[Ardweden] It's a mostly silent ride back to the Soratandrews, with Haruko trying to get a read on Katie's move but Katie not being up for talking. Once there, though, and after the requisite removal of helmet and grabbing of stuff, Katie asks Haruko, in all seriousness, if she's all right. Haruko is honest - she tells her no, but assures her that she'll be okay because she has friends and a hot new boyfriend, and Katie gives her a hug and reminds her to tell her about Ken later. Then, for Katie, it's the suddenly long trek up to the eighth floor to her apartment. UGH. Kyon's not back yet. She takes off her shoes and coat, then immediately flops on the couch and falls asleep. Kumaguro probably joins her. She wakes at the sound of Kyon opening the stairwell door, and by the time he's in the apartment she's sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. Her hair's a mess. Dinner's fine; she tells Kyon that the meeting went well but long (she's so tired), what the paintbrush stuff was about, what she talked to Wataru about, and she's not really afraid of him killing her anymore. Katie spends the rest of that evening flopping around, being tired but affectionate - unusually tolerant and clearly glad that she's home and so is Kyon. She also tries to work on a sketch for her drawing class, but it's a bust. She gives up on doing anything productive and goes to bed. Around 5:45 the next morning, Katie wakes up. And not to nightmares, for once; just to having enough sleep. It's almost a strange feeling. She yawns, stretches, and goes to the bathroom before taking her laptop out of sleep mode. A message from Satoshi is blinking, waiting for her. Think I might be able to get a grocery run off campus this weekend. Send me your list of stuff besides crunchy peanut butter? She sits down and looks at it for a moment, then starts typing. PEANUT BUTTER. Bagels, root beer, popcorn, goldfish crackers, triscuits. I dream about over the counter meds like excedrin but idk might get confiscated. Doritos? This is a lot of junk food. There, that's done. Katie opens up her e-mail, and... the IM window pings. She looks over. Hey! Okay, so... probably I can't send anything liquid or perishable. So, sorry, no root beer and no bagels. Also can't vouch for how intact stuff will arrive, but I will try my best. sad. Thanks though! Also not sure about the excedrin. Do you think they'd confiscate the whole package or just take that out and ship the rest? No idea. Maybe best not to risk it? prob. easier to just bring it over the summer or something. Let me hold off on sending it in this package, then. Maybe the next one. Ok. Thanks. I have to head off soon for pre-game prep stuff, but I did want to ask... ...I got a text from Wataru, and it sounds like things went really well? I sent him a reply but haven't heard back yet. Not expecting to. Still pretty early over there. Yeah they were good. Haruko was kind of unnecessary after a point but that's okay. I told him some stuff about what happened. He told me about the paintbrush. I'll send an email about that later. ...things were good. ...you two talked, and things were good. Sure? I mean he's still scared of me. But that makes sense really. He knows some of what I did. That just shows he's a smart guy. ^_~ lol Yeah, I guess. ...oh my god, I am so relieved. You have no idea how relieved I am. But we can talk more about this later. Do you want to finally schedule that video chat? Or just messenger, whatever's best. Yeah we can do that. Send me your schedule & I'll see when I'm free. I think yours is worse than mine. Will do. Gotta go now. Need to prep to kick Massachusetts' ass. good luck! Massachusetts was always full of jerks with too many letters in their state name. Seriously, what is up with that? If it weren't for spell check, I don't know what I'd write it as. Later! And Satoshi's Offline. Katie lets out a breath. Well, *that's* done. She gets up, sneaks out to grab a glass of water (why wake the Kyon if you don't have to?), and returns to her room. Okay, time to actually write this e-mail... (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Earlier Morning of January 17, 2004 (Japan) / Afternoon of January 16, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Met with Wataru To: Kyon Sorata, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Haruko Kinsha Haruko and me met with Wataru yesterday. It went well. Wataru told us about the paintbrush. He can read items or something that's connected to other people. Find them, see through their eyes, find out stuff about them. He took it from Masaru because Kyon & I seemed worried about him. I went over some stuff with him. The war-Judgement stuff, Sho, general stuff about the gates & Artifacts. Tenjirou's powers but not all of what he did with them. He knew Fuyuko and knows what I did to Yushiro. He wasn't angry & said that the stuff I asked him for in a working relationship is just what a decent human being would do. I tried to get him to understand how dangerous things can be. He gets it I think, at least right now. He asked us not to use powers on him & he wouldn't use them on us. It's fair. obv there are passive powers & etc. but more like things in personal space or actual control, I think. Very fair. I can work with him. I think he's still a little scared of me but that's reasonable all things considered. I think we can trust him, at least mostly. Katie --- [Ciara] Satoshi sees the e-mail that night after the game, and while he considers replying to it, he ultimately decides to wait and see how others respond to it first. He can always message Katie about it in private. He does send off a quick e-mail to her with his class and game schedules. --- [Rowyn] That evening after school (the 17th for those counting) Kaede finishes looking at the rest of his e-mails...god these threads have gone on forever. With some shuffling, folders are made and organization takes place, mostly without his needs to be very hands on about it. Then Katie's e-mail pops up. ...Well. That's certainly a thing. And Akemi was out for right now.... Some things weren't as efficient over e-mail. His hand reaches for the phone and starts dialing Katie's number. This is something e-mail probably can't capture... [The resulting conversation takes place in "Worth the Risk."] --- [Ciara] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Early Afternoon of January 19, 2004 (Japan) / Late Night January 18, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Met With Wataru To: Katie Andrews, Kyon Sorata, Kaede Takeuchi, Haruko Kinsha Just wanted to follow up really quickly. I'm really pleased that things went well. I've talked with Wataru some and I did tell him about Hideo, which meant that I also attempted to explain the reincarnation cycle. I think Haruko might have brought it up at the dinner but it was all pretty overwhelming and he didn't really absorb it back then. I realize that it's a major piece of information, but I wanted him to find out about my past from me. Not that I was worried about you guys, but... I don't know, some random Arcana showing up and asking how he knows Hideo or something. It seems silly in retrospect, I know. But it's done. Also, he's still fairly shy about reaching out to you all. I suggested that he check in about the ritual in a few days. If you think there's something else he should know, please include him in the e-mails? I showed him how to encrypt things so it should be safe to talk about it. Hope things are going well for all of you. Satoshi