Lettuce+Rogue Bunny=Teaser

[ordnance11]

I'm surprised N-Tate's nose didn't geyser out. Bet ya 20 to 1 if it was Mai who opened the door, it would had been a red gusher!
I wonder what was discussed on those planning meetings and whether the subject of Haruka ever came out.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Valles]

---

I wonder what was discussed on those planning meetings and whether the subject of Haruka ever came out.

---

He was writing down literally everything he could possibly remember about the canon - for all intents and purposes, they probably wouldn't be able to learn much more if you handed them a full DVD set and all six manga tankoban.
Anyway, I'll have to remember to work it into the narrative, but yeah, Haruka was mentioned in one of the group's discussions - Yukino didn't have much to say on the subject, mostly because Natsuki misinterpreted Shizuru's attempt to be diplomatic about the whole thing and tore a very public strip off of her... it's hard to be angry at someone when another person has not only already said just about everything you might have or more, but pretty much reduced your target to a shivering wreck in the process.
Note to self: Shizuru family backstory and why Natsuki matters so much.

---

---

Whatever else she may or may not have been, Sugiura Midori was anything but indecisive. After a couple of seconds, she nodded to herself and said, "Okay, I'm in. What's the plan?"
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Well... For the time being it's mostly 'find out more about everything we can'. The Okuzaki clan have a lot of in-house records on the earlier Festivals, and Kuga-san managed to pretty much cart off a copy of the Searrs Foundation's local branch's archives, but Fujino-san's people have been able to find quite a number of things that weren't in either collection... They haven't had time to do more than scratch the surface of the scholarly community, though, and even so..." I hunted for how I wanted to say it. "...Your name keeps coming up."
She blinked, and blushed a little. "I hadn't thought I'd done that much work... So you want me to try and put together everything into a coherent whole?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Both of the older organizations already have their determined views on what was happening, and those two are not mutally compatible with each other, let alone my sources... The next practical step after we've gotten all the HiME introduced to and... at least willing to trust each other on a provisional basis... is to try and bring in Director Kazahana." I shrugged. "I didn't want to bring her in earlier because, frankly, she and her assistant were one of the less-characterized elements in this whole mess, and because one of the things that was shown was that she was juggling completely different roles and scenarios depending on who was watching... If the character I saw in the show is close to the truth, she'll be an incredibly valuable asset, but if it wasn't..."
"...she'd've made you vanish without a trace." She took a sip of tea, then cocked her head at me. "Just how old are you, anyway? Under the high-school boy's mask?"
I blinked. "Twenty-two."
"Good!" she laughed. "That means I don't have to try and be a leader!" She made a face and glanced at the bundle's second page again. "Fourteen, fifteen, seventeen, fifteen... Yeesh. They're all just kids - and that'd leave me, of all people, trying to play the red ranger..."
"Don't get too comfy," I told her dryly. "I'm just the cute talking mascot."

---

---

Megh. Timing problems - shopping, school, mechblegh. Anyway, Mashiro next, then some filler while Nagi kills time.
Ja, -n
(Still trying to figure out where the Real World is fitting itself into all of this.)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[ordnance11]

---

Anyway, I'll have to remember to work it into the narrative, but yeah, Haruka was mentioned in one of the group's discussions - Yukino didn't have much to say on the subject, mostly because Natsuki misinterpreted Shizuru's attempt to be diplomatic about the whole thing and tore a very public strip off of her... it's hard to be angry at someone when another person has not only already said just about everything you might have or more, but pretty much reduced your target to a shivering wreck in the process.

---

Who did Natsuki get mad at..Yukino or Shizuru?
The question that has been on my mind on the planning sessions is who else do you bring into fold?
The nurse definitely..and also the HIME's most treasured persons who do not know the secret yet.
Which so far would be Kazuya for Akane and Haruka for Yukino. Takumi is won't be problem either.
The big headache would be Haruka for a lot of obvious reasons.
There are 3 possible courses of actions:
1. Bring her into the fold.
2. Eliminate her...or place her under detention until the whole thing blows over.
Of course each course of action is not w/o its flaws either.
Which brings us to the third course of action: the mushroom solution.
Of course, in the course of this if Yukino sees Tate-N as being a protector....^^
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Rieverre]

---

Of course, in the course of this if Yukino sees Tate-N as being a protector....^^

---

Schrdinger: Oi! I called dibs! DIBS!
*smacks overactive construct of his imagination down* Go interrogate Fujino or something.
As for Haruka? I suspect the main issue would be 'how do we point her in the direction of the opposition so that she makes _their_ lives hell?'

---

"The resemblance is uncanny, but we can't really check for any similarities that are more than just skin deep," she'd said.
To give credit where it's due, Miyuki was trying her best, but the facts were that she was rather more mechanically inclined. We'd need an actual geneticist on staff - and a sample from Viola as well, come to think of it - to do a more thorough check, and the only one who dabbled in that at the moment that we knew of was very much off limits.
Unless Juliet-ane-san could find some way to ... convince the woman to run and compare that sample. Doubtful, though. Too damn obvious and unusual to be treated as something harmless.
Luckily, after seeing our guest for herself, she'd conceded that no, we hadn't somehow managed to kidnap and imprison Shizuru Viola. Thereby saving us an ungodly amount of trouble.
She'd been insistant about being informed who the recovering young woman was, thought. I'd agreed, if only because it was the only way to keep her from becoming insistant. When Juliet-ane-san became insistant, there was usually quite a bit of rubble, metaphorical or not, left in said insistance's wake. Again, too obvious. Hence, my concession about keeping her updated.
Still, if nothing else, the redhead was a practical person, and more mercenary than idealistic. Which meant that I could risk trusting her when she said she'd keep quiet.
Ironic? Mm. Maybe. I've never trusted people who were chiefly following ideals. They could be dangerously unpredictable. Mercenaries, on the other hand, were usually in it for themselves and knew that not keeping their word would result in a loss of potential credibility, hence employment. The ones who had two neurons to rub together, at least. Juliet was opprotunistic, but she was also far from stupid.
After she'd left, Ren and I had proceeded to go through archive records for the Aries deliveries, and frustratingly enough found very little. And what we found was circumstantial at best. A private note attached here, a letter there ... but no patterns.
I was pretty damn sure that whoever our mystery visitor was, she'd been Aries' President's guest for a while. Guest meaning 'protective custody'. Honestly, I didn't think there was anything else to be done. Even though there seemed to be some small discrepancies, these were so minor that they were easily ignored ...
The short hair, the Jipang made clothes she'd been wearing ... they accentuated these differences. This made sense as well. Judging by the language she'd used, she was either from there or ...
Shito no Katsu.
Right. There was that. Either somebody on Earl was somehow better informed about that than Miyu, and she didn't know about them, or the situation was even more convulted than I'd initially imagined.
I wasn't about to go jumping to conclusions, but if it could happen to me, and it could happen to Gabriel, then there was no reason to _not_ suspect that ... well, everything is true, somewhere. Everyone is true somewhere, as well.
For now, though, there was nothing to be done about that other than waiting until ...
"Boss," Ren said, opening the door to Miyuki's corner of the analyst level. "She's awake."

---

Next: clash of the displacees?
I'd wanted to do the conversation, but for some reason I found myself procrastinating.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Valles]

---

Who did Natsuki get mad at..Yukino or Shizuru?

---

Shizuru.
Not, it's perhaps worth noting, for anything that might or might not have happened to her, but solely because of the idea of letting her overreaction cost someone else so badly.

---

Which brings us to the third course of action: the mushroom solution.

---

Kept in the dark and shoveled full of...
Heh. Haruka. Hahehaheh. *mad laughter*
And no, Yukino-chan doesn't particularly interest me. We wouldn't suit each other, I think.

---

---

In a lot of different ways, this was going to be the most delicate part of the entire 'plan'. All the other HiME had been, at worst, neutral - they could be approached outright, and the only problem was getting enough information out before they jumped the gun.
Fumi and her mistress were an entirely different order of business - likely they were friendly, true, but even more likely very little of what we'd be saying would actually be news, and, as I'd said to Midori, there really wasn't any way to tell what they thought on the matter.
It sincerely disturbed me how instantly the HiME had agreed that I should take 'point' on the negotiations, though. People-thigns were not a strong point, and the idea of having that much riding on my shoulders... Okay, sure, great, they trust me - even Nao, which was a shock - and that's flattering as all hell, but I've been pretty careful to make it clear that I've got absolutely no clue what I'm doing, right? Right?
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Evidently, not clear enough.
Fumi-san opened the door and smiled at us - Me in the center, Mikoto on my right, Akane behind, and Shizuru on my left. Deciding who my 'escorts' on this venture would be had been... interesting, both in the literal and 'ohmigodi'mgoingtodie' senses of the word.
Probably the most surprising thing about that discussion was how closely everyone had listened to Nao - you wouldn't think that someone who was universally accepted as being completely self-interested would get so much credit as an advisor, but, as Yukariko, of all people, had put it when Shiho started fussing, 'What better guide through treachery than one who would betray us - but cannot?' After all, Julia was a long way from the top of the power rankings and Nao's odds of making it through the entire course of the standard Festival were slim at best - a coordinated team of HiME-sentai was her best bet of making it through the entire affair even alive, let alone getting her mother back. Since she herself knew that - and everyone knew that she knew it - trusting her at least that far was easy.
As long as she didn't have any other options, which, of course, was why she wasn't here. Mai and Shiho couldn't come since neither of them could even manifest their elements reliably, let alone summon their Childs, and Yukariko had been the first to remove herself from the running... Ironically, it looked like she had even less faith in her integrity than I did.
Mikoto might or might not be subtle enough to try and manipulate events, the consensus had been, but either way it wasn't as though she needed to, since it was fairly clear that only a couple of the Childs could even hope to match Miroku in a straight fight, and none the HiME could do the same to his mistress. Even if my memories hadn't been clear enough on the matter, Akira's quick experiment had only gotten her knocked straight through the nearest wall even before most of the others had even realized either of them had moved - so no one had any worries about Mikoto's bothering to try and betray them. Besides, as Mai had said, she was just too cute to distrust.
Even without the Festival there to drive her bats, Shizuru was more than clever and ruthless enough to try a betrayal, but since her agenda was pretty much entirely limited to staying in Natsuki's good graces that was considered a bit unlikely.
Especially since Yukino had volunteered to stay behind (and, thus, out of sight, the clever girl) and have Diana throw a live view of the entire proceedings up for the other HiME's to monitor.
The real reason it worked, though, was that the internal political blocs of the HiME-sentai were already emerging - mostly they seemed to be the 'Normal' types, the more 'Driven' ones, and, well, all the rest. Mai, Akane, and Yukino were, by their own testimony, mostly interested in getting through this whole mess with life, sanity, and loved ones intact, and had found themselves assuming much the same positions as the arguments - well, discussions, since there'd been surprisingly little vitriol involved - went on.
The more crusading personality types - Midori, Akira, and Natsuki, with Shizuru essentially tagging along behind the latter - had actually stopped only one step short of declaring an outright alliance, which would have been amusing except for the last thing - namely that even they seemed to think of me as being neutral in the whole thing.
Well, sure, okay, I'm trying to keep the group together, but does anyone seriously think I don't have opinions of my own? Midori at the very least ought to know better...
Those two groups' existence had essentially left the 'outsiders' to form their own, since they weren't really trusted. Nao was even happy about it, I guess since it meant that the universe had lived down to her expectations, but Shiho had thrown a fit (and thereby, I had no doubt, demonstrated exactly why she was counted where she was), Yukariko had just sort of accepted it as her due, and I'm not sure Mikoto had even noticed.
Those who have been keeping track of both the 'factions' and the girls who'd come with me will've noted that I'd brought one from each. No, that was not a coincidence, though I'm still surprised that I had been paying enough attention to realize why Nao suggested it.

---

---

Nrg. I'm out of medication. This does not make me happy.
Grrr.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[ordnance11]

---

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who did Natsuki get mad at..Yukino or Shizuru?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shizuru.
Not, it's perhaps worth noting, for anything that might or might not have happened to her, but solely because of the idea of letting her overreaction cost someone else so badly.

---

Funny, Natsuki's actions (granted they were being manipulated by the good sister) leading to the break-up of the HIME-sentai could be considered over reactng also.

---

Kept in the dark and shoveled full of...
Heh. Haruka. Hahehaheh. *mad laughter*
And no, Yukino-chan doesn't particularly interest me. We wouldn't suit each other, I think.

---

Who said it has to be two-way? Look at her relationship to Haruka. And having Haruka run around like a puppy chasing a flashlight spot is bound to be fun. gives new meaning to the phrase *bodyguard of lies*

---

Fumi and her mistress were an entirely different order of business - likely they were friendly, true, but even more likely very little of what we'd be saying would actually be news, and, as I'd said to Midori, there really wasn't any way to tell what they thought on the matter.
It sincerely disturbed me how instantly the HiME had agreed that I should take 'point' on the negotiations, though. People-thigns were not a strong point, and the idea of having that much riding on my shoulders... Okay, sure, great, they trust me - even Nao, which was a shock - and that's flattering as all hell, but I've been pretty careful to make it clear that I've got absolutely no clue what I'm doing, right? Right?

---

All to true..of course there is also the problem of Nagi showing up during the negotiation.
Nao?..trust? *brain fried* This is soo not good.

---

The real reason it worked, though, was that the internal political blocs of the HiME-sentai were already emerging - mostly they seemed to be the 'Normal' types, the more 'Driven' ones, and, well, all the rest. Mai, Akane, and Yukino were, by their own testimony, mostly interested in getting through this whole mess with life, sanity, and loved ones intact, and had found themselves assuming much the same positions as the arguments - well, discussions, since there'd been surprisingly little vitriol involved - went on.

---

I'm surprised that Nao and Natsuki are not having a catfight by now.

---

The more crusading personality types - Midori, Akira, and Natsuki, with Shizuru essentially tagging along behind the latter - had actually stopped only one step short of declaring an outright alliance, which would have been amusing except for the last thing - namely that even they seemed to think of me as being neutral in the whole thing.

---

*Snort* What are they expecting?....you deciding to take over Obsidian's position as the new evil overlord and declare the HIME's as his own harem? Or merely deciding that Tate-N is just too good to be true?

---

As long as she didn't have any other options, which, of course, was why she wasn't here. Mai and Shiho couldn't come since neither of them could even manifest their elements reliably, let alone summon their Childs, and Yukariko had been the first to remove herself from the running... Ironically, it looked like she had even less faith in her integrity than I did.

---

Considering how she was seduced...I'm not surprised. I'm also surprised on how good an advisor she's making.

---

Those two groups' existence had essentially left the 'outsiders' to form their own, since they weren't really trusted. Nao was even happy about it, I guess since it meant that the universe had lived down to her expectations, but Shiho had thrown a fit (and thereby, I had no doubt, demonstrated exactly why she was counted where she was), Yukariko had just sort of accepted it as her due, and I'm not sure Mikoto had even noticed.

---

I would had counted Mikoto toward the "normal" camp..if she's under Mai's care. Since her goal is already achieved, find her brother...I think her new goal would had been getting Reito out of Obsidian's clutches next.

---

Nrg. I'm out of medication. This does not make me happy.

---

Get more!
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Valles]

---

Funny, Natsuki's actions (granted they were being manipulated by the good sister) leading to the break-up of the HIME-sentai could be considered over reactng also.

---

Point, but seems to me that there's a distinct difference between reacting to a demonstrated threat and killing someone because they fucked with your love life.

---

Who said it has to be two-way? Look at her relationship to Haruka. And having Haruka run around like a puppy chasing a flashlight spot is bound to be fun. gives new meaning to the phrase *bodyguard of lies*

---

Hmm. So it does. *falls over laughing again*

---

All to true..of course there is also the problem of Nagi showing up during the negotiation.
Nao?..trust? *brain fried* This is soo not good.

---

Well, for a value of 'trust' that expands to her accepting that he's got nothing to gain by screwing her over and no interest in doing so for its own sake - or that's how she rationalizes it, anyway. Actually, I don't think she's near as amoral as she likes to think she is - she's too bitter about Mai's public persona when the full implications of her claimed position would make it a matter of complete indifference. She doesn't strike me as a complete cynic so much as someone who's angry that 'morality' has betrayed her...
I hadn't thought of the Nagi thing, BTW. I'll have to consider it...

---

I'm surprised that Nao and Natsuki are not having a catfight by now.

---

Hmm? Why should they? At this point, they're pretty much working towards the same goal - ie, the world they know staying pretty much intact, along with their own personal hides - and both of them are more than smart enough to realize the risks of trying to proceed alone. Nao might like trouble for its own sake - never mind why - but she's not obsessed with it by any means, and is more than smart enough to avoid rocking the boat more than she has to. All that being the case, the only thing left is deciding the optimal tactics for the group to take.

---

Considering how she was seduced...I'm not surprised. I'm also surprised on how good an advisor she's making.

---

Who, Yukariko? Weak-willed is by no means the same as 'foolish', and it seems to be fairly established that, at least in this AU, all the HiME are fairly exceptional people - so I could hardly be inconsistent about her. Besides, considering St. Vrus' particular powers, who says that it was the bastard boyfriend who came up with the 'frame Nao' plan?

---

I would had counted Mikoto toward the "normal" camp..if she's under Mai's care. Since her goal is already achieved, find her brother...I think her new goal would had been getting Reito out of Obsidian's clutches next.

---

She hasn't discovered Mai's cooking yet. ^_^

---

Get more!

---

At US$300 a batch? I'm going to have to force the insurance company to play honestly first...
ja, -n
(Ten-to-one? That's some fucking sweetheart deal...)
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Rieverre]

Eh. I'm sort of pleased, and sort of not with how this turned out. Dialog is so not my forte.

---

Be it through some strange quirk of fate or merely happenstance, the spread of Otome figurines was part of the things that had survived the ceiling of my office coming down.
And, as luck would have it, Ren had apparently put them back into the room when they'd finished patching up the impromptu skylight.
Said room's current occupant had been busy studying them when I'd entered, turning to face me as I swung the door open.
I found myself looking into a pair of eyes that were not so much red, as they were a reddish brown. Another minor difference. The level of emotional control mirrored within them was scarily like that of her ... what, older counterpart? As good a description as any, I supposed.

Fire. Ice. Crumbling masonry and splintered wood flying through the air. A moon half-engulfed in crimson hanging in the sky, creeping black shadows licking along the edges.

The images assaulted my mind as soon as our gazes met, almost making me reel and having my Field resonate with a sharp ... well, if Gabe were here, he/she'd have described it as a dischord. To me, it felt like somebody dropping a stone into reality's pond. Judging by her face going slightly pale then, I guessed I wasn't the only one who'd gotten a flash of whatever that had been.
Points for self control, though. She was back to being centered faster than me.
"Ohayo, Shiraga Katsu-san."
Aaaaaalrighty. So that's the way she wanted to play?
"It's Schrdinger, actually. Katz Schrdinger."
She was about to retort when she stopped, eyes widening a bit, then crinkling in barely suppressed mirth before she brough a hand up to her mouth and tried to stiffle a giggle. There was an edge there, though it appeared almost imperceptible.
The reaction was so at odds with what I'd expected that it threw me for another loop. I recovered quickly enough this time, thought.
"I know. Bad pun. But so far ... you've been the one person I've met in the past few years who'd caught that," permit me the little untruth of not mentioning Miyu in regard to this.
"Fujino," she said, after regaining her composure. "My name is Fujino Shizuru, Katz-san. And I have died."
"You could say the same about Shiraga Katsu."
"That is ... fortunate," she replied, tone solemn. "Because, what I have been told to relate to him ... someone alive would, perhaps, not be able to believe it."

---

tsuzuku,
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[ordnance11]

---

"Fujino," she said, after regaining her composure. "My name is Fujino Shizuru, Katz-san. And I have died."
"You could say the same about Shiraga Katsu."

---

So...either cannon or an AU where the Obsidian got what he wanted.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Rieverre]

---

So ... either cannon or an AU where the Obsidian Lord got what he wanted.

---

Maybe. ^_^
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[ordnance11]

---

Well, for a value of 'trust' that expands to her accepting that he's got nothing to gain by screwing her over and no interest in doing so for its own sake - or that's how she rationalizes it, anyway. Actually, I don't think she's near as amoral as she likes to think she is - she's too bitter about Mai's public persona when the full implications of her claimed position would make it a matter of complete indifference. She doesn't strike me as a complete cynic so much as someone who's angry that 'morality' has betrayed her...

---

You do realize that the phrase he's got nothing to gain by screwing her over and no interest in doing so for its own sake can be taken in so many ways. ^^
As you said in a previous post, the first guy who has no interest in bedding her is going to be seen by her as a challenge. Which could set off a reaction by some of the others.
Of course, I don't think Midori has told the others that there is a 22 year old under that 15 year old mask. Which might puzzle the girls because the reactions are out of place for a 15 (but not a 22) year old guy. Not to mention to cultural clues would be slightly out of whack.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Valles]

---

You do realize that the phrase ... can be taken in so many ways. ^^

---

Yep. She hasn't, though. Yet.

---

As you said in a previous post, the first guy who has no interest in bedding her is going to be seen by her as a challenge. Which could set off a reaction by some of the others.

---

Which is why I'm goint to have to spend some time sparring with Nagi before diving into the real heavy weather plot stuff - these things take time, see.

---

Of course, I don't think Midori has told the others that there is a 22 year old under that 15 year old mask. Which might puzzle the girls because the reactions are out of place for a 15 (but not a 22) year old guy. Not to mention to cultural clues would be slightly out of whack.

---

Yep! ^_^
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[classicdrogn]

BTW, has anyone else seen This Week's Armitage yet? It might help with that 'getting her voice' thing...
...or not, but anyway, it's funny!
- CD
ETA: I finally got around to watching the episodes of Otome I've been saving off, and have gotten to ep8 - I now have two comments:
a) Yeah, Erstin is a sweetie, definitely on the To Be Saved list.
b) WTF is up with Nagi's back, anyway?SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
Dr. Akagi will recover. Observe, Rei smiled. Shinji-kun, are these your clothes?
Ritsuko shot up like a spring loaded meerkat. What? Shinji-kun is naked?
See, Anata? Dr. Hentai is alive and well. - Innortal's _I Do_
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Rieverre]

---

b) WTF is up with Nagi's back, anyway?

---

I've heard some rumblings about him wearing heating pads because he gets backpains *sweatdrop* but I'm going with possible bioroid as a temporary fixit explanation.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Valles]

---

---

Surprise number one: Fumi dyed her hair.
Surprise number two: shocking pink.
Considering that her dress was too conservative to qualify as fetish gear even for those most dedicated to the kink, it was a bit of an unusual grooming choice, y'know?
"Ah!" She smiled when she saw us, then gestured inside. "Madame Director has been expecting you."
Lovely.
In contrast to her right-hand woman, Kazahana Mashiro was about as expected - short, cute, and albino, with eyes I can only describe as terrifyingly old. "I was wondering when you would be coming to talk to me, Tate-san," she said. "Given how quickly you've moved to speak to each of the HiME. What is it that you wish of me?"
I paused and considered how to begin. "That star... this whole disgusting 'Festival' nightmare... There are things you know that I'd like to - first among them, how you would like to see all this end."
"And what would that perfect ending cost me?" she asked.
I blinked, then realized she was casting me as Mister Morden. I shrugged. "I have no idea. I simply want to know what direction you'd choose to work towards..."
She thought about that for a moment, then told me.
No, I'm not going to give you the details, since a lot of it was surprisingly personal. Suffice to say that it bore out everything the show had implied about her character.

---

---

This is pathetic of me. Nnng. I cannot wait to have my brain working properly again.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[ordnance11]

---

I blinked, then realized she was casting me as Mister Morden. I shrugged. "I have no idea. I simply want to know what direction you'd choose to work towards..."

---

That depends..how oily are you? ^^
Edit: I just started looking at the Mai-Hime specials....very interesting. I gives a more in depth look at their personalities.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Rieverre]

---

I couldn't help but feel as thought I'd once been on the opposite end of a conversation that, while not exactly the same, was still very similar.
Telling Sylvie just how I knew the, admittedly few, things that I had no right to know, every other improbability aside. Talking to Akagi Ritsuko in one set of memories, and doing much the same - only in concert with Gabriel - to a group of people who would have the potential to allow the world's end, or faciliate its salvation.
Fujino Shizuru had been told about myself, told about
Black and the world as was ...
"I was not informed of more, but there was a sense of something far deeper developing beneath the surface," she said. "The person, he said he was already skirting the edges of a set of 'Rules' he'd mentioned a few times. Just that. Without actually saying anything about what these were."
"Who? How did you meet them?" I inquired, understandably interested. If this person knew that much of traversing Limbo, enough place a specific individual at a point of the multiverse after briefing them, accurately if sparsely, on the place they'd be ending up in ... I was more than eager to make their acquaintance. Add to that the fact that the person knew me, or of me ...
"I was involved in an altercation, the results of which I was assured had been fatal. I knew no more, and upon awakening, I was met with an offer."
"Another chance at life?"
"In a way," she evaded. "And I never received a name. From the person's words, they did not have a need for one. Merely ... after they had told me to try and come into contact with Shiraga Katsu, or whatever monicker you had chosen, they implied you could interpret their chosen form of address. The person had called himself the White Guardian."
We'd been speaking in Japanese all the while, so the sudden shift to English was a bit unexpected. A moment was needed for the mind to catch up with what had been said, but once that happened ...
... I remembered the body I was in. The body I had been in. The places I had been to.
Alright. So maybe it wasn't as impossible as my mind had tried to make it seem.
"Westerner, past his middle age, white hair and suit?" I asked, the image of the Col.Sanders wannabe from some of my remembered dreams coming to me. Another bit sprung out at me, the voice speaking seemingly neither in Japanese, nor in English, but at the same time in both those languages. A half-recalled snippet of a dream I'd had a few days ago.
"He told you you'd see her again."
She stiffened minutely, eyes suddenly sharp enough to pretend they were simply red tinted chips of diamond.
"The visions," she stated rather than asked, surprise flowing away into a sort of understanding. "You have the visions as well."
It followed that, if this so called White Guardian was somehow restricted from informing her about - well, exactly why he thought I'd be the best chance of assistance for his piece in this game, I had my suspicions about - more than the general state of the world that was Earl, he would give her a connection of sort to the person who could deliver to her that more in-depth information.
I nodded. "A few. I don't usually remember all too much of them, but mostly, the common theme seems to be some sort of anomaly. A red moon crawling with shadows, or maybe some sort of shape covering the normal moon ..."
She shook her head. "No ... mine were ... different. There was little in the way of a common theme ... a city of technology, and war being waged. A person whom I'd wanted to call Gabriel, but wearing the body of someone I'd known as a character from a television series. Looking down at Earth, floating in oddly colored space."
"Those were ..." I blinked in surprise. "So, what I was seeing. Those were your memories?"
Fujino Shizuru suddenly seemed ... very brittle, and the hardness of her eyes had turned jagged.
I had a feeling of huge scales teetering on the brink of overbalancing.
Swaying.
Finally, ever so slowly, tipping to one side.
And she told me, in explicit detail, of where she'd come from. She told me of who she'd been. What't she'd done.
The story of the Festival, and of the HiME.
We were both silent for some time afterwards, myself still working through exactly what I'd been told and her ... though she was a very reserved person, from what I'd seen during the conversation and half-expected to come from her resemblance to Viola, she seemed emotionally wrung out.
I could hardly blame her, though.
It was a bleak, bleak picture that she painted ...
Do you want to see her again? seemed stuck in my mind, and I was now in the position of knowing exactly who the person Fujino-san had wanted so badly to see again was.
For all his restrictions, and even from what I could recall - though I wasn't certain how old Dr.Who episode reruns and reading about Craig Reed's 'fictional' meeting with the person qualified me to make that judgement - ... the White Guardian had never been deliberately misleading.
Do you want to see her again?
Her.
I looked to the display of Otome figurines standing against the far wall. Specifically, one figurine in particular.
Her.
Not somebody who looks like her.
They didn't.
They wouldn't!
...
They would.
Still, I held onto a vague hope that ...
"Kuga Natsuki," I said, voice even. Maybe too even. "You said something about Elements. What was hers?"
Fujino's gaze snapped up again, measuring. After a moment, she responded. "Two small pistols."
"Ah. I think I misunderstood," I amended, slightly relieved. "I'd assumed that meant some sort of elemental affinity."
"Not all of them, but Natsuki's," she spoke. "Her Element, even her Child, were very much aligned with ice."
Ice.
Bloody ice.
Bloody ice sticking out of my chest and back. Ice Materializing in the air around the Schwarz ... member? Project? Black armor, bulky and blocky enough to obscure anything but the fact that the wearer was human.
The White Guardian had put his piece in, out of death, but restricting himself or being restricted to putting Fujino Shizuru in place without her powers as a HiME.
What in Hell's name had his opposite number done?!
Better yet, how was I going to explain this ... did it even still count as a suspicion now? ... to Fujino?
'Very, very carefully.'

---

Still didn't hit every point I'd wanted to, but I tried to have it not be too awkward in a way that screams 'blatant excuse for exposition'.
And incidentally, yes, I'm doing this because it gives me an excuse to work with an already completed plot to supplement the still incomplete knowledge of Otome.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Valles]

---

Still didn't hit every point I'd wanted to, but I tried to have it not be too awkward in a way that screams 'blatant excuse for exposition'.

---

So what are you waiting for? Exposit! Inquiring minds want to know...

---

---

Joseph Glear frowned at the child standing in front of him, and tried to ignore the way his palms were sweating at the look in her eyes. "This is not wise, Alyssa."
"We have been attacked. What is not wise is allowing our enemies to control the situation - to believe that they hold the position of power. I will not allow your cowardice to force me away from what is neccessary.
"The time for waiting is over - they have forced that. We can no longer afford to wait for Artemis to be ready... I will flush them out, then hound them until they drop."
"The only thing that has changed is that Miyu is-" His jaw snapped shut involuntarily.
"Oh, it's far more than that..."
* * * * *
You would have thought that the hard part about getting all the HiME involved in the same get-together would be doing it without blowing their identities wide open, but actually, that was relatively simple. Akane and Yukino, it turned out, knew each other of old, though they'd never been close friends, and Natsuki was already known to be among Mai's circle of accquaintances - which, in turn, quite easily explained Shizuru's presence - as was Akira, while Midori's new job at the Academy made her an excellent choice to assign as 'faculty advisor' for the Kazahana Scholarship Group.
To someone who didn't know that they were all HiME, of course, the only thing that all the others had in common, though, was that they were attending Fuuka Academy on a scholarship which was - nominally - intended to provide access to those whose economic conditions would never have otherwise allowed it.
It wasn't a perfect disguise, of course, especially since it also involved Midori inviting along every adult 'friend' she had on campus (ie, Yoko-sensei, Fumi, and Yukariko), and any sufficiently paranoid soul would probably monitor us closely just in case, but it was the best available, and I was far from the only one who thought that building a sense of unity and community among the HiME was a far greater priority that maintaining total secrecy.
No, the hard part was deciding what to do, and, worse, what to eat.

---

---

Y'all can see where this is going, stet? Well, even if you couldn't, I'll blow a secret and ask for some help - this, I believe, is a situation that calls for original Orphan designs. Any suggestion?
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Bob Schroeck]

---

this, I believe, is a situation that calls for original Orphan designs. Any suggestion?

---

By order of the board administrator, no one is to suggest small girls with curly red hair, blank white eyes, and the catchphrase "Leapin' Lizards!". And their little dogs, too.


-- Bob
---------
For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

[Xenoproctologist]

---

Y'all can see where this is going, stet? Well, even if you couldn't, I'll blow a secret and ask for some help - this, I believe, is a situation that calls for original Orphan designs. Any suggestion?

---

You think the committee would approve the cash outlay for R&D on original designs after the cockup thusfar? What would the stockholders say? My god, what about the fourth-quarter projections?
No, they'll have to make do with the MIYU prototype -- the Variable Intelligential Loki Aggregate -- and a SEARRS catalog. Perhaps they'll find something useful in the Lawn and Garden section....

[ECSNorway]

---

No, they'll have to make do with the MIYU prototype -- the Variable Intelligential Loki Aggregate -- and a SEARRS catalog. Perhaps they'll find something useful in the Lawn and Garden section....

---

*groan*
At least they'll get the Best Of Breed V.I.L.A....
I can't believe I just said that.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[classicdrogn]

You could go with the giant anomalocaris from the first couple episodes of Kono Mini, or (in a similar vein) a super-size Hallucinogenia... neither of which I can find any online pictures of, blast it. Hallucinogenia was a soft-bodied Canbrian era critter found fossilized in the Burgess shale deposits, with seven pairs of long, sparp spines running down its body as legs (each spike about half its total body length) a flexible snout with a spiky, crab-like claw at the end for grabbing food and pulling it up to its mouth like and elephant, and five slightly protruding eyestaks like a lobster's (though smaller) the real ones were around half an inch or so long IIRC, but taking the elephant anaolgy more literally, and adding a a bit of skeleton, carapce, or both to support a creature of that size would do the trick.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
Dr. Akagi will recover. Observe, Rei smiled. Shinji-kun, are these your clothes?
Ritsuko shot up like a spring loaded meerkat. What? Shinji-kun is naked?
See, Anata? Dr. Hentai is alive and well. - Innortal's _I Do_
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Valles]

Ah, hallucinogenia. AKA, the 'which end of this thing is up, anyway?' critter.
I like that idea...
It's hardly going to be alone, though.
Ja, -n
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Rieverre]

---

So what are you waiting for? Exposit! Inquiring minds want to know...

---

One portion of introspective half-coherent babble-speak, coming right up.

---

HiME.
High-energy Materializing Equipment. Not the smoothest of acronyms ...
Sigh
I was sitting in the middle of what had once been the living space of my apartment, and was now the temporary roof of the building, and meditated.
Or rather, pondered.
Heavy thoughts? No, really? I mean, finding out that you're a small piece in something some being out there had planned out, at least to a certain extent ... happens every other day, right?
Yare yare.
More concerning was the story Fujino-san had told me about the so called Festival of the HiME. Hell, by the acronym alone, I realized there was a connection. What bits and pieces I'd put together about Garderobe technology in general, and their Otome in particular, with no little input from Miyu, outright stated that they used something called Z-Type-HiME to Materialize their Robes. Precious little recorded history from before the War of the Twelve Kingdoms existed, and records of the colonization of Earl itself were ... one might as well try looking for a needle in a haystack, so there was no way of being sure but the Festival could have taken place in this timeline's past. Or another version of it ...
"Oi, boss, you okay? You've been up here for four hours."
"Ren? Mm. Suppose so," I blinked. Oh. Well, that explains the starry sky, I guess. "I'm a little concerned."
"With that ...?" he pointed downwards.
"Eh ... partially," I shrugged. "Hey, Ren ... do you ever get the feeling you're just a pawn in a game somebody else is playing?"
He gave me a very un-Ren-like dry look. "Gee, I don't know, let me think ..."
"... oh, right," I mumbled. "Sorry."
"Right," he shook his head. "Are you going to be out here all night?"
"Maybe."
So, Fujino had died. Killing, and killed by, the person she cared for most, which apparently happened when a HiME's Child - a sort of summoned creature from another plane of existence - died. The bit about the HiME's most important person dying when their Child is killed, I mean ...
Did somebody in the past of this world figure out the mechanics, scientific or mystical, of that bond and used it to create the first Slave summonings? It does sound very similar, only with the Lord offering up their own life if the Slave failed.
... which would make that person Kuga Natsuki, who - if I had my facts straight, was the counterpart of the local Garderobe Headmistress Kruger. Only younger.
Considering the dynamics between Kruger and Viola, this wasn't too surprising.
The White Guardian, or at least someone playing such, had placed his piece. Fujino-san was revived and put here, sans power and connection to her Child severed. Still, she remained a resourceful individual, and even from our conversation I could see that she was also extremely intelligent. From her own account, she'd been found by an Aries border patrol, and immediately brought to the attention of their superior. And further up. Apparently, it had been kept very quiet, and in a few days she'd found out why. Haruka Armitage, Yukino Chrysant ... she'd known those faces, though the names had been different and ...
Kikukawa, wait, didn't kiku mean ... Chrysantemum? Yes, I think it did. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, thrice ... well, we were already well _past_ number three.
I placed the time of the events at roughly around the time of Mashiro blan de Windbloom's coronation, meaning I'd just found a likely reason for Yukino and Haruka's rather abrupt departure after our meeting back then. Or at least a likely reason.
I already knew she was the likely reason for the message from Aries in which we were asked to keep a closer eye on Shizuru Viola.
As for Fujino-san's competence? She hadn't said anything about her time in Aries other than that she'd become impatient with waiting and left. Since I doubted she hadn't been under watch during her ... residence ... there, and since she'd almost made it to Windbloom while avoiding becoming reacquainted with her hosts' hospitality ... resourceful, to say the least.
In contrast, the White Guardian's opposite number had placed into this little game his own piece.
I'd jumped to conclusion about the black armored figure whom I'd trailed from Lutetia to Aries, but apparently this once the jump had been justified. In part, I'd done so because while said figure's ... powers ... also made use of a Materialization signature, said signature was very much unlike anything I'd ever sensed on Earl in the last few years.
How, if this was indeed Kuga Natsuki, the Black Guardian had managed to have her here, working for Schwarz, and obviously still in possession of some warped version of the original abilities described by Shizuru despite the fact that under their so called rules both Guardians' degree of intervention was supposed to be about equal ... that was something that still needed to be figured out.
I'd shown Fujino-san the recording of said figure's combat against Aswad taken by my binocs, and while there was little over reactionon her part I could almost feel how troubled she'd been by the image.
Despite all these revelations, in and of themselves, they weren't the ones that made me come up here and worry.
Alright, in some small way they were part of the reason, but my real ponderings were directed towards another matter.
Fujino had been informed about me by the White Guardian. Who knew me well enough, it seemed. Knew how I'd react. Knew what I'd been trying to do these past few years ... namely, go back to the place I'd started to consider home.
And simply putting me there, or easing my way at least, seemed very much within the scope of his ability.
Which, bluntly speaking, made Fujino the bearer of the carrot. The enticement, the proof of his existence without the need for direct interference.
Help her, the indirect message seemed to say, and I'll make sure you at least get sent the right way when there is a next time. Otherwise, take your chances.
If, the paranoid little corner of my mind - as opposed to the slightly less paranoid rest of it - had poked at me, this really was the White Guardian, and not some other force pretending so that it could pull at my strings for one reason or another.
Did I dare take the chance that it was true?
More importantly, could I afford not to?
I stood, taking a deep breath and looking up into the starry sky above. Then turned around.
Apparently, the deliberations hadn't taken all too long this time, since Ren was still there.
"I'm done," I said, as much to myself as I did to him. It snapped him out of some sort of reverie of his own.
"Oh. Good. Any earth shattering decisions made today, oh glorious leader?"
"Mm. Not really. I think I was just sleepy, but decided it's about time to wake up."
"Katz ... that made absolutely no sense."
"Say that again when you know where the wild things are, Ren."
"..."

---

I really couldn't resist putting in that last bit. I'm a sucker for a bad pun.
So, no, I'm not saying anything about the Festival, other than that it had gone about how the canon version had until Shizuru's and Natsuki's deaths.
And, no, Fujino-san didn't mention M.I.Y.U. at all. Neither did Katz. ^_^
Orphans ... hmm ... how about one that's catlike and can phase through stuff. Y'know, sort of like Pixel, only not as cute. Call them Schrdingers, maybe? *snicker*
Also, you need some flying ones, just for variety's sake. A nice dogfight above the Academy would be interesting. Since I'm currently watching Karin, my vote's for a swarm of techno-organic bats that can recombine into a bigger form ... say, one vaguely similar to FF8's Diablos?
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[ordnance11]

---

By order of the board administrator, no one is to suggest small girls with curly red hair, blank white eyes, and the catchphrase "Leapin' Lizards!". And their little dogs, too.

---

I take it flying monkeys are out of the question?

Well, I was thinking of either something like a yo-yo or a top would be a decent Orphan design, if you're not into monsters of any mythology.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell