I was reading over the reviews when I came up with a great idea. Thanks to
Clez, I now know what Mina will serve for the meal. (Before, I had no
idea.) Thanks, Clez! And thanks to everybody else who has inspired me with
their reviews. Yeah, Hyde doing the decorating IS going to be very
interesting, and so will Skinner and Sawyer's interpretive dance!
By the way, I think this story is going to be longer than I thought.
*
"My goodness!"
Henry Jekyll gazed, open-mouthed, around the dining room. He had put up the streamers, just like Hyde had told him to. Then he had gone to his room, taken his potion, and let Hyde finish the rest. Now that the potion had worn off, he was able to glance around the dining room and view Hyde's work.
The dining room looked horrible and beautiful at the same time. Half the streamers were torn down from the ceiling, but the ceiling actually looked good that way. Confetti was strewn all over the floor, as if Hyde had just grabbed handfuls and handfuls of the stuff and thrown it around the room in a fit. But the floor-and the confetti-looked beautiful that way.
The walls were splattered with all different colors of paint. Red, yellow, green, and blue colors mixed together covered the cream-colored wallpaper. It was as if Hyde had opened the cans of paint, grabbed handfuls of the thick liquid with his hands, and tossed it angrily at the walls. But the walls looked like a Picasso painting! They were beautiful!
The only thing that looked wrong was the "Happy New Year!" banner, which had been hung haphazardly from the ceiling over the dining room table. But that was no problem. Jekyll stood on a chair and fixed it.
"Am I going mad?" Jekyll asked aloud. "Hyde decorated, but he decorated beautifully. The walls look like a Picasso painting!"
"See, worm? I told you I knew how to decorate," Hyde taunted Jekyll inside Jekyll's head.
Jekyll shook his head. "This is fine with me, Edward," he said aloud. "But let's just hope the others like it."
"They'd better," Hyde growled. "Or else!"
Jekyll laughed. "Nice work, Edward. Well done!"
Jekyll felt Hyde smile inside of him.
* * *
"Mmmm," Mina Harker smiled as she tasted the blood soup brewing on the stove.
"Just right!"
While thinking about what to serve for dinner, Mina had had a brilliant idea. She remembered that Skinner had wanted her to cook "real" food. So she was going to give Skinner a taste of his own medicine.
Mina had planned to serve tomato soup for the first course. The idea sounded simple enough, but Mina was planning to trick each member of the League. She was really going to serve them blood soup, pretending that it was tomato soup. When they tried it and discovered what it really was, she would go back into the kitchen, fetch the real tomato soup, and bring that out instead, with an apology for her dirty trick.
It WAS a dirty trick. But thanks to Skinner, it was a great idea.
* * *
It was about time that her fellow members of the League had treated Mina Harker with a lot more respect. And Mina had found the perfect way to do it. This was one New Year's Eve that none of them were about to forget. "Okay, I don't know the first thing about interpretive dancing," said Sawyer to Skinner. "You're going to have to show me."
"It's simple," said Skinner. "McCane agreed to read the poem. All we really have to do is take the poem literally."
"Huh? Take it literally? What's that supposed to mean?"
"First, listen to the poem, Sawyer." Skinner cleared his throat and picked up the piece of paper. "The World's Best Lover. By Mina Harker."
"Hold it," said Sawyer immediately. "Won't Mina become upset when she realizes we're using HER poem?"
"Not at all," Skinner smirked. "On the contrary, I believe she'll find it quite amusing. You see, this is a poem she wrote to Dorian when they were dating."
Sawyer made a face. He had hated Dorian Gray when he was with the League. He couldn't believe that Mina had once dated him. "Mina thinks that Dorian is the world's best lover?"
Skinner also made a face. "I know. Well, this poem is five years old. I don't think she believes it anymore."
"Okay, so.we're basically making fun of this poem?"
"Exactly."
Sawyer laughed. "Yeah, I think she might like that."
"Anyway, here goes again. The World's Best Lover. By Mina Harker." Skinner cleared his throat again and began to recite the poem. "The first line is, 'You are the apple of my eye.' Now, can you find a way to take that literally, Sawyer?"
"Well," Tom thought. "Oh the word, 'you,' I guess we point to each other. On the word, 'eye,' I guess we point to our eyes. On the word, 'apple,' we can hold up an apple or something--"
"Yes! That's it! You're interpretive dancing, Sawyer!" Skinner said excitedly. "The first line is, 'You are the apple of my eye.' Now, when McCane recites this line, we'll point to each other on 'you.' Then we get the apples and hold them up on 'apple.' Then we point to our eyes on 'eye.' 'You are the apple of my eye.'"
Sawyer was getting excited. "This is going to be hilarious! Okay, what's the next line?"
"The next line is, 'revolving slowly across my entire world,'" Skinner recited off of the paper.
"'You are the apple of my eye, revolving slowly across my entire world.'" Sawyer thought. "Mina isn't a bad poet, is she?"
"No, she's not bad at all!"
"But the fact that she's talking about Dorian, it just makes me sick!"
Skinner laughed. "I know, but we have to focus on interpreting the poem literally, not the fact that she's talking about Dorian."
Sawyer tried to concentrate. "Okay. 'Revolving slowly across my entire world.'" He thought. "'Revolving' means to turn, right? So on, 'revolving slowly,' we'll turn around slowly."
"Right! And on 'across,' we'll stretch a hand across the room, like this," said Skinner, doing so. "On, 'my,' we'll point to ourselves."
"And on, 'entire world,' we'll make a big circle with our arms," said Sawyer. He demonstrated by raising his arms high above his head and bringing them down to his sides by stretching them out in a giant circle.
Skinner squealed. "You've got it, Sawyer! All right, let's do that much of the poem again. Ready?"
"Yep," said Sawyer. "This is going to be the best interpretive dance ever!"
* * *
By the next evening, December 31, 1899, all five members of the League were dressed their best and ready to begin the New Year's Eve party of the century.
And what a party it was going to be.
*
The image of Sawyer and Skinner "interpretive dancing" to a poem Mina wrote about Dorian is so hilarious and unrealistic that I am laughing hysterically, even after I just wrote it. I just hope all of you feel the same way!
If you wish to see the entire text of "The World's Best Lover," by Mina Harker, (with a little help from A. L. Nowicki,) it now up on fanfiction.net as a completely different LXG story. We can all have fun by imagining Skinner and Sawyer dancing to it.
~ Alisonia
By the way, I think this story is going to be longer than I thought.
*
"My goodness!"
Henry Jekyll gazed, open-mouthed, around the dining room. He had put up the streamers, just like Hyde had told him to. Then he had gone to his room, taken his potion, and let Hyde finish the rest. Now that the potion had worn off, he was able to glance around the dining room and view Hyde's work.
The dining room looked horrible and beautiful at the same time. Half the streamers were torn down from the ceiling, but the ceiling actually looked good that way. Confetti was strewn all over the floor, as if Hyde had just grabbed handfuls and handfuls of the stuff and thrown it around the room in a fit. But the floor-and the confetti-looked beautiful that way.
The walls were splattered with all different colors of paint. Red, yellow, green, and blue colors mixed together covered the cream-colored wallpaper. It was as if Hyde had opened the cans of paint, grabbed handfuls of the thick liquid with his hands, and tossed it angrily at the walls. But the walls looked like a Picasso painting! They were beautiful!
The only thing that looked wrong was the "Happy New Year!" banner, which had been hung haphazardly from the ceiling over the dining room table. But that was no problem. Jekyll stood on a chair and fixed it.
"Am I going mad?" Jekyll asked aloud. "Hyde decorated, but he decorated beautifully. The walls look like a Picasso painting!"
"See, worm? I told you I knew how to decorate," Hyde taunted Jekyll inside Jekyll's head.
Jekyll shook his head. "This is fine with me, Edward," he said aloud. "But let's just hope the others like it."
"They'd better," Hyde growled. "Or else!"
Jekyll laughed. "Nice work, Edward. Well done!"
Jekyll felt Hyde smile inside of him.
* * *
"Mmmm," Mina Harker smiled as she tasted the blood soup brewing on the stove.
"Just right!"
While thinking about what to serve for dinner, Mina had had a brilliant idea. She remembered that Skinner had wanted her to cook "real" food. So she was going to give Skinner a taste of his own medicine.
Mina had planned to serve tomato soup for the first course. The idea sounded simple enough, but Mina was planning to trick each member of the League. She was really going to serve them blood soup, pretending that it was tomato soup. When they tried it and discovered what it really was, she would go back into the kitchen, fetch the real tomato soup, and bring that out instead, with an apology for her dirty trick.
It WAS a dirty trick. But thanks to Skinner, it was a great idea.
* * *
It was about time that her fellow members of the League had treated Mina Harker with a lot more respect. And Mina had found the perfect way to do it. This was one New Year's Eve that none of them were about to forget. "Okay, I don't know the first thing about interpretive dancing," said Sawyer to Skinner. "You're going to have to show me."
"It's simple," said Skinner. "McCane agreed to read the poem. All we really have to do is take the poem literally."
"Huh? Take it literally? What's that supposed to mean?"
"First, listen to the poem, Sawyer." Skinner cleared his throat and picked up the piece of paper. "The World's Best Lover. By Mina Harker."
"Hold it," said Sawyer immediately. "Won't Mina become upset when she realizes we're using HER poem?"
"Not at all," Skinner smirked. "On the contrary, I believe she'll find it quite amusing. You see, this is a poem she wrote to Dorian when they were dating."
Sawyer made a face. He had hated Dorian Gray when he was with the League. He couldn't believe that Mina had once dated him. "Mina thinks that Dorian is the world's best lover?"
Skinner also made a face. "I know. Well, this poem is five years old. I don't think she believes it anymore."
"Okay, so.we're basically making fun of this poem?"
"Exactly."
Sawyer laughed. "Yeah, I think she might like that."
"Anyway, here goes again. The World's Best Lover. By Mina Harker." Skinner cleared his throat again and began to recite the poem. "The first line is, 'You are the apple of my eye.' Now, can you find a way to take that literally, Sawyer?"
"Well," Tom thought. "Oh the word, 'you,' I guess we point to each other. On the word, 'eye,' I guess we point to our eyes. On the word, 'apple,' we can hold up an apple or something--"
"Yes! That's it! You're interpretive dancing, Sawyer!" Skinner said excitedly. "The first line is, 'You are the apple of my eye.' Now, when McCane recites this line, we'll point to each other on 'you.' Then we get the apples and hold them up on 'apple.' Then we point to our eyes on 'eye.' 'You are the apple of my eye.'"
Sawyer was getting excited. "This is going to be hilarious! Okay, what's the next line?"
"The next line is, 'revolving slowly across my entire world,'" Skinner recited off of the paper.
"'You are the apple of my eye, revolving slowly across my entire world.'" Sawyer thought. "Mina isn't a bad poet, is she?"
"No, she's not bad at all!"
"But the fact that she's talking about Dorian, it just makes me sick!"
Skinner laughed. "I know, but we have to focus on interpreting the poem literally, not the fact that she's talking about Dorian."
Sawyer tried to concentrate. "Okay. 'Revolving slowly across my entire world.'" He thought. "'Revolving' means to turn, right? So on, 'revolving slowly,' we'll turn around slowly."
"Right! And on 'across,' we'll stretch a hand across the room, like this," said Skinner, doing so. "On, 'my,' we'll point to ourselves."
"And on, 'entire world,' we'll make a big circle with our arms," said Sawyer. He demonstrated by raising his arms high above his head and bringing them down to his sides by stretching them out in a giant circle.
Skinner squealed. "You've got it, Sawyer! All right, let's do that much of the poem again. Ready?"
"Yep," said Sawyer. "This is going to be the best interpretive dance ever!"
* * *
By the next evening, December 31, 1899, all five members of the League were dressed their best and ready to begin the New Year's Eve party of the century.
And what a party it was going to be.
*
The image of Sawyer and Skinner "interpretive dancing" to a poem Mina wrote about Dorian is so hilarious and unrealistic that I am laughing hysterically, even after I just wrote it. I just hope all of you feel the same way!
If you wish to see the entire text of "The World's Best Lover," by Mina Harker, (with a little help from A. L. Nowicki,) it now up on fanfiction.net as a completely different LXG story. We can all have fun by imagining Skinner and Sawyer dancing to it.
~ Alisonia