[Day: Friday, April 2nd. Time: 1:00 a.m.] [Weather: Cold and humid.] [Everyone's at Katie's house! And Kaede and Katie and maybe Taki (I'm not sure) are gonna talk about stuff.] [Action!] * Kaede may talk about stuff! But not right now because he's sleepy. He's a light sleeper though, especially at the moment. ( Whooo... I'm out of it today. ) * Katie is sleeping, actually. Or trying to. She's managed to find a spot on the floor of her room (not that there's much room there, anyway) to set up her sleeping bag. The door's open, and she's tossing and turning and muttering and just generally having a bad time of it. (Are you? Aww.) [Well, they're both sleeping, so I guess this mini is over @_@] (Thanks, GM!) * Kaede groans and opens his eyes groggily, shifting in his sleep and blinking, confused, speaking softly to himself, "Huh? What? Why am I--oh.." (Taki is there on the couch, and dead to the world!) * Katie jerks and lets out a small shout, sitting up immediately afterwards and looking around in the dark. She's breathing heavily. * Katie gulps in a few more breaths of air, then puts her face in her hands. [At Katie's shout, Saki murmurs something about not wanting to eat people. Or maybe pea soup.] * Katie twitches and looks over her shoulder with wide gray eyes. * Kaede turns towards the shout and starts walking that way cautiously. * Katie twitches again, this time from Kaede's steps, and hastily climbs to her feet. She scrambles for her desk, nearly knocking over a carving as she grabs one of the knives lying there. * Kaede reaches into his...well, he doesn't. He notices he doesn't have his jacket on. He's peeking around the corner as quietly as possible though and trying to look like he's reaching for a weapon as best he can. ( Ok, both of you roll unarmed attack XD ) (Katie's armed though ;P) (Ha! Yeah, I am!) (Plus, no dice.) * Dicesuke has joined #arcana ( There :P ) (Woot! Unarmed Attack, you say?) (I think Katie should try and notice who it is first ;P) (Aww. Heheh.) ( You just think that 'cause she'd pwnz you. ) * Katie spins, holding her knife rather inexpertly ('cause she's not an expert), and looks to where Kaede's face is dark against the light. She's trembling. * Kaede lets out a hissed whisper from around the corner. At least he recognizes that it's her own room. "Katie. You alright?" * Katie lets out a tiny whimper from the back of her throat. She takes a shaky breath. " Away. Step..." * Kaede stays where he is. Actually going more back around the corner, sighing. "Katie, it's me..." * Katie moves, glancing out the window before she actually leaves the room and faces Kaede in the light. The knife's still in her shaking hand. "Have to make sure. Don't... do anything stupid." * Kaede leans against the wall, looking at Katie tiredly. "...and since when have I done anything stupid?" * Katie laughs nervously. "Bad question." She looks around, checks Kaede's eyes, and looks him up and down. Katie's been crying, or sweating, or both. * Katie reaches around, to her dresser, and sets the knife down. * Kaede waits for her to make sure she's finished checking. "Are you sure about that? Or do you think I don't actually believe it?" You've done stupid things. It doesn't mean you are stupid. * Kaede then rubs his forehead and sighs. "Well, maybe I should amend it to "done anything stupid on purpose" And if I don't do it on purpose, then how can I stop it? * Katie steps out, rubbing at her eyes. Again, grossly oversized t-shirt, messy hair, and barefooted. "Not getting into this argument." We've all done stupid things. The point is whether we stick by that stupidity or let it fly, isn't it? Not getting into it. Getting something to drink instead. * Katie stumbles off to the kitchen. * Kaede looked her over and half-smiled faintly. "I thought you like arguing with me, Katie Andrews." 's too late to argue a lot. So we'll just argue a little then. * Kaede follows her. * Katie yawns. "'kay." She reaches the kitchen, opens the fridge, and grabs orange juice. This is followed by her reaching around for glasses. "Want any?" Just some water.. * Kaede continues to look at her and watches carefully. "Couldn't sleep?" * Katie thunks a pair of glasses on the counter and pours juice into one. "C'n never sleep." She switches the juice with refrigerated water. * Kaede watches her for a bit, then tilts his head in recognition. "Earplugs?" Nope. * Katie brings both glasses to the table and sits heavily. "Dreams." * Kaede sighs and sits down across from her. "And not all memories of your past life, right?" * Katie looks distant for a moment. "No." She shakes her head, slides his glass to him, and picks up her own. Orange! * Kaede drinks the water for a sip and then sets the glass back down. With hawt drinking action. He doesn't look fully on her. "Care to talk about it?" Not much to talk about. There's always lots to talk about. You're better than that, Katie Andrews. Even when you were out of it, there was still plenty to talk about. And...I don't suspect you're as out of it as everyone else seems to think... * Katie gulps some juice down, not speaking for a bit, then sets it on the table and says, "I'm not. Not... so much anymore, because I made up my mind about some things." But you're still in that mode. Heck, the situation in the hall earlier's proof of that... * Kaede takes a sip himself. * Katie eyes Kaede. You live through it in your head, then hear someone who's tried to eat you, then hear what might be steps of someone who's gotten into your home again. See how you do. * Katie sighs, rubbing at her face, then her hair. Her fingers get tangled, and she busily starts undoing knots. * Kaede eyes her straight back. "It's true though, Katie. Regardless of your rationalization, you have other people in your house. I imagine you'd jump if you heard the garage door open from your parents coming back home..." * Katie mutters something, then snaps, "I didn't hurt you, did I?" * Kaede then turns away from her, silent for a little while. Then quietly adds: "...I never said your reaction was "wrong," Katie Andrews." ...you could have. * Katie finishes a lock, smoothing it out and starting another. "Then what are you saying?" I'm saying it's unhealthy. Oh. It's unhealthy. And saying that, I don't expect you to change it at all. * Kaede then turns back to eye her again. * Katie shrugs. "It's unhealthy," she repeats, "but the whole thing's unhealthy. Everything with Arcana is unhealthy." Is it? It's not a... the... it's not the problem. Just an effect. You'd have never met me if it weren't for the Arcana, would you? ( ;_; ) * Katie is silent for a moment, absorbed in fixing her hair. No. But... * Kaede just watches her just as silent, waiting for a response. Kaede is nothing if not patient. Are you saying I'm unhealthy? (They're in the same class! >_>) * Katie sighs. "You didn't understand." (That doesn't matter) I did. (Dude. This is Katie and Kaede. They never would have met. Both were too absorbed in not noticing / being unnoticed by others.) (True) * Kaede closes his eyes slowly. "I'm just trying to get you to see that the truth is not so clear cut. It'd be easy if it were." Too *early* to argue. * Katie rubs at her face again, stifling a yawn. "Okay. Not what I meant." * Kaede smiles faintly. "So come up with a counter-argument when you're more awake.." He takes a sip from the water and sits up in the chair. Some people do bad things. Some people are just... are bad. Without powers, Tenjirou'd still be a piece of shit. Exactly. With powers he's a dangerous, as you put it, piece of shit. So my question is, if I'm acting this way to protect myself, is that more or less unhealthy than pretending it's not happening? * Katie looks up to meet Kaede in the eye. Hers are bloodshot. "If it's not needed, then maybe I wouldn't do it." So I'm not faulting you for that...what I'm saying is that jumping at every opportunity, spooking at every instance, isn't going to change things..." You're not sleeping right now, are you? * Katie grumbles. "Not my choice." If I hadn't heard you or known it could have been you and just peeked in for a better look, what would you have done? Sat and cried. Hung onto my bag. Sweated, shook, checked windows. There'd be nothing there. Go to the kitchen, get something to drink. * Katie has another drink. "Then gone back to sleep. Do it over again." * Kaede raises an eyebrow. "With me still there?" Oh. * Katie pauses a second, then smiles a little. "Made sure you were okay. Dropped ice down your shirt later." ... * Kaede grumbles and rubs his head. "...you're right. It *is* too early to argue." * Katie giggles, then coughs and has some more juice. * Kaede leans back in the chair and closes his eyes. "You know it's weird...this almost feels normal..." (Well, look at your baseline Kaede. :P) (Hehe!) * Katie shrugs. "Touching home." She goes back to untangling her hair. Touching home? Yeah. Home. You have to touch it to be safe when you play hide and seek. ....what are you talking about? * Katie blinks at Kaede. "You've never played hide and seek?" * Kaede looks at her for a moment and shakes his head. "It's not really the thing as much here..I assume it is more where you're from." * Katie nods. "Home. Like the plate. Common ground?" She looks down at her juice. "It's where you go back to." Like the origin word. Yup. * Kaede sighs and sips his water. So, we went home. I'm not sure what you mean... You said it feels kind of like normal. I say we went home. We're not that far away that we can't go back, ever. * Kaede sighs and sits back in his chair. He suddenly looks tired. "...good." * Katie looks tired. There's no suddenly about it: she's always looked tired. "Only home might change." * Kaede shakes his head slowly. "Home doesn't change that much...it's always people..." In this case, home *is* the people. Or were you lying when you said I wasn't acting the same? You are and you aren't. ( I thought you were acting completely different for a while, but then I realized that was Satoshi. Look, it's been rough.) (Heheh.) * Katie rubs at her forehead. "Okay..." It's more like...you're trying to act different...but you're being forced into it too soon. I don't understand. Nevermind then. Consider it me just doing something stupid. * Katie blinks. "What?" Me doing something stupid. You said I did that, didn't you? Yeah, but are you sure this is stupid? I just wanted to know what you mean. Yes. I'm trying to get you into an argument when it's too late...well, and in a sense, too early. * Kaede pushes his glasses up slightly and slowly opens his eyes. * Katie rubs at her eyes again, yawns again, and folds her arms on the table before scooting back and setting her chin on them. She looks into her juice glass. "Mmm yeah. But I still want to know." Well...that's a start... * Kaede closes his eyes. "Don't force yourself to forget you're still scared, Katie. We can handle it. What would I forget? * Kaede closes his eyes and tries to come up with something...but he mutters out. "That we're here to protect you too, I guess...but I guess we haven't been doing too well on that front either..." * Katie mmms again. "Nobody could have known." But still.... But still, nobody could have known. I always knew that... a lot of the extra things I did wouldn't help me. And they didn't. * Kaede bites his lip and turns silent. He doesn't seem entirely convinced. * Katie lets out a choked hiccup. She rubs at her eyes again. "Don't even remember how they got me." It's Tenjirou. I'm surprised you didn't follow of your own free will frolicking behind. Might've been. Didn't feel- * Katie winces. "Didn't feel raped," she says bluntly. "They say you can tell." * Kaede sighs and nods. The silence is very awkward by now. I'm going to try and get some rest...you should too... But no tug. Maybe he got lucky. Maybe drugs. Maybe- * Katie looks up, then down. "Okay." You don't want me to? * Katie sighs. "You can if you want. We can talk later." But you don't want me to * Katie shrugs. If you go to sleep, I'll stay up a little longer, then try to go to sleep later. Alright... I hope you can... * Katie nods. "I'll try." * Kaede stands up and goes to head back to sleep. That's a really comfy chair. * Katie ponders life in juice. (In juice?) [In Juice. Mini End (for now?)]