<@Akemi> [Date: May 27, 2004. Time: Late Afternoon.] <@Akemi> [Cafe Kitsune has been getting a lot of traffic as of late! No surprise really, it's secluded. It's familiar. And has a wonderful view of the evening skyline. The diner of choice for fancy meetings. And somewhat awkward ones.] <@Akemi> [A couple days after Haruko had sent her note to Akemi, Akemi had agreed to a small meeting up here, getting together to talk in a place it would be comfortable. Akemi would have tried to get *some* information over the phone, but heavy enough subjects sometimes need to be dealt with in person, so after some relenting, she agreed to be patient (in the best actor-trained pouty voice you could hear) and wait. How much Haruko was willing to elaborate was up to her, but Akemi, being Akemi, didn't press *too* hard.] * @Haruko was willing to elaborate some. This isn't an ambush. Light probing is enough to reveal that she wants to talk about Yusuke. <@Akemi> [Haruko arrives first, receiving a quick text from Akemi that she "got held up for a bit, but on mai wai! ^_^ <3 <3 <3"] <@Akemi> [So she has a little time to settle in, find their table, maybe order something before Akemi arrives. Session Start!] * @Haruko is wearing a white blouse decorated with a motorcycle stitched with shiny pink thread. She has a dark blue miniskirt with two pockets, each outlined with different tools of the mechanics trade, again in shiny pink thread. * @Haruko found out about the thread in a conversation with Akemi and one of the theater wardrobe people after rehersal, and while she did the stitching herself, she relied on Chidori's help for the pockets and owes her a favor in return, probably bicycle maintenance. * @Haruko is lightly made up, with a bit of blush in her cheeks and eyes accentuated. She's devoted more attention to her hair, which is up in a bun in the back and framing her face with bangs. * @Haruko has ordered finger food, edamame if available, and is looking over the cocktail menu as she admires the view. <@Akemi> [The view *is* rather nice, and there's a table here that *does* have a decent view of Tokyo Tower. The skyline spreads out for some quite a ways.] * @Haruko holds up the cocktail menu for a moment between her and the tower. It's hidden away, then visible again. With the tower visible again she mentally rehearses what she wants to talk about, deflating a bit as she casts her mind back to that Fuyuken apartment those two years ago. * @Haruko also texts back the location of the table with and returns the hearts. <@Akemi> [Shortly after, there's the sound of footsteps that sound like low heels walking the wood floor and an overly cheerful cry of "" In comes her target, sporting....well...a midlength white longcoat that goes down past her knees, a widebrimmed matching hat with black lace ribbon and sunglasses, along with her bag at the side and her familiar blond-and-black style. A few steps in, she stops with a grin and pulls down the glasses with a fingertip. "How do I look?"] * @Haruko stands and turns around, even knowing what is to come seeing Akemi lifts some of the care off Haruko's shoulders. "" Her french accent is no better than Akemi's but just as enthusiastic. * @Akemi responds with a quick leaning in after taking off her glasses and a faux kiss to each of Haruko's cheeks before squeezing her shoulders lightly. "" she says with obvious difficulty, all smiles despite everything. "It's my sneaky outfit." And goes to take a seat. * @Haruko sits down as well, smiling. "My sneaking outfits are darker." She lets out a sigh, not keeping as big a smile. "Anything to drink?" * @Akemi responds with "What you have looks good." Then contemplate for a moment as she rests her cheek in her fingers. "Well. I did mean sneaky as in avoiding running into any fans. Kaede said that I needed one, so I got this." She huffs, though playfully. "Then he said I attract *more* attention in something like this. He's neeeeever satisfied." * @Haruko laughs. "I'm familiar." She grins. "But I think you're both right. You attract attention, but it's a different look. Like you're a movie star already. But from a distance I'd think you were a different celebrity, maybe one I didn't recognize." <@Akemi> "Plus you can't tell whether I'm wearing anything underneath or not!" * @Haruko snorts. "Or at least I couldn't if I didn't know how bras work. Which is true of like almost all guys." * @Akemi grins and leans forward a bit, as if going to give Haruko a show. "Spoil sport.." But she *does* take off her hat and coat. Underneath is a rather sensible low cut blouse and midlength skirt as she bunches the coat up on the chair behind her. * @Haruko crosses her legs with a slight smirk at the complaint. "I'm sure you're quite capable of teasing girls, just means you have to work harder." She signals the waiter for a ginger amaretto cocktail for Akemi. * @Akemi doesn't have her drink yet, but that doesn't stop her from picking up her water glass and looking Haruko square in the eye. "Is that an invitation?" she purrs. * @Haruko blinks at that and is quiet for a second. * @Haruko then picks up her glass. "I suppose it would be unfair of me to flee from what my comrades have ably faced." She then loses some of the bravado. "But I don't want to pretend this won't be heavy. So do as you like." * @Akemi takes her tip drinking the water and gives a small grin. At first. But she loses it as the tone drops. "You sound so serious. What's up?" * @Haruko bites her lip. "So it's about your old friend. I saw the ad for your performance together on Shuffle. And..." <@Akemi> "It was pretty great, right?" <@Akemi> [Insert normal Akemi bounciness here. Leaning forward, light bounce. The whole works.] * @Haruko nods. "It was." She takes a deep breath. "But it also made me think of the one time we'd negotiated with one another. And I want to be clear at the start that I made a lot of mistakes back then, have things I'm still ashamed of, hurt people in ways I can't heal. But..." * @Akemi reaches forward for Haruko's hand from across the table, if she'll take it, and gives a little light squeeze. "It's okay. You can tell me. I know this is hard. I don't know *what's* so hard but I can see it's hard..." * @Haruko reaches out her hand, palm up, accepting the squeeze. "I was in his power and I felt taken advantage of. Pretty badly. And maybe that just means I'm a fool. But I don't want anyone else to have to feel that." * @Akemi looks confused for a moment. "In his power?" She bites her lip, just a little. "Are we still talking about....about Yu-chan?" * @Haruko nods. "Yes. And he had his reasons. But I think it might be easiest if I just told the story, as fairly as I can, and let you judge for yourself. Is that okay?" * @Haruko starts. "So it was that terrible night." She pauses as Akemi's drink arrives and then continues. She covers Katie leading the raid, Taki and Haruko in support. They talked to and fought Yusuke and Tenjirou; Haruko was only shielding but she doesn't make a big deal of that. Katie fell to Yusuke's torturous touch. Taki evacauated her. "He told me Katie would die if I did not do what he asked. That's when the negotiation started." * @Akemi's cocktail has arrived by this point but she's barely even touched it. It's more for the coolness than anything. After it seems like Haruko is done, she's still quiet for a long while. Thinking. * @Haruko gives her a little time before continuing. Reinforcements in the form of Kaede and Ryuji arrived, the gang was desperate to find a way to save Katie. Haruko's promise that she herself would not return was deamed not enough. She offered him a favor, but the only one he would accept would be to heal Tenjirou. She went in to the apartment and his sister was there along with Tenjirou, who was calling for Haruko's death. * @Akemi is now shaking a bit with the glass, with a quiet "stop..." * @Haruko stops. After half of a minute has past with the lightest of touches she squeezes Akemi's hand back. * @Akemi withdraws it, picking up the drink and gives a wonderful smile. "This cocktail is lovely isn't it?" * @Haruko nods and takes a drink of her own. She can't feign a smile. "It is." * @Akemi drinks it. Slowly. And then sets the glass back on the table again. "So how is the motor club going?" Her eyes are certainly more on her glass than they are on Haruko, though she might see a bit of reflection. * @Haruko smiles a little. "Good. Do you remember Maki? She went to pick up your extra outfits on the photo shoot day and then took over clipboard duty when I modeled." She picks up an edamame and removes the peas. "She's now club president. I campaigned for her some, but I think it was really her platform of more snacks that won. And she's already delivered." * @Akemi visibly relaxes a little and graces a glance. "Well of *course* more snacks would win! Everyone loves more snacks!" She glances at the bowl of edamame they've half worked through. "Should we order some?" * @Haruko nods. "Let's." She glances at the menu and then adds quietly. "When I was younger and dumber, I sometimes thought Maki was too harsh on the boys. But I was seeing things from my perspective and not hers. Now that I know her better, she's one of my dearest friends and there are things about her persective that I understand that someone else wouldn't. I'll never forget the the ways we've tried to protect each other." * @Akemi chances a grin and leans in closer. "Oh harsh on boys is okay. Boys can take it, right?" She sips a little with a look of mischief in her eyes, then breaks it. "Friends can be hard sometimes. Sometimes friends do pretty stupid things..." She's playing a little with the edge of the glass. * @Haruko leans in herself. "I could tell so many stories." She can't quite manage the mischief but she does take a drink and lick her lips. "But my friends could tell even more about me." * @Akemi almost jumps right in at that. "Tell me one about Kaede! He never tells me anything embarrassing about himself!" * @Haruko mentally reiews the book of Kaede grievances and rejects all entries. "One time, in one of our adventures, we'd all been knocked out and his past self kind of influenced him for a while." She gives her most genuine smile in a bit. "Imagine how serious Takeuchi-kun can be about things, only instead of your career, or our safety, it was about his missing hat." * @Akemi grins, leaning forward on her hands. "A *hat*?" Her eyes twinkle with a look that just *screams* 'ammunition.' * @Haruko nods. "A hat." She gets a real wide grin of someone that probably should feel bad about this but doesn't. Her tone then gets serious again. "I believe in you Shiraishi-chan and anyone that is a dear friend of yours must have depths and virtues I don't know about. How about we eat something and then I finish the story but try to tell it from his perspective and then fill in some of parts he didn't know. Sometimes we hurt people for reasons we don't see at the time and those are the mistakes we can learn the most from." * @Akemi pauses as the subject matter changes. She blinks again. "You did call me out here..." she hesitates. "But I'm not going to choose between friends. I already told Kaede that much..." She flicks her gaze up at her for a moment. "It's still weird you call him Takeuchi-san..." * @Haruko takes a drink. "Sometimes when I'm trying to fix broken things, I try to follow all the rules. But that often just involves doing stuff Takeuchi-- ano-- kun doesn't care about." She slowly swirls her drink. "I won't ask you to choose. I think my friends make mistakes sometimes, sometimes we fight about it, but we fight so hard because we care about each other." * @Akemi nods, her response accompanied with a small, distant smile. Probably a sad one. "People do really stupid things in a war...." She looks up at Haruko. "Someone smart probably said that. There's a soldier in the play I'm studying right now. Maybe he says that." * @Haruko asks about her role in the play, talks a little about what she thinks the play says about war, and catches up some on Akemi's life and work while they order more food and remind each other of some of the happier things going on in their lives, before too long their bellies are bit less empty and the second round of cocktails has arrived. * @Akemi does talk about the play, although if Haruko knows the arts she knows it's more of an Opera about a Gypsy named Carmen. She hasn't gotten too far into it so only knows that there's a soldier that falls in love ("Isn't it romantic?!") and then....some stuff happens to him, she's not entirely sure what. But there's supposed to be a bull fighter in it too who is competing for the love. As for the topic of war, after her initial statement, she tends to avoid it entirely ("But wouldn't Kaede be just so *dashing* as a bullfighter?"). Not that Satoshi isn't competition for that role as well with the power of his hockey abs. * @Akemi continues to talk. About life. About her latest gigs (that aren't the big musical). About fashion. Whether Haruko's seeing anyone currently. You know. The important stuff. * @Haruko plays along with the casting game and praises Takeuchi-kun's ability to dress the part before talking a little about different mediums. She doesn't know Carmen specifically but from what Noriko-chan, "You met her briefly, she was handling make up for everyone else at the motorclub shoot," says they tend to end sadly but passionately. * @Haruko also dishes a bit on her own personal life, dumped again, boys just want one thing from her: attention. She's trying to enjoy being single for a bit and focusing on her projects. * @Haruko then slowly brings the conversation around again to serious topics and reaches out her hand to Akemi. "Ready?" * @Akemi ends with looking in her the eyes. "They should be giving *you* attention. After all. When we can, we should get Anatoly to make you up *sharp*." She takes in a slow breath. "I'll try to stay serious. Serious stuff usually sucks though..." * @Haruko looks tempted by that offer and then starts by recontextualizing a little. At this point Fuyuken-san has no reason to trust her or value her promises. She notes that even when the time pressure was off, we couldn't find a way to reach a deal. She then picks up in the apartment, Tenjirou wants her dead, she meets his sister for the time. * @Haruko continues, "I give her my best smile and lay out what we were trying to do." Haruko gives the smile, Akemi's a better actress and can likely see through it, but it's pretty charming. "And his sister is willing to hear me out as she starts groping me. He probably thought I was being diabolical, trying to turn his sister against him. But, um... I just smiled at her and asked for help." * @Akemi's mouth remains neutral as she hears the second part of the story. At the description of Shika, there's a fairly flat "Yeah. She does that." Her lips thin a little. "She's kind of grown out of it..." * @Haruko looks at Akemi for a moment. She gives a small sympathetic nod. This may be a topic for another day. "Yeah. So she said she was doing it for Natsuko but she could let us slip by but couldn't do anything to really stop the cycle of violence with that. And when she made her offer, so her brother didn't hear what she wanted in return." Haruko waits a beat and then quietly repeats what Shika whispered to her in roughly the same tone as best she can remember it. * @Akemi doesn't react *nearly* as much to that as maybe she should. "She's never been the best at subtlety." She pauses as she figures more's expected of her here. "Did you accept it?" * @Haruko shakes her head. "I considered it." She takes a swig of her drink. "I felt more defiled by what I did instead. I healed the man who kidnapped me once. Who held a gun to my head when I went to rescue another friend he kidnapped and whose power convinced me that he truly loved me and I loved him even while I was his hostage." * @Haruko can barely contain a snarl and finishes her drink. "But I was most afraid he'd go on to do that to someone else because of my healing. But Fuyuken-san didn't know about what he'd done to me specifically. Maybe it would have gone differently if he did. Maybe he wouldn't have thought me just some temptress who would do whatever it took to win." * @Akemi reaches for Haruko's hand if she can, giving it more of a squeeze. "But you were afraid, right? We've all done things we're not proud of when we're afraid. Even I..." And she clams up a little at that. * @Haruko holds her hand and nods. "I was afraid Katie would die if I didn't make a deal." She closes her eyes and then reopens them. "I want you to know how much I respect you Akemi-chan. How you've tried to build peace, how you've found non-violent solutions. How you've done things I wished I could do while making it look so easy." Her tone lowers a bit. "And I want you to know if you've been exploited along the way, they should be ashamed of that, not you." * @Akemi perks up a little and gets another bounce in her chair. "" she draws out. And the smile seems truly genuine. * @Haruko smiles back. "" She then lets out a breath and relaxes a little. "So that's my story. If you have any questions, I'll answer them as best I can. If you want to share anything, now or later, I'll listen as someone that's been there." * @Akemi frowns a little at that. As if she was expecting something more. "Why...I'm still not sure. Why did you want me to know all this?" <@Haruko> Because even if Fuyuken-san had his reasons, he left someone he was negotiating with feel terrified, tricked, and defiled. I think he knows how treat someone he respects, cares for, and isn't afraid of. But even though the war is over, there will be times in both industry and the Council where he may have real power over people. And the man he was then didn't know how to hold back and draw lines. And I don't know that the man he is now does either. <@Akemi> "So don't vote for him. It's that simple." * @Haruko shakes her head. "I'd bet my motorcycle that if we had a secret vote and could pick any Pentacle for Council, it would be you." She looks Akemi dead on, as she believes the star knows it too. "But you're not running, and that's fine. But if you do an event with him, advertised on Shuffle, in the middle of an election, people will think that they'll get someone like you if they vote for him." <@Haruko> You know how advertising works Shiraishi-chan, even if the message isn't political, it's the easiest thing in the world for people to think he'll treat them with the same principles that you treat them. And some of the time, he really won't. * @Akemi sighs and shakes her head. "Sometimes people are dumb." She looks at Haruko seriously. "That's why I have Takeuchi-san." * @Haruko nods. "But Takeuchi-san's job is to protect you. To make sure you have a chance to do what's important to you, even if he disagrees. But not everyone has a Takeuchi-kun." * @Akemi freezes, just for a moment, as if considering her words and what to do with them. She slowly sets down her glass as a frown traces her made-up lips as if considering what to say. "Maybe you don't give people enough credit..." she says simply, standing quickly and picking up her coat. "Thanks for inviting me..." And she seems about to say more, looking at Haruko one last time before she makes her way out. * @Haruko swiftly moves to grab Akemi's wide brimmed black ribboned hat and shades and to hand them to her. "Thank you for listening to the whole story. " She lets her hands brush against Akemi's in the hand off but otherwise doesn't seek to detain her. * @Akemi thanks Haruko with a brief nod. There's a brief moment where Haruko catches that she's holding back tears but amazingly stoic with it. She heads on out again. * @Haruko returns to the table and looks out at the the city with less trepedation. Then when no one is looking, she pours the remains of Akemi's drink into her own cup. She's paying for it after all. <@Akemi> [Session End.]