[Kaede and Katie are walking down the streets of Tokyo near their school. A few minutes ago they left Haruko and Taki at the ramen stand and promised to meet at the trees near the baseball practice field later. Minisession start!] * Katie walks along, obligingly. She's looking around, occasionally checking that Kaede's still with her. Maybe she's scoping out climbing places or something. * Kaede walks slowly and puts his hands in his pockets. He seems to have something deep on his mind. * Katie spots an empty park - likely the one they talked to Eriko at back on Valentine's Day - reaches back and takes Kaede by the wrist, and starts pulling him there. * Kaede looks up and blinks, then looks towards the park. "You want to go there?" There's trees. * Katie says that like it explains everything. Why do you want to climb so badly? * Katie blinks. "I like climbing." I figured that. But why now? Why all of the sudden? I... * Katie frowns a little. "I don't know. But it takes me closer to the sky." * Katie pulls Kaede into the park and looks around, scoping out the trees. * Kaede eeps as he gets dragged, catching his glasses and kaban before he drops them. [There are lots of trees in the park, a few of them look like they're big enough to climb.] * Katie spots the most likely one and pulls Kaede there, looking it over with a practiced eye. * Kaede yelps. "You don't have to drag me!" * Katie giggles and lets go. "Sorry." * Katie walks up to the tree and around it. "Okay, probably need to start from here..." * Kaede rubs his wrist and gets a pouty look. "Yesh you can be insistant, Katie Andrews." (ogg, I've only been in charge for five min and I can allready feel the evil creaping in) (GMing does that to you) * Katie grins at him. "Okay, follow me." She reaches up, grabbing the first branch, and starts scrambling up the tree. (It sure does.) 2d6-6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katie (2d6-6) and gets -4, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "Hey, a crit! Remember this next Christmas." * Kaede blinks. "Hey! Wait!" He tries to gauge the branches and find a steady one, reaching up cautiously. 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Kaede (2d8-3) and gets 3. (Katie scurries up the tree, Kaede gets an eyefull if looks up) * Katie does a beautiful job climbing the thing, quickly ending up on the highest branches that can support a human. She waves down at Kaede, and her balance doesn't seem to waver in the slightest. * Kaede tshes as he follows up, not as fast, but still better than expected for Kaede. "Honestly. And I thought people thought I ran off without thinking." He reaches up for the next branch and pulls himself up. * Katie looks down at Kaede and smiles. "You're doing a great job." * Kaede mumbles. "Well, I don't cycle for nothing. Still I'm better in my legs then my arms. You do this often?" I used to do it more. Why'd you stop then? * Katie swings her feet. "Not as many trees in the city." * Kaede finally pulls himself up to the same branch as her level and sits down on it. "I suppose..." He's gripping a little more cautiously than Katie is. * WeightofTaki is now known as Taki * Katie sighs and looks through the leaves above her, to the sky. "It's too bad I'll never convince Satoshi to do this sort of thing." * Kaede grumbles. "You didn't convince me. I'm not taking the chance of letting you out of my sight, even if it means doing something incredibly stupid." * Katie looks at Kaede, and he gets the sneaking suspicion she might poke him. But she pouts instead. "It's not that bad." If you know you're not naturally talented in it, it is. I don't know how naturally talented I am. I fell a lot. * Katie thinks. "A lot." She laughs a little. "That's how I know how to use a first aid kit." Well, there's no better practice than screwing up. I've completely destroyed my hard drive more times than I'd care to admit. * Katie mmms and nods. * Kaede sighs and leans back a little, but grips the branch very tightly. "Did you still want to talk about it now?" * Katie watches him. She's much more at ease, and almost looks like she belongs in a tree. "If you want to." * Kaede puts his fingers up to his chin. "Well, I was thinking...why hasn't she come back to Sakuragoaka ever since that...incident?" * Katie sighs, looking away, at the buildings and the people on the streets. "Maybe she knows." Of course she'd know. Well, of course she does...the question is... Where's she getting the information from? She could... be getting it herself. I mean, if she doesn't always look like me. We don't always talk in private. I mean...if she wants us to think that she's the real one...why did she just start suddenly disappearing from school? Heck, why didn't she come that day to the train station...? Because she could get it first by going earlier. * Kaede frowns and turns slowly towards her. "No, we don't, do we..." * Katie shakes her head, still looking away. She's been surprisingly steady, all considered. "We don't. That needs to change." I don't know how much it'll help, because they know about Kyoko. But anything... * Kaede sighs and looks straight ahead, still keeping her in the corner of his vision. "A lot needs to change..." * Katie snaps her attention to Kaede. "Look at me?" * Kaede blinks and turns his attention straight at Katie, his eyes wide. "Huh?" * Katie stares him in the eye for a moment, then relaxes a little. "Okay. Sorry." * Kaede frowns and keeps looking at her. "I've been in front of you the whole time, Katie. Do you really think it's that easy to replace someone?" * Katie flinches. "No, but- I just need to know sometimes. That's all." * Kaede sighs and shakes his head. "No. I should be sorry. That was wrong of me." What? I can understand why you'd be worried...it's a scary world now... How do Taki and Satoshi and Haruko do it? (We're insane, next question?) * Katie sighs. "Do what?" Act like this whole thing is going to go away if they just close their eyes and wish hard enough? * Katie looks down at one of her hands. The other is gripping the branch and keeping herself steady. "Faith?" I doubt it's faith really.. * Katie sighs. "They're not that good at acting that way, anyway." Doesn't mean they don't try. Except Haruko, who thinks this whole thing is amusing. * Kaede rubs his forehead irritatedly with the hand not holding him on the branch. Okay. I tried, too, I guess. * Katie turns back to Kaede and laughs a little. "Amusing?" Have you seen her lately? She's practicing with puddles as if she just got a new toy. * Katie nods. I guess it's nice that someone enjoys their powers. * Kaede rubs his forehead. "And me, I possibly ruin someone's life because of mine.." * Katie falls silent at that bit, then says, hesitantly, "You did what you thought you had to." * Kaede closes his eyes a bit and grips it tighter. "If it was Tenjirou or Senshirou who was there, I wouldn't care at all. Norishige and Jiro took it just fine so I didn't think it was that powerful. But Miho..." He rubs his forehead, dragging his fingers down over his brow. "She should have listened when I tried to grab her and hold her still. * Katie shakes her head. "I don't know exactly what happened, but... You're not careless with your power, Kaede. You did what you thought was best, and I know you won't do that again." Until then, we just have to hope everything works out okay. * Kaede opens his eyes slowly. "Thank you. I needed that, Katie." * Katie smiles faintly. "Anytime." * Kaede frowns. "Where should we meet to talk when we need to?" I don't know. We could go to Kyon's place or Satoshi's. * Kaede winces visibly at the thought of Kyon's place, then turns away. "I don't trust Kyon." Why not? * Katie sounds more curious than anything. She reaches up to toy with the leaves. * Kaede frowns. "Because we know multiple people are after him. Yet do we have any idea really why?" We know people are after me. It's not even because of Judgement anymore, is it? * Kaede frowns even more. "Yes but...not even you know the reason why on that front..." He looks slowly at Katie. "Or do you?" * Katie tugs on one of the leaves, pulling it from the branch. She pulls it down and rubs at the surface with her thumb. "I don't know. Who are you talking about, being after Kyon?" This Souichirou person? And whatever other enemies he made in this so- called war... * Katie sighs. "Some people just seem to decide they're your enemy, because you're not with them. But that ass Souichirou..." She stops, thinking. I...guess. * Kaede looks rather distant. I know he was Kyon's friend, once. He knew about Kumaguro, and Kyon seemed sure he was one of the only, if not the only, person who'd know how he got the cat. But... when I asked Kyon what happened that would make Souichirou hate him so much, he wouldn't tell me. It's...probably better. * Katie keeps rubbing at the leaf, studying it. "I don't know." Don't know what? If it's better or not. You'd rather know, wouldn't you? * Katie closes her eyes for a moment. "Yeah. I want to know everything." She smiles, a little, and looks up to Kaede. "Don't you?" * Kaede closes his eyes a bit. "Not necessarily, well, *everything* Okay, not everything everything. But almost everything. * Katie reaches up and tests the branch above her, and almost seems ready to climb higher despite that it won't support her weight. "But it's Kyon's secret, and he can keep it secret if he wants to." But you still want to know. Yeah. * Kaede sighs and closes his eyes, rocking back a little on his limb. "Sometimes that's just as bad as digging at the secret.." * Katie shakes her head. "It doesn't bother me that much, Kaede. You might not trust him, but I do." * Kaede blinks. "I never said..." You did. When? You said you don't trust him. That's why we're talking about him in the first place, right? * Kaede blinks. "No? We're talking about him because of Souichirou. But you still said you don't trust him. * Kaede sighs and rubs his forehead. "Can we please change the subject?" Okay. What do you want to talk about? Why girls are so weird? * Katie blinks, looking off to the distance. She squints a little, then peers more and smiles. "First few of the season. Nice to see they're coming home." And she gets doubly distracted. "Weird? Why?" First few what? Hm? Oh. I think those are noddies. They're coming home. Most won't stay near the city, though. * Katie tries to move the leaves so Kaede can see. They're not much more than specks to him, really. * Kaede peers, and peers, and adjusts his glasses and sighs. "That's...got to be hard to adjust to." * Katie blinks. "What?" I can barely see them. * Katie tilts her head. "You ca-" And then she looks at Kaede, then up to the birds, then sighs. "Yeah, well." * Kaede rubs his head. "No wonder you've been acting a bit strange...well, that and...obvious things. Though I have to say you're handling it pretty well..." * Katie folds the leaf with her one hand, and she looks back down at it. "It's... easier than everything being louder. I just see things clearly. All the little lines, here." But it got so bright. The hospital- * Katie shuts up. * Kaede taps his fingers on the branch, looking off to the side, slightly away from Katie. He looks curious but his tone is a bit of a mix of pleading and resigned. "Katie, do you think we'll even remember how to be normal after all this?" * Katie says, distantly, "I wonder if I ever was normal." * Kaede sighs. "No...I have to admit....it was weird when I started hearing...voices from my computer. You're not alone." * Katie blinks, looking up a bit. "Voices?" Well...sometimes voices. Sometimes images. Sometimes it's just...the coding in my head. And when I start thinking in binary..... * Kaede shutters a bit. * Katie giggles. "Binary. That's all in zeros and ones, right? How can you think in that?" Eh? The human body IS made up of zeroes and ones. Synapses either fire or don't fire. Your whole body is technically just one large binary system. It's merely the next step. I guess... Err... Did I just say that? * Katie lets out a breath. "Yup." But following that, I guess a language in binary would be very clear, wouldn't it? Yes or no, right? If you could think that way, maybe it's like really being able to see for the first time. I don't know...it's not something I try to explain really. But..I suppose you could look at it like that. * Katie mmms. She flips the leaf in her hand, looking at the other side. * Kaede rubs his head and sighs. "Remi doesn't think she's one of us..." Why not? I mean, she doesn't go to Sakuragaoka, but she's in this. * Katie puts her hand out and opens it, letting the leaf flutter to the ground. She feels like we're excluding her or something... * Kaede sighs and mumbles, adding. "or maybe just that I'm excluding her..." * Katie sighs. "I don't know what happened while I was... gone, but you- I mean, you're our link to her." I care about Remi, and I don't want her hurt, but she doesn't respond to the rest of us as much, you know? Sometimes I wonder if she even likes me that much. * Kaede droops his head. "I'm...probably to blame for that." * Katie tilts her head, looking at him. "Why?" Because I think she's jealous of you. * Katie blinks. Me? What, do I spend too much time with you? Should we climb down? Why climb down? Because I have you in a tree, so I must be trying to keep you to me. * Katie smiles a little. * Kaede shakes his head and sighs. "It's Remi's problem, not mine. I...I just don't know." Don't know what? About her... * Katie blinks, but keeps watching him and waiting for him to continue. * Kaede watches her too. He's not really sure what to say either. (* dumps paint on Kaede and calls him art.) Well... do you know about you, then? About..me? Yeah. I mean, do you know what you feel about her? Do you think you're not spending enough time with her? Wha? * Kaede blinks and looks at Katie strangely. * Katie shrugs. "I'm just wondering. I mean, you don't know about her, and it's bothering you." But it sounds like you don't know about yourself, either. Well, no... * Kaede rubs his head. "I don't know...I've never had to think about this sort of thing before. Girls just don't like me." * Katie laughs. "Didn't we talk about this?" We did. You girls still don't make sense to me. But that doesn't mean we don't like you. * Katie reaches up to brush some hair out of her face. "I mean, if Remi's jealous, she probably does." * Kaede rubs his forehead. "I think you misunderstood what I said. I meant until now, girls don't like me..and still in general they don't. It's just the exceptions...I can't figure it out." I have no doubt that Remi likes me. I just wish I knew why.. And what I could say if things don't work out... * Katie looks at Kaede. Before, she was looking, generally, but now she seems to really be *looking* at him. "Which things?" * Kaede turns and looks back. "You know how Remi is. If I don't do anything, she'll feel it's hopeless. If I *do* act and it doesn't work out...I don't know how she'll take it. Forget about that for a second. What do you want to do? I mean, for you. Be selfish. * Kaede blinks and looks even more at her. "Be what?" Selfish! Think of you. * Katie lets go of the branch and waves, tipping and nearly falling out of the tree before she grabs it and steadies herself. * Kaede looks at her very strangely as she asks that. "Think...of me eh?" You know.... I don't remember the last time I was able to do that. * Katie nods. I didn't think so. You might want to learn how. Not so you can do it all the time, but it'll help. * Kaede closes his eyes and hrrms, his knuckles on his chin. "What do I think? I like Remi...I just wish she was a lot less...needy. Still it feels good to be needed, but even so..." * Katie tilts her head. "Even so? Too much?" * Kaede nods slowly. Maybe you could talk to her about it? I mean, carefully. This is Remi. * Katie frowns a little. "No, she'd take it wrong. Mmm." * Kaede tilts his head and watches Katie It looks like, no matter what you do, it won't end happily for everybody. * Kaede sighs sadly and looks down. "Yeah. That's what I figured..." * Katie lets out a sigh, also. "So, I guess, all I can say is try to go easy on her. Be a little selfish in making your decision, then do it and trust you'll both pull through." I just wish I knew what I wanted. It just seems odd coming from you. She deserves a talk, though. Remi's confused, too. It might be good for both of you. * Katie blinks. "Coming from me?" Yeah. Why? I...don't really know. It's just a feeling. * Katie blinks again, then turns her attention somewhere else. Maybe another bird? "Okay." * Kaede tugs on her arm, smiling. "You don't get off that easy. I've talked about my love life, let's talk about yours." * Katie yelps. "Watch it, you might fall!" She laughs a little, though, and scoots so she's closer to him. I don't fall as easily as you might think. But you might. * Katie reaches over and pushes a fingertip lightly on Kaede's forehead. "Like that." * Kaede unsteadies for a moment but grips the branch quickly with his hand. "But I won't any more than you might." * Katie nods, and her grin turns into a sad smile. "Sure." * Kaede smiles. "You're not going to fall while I'm here. I promised myself." I guess I wouldn't want to break a promise. I've never broken one yet. * Katie laughs a bit. "Then we shouldn't start now." No... But maybe we should get down from here. * Katie looks, too. "Aww. If you want to." We're expected. Though, to be honest, I'm in no rush to see those two. Wait, did I just say I'm not in a rush? I *have* changed * Katie smiles again. "Yeah, you did." She pauses. "We all did. We can walk slowly back, okay? Follow my lead." 2d6-6 * Diceroshi throws the bones for Katie (2d6-6) and gets 1. * Katie moves, making her way down the tree more slowly than she did going up, so Kaede can see exactly where she's going and how she's doing it. (She doesn't trust him to go down himself? ;_;) 2d6-3 * Diceroshi throws the bones for Kaede (2d6-3) and gets 3. (I've always found climbing down trees harder than climbing up.) (It's scary. ;_;) * Kaede doesn't watch where she's going, instead finding his own route down and making it equally well. Ha. (No, I did it better! :P) (Picky picky) * Katie folds her arms and watches Kaede drop to the ground. "If you knew how to get down, you should've just said so." * Kaede hops down and pushes up his glasses, blinking. "I didn't know it was a question." * Kaede looks back at the tree. "I always thought it was a bit intuitive anyways. I'm far from perfect at it, mind you..." * Katie rolls her eyes, lightly thwapping him on the back of the head and dislodging his glasses. "Yup." * Kaede falls forward a little further than expected from the thwap, due to not anticipating it at all and scowers for his glasses, his voice incredulous. "What was THAT for?" * Katie blinks. "Sorry! Sorry. I didn't think it was that hard." She spots Kaede's glasses easily and picks them up, handing them to him. * Kaede puts his glasses back on his face and eyes Katie strangely. * Katie looks rather embarrassed, and just a little scared. * Kaede blinks, losing any piercing from his gaze at her scared expression. "What is it?" * Katie winces. "It's nothing. You're okay now, right?" It's not nothing. What is it? * Katie opens her mouth, then closes it. She tries again. I guess... I just didn't want you to go off, because you were mad at me, or something. It's silly. Nothing, really. * Kaede sighs and keeps his eyes closed as he pushes his glasses up. "Katie. I'd be a rather poor friend if I decided to leave you now." Especially over something so trivial. * Katie is silent for a moment, then nods. "I know that." Her voice sounds kind of distant. "I do." * Kaede speaks steadily. "I'm not leaving, Katie Andrews. I'm harder to get rid of than you think." I know. Even if you do, I'm not going to let you forget it. * Katie lets out a sigh and looks away, to the park enterance. "Like I said, it's nothing. I just- I just slipped, okay?" * Kaede smiles. "Why do you think I'm trying to reassure you? Silly girl." * Katie laughs a little. "Yeah." Shall we go, then? No wonder Remi's jealous. I think we should. * Kaede blinks and tilts his head to the side. "Eh?" * Katie smiles. "I'm just lucky." She starts heading back to Sakuragaoka. * Kaede blinks again, confused at that, and sighs, shrugging, mentally wondering why girls are so weird. [Session End.]