<@Satoshi> [Wednesday, April 21st, 2004] <@Satoshi> [Kaede and Katie are meeting for lunch after a hiatus of reasonable length!] <@Satoshi> [In that intervening period, Kaede and Akemi visited Satoshi, including a stop by Bangor Reversed, and went to New York (NEW YORK CITY?!)] <@Satoshi> [Now there's Taki's Mysterious Package, Taki's Handling of the Hinako Situation, All the Fallout That Stems From It, and oh yes, This Shuffle Thing that Kaede Discovered.] <@Satoshi> [It's a Council Election FAQ: http://bacon.sandwich.net/ardweden/neoarcana/other/CouncilElectionFAQ.html?us p=sharing] <@Satoshi> [Maybe he wants to talk about it, maybe he doesn't, but hey now it's there for easy reference and whoops, fourth wall.] <@Satoshi> [We set are scene at the lunch meeting spot of their choice.] <@Satoshi> [Session Start!] * Kaede is back to eating on campus. Which is to say he's back on campus. Akemi actually made him a simple bento today and he's busy frowning at it. Torn. He may be lucky. It may be 90% storebought. But he's not sure he wants to take that chance. * Katie arrives, having acquired 100% campus-bought yakisoba. She sets her bag and the noodle container (with chopsticks!) down on the table. "What did the bento box do to you?" she rasps with only minor difficulty. * Kaede keeps looking at it. "Akemi made it." As if that explains everything. He pushes it aside, at least for now, then looks at Katie, giving a sigh. "You settled down yet...?" * Katie shrugs. She cracks open the container, letting delicious steam come out, and pulls a bottle of tea from her bag. "Good enough." * Kaede lets out another breath and starts to stand. He did forget to get tea or coffee. "...things were so much easier when she was content not to be involved..." He glances at the vending machines, then back to Katie. "You want anything?" * Katie holds up her tea. "I'm covered." Small smile. "Thanks." * Kaede gives a small smile back, slipping his hand into his pocket. "What is family for?" But he goes for that. Getting a nice steaming hot can of green tea and settles on back in the bench. He glances away, just enough to pop the container, but then does settle so Katie can give him a good look over. * Katie does, having now opened her bottle and taken a solid drink, and she grins. "Family, huh?" * Kaede coughs. "Well. Close enough." He grumbles, looking at his can. "...you know I treat you like a sister sometimes. Please don't make this worse than it already is..." * Katie snerks. "I'd never." She picks up some noodles with her chopsticks. * Kaede nods, then finally slips off the cover of his bento. May as well. It's got all sorts of little octopus balls in it, a little bit of pickled vegetables and the major part of rice. With a frilly pink heart ribbon on top of it. He noticeably flinches, but picks up the chopsticks anyway. "So. How do we limit her damage from here...?" * Katie notes the pink heart ribbon. Akemi *did* make that box. "Talk to her using stern language and set ground rules that common sense would normally provide. It looks like Haruko's guiding her, at least kind of. I guess I could talk to her about it, or Kyon could..." * Kaede snorts. "You're trusting sense to make sense to her..." * Katie rolls her eyes. No I'm not. I'm saying we have to give her the common sense. I'm all for Taki growing up and making mistakes and fucking up her own life but this is everybody else's, too. I *thought* she'd have learned by now, after... * Katie trails off, looking down at her noodles. "I mean, after." * Kaede sighs. "That's the thing. Taki never learns. Which is why we kind of just let her drift away in the first place..." * Katie mutters, "Should've just let her stay cut off." * Kaede gives a wry smile, then tilts back to look at Katie. "But you're still human. In spite of this all..." I knooooooow it sucks. * Katie puts noodles in her mouth. * Kaede nods, calmly, then taking a tentative stab at getting some rice. There's no way she could ruin rice...right? Right? "Should learn to be robots. Like Kyon and I. Would make your life much more efficient..." * Katie mmphs around her noodles, chews, and swallows. "You can teach me sometime, robot-sempai." * Kaede pauses with the rice right to his lips, just before he chokes on it. He raises his expression and his chin to give Katie a *look* * Katie keep her expression flat. Robot flat. Kaede flat. :| * Kaede gives her a scoff. "Well *you're* clearly feeling better..." He grumbles, turning back to his rice. "To think I was worried about you..." I was... *really* angry yesterday. * Katie pokes at her noodles. "Now I'm just... mostly upset. Or disappointed." * Kaede frowns. "There's nothing more dangerous than a well-meaning friend..." * Katie just shakes her head. And noodle eats. * Kaede eats as well. Thinking. "Is there *any* way we could turn this to our advantage? The relationship with Hinako?" He sighs a bit. "...she's never been easily reached..." Hinako's on the Council, right? * Kaede frowns. "Unfortunately. Along with the Two of Wands. The Six of Pentacles. Two of Cups. And the Four of Swords. Funny how a "fair and proper" election already has seats taken prior to everyone being informed of the process..." * Katie smiles humorlessly. "I expected nothing less. So the Four of Swords - Norishige, too." The others don't ring a bell though I'd put even money on Yorihisa being the Pentacle. * Kaede nods. "Pretty sure of that." He takes his can now, yet again, blowing on the steam. "...I think it's time I have to stop skulking in the shadows and confront him directly..." His face shows the clearly sour taste at that. That'll be fun. You want me there? * Kaede hehs and sips his tea. "Unlike *Taki*, I think you can trust me on my own. Besides. I wouldn't wish Yorihisa on *anyone*..." * Katie shakes her head. "It's not about trusting you. I'm offering to help, as back up, or whatever." May invite Akemi though. She's more overall seen as neutral and if need be can turn her charms to shift the balance. We kind of made a deal. *sip* * Katie eyebrow raises. "With Akemi?" * Kaede gives a small nod. "Yes. With Akemi." Another sip. * Katie picks up her own tea. "What kind of deal?" she asks before taking a drink. * Kaede smirks. "Knew you were going to ask that." He settles back a little more, taking a deep breath. "To be a little bit more involved with each other. Her, I need to be more involved in her fashion world. Her friends. Her connections. For me, she wants to be more connected with..." He glances around, just to see how busy the area is before responding with "The other stuff that plagues me..." * Katie sets her bottle down. "So she wants to be more involved with the group and what's going on with us? Do you want to include her in the chats and stuff?" * Kaede pauses. "...I hadn't thought of that..." He considers. "...she could easily derail it. Though she's usually reading a lot of the emails..." He glances at her. "Like you and Sorata-san..." ... I'm sorry? * Kaede gestures with his hand, looking a little confused. "You mean you don't confer? After emails are sent out? You're completely separate?" * Katie blinks, then says, "Oh." She nabs some more noodles. "I didn't know what you meant. Yeah, of course we do." * Kaede nods. "So it's the same thing here..." He pauses, digging at the rice. "The first thing was making her an account for Shuffle..." * Katie lets out a soft 'heh'. "On before pretty much any of us." * Kaede gives a slight half-smile. "Like I said. She's more neutral than any of us. We all have our biases..." He snatches up his can again and goes for another drink. "Even you..." Oh, I have *all* of the biases. I think I want on, by the way. If nothing pings as too dangerous, and with your help - but I'm not going to let this keep going without trying to change things in our favor. * Katie sips tea - that was a lot of words - and eats some more noodles. * Kaede nods and reaches into his bag to take out his phone, pulling up his email and, more specifically, the FAQ before sliding it over to Katie. * Katie takes it and scrolls through, reading while she eats. She snorts once and says, around her noodles, "'Select Major Arcana and Minor Allies', seriously?" Isn't it good to read your own life at a media slant? Ha, gathering those who worked as individuals. Or didn't work at all. * Katie sips her tea, scrolling down. Polling only at Tokyo Tower, really? Going to be hard for people out of city... Oh there's an absentee ballot. * Kaede sips. Slowly. "Also security has been going haywire over there. The last couple of emails have been frantic..." More slow sips. * Katie doesn't look up from Kaede's phone. "I bet. You have anything to do with that?" * Kaede gives Katie an "are you kidding me?" look but then adds, calmly, "One of the reasons I have to meet him in person. Yorihisa has always been, if nothing else, overconfident..." * Katie lets out a small laugh, and she slides the phone back to Kaede, looking up at him. She smiles. "Going to volunteer as an election judge?" * Kaede takes the phone back, pocketting it. "Of course. Who could I trust to be any more unbiased than me? I hate *everyone*." * Katie's smile turns into a grin. "Sure do." * Kaede gives another snort, ready to finish the last of his drink. "I do have to say though, I'm amused at being seen as some sort of "business competitor." I didn't know he was into modeling. He wouldn't make the cut. Anatoly would have an absolute *fit*. * Katie laughs, coughing at the end and reaching for her tea. "No kidding," she manages before she drinks some. * Kaede frets for a minute, setting his can down quickly and is about to go over before he resettles once she drinks, looking embarrassed. "Right..." Looks like there's a time limit, too. If we're going to even try to blow this open, we'll want to get the word out during spring. So basically now. * Kaede settles back to his bento, looking confused, but then gets back on track. "...right. Any key players?" You mean people we'll want to make sure we alert? * Kaede nods. * Katie lets out a breath. "More than anything, I want strength in numbers - even if the numbers don't agree with us. Just... new numbers. But..." Sumire and Takeo, I think. Matthias. Soleil, if you can still contact her. Ryuji. Kyoko. I told Masaru I'd let him know when I found something significant, and this counts. * Kaede nods. "Already have. On the Soleil count." He looks at Katie. "Regarding Wataru." * Katie blinks, then makes an 'oh'. "Because he went to her school." She sighs, picking up more noodles. "I guess she didn't have much to say about him, or you'd have told me." * Kaede nods. "Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not standing out..." He pauses, for a moment. "I lived on that for a long time..." * Katie nods. "Yeah." Really, he's... it's understandable. Not like *Taki*. * Katie gets some venom into that name. Oh, looks like she's still angry. She covers it with noodle. She is almost out of noodle. * Kaede sighs. "Taki's never been understandable." He frowns. "Let it go." I tried that. Look where it got us. Because you are the sole person responsible for Taki's behavior? * Katie stabs at her remaining noodles. "That's not what I was saying." * Kaede looks at her. "So we deal with Taki as Taki. Just like anyone else." He tries an octopus ball and sticks it in his mouth, chewing for a bit, then frowns. "..ish undergooked..." * Katie glances up and sighs a little, pushing the rest of her noodles over to Kaede. "Here." * Kaede takes the half chewed mess out of his mouth, then looks at her noodles. "You sure?" What's family for? * Kaede snorts. "...never really thought of it going two ways..." He looks at the noodles, as if unsure if they're going to jump out at him or not. * Katie sips her tea. What, they're noodles. * Kaede slides the noodles closer. "...we still need to talk about what happened with Satoshi sometime..." I'm not sure what there is to say. It's weird, and... disturbing. But there isn't a lot to be *done* with it until he's here. *She* pretty obviously knows what's going on and is working with Temperance to check on him, which only means Temperance is in her pocket. ... Or check on the thing that's formed when he's around, anyway. ...it's more that it's even possible in the first place. Shouldn't really surprise us that Reversed encompasses the whole world... * Kaede tries a small sip of noodles. "Or beyond even. How would we even know?" He snorts. "Now I'm imagining Arcananauts." * Katie laughs. Haruko'd be into that. Arcana... in... spaaaaaace. Can she produce her own water yet? She'd be incredibly useful in space. You know, I don't know. That'd be something to try if she hasn't. * Kaede snorts, then looks at her. "What? Shooting Haruko into space?" Sure! It'd be fun. * Katie swallows some tea. "Anyway," she continues, "I wonder if it's Satoshi in particular. His, um, potential power sort of... keys into the Reversed World in a way that ours don't." * Kaede sips the noodles. "Honestly? I think it's the connection to the World. But either would make sense..." He sighs. "The latter is more ironic though..." * Katie lets out a small 'heh'. "Yeah." * Kaede frowns for a moment, then sets down the noodles, before shaking his head. "...no. Ugh. No." * Katie blinks and looks at the noodles, then Kaede. "What? It's not the noodles, is it?" * Kaede grumbles. "Just had a thought." He ughs. "We could ask Winston. Jin was the one to take Satoshi in the first place anyway. Maybe that's what he wants..." * Katie nods. "Maybe." I hope we can ask him. He's a hard man to get ahold of. I was only partially joking when I suggested all the chicken... * Kaede nods. "Intentionally so..." He reaches up and rubs his head. "Priority things first..." Then he glances at Katie. "There's not a lot of times where we come together where we're not just planning things lately, is there, Katie Andrews?" Not lately. We might need another lunch for that. * Kaede frowns, looking at the growing cold noodles. "...you know. There *are* other times other than lunch..." His brow furrows in thought. * Katie watches Kaede think. This is one of those times, she figures, when Kaede needs to work through whatever it is and finish without her interrupting. * Kaede sighs, folding on his hand. "That won't work..." What won't? * Kaede pauses, as if considering telling for a moment. "I was...considering inviting you to a lunch Akemi and I were having...friends meeting friends kind of thing...' He looks off as he frowns again. "...then I remembered that friend was Yusuke..." * Kaede glances at her. "Yusuke Fuyuken." * Katie winces slightly. "... Yeah." She lets out a breath. It's okay. We don't have to be in the same group *that* much. ...it's going to be a distancer though... * Katie shakes her head. "Kaede, I..." She taps her fingers on her tea bottle, then stands, abruptly, and paces away, and back, and around the table. * Kaede blinks, freezing for a moment at the sudden movement, watching her come up. His fingers clench around the noodle cup but he doesn't move. Quite possibly making a show of keeping his grip on the cup firm and just watching her, uncertain. * Katie just keeps walking, quickly, and eventually gets back to her seat, but she doesn't sit, instead putting her hands on its back and leaning forward. "I can't. You know, I'm not..." She sits, now, heavily. "We're not really friends." * Kaede chokes, just for a moment. "...neither are Kyon and I...nor Wataru really...but...I do it..." He closes his eyes, fingers shaking a little. "I know it's not the same...." * Katie shakes her head. * Kaede dips his head, mumbling out slightly. "Sorry...." No, it's- * Katie sighs. I'm glad, you know? That Akemi's in your life. That she helps you, and you help her. She's a good person. But I can't- I haven't forgotten. It's like- * Kaede lets it out more. "You don't have to explain it...it's okay..." In a tone that clearly says it's not. Not quite. * Katie hears that tone and she plows ahead. "Taki is bad enough, and we've saved each other's lives so many times, but she is, and right now I don't even know if I can stand her anymore. Someone like Yusuke, or Shi-" She can't even get out the entire name, and she just skips it. "I'd do it for information, for survival. I'd do it *for you*. But I'm not going to say I'd like it." * Katie grips the bottom of her chair as she talks, tightly, almost like she's holding herself in place. * Kaede sighs. Slightly relieved. But not looking at her. "Thank you..." He lets out another breath. "It's okay. I won't ask you to. I won't put you in that position. But it's nice to hear you say..." * Katie nods and says, "Sure," with some difficulty. She doesn't let go of her chair. * Kaede frowns into his noodles. "I *mean* that..." His shoulders sink, a bit more. "It was dumb to even suggest...I shouldn't have suggested it..." * Katie blinks. "No- no, Kaede, it wasn't dumb." And she's not holding her chair anymore, as she leans forwrad and one hand goes out to lightly touch his. "I want to hang out with you, too." * Kaede nods. "We...we should do something fun..." He swallows. "Something we don't have to talk...focus..." He gestures with his free hand. "On all of this..." * Katie nods. "Sure. I'd like that." * Kaede nods, reaching for her hand and giving the fingertips a small squeeze before letting go. "It's so hard balancing a life..." I know. * Katie pulls her hand back, wrapping it (along with the other) around her tea bottle. She rubs off a little condensation. "I'm not that good at it." * Kaede snorts, sipping from the noodle cup. "None of us are. Let's face it." * Katie snorts a laugh. "Some of us like to pretend." She sips her tea and then, out of nowhere: "What class do you have next?" * Kaede blinks, then finishes off the noodles, picking it up. "Business management. Why?" Just wondering. I've got Drawing and Composition, but that's not for another... * Katie checks the time. "Hour." * Kaede frowns. Just a little. "I wish I could miss it..." * Katie smiles slightly. "It's okay. I can only convince people to skip business classes so often." Want to get together after my class, though? If you're not too busy- we could talk about the Shuffle stuff... and I can show you some things I've been working on? There's a painting I've been working on for Haruko and I've got the sketch for it somewhere, even. * Kaede breaks into a small, genuine smile. "I would...thank you..." He gathers his stuff and stands up. "We can at least walk there..." * Katie practically beams at the smile out of Kaede, and she hops up readily. "Yeah." She shoulders her bag and her picks up her nearly empty bottle of tea. "A walk's nice, anyway. Lately I've just wanted to *move*. Maybe I should take up running or something..." [End!]