[Wednesday 11/19/2003. Early evening, at the Kyon/Katie apartment!] 06* Haruko had swung by to maintain Kyon's bike down in the garage. She came up afterwards, fiddled with her phone outside the door, hesitated a moment, and then gave three crisp knocks. 06* Katie looks up from her chemistry notes at the knock. She hesitates for a moment - long enough for Kumaguro to jump down from the table and trot into one of the side rooms - then stands, stretching. She walks over to the door and looks through the peephole. 06* Katie blinks, then opens the door enough for her face to show. "Haruko?" 06* Haruko was shifting from one foot to the other somewhat nervously. "Oh, hi Katie." She gives a slightly disappointed smile. "I don't suppose Kyon is actually around and just has a phone that's out of power or has decided not to answer texts for, I don't know, spiritual reasons or some such?" Her tone is not worried, but nor does it show much hope in either possibility. 06* Haruko carries her tools and folded up coveralls in a bag. She had taken the time to freshen up some after working on the bike. There's still a smudge or two on her shoes, but otherwise she's presentable in a light blue sweater and jeans. 01 No. He's just out. 06* Katie glances Haruko over again. "Were you working on his bike?" 06* Haruko sighs and then nods. "Oh, you know that slight hiss it was making when braking? Sort of the abrupt, uh--" She pauses, purses her lips, and then exhales for a half second. 06* Katie nods, frowning a little. "Yeah? I pointed that out to him after the third time. Did you fix it?" Yup. No real risk, but he'd probably notice the longer stopping distance within another few weeks. I was also hoping to borrow it this weekend for a photo shoot. I texted over some choices of times, but he hasn't gotten back to me. 01 A photo shoot? What for? 06* Haruko holds up her bag a bit, shifting the obvious weight of her tools from off her shoulder. "Oh, it's fundraising calendar time again. Well, actually I borrowed it a month ago for something myself, but," She smiles broadly "This time we've got Akemi! I still don't believe it." 06* Katie blinks in surprise, then smiles. "You got Akemi? That's great! How is she?" 06* Katie realizes Haruko's still standing out in the hallway and opens the door the rest of the way. She's wearing a pair of dark blue sweat pants and a white cotton t-shirt, with no slippers because she's a barbarian. Good, good. Well, I think. I made the arrangements through Takeuchi-san. She... they... seem to be doing really well. Apparently she's going to be hitting the international... Oh, thank you. 06* Haruko steps in, removes her shoes and switches to guest slippers, laying down her bag so that it doesn't block the door. "Circuit sometime soon, but recently she made a real big splash at the auto shows." 06* Katie closes the door after her. "Sure. The bag looked heavy. Do you want something to drink?" Oh, some tea would be lovely. And yeah, I've tried taking a limited set of tools for his bike, but it will not accept compromises. ::She glances around for Kumaguro:: 06* Katie notices Haruko's look and says, "He went into Kyon's bedroom." She heads into the kitchen area to brew some tea. 06* Haruko looks over to the bedroom, but decides to stick with Katie, following to the kitchen area. "How have you been?" 06* Katie puts on the kettle and starts taking down some tea things, including, well, tea. "Busy. Not as busy as Kyon with his five hundred things, but busy. Lots of labs, um... I was in the art exhibition a couple of weeks ago. That was fun." Really? Can I see what you were showing? 01 Sure. 06* Katie sets cups on the counter and waves for Haruko to follow her as she heads back towards her room, passing by the dining/kitchen table filled with chemistry notes, her lab book, and her textbook. 06* Haruko follow. "Thanks for letting me interrupt. I've found sophomore year to be a *little* easier. I learned some things... that you probably already knew. Mainly I found a study group. Which causes its own problems, though it worked out this time. 01 Yeah? I've never really had a study group, and Kyon's not studying anything in the same *ballpark* as me. 06* Katie pauses, then adds, "Though I guess I'm the one not in the ballpark." She opens her bedroom door, and Kumaguro zips by them into the room. "Hi," she says to the cat. 06* Haruko giggles at that last line. "I find it helps. I mean maybe... oh hello Kumaguro, maybe you can breeze through this college-level material, but after I was through the intros I needed some help. I mean, the labs are mostly still easy enough but..." 06* Katie laughs. "I don't think I'm *breezing*. But it is pretty fun." She steps in. 06* Haruko steps in after and then walks over to where the painting rests, crouching down to examine it closer. "Oh, that's why artists climb trees. I understand now." She then grins. "Ooh... that looks like Eriko's slouch." And frowns slightly. "She seems small somehow." Suddenly self- conscious she amends her statement. "I guess just the height. Been a while since I was up on the roof." 01 [Katie's bedroom is far more *Katie* than anything else in the apartment, which mostly has Kyon stamped all over it. She has a desk with a sketchbook, some pencils, and a laptop that's not top of the line, but it looks serviceable for Katie's needs; a bookcase with books both in Japanese and English, mostly nonfiction; and some carvings scattered about that she probably took from home. Her bed is unmade and has a Kumaguro sitting there, staring at them. The painting Haruko's looking at is propped on a chair.] 06* Katie steps up behind Haruko to look at it, herself. "It was on purpose." 06* Haruko looks at it longer, curious. "Oh?" Her tone then flattens slightly. "Oh. I think I see." 06* Katie shrugs and goes to sit on her bed, petting Kumaguro head to tail. He stretches out a bit. 06* Haruko then carefully stands up and turns around. "It comes through quite strongly somehow. And, I guess I can't say it isn't fair..." Haruko trails off and then looks to her host. "So, understanding that you're busy, I was wondering if I might ask you a favor. It's for a good cause and if I keep waiting on Kyon it may never happen." And before she can continue, the tea kettle whistles. 06* Katie looks at Haruko, a little confused and a little curious. The kettle whistles, and she stands and walks out to take care of that. 06* Haruko follows after. She tries to first pick up Kumaguro, but he isn't having it and she doesn't insist. "So, you may think this is another one of my dumb ideas, but do you know anything about tidal power?" 06* Katie doesn't look back. "Not really." She makes it to the kettle and turns off the burner, then pours water into the pot. Simple version, similar principle to dams except they exploit the change in tides. They don't work everywhere, you want a large variance for it to be worth it. More mechanically challenging then dams though, and vulnerable to storms and other such things. Probably a lot better for the environment, though some civil engin... I'm getting ahead of myself. 06* Katie grins a touch at Haruko. "A little." 06* Haruko looks relieved at the grin. "So, they're easier than fusion, but still hard. But with the right training, smart colleagues, maybe a decade or two of hard work, and some carefully concealed supernatural powers, I think I might be able to figure them out." 01 You'd need to be pretty careful. 06* Katie pours out two cups of tea and hands one to Haruko, taking the other for herself. She blows across the top. 06* Haruko nods takes the tea. "That's why I was asking Kyon for help, I need to test something. And it's a little complicated so I can't just ask Hibiki-san." She takes a sip of her tea distractedly and then swiftly removes it from her lips, hotter than she thought. 06* Katie tilts her head. "What do you need to test- Hibiki-san?" 06* Haruko 's eyes widen slight. "Oh, he's our top soccer star. Our only soccer star I think, I'm not really sure. Anyways..." Haruko speaks a bit quicker, "I think my powers might give me a better understanding than even a simulation. But I don't know. If I can just repair them that helps some, but it's harder to hide and won't scale." 01 But why would you need *Ken's* help? Or Kyon's, or mine? 06* Haruko doesn't notice that emphasis on any particular name, no indeed. "I want to test if I can tell which of a few turbine models work best. I can do it with combustion engines, but I know those back and forth, so maybe I'm just fooling myself. I've found some models designs I can use, but I'd need to do a blind test to see if I can replicate their outcomes." 01 ... Okay? 06* Haruko actually has more than tools in her bag, now that Katie know what she's on about. She probably is carrying a few pieces with her that she could use to test. She also had a list of papers on her phone, visible through the peephole, so it'd probably involve reading up and seeing if the official results matched what Haruko found. All that said... 06* Haruko 's choice of people that she was considering working with all seem to be people that she wants to work with in principle, including Ken. Haruko actually has a little confidence that this isn't a dumb idea for once and would love to hear Katie say that. I'd like your help as a lab partner for an experiment. I can run some tests, but even if I look at the papers afterwards it's too easy for me to rationalize how I was right. I mean, I think this was possibly what I was meant to do, a way we can actually help the world rather than just cleaning up our own messes! 06* Katie looks at Haruko for a long moment before she says, "I don't think you were *meant* to do anything." 06* Haruko lays down her tea. "Maybe you're right. Or maybe it’s worse and we were made for war. But we can be find our own purpose, whether guided by the Kami or by our own dreams." 06* Katie snerks. "Yeah. I think it's a pretty good thing to want to do. Sure. I'll help, but we're going to have to be extra careful if you start faking data to prove it works in ten years." 06* Katie sips her tea, spots Kumaguro padding out of her room, and sets it down. 06* Haruko rushes forward and hugs Katie. "Thank you! Do you have any time today? This will be a lot easier if I can get the test done before the photo shoot." 06* Haruko smiles. "But whenever you can help, I really appreciate it. I know we've had... I knew if I found the right thing, you'd help if you could." 06* Katie stiffens briefly in surprise, but she hugs back after a moment. "You're welcome?" 01 And sure. Kyon won't be back for a while, and I've only got... another half hour of homework to do anyway. 06* Haruko goes to get out some turbines and puts a few alligator clipped papers on the table. "We could do it in here or we could use the service sink in the garage. Less of a mess but more exposed." 06* Katie takes this moment to go shut her bedroom door. "Let's stick to the kitchen. It's easiest to clean." [And so they experimented. Haruko put one turbine and then another in the sink and simulated tide effects. At times her hands was merely resting at one edge and at other moments her hand melted into the sink at high tide before reforming as the water sank. She tried to maintain absolute focus while doing so... could she?] [Apparently the turbine blades do not faze this particular water-witch. Sometime later, she's largely written up the results. And Katie can pick a good moment to press!] 06* Katie sits nearby, drying her hands with a towel. She got a little wet over the course of all of that! "Were the results what you were looking for?" 06* Haruko grins as she looks over Katie's validation of the results she wrote up. "Better really. Well, that's not true, I'll admit I really thought I should be able to do this. But I caught all the properties that we could reasonably simulate given the materials at hand. I should probably have used salt water. Might have matched observation 3B. But, it'll do. I'm not crazy." Haruko looks over at her lab partner. "Well, at least this idea isn't crazy. Don't want to over claim." 06* Katie rolls her eyes. "You're not crazy," she says as she slides her own results over. 01 And it was a good idea. 01 I didn't know you and Ken were that close, though. Man... this is a weird week, I... Oh. Well, he's in the automotive club. He's got the summer months. Cuter than Senpai from last year, but please don't tell anyone I said that. 06* Haruko goes looking for Kumagoru and finds him easily enough, though when she crouches down to pet him, he's evasive. 06* Katie grins at Haruko and the cat. "I won't." She sips her now cold tea. "He is pretty cute," she agrees. 06* Haruko relaxes slightly. "And it would be nice to have someone to talk to... y'know." 01 No? 06* Haruko looks quizzically at Katie. "Look, I can chat with Satoshi, but with time zones and my classes and his classes, there's only so many chances. And Kyon, well." She gestures over at his room. "Like you said, busy busy. Not that I'm. Well. There's things I can't talk to Kenta or Takumi about." 01 So you're going to talk to Ken? He's clueless. ... Unless you clued him in. Or someone else did? 06* Haruko waves a hand in the direction of the sink and the remaining water on her hand floats over to go down the drain. "No... I don't know." She sits down. "I haven't told him anything." She looks at Katie. "Completely clueless? Man, really not lab partner material." 06* Haruko then manages to get Kumaguro to sit still to be petted, offending moisture removed. 06* Katie laughs. "I don't know. Ken... lets anything that gets in the way of how he sees the world wash over him." 01 And besides three or four times, nothing touched on him to drag him in. That I know of. Maybe I'm wrong. 06* Katie watches Haruko sit and pet the cat for a few more seconds before she asks, "Are you friends with him?" 06* Haruko nods and stares at the cat. "I'll be careful with what I say. It's not even the talking so much. I just feels different around him. Back when we all drove out to a club west of town." She shakes her head. "Not really. I think I was even kind of mean to him the last time we talked. I'm probably being irrational." [Kumaguro doesn't like the staring and stretches and then plods off.] 06* Katie blinks. "Was he being mean to you?" 06* Haruko seems to be fixed on something from her last conversation with Ken. Despite her dismissing her feelings as irrational, they seem very much in play. Her tone is one she's used in the past when she fears she's doing something wrong, but she isn't giving any indicators of deception at the moment. It came through most strongly when she mentioned Kenta and Takumi. No. Just normal Ken being Ken. And he claims that despite his notorious serial monogamy he at least has the decency to be clear about who he's dating. As if clarity is all that matters. 01 ... Are you seeing more than one person? Without *telling* them? 06* Haruko looks straight at Katie. "I don't lie. I don't keep big secrets. I'm clear that I'm not in an exclusive relationship with anyone. Is that so wrong?" 01 You keep plenty of big secrets, and it *is* wrong if they don't get that. People get really tangled in these things. You remember how- how I hurt Chikako, even though she and Kyon were never close. 06* Haruko wraps her arms around herself. "Those secrets don't count... or maybe they do." She closes her eyes squeezing them shut. "Maybe it is wrong. But I'm not like you Katie. I don't have a romantic Kyon. Kami- curse it I don't even have a Kaede or a Taki. If you’re right... I may not have, I may not deserve, anyone. [Pause!]