despairing over the fact he might have made his courses too hard.

A. WE'RE ABOUT TO HAVE PARIS RIGHT NOW

[The helicopters have landed at Charles de Gaulle airport, everyone has bused into the city center, and it's now about 11:00 in the morning. They aren't supposed to be at the museum until two. Thus, standing in front of the crowd, Wen-li Yang...

...is due to give a speech.]

So, Paris! It's a pretty big deal.

[Hm, what else is important...]

Meet at the Army Museum at 2! And try to not get in too much trouble. Have fun!

[He'll hang around for a second in case anyone has questions.]

B. AND NOW: OLD STUFF!

[At about 1:57 PM, Yang comes running up with a sandwich still in his mouth and a paper cup with tea in it in hand. He skids to a stop in front of the museum's steps, looks around, and... peers at the people waiting for him.

Then, sheepishly, he waves.

The museum is much too big to do a guided tour. However, unlike the free roam period in Paris, Yang is actually a good source of information here. He roams between the different groups of students, answering questions, providing historical detail, and showing that he isn't actually terrible at his job all of the time.

He'd be easy to approach during any of this.]

Comments

[yokeye]

Chocolate sounds good~!

[After a short bit of phone research, he's found a little bakery/restaurant by one of the canals.]

This place sounds interesting! Du Pain et des Idées~! They are famous for their pinwheel-shaped chocolate-pistachio escargot pastries~!

[Would you like to eat chocolate snails?]

[transfusionem]

[She's on board for chocolate-pistachio, but...]

Are there actual snails in them?!

[Because she doesn't know if that's horrifying or fascinating.]

[yokeye]

There are~! I've never had snails, but from the look of them I think they'd be sort of a chewy gelatin consistency~!

[He also can't decide if it's horrifying or fascinating.]

[transfusionem]

...We can always go there and see! If it looks too bad we can always get something else, yeah?

[If they're famous for it it has to be good, right?]

[yokeye]

That works for me~! Do you want to walk? I don't think its far!

[It might be.]

[transfusionem]

Walking's great! We can take in all the sights that way!

[Which is the bright side to all of this, obviously.]

[yokeye]

Sightseeing in Paris~!

[It's not something he'd ever considered he'd do. He'd never been anywhere before coming to France. Since then, he's been to Las Vegas on a mission, and on a couple outings to Soleil, but that's about it. Paris is a much different city from Tokyo and Las Vegas. It seems relaxing, but not to the point of being boring or uninteresting. Checking the phone map, he points vaguely to the right, a street with a couple small shops and a few pedestrians braving the cold.]

I think it's that way~!

[transfusionem]

We probably won't get an opportunity like this for a while!

[It's nice, that they can do things like this. She supposes it's a trade off for what they're being taught and trained to do - more responsibilities means more freedoms, in a way.

But she's not going to complain. She's instead going to head off towards the right, hoping Toki keeps up with her.]

Let's go find it!

[yokeye]

[He can certainly keep up with Adelaide, until he gets distracted by something or other. They'll eventually get where they're going.]

No, we won't~! The last time there was a Paris trip, it was a mission and there was this monster made of skeletons, multiple skeletons, in the catacombs~! Who wants to go to Paris to fight skeletons!?

[transfusionem]

I'm sure some people want to fight skeletons! A lot of people are probably here so they can learn how to fight dangerous monsters better - the people who knew about all of this stuff before they started attending.

[They'll get there and hopefully it'll be worth it. Adelaide is, at least, excited for the opportunity to see something that's not the campus.]

[yokeye]

[A lot of people want to fight skeletons. He's in the minority here.]

That's true~! I should get around to taking some kind of combat classes probably, in case I have to fight... skeletons. Or other assorted monsters!

[Gross. That could be literal. More monsters made of assorted parts. Toki stops every so often to take photos of things; not anything particularly tourist-y, more of a documenting of "yes, I was in Paris." The street is bright in the sun, icy patches reflecting and sparkling snow left on the edges of walkways.]

I wonder what it's like in the summer! Artists on the sidewalks and flower-carts and people drinking coffee out on their balconies~!

[transfusionem]

[It's okay, not everyone needs to fight.]

Combat classes wouldn't be a bad idea... I have no idea how to fight anything.

[She might be able to hold her own in a fight, she's not sure. She's really not sure how much she's changed - but she doesn't really want to fight, either.

Maybe she won't have much of a choice.]

I bet it's even more beautiful. It's still nice now! But imagine with the sun shining and maybe a nice warm breeze...

[She'll have to come back. She's not sure what she's going to do if there's a summer break, but maybe she could spend it in Paris.

She's also going to use Toki's pauses as an excuse to take her own pictures. She doesn't want to forget this.]

[yokeye]

Me either, so I plan on taking at least one class~!

[He's pretty sure he'd lose any fight imaginable, especially if the opponent has powers or is any form of monster or Outlands creature.]

I bet it's nice~!

[He turns down a street to the right after seeing a sign for the canal.]

It shouldn't be much further~! Then we can... eat snails.

[This was somehow a good plan when he'd first suggested it.]

[transfusionem]

Good idea! I'll probably take one soon - maybe not now, because I'd like to pass what I'm already taking...

[She's worried she's going to fail everything. She transferred in so late in the quarter - but she's going to try her best!

She follows him, swinging her arms.]

Yeah! Or...maybe something else.

[She's... She's willing to give the snails a chance.]

[yokeye]

It's hard when you're new to this~!

[He's failing almost everything despite being here for the entire quarter. More due to lack of initiative than time constraints like her.]

And there it is~!

[The restaurant/bakery is in the corner of the building. There's a small black awning over the entrance and one table outside, dusted with snow.]

[transfusionem]

That's how it seems...

[Surely at some point things will get easier to handle and she'll start passing her classes.]

Oooh, wow, it looks super fancy.

[She looks in through the windows, trying to get a better feel for the place. It seems like a nice enough place, snails aside. She's even more excited for this visit now.]

Are you ready for the snails?!

[yokeye]

So ready for the snails~!

[They can't really be much different than octopus and eel, maybe a little... gooier? Snails just don't seem like food somehow. Still, he's going right in to confidently order some chocolate-pistachio snail pastries. As in most service places in France he's encountered, they don't like his dramatic ways, and are matter-of-fact and abrupt with their replies. But snail pastries are obtained in short order.]

[transfusionem]

[Yeah snails!

Adelaide hangs back as Toki orders, getting a better look at the place and taking a few pictures. She immediately snaps a few once the pastries are acquired.]

Well...here goes nothing!

[And she's going to take a bite.]

[yokeye]

[He watches Adelaide for signs of disgust.]

Are they gross~!?

[He's taken a pastry, but he's waiting for her to taste test before he eats it. Instead, Toki's commemorating this event by taking a picture of her trying one. Adelaide is so brave.]

[transfusionem]

[She at least doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary.]

They taste pretty good!

[Granted, her taste buds might not be the best judge anymore.]

[yokeye]

I trust your judgement~!

[He takes a bite of the pastry. It's flaky and the snail tastes somewhat like a cross between an oyster and an eel. It's not bad, but really, the pistachio is the weird part here. Those things do not go together.]

It is good~! Odd mix of flavors~!

[He drank a devil; nothing will ever taste bad again after that experience. His bar for "good" is set very low now.]

[transfusionem]

[She's not sure if he should, but he's taking a bite before she can even say anything.

Oh, well. It's not bad enough not to finish - and it's not like it's going to do anything bad to her anyways.]

I wonder why they decided to go with snails? Seems kind of weird.

[It's at least more appetizing than blood.]

[yokeye]

France is famous for snails~!

[But that wasn't why.]

Honestly? This is was just the first restaurant that came up in the search that wasn't too far away and you said you wanted chocolate, so I looked at their menu online for the first thing that had chocolate in it and apparently they're known for this particular chocolate pistachio snail thing, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it~!

[He's already reaching for a second one; they at least taste better than the macarons he tried in Soleil.]

[transfusionem]

Oooh.

[Makes sense to her. She'll also reach for a second pastry, though she's much slower to eat it than Toki is.]

They're not so bad, and it's a pretty nice place! You found somewhere pretty great, Toki.

[She offers him a bright smile, forgetting for a moment to hide her teeth.

It's fine. Hopefully he won't notice that her incisors seem sharper than they need to be.]

[yokeye]

It was luck~!

[Which he usually doesn't have. As evidenced when she smiles.]

Are you a vampire!?

[He's met a vampire before, the professor he went on the Vegas mission with was one, but it's surprising as he hadn't picked up on it previously. It doesn't really change his opinion of her as a person, but he can't help but be a little wary. He tries to offset that with rambling on like everything is perfectly fine.]

Should we not have gotten snails!? Does human food make you sick!? D-do you want like blood instead!? Because we can do that! Somehow. Like a butcher shop! Do you have a preference of like pig or cow or uh, chicken, or do you have to drink human blood!? Does it have to be human!?

[That doesn't work.]