<@RDMgryphon> [It's the start of a new school week in a new school semester. At some point during the break it snowed, but it's been shoveled into small banks behind where the food carts set up. The sky is clear, blue, and utterly uninspiring. Maybe lunch will help Katie, or getting prodded by Kaede will. Or something.] <@RDMgryphon> [It's Jan 12, 2004, and this is go time.] 06* Katie is there! And there early. It's a big day, so she wants a head start on lunch. She's at the curry cart, getting such a thing along with naan and a milk drink. 06* Kaede is waiting in the usual spot with his usual phone, in his usual haunts, one hand in his pocket. He's not paying attention to his surroundings, presumably. That's because his phone is all encompassing. He's just kind of standing there for now. 06* Katie picks up her curry and drink and naan, and she heads over to a table. The very table closest to Kaede. 06* Katie sits down and calls, just loudly enough for him to hear (without hurting her voice), "Kaede." 06* Kaede turns over to look at Katie and goes to her, sans food. He goes to sit down after a moment, hands folded in front of him and then just kind of looks at her. Or maybe her eyes, more specifically. Just out of curiosity. 06* Katie blinks. Her eyes are a light gray. 06* Kaede breathes out a breath, slowly, fingers reaching up to take off his glasses and pinch his nose, eyes closing. "Katie Andrews," he replies in kind. 01 Are you okay? 06* Kaede rubs down and then settles his glasses back on to look at the woman. "You tell me first." 06* Katie pushes her food aside, ignoring the warmth and the smells, and folds her hands on the tabletop. She looks into Kaede's eyes and says, seriously, "I'm okay." 06* Kaede locks gazes for a solid moment before sighing, shaking his head and pushing his glasses up, then deflates, tension of his shoulders disappearing. "Right...you..." He pinches the bridge of his nose again. "...I was sure you were having thoughts. Uh. Sorry." 06* Katie blinks. 01 You mean... wait, does this have to do with the call from earlier? 06* Kaede gives Katie an odd "You tell me" glance, just silently watching her face. 01 So it does. Why did you call me? 06* Kaede sighs again, then pokes at the phone a couple of times. His finger is probably doing less of the work, but it does a decent amount for show. Eventually he calls up his e-mail and just turns it around, showing her last posting by way of explanation. 06* Katie looks at the phone. She reads it, and then she nods. "Yeah." She sighs, long and slow. "Yeah, I did write that." 06* Kaede frowns and then puts the phone away, watching her expression again, sighing. "Well, at least we got the cursory confirmation of well- established facts underway." He turns his hard gaze to Katie and his expression softens a bit. "Thoughts, right...?" 06* Katie nods. 01 I was... thinking. I thought all night, and I couldn't sleep. I had to sleep in the living room. Kyon woke me up. 06* Katie bites her lower lip, then says, "I didn't hear him walking around in the morning. I was tired." 06* Kaede leans back in the bench and pauses, hesitantly, before he cautiously hazards. "...you mind if I get something to drink?" 06* Katie smiles at Kaede, a little. "No, go ahead." 06* Kaede nods and picks himself up, wandering over in the direction of his favorite vending machine. The one that gives him "discounts." He barely even needs to ask anymore! 06* Katie starts eating her curry in the meantime. It is hot and tasty, and the naan is especially good. 06* Kaede got some nice tea in a can! The wonders of the modern age. This time, he sits on the side *next* to Katie and cracks it open with a hiss. 06* Katie swallows her mouthful of food and wipes off her hands, then sips her drink. 06* Kaede pauses to take another sip, knocking back the drink, before he responds, quietly, "...All night, huh?" 01 Yeah. I spent a while, the next morning. 06* Katie takes a breath. "A couple of hours," she says, "talking to Kyon. I felt better after. And he stopped me from... maybe making some bad decisions." 06* Kaede closes his eyes, rubbing his nose again. "Not very surprised. I mean...you're...you're right. I.." He stops himself at that and turns to look at what Katie's saying. "Bad decisions?" 01 Yeah. 06* Katie ughs, pushing her food aside again and putting her head in her hands. "I've just been wanting to do some *stupid* stuff. What was I thinking?" 06* Kaede hesitates and then puts his hand on her opposite shoulders, his lips frowning a little. "Panic. Panic does that. It's not like...you weren't wrong. What you said..." He sighs and looks on ahead. 01 Kyon said- Kyon said that he doesn't think Wataru's like that, but if I'm right... if I'm right, then I shouldn't do what I was thinking *anyway*. And he was right. He was completely right. 06* Kaede rubs his eyes now, tilting his head down after he sets his tea on the table. "Parts, Katie Andrews. You're speaking in parts. Start from the beginning." 01 I don't want to. 06* Katie drops her hands from her face, abruptly. She picks up her naan and tears off a small piece, dipping it in curry. "Shika and Yusuke. You remember. They..." Katie shrugs. She nibbles on the curry-dipped naan. 06* Kaede rubs his eyes and then settles into the seat again. "...that's exactly what I thought." 06* Katie gives Kaede a brief, grateful look, before she tears off another piece of bread and dips that, too. 06* Kaede reaches for his tea again and tries, staring off into the distance. He hesitates, then replies, carefully, "You said you already talked to Kyon about all of this. I shouldn't be bothering you again with all of this. You're right..." He squints his eyes. 06* Katie looks at Kaede again, curiously now. She waits for him to continue. 06* Katie also eats the piece of bread and curry in her hand. 06* Kaede doesn't know what she expects him to continue *with*. He turns to her after the bit of silence. "...what?" Does he have tea on his face? 01 I'm right about what? 06* Kaede rubs his nose. "That you shouldn't have to go through it again. If Kyon was a help, then Kyon was a help..." He lets out a sigh and looks up. "I'm just overreaching again, aren't I?" 01 I don't really know what you're talking about? About overreaching, I mean. 06* Kaede just goes past it, concentrating on his tea. "Shika...Yusuke. I don't know what to do about them..." 06* Katie shakes her head. "It's past." She frowns. "Maybe." 01 But even if it isn't, they shouldn't have a reason to do anything to me now. 06* Kaede takes up his tea and closes his eyes, words careful. "To *you* it's past. I still have to deal with them..." 06* Katie blinks in confusion, then her eyes widen. "Oh. *Oh*. I'm sorry. Are they... better? At all?" 06* Kaede stares on straight ahead, considering. "They're with Akemi," he offers in the way of non-explanation. "I don't think Shika's tried anything since Akemi's gotten more into the business. Probably afraid she could be arrested..." 06* Katie ughs. "Small favors." She doesn't even hide her disgust. 06* Kaede looks at his tea, just holding it now, considering. "I think she took what I said to heart. There's better control now. Yusuke *has* apologized, at least, but he won't do it when Shika's watching. That is when he's not trying to flirt with Akemi." 01 Yeah, he apologized to you. 06* Katie sighs. "It's something." She has some curry and rice now. 06* Kaede frowns at that, then looks at Katie. "On your behalf." He looks down for a moment. "I don't think either of them *could* talk to you...plus Akemi was a wreck when..." He closes his lips and is quiet, before going forward with "...Shika didn't take the death well after everything settled down." 06* Katie looks at Kaede flatly, then she closes her eyes for a few seconds. "She loved her," she says, almost testing the words. "It makes sense." 06* Kaede snorts as he folds his arms, looking more fully at Katie. "*You* don't care. You know I really don't either. There's no point in taking the effort to fake it." 06* Katie opens one eye, then the other, and she gives Kaede a small, mischievous smile. "I'm trying here." 01 It's important to put on a good front. Besides, what about Akemi? I don't want to hurt her, even if she does have really questionable taste in friends. 06* Kaede gives her a slight grin and then pushes up his glasses. "Yes. Of course you are." It's almost *patronizing*. "Akemi...she has a hard time breaking free of the idea that a friend can stop being a friend once she met them..." He frowns. "From my understanding, Shika didn't *used* to be like that..." 06* Katie sticks her tongue out at Kaede. Dork. Then she asks, "What was she like?" 06* Kaede looks down as he sets the canister on the table, eyes looking straight ahead again. Not like him to air others’ dirty laundry. "...quiet. Shy. She...well. It isn't as if Akemi knew her all *that* well. But that's Akemi for you. Broad circle of friends but there's not many she gets in deep with..." He smiles halfway but not at anyone. "It's her way of protecting herself, I think..." 06* Katie shrugs, and she goes back to her naan and curry. "It makes sense to me. That's basically the Kyon method. Only you'd have to replace 'friends' with 'contacts' or something." 06* Kaede takes another sip before adding, "The brother was always the popular one anyway. He was the one Akemi really got to know. Especially once they started getting into working side by side." 06* Katie nods, her mouth full of lunch. 06* Kaede sighs and looks ahead. "Akemi and Kyon are different though. Very different. I don't think I could imagine Akemi as Kyon..." 06* Katie tilts her head as she chews and swallows, thinking about that. She picks up her drink. "Maybe," she says, before having a sip. Her eyes twinkle in amusement. "But trying to imagine that is a lot of fun." 06* Kaede snorts over his soda can but avoids the bait. "Anyway. I think Natsuko was Shika's first step into the celebrity scene. Akemi'd always thought she'd felt that she was secretly resentful of the shadow of her brother and the Band wasn't, well, they weren't *major* celebrities. But they were out there. And Natsuko was the first one who paid any attention. She actually *accepted* her. And I don't think she'd really come out yet..." 06* Katie nods. 06* Kaede shakes his head and settles back into a slow tilt, holding the can. "...I think the attachment went a little too far and she had a hard time separating the person from the actions..." 01 What? The person from the actions? 06* Kaede goes back to his drink. "That Natsuko was more than a little crazy, really didn't see her the same way, and was in love with an insane manipulative megalomaniac." 01 Sometimes I wonder if it's because he controlled her so much she became addicted to it. 06* Kaede sighs and tilts back a little, looking up at the sky. "*Could* be, Katie Andrews. Could be. I don't know. I've never been great at figuring people out..." 06* Katie wrinkles her nose a little. "You'd need to actually have been under the effects to understand. Probably." 01 I don't remember being under them, anyway. 06* Kaede 's eyes stare straight ahead, looking blank. "I don't know. All I remember is being outside of it, seeing other people getting sucked in and being powerless to stop it..." 01 Yeah. It hurt from the outside, too. But inside, I can't really imagine... 06* Kaede 's not saying anything really. Just kind of looking at the edge of the table now. 06* Katie sips her drink, then goes back to eating. [And a bit of time passes when Kaede's phone suddenly buzzes, in his mind a fraction of a second before in his pocket.] 06* Kaede starts out of his reverie. Actually starts. His knees kick up against the bottom of the bench, knocking over the can of tea which rattles and tips over, spilling over a good portion of the table. He curses then pulls his legs out from underneath before his pants get soaked and reaches for his phone, putting it to his ear. "Takeuchi here." A little sharper than usual. 06* Katie looks over at the start. She stands quickly in an effort to avoid the tea, and she rights the can and then goes about getting napkins to clean up the spill. <@Grysar> [There's no one there, but the phone stops vibrating. Kaede gets a clear message from Mimi that she's frustrated that he's been ignoring his alerts that he *hasn't* received three invitations to a new social network.] 06* Kaede stops and turns the phone around, then actually *looks* at the damned screen. He frowns, then sighs, mentally scolding Mimi and telling her to remove all alerts and quit bugging him. He slips the phone back in his pocket and straightens his shirt, trying to act like he meant to do that all along. 06* Katie , meanwhile, got a small pile of napkins and is cleaning up the mess. "Prank call?" she asks, as obviously there was nothing on the other end. <@Grysar> * Mimi is chastened and will send no further alerts on this subject. 06* Kaede sighs and looks up in the air, not meeting Katie's gaze at all. "...I'm probably the only person in existence who can get prank calls from my own *phone*..." 06* Katie laughs. "*Really*?" she asks, half in disbelief. <@Grysar> * Mimi is pointedly not defending herself, since Kaede's being a meanie that told her to drop alerts she thought were important. 06* Kaede gives Katie a look and a fold of the arms, with all of the seriousness of the world. *Yes*. Really. 06* Katie sees the look and just... laughs some more. She tosses the napkins away. "So," she says when she gets back, "do these electronics actually have personalities?" 06* Kaede nods in response to that, then sighs, rubbing the back of his head. "Mimi's...very touchy. She wants to be seen as helpful. The television gets super excited over its programs. My computer is very methodical..." 06* Katie nods. Outside noise has shut off, but that's nothing super new when she's around. 01 If they have actual personalities, for real, that makes me wonder if they're alive. 06* Katie reclaims her old seat. She's nearly finished with her lunch. It's an interesting thought, isn't it? <@Grysar> [If Kaede is paying attention, he might notice another student who has walked up from a diagonal angle behind Katie. The student, probably a freshmen, a little on the heavy side, seems to be speaking in your direction but she's making no sound.] 01 Yeah. I mean, if they are alive - if they have a soul or whatever - then it's probably not right to throw out a phone when you're done with it. And when would something like a computer be dead? Animals die. Computers can be repaired, usually. 06* Katie doesn't notice. The girl's out of her field of vision, and she can't hear her anyway. <@Grysar> * Girl tilts her head in confusion and she keeps speaking. Her clothes are fairly ordinary: jeans and a slightly out of fashion overshirt. Both have a few paint splatters. 06* Kaede does glance that way and stops for a moment at her. He steps away around the bubble, hand in his pocket as he frowns, turning towards the paint splattered woman and making sure Katie sees the gesture too. "I'm sorry. Was distracted by something else. Can I help you?" <@Grysar> * Naoki was focusing on Katie. "-rican, are your hearing aids turned off or something? Normally your hearing is freakishly good." Naoki pauses, pondering the contradiction in what she just said. She doesn't even notice Kaede talking to her for a moment. 06* Katie turns at Kaede moving away to see what's going on. She stands, and the silence bubble drops. "Naoki?" she asks as she moves over. 06* Kaede smiles apologetically, rubbing his head. "Ah...sorry. You know how sometimes you just get so engrossed in something, it's hard to concentrate on anything else..." <@Grysar> * Naoki smiles. "Afternoon and happy new year." She looks over to Kaede and nods. "That's alright, I was just saying hello and seeing if the lost in thought artist over here has any new material she's debuting." 01 Happy New Year. Oh! Kaede, this is my friend and artistic rival, Naoki Arai. Naoki, this is Kaede Takeuchi. He's a friend from high school. 06* Kaede nods and gives an obligatory bow to the woman. "Happy New Year." He unfolds and looks at her. "Yes. Of course. Well, this time of year is usually busy..." 06* Katie shrugs. She grins at Naoki. "I'm working on something, though. Colored pencils." <@Grysar> * Naoki gives Kaede a proper bow. "Honored to meet you." She looks back to Katie. <@Grysar> Good, you seemed awfully distracted with personal carving at the end of last year. Although I suppose if it's a gift it doesn't count as volunteer work. 06* Katie smiles. "It turned out pretty well. Here." She steps closer and pulls at the guardian lion on her zipper, showing it to Naoki. "I made a pair, baseball themed." <@Grysar> * Naoki steps up to examine it, charmed. "This is good work. There was a pair, right?" 01 Yeah, I gave them both to him, and he gave this one back to me. The female has a mitt. <@Grysar> * Naoki takes a closer look. She flatly adds. "A mitt? Adorable." After a bit more examination she continues with a bit of a grin. "This is good wood, hope he's worth it. Although I suppose with your skill the expense isn't too high." 06* Katie ughs. "It was honestly pretty hard, because they're so small and I wanted a lot of detail. I went through six attempts total." 01 And yeah. He's worth it. 06* Kaede just settles back into the listening mode, looking at the guardian lion. But he's totally staying quiet during this whole exchange. Maybe he has a personal silence field on him. <@Grysar> * Naoki grimaces for a moment after doing some math in her head. "Still a lot fewer attempts than it would take me." She looks at Katie for a moment as she elaborates. "Never thought I'd hear you say something so sentimental." She then adds in a quieter tone. "Also, bit of news about second-hand trauma guy from your school." Her eyes flit over to Kaede and then back to Katie before she continues. 06* Katie raises her eyebrows. "Yeah?" She doesn't seem to be chasing Kaede away. <@Grysar> * Naoki resumes her normal speaking voice. "No gossip or the like, but he's actually got a decent commission of some sort. I think for a digital project, he's spending time around the scanner." 06* Kaede listens in with a quirk of his head, suddenly curious. "What model?" Cause, you know. *That's* the important question here. <@Grysar> * Naoki looks to Kaede. "Good question." She thinks. "He seemed to have some reference materials, standard human figure books, but also might be doing memory work. Fairly stylized so he can get away with that. I'll find out more within the week." <@Grysar> * Naoki looks back to Katie. "Mangaka pencil work, for the record. More splash page than interior though. Couldn't get a good look thus far." 06* Katie blinks, faking some surprise as it's about what she expected. "Huh, he must have gotten a good contact, then." <@Grysar> * Naoki nods. "Also, wouldn't rule out some color later on different pieces, just haven't seen it yet." She then checks her watch. "And I've got to go." 06* Katie smiles. "Sure. See you in class." <@Grysar> * Naoki spares both of you exactly the time required for a proper bow for heading off. She notably fails to reveal whatever she's working on, chump. 06* Kaede blinks at the statement and then stares at Naoki as she fails to answer the question. "No. I meant the *scanner*." <@Grysar> * Naoki turns back, hearing the comment. "The digital media lab one." She rattles off the room number but Katie's familiar with it. "I don't do digital, anything that can be freely reproduced won't retain value in the long run, so I haven't studied up the technical details. But he's using the slow one that makes that annoying sound whenever it returns to the starting position." 06* Katie snortlaughs. It's completely undignified. "Oh god, *that* one. I bet he's using it just because it's free all the time." <@Grysar> * Naoki does not disagree. She looks to Kaede to see if he's satisfied. 06* Kaede nods slightly, then shakes his head, adjusting his glasses. "Could do to use one of the newer tablets really." <@Grysar> * Naoki shrugs. "New plus technology equals money we don't have." She then checks her watch again. "Speaking of things I don't have, out of time. Later." She waves and heads off. 06* Katie waves. "Bye!" She waits until Naoki is out of earshot before turning to Kaede. "Scanner?" <@Grysar> [And so our heroes check out the lab, when time allows. Sure enough the scanner is free because people prefer the other ones. Another student even groans slightly when they see you walking over.] 06* Katie smirks a bit at the groan, but she makes sure the student can't see it. 06* Kaede nods in response to it and goes over to the scanner, trying to inspect the thing. His fingers go on the copy, then his lips curl into a small frown. <@Grysar> [Kaede has to get past the underlying annoyance the scanner is burdened with. It takes some pride that it still functions past its service life, but no one else respects that. More importantly, Kaede can sense it's last notable user had a mix of pride, relief at completing a job, and guilt. The guilt is the strangest emotion as it is intermixed with confusion. Whoever was using the scanner, on a couple jobs in particular, though that they might be doing something wrong but couldn't for the life of them figure out what it might be.] 06* Katie pulls her sketchbook from her bag. She flips through it for a picture to scan. May as well show that they had a reason to be here. 06* Katie looks to Kaede, her eyes curious, and waits for him to finish. 06* Kaede tries to talk to the machine, closing his eyes, since it's talking to it. Can it make an error so they can act casual checking a few jobs? Cause they'd so get an opportunity to use you and show your worth off if you could. <@Grysar> [The scanner obliges, happy to not be grumped at for once.] 01 ... Did it break? 06* Kaede makes a faux wince of dissatisfaction at using old equipment, then turns to Katie. "Gah. Hold on. These older models..." He searches through the work history, trying to take a glance at the last couple jobs, especially the guilty feeling ones. "Take a delicate touch. Special knack..." <@Grysar> [Someone has a similar attitude to paying work as Naoki and actually properly deleted their jobs and emptied the recycle bin. Kaede's able to recover enough from residual to figure out that they were scans of what Naoki described. The figures are hard to make out, but they are wearing high school uniforms mostly. Some of them seem familiar, but remixed. Hard to say more without better copies.] 06* Katie nods and waits, finger in her sketchbook. "Sure." 06* Kaede sets up the scanner, probably with a little internal prodding, so it's set to accept Katie's job. He gives her a knowing look. "There you go. Should be ready to go." He lets out a slight scoff, pushing up his glasses. "Honestly. They really need to upgrade their equipment here." 06* Katie steps up to set her sketchbook in and input scanning parameters. "Hey, like she said. New technology equals money. I think our program's good, but it doesn't have the kind of funding computer science gets." 06* Katie double checks the page and then hits the scan button. 06* Kaede doesn't seem suitably impressed, folding his arms. "Right. You can get a discount with the right know-how though. Refurbish these old models at least. I suppose if it works though..." There's a sigh. Such a pointless waste of resources. 06* Katie nods, then winces a little as the whine-grinding noise happens at the end of her scan. The rest of the media lab no doubt winces with her. <@Grysar> [Indeed they do! End!]