[Day: Saturday, April 23rd. Time: 9:00 a.m.] [Weather: OMG SNOW!] [You all had what was probably not a very restful night, because you were too busy with so many freakin' minis to get any sleep. Or maybe not. But this morning, you gather in Katie/Kyon's room to discuss.... stuff. Oh, and room service brought milk and waffles.] [You can also pick five NPCs to be there. I'll let you decide!] ['Cept Saki and Eriko go hand-in-hand. Figuratively, not literally. Them's the breaks.] [Session Start!] [Pop! Saki, Eriko and Reiji are superimposed on the scene after production!] [Both of them are sitting at the small table in the room. They can stand but have trouble walking. Eriko helped Saki to a chair, and one of you guys helped Reiji. Probably Haruko, because she wanted him here.] [Of the two, Saki looks to be by far in better condition.] [You can do stuff, by the way.] * Satoshi eats a waffle. "It's strange having a breakfest without eggs." * Kyon sits on the bed, cross-legged, wearing a dark orange t-shirt under a open black button-down shirt, and dark grey cargo pants. He has some waffles on a plate in one hand. "Variety. Got to try no eggs some time." [Saki eats waffles! She's struggling a bit with the fork, but at least Eriko isn't having to help her eat (probably much to her dismay). Reiji, on the other hand, seems to have no interest in his waffles. Or like, anything, really.] * Kaede 's just sitting on one of the beds, head slightly bowed into his hand. He must not be very hungry because he's not eating. He also doesn't look like he had a very restful night though. * Taki sits on the couch, and with a cup of milk in her hands. She's combed her hair and her clothes aren't completely rumpled and slept in looking. She hasn't drunk much of the milk or said much of anything. If/when people spoke she looked at them blankly. * Haruko is sprawled in a free chair drinking tea she made earlier today. She's turned 18, she'll soon own a bike with a full tank of gas, she's got a half-bottle of sake, it's snowing outside, and she's wearing sunglasses. * Katie opens the bathroom door and walks over into the room proper, brushing her hair and humming lightly to herself. She flops onto one of the beds, sitting by Kyon. * Kyon looks down at Katie, a bemused look on his face, then silently hands her a plate of waffles. * Kaede sighs and flops on the bed. "At least I can drink something then." He sits up and has himself some milk. * Katie snickers. "Thanks." She sets her brush down and takes one of the waffles, having a bite. [These waffles taste like pancakes.] * Katie chews, swallows, and is entirely unsurprised. Waffles and pancakes do taste similar. (Do not!) (Not good waffles anyway) (Hotel waffles.) * Haruko just nurses her tea. * Kyon eats some waffles, and looks out the window. "Trains probably running late today." * Satoshi grabs a second waffle. * Katie laughs a little. "Everything's running late. Even us." * Haruko is quiet it happens on occasion. Screw the day. We deserve a late day. * Satoshi is quiet, it happens more regularly. * Katie shrugs. * Taki sips her milk. We need to talk to The Hermit. And... whoever made those drugs. A bald guy. Is he still alive? A bald guy made the drugs? * Kaede looks up and then looks at Eriko. "Did he mention anything?' That would be my guess. * Taki 's attention drifts between Katie, Satoshi, and now Kyon. * Katie finishes off her waffle and takes another from Kyon's plate. [Eriko shakes her head. "Not really. Other than I was going to be a test subject for them."] Recipient or ingredient? * Satoshi nods. [She shrugs. "I figure they couldn't use me for them, so that's why I was upstairs."] * Kyon looks down at his waffles, shrugs quickly, and just eats the one beneath it, listening for now. * Katie is eating Kyon's waffles! Oh no! Probably not, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't want to test it. (What's so bad about that? It's not like they're poisoned.) (Defend your waffles you fool! Or you will go hungry!) I'm not sure the drugs matter so much now. Sho seems to have given up that plan. * Kaede sighs and takes off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. "Probably not, but he might be able to tell us more of Sho's intent." Even so, Winston is probably the most important. But the first could be a missed opportunity if we don't go after him. I wasn't thinking... [The phone rings!] * Haruko cringes. * Kyon rolls his eyes, and leans back on the bed to pick it up. "Sorata." * Taki watches Kyon. * Katie looks over to watch the Kyon on the phone. And eats her waffle. [Kyon on the phone isn't very exciting.] [It doesn't do stunts.] * Kyon looks sidewise at Kaede, then shrugs quickly and hits a button. "You're on." [It can't fly.] [It doesn't partake in world politics.] [Op. Back to the game.] [Akemi's voice reaches you all. "Hi Kaede! And anyone else who's there!"] * Haruko cringes more. She quietly asks, "could you turn it down a little?" * Kaede keeps rubbing his eyes. "Hey Shiraishi-san. Is this about what we discussed the other night or something new?" * Katie winces a little. * Taki listens to Kaede and Akemi. ["Something new. Something... Um... you're alone, right? I mean no... y'know, outsiders, there?"] * Kyon just rocks back up and balances the waffle plate on his lap again. He shifts his sidewise gaze to Haruko. "No volume control for the speaker." * Haruko grimaces. * Satoshi glances oddly at Haruko for a moment and then goes back to listening to Akemi. Fortunately for him this is less awkward than watching her talk. * Kyon nods quickly. "Right. Everyone here's on our side. What is it?" ["Turn on the TV."] * Kaede frowns a little and looks around, glancing at everyone and reaches for the remote, clicking it on. * Taki looks at the TV. [The TV flips onto HotelChan, playing some funky music. Akemi says, "Ok, pick a news station."] ( I WILL END YOU ALL!) * Kaede responds. "Already on it." He changes to the local news station. * Kyon gazes at the TV, and eats waffles without looking at them. (Kyon misses the fact that HIS waffles look back.) * Katie bites a fingernail, curling her legs up onto the bed. * Taki takes another sip of milk. [The screen flips to.... Eh, we'll call it NipponNews16, where a two reporter is just finishing up his story about a new building somewhere in Harajuku. "With such a flamboyant display, it should catch many an eye."] * Kyon raises an eyebrow, and smirks. "You want us to watch someone with a flair for architecture?" ["No! Keep watching!"] Yes ma'am. * Haruko looks at the television. * Satoshi watches with dread. "I'm guessing we made the news." * Taki keeps watching. * Kaede looks at Katie. "You're so obedient." he then looks at Satoshi. "And *you're* so worrisome." He then looks back at the news. * Kyon silently offers Katie the last waffle on his plate, but keeps watching. * Katie sticks her tongue out at Kaede briefly. "That's me. I always follow orders." She takes the waffle. [The program switches back to a man behind a desk. "Thank you, Shinichi. Why, I think I'll take my niece there this weekend. But for now, continuing coverage of our top story for this morning: bizarre promotional displays causing havoc with the city council."] (Oh Noes! VIRAL MARKETING! CALL THE BOMB SQUAD!) * Satoshi looks slightly relieved. "Oh, that's not us." * Kaede EYES Satoshi. Harshly. * Satoshi looks at Kaede. "Dead bodies aren't a promotional display." * Katie nibbles her waffle. She doesn't eye Satoshi. (Belive it or not Greg, Satoshi wasn't that stupid.) (No he wasn't. And he would know why Kaede's eying him. :P) * Kyon puts his now-empty plate on the floor, and leans back on the bed, supporting himself with his hands. [The screen flashes to an intersection as the announcer continues: "This morning, Tokyo's residents woke up to find a surprise in their streets: These large promotional displays spotted at various intersections around the city." The camera pans to what looks like a large, unmoving figure. It's body is black and featureless, looking like a person wearing a dark robe. Where its face should be is a white disc with three black dots, placed like a bowling ball.] * Taki blinks and sips her tea again. Ah, I thought it might be them. They're the only they I could think of. Aside from the reversed. Oh, those things. Another reason to visit Winston. * Satoshi looks at Haruko oddly. ...yeah. ["We're not exactly sure what these things even ARE. The most logical conclusion is they're promotional displays of some sort. But of what, nobody seems to know. Furthermore, they're perportedly rooted to the spot. The city attempted to use a tow truck to move one, and failed."] * Satoshi frowns. ["City hall could not be reached for questioning, but did issue this statement:"] * Kaede rubs his head. "How many of these things are there?" * Kyon scowls. "Got to find him, yeah. I'll do a reading after this." I'd guess five. Although I think we've only seen two. * Kaede tilts his head at Haruko. "Why five?" Pentacle. * Katie finishes her waffle. Well, obviously. Or four suits and the major. ["'Whoever installed these figures on public property has done so illegally. When we find the party responsible, they will face hefty charges. However, a lighter sentence will be given if the guilty party is willing to come forward. In the meantime, the city will find a way to remove these objects, as they are obstructing traffic and causing a general public inconvenience." ] * Haruko nods. "They're staring at the tower. I know the schools form a pattern, they might too." Form a pattern around the Tower that is. ["More on that later," says the reporter. "For now, we turn to rising fish prices. Will you be... a fish out of water?"] * Kaede frowns, half glancing at the news. ( Damn, 3% of my budget goes to fish.) ["See?" Akemi cries. "Only we could see them before! Now everyone can! This is bad news."] * Kaede then shakes his head and sighs. "I guess you see why we need to go to the Tower Reversed then." ["Are you sure you'll be able to find that guy, though?"] * Satoshi looks at Kaede and winces. He mouths "sorry." I hope so. We've found him every other time we needed to. * Taki tilts her head for a moment and then takes another sip of tea. If you have any better suggestions, we're open to them. ["Not really. When Matthias saw that, he holed himself up and hasn't left his apartment since. He told me to call you first, though."] [Saki looks at the TV in confusion. Reiji does, too, for that matter. But hey, at least he's doing something.] * Haruko snickers quietly at that. "Maybe he's trying my approach." Did he say anything about what it means? * Kaede snorts. "Since when did *we* become the ones with all the answers?" We're the ones that do anything. * Kaede glances at Satoshi. "If you add the modifier "constructive," I'd buy that." ["No... I don't think he knows. I mean... I think he know, but not KNOWs, you know? Like he has an idea what he means but he's not sure.... or something like that."] True. Do anything constructive. * Satoshi nods in agreement. * Taki glances at Haruko and Satoshi. * Katie thinks about this, then nods to herself. "Okay. Akemi, we're going to try to get to the Tower Reversed and talk to the Hermit. You need to talk to everyone you can and try to get as many ideas about what this means as you can... and why. And try to find stuff about a prophecy, if you can." ["Okay. I hope this works..."] * Kaede winces slightly at the mention of the prophecy. * Kyon rocks up again. "Right. We'll start tapping sources from here, but can't do much hunting on the train back. Can check in when we arrive in Tokyo." It's better than doing nothing and waiting for something to happen to us. Yeah. There's not much else we can do. Thanks for letting us know. ( So you're rejecting the Arcana motto?) ["Ok. I better go. See you!" She hangs up.] * Kaede gets really quiet at the end of the call, looking in between his knees at his hands. I'm sorry Kaede, I didn't realize you were trying to protect her from this. * Kyon leans back and hits the speaker button again, then he pushes himself off the bed and goes to the closet, shoving his hands into the jacket pockets, and grabs his tarot cards out. (Not as funny as Kumaguro saying things, but Haruko showing concern for Kaede is up there.) * Taki takes another sip of milk. Then she stands up and walks across the room to get a waffle. * Kaede looks up. "Ehn. It doesn't help to keep her in the dark... Still..." * Satoshi nods but doesn't comment further. * Kaede rubs his head. "This whole prophecy business is what we really need to find out." * Haruko quietly comments, "I think Kyon's right. We need to do a reading. It may help us find the Hermit or give us a lead on the next best way to find out about the prophecy. Maybe Zein." * Kyon stalks back over to the bed, and sits down on it next to Katie, further back on the bed this time. He goes back to his cross-legged position, and shuffles the cards sharply. Yeah. It all comes back to the cards, doesn't it? Yeah. And it's a prophecy, so it's about fortune telling. * Kyon shrugs quickly, and shuffles again. "Got to use the advantages we have." * Taki uses a fork to stab a waffle onto her plate. Then she puts name brand syrup on it. * Haruko finishes her tea. She eyes a waffle. Well, she turns her head in the direction of a waffle. You'll have to guess what her eyes are doing because she's wearing sun glasses. * Kaede rubs his head again. "That's not exactly what I meant. It makes you wonder how much maneuverability is left in this whole thing." And who is directly opposed to Sho anyway? [Saki raises a hand, weakly.] Perhaps the World. He mentioned a female and I don't think he meant Saki. * Haruko smiles at Saki's gesture. * Katie chuckles. "Thanks, Saki." She looks at Kaede. "I think it's safe to say that we all are." * Taki looks at Saki. "Would we beter trying to heal you with The Cup or Akemi?" * Taki pauses a moment and then adds. "Or both?" * Kaede looks over at Saki. "Well, yeah. But I meant specifically who Sho mentioned was blocking his sight." Some major is on our side and we don't even know who. Well, may be on our side. They may just be against Sho. * Kyon shuffles a third time, then looks down at the space on the bed and flips the first card near the edge, immediately in front of him. * Satoshi doesn't follow up on his suggestion. Maybe he's wrong. [Saki shakes her head at Taki. "'ll get better."] * Katie shifts, not rocking the bed too much, and starts watching the reading. Okay. * Taki takes her waffle and sits back down on the couch. [The first card is the Wheel of Fortune.] Taki, do you have that map I gave you a while back? I think we marked the schools and the figures on that one. * Taki looks at Haruko. "It's in my backpack." * Taki takes a bite of waffle. Mind if I go grab it? * Taki shakes her head. * Haruko goes off to root through Taki's stuff! I mean she goes off to find the map. * Satoshi hmms to himself as he finishes his second waffle. * Kyon looks at the card, then takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and puts the next card down immediately in front of his crossed legs. before his left knee. * Satoshi looks over to Kaede. "Do you have internet access here?" I can find it. My laptop's in my room though. Let me get it. * Satoshi nods. [The next card Kyon draws is Judgment.] * Kaede gets up from the bed and heads out. "Let me know the results of the reading when I get back, just in case it's already done." * Satoshi looks at the reading and replies, rather distractedly, "Will do." * Kyon cocks his head, regards that for a second, glances sidewise at Satoshi, then looks down at the cards again. He takes another deep breath, releases it, and puts the third card just above his right knee. [The next card drawn is the Magician.] * Taki eats more waffle, it tastes like pancake. * Katie raises an eyebrow. [Saki manages to finish a waffle.] [She looks over at the cards and tries to appear interested. It doesn't seem to work at all.] * Kyon looks at that for a moment, scowls at it, then puts down one card in the middle of the triangle face down, followed by another card on top of it. [The fourth card drawn is Death.] * Haruko returns. She's carrying Taki's backpack with her. She puts the bag over by Taki and looks at the map. * Kyon looks at that coolly, and then flips the pair of cards over, showing the one that he put face down the first time. [Sure enough, you could connect the five schools with a pentagon if you wanted to.] [The final card is the Tower.] * Haruko double checks that the pentagon is centered on the Tower like she said. * Kyon snorts, and leans back, regarding the cards. [It seems to be in the exact center.] Great. (And not nearly big enough to connect the schools) [You could also draw a star out of it if you had more artistic skills, but if not a pentagon works too.] * Haruko looks at the position of the two bowling balls they've spotted so far: one in reversed world and the one that Matthias found. Are they as far away from the Tower as the schools are? 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6) and gets a natural 7 for a result of 7. [They are not! In fact, they're halfway between the schools and Tokyo Tower.] So, Kyon. Tell me that's the change for good Death, not the everybody dies Death. [Eriko boggles at the reading. "No idea what that means, sorry."] * Kyon looks over the cards. "Could just mean a person. Usually does for us. But that's the success card." He smirks. "So, the change for good Death." [Reiji starts to get out of his chair. He nearly falls, but Eriko's lightning-quick reflexes steady him. Nevertheless, he keeps trying to push forward, his gaze on Haruko.] * Haruko looks up to Reiji. "What?" * Katie nods with a small smile. "I'll hold you to that." She glances at Haruko and Reiji. * Taki drinks more milk. [Eriko steadies Reiji, looking over at Kyon. "But that guy, Sho... didn't he say you were dead whether you won or lost?"] * Kyon taps the cards in turn. "Source of problem. Course of problem. Means of solution. Success and failure." He looks up. "Maybe because he's what we need to go through to win. Death can just be a large change." [Reiji staggers towards Haruko, with Eriko's assistance. She shoots Haruko a confused, whatthehellshouldIdo look.] [Eriko scowls. "Work with him? You've got to be kidding!"] * Haruko shrugs and lets Reiji come. She offers him the mechanical pencil she's been working with. "If I"m reading this right, the other three should be halfway between the other three schools and the Tower." [Reiji makes his way over and reaches out with a shaky hand, taking the pencil from Haruko.] [He leans over the map. Then, just for a minute, he stops shaking and draws the pencil over it.] * Kyon shakes his head quickly with a smirk. "Might be that we need to beat him to solve the problem." * Haruko holds the map steady to help Reiji as best she can. [Reiji draws a line between each school and two others. In other words, a star shape. Once the star is complete, he draws a circle around it. A perfect pentacle.] * Haruko looks to see if the inner five are at the intersection points for the pentagon inside the star. (Damnit, even drained out of his mind he draws better than I can! Wait, I don't care.) * Kaede returns with his laptop. [Two of the five points are exactly where the bowling ball heads appeared.] ( Er. ) ( Not points. ) * Katie peers at the cards. "You know..." ( The intersecting points. ) ( What Haruko said. ) ( Yeah ) It's just a thought, but aren't the four artifacts on this card? * Katie taps The Magician. * Haruko smiles up at the draftsman. "Thanks Reiji." [Reiji responds by almost falling over. Eriko hurriedly helps him back to his chair.] * Kaede walks in just on Katie's tapping and looks over her shoulder. "...huh." * Kyon nods quickly. "Yeah. Think we need them all to be able to beat him?" I think that might be a decent bet. It wouldn't hurt to have them. * Satoshi looks at the arriving Kaede. "Wheel of Fortune, Judgment, Magician, Death, Tower. In that order." Probably not. But is he even our most pressing threat? He's our solution. * Kaede then glances at Satoshi. "Thank you. I can read the cards, thanks. I was more meaning the interpretation." And thanks Eriko. Kaede, when you're ready, I think I have the other three bowling-ball spots. * Katie points at the Wheel of Fortune. "There's our threat. Fate." (Okay, we're going to need to call in Wintergreen.) * Kyon snorts, and taps the card. "Right. So we need to break the cycle. And if we don't, there's disaster." Yes. I think we need those artifacts, as soon as we can get them. * Katie looks at Reiji. "Do you still have the Pentacle?" [Reiji shakes his head.] Is this the cycle? Last time, five Arcana survived. Sho didn't seem to think that was an option anymore. * Katie frowns a little. "Do you know who has it now?" [Eriko shakes her head. "But the rest of you died in a nuke. It's not a cycle.... is it?"] * Taki eats and drinks and continues to not contribute. [Reiji shakes his head. Again.] Right. Another thing to talk to Winston about. At least we know who likely has the Wand. * Kyon blows out a breath. "Yeah. Should ask how to find him, too." If it is, we need to find a way to break it. And it sounded like Sho didn't think it'd be a cycle this time. Just Arcana would cease. * Taki's eyebrows furrow and she scowls briefly, then she has more milk and it all goes away. Otherwise, he wouldn't be so freaked. * Haruko nods at Kaede's comment. "Exactly." [Eriko nods. "Yeah, he's been through this before, right?"] * Kaede sits on the bed, nodding to Haruko. "Go ahead." * Haruko brings over the map and shows it to Kaede. "Here are the five schools." She points them out. "And the two known bowling balls." She points to two of the intersections. ( Intersections by both lines drawn and streets. The streets themselves don't form a pentacle though :P ) [The other three lines don't seem to be at road intersections, ones on a street and ones on a park. The last one's in a building.] * Kaede stares. "That makes sense, actually. Hold on." He boots up his computer and plots the points on his own map." I'll bet people have posted pictures of these online by now. * Satoshi doesn't have anything to add. He does walk over to look at the map though. * Kyon scoops up the cards, and puts them back in a pile. He looks over at the mapmakers. "We found the rest of them?" Maybe, give Kaede a minute. * Katie lies back on the bed and picks up her brush, playing with it as she listens to the conversation. So see if we can find sightings of them at these locations then? Exactly! ::Haruko then winces at her volume. She then looks confused at Kaede:: You should watch those hangovers. * Kaede stares back at Haruko. "Which is it?" Oh, no, see if there's sightings at those locations. I'm just not used to all this agreeing. * Haruko then glances over at Katie. "Quiet you." * Kaede sighs. "I *can* agree with you when you have an actual decent idea." * Kaede types away in the browser. I'm not the one talking loudly enough to make your ears hurt. That's you. * Taki runs out of waffle and puts the plate down on the nearest table. Right, right. * Satoshi walks over to Kyon and quietly asks, "You have any feel for what this means for me?" * Kaede starts cross-referencing the addresses and nearby "common" buildings and sightings of creatures or "advertising" like the type they mentioned on the news. * Katie turns her head and eyes Satoshi. * Taki also looks at Satoshi. * Kyon looks up at Satoshi coolly. "You're the course of the problem. Should mean that you'll show us how it'll work. Or that you're going to cause problems." He smirks. "We'll watch till we know which." [There's a lot of sites around, giving a lot of different stories. The less biased ones seem to follow the news stories, though, saying they're promotional displays, probably placed over night for a secret event meant to shock the public. Police are starting to ward them off, creating detours around the ones in the streets.]] * Taki blinks and then tilts her head the other way. Then she stands up again because this is a problem that requires more tea. * Kaede narrows it down by looking for photos and looking for just the three spots not marked yet. [The objects are assumed to be attached to the ground, as a means to remove them has yet to be found. A man hit the one in the park with a lead pipe. It's noted that there's not so much as a scratch on the object.] (Bets on how long it'll be before people draw faces on them.) * Satoshi nods. "I think a few of Hideo's old powers are coming back to me. I really didn't want to deal with them at first. I'm not sure I'm ready now either." * Taki pours tea for herself and adds lemon and honey. * Kyon shrugs quickly. "Just work on it. Might need them. Either way, you're a key to this." Could you please make me a cup Taki? (Taki's been taken over by Gryph's L5R character) (Taki isn't smiling enough for that.) * Haruko offers her cup while shifting her attention between the map and Kaede's computer. * Taki walks over to Haruko and hands her the cup she's holding. Then she returns to make another. * Haruko takes that cup. "Thanks." She sips. * Taki finishes with the second cup and sits back down. * Satoshi nods. "I think I can wear out someone's energy. It may have been something he mastered before he started banishing people. But I think it'd take me a minute or two at this point." * Kyon looks sidewise at Satoshi. "So we just need to keep them engaged while you do it. Should be doable." * Taki eyes Satoshi for a moment and then sips her tea. * Satoshi nods. "I guess." Just don't do it to me. I don't think I'd like that. Of course I wouldn't. But I think it's reversible. I'd like to ask Winston to be sure though. (So are they placed in all the intersections?) * Kyon nods quickly. "Got a lot of questions." ( Of the pentagram, yeah ) * Katie turns her brush in her hand again. "There's an understatement." She sits up, then goes about making sure her stuff is packed away. * Kyon nods quickly. "Right. Get everyone packed up. Got a train to catch, and a lot of people to get on it." * Haruko glances over to Kaede to make sure it's okay. She then folds up the map. * Satoshi heads back to his room to make sure everything is packed. * Taki sets her tea down and walks over to where Haruko put her backpack and picks it up, then she walks out of the room after Satoshi, presumably to go back to her and Haruko's room. [I'ma end it! Session End!]