[Grysar] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning of Sunday April 4, 2004 (Japan) Subject: Scheduling and practicing your talents To: Katie Andrews Good morning Katie! Thank you again for coming picnicking with me last week, you are the best bird spotting partner, I don't think I'd have seen three quarters of them. Back then I'd offered to practice with you to refine some of your talents. I'm through my finals and have a better sense of my schedule for April, and here's where I'm planning to be over to work with Kyon on facing my fears (see below for the list). There's not always time before or after, but there's also a week where he just isn't available so the two of us could get together if you wanted. So, if that sounds worthwhile, figure out what your safe dosage of Haruko for April is and let me know. ^_- Sorry to offer so few scheduling options. Classes may be out for the change of semester but the Shin-Okubo Story practices for next semester's theater class have started up intensely already. Many of the technical aspects came back to me fast although the big school dance scene is this amazing complicated dance battle that I'm still mastering. They can be exhausting, my stamina is improving, but I did get woken up by a 'where are you text' from Hibiki after collapsing from a recent one. And despite all that I may be an understudy for a minor role. I fear I'm being selfish to want this swansong, but with my twentieth birthday just a few weeks away, I do feel like the chance won't come around again and it's so exhilarating even if (especially because?) there's some iterations of the lyrics that I'm worried about father hearing. I'm sorry between that and Hibiki stuff that I won't be there for the Yamagata-san meeting, but I think you've got this. I've held some space for the Aka meeting possibilities, let me know if you'd like me to have anything prepared for that meeting, other than reviewing our email. Finally, a gentle poke on my art commission. After you showed me magical girl Satoshi, I had so wanted one of my own, but I think you're right that it's just not really funny with me. But I don't think we ever decided what to do instead. You're the artist, and I'm happy, relieved even, to live the vision thing to you. But if there's any questions I can answer or ruminations I can support, let me know. Haruko [At the end there's a super boring email discussion with Kyon where they work out which days that they can't schedule getting together. There's a reference to making an exchange in one of them, but Haruko has the wherewithal to not include any more direct reference to the model glider pickup and handoff in that thread. See: +minion tag spend.] --- [Ardweden] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Afternoon of Monday April 5, 2004 (Japan) Subject: Re: Scheduling and practicing your talents To: Haruko Kinsha I forgot about your art request! I'm so sorry! I'll get on that soon. You want something that reflects you somehow. Okay. No preference for medium or tone, really? If you have any ideas for it, or directions you think you might want it to go, please send them to me. I'll make what I want anyway because you asked for it but suggestions are welcome. This is for you. The meeting with Kazuko Yamagata should be fine. She seems like she could be sympathetic to us & if she's working against us then she doesn't know. I'm just going to go and try to get her story and also any information about the Council of Mysteries books & Aka Uehara. The Council is probably most urgent but working it in might be hard. I think it's possible though, depending. Hopefully Taki won't ruin everything. Anyway if there's more of us we might spook her. I feel like my Haruko tolerance has been increasing & even though it's probably mostly your fault, hanging out sounds good. Do you have anything in mind? And is your father going to go see the play? I guess that would make the lyrics thing even more exciting. I hope you get a part. I didn't know before how important dancing is to you. Let me know when it's going to happen & if you get in, I'll go see. & probably drag Kyon along because of his friendship obligations. I hope things with Ken are going okay. We should talk about that when we meet up next, if you want. Katie --- [Grysar] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning of Tuesday April 6, 2004 (Japan) Subject: Re: Scheduling and practicing your talents To: Katie Andrews Artistic direction? Flail! So it's now Tuesday morning. One of the things I like about being a dancer is that I'm interpreting or adding flourishes, not purely creating. I can adlib and experiment and react in a club, but that's ephemeral. Also, artistic judgment notwithstanding, I'm already feeling shamefully egotistically asking for this so it's hard for me to say more. But, I had an idea! Would I fit as a subject for any of your upcoming class projects? I'm not sure if you have that sort of flexibility, but if we could have someone else make a lot of the grand choices, I can help with the specifics. Sounds good on Yamagata-san. On hanging out, let's maybe intermix opportunities fun stuff and chatting about things like Hibiki stuff with experimenting with your powers. I don't want to push that on you if it isn't of interest. But while you were impressed with my abilities, I don't think there's any inherent differences in potency between our abilities and aptitudes. Also, if we have a common objective, it will be less of me babbling all the time, and mixing chatting with other things may help you keep your tolerance up. That said, we could do no power training and I'd still be interested. I'll add some examples at the end of this email, but enough on this topic. I'm a little surprised that I didn't actually talk about dancing more back in the day. I think father will becoming and while that may be scary i'm excited that you two would come if I'm in. I think I let myself become far too monomaniacal towards automobiles in my high school years. I had my reasons, but even setting aside my worst offenses, some of it was just the allure of being so close to having my own vehicle. (TMI warning on the rest of this paragraph paragraph. you might be curious but you know I overshare, proceed at your own risk) If you'll forgive my crassness, I think it is a bit like that other big young adult milestone. Once you've done it, the allure and fun are still there but it isn't quite as prominent in your thinking most of the time. Once I got to college both, in often more restrained forms, were still important to me, but I can find more time for the other priorities in my life. That and when the opportunity presents itself, an ordinary dance with a skilled partner can be more exhilarating than a familiar drive or a half asleep makeout session.(TMI warning complete). I'm glad you've been enjoying our time together too. Haruko Appendix: What does Haruko mean by power training? For example you could tune fine precision work in your room but also just reach out and touch the wind when you go riding (this may just be a trick to get you riding with me again, as I love an appreciative passenger). I could be your spotter and help with logging such matters. I think one of the reasons it's easier for me is that I can just see the medium I am manipulating so it's easy for me to practice so long as I have my good old handy water bottle. But with a bit of prep work we could probably find safe and easy to clean ways to experiment with fine powders or mists. Ultimately it's like any craft or discipline, it tends to improve under attentive practice. --- [Ardweden] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening of Tuesday April 6, 2004 (Japan) Subject: Re: Scheduling and practicing your talents To: Haruko Kinsha It's not Tuesday morning anymore. Choices like medium, theme, etc. aren't a big deal. I have ones I'm more comfortable with and will probably just go with one of those. I could do a piece inspired by you for a class and that's fine but there's no guarantee on flexibility & depending on how things go with that you may not get to keep it until later in the semester. So we'll just see how things go, I guess. + if I did do something with you for a class then you have to be okay with being on display. No guarantee but it could happen. What I really am curious about is tone. Do you want something funny or silly etc. like with the Satoshi one? Or something not necessarily? Just something I see about you, or you see about you, or others see about you? Flattering or subtle or raw? This matters a lot when it comes to tone and content. I don't want you to expect something cute & silly just to get a piece where I watercolor you drowning by riptide. I'm glad you like having your own bike. I like you having your own bike! I need to learn how to ride one of those some day. Not to own my own necessarily, but in case I need to drive Kyon's or something. You don't have to teach me though. Anyway, being attracted by shiny or forbidden things looks pretty normal to you but it's nice that you still have fun in moderation after the shine wore off. But you didn't talk about the dancing much or at all. I knew about the shrine ofc. Is it related to that? (& is Ken a skilled partner in all respects? That's not something I ever found out.) I think trying to be more aware of the air & wind is a good first step for me. I've tried to test it out with things like confetti etc. but never took as much time to develop & practice those powers as with some of my others. It interferes less with my daily life I guess. So yeah, it could be fun to work on that with you. Maybe some of the things you've done to practice with yours can apply. Katie P.S. Not going to actually watercolor you drowning in the ocean. I told you about it so it wouldn't be fun anymore. --- [Grysar] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning of Wednesday April 7, 2004 (Japan) Subject: Re: Scheduling and practicing your talents To: Katie Andrews Thank you for pointing me at some solid choices. I don't think I'm afraid of being on display to your classmates, as long as your intention isn't photo- realistic nude I doubt they'd have the context needed for me to feel embarrassed. That said, waiting until a possible end of semester return does not appeal. Use your judgment there. Technique aside, your element has long been honesty. I'd like to prioritize what you see about me, even if I won't feel good as a result. I will be displaying this in my room, not necessarily visible from the hall, so raw is scary but manageable, as long as it is subtle enough to allow for multiple interpretations. My other caveat is that there's a good chance I'll be able to see it from my bed, so maybe avoid aesthetics that will guarantee nightmares. Thank you for again for the inconvenience of taking my commission, I feel like I'm being steadily more demanding for what started with a doodle. And yes, the shrine helped pay for my dance education. My classes covered a variety of ritual dance, but I got to go away to do some that included modern and western dance, as well as Takarazuka. I really owe Mom for making it possible for me to go to a sleep away camp I'd qualified for in junior high. She worked a lot of late nights that summer and fall, but I didn't really put it together until later. My last big performance was during the mess really, April 2002. Ryuji and Eriko came, but she got drunk and needed to be escorted home. I've participated in some since then, but it was time for the next generation of Mikos to get to star. I think I invited the group as an afterthought and I kind of regret that. Not a mistake I intend to repeat. Anyway, I hadn't heard of , let alone this new adaptation, but I knew I loved Takarazuka so I was excited to sign up. And to answer your question, a pity you never had the chance to give Hibiki a whirl. He has remarkable endurance, knows how to handle curves, and is proficient at a range of tempos. I'd ask how taking your partner for a ride went, but at the moment that would be scandalous. Imagine, you, driving without a license, what would people say? On the licensing note, Maki is actually working on getting her own salvage job street legal and she'll have to get her first license as part of that. She's had some practice on closed courses, but I'll help her train on the mundane street parking and such. We could expand that, but learning from Kyon could be fun or a class might do a better job of covering international rules or the like. Let us know if we can help. Haruko p.s. Blush point for you. Curses. [End!]