<@Grysar> [Date: Monday February 23rd, after school.] <@Grysar> [It's been a mixed week for Taki. Her first date with Nicola is best described as awkward, first two dinner locations rejected for being too close to school, third choice on the other side of town near Seiryuu where two girls eating together would be less unusual. Not knowing the restaurant’s sauces as well, her meal isn’t up to her usual standards.] <@Grysar> [Conversation is awkward due to the number of landmine topics: Taki’s year at Sakuragaoka, the other ~special~ people that Nicola’s going to be meeting soon, anything that sounds too romantic... Nicola tries talking about college plans which doesn't go too far and eventually gets tired of being the one doing most of the talking.] <@Grysar> [The movie was missed due to travel times; Taki can’t explain why this is both amusing and incredibly frustrating.] <@Grysar> [Meanwhile the end of the term is being stressful, her friends are being weird though they might try to get together tonight, and she just hasn't had energy to deal with any of it.] <@Grysar> [Taki has been so drained recently that she played it safe and went to the neighborhood early. Hinako lives in a neighborhood near her family, but the buildings are higher and the apartments more numerous. She was waiting in a convenience store nearby when she dozed off. Fortunately, as she stirs, she sees that the timing is just right to get there by conventional means, whatever woke her up proved quite convenient.] <@Grysar> [Start!] * Taki yawns and streaches, glancing at the watch on her wrist as she does so, yay time to walk like a normal human who didn't just fall asleep in a store... Okay, like a mostly normal human. She checks to make sure she hasn't given herself bench hair or left any strange marks in a mirror and then starts out on foot. <@Grysar> [The building itself is an unassuming one for someone like the Hierophant to live in. She gets buzzed up and is in front of the undecorated door.] * Taki looks for a doorbell, and if she fails to find one, will knock. <@Hinako> [The doorbell is in the middle of the door, by the number. Hinako comes promptly and opens it. She is in her full outfit, unknown if she always dresses like that or if she dressed up for the meeting. There's an immediate hallway and turn inside, so from this angle you just see the entrance area and shoe rack.] * @Hinako smiles. "Welcome, come in." * Taki bows. "Thank you." She comes in and switches from her shoes to guest slippers. "I've got a couple of things I'd like to talk about that arn't directly relate... well, they kinda are, but they might not actually have anything to do with Nicola?" * @Hinako returns the bow. "Come to my room then. My roommate will return when the clock next chimes, and that is not for her ears." She spins a half turn and leads Taki down the hall. On the right, there's a kitchen with a rich selection of spices, including some that Taki might need a closer look at to identify as they aren't a commonly used variant. * @Hinako walks down the hall and slides open the door to her room. Behind the door hang fabric strips, matching her cloak, that obscure the interior. She confidentally steps through, not waiting for Taki to follow. * Taki follows Hinako to her room, and feels slightly underdressed in her school uniform, but it's not like the Knight of Cups job came with a uniform, and she'd just feel like an out of place cosplayer anyway. * @Hinako's room feels both intimate and surprisingly large for its space. Wooden tables and chairs subdivide it and small shrines to appropriate to a range of religions can be found in the corner. In the dead center of the room is an armillary sphere. The lighting is entirely natural and streams in primarily not through the curtained windows but the skylight in the ceiling. * @Hinako walks over to a pillow by a small wooden table strewn with tarot cards and gestures for Taki to do sit on the far side. * Taki takes her eyes off the skylight and sphere and sits across from Hinako. "Uhm, where would you like me to begin?" If her card is face up on table she'll look at it instead of Hinako. * @Hinako then slips out of her cloak, without turning around she catches it in a free hand and hangs it on the rack by a sibling that seems just a trifle fancier. She then sits down on the pillow in one motion. * @Hinako laughs. "Choose for yourself. When you need my direction, trust that I will not hesitate to give it." <@Hinako> [The Knight of Cups, as well as a few other party members, are indeed spread on the table. If they are arranged in a reading pattern, it is one far more freeform than Taki has ever seen.] Right. Okay. So. We had our first, well it was going to be a date, but it kinda ended as just dinner between awkward friends. I can understand her wanting to keep things secret, but every restraunt around our school, your family's place and my old school are out because she's worried somebody might recognize us. And there's a lot of stuff in my life I don't know how much of it is actually safe to tell her. And that kinda leads to one of the things I wanted to ask you about. Did something happen to Temperance? Or does she just not care anymore? * @Hinako listens and folds her hand. "Mamiya Kanae is still active. She had briefly left Japan recently, but the cards indicate that this voyage will not be long in duration." Huh. * Taki pulls the paperback copy of Council of Mysteries that she got for her birthday out of her bag and holds it out over the table and cards. "Do you thinks she knows abou... actually do you know about this?" * @Hinako reaches out to take it, curious. She leafs through the book for a bit. <@Hinako> Hm. The Ace of Wands' older brother wrote it. It's about my friends, but it's about as accurate as a daytime samurai drama. * @Hinako looks at the back. "This is available in stores? I shall procure my own copy." She hands it back to Taki. <@Hinako> As for Nicola, you may tell her about your friends and compatriots and what they mean to you. Her instincts are good, answer her questions honestly but tell her when she treads on ground she would best avoid. <@Hinako> Make no attempt to persuade when she shows skepticism or does not grasp something on her own. * Taki takes it back. "Uhm okay." * @Hinako does not appear to have more to add on the topic of the book at the moment. She looks at Taki with unblinking violet eyes. With her neck and shoulders revealed, the resemblence to Nicola is more striking. * Taki fidgits under the stare. "Takeuchi managed to find a draft copy of the next book in the series, which isn't out yet. It's brought up a lot of things we'd rather not remember." * @Hinako nods. "I am sorry to hear that you are disturbed." She gives a faint smile. "But reassured that you have not lost your collective talents in procuring that which is hidden." <@Hinako> I had not heard that a book had been published that focused on your group. Let alone that there is a second one that furthers that eventuality. I shall have to make inqueries. * @Hinako is picking her words carefully, this definitely was not a complete surprise to her and when she speaks of making inqueries her tone displays a hint of annoyance, specifically that she may now be a bit cross with the person she'll be talking to about the matter. While the Hierophant was fairly cavalier about the first book, she does seem impressed and a trifle jealous that the group has gotten the second. I just wish I'd known sooner, Mikage and Shizaru have been trying to get me to read the book for months, but it's hard to read urban fantasy when you've lived it. Unless you know what happened it's not obviously based on us, and they can't know I was there because I don't even have an entire character to myself in the book. * @Hinako thinks about this for a moment. <@Hinako> [Also, Taki's phone makes a text message buzz.] Ah, excuse me. * Taki turns away from the table and takes out her phone to see who's texted her. <@Hinako> [Message from Mikage: Need to talk to you about college and Kenji- kun. :(] * @Hinako idly gathers up the cards on the table as she waits. * Taki texts back. "Kinda in the middle of something, talk to you in a few. Did you not both get accepted to your first choice?" <@Hinako> [Mikage: That's kind of problem. We both have good choices outside of Tokyo.] * @Hinako draws the top five cards, holds them like a poker hand, and then feeds them back into the deck. "If you had *known* earlier, what would you have done?" * Taki looks down. "Panic, call everybody, and be more incohearent about it than I was when I finally did read it. I still had hope that everything was over then." * @Hinako nods. "You can be quite confident in your element. And you have served me well in the past. But to be the partner Nicola deserves, that approach will not do." * Taki sits up. "My element needs me to know where I'm going. Without a direction I tend to just flail in circles. I love her, but I'm also terafied that I'm going to say too much or the wrong thing and then the next day or a few days after that she'll get hurt or have her memories taken from her." * @Hinako nods and draws another spread of cards. <@Hinako> Do not be reckless, but she is not like most parents or Shizaru Yamada. Her curiosity is satiable and tempered with wisdom. <@Hinako> [Taki's phone buzzes again. Maybe Mikage is still texting.] * Taki nods. "She wants to meet everybo... well, not everybody everybody, but my old friends. I should probably do that one or two at time." She glances at the phone. * @Hinako gives a faint smile. "Indulge her. I shall enjoy hearing her impressions of them." * Taki rubs her chin. "Actually letting her know what I can do it is out, right? Temperance never actually made it clear where she draws the line, just that she was very, very, very upset with people who cross it." * @Hinako nods. "Mamiya Kanae is firm on such unequivocal demonstrations of power." Then I don't need the cards to foresee a lot of subway rides in our immidiate future. <@Hinako> Just so. <@Hinako> Do you have more to report? <@Hinako> [The phone does show this message is from Shizaru: Dinner is off. M/K drama. Also upstart first year class rep.] Uhm, if you let me know when you're finished with the first book, I can get you the draft, and we're trying to find out more about how he's getting his information and remembering it. * Taki nods at her phone. "There's some ordinary people stuff happening, but I hope that won't wind up having anything to do with Nicola." * @Hinako runs her hand through her mane of hair. "I would appreciate that. Deliver the copy when you are able, I am a fast reader." <@Hinako> Ordinary people stuff? That is not my strength. * Taki picks up her phone. "... I think Mikage and Kenji just got accepted into different schools. I don't even know who the first year reps are, but Shizaru's having trouble there too." So, uhm, unless you've got some more advice for me, I should go try to help her. <@Hinako> Nadeshiko Hasagawa may benefit from meeting Akemi Shiraishi. I have actually been invited to a photoshoot, and she is amazing at cheering people up. Thanks. * @Hinako shakes her head. "Cheering up is useful, but Nadeshiko Hasagawa has lessons yet to learn." * @Hinako distractedly plays with the deck of cards, letting them fall from her hand. Taki notes that she definitely put some emphasis on the request for the second book. She didn't phrase it as an order from the Hierophant, but there was an obvious desire there. <@Hinako> Thank you for this report, in another two fortnights you may tell me how these meetings went. Choose wisely in setting your priorities in the present ordinary tumult. * Taki blinks and thinks harder on this. Things to be learned from Akemi: Love everybody, be free, don't just tease people, be loved by everybody, be comfortable with who you are, be incredibly ho... THANK YOU FOR THE NEW TOPIC. You want the draft sooner than that, right? <@Hinako> [After she speaks she glances down at the cards where the Page of Swords has fallen atop the Knight of Cups. She glances at that and then up at Taki and the Knight gets the distinct feeling that Hinako does not necessarily trust her to prioritize Nicola over Katie and will be very curious to see evidence that she's capable of it. She does nod at the question about the draft, but that seems a lower priority.] * Taki nods. "Thank you for the confidence and a direction to proceed in, I shall try to use them to my fullest. But for right now, Shimiru Taki the third year student needs to go help her friends." * @Hinako gives her a wave of dismissal. * Taki stands and goes to collect her shoes. <@Hinako> [Break!]