<@RDMgryphon> [Day and Time: Have no meaning] <@RDMgryphon> [Weather: Presumably there’s air, Katie’s not having trouble breathing] <@RDMgryphon> [Although this isn’t actually a blessing at the moment because all she can smell are the aging varnished floorboards and dust. They creak occasionally as the man berating her paces. His words stopped having meaning some time ago, but he’s getting short on breath and should stop soon.] <@RDMgryphon> [Aaand have a start] * Katie is standing, with her head bowed, and listening. Well - not really listening because what new is there even to hear? But she gives the appearance of listening regardless. <@RDMgryphon> [Actually, he has stopped, was that last question not rhetorical?] * Katie looks up at him, nervously. <@RDMgryphon> [The eye contact just seems to make her father even angrier, he's breathing heavily and glaring harder. "Well?"] * Katie flinches slightly. "I'm sorry?" <@RDMgryphon> [He points and shouts. "Go to your room and stay there! You will not disgrace this family further!"] <@RDMgryphon> [He’s gone now and Katie is in her room. The paper walls don’t do anything to muffle the noise of her tearing her own room apart, but nobody is coming, they’re all too frightened of her father. But, he can’t stop her, and he can’t force her to marry that spying teacher.] * Katie screams as she knocks her desk over and kicks at her books. Stupid, this is so-! She doesn't want to stay here. She doesn't need to keep taking this! <@RDMgryphon> [There's still no response, the rest of the house feels silent, empty, and repressive. There is nothing here for her anymore.] * Katie takes breaths. Fast breaths. She paces her room. Okay. Okay. She takes another breath, trying to calm down, and listens. <@RDMgryphon> [Somewhere outside a man is calling out the fact that he's selling potatoes, the wind is blowing, and if any of the servants or her father are around, they must be on the other side of the building, because she can't hear them.] * Katie bites her lip. She looks out the window, then goes for a bag, packing a change of clothes and essentials. She's going to get out of here. <@RDMgryphon> [Katie is free, the sky is a little overcast, but that can’t stop her, she’s going to love’s home and nothing is going to stop her.] <@RDMgryphon> [Except her father. Her father has been here and the doors are bared and locked by their parents. Forbidden from even seeing each others faces.] <@RDMgryphon> [It doesn’t matter that it’s getting darker, Katie has other friends, surely they can help.] <@RDMgryphon> [It has begun to rain and her father’s servants have been everywhere. Five times now she has been told to return home, her father just wants what is best for everybody.] <@RDMgryphon> [Katie is cold and dark and wet and muddy and her purse was stolen so even the hotels are closed to her when a young woman in western clothes offers her a place to sleep for the night. She’s carrying an umbrella and the street light behind her makes her face hard to see, but she seems to have a trustworthy voice.] * Katie blinks at her, trying to see her, but she shakes her head and just accepts, hoping she'll be led to somewhere warm and dry. <@RDMgryphon> [Mitsuko is a miracle worker, it’s like the past week never happened, and all it took was telling her about that strange conversation between the priest and that man.] * Katie opens her eyes, taking a gasping breath. Dark! It's dark. She fumbles around, her hands shaking, and she rolls off of her too soft and too high futon, landing with a thud on the floor. * Katie climbs to her feet and stumbles to her door, blinking rapidly. She goes straight to the door and opens it, looking out into the hallway and towards the living room... that's the living room, and... She blinks rapidly, her cheeks wet. "Hello?" she calls, softly and in Japanese. A little louder: "Hello?" * Kyon shifts in his bed and makes some kind of small, sleepy noise. But not a particularly awake one. <@RDMgryphon> [There's no response, but Katie can hear the sounds of people sleeping, and a couple of TVs from five of six directions around her. The last just sounds like modern Tokyo at night.] * Katie hears that! She looks around, not seeing much of anything, and then settles on the closest noise available. She creeps over to the room across the hall, with the noise inside. "Hello?" * Kyon rolls over in his futon, one leg sticking out from under the blanket now, and makes a somewhat more awake noise. It's almost articulate now. * Katie looks down the hallway, at the living room, again. She shivers, and then she reaches up to the door to Kyon's bedroom and opens it, looking in. * Kyon stirs at the sound, and opens his eyes the rest of the way. He pushes himself up in the futon, wearing a grey t-shirt, and he says muzzily, "Katie?" * Katie blinks at him in the dark. But she walks in. * Kyon presses himself up more as she comes in, resting his arms on top of the futon blanket. "Hey," he says, waking up more. * Katie creeps closer. She's wearing one of those oversized shirts of hers, her feet are bare, and her hair's in disarray. It's hard to tell if she's been crying or not, but she is shaking. "I'm sorry," she says, her Japanese lacking her usual American accent. "I'm really sorry." * Kyon blinks hard, and is suddenly much more awake. He sits up the rest of the way, and looks up at her. "No. I told you. If it happens, you can come. So what happened?" I- I ran away. They locked me up, but I ran away. It was cold and wet, but I just... I just wanted to see her, but they wouldn't *let* me. And then my money got stolen, and... * Katie stops a couple of feet away from Kyon, tangling her fingers in her hair, squeezing her eyes shut as she remembers. "All I wanted to do was see her. But I told Mitsuko everything." * Kyon shakes his head quickly, and says, "Katie, that was a dream. You're here. You've been here all night, since we got back. Just. Sit down. But you're here. At home, and you're safe." * Katie looks at Kyon, uncomprehending, but she follows directions. She moves forward, and slowly, carefully, sits down on the futon. * Kyon leans forward, and drags a hand across his face, trying to feel more awake here. "You were in bed, right? You were in your room?" * Katie looks ahead, trying to remember something else. "I... Yes?" * Kyon nods, and reaches a hand towards her, almost touching her knee. He's not wearing his armwarmers, and it's his scarred hand. "Because it was a dream. It fits, with what happened today, there'd be something. But you've been here." * Katie looks down at Kyon's hand. "I'm- I-" Her accent is starting to come back. The right one, at least, and tears fill her eyes. "I *ruined* everything." * Kyon shakes his head firmly. "You didn't. Katie? You didn't." He flexes his hand slightly by her. * Katie brings her hands up to wipe at her eyes. "But I *did*, I- I'm out of control, I keep running, and I can't-" She sniffs. "The woodblocks. You got them for me, and I ruined them." * Kyon frowns. "But they're things. We can fix the room. You didn't break yourself. That's what you can't break." He visibly fights down a yawn, and adds, "You had the control to stop there. You found somewhere and waited it out. And we found you. Because we find you." But I scared you. I couldn't- when you- when you were coming up the tower, I *knew*. I knew, and- and I didn't. I couldn't. I couldn't just... I couldn't! * Kyon smirks faintly. "I'm tough. I can take a scare." He stretches out his fingers by her. "This is one time you've done this. Something bad happened, you got shocked. Yeah, I was scared. But you're fine." * Katie nods. And then she nods again, and she puts her hand on Kyon's scarred one. * Kyon tenses his hand under hers, and then flips it over to take her hand in his. "Look. We can talk about this more. We should. But I'm not mad. I get it. And you're home, and you're okay." * Katie nods some more, and she squeezes Kyon's hand lightly. She takes a deep breath. "Okay." * Kyon nods back, and looks at her more closely, half-sleepy and half assessing. "You going to be okay now?" * Katie swallows. "I don't know?" She swallows again. "" * Kyon looks at her for a beat, and then says, "" * Katie starts to nod, then stops herself. * Kyon takes the first half of it and unfolds himself from the futon, half dumping the blankets on her. "" * Katie is blanket-dumped. She holds them and turns, looking at him. * Kyon doesn't look back. He just goes out the door into the kitchen. Turns out he's been wearing grey sweatpants with orange piping underneath the blankets. Soon there is a sound of water in a glass. * Katie listens, swallowing down the panic. He's right there. She bundles Kyon's blankets up and hugs them. * Kyon comes back into the room. Predictably, he's got a water glass now, and he bends down to hand it to her, looking at her with the same assessing gaze as before, somewhat less sleepily now. * Katie takes the water. "" * Kyon nods curtly, and sits cross-legged on the futon, bare of blankets now. "" * Katie has a gulp of water. And, if Kyon doesn't say anything, another one. * Kyon just watches her as she drinks, and then says carefully, "" * Katie blinks. She looks at Kyon. * Kyon looks back, not flinching. "" * Katie looks at him for a long moment. And then she nods, slowly. "" * Kyon gestures curtly at the closet. "" He pauses a beat, and then awkwardly adds, more quietly, "" * Katie nods. "" And, again, "" She smiles at Kyon, a little shaky but genuine. "" She drinks more water, then puts the glass on the floor so she can go to turn on the lights and, squinting, take the spare futon out of Kyon's closet. * Kyon narrows his eyes, then lays down again, pulling up the blankets. He watches her, sleepy and pensive. "" * Katie is super tired, too, and a lot of "setting up" is "flailing and kicking". But she's getting there. "" She smooths out the bottom. "" * Kyon blinks at her uncomprehendingly. * Kyon nods a little, and lets his head fall on the pillow. "" * Katie smiles a touch. "" She straightens. "" She looks at Kyon. "" And then: "" * Kyon nods a little, pulling his blankets up higher, covering up the color on his cheekbones. "Yeah. Me too." It's barely audible through the covers. * Katie laughs, affectionate, and she runs off to get her own blankets. <@RDMgryphon> [And then they slept mostly uninterrupted until Kyon's alarm clock went off. Session End.]