<@Grysar> [Date: May 5, 2004. Evening, Tokyo time; early morning Maine time.] <@Grysar> [Katie gets home after further texting back an forth with Kyon. There's a cat and a variety of emails waiting for her, but after her settling in and before getting to any of that, she's trying to get ahold of Satoshi. He's up at this hour for his athletics stuff, although she doesn't normally call quite this early, so he may be a little surprised as a result.] <@Grysar> [Start!] * Katie is settled in at her desk with her phone and her computer. She takes a picture of the sketch she made of Kazuko - as realistic as she could manage, but it's on memory - and sends it to Satoshi as an e-mail. Then she texts him: 'hey do you have time to talk soon? phone or video chat ok?' <@Grysar> [ This is not that sketch exactly, but not bad as a reference point: http://bacon.sandwich.net/ardweden/neoarcana/art/kazuko.jpg ] * @Satoshi sends a reply a few minutes later. "Paul is still asleep so can't do video chat. Phone is okay, though." * Katie texts back more or less immediately: 'ok you call. bring your laptop anyway.' * @Satoshi replies: "Okay, give me a few minutes to get it and head over to the library." It's early. There won't be that many people there - at least not many who haven't crashed and fallen asleep studying for finals - so he can probably grab a study room and have some privacy without disturbing anyone by talking. * @Satoshi proceeds to do so, and once he's settled in, he calls Katie. "Hey. What's going on?" * Katie picks up immediately. "Hi. Check your e-mail." * @Satoshi blinks, not that Katie can see it. "Uh, okay." He doesn't ask if something has happened, because, well, obviously something has. And he's kind of been not checking very much the past few days. So he opens up his inbox, and among other things, sees something from Haruko about the World Reversed which seems pretty ominous, and something from Taki with followup from Haruko and Kyon, and then one from Katie about Kazuko Yamagata. * @Satoshi clicks to open that last one. <@Grysar> [And it is indeed a good likeness of Kazuko Yamagata, and while drawn from memory, does capture her face more in detail naturally than small photos available online. There is something a bit familiar about her, although she was supposedly among those rescued in Osaka. Satoshi is welcome to try to figure a situation out if he really wants to explore that familiarity.] <@Grysar> [Satoshi, upon looking at the picture, does recall seeing her face among the kidnapped in Osaka. It was a while back and those few days is a bit of a jumble. Nonethless, she was there, albeit with matted hair and an anemic look, much like the other victims. She stood out slightly in his mind because she was quicker to show some signs of alertness than most, but even that was relative...] <@Grysar> [Now that he looks at her again he remembers there being something a bit familiar about her even back then, though it hadn't been a priority for him at the time. That said, he does hit the limits of his attempt to jog his memory here, though he thinks he may recall more naturally (e.g. no new roll required) if he gets more detail from Katie.] * @Satoshi hasn't actually seen pictures of Kazuko previously, so he stares at the picture for a little while. "She looks familiar... Why does she look familiar? Is it from Osaka? That whole thing was kind of a blur, to be honest." "Yeah, she said we saved her at Osaka. You remember her from then?" * @Satoshi peers at the picture a bit more. "Kiiiiiiiiiiind of? She seemed like she might have been a little less out of it than most of them." <@Satoshi> "But..." * @Satoshi makes a quiet hmm. "She seemed a little familiar even back then, somehow?" "Yeah." * @Satoshi leans back in his chair. "I don't know why, unless I'd seen her around somewhere." * Katie gets up and wanders to her bed, sitting on it. It's kind of strange; she doesn't sleep in it all that much, anymore. "You might have." "While we were in Aomori, I had a dream." <@Grysar> [Looking further at the picture, Satoshi does notice that there's something a bit plain or old fashioned about the way she presents herself. Satoshi hasn't had that much need to pay close attention to make up for a while, not since he switched the main sort of competition he did on ice. Still it does somewhat stand out that Kazuko doesn't particularly glamor herself up, in contrast to say a certain mechanic friend of his when she's dressing to the 9s.] <@Grysar> [And to be clear, it's not that Kazuko doesn't use make up, so much as she just seems to have different objectives with it.] * @Satoshi squints at the picture a bit more. "A dream about Yamagata?" "Kind of. I was... Mikari was... she was a spy for Mitsuko. The World." "And I was her for a while after, and I wanted to contact Mitsuko. So I... I almost called Kazuko." * @Satoshi was about to say something - several things, really - but then Katie says that last part and everything else just scatters. "Wait. What? Why?" "Because Mikari made the connection. It's the way she talks, and her voice, and some things about her face. She was really sure. I'm..." * Katie sighs, looking at the floor. "I'm still pretty sure." She continues, more quietly. "I was confused, and I wanted help. She was one of maybe two people I'd trust." <@Grysar> [Following that logic where it leads, Satoshi attempts to recall his mother's face and finds that he can't. She's a commanding figure in his memory, but also just that, a figure. This is particularly odd because that isn't something he recalled being true even back when Winston told him of his mother's true identity and about his peculiar relationship with Hideo.] <@Grysar> [It's hard to nail down when you stopped remembering something, but at the same time he did recall once searching the house for photos sometime after the final battle. That period really does feel like a blur, in a way that things after did not.] * @Satoshi starts to say something, stops. Swallows. "Kazuko... was?" "When I was Mikari and she was Mitsuko, yeah. I spied for her." * Katie's voice is calm and tired. * @Satoshi takes a few deep breaths. Katie can hear how shaky they are. "You're saying she was... she's... but she's not... I don't... she looks familiar, but..." "Yeah. I was wondering if you'd tell me I was right or wrong. You're the only person I could ask." * @Satoshi closes his eyes. "I'm..." His voice trembles. "I'm having trouble remembering what sh- she... my mom... what she looks like. I didn't..." He stops, takes another breath. "I didn't *used* to have trouble. I don't think I used to ha- have trouble." <@Grysar> [Finally, there's one small part of Satoshi that's oddly certain of something. Hideo Watanabe definitely knows what Mitsuko looks like. There's almost a trace of stubborn pride there, a defiance of a certain Major. He's never had a dream of Hideo. Hideo isn't actually Satoshi's past self in a certain technical sense. But then, to be honest, Hideo is not a past Satoshi ever had that much interest in facing if he had a choice in the matter.] * Katie blinks. "I'm sorry," she says gently. "I didn't think that... I'm sorry." * @Satoshi opens his eyes again. "Well no, no, there's no reason for you to think and... I can still remember some details about her like... does Kazuko wear nail polish?" "I saw her with clear, and without. And I think she went through a punk phase in the past. She has piercings from before." * @Satoshi laughs, though there's a definite edge of hysteria to it. "Piercings is not a thing my mom would have done at all. The nail polish, though... that's... that's consistent." * Katie has calm to match Satoshi's hysteria. "That by itself doesn't mean much." <@Satoshi> "No. It doesn't. But... I remember this, because when Jin showed me the Tower and I looked around, I found nail clippings. With some polish. And it was red polish, and I remembered... my mom, she always wore clear polish. So that's when I thought it was... it was..." His voice drops to a level almost inaudible for people who aren't Katie. "Temperance." * Katie lets out a sigh. "Yeah." Pause. "She had red nails." <@Grysar> [You trying to hold steady here Satoshi, or you letting it out?] * @Satoshi attempts to force some calm into his voice. "Temperance would probably be the best explanation as to why I can't remember things clearly..." <@Satoshi> "Unless I'm just... trying to block it out somehow?" "I don't know. What was done to you, I don't... I'm wondering if the same thing happened to Kazuko, too." * @Satoshi inhales sharply. "What? But... the World and Temperance, they're... they're *working* together, right?" "Do we know that, or were we assuming it?" "Or are they working together now, but not before? I remember Kazuko Yamagata drawing a card from my desk. She drew the Nine of Wands with no tricks." * @Satoshi laughs, sudden and bitter. "Yeah, well, I was the Ace of Wands." "Right, so like I said." <@Satoshi> "What is it about Wands?" "I don't know. I could be wrong. It's just a theory." "But there's that, and there's her powers - enhancing my own, her field - there's that she let me get so close to her and she'd have to have *known* that I'd remember something, if not then, then eventually. And there's Osaka. And her relationship to her parents. That was real. Her trauma seems real. I-" * Katie finally lets the frustration slip through. "I don't *know*, Satoshi. Maybe she doesn't remember a damn thing either. Maybe she didn't cut us off. Maybe she's not against us at all. Or maybe some weird combination. I have no idea." "I've got this piece of information and I'm afraid of what to do with it, but I have to do something. Kyon thinks I should tell everyone and I just..." * Katie bites her tongue to stop herself from talking. * @Satoshi latches on to something Katie said. "Her *parents*. How could my- how could she have parents if she's not Kazuko? Did she replace the real Kazuko?" <@Satoshi> "Do they just look similar enough?" * Katie shakes her head, realizes Satoshi can't hear that, and says, "Don't know yet. We have to look into it." "But if memories can be changed, like yours, then maybe someone changed theirs?" * @Satoshi is quiet again, and then finally, softly says, "It would be a lot to change, though. It's not like me, where I started off really young, and my parents were... what they are." "So we can find out if she's adopted." <@Satoshi> "Yeah. She could be." There's a pause. "I... the memory erasure for me, it wasn't 100% perfect. Occasionally I'll get something. A weird gut feeling thing. Like driving a car actually being kind of familiar, or just... I feel like Hideo knew the World of his time." "That makes sense." * @Satoshi sighs and rubs his forehead. "And if she doesn't know she's not really the Nine of Wands, like me and the Ace of Wands, then her running for Council isn't necessarily some huge evil plan. But..." He pauses again, considers his words. "I can't see the person who was my mom *choosing* to have this done to her. She always had to be in control. *Always*." "Yeah. I get that impression, too." * Katie sighs, flopping back on her bed. "It's a lot of ifs," she says to the ceiling. "But it's why I'm... I'm afraid of telling the others. I just- I don't know." "I told Kyon, and I told you. I really want your help. But if I- I mean, this is only valuable as long as she doesn't know we know. Once she does... or whoever is behind things, or whatever. And- and I don't want to- if she's like you, then I could hurt someone innocent, a new person. Like you. And that's-" * @Satoshi is quiet for a bit. Then he says, "I'll help you. I just... I'm less help than either of us thought, about some of this, but... if she *is* like I am, then..." "What do I even do?" * @Satoshi lets out a long breath. "I don't know. I mean... if you and Kyon know, and ... would it hurt anyone to not say anything at least until I'm back home?" * Katie ughs. "Haruko is basically *campaigning* and Wataru was talking about infiltrating the Council and he might do it on all wrong information." She takes a breath. "Plus, Wataru's more likely than anyone but Taki to just be like 'Oh, here's something I thought once, so it's actually fact!' or 'Here's something *you* thought once, so it's totally true!'" "Plus he's *terrified* of the Council, and your mom, so like, if I give him information, I don't... But if he actually goes through it and has partial or bad information, how can I..." * Katie groans and rolls over, stuffing her face through the blanket of her made bed and into her pillow. * @Satoshi blinks. "I hadn't really interpreted Wataru's thinking about joining Shuffle to find out more as infiltrating the Council, exactly, but... oh god. He'd... Yeah, we can't really say 'oh and by the way, Kazuko Yamagata might actually be The World, aka my mom. Not without more definitive...'" He swallows past the lump in his throat, which is probably on its way to becoming an uncomfortably heavy weight in his stomach. * Katie says, muffled, "Sorry." * Katie may be hard to understand. It's probably more like 'sry', complete with lowercase and no punctuation. <@Satoshi> "Maybe I could ask him not to do anything until I got home, but then he might want to know why, and... well, okay, Haruko trying to campaign for Kyon, that's ultimately good because we might really want him to get the seat, or at least for Kazuko to *not* get it if she's..." Satoshi's voice trails off after that particular ramble. * Katie groans into her pillow some more. She lifts her face out of it to say, more clearly, "This sucks." * @Satoshi ughs. "This *does*. And I can't come home right now because I have this Tower to deal with and I can't just leave it because probably Temperance will get it if I don't take it and she might actually be the power behind it all." <@Satoshi> "Also finals. Still have to finish finals." "Is that going okay?" * Katie rolls over again, back of her head to her pillow. <@Satoshi> "Yeah. Just have one left. Economics. Which is... yeah. I'm not sure how people can actually study it as their thing." "They like it. It's just a bunch of systems, really." <@Satoshi> "Yeah, really not my thing at all." * Katie snerks. "At least now you know, right?" <@Satoshi> "At least now I know." He sighs. "Hm?" <@Satoshi> "Just... thinking about all the things we *don't* know. Or kind of know. Or sort of suspect, but need more evidence." "Yeah." * Katie sighs. "I'll just... Wataru should tell me when he makes a move. If he makes a move. I hope." "Until then, I'll try to look into things. I'll keep you posted, okay?" "Not really sure if I'll tell Kaede or Haruko and when..." * Katie shrugs. "Playing by ear." She obviously kind of hates it. * @Satoshi lets out a small breath. "Okay. And I'll... try to remember things. It's hard when you don't know what you don't know." "Yeah. It's okay." <@Grysar> [End!]