[January 1, 2004!  It's a new year!  The day is clear and cold, and Satoshi, 
Haruko, and Taki have made plans to meet up and go ice skating at one of 
those outdoor rinks that tend to pop up in the winter.  It's early in the 
afternoon, so the sun is still reasonably high in the sky.  Maybe there will 
be dinner afterwards.  Who knows?]
[Session Start!]
* Satoshi waits at the rink, a pair of figure skates dangling from his hand. 
He's wearing his Maine jacket once again, and his blue and black scarf. He 
scans the crowd, looking for the others to arrive.
* Haruko approaches from bike parking. She wearing multiple layers, including 
a jacket over a hoodie, leggings, and a mid-length skirt. She eagerly hustles 
to the meeting place.
* Satoshi waves to Haruko. He's wearing loose-fitting black pants and a 
long-sleeved T-shirt under his jacket.
* Taki arrives from a more public transportation type of direction and has 
opted for pants, sweater, coat, and a new looking bobble hat. Presumably her 
hockey skates are in the backpack she's wearing.
* Haruko waves at Satoshi and then Taki. She then smiles over at her knight. 
"Nice hat! That's so cute."
* Taki waves back. "Thanks!
* Satoshi waves to Taki as well. "Is that new? I don't remember it from last 
time."
* Taki nods. "Christmas present from Mikage, she said I'd freeze my ears if I 
didn't wear it."
<Satoshi> Ears are definitely good things to have.  Did you bring skates?
<Taki> My old hockey skates, they haven't fallen apart yet, and it's not like 
I'm going to do much fancy skateing.
<Satoshi> Hockey skates are made to be pretty durable.  So we just need to 
get Haruko a rental pair, and we'll be all set.
* Haruko thinks for a moment. "Great. Well, let's gear me up." She heads to 
the rink entrance before glancing back at Taki. "Mikage-san is the one that 
dates... Kenji-san, right?"
* Taki nods. "Yep."
* Haruko beams a bit. "Great." She then softly repeats to herself. 
"Mikage-san dates Kenji-san and has good taste in hats."
[And before too long everyone is on the ice. Although Haruko's still clinging 
to the edges a bit as she awaits guidance.]
* Satoshi demonstrates proper pushing off and gliding tehcnique.
* Taki demonstrats her grasp on knowing how far away to stand from a friend 
so that you can catch them if they slip, but not so close that you get taken 
out by a flailing limb.
* Haruko had hung up her outer jacket as she headed on the ice, although 
she's still wearing a pair of earmuffs and gloves. Her hoodie, hood presently 
down, has been embroidered on the front to has the name of a 2003 all-weather 
automotive race. On the back is embroidered, in english, <Seasons Don't Fear 
the Reaper>.
* Haruko follows along as best she can.
* Haruko starts to get out a bit from the wall, taking to the lessons easily 
and even remembering a bit from the first time she skated. As she pushes out 
a bit further from safety though, she hits a rough spot and quickly loses her 
balance.
* Taki darts in from the side and grabs Haruko's arm while sliding one of her 
legs in front of her to keep her skate under her center of mass. "Whups! I've 
gotcha!"
[There's laughter from nearby. It's a guy, and it's obnoxiously familiar. Ken 
skates over; close by is a fairly pretty girl with braids, purple earmuffs, 
and a slightly turned up nose. She's probably his date. "Way to go, Kinsha," 
he says.]
* Haruko had a pouty frown as she regains her balance after flailing enough 
to draw the comment. She then shoots Taki a smile and shakes her head grins 
upon hearing the comment from Ken. "I'm still training. Give me some more 
training from these pros and I'll be faster than you on ice too."
[He laughs. "Yeah, right." And skates off with his new year's date!]
* Haruko shrugs and claps her hands together. "Right, training montage time."
* Taki turns to glare at Ken. "Go, away." And arbruptly his skating off turns 
to his tripping when one of his skates decides to attach itself to the ice.
* Satoshi skates back over just in time to see Ken fall as Taki is supporting 
Haruko.
[Ken does indeed trip, although he has enough training to fall away from his 
date and fold his legs into a smoother landing rather than falling full flat 
on his face or backside. When he gets back up, he comments to his possible 
New Year's date, "Lamer, still stuck with her high school gang and their high 
school games."]
* Haruko notes the fall but isn't entirely sure what to make of it. She looks 
at Taki in a quesitoning manner for a moment.
[Ken's date snorts and helps him up. He brushes it off and gets up on his own.]
* Taki is in the midst of going from schadenfreude to embarasement at the 
fact that she probably did that.
* Haruko notes the embarrassment. "C'mon, we can all practice greater control."
* Satoshi ignores Ken. He's apparently been taking lessons from Kaede on 
pointless wastes of his valuable time.
* Satoshi reaches out to Haruko. "Need a hand for a bit?"
* Taki rubs her face. "Urgh. They're way too easy. Okay, gotta cheer up."
* Haruko reaches back, and the training resumes. Haruko shrugs off the 
embarrassment for now, knowing she'll pay a price later. She focuses on the 
training for a bit and only after the group begins making slow circles around 
the rink does she refocus on conversation.
* Haruko smiles as she moves slowly, shifting her weight from one leg to the 
other. "So Satoshi, any more America stories to share now that we've got you 
in person? You had said the very end of the year was interesting..."
<Satoshi> Well, I managed not to flunk Chemistry with Katie's help, we found 
out Taki's friend is in a long-distance relationship with my roommate, and I 
did some impromptu figure skating.
* Haruko nods along in a friendly manner, she knew some of this but good to 
get confirmation before she whips her head around. "Figure skating? Like as a 
silly end of year hockey thing?" The distraction throws off her glide for a 
moment, but she recovers this time.
<Taki> Congrats on passing. Oh and you can tell Paul-san that Shizaru thinks 
the bear is very cute.
<Taki> ... Or maybe she'll tell him herself.
* Haruko looks to Taki. "Oh, you swapped gifts for them, that's sweet." She 
then resumes looking at Satoshi.
* Taki grins and nods.
* Satoshi answers Taki first. "Thanks, and I'll make sure to pass it along 
regardless." Then he looks at Haruko. "Yeah, I was just goofing off with the 
team and I decided to do some jumping. Still got it, apparently."
* Haruko eyes widen slightly. "Jumping? Wow! Wait... still got it?"
* Satoshi blinks. "Oh! Uh... yeah. I used to figure skate. It helps with my 
hockey skating and all... Taki's seen me do it, a little."
* Taki nods. "Mostly when nobody else was around."
* Haruko 's repeats back the word, her tone a both curious, flummoxed, and 
just a tad accusatory. "You used to figure skate?" Satoshi may recognize this 
tone from the one time when Haruko learned that Satoshi's "father" had left 
some alcohol in the apartment, long after she would have had an opportunity 
to take advantage of it.
<Satoshi> Yeah.  Uh.  It was a while ago.  I didn't talk about it much 
because I thought people would tease me about it.
* Haruko frowns. "Tease you? I wouldn't tease..." She then stops skating for 
a moment. "Fine, I would have teased you some. But only because I'd want to 
see! That's so cool! It's like normal dancing but everything way harder!"
* Taki dodges around the suddenly slower moving Haruko. "I don't think 
dancers have to worry about tripping over their own tracks either."
* Haruko wobbles as Taki skates around her and she realizes that she's being 
an obstruction.
* Satoshi grins a bit at Taki.
* Haruko starts glidding again, no longer accusatory, just excited to have 
such cool friends. Her feelings of nervousness from earlier seem to be fading 
as she fully commits to the skating. "This is true, so Taki, do you figure 
skate at all?"
* Taki shakes her head "I've had the wrong kinda skates since the start, and 
if I get mad at myself for falling, well ..."
<Satoshi> You shouldn't get mad at yourself... but it's hard sometimes, I know.
* Haruko nods. "Right then..." She looks suddenly quite serious at Satoshi. 
"As a penance for hiding this from me and as a reward for being good and not 
teasing you, your sentence is to teach us a simple move. Obviously way 
simpler in my case." She then gives Taki a quick glance. You're backing her 
up, right Taki?
* Taki turns so she's skating backwords while facing Haruko. "First we get 
you so that you're steady going around the rink! Then if your legs are still 
good we think about getting fancy."
* Satoshi nods. "I think Taki's right."
* Haruko harumphs. "Fine... Let's do this. But first, how does iceskating 
actually physically work? It's not really something I've covered in physics. 
Normally we look at skis or other low friction surfaces on ice but that 
doesn't seem the same."
* Satoshi glides a bit. "I've... never really thought about how it works."
* Taki raises a hand. "I've got this one, and it's why my power keeps 
screwing with me. See, the pressure from the metal runners actually melts the 
ice so there's a layer of water between the blade and the ice. Which is why 
the friction is so low."
* Haruko smiles, "Oooh, look at you. Combining research and practical 
applications. Now that is helpful..."
* Haruko smiles warmly as she says that and looks hopeful that Taki might 
acknowledge it.
* Taki shakes her head, "Not, as helpful as I'd like. I had a plan where I'd 
ask Katie to help me with ice sculpting. Only it turns out that normal ice 
sculpting works by cutting away ice not adding it. And I haven't found 
anything else that works by adding layers of things except sand sulptures, 
sort of. And what I have made isn't worth showing off yet."
<Satoshi> At least you're trying something interesting.
* Haruko giggles. "That's engineering Taki. Ideas don't work immediately out 
of the box, you have to experiment and iterate. I'll look forward to seeing 
what you make when you're ready even if it's rough."
* Taki looks torn. "Ahhhh. When I'm ready."
* Haruko nods. "I'll wait." She then declares, "So, I've actually been 
skating on water this whole time eh? I should be trying harder." She takes 
off at a faster pace, showing more confidence on the ice but likely requiring 
her friends to save her a few more times. Sometime later, it's announced that 
there's five minutes left until the ice needs to be cleared for the zamboni.
* Haruko carefully slows catching a side and turning around. "Alright, we're 
running out of time and I've made two laps without needing help. I believe 
I've earned a single figure skating move."
* Haruko did talk with Taki some about her artwork in the intervening time, 
she didn't learn too much directly, but paid attention to how Taki spoke 
about it.
<Satoshi> Okay, so, spinning.
* Haruko clasps her hands together and listens attentively.
<Satoshi> First I'm going to show you one, then I'll talk about how I do it.
* Satoshi starts moving in a larger circle, before pulling his leg in and 
rotating faster and faster in a smaller circle. Then he stops and grins.
* Satoshi gives a quick explanation that does, in fact, involve the term 
"angular momentum." So he's been paying attention to *some* physics. Just not 
all of it. ^^;
* Haruko nods and follows along, tracing one equation on her hand as he 
speaks. She then skates out a bit towards the center ice to try. "Alright, 
Taki, let's go."
* Haruko starts with doing a broad loop and then a careful spin, nothing too 
fancy, nothing too fast. She repeats that a couple times building up 
confidence.
* Taki follows. "Doing good so far!"
* Satoshi does a few more basic spins with them.
* Haruko nods and then actually tries for a proper spin, smiling for Satoshi 
as she goes into it, preparing to dance for him.
* Haruko actually builds up some speed, pulling up her left leg and achieving 
a lovely spin for about a second before she bends her knee wrong and flails 
from her position, headed straight towards another skater... another familiar 
skater.
[Ken is caught up short as he collides with the spazzy mechanic as she slams 
into the boy while he was ice skating with his companion. Not ice dancing 
mind you, just showing off his moves.]
[Ken is knocked flat on his backside and Haruko lands awkwardly on top of 
him.  "The hell, Kinsha?" he says, trying to maneuver her off him.  "You want 
me so badly that you're just gonna keep throwing yourself at me?"  His date 
snickers.]
* Taki is utterly unprepaired for the direction Haruko goes sliding off in. 
"Ack! Haruko!" She starts skating over to the collision. "Are you okay? Uhm, 
both of you?"
* Satoshi was not prepared for that, either, and he skates over to help out. 
Possibly with damage control.
* Haruko blushes a bit and lets off a breath as she rolls off him. "Please 
Hibiki." She stands and then stretches. "If I were actually throwing myself 
at you, you wouldn't be complaining."
["Pfft," Ken says.  "I'm not the one who had to get their friends to take 
them out on New Year's."  But he doesn't seem to be sneering at her quite so 
much now.  He picks himself up and skates off without another word.]
* Haruko shrugs and smiles with a bit of chagrin before bowing to his back 
and his date. "I am sorry for that." She then looks back to Taki. "Okay, one 
more time? Let's find a clear spot of ice."
<Taki> You didn't bruise or cut anything doing that?
<Satoshi> Everybody wipes out when they're beginning.  
<Satoshi> But you got a good start.
* Haruko checks herself out. "Maybe a bit. But dancing isn't for people 
afraid of getting hurt." She then does a couple circles and slow spins on a 
clear section of ice. People are probably fairly happy to give her room. 
"Satoshi, spot me please." She then smiles at Taki choosing to dance for her 
Knight this time and hoping things will go better.
* Haruko circles and spins one more time, given a safe distance by crowds she 
builds up some momentum before a sudden pain in her knee distracts her and 
leaves her careening to the person she was trying to keep eye contact with. 
She crashes towards Taki, desperately trying to shift her momentum to avoid 
hurting the girl but managing to skin both her knees and one hand in the 
process.
* Satoshi skates over. "Sorry! Are you okay?"
* Satoshi helps Haruko up. "We should get you some bandages."
* Taki fights the instinct to drop to her knees to keep Haruko from pushing 
her out of the crease and instead tries to catch her cariening friend. "I 
think we've reached running before you know how to walk. Are yo... Yeah, 
we're done out here."
* Haruko is helped up, grimmacing. She forces a smile. "Right, so, dinner?" 
She slowly moves towards the exit with help. "Maybe bandages first."
* Taki helps. "First aid first. You don't get to bleed all over the food."
* Satoshi helps Taki get Haruko off the ice. "Sorry it ended like that. I 
hope you had some fun, at least."
* Haruko shakes her head. "So bossy." Her limbs are pretty stiff as she 
moves. "I did have fun. I just got a little greedy there." She looks down as 
she's helped off the ice with broad clomping steps. "I wanted to dance for 
you guys, but I wasn't ready yet."
<Satoshi> It takes practice.  Lots of practice.  But I hope that maybe you'll 
be wanting to do it again sometime?  I can break things down more for you and 
go through the steps in better detail.
* Haruko nods. "I'd like that."
* Satoshi smiles. "Good."
* Taki looks down, starts to say something and then shakes her head. 
"Satoshi's a good teacher, now, let's get you cleaned up."
* Haruko, once she gets to a bench, carefully lowers her leggings. There's 
definitely some blood beneath, but some antibacterial and bandages will cover 
her for the time being. "Ugh... not sure that'll come out in the wash."
* Satoshi heads off to where there's a first aid kit.
* Taki looks up as she tries to remember. "Cold salt water and... There was 
something else."
* Haruko tends to one of her hands as well. There's less blood, but definite 
white marks. "I've had worse when learning to do leaps in normal dance. We 
had to practice until we were exhausted." She looks up to Taki. "I was 
pushing myself some because I'm actually doing a dance class next semester. I 
wanted to get back into and..." She glances down at herself. "I wanted to 
work off some of the weight I've picked up since going off Mom's cooking."
* Taki sits back. "Ah, so that's why you were talking about dancing ealier."
* Satoshi comes back with the first aid kit. He takes out some bandages and 
antiseptic wipes.
* Haruko stretches out a leg for Satoshi with a demure look, a little joke 
interrupted by a sudden flash of pain.
* Haruko then looks back to Taki, "Yeah. Father got me the lessons I needed 
to be a miko that participated in some of the fancier ceremonies and Mom made 
sure I got some breadth. I guess this is closest to Takarazuka, although 
there's both men and women in this one. But based on what they've said at 
tryouts, I'll play one of the guys in the ensemble."
* Satoshi carefully cleans the scrape and applies the bandage. He's not even 
blushing! He may be learning. The sudden wince does startle him, though.
* Haruko winces some more in the actual treatment, intermixed with a grateful 
smile. Once it's bandaged she readjusts the legging and then switches to her 
other leg.
* Satoshi does not faint at seeing her other knee. He applies more cleaning 
and bandages. "There. That should help."
* Taki nods. "I never really thought about what your being a miko ment you 
were doing."
* Haruko accepts the help and then holds out her wounded hand for Satoshi. 
"Yeah, the duties vary a lot, but I think you guys were at one of my dances. 
The moves can be slow, but they still require a good bit of training to make 
sure we properly honor the Kami."
* Haruko then glances down at her slightly bloodstained leggings. "Well, it's 
a bit too far to go home to get changed and come back before dinner. But 
despite what Hibiki says, I'd gladly spend my New Year's evening with you too 
if you're up for being seen with me in this condition." She uses her free 
hand to get a bottle of water out of her bag and trues to do a little careful 
cleanup but her subtle power use only goes so far.
* Satoshi applies more bandaging. "If you're feeling up to it, I'll stay."
<Taki> Actually... where's your new place Haruko?
<Haruko> I share a dorm room with Maki at Tokyo Tech. ::Haruko notes a couple 
landmarks nearby::
* Taki nods to herself. "Yeah, I think I know where that is. "Just need to 
find a quiet spot on this end to come back to." She starts looking around.
* Haruko looks up to Taki gratefully. "You don't have to do that for me."
<Taki> Think of it as my way of making up for not catching you when you fell.
<Taki> Just wait here a bit.
* Taki takes Haruko's skates and exchanges them for shoes and retrieves her 
own while she's at it.
* Haruko smiles. "You're too good to me, Taki." She slips on her shoes again 
when they return and reclaims her jacket.
* Satoshi changes to shoes and stands by.
* Taki picks a spot near some trees that people shouldn't be paying attention 
to and holds out a hand to Haruko. "Whenever you're ready."
<Satoshi> I'll wait here for you guys.
* Haruko takes Taki's hand with her unbandaged hand, although both are gloved 
again, so the difference is subtle.
[And Taki ports Haruko off to get her in some clean clothes. The trip there 
and back might have been tiring for Taki, but her sense of purpose caried 
ther through. The dinner afterwards is fun for all involved and there's no 
more injuries!]
[End!]