[Day: Saturday, February 22nd. Time: 11:00 p.m.] [Weather: Really snowy outside, and cold.] [You're in a room of unknown size. It's dark! You can just barely see the shadows of a few objects due to a small amount of light from the street filtering through the closed blinds of the windows on one wall. Except for one window which is apparently borded up. You don't know where you are, or why you're here!] [Mini Start!] * Satoshi bolts upright. "What the hell?" * Satoshi is clad in a pair of blue and white flannel pajamas. ( Nobody can tell, though. It's dark! ) * Haruko blinks and rubs her eyes with her hands. "There was a time when I'd assume this was a dream." Haruko? Yeah, uh, Satoshi? Yeah, it's me. What's going on? * Katie looks around, blinking. She's wearing an oversized t-shirt (not that anyone can see it) and her feet are bare. "Guys? This is a dream, right?" She sounds unusually scared. * Haruko nods. "I dunno, last I remember I was lying in bed. Given our luck I suppose we can assume Taki is about to burst... Or not." * Satoshi pinches his arm. "I... I don't think so." I'd just gone to bed. One minute I was lying there, and the next minute I'm here. Wherever here is. Well, it's certainly not either of your dreams. ::Haruko grins, you can't see it, but really, it's deducable:: Anybody got a flashlight or something? I- I... no. I don't. No, my parents let me read in bed if I want, have for years. And mine is next to my bed. Not in. Great. * Katie swallows. Got to get a grip. She heads as slowly as she dares to one of the walls and starts feeling around the room for a door. * Haruko tries to fix up her hair a bit. "Least we aren't alone, that'd be wretched." Yeah. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katie (2d6) and gets 6. * Satoshi tries to make out his surroundings, but it's far too dark to really see anything. * Haruko sighs and then yawns. "And I've had a long day at the shrine too, we're working on dances, it gets tiring after a while." [Katie feels a sudden, very sharp pain on the bottom of her foot when she takes a step.] Dances? * Katie screams and pulls her foot back. * Satoshi blinks. "Katie? What happened?" Are you okay? Yeah, Miko. What?! Katie? [It's a bit cold there, too, by the way.] * Satoshi starts heading in the direction of the scream. Don't- don't move! They're... I... * Satoshi stops as soon as she says that. * Haruko stays still. What happened? ( Everyone give me hearing rolls ) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6) and gets 5. (Heightened Awareness count?) ( Yup ) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6-2) and gets 9. (that should make) (Nope.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katie (2d6) and gets 6. (Got it.) [Katie and Haruko hear, off in the direction Katie started, the sound of someone trying to open a door.] * Haruko says quietly. "Someone's coming." * Katie stiffens, and wraps her arms around herself as she tries to keep from crying. She fails miserably, but hey. * Satoshi whispers back. "Where?" * Haruko keeps a low tone. "Katie's direction." * Satoshi hears Katie's crying and takes a step towards her before remembering what she said. * Satoshi sighs really loudly. "Dammit, dammit, dammit." * Haruko puts her hand in her sleave and begins to crawl towards Katie, wiping the ground before she moves onto it. [A door pops open! Someone's standing on the other side, with a flashlight, which she (you think it's a she) points into the room.] * Satoshi blinks at the sudden light, then goes into a ready stance. [The light hits Satoshi and pauses!] * Katie doesn't even fully look up. * Haruko blinks and tries to shield her eyes from the light, she doesn't stand up. ".... Huh?" * Satoshi tries to avoid looking directly at it, but doesn't relax his stance. * Haruko keeps moving in the pause. Still using her sleeve to clear the ground in front of her. * Katie glances up at the new person now. She manages to pull one hand up to wipe at her eyes. [The person takes a few steps into the room, waving the light at the lot of you. "What the hell are you doing here? Wait, you look kind of familiar. Did I see you before? Maybe It's just a case of mistaken identity, but I don't think I'd forget a face like that...." She trails off.] Who are you? * Haruko grins. We're friends of Chikako, and if you don't mind, please shine the light on the floor for a minute. "Hm? Hey, I should ask you that! I was here first! Well, no, I wasn't really... But I never thought I'd... Huh? Chikako?" * Haruko looks at the figure to determine if she in fact Chikako's cub reporter. [She does shine the light on the floor. A few feet from the door, near the boarded up window, is a pile of broken glass.] Aww, shit. * Satoshi makes his way over to Katie, now that the path is clear. 2d6+4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6+4) and gets 13. * Haruko walks over to Katie, carefully avoiding the glass. * Katie just... watches the person with the light. She might be too afraid to move, or maybe not- either way, she doesn't. * Satoshi kneels down next to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's gonna be okay... we're here, and Haruko can fix you up." * Haruko is also wearing PJs, light blue, with no slippers, so she's quite careful. If we're in your house, I'm sorry, we're not burglars, although what we're wearing should be a clue to that. "Did you step on the glass? Ouch. That must be painful. Then again, it's not as bad as... what?" * Satoshi seems to just now realize that he's still in his pajamas, and blushes. "Wait a minute, let me find a light switch." * Katie just sniffs and nods. * Haruko stands kneels next to Katie, "Here, let me help you sit down, don't put any more weight on your foot, here's a safe spot." * Satoshi gives Katie's shoulder a light and hopefully comforting squeeze. "Hang in there. If I have to carry you out, I will. You know I could." But we'll get you out. [The light moves along the wall, near the door, until it finds one. She flicks it on, and after a few seconds, a single overhead light flickers into existance.] [The room is fairly small living room, and not in the best condition. Besides the broken window, there's a couch with a bunch of holes, a TV with a broken screen, and a broken chair (just in this room). Behind you is the bedroom; you can see it because the door is open and held by the lower hinge only. Away from the windows is the kitchen area, which has a good number of shattered plates and glasses. Oh, and there's two chalk drawings on the ground.] * Satoshi looks at his surroundings and shudders. "This is..." We need to get out of here. Now. * Katie looks around, wide-eyed, then just collapses onto the ground. "" [And the girl is Arisu, as you've probably guessed. She's wearing a grey jacket over a red sweatshirt, greem-grey shorts and black leggings.] Huh? Alright, well Satoshi, pick up Katie. * Satoshi bends down and gently picks Katie up. Uh... Are you going out like that?? You'll freeze to death! And freezing is no fun, let me tell you. I did a very good article on it a while back... * Arisu trails off. * Haruko looks at Arisu. "Are there any coats around here we could borrow, til we get somewhere warm." You're right. We would. Dammit... yeah. * Katie looks over at Arisu as Satoshi picks her up, and laughs nervously. I don't know, but... But I don't want to be in a murder scene any longer than I have to. * Haruko carefully walks over to inspect Katie's feet for imbedded glass. * Haruko pales. "Murder scene?" * Satoshi says, almost too calmly, "The drawings, Haruko." Oh, don't worry about it. The cops have all but abandoned here since then. I'm always careful when I do things like this, like the last time... * Arisu trails off. Arisu? When was 'then'? * Haruko looks down. "Oh.. Yeah." * Haruko continues to move to inspect Katie, leaving the talking to the others. Hm? Back in January, I think. A guy killed himself. Shot himself in the head. They thought he might be connected to the drugs, but if there was any evidence, I missed it. The cops always take everything first... * Arisu trails off. If he killed himself, why are there two drawings? * Arisu blinks. "Oh, that was the other one! This one was just a few weeks ago, and they're SURE they're connected to the drugs. They think it's a rival dealer. They're probably right, although I wonder if maybe there isn't some conspiracy..." She trails off. Great. Just fucking great. We're in a goddamned murder scene in the middle of the night in a blizzard and Katie's hurt and goddamit when does it stop?! When does it stop?! Um.... Why ARE you here? And dressed like that? What did any of us do to deserve this? Why? Some cosmic fucking destiny?! Fuck this! I want my life back! * Haruko sighs. "We'll explain soon, for now, do you have anything that can function as a makeshift bandage?" * Satoshi holds Katie tightly and tries not to shake too hard. I don't think anything here will do, it's all to dirty and I need to... * Arisu considers. "I guess my sweatshirt will have to do. It's no big loss. I got it back in '99 with a really cute skirt. At least I thought it was cute at the time..." Thanks, that'll do, I appreciate it. If you could hand it to me or rip off a sleave or something. * Satoshi tries to calm himself down. He can rant at destiny later. Now is the time to figure out a way to get out of here. * Haruko has a look of determination, what ever she's feeling it isn't showing. * Arisu nods and pulls off her jacket. She rips off a bit of her sleeve and hands it to Haruko. * Katie just looks down at the drawings. She's stopped crying, though she looks like she's freezing in just an oversized t-shirt. I like blue better than red anyhow. Always have, though there was once when I... Oh, hey, let me see if the heat still works. * Haruko oh so carefully attempts to bandage the wound, before she starts she turns to Arisu. "Hold Katie's hand for a moment please. Are you ready Katie? I'll try to be as gentle as I can but this can't wait." * Satoshi holds Katie as steadily as he can. * Arisu stops. "Ok, but shouldn't someone check the heater, then? It is kind of cold in here. Though really, it's colder out there..." Arisu. Just do it. Yes, but this comes first, please, it'll just take a second. You can check the heater in a minute. * Katie speaks up, "Yeah, I'm ready." * Arisu holds Katie's hand then. "So we have met before, right? I thought we had. Especially you, Katie, 'cause I heard so much about you, though I think I told you that..." * Haruko waits for Arisu to act and then bandages then bnadages the wound. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6-2) and gets 5. (Score!) [Haruko patches up the wound nicely.] I'll tend to that better when I have real equipment. You alright carrying her for a while Satoshi? Yeah. * Haruko nods. "Good, now Arisu, go ahead and look for the heat." * Arisu nods and does just that. * Katie looks up at Satoshi and smiles faintly. "Sorry about this." * Satoshi tries to smile back as best he can. "It's okay..." * Haruko whispers. "So what's our excuse. Dare? Practical joke? Mass sleep walking?" Oh, god, I don't know. I can't think about that kind of thing right now. I just want to get everyone out of here and safe. * Arisu finds the heater and turns it on. "Okay, I set it pretty high, so it should heat up soon, I hope. It'll cost a lot, but we won't have to pay for it because it's not our apartment." Thank you, Arisu. * Haruko nods. "Yeah. So is there any chance the police are coming back? Do we need to worry about finger prints?" Excuse for what? Why are you here, anyhow? I... Oh, I doubt it. In that case, Haruko, could you go look for some clothes or blankets or something? * Haruko nods, she keeps talking fairly fast. "Alright, care to help me Arisu?" We need to warm Katie up. * Haruko goes and does that. * Katie sneezes. "What about the rest of you?" They probably just haven't gotten a clean-up crew here yet. Usually they... oh, sure. * Arisu moves to help Haruko. You first. You're hurt and... uh... not wearing very much. [It does start to warm up, in fact.] * Satoshi is too angry/tired/worn out to blush. * Haruko keeps talking, doing her best to keep Arisu off topic. "So do you think the first guy wasn't sucide?" * Katie sighs, looking around. "You could just... I don't know. Put me down somewhere, Satoshi. It looks like we're not going anywhere for a while." I think you're right. * Satoshi carefully walks over to one of the walls, away from the broken glass, and gently sets Katie down. He then sits next to her. * Katie sighs, folding her hands and looking up at the ceiling. "This is crazy. How did we get here?" Wish I knew. Well, he had the gun in his hand, and people were saying he'd gone mad for days, worried because he shot some student, but the thing is they never found the student's body. And she wasn't in the hospital like he claimed, either. It was really bizzare... * Satoshi sighs. "You know, every time I think I might be starting to get a handle on this whole Arcana thing... something like *this* happens." * Haruko nods. "That's quite strange. So, the second body, do you think he was brought here then killed or killed here?" [Haruko and Arisu find some blankets and clothes in the bedroom, not to mention shoes. The bed room looks like it avoided most of the damage, though there is a large hole in the wall opposite the door.] * Katie snorts. "Probably trying to tell us not to bother." She looks around, a slight frown on her face. Probably. * Satoshi slumps. * Haruko calls out. "We've got clothes in here, it's nicer, you may as well come over." Shall we? * Satoshi moves over to Katie and prepares to lift her. * Katie calls back, "All right." She manages to stand, but winces. * Haruko quickly finds some clothes that Katie could wear, and then puts something on for herself over her PJs. The police think they were both killed here. I came to check the facts myself. I'm working on the drugs, you know. I write a number of articles on them. Some of them have been quite good. I remember my first one... Or you could do that. * Satoshi stands up and puts a hand on her arm to steady her. Thanks. * Katie starts making her way to the bedroom. Along with Satoshi, apparently. * Satoshi walks carefully with Katie into the bedroom. * Haruko indicates the clothes that might fit Katie and finds two shoes, one that should fit, and one that should fit with the bandage. * Haruko for the record, had been wearing a light blue set of pajama's, nothing fancy, shirt and pants. (This group really likes the color blue.) (Yup.) (No kidding. But it's a nice color. Blue... blue...) (Well the cups suit has an excuse at least. ^_^) So tell me, why ARE you here, anyhow? * Haruko thinks for a moment, then goes with the truth. "Don't know. It's kind of scary actually." * Satoshi ignores Arisu and goes looking for clothes and shoes that would fit him. I'd guess that you were just looking into the drugs, because that's why I'm here, and good reporters don't let little things like locked doors and police tape stop them, but on the other hand, I'm not wearing pajamas, either. Nice color, by the way. I mentioned I like blue, right? Always have.... * Arisu trails off. * Haruko sighs. "And if my parents catch me coming in late again, not to mention in this state... But that's not actually important." ::Haruko als trails off:: * Satoshi finds some stuff that looks like it'd fit him, and gets to work. "Yeah, blue's nice..." he says in a rather absent tone. * Haruko smiles. "Thanks, guess I'll go with that explaination. So do these work for you Katie." ::she gestures to the clothes she found:: * Katie watches them both trail off and smiles despite herself. "Yeah, thanks." * Arisu frowns. "You keep ignoring me. It's not very nice, and I know sometimes people get distracted. Especially since people told me that I do, although I'm not so sure about that, but... * Arisu shakes her head. "But you seem like you're doing it on purpose." * Katie grabs a pair of pants and pulls them on without bothering to leave the room. * Haruko shrugs. "I answered your question honestly. Don't know what you mean..." I'm sorry. Ask us again when we're not totally freaked out of our minds. [It's getting quite warm in here now.] (As in, warmer than normal? ^^) So you really don't know? I wonder if it's the drugs? They do funny things to your mind, you know. * Satoshi shakes his head quickly. "It's not drugs. Unless somebody managed to slip some to me without my realizing it." I hope nobody forced drugs on me. * Haruko shakes her head. "Yeah, none of us knowingly use drugs, maybe we're victims of a prank." A really lousy prank. Maybe, but I can't imagine why else you'd come here withoutat least getting dressed first. * Haruko nods. "Nor can I really, and Arisu, I'd prefer if you not report this to the whole school." * Jin comes in from the hall way. "Did you call me?" Jin? Jin, did you do this? Why's that? I... Oh, it's your friend. * Jin blinks dumbly. "... Do what?" Bring us here. Uh... I'm not sure. * Haruko looks at Jin, she looks displeased but quickly covers it. "Well, for one thing, we're all here illegally." * Katie eyes Jin, then facepalms. * Satoshi shakes his head. "Jin, next time you want to talk to me, get up, walk to my bedroom, and wake me up. Shit like this *really* isn't necessary." * Jin scratches his head like a monkey. "Did I want to talk to you?" I remember him. He's got mental problems, doesn't he? Poor guy. It's a shame, really. I remember another guy I used to know who wsn't very bright, either... * Arisu trails off. I don't know. But... * Katie waves for Satoshi to be quiet. Why are you here, Jin? * Satoshi looks over at Arisu and realizes that he can't exactly ask Jin to take them back. * Haruko abides by Katie's wave. Regardless of whether it was directed at her. And ok, I won't tell anyone about this if you don't tell them I was here either. Because it wouldn't be good if I got caught again. My parents would get mad like usual. They just don't understand... Because you called me... Didn't you? * Satoshi looks at Arisu. "I promise I won't say a word." Wait... Maybe you didn't. I'm... not sure. * Haruko nods she quietly comments, "Deal." I don't think we did, but it's okay. Oh. Okay. Try to remember why you are where you are, yeah? * Jin concentrates.... "I'm....!" ... not sure. * Katie sighs. I am going to report if I find anything about the drugs, though. Not that I expect to find anything, but you never know. Once I stumbled across a scoop purely by accident... * Haruko glances over at Arisu, she speaks in a somewhat disinterested tone. "Really? What?" * Arisu doesn't hear Haruko, apparently. ( The GM didn't think that far ahead :P ) * Satoshi walks over to Katie and asks her quietly, "Think we could get Jin to take us out of here after Arisu's gone?" ( Heh, ok ) * Haruko glances up to Katie and Satoshi, she then quickly looks over to Arisu. "Yeah, drug reporting is fine, we're not involved in that so we'd hardly seek to silence you." * Arisu nods. "Great. I'm sure I'll find a good article for Chikako here. I just have to look. I'm good at spotting details, though. Used to play those "Find so many differences in each picture" games a lot when I was younger. Those were fun. I remember this one...." She trails off. * Haruko nods. "I'm sure you find out lots of interesting stuff for Chikako." * Katie looks over at Satoshi and nods. * Satoshi looks over at Jin. Okay, now all they have to do is wait... * Jin blinks at Satoshi. * Katie stands again, wincing slightly. "Arisu? We're going to try to get home, okay? Good luck on the drug thing." * Arisu nods. "Okay, good luck." * Katie grabs a pair of (likely oversized) shoes and pulls them on. * Haruko nods and yawns. "Yeah, I'd be nice to not be here." * Katie nods. "Thanks for helping us out." * Katie looks for a jacket or... something. Yeah, thanks, Arisu. Good luck on your investigation. [And suddenly, you're all at Satoshi's house!] * Katie blinks. * Satoshi blinks. "Well. That was... sudden. Hope Arisu was too distracted to notice." * Katie looks around. "Okay, where are we *now*?" My apartment. Home. * Haruko blinks. "Have a real first aid kit?" Welcome to my humble abode... and yes. I... don't know. * Satoshi goes off to the bathroom to get it. * Satoshi returns a minute later with it. For future reference, Jin, first aid kit's under the sink. Oh... * Haruko looks over to Katie, she smiles gently. "Good, now if you'd care to stop being heroic and sit somewhere we can get those shards out." Not that I'm hoping we'll need to use it. * Jin peers at the kit. How many needles are in it? * Satoshi points to the couch. "Sit." * Jin blinks twice, and sits on the couch. * Satoshi hands the first aid kit to Haruko. Stay there, Jin. * Katie sits down already. (Though I'm not even sure where there is to sit. ^^;) (Oh. Couch has room for two more people, also an armchair in the corner.) * Katie sits in the armchair, then! * Haruko opens up the kit and finishes tending to Katie's wound. She invokes her healing power once she's sure all the glass is out. * Jin pats the couch. "This is my bed." Satoshi gave it to me. I own a bed. I'm happy. * Jin beams. [Satoshi's apartment is medium-sized. The livingroom contains a couch (which is where Jin's been sleeping, yes ^_^), an armchair, a small table in the center, and a TV in the corner. The kitchen is off to the side, and has a table and two chairs as well as the stove, refrigerator, etc.] * Katie smiles at Jin. "I'm happy for you." * Haruko glances up at Jin as she works on Katie's foot. "So have you worked with needles before? You mention them a lot." [It's fairly neat, though there's a pile of blankets and a pillow on the couch.] * Jin grins. "Then we're both happy!" Um... I'm not sure. [In the back are doors to the bathroom, Satoshi's bedroom, and his dad's bedroom. The bedroom doors are closed. The bathroom is open.] * Satoshi walks over to the refrigerator. "Would anybody like something to drink?" Me! Me! Me! * Haruko nods her head. "Definately, though I don't intend to stay long." Sure. * Satoshi opens it. If this were Chie's apartment, it would contain something alcoholic. But this is not, so it doesn't. "We have water, cold tea, and orange juice. Any preferences?" * Katie draws a shaky breath, then leans back in the chair and closes her eyes. Um... I'm not sure. * Haruko ponders. "Tea please." She keeps at Katie's foot. Orange juice is fine. * Katie doesn't open her eyes, mind. [It doesn't take long to fully heal the foot.] * Satoshi gets glasses out of the cabinet and pours Haruko some tea, Katie some orange juice, and Jin some juice. He doesn't pour anything for himself. ( A healed foot is a happy foot. ) * Satoshi walks out of the kitchen and hands Jin his juice. "There you go." (Yes, it is. Happy feet! I got those happy feet!) I guess Arisu is an Arcana... Although, I don't think I really want to talk about that right now. * Jin drinks. Juice! XD * Katie opens her eyes and tests out her foot some. "Thanks, Haruko." * Satoshi returns and puts Katie's and Haruko's drinks on the livingroom table. He then collapses onto the floor. Oh god... didn't think I'd ever be so happy to see my place again. * Katie takes her juice and sits on the floor, too. You should. You have a bed, too. Yeah. It's a nice bed. I should have been in it all night. * Haruko looks down at Satoshi. "You alright? Oh, good. And you're welcome Katie, all I ask is that you let someone else take the risk next time, you have enough happen to you as is." 'm fine, Haruko. Just... tired. And scared. And still rather angry. On second thought, I'm not fine. But I'll manage. I'm Jin. * Katie sips at her drink. "It had nothing to do with being a hero, Haruko, and everything to do with wanting to get out of there." * Satoshi takes off whatever clothes he put on back at the crime scene. * Haruko nods. "I understand..." She then grimaces for a moment. I... don't. It's okay, Jin. You don't have to. * Jin beams. "Okay!" * Satoshi shakes his head. * Jin proves ignorance is bliss. (That he does.) * Haruko walks up to Jin, she take his hands and stares in his eyes. "Confined dark spaces can be scary, so can heights, so can fire. Please talk to us before transporting us to one of those." Huh? Please talk to us before transporting us anywhere, but this is really important. Chicken important. (*laughs*) * Jin nods. "Chicken important. It's tasty, too!" * Katie laughs. * Haruko nods. "Think of this as sort of an anti chicken. Those things I mentioned, confined places, high places, and fire, they're like having no chicken when you're hungry." That it is. Although I've eaten more chicken in the past week or so than I ever have before... * Jin frowns. "... I'm hungry." * Jin looks at Satoshi. "Let's eat chicken!" * Haruko lightly squeezed Jin's hand each time she says fire. Have you tried anything besides chicken, Jin? Do you understand what Haruko is telling you, Jin? I'm... not sure. There are bad things, we'd like you to help protect us from them. Bad things? * Jin looks around. "Where?" He draws his staff from the sleeve of his shirt. Not here, Jin. Not right now. (Staffspace!) But... definitely out there. Out where? Where we were earlier... that was a bad place. * Haruko nods. I'll go get them! We didn't want to be there. It scared us. Katie got hurt. * Jin runs out the apartment! Jin... no! Jin! Come back! Please! * Satoshi runs out into the hallway after him. "Wait!" * Jin is in the hallway, looking around. "I don't see them." Come back inside, Jin. But what about the bad things? * Haruko sighs and looks somewhat glum. "Why do I even try, I should just sleep in asbestos or something." They're not... they can wait. ... Okay. * Jin comes back. * Satoshi shuts the door behind himself and Jin and locks it. At least it's over. It is? But I didn't even see them. * Haruko nods, "For now it is." * Satoshi frowns and decides against saying what he wanted to. [Mini End]