[Keiko's chillin' in her room. It's pretty boring.] * Keiko is deciding it would be awesome to stick with the Kirby shirt. It isn't like anyone cares. She's currently watering a few flowers that she got as birthday gifts, sitting near the windowsil. It's very serene. * Keiko dumps the water on each of them and rubs her fingers across the petals a moment with the ghost of a smile on her lips, then the smile fades and she looks confused. She glances over towards a half-finished painting of a form standing at a lightly defined multi-way crossroads. * Keiko also, since it's more visible now, has a bandage wrapped around her lower thigh, just visible. No obvious bleeding, but people are cautious. [Yah, nothing's gonna happen in here for a while :P] (I'll live.) * Keiko puts the cup down and walks over to the painting slowly, frowning a little to herself before picking up one of the oil pastels and starting to sketch in the crossroads, making each one lead somewhere dark, but with a different dark color. A deep scarlet, midnight blue, and so on... * Keiko wipes her forehead as she finishes the crossroads, with 8 roads, the last one leading into solid darkness, but with blood on the ground as well. The form in the center, in a blue dress, facing the dark direction with her back to the viewer. [Keiko sneezes.] ( o/~ ) * Keiko pulls her arm up to block the sneeze from screwing up her painting, and sniffles as she wipes her nose and puts down her oil pastel. ( She doesn't wipe her nose on her pastel, does she? ) (No.) * Keiko looks at it and frowns, saying quietly, "Nothing... makes it clear to the eye." * Keiko swings her fist down onto the table with a slight wince, then says in Japanese, more annoyed, She sighs and picks up the artwork, moving it to the side to dry. * Keiko hits the table again and reaches her other hand towards her plush, the duck slamming into her hands from across the room before she slumps down into a chair and repeats, * Heinrick has joined #Keiko * Heinrick knock/buzzes/whatevers on Keiko's door! * Keiko replies after a moment, from inside, "Yes?" * Heinrick speaks to the inside. "Keiko, may I see you for a moment?" * Keiko replies, "A moment for clothes." * Keiko opens the door after half a minute or so. She's wearing a seriously oversized kirby-covered shirt and jeans under it. Bare feet. * Heinrick has a guest! Both him and Karin are behind the door! For Heinrick's case, he takes one look at Keiko and then snickers into his hand. "Attempting a new style?" * Keiko frowns deeply, glances at Karin and says, "You explain," and then walks back into her room with a half-hearted inviting wave of the hand. [Karin is here! She looks from Keiko to Heinrick in confusion.] Actually, I was more meaning with you coming with me to my office. * Keiko stops in her tracks, then sighs and replies, "Let me at least put on a clean shirt?" * Heinrick turns to Karin for a moment and looks at her. "Does your ward take so long picking clothing?" [Karin shakes her head. "I usually pick it out for her."] * Heinrick shakes his head and then glances at Keiko. "You have five minutes." * Heinrick shuts the door. And is open to talking to Karin for those 5 minutes if she wants! [Karin follows Heinrick out, because she's polite like that. She's available for talking! "What's the hurry?"] * Heinrick looks at Karin oddly for a moment. "Why would you think there's a hurry?" ["Well, why give her a time limit? I mean, it shouldn't take five minutes to get ready, but..."] * Keiko lets Heinrick close the door, glances at her new painting, and then goes to cover it before she goes to put on her black 'I don't care what happens to this' shirt while murmuring, * Heinrick is still looking at Karin oddly. "Oh that." He shrugs slightly. "I just felt it would build character." (So now where do we go? Fade to Heinrick's office in 5?) (That works fine.) [Spinning Blitzkrieg logo!] * Heinrick leads Keiko and Karin to his office and offers Keiko a seat this time. Karin can sit too if she'd like. There's plenty of room! * Keiko is wearing beat-up sneakers and the garage outfit. Her hair is tied up with one of Luanna's blue ribbons, knotted into a small bow above her head. She's petting her duck with a flat look on her face. She sits down and waits silently. [Karin does take a seat. She crosses one leg over her knee. But she's not wearing a skirt, so you can't see anything.] [She does look at Keiko. "How are you, Keiko?" She even uses her first name! How impolite she'd be if this were Japan!] * Keiko glances over at her and replies, quietly, "Alive, for the most part." ["Better than the alternative."] * Keiko half-smiles, but her reply is nothing but silence as her eyes slowly return to looking at a foot to the right of Heinrick's head. * Heinrick goes over behind his desk and listens for a while. "Good to see you're receptive to conversation, Keiko." He nods to her, ignoring the fact that she's not looking him in the eye and turns to Karin. "I'm assuming you're a bit confused why I asked you here so I'll get right to the point. I was just curious how you and your ward get along, Miss Oswald?" [Karin blinks. "Um, well, great! But you know our situation is different from the rest of the agents."] A little. But I was just curious as to your training regimen with her. ["Oh. Well, most of the time I work at communicating with her though magic. That's why I'm the only one qualified to work with her, because I can do what conventional techniques and psychics can't. Then a lot of the time we spend at the shooting range in the woods. Sometimes at night, sometimes at an altitude. The rest of the time is usually group training."] How does the group training go? ["The others do the bulk of the work. Occasionally we train in close quarters, but most of the time we just focus on providing sniping support, since that's what we usually do in the field."] * Heinrick nods. "I'm curious...how do you think Cyra sees you?" * Keiko mms to herself as she pets her duck. [Karin blinks. "How? Well, I'd like to think sthat she likes me. I mean, I'm pretty sure we have a good relationship. But I'm not really sure to what degree." ] * Heinrick smiles and waves it off. "I suppose there's only one of us in here who might know for sure. And she's been surprisingly quiet during this whole time. Thank you for your time, Miss Oswald. That's all I wanted to know. But if you do have any questions or concerns for me, feel free to let me know." [Karin nods. "Sure." She gets up. "I'll be in my office if you need me." ] * Keiko replies quietly, "Were you not paying attention? I see nothing." * Heinrick nods to her and lets her out, shutting the door behind her! (Karin, not Keiko obviously.) [She leaves!] * Heinrick sits back in his chair and gives Keiko a glance, matching her quiet a bit. "I take it you are upset." * Keiko looks at Heinrick and replies, flatly, "She's blank. Empty. All the time. So no, I could not know for sure." * Keiko looks slightly off to the side. "And I don't know why you were surprised I'm quiet. You want me to listen. I'm listening. I'm very good at listening." Ah. Thank you for clearing that up. * Heinrick laughs at that shortly. "I'm also surprised that you bother with *that*. It would seem many others don't." * Heinrick leans back in his chair. "Very well Keiko. I'll ask you to speak your mind. I'll even open it up so that you'll be more comfortable to speak it if you wish. I promise whatever you say within the next 5 minutes will carry no reprimands whatsoever." * Heinrick also feels a little freer to Keiko, so that she could make mental contact if she concentrated. Shield's reduced. * Keiko looks at him strangely, then exhales slowly and replies, slowly, "All you can do is kill me, and you think I'm trying to do that already." * Heinrick raises an eyebrow. "You mean you aren't?" * Keiko half-smiles again, but doesn't respond. Instead, she makes a gesture in the air with her duck as she stands. "Not today." Not yesterday either. * Heinrick sighs. "It is somewhat difficult when someone limits your options, isn't it?" * Keiko looks at him, then manages a note of sarcasm as she says, "Tell me what it's like to not have your options limited, and I'll tell you if it's more difficult." * Heinrick nods. "Alright. I'll believe you for now. But just because you are not trying does not mean it is not a possible outcome." He turns to look at her and shakes his head. "And while it is *always* a possible outcome in this field, I do not wish you doing anything that might inadvertantly increase the chances. * Keiko rubs her face with her duck. "I am the best target. I'm always the best target." * Heinrick leans back slightly in his chair at her question and responds quietly, "If I *could* tell you what it is like not to have your options limited, Keiko, believe me I would. It has been a long time since I have had that option." (*reorders, waits for you to catch up*) * Heinrick doesn't respond to her "best target" statement. * Keiko looks back at him a moment, then sighs and says quietly, "I don't see why you should lead with the people who stop working when they're shot." Who said anything about "stopping working?" * Keiko frowns and replies, "You thought I was wrong to go up there. So I got hurt." She pets her duck and mutters, "So what. Fighting... hurts. Living hurts. People hurt." * Heinrick shakes his head. "No. I thought you were wrong to go up there *alone*." * Keiko replies, quickly, "But that was the only way he'd be sure to shoot _me_!" * Heinrick stares at Keiko. "And why would you believe *you* are any better to be shot than anyone else?" * Keiko gestures out into the air with her bare hand, speaking rapidly, "Because I have a shield. Because if he looks away from the stairs, the others could come up and get him easily. Because if he got to set up his sniper weaponry up there, he could have pinned them dow--" she interrupts herself, then splays her hand slowly over the air and replies at Heinrick and says quietly, "What could he really do to me?" * Keiko looks away. "It was the perfect distraction, and it worked best alone. A little blood is nothing." Well, from the reports, he could "eat psychics," but as you mentioned, that doesn't matter much, correct? * Keiko replies, lowly, "I saw him eat psychics. I stayed away." * Keiko wraps her arms around herself, in a self hug. "He had to... open the cell. He didn't do it at range. I stayed away." * Heinrick shakes his head. "Very well. Next time, I would expect you to coordinate with a guardian *before* going off on your own, is that clear?" * Keiko is silent a moment, then says quietly, "We don't have time to argue. I thought you understood things. Now you don't. Where did it go?" * Heinrick looks at Keiko for a moment and smiles to himself. "Apparently, you *are* taking full advantages of that "no reprimand" comment. How do you mean?" * Keiko turns on him and says, "You can reprimand me all you want." She then puts a hand to her temple. "No means failure. Maybe means failure. Yes means waste of time." I can't... do anything if I talk to a guardian. * Heinrick replies calmly. "And that's what really bothers you, I think." * Keiko looks to him and replies, flatly, "I'm... here to do things. I--I did not--" she breaks off and looks aside. * Heinrick leans back again. "Let me ask you a question. Did you think any of us *wanted* Kraad to get away?" * Keiko just looks at him. ( I hope not. That totally would have come back to bite you in the ass if he did, you know. ) * Heinrick looks at Keiko back. * Keiko finally says, "It's unlikely." * Heinrick nods. "What I am trying to say is that there *may* be other ways to accomplish things. And you will not be able to discover them if you are constantly a lone wolf." * Keiko is silent a moment, then replies, slowly, "But... you don't give me any options. Either I... either I get to think for myself, or I don't. There... is no space there." * Heinrick waits to see if Keiko is going to continue. But he is looking at her in a way that shows he's listening. * Heinrick replies. "Is there anything further?" It's calm, and nothing in the tone gives that he's upset with anything that Keiko said. * Keiko seems to be struggling with her words as she looks back at him. "I don't know. I still don't understand how you don't see... if I have to ask you to do everything, then it really means... it's just you doing everything. I am nothing but your will." She rubs her face. "But... this isn't that. You disagree, but... now you want disagreements to be done when they stop me..." * Heinrick takes a deep breath in and nods slightly. "So that's what this is all about...." Have you ever considered that *we* are not mind readers, Keiko? * Keiko looks at him strangely, but then just replies, "More and more frequently as time passes." * Heinrick opens his eyes slowly. "You are speaking of this as permission. I am speaking of coordination." But... but it is all permission. * Keiko rubs her face. "Everything a guardian says can hide the paralyzing poison of permission." If a guardian says something that becomes 'no', it--it is as if God stepped down and stilled my feet. My mouth. My mind. * Heinrick nods and responds quietly. "I can see that too.." So your way of regaining control is not to ask permission... * Keiko looks back at him, then sinks down in the chair before saying quietly, "How can I... coordinate when it is really just a plea... for someone to not say no? I can speak to the other wards so easily, but.." * Keiko continues, mumbling, "If Rosali had said what she said any different... I might have satisfied exactly what you wanted me to do. But it would have been... her that did it." And this bothers you. * Keiko looks back at him. "It... isn't what you want me to do." * Keiko then pets the duck. "But it's what what you say will do." * Heinrick is silent for a little bit. He's looking off to the side. When he responds, "I do...have a question for you, Keiko." * Keiko mumbles, "Another?" * Heinrick smirks. "Yes, another. And no this is not meant to be a trick question. What do you think the responsibility of a guardian is? You also heard what Karin said about her ward...so I'm curious what you feel you've worked out." * Keiko is silent a moment, then replies, "To keep their wards from failing at doing the missions they're ordered to do." * Heinrick raises an eyebrow. "That's all?" * Keiko says slowly, "If you... think every Guardian is doing their job, and look at what they do... the only thing that everyone does is that." * Heinrick chuckles. "Yes, I did forget to include Gertrude into the equation. That was bad of me." * Heinrick tilts his head. "Maybe I should ask this in a different way. If you were a guardian, what would you think your responsibilities were?" * Keiko half-smiles a moment, then replies, "Just because I do it, doesn't mean it's my responsibility." Nice attempt to dance around the question, but it doesn't work. What would you be doing? * Heinrick does sound amused and good humored though. * Keiko 's smile slips away as she pets her duck. After a moment she says quietly, "I would be her mother." * Heinrick nods ever so slightly. "Thank you for bearing through the barrage of questions, Keiko. You have some free time now. 2 hours. You may use them as you wish." He goes to the door and opens it, half-way. "One last thing though..." I was listening to what Karin said...I do believe more field training is in order. So next time we meet, I think it would be best to go out to the woods for it. What do you think?" * Keiko shakes a little and stands quietly, murmuring, "I think I need more sunblock. Am I still to be in my room?" Not for the moment. I will be paying attention to what you do though, so I hope that you can stay out of situations that horribly mutilate you." He adjusts his left arm slightly, which still looks a little worse for wear. "So long as I take my own advice with that. These old bones can't take it much longer." * Keiko nods slightly and murmurs, as she brushes by Heinrick, "Try to. You might not have an awful definition of guardian somewhere in that fortress." * Heinrick doesn't respond as he lets Keiko out! * Keiko goes, then! It's fun to go. [And Keiko has freedom again! Yay! Session End!]