[Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning of Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Japan) / Evening of Wednesday, April 7, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: Kyon Sorata, Kaede Takeuchi, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Taki Shimiru From: Katie Andrews So Taki & I went to meet Kazuko Yamagata. Got a lot of information on a lot of things, and some other things to think about too. talked to Kyon about it & some other thoughts & courses of action. Kazuko Yamagata is the Nine of Wands. We did save her in Osaka. She knows Aka Uehara & I'm pretty sure they're dating or close b/c she referred to him like "Uehara-kun". I think she's mostly grateful & sympathetic to us but we aren't the only pull on her life but she's also a raised politician & I think pretty much everything that comes with it. She said that the Council of Mysteries books are about shared experiences as Arcana & the characters in them are supposed to be composites & not exact copies of anyone in particular. I think that because she's close to Aka Uehara and the books help her feel better, she didn't look that closely. She wants to use them to reach out to other people - girls, confused & lost & hurt by what happened - & let them know that they're not alone. She was also controlled by other people, & kidnapped & drugged. She separated herself from her parents. Anyway I objected very strongly to the books using my experiences. She seemed to listen. Maybe she'll talk to "Uehara-kun". If he's maybe the chink in The World's armor then I think Yamagata might be the chink in his. So the Council (and Shuffle) Yamagata said that the Council is a governing body for Arcana that a bunch of "unaligned" Arcana have been putting together. Elections are held through Shuffle. They've already chosen four people to sit on it & act as mediators before they invite some people from rival gangs. Her story kind of checks out b/c we know some people from rival gangs who aren't us (b/c we're being blocked from automated invites) were invited. But those people were not invited the way Wataru - unaligned Major - was. Instead they had even less information than we did. Also there's going to be elections for more seats. She said that she's going for the second Wand seat, which means not all Council seats are filled yet. Maybe one round of elections before the gangs join & one round after? But they don't seem that interested in everyone joining anyway. In any case, Yamagata seemed to think we should be invited & Taki got six invite codes. She said that everyone who joins Shuffle gets five more to hand out. 1. if she has so many codes so easily she's important to this whole thing. 2. she isn't involved in trying to block us & that makes me think other people over there don't know either. 3. that's a lot of invite codes if we want to use them. Congratulations Haruko, you got your wish. It's what you always wanted. Only it's made by Arcana so of course it's fucked up. So now we know what the Council is on the surface & what Shuffle is below the surface & what the books are intended to be, at least to someone who's close to the center of them. I think that we should use Kaede's existing accounts to figure out more about the elections & how Shuffle works. What's the cycle? How does someone get involved in elections? Is running for office open? How are votes counted? Are people tracked in any way, etc.? Wataru can also take Yorihisa up on his offer and join too, find things out that way. Then when we discover as much as we can within time limits (want time to participate in some way in the next elections preferably) then we can join in as safe a way as Kaede deems reasonable. Raise concerns about what's faulty in the system. Try to run for Council possibly. & everyone else can join, too. I mean pretty much EVERYONE. We know a lot of Arcana & we know most of them aren't actually involved in this. How is it fair? Once we tell them they will be as pissed & worried & etc. as we are. That makes things more even. then those people will know people and of course they'd tell them. They - The World, Yorihisa, whoever - wanted to keep us out. We should take it from them & shape the system into something we want, not something they'd use to control us. I want to prove them right for thinking we're dangerous. Kyon is willing to consider running against Kazuko for the Wand seat. I'll think about the Swords one if it's available and that's what we want to do. We also have a resource in Yamagata. I could contact her again if we need to & on paper at least she should want me to get involved in this Shuffle/Council stuff, though idk about other people whispering in her ear. Also given all of this I sort of think Temperance is involved. Just a feeling. We KNOW Hinako is. But it's pretty clear everyone isn't involved in the same parts or at the same level even if they think they are, & we can use that to our advantage. Just like with Yamagata yesterday. What do you think? Kyon hasn't met with "Uehara-kun" yet (actually I bet even his brother has no idea about this Council stuff) so thoughts on both what & how we should look into stuff for that would be good, + the bigger picture what to do over time stuff. Katie --- [Grysar] (Encrypted email) Date: Midday of Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Japan) / Early Hours of Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: Katie Andrews, Kyon Sorata, Kaede Takeuchi, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Taki Shimiru From: Haruko Kinsha Wow. That's a lot to take in. I've read it over a couple time and thinking things over. (Satoshi, you aren't in a position to do anything, it's okay to put this off until after playoffs.) There's a lot of unknowns still, but given what we know now, your analysis makes sense. I agree about contacting everyone, though I suspect once the news it out it may spread quickly. The first people we talk to may be the ones we have the best chance to influence. My short list is Matthias (though I defer to Kyon), Sumire, Ryuji, and Hirokazu. Other phones/emails have mostly been unresponsive with some dead links. I suspect some of them may be in the unaligned group. Takeuchi has another set of key players. I think our biggest gaps may be any Jackals unwilling to work with group and the group that showed up to help us fight the Reversed. This excludes any surviving outright enemies, but I'm assuming they're not part of everyone. I picked up the Shuffle slips from Taki. I don't know if there's anything special about the pieces of paper, but here are the codes. I've written a name between each of them to prevent accidentally using the same one twice. Okay to hold off using for now, but eager to write my contacts. [Two cell phone photos of the slips are attached. They're under bright light and in stark relief.] That's all for now. I have another few things to think through. I am comfortable running if it would help. But I think the system will probably be tweaked so that each group is likely to get one candidate, if the point is to get gangs to talk. That winner should be someone living in your apartment. Haruko --- [Grysar] Haruko has been obsessing over an email for most of the day and hasn't even checked if anyone else has written in the meantime. Each version gets shorter, has fewer suggestions, strategy talk, and comparative advantage discussion. (Encrypted email) Date: Evening of Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Japan) / Morning of Thursday, April 8, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: Katie Andrews, Kyon Sorata From: Haruko Kinsha Dear friends, I've been thinking about this a lot, and while I'd prefer to say this in person there just isn't time right now. You were right Katie, "fucked up" as it is, and that is a fair description, this is my wish. I am firm in my faith that one of you in the Council Chambers using the strategy you've proposed is the best way to reform my wish. You both have my unqualified support, and this is not because I have forgotten past arguments with Katie or naively believe they are resolved, but because sometimes you learn a lot about a person in conflict (and sometimes there's the two mechanics in the group). I will be your advocate in any role you'd have me. Obviously copious free time is not one of things I have to offer you. However, if you tell me what's most important to you, I will make it work and in this new semester I can make some choices that will help. It may be an insurmountable challenge to win seats for both of you, though I'm willing to try. You each bring a range of different strengths and we don't yet know some of the specifics that will determine who is most strongly positioned and may not know until near the end. To the degree my counsel would be useful I will offer it, but I respect the advantages of having those discussions behind doors that are closed to me. This is not my typical sort of race, but I'm ready to leave the World in our dust. Haruko --- [Rowyn] Kaede starts to settle down for the evening after a long and exhausted day in America. Akemi, for her part, just wants to take a shower and clean up. The water runs in the background as he takes out his laptop and checks his email. Timing. He looks it over, bypassing the business emails. For now at least. Those can wait until he gets back. Arcana things though....well... He clicks on the Katie one. Then frowns. Alright. Time to type. Date: Morning of April 10th/Evening of April 9th Subject: Re: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: Kyon Sorata, Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Taki Shimiru From: Kaede Takeuchi (Encrypted email) Just now getting settled to type. Now. Thank you, Katie Andrews, for dumping this tangled mess in our lap. Not that we suspected anything different. There's no such thing as unaligned Arcana. We were actively being denied. There's reason for that. There's activity out here in . Hopefully we'll find out more in the next couple of days. This just reinforces my thoughts that we need to look into what the Council was. A governing body over all Arcana is ridiculous and to think that all "suits" are their own faction or can even represent the respective interests of themselves even more so. This just in. FYI. Security measures on Shuffle has been beefed. Probably as a result of them discovering it wasn't as secure as they thought. They're now requiring email address identification for verification. High school, college, or a cell number. I can possibly make dummy redundancies, but it will take some time. And the time frame to register may create even more red flags... Seems fair and balanced, doesn't it? Anyhow, I would still like to piece together parts of the puzzle. Find out more about the Council of the past. We know at least some Arcana will remember it, so there's no doubt in my mind they're being influenced by that "ideal." And probably influencing others. But the entire system seems broken from the start. You do what you wish, but I don't see any purpose in feeding a popularity contest and being a puppet figurehead. Not that anyone ever listened to me on that front. Anyway. You tell me what you need me to do next with Shuffle. But Yamada-san is still our potential "scout." I would say if all else fails, go with that. Legit accounts are good but knowing the security measure, it's exposure. -Takeuchi out P.S. Andrews, maybe you can explain this to me. Why do Americans hate tea so much? --- [Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Noon of Saturday, April 10, 2004 (Japan) / Late Evening of Friday, April 9, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: To: Kaede Takeuchi, Kyon Sorata, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Taki Shimiru From: Katie Andrews Yes obviously there's a reason we were actively being excluded from Shuffle. But the exclusion isn't the decision from everyone on Shuffle & I bet that if some of the people there knew they'd be unhappy. It's not what Kazuko said they're trying to do & I think she believes it. This whole thing is presented as the opposite of exclusion. If Wataru is up for joining straight up then that will help us find out more. Finding out more about the Council in the past makes a lot of sense, but it's not like we can force dreams on ourselves or anything. Or at least nobody's said they can. Anyway sure, we can try to piece together what we know. I know that the last Page of Swords did a lot of spying on people & told the World a lot but I can have a hard time separating that from the other nightmares. If I come up with anything clear I can let you know. I remember something about Sumire having very clear dreams? She might be worth talking to about it if we wanted to go out of group. But yeah, it's pretty likely if 1. these independent Arcana have good memories about it and 2. the World is involved & doesn't want to come up with something totally new. We know 2 is true. Also, activity? What kind of activity? Is this different from what Satoshi said before with Bangor? But yeah, I agree that there's nobody who's a true independent. Even if they were, getting involved now gets rid of that b/c who do you get your information from? What story are you being told? I also agree that the system is probably deeply broken. But we don't know how exactly or how far or even all of the why. Even if a lot of people are in the same faction that doesn't mean they'll stay that way. Right now evidence points to not everyone agreeing anyway. And if they are & are uninfluenced by us then that means they can hurt us later & we won't even see it coming. That's why more information is good. Plus a broken system doesn't mean you can't do something to fix it. It also doesn't mean that other people aren't also going to stay out of the sandbox or that kids in the sandbox aren't going to throw sand in your eyes when you're looking or your food when you're not. So if it's safe enough then I think it's best to try to control the sandbox & convince the other kids not to be assholes, or at least watch what they're doing in the sandbox. Also I'm not going to be anyone's puppet anything. Haruko: idk if the system is tweaked to prevent multiple people from the same group but yeah, it's possible, if only in a political bargaining sort of way. Kyon & I are obviously close. But if the system is actually set up to work that way then I'd be interested to know how b/c everyone's interconnected and you can't just tell who with who or how or whatever. Take Akemi for example. What group would she actually be in? So it's possible but it probably wouldn't be very good or complete. The thing about the phones and emails sucks. Is there any way you can see how closely and what data Yorihisa'd be able to get from us if we used legitimate accounts, Kaede? & estimate how long for the redundancies? Them knowing how much we know is almost as bad as not knowing. Katie P.S. Americans don't hate tea. We just don't drink it as much over there. You can find iced tea easily though. Why? --- [Grysar] Date: Afternoon of Saturday, April 10, 2004 (Japan) / Pre-dawn of Saturday, April 10, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Yamagata, Shuffle, Council, Books, & Etc. To: Katie Andrews, Kaede Takeuchi, Kyon Sorata, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Taki Shimiru From: Haruko Kinsha Takeuchi-san, First, if I have any more past dreams, I will pass on what I learn. I may be biased by what I've learned of Isao, who was on the Council. However, I believe from what Satoshi has said, he was deeply disappointed in them by the end. I see two separate sets of issues here for proceeding: 1) The ways that people like me getting involved could mess things up for other people. 2) Your reticience to be personally involved or to mobilize the Arcana that respect your opinion. Katie has written on both issues, but I'd like to focus on point #1. I am revving my engines to contact my contacts, Sumire in particular, with questions. I am not afraid to join Shuffle or even to use my phone number as part of the signup process. I've given my phone number out to try to coordinate with other Arcana before. If Yorihisa wants to figure it out, I'm sure he can already. I'm not going to download any software or reuse any passwords on Shuffle. I will consider any messages sent on that service to be immediately compromised, whatever their promises of security. On point #2, thank you for the support you're offering Katie on security measures. I hope to have more pieces to your puzzle before too long. (Katie, good point on voting system, we might need to make deals later, but if they pull anything too weird with the voting system we should be Finally, I would welcome Wataru-san's investigation. However, for those of that choose to engage, we no longer have the leisure of scouting the race course on the day before. We're now in the first lap. Yamagata-san is out there seeking votes right now for what could be Kyon's seat! But as I mentioned it point #1, I respect that the risks are real. Anyone concerned, particularly you Takeuchi-san, let me know what restrictions you'd like me to operate under, and I'll get started. Haruko P.S. I'm glad Americans don't hate tea. Tea is delicious! P.P.S. Katie, I hope my miniature telekinetic water theater didn't violate your principled stance against being someone's puppet. ^_^; [Thread End!]