<@Grysar> [Date: Sunday March 14, White Day.] <@Grysar> [So, White Day comes around so fast. Wataru, did you decide to take that job or not?] <@Grysar> [At the same time, Taki, Shizaru has been coordinating with you on cherry blossom stuff. You don't really have the attention span for this yet, but aside from your romantic efforts with Nicola, are you trying to help as best you can or focusing on other matters?] <@Grysar> [Alright, sounds like you're taking the job. How are you planning to deliver chocolates to Taki?] <@Grysar> [And Taki you've been successfully sequestering yourself. How do you respond when Mikage mentions that that crimson menace has been trying to persuade her to get the astronomy club to more equitable treatment of first year. The astronomy class is generally hard up for new students so they've got no real objection and Mikage foresees saying no would be a pain. What does Taki think?] * Wataru spent a frustratingly long time at a slightly-above-average department store looking through their White Day selecton for the *perfect thing* for all his new girl friends. Friend girls. Yeah that. Izumi, of course, got a mouse like every year, based on the old pun; white chocolate with strawberry eyes this time. And for the other three, Wataru picked out some intolerably adorable fat little creatures from the same shop as the mouse, all milk chocolate to play it safe: a chubby little bird for Katie, a plump round fishie for Haruko, and... And he agonizes over what to get Taki, but finally decides on a really cute hedgehog, fancier than the others, with white chocolate-tipped quills and shiny dark chocolate eyes. <@Grysar> [Haruko will be delighted! Taki your phone conversation with Mikage just ended. Your friend thinks she's probably doing enough to help Shizaru already at the moment, so astronomy club will be backing Akane. Do you tell Wataru to swing by the family apartment or do you suggest meeting elsewhere?] * Taki is totally (not) mopeing at home, so if he asks where to meet she'll say there. * Wataru writes cards as well, which he hopes to deliver with the chocolates without being seen by anyone but Taki. For completeness' sake, here are the messages for the other Arcana ladies: 'Katie, thanks for looking out for me and teaching me about birdwatching. It's always hard to make new friends, but I'm glad I met you. Happy White Day. - Wataru' / 'Haruko, thanks for taking a chance on me and schooling me in aquatic appreciation. It's always hard to make new friends, but I'm glad I met you. Happy White Day. - Wataru' <@Grysar> [Aww, sweet! And Taki's father is doing some work around the place, so she's the one to answer the call when Wataru rings up and to answer the door.] * Wataru feels massively awkward going to her house! Her family house no less! Buuuut if she says so! He heads over, hands in his pockets, chocolate in his bag, still unsure of what he'll say to her. [Wataru's currently on the ... oh god I don't remember anymore, seventh? floor of an apartment building. It's not run down, but the doors are pretty tightly packed.] * Taki checks the peephole and then lets him in. "Hey." she greets unenthusiastically. * Wataru smiles. Oh great, apathy. "Um, hi! Uh. Happy White Day?" * Taki shakes her head for a moment to try and clear it and then smiles back. "Sorry, you deserve better than that, I'm just having a bad afternoon." * Wataru has a bit of an understanding expression. "These kinds of holidays can be crappy. Um. I got you chocolate?" He digs around in his bag, comes up with a dainty candy-striped paper bag in pink and white, with pink tissue paper in it. * Taki's smile warms up as she accepts it. "Thanks!" * Wataru smiles back. "Thank you, for thinking of me in the first place. I, uh," he has an awkward little laugh, looking away. "At first, uh, I kind of thought maybe - I mean - it's dumb, and I'm sorry for assuming." * Taki blinks and then laughs awkwardly herself. "I... just don't worry about it, okay. I concider you a new friend in an old mess. Well, a new version of an old mess I thought was over. Does it count as a new mess now?" * Wataru eyes her from over his glasses, with a tentative smile. "It might. I dunno. It sure as hell is a new mess for me." He sighs, and looks around. "Is it... Can we, I mean, you want to sit and talk somewhere for a bit?" Yeah, sure come iiiiiaaaactually let's go out. Let me just get my outside shoes on and let Dad know. * Wataru chuckles, and nods. "Go for it." * Taki drops the candy off in her room, tells her dad that she's going to go hang out with a friend for a bit, puts on her shoes and a sweater, but leaves her fuzzy hat at home. "Do you have anyplace in mind, and did you leave a bike downstairs or anything?" Nah, I came on foot-bus-subway. And I don't really know the neighbourhood! Where, uh, can we not be overheard too much? <@Grysar> * Taki's father had been checking his business phone and didn't object, though as she leaves, he does grunt happily and calls out. "Oshiro family account came through. May have some time around the house for once. And if it isn't a bother, could you bring home something to help get this window unstuck? Grease maybe?" * Taki said "Kaaaaay." as she left then. * Taki gives Wataru a look and then grins and shakes her head. "You've forgotten who you're dealing with. Haruko showed you the roof I found, right?" Oh, yeah! That's kind of far though, but sure? * Taki continues to grin as she looks up and down the hall for any people, and not finding any reaches out for Wataru. "I need to be touching you for this to work, or I'll wind up taking me, you, and the floor in between us, and that's really hard to explane." To.. to.. what? * Wataru lets himself be touched, though. [As soon as he's even registered that a girl is touching his arm, he's also noticing that it's colder, he's outside, and Taki's in the process of yelping and falling over because the roof isn't as flat as she remembers and there actually wasn't anything under one of her feet.] <@Grysar> [Wataru, Taki is falling, you try to catch her?] * Wataru is busy falling over himself, staggering with the confusion and suddenness of being... being somewhere else. The light, the cold, it hits him hard, and he's toppling towards her, following her momentum. <@Grysar> [Taki, Wataru's falling on you! Trying to hold steady to recover or something else?] * Taki finds the ground with her falling foot and starts to recover, but now Wataru is falling onto and past her, so she pulls hard on the sleave she was holding onto and pivots, spinning him around and now she's following his momentum in the worlds most inelegant waltz. It ends two spins later with both of them mostly steady on their feet and Taki slowly letting go. "That... was not the plan." <@Grysar> [The roof is mostly as Wataru and Taki remember it, although it looks like Haruko may have brought a few more supplies up at some point. There's also some dance step guide sheets, secured by a rock. There's a light breeze and the sun is shining warmly.] * Wataru goes from confused to freaking out to laughing and dizzy within the span of a couple seconds, hanging on to Taki's arms. "Haah - oh man - no - I guess not, huh." He regains stability! "Wow, though. That's not something I ever thought would be possible." * Taki holds her head. "I really shoud stop trying to show off, it never ends well." Are you kidding, no, that was amazing! * Wataru is grinning. "That was like - I bet that's just what a transporter beam feels like. Oh man, how did you even, like, what did you do with my molecules?" I don't even know. I just want to be somewhere and I'm there. There isn't even time for a poof. That's so incredible. It blows my mind. I wish I knew more physics. But I don't even really know how I do stuff like this. * Wataru raises both hands casually, on either side of his body to about waist-height, and two small messy clouds of gravel lift up a few inches beyond them. * Taki nods. "And it's not like in the movies or anime, if I'm moving fast when I go, I'm still moving just as fast and in the same direction when I arrive." Hey neat. How much can you lift? I dunno. I've never really experimented much with it, although Haruko is trying to make me. I, uh, I've managed some heavier stuff, in some circumstances. * Wataru looks like he might not want to talk about that. * Wataru also lets the gravel slowly return to the ground. "It's kind of fun not to have to hide it, though." * Taki nods. "Ugh, yeah. I spent years carefully trying not to do anything to stand out. I'm still not sure if I wasted my life or saved it." * Wataru takes in a slow breath. "That sounds like me. And, I dunno. We're both still here, right? We made it out." He eyes her... "We've... we've fought some of the same battles, you and me." * Taki nods and rubs the side of her face covered by her uneven bangs. "Yeah, and it's mostly been worth it... I wonder where Jin went. I always kinda expect Satoshi to call me in the middle of the night to ask for chicken recipes because he's just randomly shown up in America." * Wataru was all gearing up for the big reveal when Jin and chicken and Satoshi and America tumble into the conversation. He frowns. "Wait, what?" The guy you saved from falling off the roof that night? Jin used to live at Satoshi's place, and he can do sort of the same thing I can, only farther and more confusingly. And he's obsessed with chickens. Or maybe one of his powers just makes them appear. Or both. I'm going to choose the possibility of chicken-manifesting powers as a conversation hook here, because this is an amazing we're-running-out-of- superheroes-for-our-comic kind of thing. * Taki laughs. "I've got no idea how the powers are divied up, but I think Satoshi got sick of living off of chicken and eggs after a couple of weeks." Ewww, chickens would manifest and then what, Jin would slaughter and cook them? * Wataru laughs, uncomfortable but amused at the idea. * Taki thinks. "I know he'd just pull eggs out of his pockets, you'd have to ask Satoshi if he did the same for the chickens or if they just showed up." * Wataru shakes his head...He puts his hands in his own pockets, although whether or not it's to check for eggs is unclear. * Taki looks up. "And now that I'm thinking about it, I remember Satoshi talking about buying chickens to cook so maybe they didn't eat them." It's just, if you asked Jin a question he didn't know the answer to, and there's a lot of things he didn't know, like what he wanted for dinner, he'd say chicken. * Wataru nods. He looks up at the sky, wondering how to get back on the topic he came to close to broaching. Slippery one, this Taki. * Taki looks up at the sky too. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm babbling to you about Jin. I'm just... it's been, I want today to be over." * Wataru looks at her, and sighs. "You know... I was looking forward to today a lot, actually. I sort of couldn't wait." Oh? Was there somebody you were looking forward to giving chocolate to? * Wataru smiles. "You." A! * Wataru laughs a bit! "Yeah. Um. You've, uh, actually? You might not know it, but you've actually had a big impact on my life. Jeez, that sounded dramatic." he runs a hand through his hair, but is still smiling. <@Ciara> [Just at that moment, Taki's phone buzzes. It's a text from Haruko.] * Taki gets shocked back into being able to think. "Uh, I'm flattered, I really am, but I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now." <@Ciara> [ Just chkd mail and package from Maine arrived ystrday. Have thing for Shizaru.] Mm... You might not be. But, um. M... maybe I am. * Wataru looks away. His face feels hot. Ah, oh. Uhm. I hope you find somebody. * Taki actually reads her message while trying to think of something else to say. * Wataru glances back at her. On her phone... * Taki texts Haruko back before responding. [ Cool, I'll let her know.] * Wataru steps over to the weird staircase door sticky-outy thing that all fictional roofs have, and leans on it, looking out over the city. <@Grysar> [ Thx. Give her my #. Can drop off to u | her.] Uhm, I'm finding that dating people who arn't Arcana is really kinda hard, but on the other hand, the list of guys who arn't complete jerks is kinda you, Satoshi, Jin, and maybe Winston, but he's kinda old. * Wataru has a bit of a broken chuckle, putting his hands in his pockets. He didn't think it would go this way. He didn't think she wouldn't *care*. "I've told exactly three people in my life," he says, still looking at the city. "Izumi, Satoshi, and now you. It's still really hard. But when you sent out that email, about Nicola-san? When..." He sighs. "I mean, no one gave a crap that she was a she. And I... that's new. I haven't told everyone else. But I thought... I wanted to tell you." * Taki nods and rubs her face. "Ah, yeah. I'm thankful and honored by your trust, and I'll do my best to keep this a secret if you want... And nobody cared about what I said because, well, I've had this huge crush on Katie since about the moment I met her, and it cost me having Satoshi as boyfriend, so they're all probably just happy I'm trying to move on." * Taki sits down on the roof. "Being in love kinda sucks a lot sometimes." * Wataru feels his body go inert and begin to slide against the side of the sticky-outy roof thing, but catches himself just short of faceplanting in the gravel. His face goes white, and he sits down, a little heavily. Uh, you okay? * Wataru manages a nod. "Didn't know. Um." He pulls his knees up. "Yes, being in love really really really sucks sometimes. I didn't know you'd dated Satoshi." * Taki doesn't look at Wataru as she answers in a far away voice. "It ended in tears and blood..." and then panicked. "We didn't fight each other or anything, a lot of things just went wrong at the same time." * Wataru looks at her, colour - and confusion - returning to his face. "Wow, that sounds bad. He... he never told me. I'm sorry." * Taki shakes her head. "I think it's something he wants to put into the past. Did anybody ever tell you about Meimi?" Mmm.... I don't think so. She could ... can make illusions, and when she was just unconcious in the hospital she'd pretend to be other people. When I was stuck at my grandparents place for a week. somehow she and Satoshi agreed to go to a school dance while she was pretending to be me. So when I came back *bam* suddenly the only nice guy I know's suddenly sort of my boyfriend and he thinks I was dead for two days. * Wataru's eyes go wide. "Serious?" Serious. And, I'm kinda thankful she did it, because I never would have worked up the courage to ask him myself. * Wataru smiles a bit... "Yeah," he sighs. But it didn't work out. I think we were only really boyfriend and girlfriend for, maybe two weeks, and maybe two months later we finally admitted that it wasn't working and I couldn't get over Katie. In the mean time *she* got kidnapped and replaced and I was so buisy thinking about what I thought she thougth she was doing I wasn't paying attention to what she was actually doing. * Wataru starts putting some pieces together. He nods. I don't think that's really my story to tell, but I wound up hurting both of them because I tried to keep secrets I shouldn't have. It's part of why I sent everybody that email in first place. If any of the Arais turn out to be part of that giant mess with Suffle, I'm probably going to wind up doing something foolish again. * Wataru sighs. "Everything is a mess. Love is a mess, life is a mess. Arcana is a mess. Friendship is hard and doesn't feel worth it half the time except when it really does." I speak from experience when I say that having friends is infinitatly better than not having them. * Wataru smiles a bit... "It's been interesting so far," he admits. * Taki says entierly too cheerfully "I'm going to try and keep it from getting too interesting, but I'm 100% garunteed to fail, sorry. Don't even have to ask the cards for that one." * Wataru smiles more. "Yeah, I get that too. The more people you know the more you can mess things up. Or get caught in someone else's mess." It is worth it, even when the really crazy things start to happen because they will try to help you too. * Wataru sighs. "I'll try. It's hard to go from trusting no one to trusting a whole pile of people. At least I've got Satoshi. I'm working at it with everybody else." Yep, I definatly think he's trustworthy, and a good friend to have. And you've already trusted me, so there's that. Do you think I should tell the others? * Taki thinks about that for bit. "I don't think it'll do you any harm, well except maybe Kaede will give you one of those looks like he can count the number of braincells he'll have waisted remembering something that won't help his current situation." * Wataru snorks. "Okay, well, I'll work up to it, I think. Erg, pretty sure Katie knows already. She accused me of - yeah." * Taki sighs. "She wasn't always like that." Like what? Needing to know everything, doing her best to actually do that. Ohh yeah. Yep, that's her. * Taki sighs again. "I miss the old her, I miss the old new me, but don't miss the old old me, so I've come out ahead on that one and she hasn't." * Wataru nods as if he understood that. * Taki shakes her head to clear it. "Anyway, I think everybody else would be supporting to indifferent, and I'm sorry that I wasn't more supportive when you told me, but I was kinda very distracted at the time." * Wataru stretches out his legs again. "Yeah, it's okay. I didn't say it the best way, either." He thinks for a moment. "So no guys to recommend besides Satoshi and Jin, huh?" Wataru baaarely manages not to blush. * Taki shakes her head. "There might be a couple more, but I was pretty biased against people trying to kill Katie because somebody thought she was Judgment and trying to take over everything again. We didn't exactly get along with any of the other groups at the time, and I pretty much gave up on guys as a lost cause after I broke up with Satoshi." * Wataru leans against the sticky-outy wall, with a brief amiable sigh. "Here's hoping I fare better, then, I guess. I really don't see girls that way at all." I like both, but it's not like I'm looking for the same thing in a boyfriend as a girlfriend. Who knows, maybe everything with Nicola will work out and her parents will accept me, or maybe everything will go to hell and then I'll find another guy as nice and understanding as Satoshi, but if he turns out to be gay, I'll let you know. * Wataru blushes now. Because although she didn't mean it that way, it's what he heard: 'If Satoshi turns out to be gay'... "All right." Too much to hope for. * Taki grunts and spins. "Okay, enough dwelling on that. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about, or should I just take us back?" Mm... Not right now, I guess. This was kind of nice. We should like, maybe try things out with out powers some more sometime. Should probbaly arrange that with Haruko, and now that it's finally warming up, getting soaked by her power won't end with me trying to catch a cold again. Aw yeah, springtime at last! <@Grysar> [And in a closing note, whether Paul's gift goes directly to Shizaru or is delivered via Taki, Haruko also gives the Knight of Cups a set of chocolates. The box is a variety pack from Cosmopolitian Confections ( http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2004/02/10/national/russian-chocolatier- steeped-in-tradition/#.VjGFK7erSM9) that includes some Russian treats in the mix. There's a note on top expressing <@Grysar> thanks for the Valentine's chocolate and that she enjoyed meeting Nicola.] <@Ciara> [Meanwhile, when Taki gets home there is a small package waiting for her. When she gets around to unwrapping it at time and place of her choosing, she finds two small loaves of gingerbread, with a figure in icing rather clumsily drawn on each one: a girl with shorter red and blue hair and another with longer, white-blond hair. And a note: "Apologies for the secrecy, and for missing you while you were out." -Nicola] <@Ciara> [Session End!]