1720/Dinner and a Movie and an Identity Crisis

Dinner and a Movie and an Identity Crisis
Date of Scene:	02 July 2024
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy - Dorm
Synopsis:	The "Ojisan Club" of ojisans-that-never-were (Amy and Taro) convenes for movie night, and ends up having discussions about old media, esoteric horror, and what it means to have an identity and experience that don't fit into conventional understanding.
Cast of Characters:	Taro Yamada, Amanda Faust

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Taro Yamada has posed:
No one wants his fruit baskets, no one's scared by his intimdating cakes, no one's taking his big vampire form seriously and it's not!! Fair!! The Back Street Slasher has terrified Japan for decades and now no one is taking him seriously!! And it's a bunch! Of! Dumb! Kids!

Oh no, he's not scary at all because he's not STABBING INFANTS, excuse him for having some standards! A truly terrifying villain wasn't going to go around beating up a bunch of shrimps half his age!

But it's not like he can tell anyone his woes. He's kept his secret identity SECRET,in part because he knows how these identity reveals go (bad!) and in part so if he sees that baja blast chick Thetis (themis?? thesaurus?? western names were so haarrrrrd) he can safely give her a proper Slasher welcome to send back to her boss Beryl. In several boxes, preferably.

But he CAN bemoan being an old man with someone, which is new. And it's been a few weeks! So Taro starts getting out ingredients for a quick dinner and starts texting.

Taro: hi amy!
Taro: u free tonight?
Taro: ive got leftovers and some scary movies u might like
Taro: BSS left dory here so she mite say hi

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy: You know what? I *could* use a break from routine. I'll be right over.

    And so it is that she arrives at his door! Dressed for maximum comfort and minimum fashion, in a black shirt that's way too big and says ¤APERTURE LABORATORIES on the front, a red jersey-knit skirt underneath, and an army surplus field jacket that is similarly way too big against the cool summer night. Her backpack is a big desert camo one that says US on the back, and just before knocking on his door she's slipped a lanyard with her old ID over her neck.

    When he opens the door she looks UP -- she kinda forgot how tall he was, last time she saw him everyone was giant -- and smiles, "Hiya." Lifting a hand to wave.

    As she walks into the dorm room and looks around, she comments, "Huh, do you not have a roommate?" She'll ditch the backpack, coat, and sneakers -- they're inside in Japan, after all -- somewhere convenient.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro waves from his dorm room table; he's got a Hello Kitty apron on over his pajama pants and Rita Repulsa t-shirt and his bangs clipped back with a hello kitty hairclip.

There's a large measuring cup full of tea, two bowls full of rice and he has some shelf stable boxes of ingredients like pickled plums, dried seaweed and rice crackers laid out. (He must have heated the tea and prepped the rice in the kitchens, but. What's he doing with all these boxes of food in his room?)

"No, I don't have one. Something about slipping in at the last minute, probably. Obsideon recruited me a little before the last semester ended. You can sit on the couch if you want, I'm almost done getting food ready. You like salmon, right?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "Is that a Rita Repulsa shirt? I didn't know they even made those. ...I know she did a bunch of stuff, she was the English dub voice of Laharl, too. [Leave it to me, the great Laharl! Hmmmmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmmmmm!]"

    She holds a hand to her throat. "Oh, that's slightly cursed. I never thought about how to do a kid voice, this sounds more like girl Laharl. Leave it to me[ore-sama]!" She looks down. "Although, I'm sure he'd rather this body than the one he keeps getting stuck in..."

    She blinks and looks back at Taro. "I'm sorry, I guess I'm ADHD as fuck tonight, what were we talking about?"

    She looks at his collection of ingredients, approaching the table. "You know, we can have a mini-fridge in here? Mio had one in our room, fortunately, so I was able to move all my, like, soda and most of my frozen dinners over from my apartment fridge. Maybe you wanna get something like that? Obsidian's gotta be able to afford it. ...Can you expense it? Actually, it'd be good if we could waste as much of their money as possible... Did you say you have salmon?!"

    She turns towards him, perking up a bit and he can almost imagine ears and a tail perking in excitement too. "Oh man, I haven't had salmon in awhile! Yes! Oh, uh, do you need any help with this...?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I know enough English to understand the American version with minimal subtitles," Taro says with a shrug. "I was big on getting tapes of English-language horror in the 90s and Power Rangers ended up tagging along. I got a discount at this one American import store's shirts since I could help with some translation stuff and doubled my wardrobe." He loves having enough free time and money to do that. Working for Obsideon is GREAT.

"Uh, I dunno Laharl, though. I wanted to talk horror and how much it sucks being surrounded by kids?" Taro says. "I've got a mini fridge I keep my good ingredients in, but I think it's important to keep food that'll keep if Beryl or that weird pony chick knock the power out." Not. Not that he's got issues from being born in the 40s or something.

He waves an open packet of smoked salmon that he's been shredding into one of the bowls. "I got a good deal on fish and it's perfect weather for ochazuke - have you had that before? It's a perfect dish for a hot day like this - go ahead and put toppings on your rice."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh, sorry, he's from Disgaea, this videogame I used to play..." she slumps, "when I was actually about this old, god. It was an irreverent comedy with some serious character moments set in the demon realm. I think they're still making them, we're up to 6 or so and a mobile game now."

    "Right, yeah. [Oji-sans] club..." Her hand goes to the ID, fingers fiddling with it.

    "You should get a camp stove so you can cook up stuff before it goes bad if the power does go out. I don't think there are actually any rules preventing you from keeping a little propane canister in your stuff."

    She moves over to the salmon packet, "Oooh, smoked? Obsidian does pay nice, I guess... You every try this with cream cheese and bagels?"

    "'Ochazuke?' What's that? Can you eat it?" She grins at her little joke, since it probably is food. Toppings? To go with rice and salmon? Maybe a smidge of butter, salt... have lemon pepper?

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I haven't played that. Most of what I've been playing has been on the Gameboy or the DS so it's... No, if it was out when you were young then it'd be something I could've seen, so I must've missed it. It's not a mecha game, right? I usually snatched up things with robots."

How'd he miss that, huh?? He's had time to play games in his long, long life.

"Oji-sans club!" He lifts the thermos as if to toast. "I told that Hinoiri girl that if she put my boss in the hospital again, I'd get her. She didn't seem as intimidated by me making a cake of her as a horse as I wanted. I should've made her stab the cake like I planned... Kids these days don't appreciate subtle horror. Like me knowing about her horse thing even though we've never met?"

He blinks thoughtfully. "A camp stove... I should check to see if it's alllowed, but that's a good idea. Could be a fire hazard, but buildings are a lot less flammable these days." No more cooking in the dorm kitchens, just hanging out by himself!!

"I haven't. Is that an American thing? I've seen that in movies a few times." He gestures with the thermos again. "Ochazuke is rice and whatever you like, and then you pour green tea or dashi stock on it. I've...never heard of someone putting butter on it," he is making a bit of a face trying to figure out how that would taste, "but it can't hurt? There might be some in the kitchen. I like it with pickles and seaweed!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh, no, it was PS2. Tactical RPG. There was a DS port! And PC ones, now."

    "Oji-sans club!" She smiles a bit awkwardly, and raises the spice shaker she's currently holding in toast.

    "Your... boss? Hinoiri burned the Slasher when she was Sunset?"

    Amy shrugs. "Look, you--" She starts to explain, but when he says they don't appreciate subtle horror she slams the shaker down on the table. "RIGHT?! For the cultural festival last year, I did a haunted house room where I was a witch subtly hinting that all the random innocuous objects in the room used to be people, and that visitors were going to join them." She holds her ID between two fingers. "I even made a bunch of obviously-fake IDs with AI and the lamination machine and gave each object one. Y'know. Just to make it clear."

    She lets go of the ID and throws up her hands. "But nobody got it! I had to tell them when they got bored, and they always said I shoulda done jumpscares or something! No appreciation!"

    "...And then Sailor Eclipse actually turned people into toys, and they took as much as an hour to change back, so I ended up spending all afternoon and early evening going wherever she'd been and keeping her victims occupied with stories until they turned back." She sighs.

    "...Anyway yeah, lox and bagels is... I mean, American only in somuch as I think it's some dish immigrants brought there? Jewish, I think? Honestly I'm not a huge fan of bagels, but lox is" she makes a chef's kiss gesture.

    She blinks. "Rice with... tea? Never tried that, but it should work with dashi stock fine, I think, as long as it's hot..." She shrugs. "Don't worry about it. I'll try it your way."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I'll keep an eye out for it! I've got to use the Obsideon money while it's coming. They're happy keeping me around for now, but it seems like employment is pretty turbulent - and I am NOT spending my teenage unlife going to school over and over again, no matter what Twilight thinks." That is Not Happening No Sir.

Blink blink. Wait. HOld on. Understandable miscommunication but hold on hold on - "I mean Fuyuko-sensei, my boss at Obsideon. The Slasher doesn't work for Obsideon! He does his own thing." That is one very important reason why he's been keeping his identities seperate. Obsideon can go do whatever evil things they do, whatever, but the Slasher is HIS! And his agenda and characterization will not be altered!

"See, that's terrifying! You get it! I think it would need some atmosphere to pull off properly - hm, maybe that was my problem, I didn't have the atmosphere proper... She didn't even appreciate the strawberry jam blood. I'm so used to people being scared of my looks that I'm not presenting the right aura..." The Oyaji Club is keeping him sane. Finally, someone with taste!

He nods, looking thoughtful. "I mostly do traditional Japanese recipes, but if you come cook with me, I could try and make that? We'd have to buy the bagels, I don't have bread equipment here." He hands her the smoked salmon. "Go ahead and put that on your rice. I'll add the rest of the ingredients. It's something my auntie would make when I was a kid - she used the worst instant green tea powder for it, the tea I've got here is better, but the dashi's going to taste more.. Uh, phrasing. More familiar to an American?" what ARE words.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Whoever Fuyuko-sensei is... "Ohhhhhh. I see. Well honestly, Hinoiri-san's got it real tough right now, so... Go easy on her, alright?"

    See, that's terrifying! You get it. "RIGHT?!" Amy grins at someone appreciating the thought she put into that haunted house room. And that the dark and terrible thoughts about such things she'd picked up long ago were finally in some way useful. "What atmosphere are you suggesting? If you think I could actually get people to properly fear it, maybe I can try again this year." She taps her chin. "Man, that woulda been a hell of a time to get turned into a doll. People would fuckin' freak. They'd appreciate the implication that I was once human then!" She points at Taro.

    She waves a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about the bagels. Honestly if we're gonna cook somethin', I can think of some other recipes to share. You ever had spaghetti with a proper meaty sauce and everything? There's this great trick with salmon you can do, if you cover it in a mix of mayonaise and lemon pepper and then broil it-- ah, we'd need a broiling pan though, and it's kind of a bitch to clean the pan after, hmm..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I'm not gonna kick a girl when she's down! I'm a feminist! And I would've given her the cake afterwards if she wanted it." He's not going to mention her laughing at him, even if her saying he was almost a decent guy redeemed it. He has his dignity

Taro ponders the atmosphere as he decorates Amy's bowl of rice like his, with nori and pickled vegetables - "Dimmed lights, eerie noises - probably discarded sets of clothing, as if the human inside them had disappeared? If you have to do jumpscares, you could have fake students being nabbed by monsters and disappearing, or using smoke to make them disappear around the discarded clothing. Writing on the wall like someone tried to warn people and transformed halfway through. Increasing amounts of broken objects. The last room has all the objects with their IDs lined up like trophies - there's got to be some way to give it an aura of decapitated heads - and the witch could be smashing an object while it screams. Maybe a pumpkin with the guts spilled?"

He grins. "You'd be a great haunted doll! It's too bad no one can remember magic, because it'd revolutionize horror. Speaking of - let me wash my hands and I'll go grab the movies. I've got some nice subtle horror, and then I've got horror that's got gender in it, and we can pick one."

He hops to his feet to get the salmon off his hands. "I don't think I have? I haven't had that at American-style restaurants. I don't think I've run into lemon pepper either - what's a broiling pan? The dorm's got a frying pan and some soup pans that could work."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy listens. "Ohhhhhhhhh." She points at him at the comment about clothing. "That's a good one, yeah. They let me borrow some of the drama club's stuff that time, I totally coulda done that! Like, I do wanna sell that some of the objects have been there a long time, but the idea to reinforce that some of them were previous visitors to the haunted house that very day is a good one!"

    She taps her chin. "I didn't really have a wall, just curtains, but... I'll think about that if I get the chance to do it again. ...I don't really wanna do jumpscares, but I suppose doing that with some SFX would make the gimmick absolutely clear. I didn't-- I didn't have multiple rooms. And I think outright destroying the objects is a bit mean. Unless you're really selling the whole 'but they're still kind of aware, and now they can never be turned back unless you put them together perfectly' thing, although like... one, they're never gonna get that, and two, if they did, geeze that's maybe a bit 'too' heavy."

    She shakes her head at the suggestion of using those in place of a broiling pan. "No, a broiling pan is two parts, the pan and then like, a metal sheet with slits or holes in it for the juice that gets cooked out to drip out into the pan."

    Amy sighs at a thought. "Ugh. If we did do the jumpscare thing, you just know people are gonna get confused and think the idea is that the students turned into the clothes." She blinks. "Which I mean... as much of a genre classic as that is, it's kinda... going off in a weird direction. Although making a washing machine terrifying would be an achievement, and I guess they would be good for dramatically destroying, but..." She shakes her head. "We're overthinking this. No one's gonna appreciate this, and I'm like... hopelessly demented for being this far gone..."

    Amy sighs and hangs her head. "...I'm glad at least you got it." Her nails scratch against the table. "I'm hopelessly messed up. Can you imagine what other students, what my friends would think if they heard this conversation?"

    She gives a sharp chuckle. "There's the horror." Amy lifts her head and turns to point at some imagined student. "I was once normal like you! Anyone can become this fucked up!" She cackles while holding her hands out with fingers curled upward like claws.

    And then drops them to her side, and hangs her head again, softly admitting, "I was never normal, though."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"If it's one room, it's going to need a lot more to get the atmosphere set up," Taro muses as he returns to the table with wet wipes. "You could use partitions or curtains to create more rooms? Or you may need to find one thing to make the horror center around. If you have a small room, you have to make whatever concept you go with really count. What about centering it around a statue and using the lights or puppetry or an actor to make it seem like it's coming to life? Haunted statue is a classic and that's something that can be done on a budget." It'd take effort, still, but that might be more feasible as a one room horror show?

He sighs with her as he takes the tea and pours it in his bowl, careful not to disturb his toppings. "I think your friends ought to be happy. Trying to do horror without depicting graphic violence is hard. There's only so much you can get away with showing in a school setting. Jumpscares are effective, but they don't linger; it's real art to make a scare that lasts. It's difficult trying to do horror without relying on cheap scares as a crutch."

(Maybe that's why he hasn't been scary recently. He's so used to just Being Frightening that if he stays in character as the Slasher, people are scared. And now they're not, because they fight 40 foot jpg monsters or evil blue ladies who kidnap children and a yokai-vampire who does his own effects isn't that scary in comparison.)

Taro swallows down his kneejerk raection to cuss out the idea of normal he pours dashi broth into her rice bowl - with that and the smoked salmon, it'll be similar to miso soup, but with the fish and seaweed adding saltiness and the pickled veggies adding sour.

"Screw normal," he says finally. "If people don't get it, screw them too. I'm as normal as a freak can get and I'm still here, aren't I?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shakes her head. "S'more horrifying if the statue can't move anymore, right? Trapped... forever..."

    Still looking down at the table, she says, softly, "...I don't even really like this kind of horror... it's just... familiar. It's not like I was looking for it, but I always found it anyway."

    Her eyes fall to the lanyard hanging from her neck. She picks up the card and looks at it. "...I don't really feel like I'm him anymore." She holds it out towards him. "I don't just mean the gender thing. I was always a girl inside, but his... her life was just so long ago!"

    "I've been like this almost a year! It's about to be my first birthday like this!" It does say Birthday: 1987-07-06 on the card, under the name FAUST, MALLORY (35M) and next to the picture of a tired-looking man with white hair and blue eyes, with the edges of his mouth slightly lifted in what he thinks is a smile but isn't really.

    "But..." She drops the lanyard and goes over to her backpack, fishing out her student ID. She takes a step or two towards Taro and holds it out to show.

    "I don't feel like her, either." FAUST, AMANDA (15F). Birthday: 2008-07-06, next to the picture of the red-haired red-eyed girl in front of him, with a different forced smile and a look of anxiety as if she's afraid they'll uncover the lie and this will all end.

    "She wouldn't be having this conversation. She wouldn't be feeling this way. She is fifteen years old, and, and doesn't remember growing up a quarter-century ago, she probably thinks she'll grow up to make videogames or be a singer and doesn't know how fucked the world is. Even if she's a magical girl, she wouldn't... she wouldn't..."

    The person in front of Taro hangs their head again and drops their arms back down, the student ID slipping from their fingers. "...She wouldn't have seen the things that put this stuff in her head. She's never even thought about it."

    "She wouldn't understand why I thought this" she grabs the old ID, "was a good idea for this meeting, I-if the person wearing it is a trans woman." She pulls at it, then tries to pull it off but the lanyard's caught under her long hair, making her blink and freeze in thought for a second before flipping the card over her head so it can fall behind her.

    "'She could say I feel like I need a hug without analyzing it and wondering if it's a girl thing." Amy shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I'm just... I don't know why I'm suddenly down right now." Words which make a realization flash across her face, but also a skeptical look. She pulls out her phone and taps at it for a couple of moments, then mutters, "...Nope, not time for that yet. Thought it hadn't been long enough..."

    She looks up at Taro, gesticulating a bit like she did when she cackled earlier but with a very different expression on her face. "A-and this is my life now, it's," Her right hand's grip on her phone tightens. "it's... I'm not her, but I'm not him either, I'm in this body and it's perfect and I love it despite the teenage brain and hormones and everything, but I'm trapped in a goddamn manga and all the other kids... aren't. They're just..."

    She looks down at the student ID that fell on the floor. "...They're just..." she points at it, "them."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro listens as Amy talks and talks, as she fishes out her lanyards to show her two IDs, the two faces she's worn. The unhappy man with white hair; the anxious girl with red. A division of identity. The idea cores him even as he fumbles for a way to tell her how he's lived with it for decades.

"A butterfly was a caterpillar once, but it's not a caterpillar anymore. But you can't have a butterfly without a catterpillar either. There is no caterpillar-free butterfly." For someone who couldn't stay in one place long, libraries were a sanctuary. He'd read and read on animal, on biology, trying to find a way to name the feelings inside him.

"The cuckoo grows up in the nest of another bird but it still realizes it's a cuckoo." To be two things and one thing and not a thing at all, pieces of himself overlapping after fracture.

"When cordyceps takes over an insect, it still retains the shape of the insect it was born in. It couldn't exist as a mushroom by itself." To be the body that nurtures the transformation; to be the new thing cradled in a corpse's chest.

He leans over and picks up her student ID, holds it up; the photo of Amy mirrors the look of misery on her face. Some ancient wound cracks open inside Taro.

"The world hates parasites and mimics, disdains and crushes the larva while venerating the few flying things that survive, but the world couldn't exist without any of it. Caterpillars feed all the animals and cordyceps is a medicine and most animals mimic other animals, or trees, or rocks."

He offers the ID to Amy. "The 15 year old Amy doesn't exist. She's camoflague. She wouldn't think things or she wouldn't do things - so what? Mallory was your shell and Amy is your shield, but you're YOU. You can be both of them, and neither of them, the pieces that overlap and the negative spaces around them. Those other mahou may be normal animals, the birds and cats and dogs that live normal lives, but we're different. We're - "

His knuckles are turning white with how hard he grips the ID; his hand is shaking. His mouth is split in a manic smile, and his already pale skin is going paler with nerve. "We're the same. Can you keep a secret? I'll show you."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks at him, listening, wondering where he's going with this. The examples from nature are similar, yet different. Like Amy's true self, these beings aren't wholly defined by one part.

    She winces at the comparison to parasites and mimics, but it's at the truth of it -- she is in truth sympathetic to shapeshifters, as she told Double Trouble.

    This actually does seem to be going somewhere well, she's listening curiously and with interest as he holds the ID out.

    The outwardly apparent identity of Amy Faust, normal fifteen-year-old cis girl, is camoflage, but a necessary part of existing in the world with the mind and nigh-ideal body of the person that is the real and true Amanda Faust.

> Those other mahou may be normal animals, the birds and cats and dogs that live normal lives, but we're different. We're -

    "Shapeshifters. Mimics and parasites, but no less people for it." Amy finishes his sentence. And starts to smile. "Which means... well, I need to think about what it means, but thank you. It's... Nice to think of kinship with a larger category than something fictitious with only one real example. People for whom appearance is... We're more than we appear to be. ...I mean, everyone is, but in a different way... you know what I mean."

    She reaches out to take the ID but he's suddenly gripping hard, and...

    She knows that look. It's how she feels when she's drawing on... things like for the conversation about horror earlier.

    She hesitates and glances away, then back at him. "...Honestly? If I could, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I was so desperate for connection I reached out and told you stuff..."

    She looks into his eyes. "I always told myself that if I ever became the Hero, I would not make promises I can't keep, nor tell reassuring lies to make people feel better."

    She then breaks the eye contact, but continues, "Truthfully? I'm a security risk. I don't... want to hurt anyone, but I'm bad at lying. Or I wouldn't... we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place. I'd just pretend to be her, no problem." She looks back to his face. "Whatever it is, like... I care about you too, just... I'm not good at secrets. If someone asks me a direct question it'll show on my face."
    "...So I guess it might be the same risk I took. Or maybe it's much greater for you..." she rambles.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"No one is just one thing, but some people are more things than others," Taro says, and finally lets go of the ID so Amy can take it. His hand curls tight, tense, as he stands slowly; like he's really an old man and not someone with the body of a 16 year old.

"I'll feel like a real pill if I don't tell you now," Taro says. "We are the same, even if I'm more of the mushroom and you're more of the butterfly. Besides, what's the point of promising you I'd never hurt you as a monster if you don't know which monster I am?"

His hand snaps out even as a flash of white springs from a nearby cabinet - Dory the doll in her white kimono hops into his hand and runs up his arm as he chants: "I ate it all. Catch me if you can!"

The transformation is swift and simple; shoulders broaden, spine lengthens, ears point, skin goes from pale to white to a bruised blue, and his apron splits and falls into a ragged cloak over a straightjacket.

The Back Street Slasher, in the light of the dorms, more B movie than beast; with the transformation seen, it's suddenly, strikingly obvious that the Slasher's haggard face is that of Taro as an adult.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Something in Amy's heart stirs as she's compared to a butterfly.

    And then she barely has time to process -- the appearance of Dory, albeit different from when they last met -- remembering Taro said she'd be here too -- Taro... transforming

    She stares in open-mouthed surprise.

    She's not scared, of course, because she knows it's him and the Backstreet Slasher doesn't seem actually evil -- having only the crime of biting Mamoru that one time -- and like, after being carried around by him as a tiny doll meeting him human-size is almost by definition less viscerally scary, but she is amazed. "...Oh my god. The Veil is a trip, every time."

    She holds a hand to her face, though with fingers spread so it doesn't block her vision. "He even looks like you, kinda, I couldn't notice before... Man, you had me fooled, dropping hints the Slasher was really some kid, so I'd never connect him with you..." She gives a sharp laugh. "I'd actually been meaning to ask you if you're the one that taught the slasher parkour!"

    She looks him over, and lowers her hand. "But, after that speech, I'd be pretty dumb to ask which is the real you. So... Is there more you want to tell me about the true you, in between?"

    "Also hi Dory, good to see you again!" She smiles and raises her hand with a little finger-wiggle wave. "You look different too, did you change your hair since last time?" A joke to lighten the mood!

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Of course I look like him, we're both me," Taro says, if that's a normal thing to say. "You're the first one to put it together. Is that stupid forgetting Fade thing keeping that from sticking too? I've been trying so hard to keep my identity a secret!"

Dory skitters on down his arm and onto the table, running over to Amy's side and waving all the while. She pulls off her Noh mask to reveal the wooden face she was carved with - bulging eyes, huge fangs in a gaping grin, angular cheeks and chin - but she's close enough for Amy to also see the tiny eyelashes and pink lips painstakingly painted on as well, later revisions to a carved doll. She's back to being six inches tall now, but that doesn't stop her from trying to pull her into as big a hug as her body can manage.

"I wasn't dropping hints the Slasher was a kid. I don't know where you'd get that from," the Slasher says with a pout as he picks up his chopsticks and starts eating. "I meant everything I said as the Slasher. I've had over fifty years to set up my image. Do you know how hard it is to start an urban legend when people forget you as soon as you're out of sight? I had to flip between forms to try and get anything to stick!"

Wait. Drat. He's going all out of order. He should answer her questions!

"There really was a kid who got bitten by a monster and became magic, back in the 50s," he explains. "Being bitten meant he could turn into a monster, even when he didn't want to, so he decided to run away from home before he hurt his sickly mother. He aged slowly, and he couldn't die as a monster form, and no one remembered the monster and no one would look at the kid who ran away, and - at some point, that kid didn't really exist anymore. There was the Slasher, who people saw and forgot, and there was Taro, who people didn't see at all. I'm Taro, who keeps us alive, and I'm the Slasher, who carves a name in history, and we're both what's left of that kid."

That kid, who didn't want to hurt people, and who couldn't bear to be alone. That kid, who he wasn't any longer.

"I did teach myself parkour,and a bunch of other stuff. All I had was time until I got to Tokyo six months ago."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "No it's the, the Fade is the thing where everyone loses their magic as an adult. The veil is the thing where mortals -- I mean, nonmagic people -- can't remember magic, and also where no one can recognize who someone is transformed, no matter how obvious it is, unless we see them transform or are directly told."

    Amy obligingly moves a hand into hugging range. Her petite little hands are about the right size for Dory hugs.

    And she listens to this tale. Nodding as he explains the struggle of becoming an urban legend against the veil.

    She looks solemn at the story of the kid who exists no longer, and invisible Taro, and the Slasher. "I don't think anyone is the person they were seventy years ago. Or even ten or twenty. But I see what you meant by your speech now, and that we're the same."

    She steps forward to give him a hug. Squeezing tight, then relaxing and patting his back gently. "Us in-betweens -- there's gotta be a better word for that -- gotta stick together."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"So I have around twenty years at the rate I age, and you have....maybe two." Oh. He doesn't like that at all. He knew that already, but hearing it again makes his face scrunch up unhappily, (a show of raw emotion he's usually able to tone down when he's in human form). "Ugh.The Veil's annoying and real convenient, because it's hard to make a name for myself, but it means getting out of trouble is usually as easy as transforming and running. Cameras don't record me, people don't remember me, and I can just - leave!"

Because that's the sensible thing. Because he can do it with a minimum of fuss. Because it's not as if years upon years of tearing himself away when people notice he doesn't age or he's pissed the wrong person off have left scars on his heart.

"You wouldn't know since you're an American, but Taro Yamada's our equivilant of John Doe. It's a fun little joke for me. I get to make my own horror villain. No one'd notice except me and my dolls up until recently..."

Dory climbs onto Amy's shoulder as she goes for the hug. The Slasher tenses up, then surges forward, hugging her back. (Lightly, like he's afraid if he squeezes too hard,she might pop.)

"I've already been assigned villainy, but I've done my best to keep my identities seperate so that Obsideon ISN'T controlling the Slasher. I just need to eat every few months and keep up my reputation, you know?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy holds the hug for a bit. "A lot of us want the Fade gone. I know I want the Veil gone, so that magic can be learned and understood by humans, so it can help them, and so they can know about the monsters that prey on them and fight back, or at least be better prepared to escape them or defend themselves.

    Taro Yamada is John Doe... "Damn, I didn't put that together! Ha-ha!" She smiles. "I just... I dunno, like 20 years ago I started thinking it'd... it'd be good to have a girl name ready, if I should ever need one. Totally normal thought, right? And I liked the sound of Amanda. I learned it meant, 'to be loved'... as in, like, 'this is a thing that is to be loved', from the latin amandus. Never liked the sound of Mandy though. Thus Amy for a nickname. Faust is my real last name. No relation to the German exchange student."

    "Dark energy gets around the Fade, somehow. I don't... know if you're using it, but some at Obsidian are. You may have noticed that Beryl and several of the Dark Generals are grown-ups."

    She takes a breath, then lets it out. "I've got... one more fake layer... oh wait, I already told you my soul is a rock."

    She lets go and steps back, looking up at him and reaching up with a finger to stroke Dory's head gently. "But uh. Yeah. I can magically regenerate, so... I'm not actually sure if I'm aging? If I do, I'm not sure what the Fade would do to me. If it can undo Kyubey's magic, then the girl on the ID will take my place. If it can't... then I hope she never misplaces her ring."

    She looks at the ring, and turns her hand over, reading the name written there.



    She gasps. "Wait, so you... saw the Witch, and everything..." She looks up at him.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"The Veil's as annoying as it is convenient, so I'll work on destroying the Fade more. Is that a thing we're doing? Having you and the magic people stop forgetting sounds easier to fix, and that means I'm less screwed over whenever I become old enough to be a real boy. I have no idea how I'm getting a forged ID then - it's been getting harder and harder with digital stuff! And it'd be really inconvenient to find new allies if you forgot me...."

He's already sold. He can't lose his powers! That'd be incredibly inconvenient! And ok maybe some emotional stuff you didn't see anything its not like he's attached -

"My birth name wasn't gendered, so I never really thought about it," the Slasher says with a shrug. "I could just be a girl with that name." A pause. "Though I really never did think of that. I did think about being like a... like the van Helsing in the Dracula movies? Or like Abe no Seimei, he's a fairy tale magician who would wreck his enemies with magic! Which," he laughs bitterly, "didn't end well. Dreams are well and good but life is life. I just gotta go forward."

Forward and forward, running and running and running -

"Faust, I thought I recognized the name. Jack - he's my other doll, and he's not coming out since he's a jerk," and Dory is nodding in agreement, "likes that kind of Western occult stuff. He'd have said if we can use dark energy. My sensei says I can learn it if I want, but I like having something unique to work with. Not light, not dark, just power." He flexes, letting small red claw-blades grow from his fingers, then retracts them. "Dunno if that counts or not."

He nods - yes, she told him she had a soul rock. "You could get it surgically put inside you if it's a big deal? Yeah, I saw the witch - Sailor Moon said it was too dangerous for civilians, so I let you all go ahead before transforming and following. I wasn't gonna let you fight it alone, but Sailor Moon's still mad I mugged her boyfriend so I couldn't let people, you know, connect the dots. I've never seen anything like that before. I have to make all my props - I even carved Dory out of wood myself."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "You already are a real boy." She pokes him in the chest. "Or... Whatever you want to be."

    "Oh. Mallory wasn't gendered either, honestly. There was actually a girl Mallory at my high school too, in another year; we barely interacted. But it does... I mean, the name Mallory, especially with my last name, makes me think of a guy first, you know? It's less common than even like, Sam or Alex, and I'm not sure I knew any of those in my high school."

    He always dreamed of being a fairy or monster, huh? She stops fingerpetting Dory to fold one arm across her chest and cradle her elbow while she taps her chin. "I mean... I wonder if maybe there's something to that? Some people can like. Just. Be a flamboyant personality out in public? It's unusual but it's not really hurting anything, although it might not go well with a service or office job."

    Faust. Amy rolls her eyes. "Yeah, like in the story about the guy who makes a deal with the devil." She's obviously heard that one a lot. "It means 'fortune', which, yes, means my parents didn't do their homework when naming me."

    Her eyes widen at the claws. "Oh that is cool! What does it feel like?"

    The Witch. "Um... about--" She starts to say, and then turns to stare at Dory and then back at Taro. "You made her?! How'd you bring her to life?!"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"When the Fade kicks in and I turn into an actual 18 year old, then," the Slasher grumbles, obviously bothered by the suggestion that he IS a real person. "Whenever that turns out to be. I dunno if it's worth thinking about how I'm gonna act then when it's so far away. It's surreal to think this all has an end point other than me screwing up enough for Dory to take over - no, it's not happening soon!" he says quickly as Dory shakes a little fist at him from Amy's arms.

"I can't tell you how I made her, that's a trade secret," a finger to his lips, an attempt at a cool pose that's ruined by him hving to duck Dory throwing a piece of seaweed at him. "But if I ever get hurt enough I can't bounce back, she'll recruit the next Slasher."

Recruit, not bite, like he said he was bitten and transformed.

"It's gotta be annoying to have. At least Jack's generic, and Dory's a pun that only works if people know English." Huffs! He'd avoid those silly names for his dolls! Even if Jack came pre-named.

"As for how it feels - my fingers go numb. My blades have an effect like a local anesthetic, which works on me as well as anyone I attack."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shrugs at his clarification; she doesn't look happy about the prospect of Fading, either. She nods as he explains a bit more about Dory. "...And if you can make magical living dolls, then that explains how you thought you might be able to make another body I could puppet. Hmm..."

    An annoying name? Amy shrugs. "Honestly I didn't think about it all that much. Most people don't know what Faust means, and not many think of the root word in 'Mallory'. Anyway, I am 'bad fortune' no longer -- Now I'm deserving of love and fortunate, so there!" She grins.

    Amy looks at his hands, inspecting the claws. "Hmmm. Fascinating. Pain turns off for me if it would be too crippling, and I can do it on purpose, but it introduces some lag into my soul-body connection. Like playing an online videogame where your character takes a split second to actually respond to your commands. Weird as hell, but you kind of get used to it."

    She looks up at him, and then decides to go for another hug, gentler this time.

    "Do you have a... word for what we are? In-betweens... mask-wearers...? Hmm, there's gotta be some cool word for it..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"There's a lot going on there. Altering her design physically would hurt Dory," and, through their connection, hurt him, but that's staying secret, "so if you do get a second body, you should remember to keep at least one of them in a safe place. If you run out of bodies..." He grimaces. "Don't run out of bodies."

(It'd be nice if he could keep Dory safe here, but he needs her or Jack to transform and to ensure that his body remains immortal and ever-healing, and Jack is just. Not very fun to go out with. Creepy little thing.)

"Mallory sounds like, uh, <Mallard>," and he just says the duck word in a crisp English accent. "No one was strange about that?" Americans and their homophones... "But you are very fortunate! And cute and powerful!"



He lets her look at his hand. The Slasher's fingertips are all shiny from constantly regrowing over where he'd grown his claws, and there's a long vertical callous on his palm - Amy may remember that the Slasher's most common attacks were growing a red scythe-like blade from his palm and using that to stab, slice, or cling to walls. "Do you get to heal faster since you're a rock? Or is it just normal human healing? Can you do the rock thing when you're not transformed- oof!"

He's hugged, again. He's much quicker to relax into it this time. "What about that... what's that thing? Not sukeban. When you say what you mean and do what you want, but your real thoughts are weird so you have to pretend to be normal?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    DON'T RUN OUT OF BODIES. "That was always the plan! I wonder how many Kyubey has? I think the bodies he uses might be engineered as disposable scouts, but I've no idea where he gets them or how to control them. He told me he's... not something like me, but he's lied before."

    She blinks at the way he says 'mallard' like he's british instead of japanese. And her cheeks pink a little and she can't help smiling at the compliment. "Thanks..." although she goes on to explain, "Uhh... that's an uncommon word too. I don't think anyone would make that comment except for an extremely well-read child. Most folks fifteen, twenty years ago associated 'Mal' with the starship captain, ya know? ...From 'Firefly'. It was also the last name of the guy from 'Sliders'. ...Man, I should introduce the English club to those shows."

    She looks at his hands and winces a bit, but supposes he doesn't feel that... "I honestly can't tell if my normal healing is faster because of magic or just because I'm a teenager. It's been awhile. But I can spend magic to regenerate. Fixing my skin seems to cost basically nothing, but deeper wounds... Well, they're not too bad, but I can't be careless. Something like surviving and recovering from getting burned and charred all over might take most of a soul gem. ...Yeah, that happened and was not a good day."

    Not sukeban, but... "...Autism? What about it? It's a... It means my brain is wired different. Most dramatically this is clear in social stuff as mentioned, but it does also tend to result in learning a whole lot about some obsession, and sometimes can manifest with like... Not being able to stand certain stimuli. The feel of certain clothes... actually I couldn't stand corduroy or blue jeans as a kid and I haven't tried them in decades." No one has explained to her that girls' jeans are different yet. "For some it might be bright lights or loud sounds..." she shrugs.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"You need to give me a picture of this guy, especially if there's multiples of him. My blades can cut through anything," and he carefuly twists his hand so Amy won't get pricked as he grows a red blade from his palm to demonstrate his power. "I told you I'd help you take care of him."

Oh. Uh. "Jack speaks English and part of being bitten means I'm fluent. Magically. I don't know either," he says defensively. "It doesn't work on words I don't know, though, so 'Twitter' and 'World wide web' I had to learn by hand."

he's going to have a really interesting resume later in life.

"Well, I was thinking - if the trouble is being something people don't like and having to pretend to be normal... Is that the same?" Local vampire-yokai is going to be looking back on this conversation with a lot of ohhhh shiiiit in hindsight, but right now local man has never seen a DSM in his life. "I don't like wearing short sleeves unless I have to, and I am obsessed with yokai? Though maybe that's just, normal, after becoming one." The Slasher grasps for words, and unable to find them, continues - "I just used Yokai, before. A lot of yokai, or traditional Japanese monsters, could change between being human and being a monster. A lot of fairy tales end with the yokai ending up being revealed as a fake human, and they run away or attack depending on if theyre good or bad."

"What's a soul gem? Wait, did you get burned by that Hinoiri chick?" His face twists in simmering fury, brows furrowing. He really does have trouble hiding his emotions like this, every emotion raw and unmasked.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "I don't think I ever thought to get a picture of Kyubey. It won't matter though. He says it costs him less to lose a body than it does others to destroy it, and while I don't know if that's true, he's cavalier enough about it that he certainly doesn't need to fear death from violence against said bodies. Umm, they're like little white cat-fox things with red eyes, and some red rings on the ears and back. He speaks in your head and sounds like... well, how you'd expect a magical girl mascot with the voice of a chipper young boy to sound."

    "Oh, no I meant, as far as native speakers go. Your situation is different." She wasn't saying he's a kid!

    "You don't like short sleeves? Huh, for me, the cuffs rubbing my wrists on long sleeves always annoyed me... but jackets and coats didn't bother me, and I have been loving the sweatshirt that came with this body in colder weather. It's so soft!"

Amanda shrugs. "Dude, I'm obsessed with stories about people who think they're one gender dealing with the body of and being treated socially as another, and it turns out I was a guy -- I mean a girl trapped inside a guy's body the whole time, and then a girl who thought she was a guy in this body, so I'm not throwing any stones from this glass house."

    "...Something like 'yokai' might be fitting for what we are, yeah. I was thinking words like 'monster' or '[mazoku]' are too... negative, y'know? And yeah, I know a lot of them are shapeshifters..."

    Amy blinks. "Wait, what? Did I not explain this? No, dude, it was -- oh wow that's been going around, I see how you thought that, but no, this was ages ago. That..." there is a slight pause as she considers the relevance, but Haruko's gender isn't for her to discuss -- "...Haruko girl that's around sometimes, she got kissed by two Witches at once, and fighting both of them was... a problem. We escaped, somehow, and the Witches were later taken care of. But yeah, we all got burned badly in the escape."

    "...And my soul gem is my soul, remember? My source of magic power. I'm remote-controlling my body from here..." she holds up her left hand with the ring on it. "Didn't I mention this the night I became a doll?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Does he not have a main body? it'd be inconvenient to kill him if he's got a bunch of back ups- hold on." He knows that guy! "I've seen those things around! For decades! Usually after an earthquake or a car crash or something! I just thought there was a breed of ferals that didn't have a cat's normal caution and messed up ears."

"Ohhh. Well. Jack's got an accent in Japanese so it's easier to talk in English. I am not escaping the old man reputation." he's not a kiiiiiid he's an aduuuult

"No, it feels weird feeling air on my skin. I want it in cloth. It's handy to have it be a hoodie so I don't have to look at my face being a kid face in the mirror, and I sunburn easy like this, so it's practical too." Yesss. "Sweatshirts are the best! I wish I could wear a kimono but they're so expensive and they're hard to clean, there's something about them... They've got a nice weight, you know? And they're smooth."

The Slasher nods. "There's probably some overlap in the monsters that Beryl and her ilk use. I got called a youma - as if I'd stoop to being employed by her! As if she'd hire me, anyway, I've seen her henchwomen and they're all scantily clad skinny twenty-somethings. I have self respect. I will only do cool and awesome acts of villainy."

...wait. Hold on. "...You told me about the soul rock. I - may have forgotten the exact details? My memory isn't great." He is committing it to memory now, though. This is important! "It sounds like it was a bad time. If one witch is weird and eldritch and makes people suicidal, two is...double suicidal? And their messed up imagnation houses - sorry, labrynths - are bad enough on their own without mixing...." He can imagine the kinds of bllshit rules they might create! IF the one had no gravity and no air, two could involve - mario platforms! Land sharks! Sky and ocean reversed! he's not into it! "I'm just glad I don't have to go and re-intimidate Hinoiri."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Does he have a main body? Amy shrugs. And growls at Taro's comment about seeing Kyubey before. "That little rat... he's going after girls when they or loved ones are dying so they'll make the contract without time to think... Only magical folks and those he allows can see him, so maybe he didn't think to hide from you."

    She lets go of him and steps back, looking him over as he describes his clothing preferences. "Huh. Yeah, that explains your usual look. Makes sense. You get why I thought you might be a girl, right?"

    She considers. "I wonder if we could get you a kimono, but... You ever consider a navy surplus coat? Like, a pea coat or great coat. Not in this weather, but... When it's colder? Warm and heavy. Probably somewhat decent at keeping rain and snow off. Not really my style, but..." She taps her chin. "I guess it wouldn't hide your face as well as a hoodie, though."

    A youma? "Ugh, don't sell yourself short. Those are, uh... 'monsters of the week' as we'd call them in fiction-- well, maybe not, apparently the one that made me a doll's been around since last year. But still, most of them are... very single-minded and not very smart."

    Hinoiri... "You know all her old coworkers are trying to kill her, right? She just got out of the hospital from, from one of the longer-lasting youma burning her."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Jack's tried to catch him a few times. Maybe he has? I don't follow him when he's doing that, I don't want to know." He is, belatedly, feeling a lot better about letting Jack go wander off to menace those white cats so he could have a night of quiet.

...oh. Oh!! "Oh, you thought I was hiding because I didn't like looking like a boy!" The puzzle pieces finally snap together. "No, I just don't like looking like a kid. This is as close to a real face as I can get. Taro Yamada's been a waiter, a construction worker, a cook and a dozen other things, but there's only one Back Street Slasher." He is both,and he is neither, but it is the Slasher's face he expects to see in the mirror. it's the most consistant identity he's had over the decades.

Taro blinks her suggestion. "I don't know those coats. Could you show me where to get them? This is the first time I've had a surplus budget in years, I don't really know the types of coat."

Pointing like right right right yes! "Yeah! I'm not a cheap one shot villain! I"m a reoccuring antagonist! Everyone thinks I died at the end of the movie but I show up for the sequel better than ever!" Though, uh, his hand wavers. "I have been trying to avoid regenerating too much, though, since it's a pain and I've got a job and class now," and he's not interested in discovering what mahou attacks would do to Dory. "And it's not very cool to beat up a bunch of kids unless they strike first." Unsportsmanlike!

And the Slasher shrugs. "Yeah, I know, it's the only thing people are talking about at the office right now. That's why I made her an intimidation cake instead of attacking her. Like I said - it's not a cool villainous act to beat up a kid, especially some sad depowered kid who's wallowing in her tears. I just wanted to make it clear that she should not set Fuyuko-sensei on fire again, or else." A beat. "And mess up her door a little because she's rude. It's a perfectly good intimidation cake!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Jack's gone after him? "Huh. If you need to feed on his fear, I don't think you'll get anything from him though. I dunno if he can be afraid. Or upset. I've been told he's an alien -- like, from outside this solar system -- so I guess it makes sense his brain wouldn't work like ours. But like. If Jack can give him trouble... fine with me."

    She nods at the comment about not liking looking like a kid. And then goes and gets her phone. "I'm not sure where to buy it around here, but there's probably the internet. But like. You've seen them, you just don't know what it's called. Imagine a sea captain, with the pipe and hat and everything. That kind of coat."

    "Regenerating is a thing you can do?" She nods. "Yeah... you're an honorable monster. I wonder if that makes it harder to be scary."

    She winces slightly at the description of poor, pitiful Hinoiri. "It feels weird to call our friends 'kids', at least sometimes... Like yeah, they remember fewer years, but..." she shakes her head.

    "...Huh, yeah it's literally called [P-kouto] in Japanese. See?" Amy looks up from her phone and holds it out, showing the Japanese wikipedia article for pea coat.

    Blink.

    "'Mess up her door'? ...What did you do, exactly?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I don't really feed on fear. I mean, it's fun, but I mostly need blood or energy to stay healthy," The Slasher says, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "When I ate those witch minions, they had a little energy I could steal but I got pretty dizzy after a while, so those are a sometimes food." Only if he's really hungry. Or if a witch pisses him off-

"Wait, aliens are real too?" HOLD THE PHONE. "I could wear the ocean captains coat to chase the aliens! Have we stolen their technology yet? Do they kidnap people? Or is it just evil cats that are aliens?" Why do mahou get so much cool stuff huh!!

"Honorable...yeah, I guess. Like, it'd be fine if I could go around beating up adults, but it's weird when everyone looks younger than me. Even if they can shoot lasers or turn into horses. I mean, I guess I could attack people more but I've tried not to tell Obisideon about this side of me and it pisses me off being associated with them. Ugh, and I'm so used to having to fight vanilla humans with cars and stuff that I'm having to completely relearn my tactiiiics." It's the worst!!

"I do regenerate, though. Side effect of the blades. I could probably survive getting lasered, I just don't want to. It probably hurts as bad as being hit by a car."

Eh? Eh? What's with that look? "I left creepy handprints on her door. You know, like in a horror movie?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "Wait, you actually don't know?!" About the aliens. She's considering how to answer as he continues, and lets out a sigh of relief as he says all he did was put bloody handprints on her door. "Oh. Still, she has it hard enough, dude."

    She paces back and forth a bit. "Hoenstly, as far as like, space aliens of... like, alien aliens, I haven't heard of any except for Kyubey. But there's a lot of people here from other worlds. Human people, from space, from far-off planets where they have magic. But their magic apparently... breaks, here? Bad enough that the Veil and the Fade catch anyone who's an adult, but their ships break, so they can't leave. I guess there's some kinda like, space police? Out there, but obviously, no one is able to get a message out to them."

    "So, as for stealing Mid-Childan or Belkan technology... no, not really, there's just the Devices people use to do magic here. For stealing Kyubey's... well, I suppose in a manner of speaking, I have?" She holds up her hand with the ring on it. "But no, I've no idea how to learn how this really works."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I only learned about all this mahou stuff in March! It's not like there's a newsletter that gives me a list of all the enemies I'm going to face," Taro complains. "Yeah, I know she has it hard enough, that's why I intimdated her and messed up her door instead of punching her. Burns are life changing injuries without magic healing! Like, at least when I attack someone, I know exactly what I'm doing to them!"

(Ma, why do you wear long sleeves all the time?)

"....wow. Space is messed up. This Fade thing sounds like it's an active danger to other worlds that visit - and that'd prevent anyone from those worlds from sending a message home. What would the space cops even do here that'd help?" Probably very little!

Bah! This is frustrating. "And it's not like you can experiment with it because if you screw up,you die."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Burns... "...She deeply regrets what she did." Amy states, coldly. "People who just rag on her for it aren't helping."

    What would the space cops even do here? "...Honestly, given what I've learned about cops in the last few years, I dunno how much I'd count on it being a good thing if they did help. We can only hope their society is better than ours."

    And you can't experiment! "Yeah... Right?! It's a dream come true, magic is real, but I can't study it and like... use it to help other people. In the way I was helped."

    She looks up somberly at Taro. "...People like us, although many of them probably don't know it yet."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I didn't go there to rag on her. What she did is done and can't be changed. What I told her is that her actions have consquences. I grew up after World War 2, I know what burns do to people," the Slasher says flatly. "You're a good person. I'm not. I know you think I can do better, but I wanted to do much worse. She put Fuyuko-sensei in the HOSPITAL -"

(Ma, what happened to your arms?)

He abruptly goes quiet, stopping to finish his ochazuke to fill the silence.

"Yeah, the Earth would have the oceans boiled away in days. No cops, magic or otherwise," the SLasher grumbles, the atmosphere still strange. "The fact that Team Evil has a huge conglameration and Team Good is a bunch of independants struggling together says it all." Power begats evil, evil begats power.

"I can only affect what I can touch with my hands. My powers are only good for hurting people. Can't I use them to protect what I want?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy winces. "I know. But she's trying to be better now. And she knows full well that actions have consequences. She's going to have to live with almost destroying the sun for the rest of her life. With everyone she hurt. What, is there just supposed to be no hope for her? She's supposed to be the better person, when people keep telling her she's not and making it extra hard?"

    Amy looks away. "People are victims of circumstance. It's easier to be good when people make it easy and give you a chance. A real chance, not like... 'ohh, you 'technically' have a chance but we're going to treat you like a criminal, and not in a rehabilitative justice system like we should have...'"

    "A huge conglomerate? They have that, I guess, but I dunno if that means they're all working together. I hear Beryl tortured Hinoiri... and Hinoiri tortured the red moth girl. And when's the last time you've seen someone do some evil plan with more than maybe like, one ally by their side? Seems to me maybe we're better at working together... Thank goodness, since they've got, y'know, monsters and free energy from eclipse zones and stuff."

    She looks at Taro's hands, and sighs. "I don't know."

    She goes and sits in a chair and rests her chin between her fists. "...I'm a good person, you say, but it's not the thoughts in our head that determine that, not usually. You wanted to do worse? Well you didn't. Seems to me you're a pretty good person too. Gods, you've told me how many times you can't let Obsidian know about the Slasher because you care that they'd make you do terrible things!"

    "...I was so anxious, when all this started. That I'd get found out and seen a freak. And Hannah saw... I still don't understand what, in me, and treated me like someone special. I'll never deserve that, but... it helped me stop worrying that what I was doing... being a mimic here at the school... was wrong."

    She lifts her head and looks at Taro. "If someone had caught me... and found out... and said everything I was araid they'd say... And that I was disgusting and worthless... I don't know that I could be good for ever, rather than saying 'well, they'll see me as a monster 'anyway...'"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I didn't tell her she's not worthy. Do I look like I'm preaching at her about good and evil?" the Slasher says. "If she's as strong as everyone says she is, she'll get it together. Or is she so pathetic that me showing up with a cake is enough to snap her soul in twain?"

Perhaps he's still grumpy about Hinoiri not taking his intimidation cake seriously. He is allowed, he is a terrifying vampire yokai guy. Can't a guy threaten a girl with a cake and be taken seriously in this day and age?

"Yeah, almost everyone at Obsideon couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel, but they have money. They have big buildings. They can make fake IDs. They can churn out dozens of scantily clad latex women for Beryl to throw at mahou. You can organize and get along, sure, but you don't have the, the, the raw crushing POWER that evil has because it doesn't care about being nice. The nature of power is that bad people take as much of it as they can because they can, and you have to cut every inch you want back out of them. It's Obsideon, it's the cops, it's the government."

- and he flushes purple, his long ears drooping as he jabs a finger at her. "I'm evil! I'm super evil! They can't have the Slasher because THAT'S MINE and I won't have them tarnish my name with their loser evil! And it'd be inconvenient to be found out, so I'm holding back! And mahou are the fastest way for me to regain energy, so it'd be inconvenient for you all to get murdered!"

He's breathing a little too fast as he absorbs what she says next. "It's a good thing they didn't say that stuff to you, it's all lies. But even if Hinoiri is called a monster and disgusting and worthless, if she's strong, she'll deal. They called me that and I'm still here, aren't I? I make a pretty good monster!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's expression pouts a bit, but she doesn't push further about what he did.

    She does give a short chuckle at the unexpected joke about pouring something out of a boot. She hasn't heard that one in over a decade.

    She then nods solemnly about evil taking power.

    She refrains from commenting on his justifications for not being too evil.

    "She is strong. But needless suffering is still needless. And some people..." She looks away. "...Is it... really only the strong that should make it? Why... is that what determines one's value as a person? I was tired. So tired, but I didn't know any other way to be."

    Something flashes across her face and she looks at him. "I was so scared! B-being carried off by you! I'd just been turned into a doll, and, and I coulda gone with my friends but someone had to make sure that little girl was okay, but..."

    She holds a hand up to cover half her face, and sighs. "If I had to go through stuff like that all the time I don't know if I could take it. If I didn't have friends... if I couldn't, relax sometimes..." She shakes her head.

    "...Weren't we going to watch a movie? Speaking of relaxing..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I wouldn't hurt a kid and I wouldn't hurt you," the Slasher says, his face crunched up with concern. With a roll of his shoulders, he transforms back into Taro; he has the same expression on his face, if muted. "You don't have to be strong if you don't want to. I'm here, aren't I? You can use my strength. The strong can decide what they do, and I decided that I'll help you. Sailor Moon is strong, and she's out shooting people with lasers so they stop doing bad things. If helping people is what good people are good at, and you're helping Hinoiri, then she'll be fine because you'll defeat anyone calling her a monster."

It's an earnest speech, an earnest offer to help, marred only slightly by the way he'd triggered his transformation when she flinched to look at him and spoke of how much he had frightened her.

"...speaking of relaxing. I brought some horror movies? Mantango's a classic of Japanese horror, very much in the style of slowly building tension - it's got 1950s special effects but I think you can deal with that. And there's Tomie: Forbidden Fruit - I haven't seen that yet, but the internet said it had homoerotic tension between the female leads and Tomie's comics are really scary, so I thought you might like it?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Mm-hmm. Really evil. But they've had, perhaps, enough deep introspection for one day. Maybe for a week. "I'm kind of touched you think so highly of me." She smiles.

    Movies are offered! Amy blinks, considering this. "Huh. I don't think I've watched a horror horror movie since like... The Grudge? And Ringu? And I don't think I've ever seen a lesbian movie before."

    She looks at him, and at the food, and at the TV, and considers. "...Maybe the classic first, and then we try the something new?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"You're the first friend I've had in decades. If anyone puts you in the hospital," and Taro pauses. Grimaces. "I wouldn't do anything to them if they were human because you'd be sad. Probably."

He won't promise he wouldn't rain Consequences upon anyone who caused Amy permanant harm, but he'd at least try.

"Yeah, the classic first! Mantango's great. It scared people so much back in the 50s that it was almost banned. I'll go get it started - "

He flusters, going to get the movie set up, try and let the atmosphere sink back to normal. It's movie night. Isn't it time for them to have some fun?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "...If they need to be stopped, especially if they're unrepentant... you can do what you need to, since I wouldn't be in condition to stop them." She clarifies plainly.

    Snack prep is finished.

    A movie is put on.

    Amy watches, sitting next to Taro, and reflexively steels herself for jumpscares...

    Oh right. She's watching a horror movie... with someone? And she is not herself a gross ugly boy no one would want near them.

    One of the times the movie makes her flinch, she leans towards him. Maybe even this imagined fear... she doesn't have to face alone?

Taro Yamada has posed:
There's not many jump scares in this movie. There is some remarkably freaky make up for someone turning into a giant mushroom that may make Amy think twice about consuming fungi for the next week.

And there's Taro, mouthing along to the script, looking at her every few minutes to see her reaction to the latest plot development. Dory takes turns in his lap and in Amy's, the tiny doll occasionally shrieking and hiding her face in Amy's shirt when things get especially tense.

And soon enough, the two of them are leaning on each other. Symbiosis needs two to work, after all.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh gosh that's a-doll-able. or a-Dory-able. Pick one. Amy remembers what it was like being a small doll, and Dory is even smaller; she'll gently hug Dory with a hand if she needs it.

    He said 'I'll help you', after all. Maybe horror movies aren't so bad, when you don't have to face them alone.