[Session... START!] * Mariah gets up from the table to go put her things away and slump off roomward. She's looking pretty beat. * Mariah makes it back to Alexander 103 just after Karasu does. He's still in the main room when she walks in. The main room itself is now entirely devoid of any trace of Hope. Other than that, everything looks normal, except for the blank post-it note on hers and Ao-Lang's door. ... huh. * Mariah goes to investigate the blank sticky note. * The note appears to be entirely blank. * Mariah pulls it off the door to look under it and examine it further. Who the heck would leave a blank sticky note? * Written on the backside of the note, in Ao-Lang's handwriting, is "I win." .. you know, sometimes I just want to hit her. * Mariah seems to be talking to herself, but not at a volume that Karasu can't hear. Hmmm... She'd just hit you back. So? I never said I cared if I won. I just want to hit her hard enough that she knows I'm here. * Mariah crumples up the note and opens the door to her room to look around. * Mariah's room looks just like she left it. * Karasu settles onto the couch and flips on some old silent Kung-Fu movie. * Mariah walks into her room and pulls a duffel out from under her bed. Wordlessly, she begins stuffing clothes into it. * Karasu watches TV! * The old silent kung fu film is really, truly awful. Why didn't they make it with sound, anyway? * Mariah hauls her duffel bag out of her room and towards Hope's deserted one. * The captain's room is totally bare, stripped of everything except the bed linen and the furniture. There's a large bed, a suitcase, a closet... basically it's a deluxe single room, which means it's about ten times as good as the ones the rest of you have been staying in. * Karasu flips to a newer movie, then. * Karasu flips and flips and flips, and where he stops... is TNT, showing Biodome. * Karasu turns his head to Mariah. "Taking up leader position?" ... I hadn't thought of it that way. I just wanted to move out. I'm getting so sick of her. * Karasu shrugs. "So take up position for captain. We need one, after all." God, she's gonna be so angry at me. But I'm not totally sure I care, you know? * Karasu nods. But if you're okay with it... * Karasu nods again. Sweet nodding action! Then screw it. She's gonna have to learn to deal with not always getting her own way. * Karasu returns to his movie. * Mariah walks into the captain's room and sets her duffel bag on the bed before going back to her room for anotherload. * The door resounds with a firm knock. * Mariah looks out of her room. "Huh. Want me to get that?" * Karasu gets up and answers it, since Mariah's busy. "I have it." Cool, thanks! * Arthur yanks his hand back from his second set of knocks. "Hi, Karasu. Mariah here?" * Karasu nods and heads back to the couch. "It's for you." -- oh, yeah, I'm in here. What's up? * Arthur steps into the common room. "Nothing, really. Ryo's gonna be busy for at least a few hours, I figure, so I'm gonna go grab snacks instead. Wanna come with?" Sure. Could you give me a few minutes, though? I'm moving. I can help, if you want. Why're you moving? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First... I'm just really tired of living with Ao-Lang, I guess. Second... well, it's kind of the same reason, but we need a leader and I don't want to spend a bunch of time arguing about it just so Ao can win anyway. So you're just taking it? * Mariah shrugs. "It isn't very nice, but I'm tired and I'm sick of arguing with her and I'm sick of always being nice." * Arthur nods approvingly. "Well, I may as well help you move, then. If you need help, anyway." * Karasu watches his movie... move. * It's a gawdawful Pauley Shore movie, Karasu, I don't know what you want out of it. PAULEY SHORE. * Karasu changes the channel, then. Can we get, like, BH The Movie or something? * Karasu gets Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It's on pay per view. How did you guys get Pay Per View? It's not that hard, but if you wouldn't mind... * Karasu sees Legolas in action, and figures he might be able to duplicate some of that mojo. * Karasu watches it. Elves kick ass. * Arthur shakes his head. "I don't mind at all. Always happy to help." He walks quickly across the common room, pulling his large gleaming shield from... somewhere. "We can use this to haul more of your stuff." * Mariah nods and starts to haul out another duffel bag. "Thanks. It should be kinda obvious which side's mine." And it is, provided you know anything about Mariah and Ao-Lang's tastes. Yeah, it's pretty obvious. * Arthur grabs a couple shirts to cushion the hard shield, then starts carefully transferring curios, knicknacks, and kipple to the shield. * Mariah keeps moving stuff. For right now, her goal appears to be just raw getting stuff into the room. * With two people, it seems to take a surprisingly short time to get everything over to the captain's room. * Mariah sets down the last bag and sits down on the bed. "Great! ... then again, I'm not sure when Ao's getting back, and I'm not totally sure if it's a good idea to leave all my stuff here alone when she gets back." I doubt she'd do anything like that. Besides, she probably won't be back for a while. Do you know where she went? Out on the west lawn with Ryo, according to Kento, crying her heart out. .. oh geez. I.. I shouldn't have done this. * Karasu watches his movie! He might eavesdropping! Or he might not care. Why not? You have to stand up for yourself sometime. But, I mean, if she's broken up about it... ... but she left that note. And it's not like she'll be any different when she calms down. If you're really concerned about it, we could wait until they return, and come to a decision before the day is done. Challenge her for it. But if I lose, it'll just make things worse. * Karasu nods. "That's not a good idea." If I lose she'll *never* let it go. I'll have to fetch and carry the rest of my time here and I'd rather drop out than have to live with that. So don't lose. * Karasu points out. "So would Hope." I think you can do it. So maybe Hope was *right.* ... if she wants a challenge, she'll get it. At this rate, the captain will be whoever the last person on the team is. * Mariah sighs. "I just don't want her to push me around anymore. I can't lose if there's a challenge. I can't." So make a plan, execute it, and win. Beat her at her own game. You should always have a plan for beating all of your teammates. But... I don't want this team just to be about who can beat who. That's what bugs me. It's not about who can beat who. Anybody can beat anybody else. If that wasn't true, this school wouldn't exist. It's about knowing yourself. If you know yourself and know your enemy, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles. Ao-Lang knows that, I bet. It's a nice idea, but... even if I have a plan, even if I try my best, things go wrong. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to stake on things not going wrong for once. * Arthur steps in close to Mariah and lowers his head down near to her ear, and whispers, "If you're not willing to risk it all for what you believe in, why are you here?" I'm here to *learn.* Okay? I'm just so tired. * Karasu stretches. This movie's kinda... blah. * Arthur puts one hand on Mariah's shoulder, gently, and says "If you don't take risks, you'll never learn. That's what this place is all about." What are you even telling me to do? I'll fight if she wants a fight. I'm not saying I *won't.* I'm just saying that you should go for it. However it turns out. Whatever happens.. I have to show her she can't kick me around. Exactly! * Mariah sighs. "... so do we wait here, or do we get out of here?" I'm all for going and grabbing snacks. * Karasu waves without looking up. * Isaac opens the door to the common room, if it's not already open, and walks in. He silently emits a sense of grief, anger, frustration, AND sadness as he walks to his room, pulling a book with his TK to him on the way. .. oh geez. I don't even know if I want to ask. Hmm? Isaac's upset. Oh. What's wrong? * Arthur turns to watch as Isaac walks into his room. * Isaac glances over at Arthur, faking a straightish face. ~What's up?~ * Arthur blinks. "Well, maybe not me, but Mariah maybe." ~It's just this whole mess with Karasu and Ao and me and... I don't know, people shouldn't be dying over this. They shouldn't!~ ~If I have any say in it, nobody else is dying. I want to make sure of that.~ ~I hope so...~ It's like Ryo said, we'll find this guy, we'll pound him, and that'll be the end of it. With three teams on the case, we can't fail. I guess so. But right now we need a direction. ... And snacks. White cheddar popcorn. Agreed. That sounds really good. Shall we go? * Arthur offers his arm to Mariah. * Mariah stands up. "It's okay -- I'm not hurt or anything. And yeah, let's go. Anyone else in?" * Karasu keeps watching his movie. "Wouldn't want to intrude." * Isaac shakes his head. Well, okay... * Arthur holds the door for Mariah. * Isaac , book in hand, instaed sits down on the couch and starts reading, occassionaly looking up to watch the movie. * RDMgryphon is now known as RDMenchi * Arthur follows Mariah out. [Session... END!]