[Day: Thursday, March 25th. Time: 10:45 p.m.] [Weather: The skies were clear, but are beginning to get cloudy. It's also getting colder.] [We find Satoshi, Saki, Akemi and Matthias outside the Tokyo Tower! It's all lit up and shiny. Not to mention locked up tight, since nobody is allowed to enter at night. Jin used to be there with a chicken, and now they're not.] [Anything else? Nope!] [Start!] * Satoshi heads for the door and pulls on the handle. It does not open. "Great." Bust a hole in it. * Satoshi looks at Akemi and Matthias. "You guys have any other ideas?" Matthias: "Getting in would be easy enough. Getting out without being caught, however... We'd have to avoid the security cameras." * Akemi bounces! "It's just like one of those spy movies! Hmm... I should talk to my agent about being in one of those." (That's why we have Rei disable the security cameras! Except we don't have a Rei. Darn.) ( Sure you do. He's just a ghost right now :P ) Yeah, I don't want to think about how many laws we're about to break. (He?) (Kaede?) * Saki shrugs. "Have it your way. It's your friends' lives on the line." I'm just trying to think of a reasonable... forget it. * Satoshi pulls out his stick. "Let's move fast." * Satoshi swings at the door. ( Hearing check -3! ) 2d6-5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6-5) and gets 1. [Just as Satoshi is about to swing, he hears a *click!* from the door.] * Satoshi checks his swing realfast. I think it's open. * Satoshi tries the door again. [It opens!] Wow! I'm impressed! Somebody must like us. For now. Yeah. You can indimidate doors. * Satoshi puts his stick away and goes in, heading for the elevator that leads to the Tower Reversed. "Well, go me." ( Whee, go Satoshi, be practical about laws! ) (He's Lawful Good. This whole situation is sitting poorly with him. ;p) [As Satoshi goes in, he sees a man coming from the security office. It'll take too long to describe, so I'll just say that he's dressed so outlandishly he could only be Gustav.] * Satoshi waves. "Hey. How's the artwork going?" Gustav speaks with a bad Romanian accent. "Good evening." * Akemi bounces! "Hello!" Did you come from downstairs? Is anybody else down there? "Indeed. There was a plethora of ar-TEISTS, such as myself. I particularly enjoyed my conversations with Mozart (p. Moe's Art) and Van Gogh (Van Gogha)." Right. Well, I'm glad you had fun. Good luck with your further artistic endevors. * Satoshi heads for the elevators again. "But now if you will excuse me, I intend to capture the essence of sincerity with this butterfly net" He pulls out said net and walks past Satoshi out the door. * Saki watches him go. "Uh.... Yeah, whatever." Sums things up quite nicely. * Satoshi pushes the button for the elevator! * Akemi smiles. "He's an artist! I should ask him if I could model some time." Meanwhile, Matthias hangs back. "Once we start, I'll have no way of knowing when you finish in there." * Satoshi stops. "Well, what else can we do? I guess we can set a time limit or something." Matthias: "I'll pull you out in an hour." I hope that's enough time... What if it's too much? Then you'll be sitting around in there with nothing to do! We can handle that. But I'm worried about you, too. * Akemi hmmms. "Well, she'll have nothing to do." She points at Saki. "But you and I...." * Satoshi reddens. "Akemi, please. Now isn't the time." * Saki sighs and shakes her head. "Why me?" [Oh yeah, the elevator comes, too.] * Satoshi gets in the elevator and, once everyone else is in, pushes the button to go down. * Saki gets in! * Akemi hops in! Boing! [And the elevator goes down. Or not down. But wherever it goes.] * Akemi hums whilst the elevator comes down. "How'd you find me, anyhow?" What? How'd you find me? You couldn't have just come to the cafe on a whim, right? I was looking for Matthias, actually. But I got the information from a couple of people at Serizawa. Akito Garcia and a couple of his gang. I didn't tell them why, just that I was looking for him. Oooooh. [The elevator hits the bottom!] * Satoshi gets out once the doors open. * Saki steps out too. * Akemi does too. She twirls around and smiles. "How do I look?" You never complimented me on my nice dress. I'm sad. Oh. Um... you look very nice. Really pretty. But we've got other things to do now. I'm getting to it. I guess I should start taking off my clothes now, huh? Uh. No? You don't have to do that to make a field. * Akemi pouts. "Well, no, I don't HAVE to..." Please don't, then? Why? What are you so afraid of? Boys are all so silly. * Saki leans against the wall and closes her eyes. Because... we don't have time to argue this now. Just, please? Oh fine. Meanie. * Akemi walks into the center of the room and hops onto a couch. "But you know..." What? You should learn to like girls. * Akemi grins. I do! And the ones I really care about might be dead if we don't get moving! Oh. So you're saying you don't really care about me? I'm hurt. * Akemi pouts. * Satoshi exhales sharply, all the calm he's been trying to maintain gone. It's not like that! It's hard to explain, and I'll gladly do it all later! Later! * Saki sighs, muttering. "Unbelievably stupid." You know, David Hume says people are naturally benevolent. That's why you're acting so hard to save your friends, you know? * Satoshi looks absolutely flummoxed. "I guess that could be true? All I know is that they're depending on me, so I can't fail. I can't let them down." * Satoshi takes a deep breath. "So let's do this." Yep! But you know, I don't have to do this either, because I barely know you and you keep pushing me away, just 'cause maybe I like to get compliments now and then. But luckily, David Hume says all humans are benevolent, including me, so I can still help you! I just wanted you to know that... you know, in case I die from doing this. Okay! I'm ready! I'm sorry. I really don't want anything bad to happen to you. I hope it doesn't. * Akemi closes her eyes. There's a fierce rush of wind in all directions. ( Body roll - acrobatics (balance) ) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6) and gets 8. [Satoshi is knocked off his feet and falls to the floor! Saki remains standing, but only because she's pushed back into the wall she was leaning on; her feet aren't touching the floor.] * Satoshi falls down. "Ow." [Then suddenly the wind stops. Akemi falls down onto the couch.] * Saki lands in a crouch. "That sucked." * Satoshi gets up and checks on Akemi. "Did it work?" * Saki pulls herself to her feet. "Dunno." * Satoshi blinks. "Wait. Yes. Field's up." [Akemi is lying on the couch half-curled. Blood is running from her nose, and tears from her eyes.] * Satoshi winces. "Akemi... we'll get this done soon. I'm sorry." Yeah, about that. Where do we start? * Satoshi looks up. "I don't know. If we can find the Hermit, he'll be able to tell us. He probably knows we're coming." Last time, we met him outside... somewhere. I can't quite remember where, though. Mm... (Question: is Matthias here, or outside the field?) [Matthias is not there.] (Okay, that's what I thought.) * Saki shrugs. "One way to find out." She hits the elevator button! * Satoshi nods and waits for the elevator. [The elevator comes!] * Satoshi gets on the elevator once the doors open! * Saki follows. [Satoshi notices something missing: Elevator buttons!] ( Perception check! ) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6-2) and gets 4. [Oh, there they are. Above and to the left of the door, some of them out of reach.] * Satoshi blinks. "Reversed. Of course." He looks at Saki. "Want me to lift you up so you can reach them?" No. Just jump. They're not that high. Okay. * Satoshi tries to jump and hit the button for the "ground" floor! [The elevator moves downwards. It stops at a room that leads into a balcony, complete with telescopes you could put money in to look around the city. That is, if the balcony wasn't upside down.] * Saki steps off and into the room. She walks to the edge and looks down. "Hmmm..." * Satoshi looks out at the room, then pales and steps back. "Uhh..." * Saki looks back. "Well, come on." It's only two... maybe three stories. * Saki looks around a bit. "Maybe we can find something to climb down with." Are you crazy?! Jump *that* far? If we have to, sure. There's grass down there. Shouldn't hurt too bad. Nothing you can't recover from, as long as you land right. Uh. * Satoshi looks very nervous. Yeah, you said that. Right. Well, if it's the only way. * Saki looks up. "There's some tables up there. We could tie table cloths together and climb down. I saw it in an American cartoon." That would definitely beat jumping. * Saki looks right at Satoshi. "Well? You gonna stand there all day or do something useful?" Right. * Satoshi goes over to the tables and starts snagging tablecloths. [Satoshi has to jump for them since the tables are somewhat high off the ground, but eventually he grabs four or five. Unfortunately he hasn't mastered the "tablecloth magic trick", so some plates and glasses that were on the cloth fall to the ceiling and break.] * Satoshi winces slightly but proceeds to tie tablecloths together to create a makeshift rope. [Satoshi does that easily enough, but will it hold? Only time will tell.] Right, tie them around something and let's go. Okay. * Satoshi looks towards the railing for a good spot. He studiously avoids looking down. Or up, for that matter. Straight ahead is good. [Satoshi sees, off in the distance a bit, the rooftop of a building.] * Satoshi ties the "rope" to the railing as securely as he can. "Um. Why don't you go first?" [However, he finds he can't tie the tablecloth to the railing, because the railing is on the balcony, which sticks too far out on the ceiling.] (Oh. Misread, then. Where can I tie it?) [A convenient pillar!] * Satoshi does what he said he was going to do above, only with the pillar instead of the railing! * Saki eyes Satoshi, then shrugs. "Whatever." She grabs hold of the notrope and starts climbing down. [About thirty seconds later, Satoshi hears: "Ahh! Fuck!"] * Satoshi yells. "What's wrong?" * Saki yells back. "Damn thing came undone." Where are you? Are you okay? On the ground, duh. Yeah, I'm fine, just bruised a bit. * Satoshi swallows. "I... don't think I have time to make another one. So." He swallows again. "Do you see anything down there?" Grass... Buildings... Cars and stuff. No mysterious old men? It still goes down halfway. Just climb that far and fall like I did. * Satoshi walks over to where the rope is and grabs it. "Easy for you to say." Hell, at least you know it's coming. You think that makes it better? ... Yes? * Satoshi slowly starts going down the rope. Very slowly. He's visibly sweating. Hurry up, okay? We've already spent like 20 minutes. That long? * Satoshi tries to go a little faster. * Saki shrugs down on the ground. "Dunno. Feels like it." ( Body +1 - sports (climbing) ) 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6-3) and gets 4. [Satoshi climbs down to the end of the rope without panicking enough to let go.] * Saki gestures for Satoshi to fall. * Satoshi takes a very, very deep breath. Then... he lets go. [Body roll] 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6) and gets 9. (I hate you, Dicey.) [Wham! Satoshi hits the ground with one leg before the other. It hurts a lot, but he can still use it if he doesn't mind limping.] Ow! Goddamnit! * Satoshi tries to push himself upright. Still, I'm in one piece... Yeah, that's close to what I said. Can you walk? * Satoshi stands up and winces as he puts weight on his leg. "Yeah. Hurts, but I can move. Let's go." * Saki nods. She's clutching at her left arm with her other. "Right. Go where?" * Satoshi looks around to see if any of this looks familiar from the previous times he was here. [It does! It looks just like the area outside of Tokyo Tower.] * Satoshi tries to remember where he was last time. [The area outside of Tokyo Tower.] Hmm... I don't know. Last time I was here, it was near here, but I can't remember exactly. Just keep your eyes and ears open for anything strange. * Saki starts walking in a direction. "Right. Let's go this way." * Satoshi nods and walks with her. [You walk for a while. Satoshi sees more of the dark figures he saw last time.] * Satoshi sees the shadows and involuntarily shudders. * Satoshi keeps his eyes out for Winston, or anyone who might be the Queen of Cups. Damn. It's like there's nobody here. Eh, makes things quicker. * Saki stops suddenly. "Hmmm..." What is it? * Saki turns to the right, where there happens to be a church. "Let's try there." * Saki walks towards it. "Got a funny feeling..." He *was* a priest, I think. It'd make sense. * Satoshi follows Saki. [The church is rather simple, but serves its purpose. There is a blue- haired priest kneeling at the altar. If anyone is Isao, it's probably him.] * Satoshi calls out, "Komine-san?" * Priest rises when his name is called, but he does not turn. Are you Komine-san? Hideo... * Satoshi winces. "Please. I'm not... not any more Hideo than you are Haruko." * Priest turns and charges at Satoshi, with a look that could kill. "You should never have come back to me!" He raises his staff and leaps into the air. [Session End!]