1880/Oji-san Club II

Oji-san Club II
Date of Scene:	21 August 2024
Location:	Taro's Dorm Room
Synopsis:	Amy and Taro meet for movie night and discuss costumes, normality, the past, language, queer identity, that time Taro died, Senshi/solar-system-related names, and friendly monsters.
Cast of Characters:	Taro Yamada, Amanda Faust

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Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro doesn't feel like cooking, for once, so when Amy shows up at his dorm room for oyaji club, he has two bentos waiting - with rice, beef burger patties, onion gravy, fried shrimp, a variety of pickles, and what looks like fish roe(???)

"I saw this when I was shopping and knew I had to get it. This is the kind of thing I'd eat on special occasions as a kid - do you know ekiben? They're a specialty bento you can get at a train station. This is a style that's pretty common where I grew up..."

Which could not have been Tokyo. What's with the fancy fish eggs??

"We've been busy too long, so it's about time the Oyaji Club met once again!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Taro opens the door to see Amy in a red sleeveless shirt with her nyo-tiger design on the front and a dark pair of shorts, and her old ID lanyard. She smiles up at him, and then looks in the bento... "Is that fried shrimp? Hell yes!" She smiles. Easy to please!

    Walking in and closing the door behind her, she says, "Yeah, it's been awhile... was the last one... gosh, it was before Paris. And I don't know ekiben. When you say specialty, is there a particular recipe? Or is the idea that each train station has a combination they come up with, or...?"

    She looks around the room. "And what's the movie plan for today?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro's in a faded Cyborg 009 shirt and red pajama pants, and his bangs are mostly swept out of his eyes - for now.

"It is! And youshoku-style beef - it's a western fusion cuisine from the 1860s. It's probably a little stronger tasting than an American burger, but it's real nostolgic for me. And mentaiko! That's the polluck roe here, it's a huge thing where I grew up." He points at the patty, grinning. "This is popular on Kyushu, the big southern island. I was between the ocean and Hakata Bay."

He has no idea if that would mean anything to her - the distant smell of the sea and cry of the gulls, the constant whirr of nearby trains coming to and from the nearby ports - but it makes something ball up in his chest.

"I was thinking about monsters and getting some screaming out of our systems, but I didn't know how strong a scare you wanted after the haunted house, so I'm going for American Classics - Tremors or Alien."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "1860's fusion... Hard to picture what that was like. Stronger tasting than a burger is good! American fast food burgers are always rubbish anyway, you really gotta cook or grill 'em yourself..." Amy looks at the fish eggs. "Polluck... like what's used for imitation crabmeat?" She stares off into the distance. "Man. I suddenly remember this imitation crabmeat salad I used to get when I was actually this age. I'd make a potato bread sandwich with it and watch Gundam Wing... I hadn't thought about that in ages."

    She can imagine her own childhood coastline, at least!

    Tremors or Alien. "Hmmmm." She curls a finger and holds it to her chin. "I think I remember Alien still, and not finding it too scary... like you know what it is going in, right? So you know what you're getting... but I may have forgotten some of it! I don't really remember Tremors, aside from that I'm pretty sure it had a more comedic tone... Or am I misremembering?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yeah, this was right after America re-opened the ports. We had a huge Westernization craze," Taro explains as he pops his bento open and pops a shrimp in his mouth. "Yeah, like imitation crab, but it's the eggs? What's a potato bread? You can make bread with potatoes?" Is that a thing??

"Yeah, Alien has the pregnancy stingray monsters that let horrible monsters burst out of people's chests, and there's a cat? Tremors is more comedic, it's about a small desert town being attacked by giant man eating leeches? And it's the one time that Americans having 100 guns ends well!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    We had a huge westernization craze... "You make it sound like you were there. You're not that old."

    You can make bread with potatoes? "Y-yeah? I'm not actually sure how, though. I haven't had it in years, I've been trying to get more fiber with my grains 'cuz I heard bread makes you fat, but less so if the fiber-to-sugar ratio is high... I guess fighting evil burns plenty of calories anyway, though. Can I even get unhealthy? I'm a Witch-hunting machine now, like a biological terminator. Just how much stuff has Kyubey's magic improved...? I suppose that's something I could actually ask him and maybe get an answer."

    The movies are compared. "Yeah, I remember the facehuggers." The one time Americans having too many guns ends well. "'America, fuck yeah.' The time I could ever earnestly say that is long gone... I remember... 4kun, I think it was, made the front page play that song when we got Bin Laden... So not since then, I guess..."

    She considers her choices. "Alien's more classic and the discussion might be more thoughtful... but a lighter mood would also be nice. I don't know. Do you have a preference?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"We had another one when I was a kid. Cuz the Americans stayed in Japan after the war and all." His smile fades. "The Meiji Era wasn't that far away to me. Maybe that's the weird thing?"

He is mostly timeless, right now, creeping through the ages. Sometimes the decades blur together. Maybe it's normal the past would blur too?

"No, you should eat it if it gets you fat. You fight a LOT and fighting takes up so much energy! I'd have eaten so much potato bread as a kid if I could have," says Taro, who has a normal relationship with food and post-war food rationing. "You need to eat a bunch of different kinds of sugar and fat to ensure you have both fast burning and slow burning energy sources, but it can't hurt to have extra."

And he nods. "Tremors, I think. I haven't heard a lot about Paris, but what I did hear sucked. I don't think either of us want to get a full scare right now, if only so no one accidentally breaks the furniture," he says wryly, imitating how he'd swiped at the youma yesterday.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Wasn't that like... your grandparents' or great-grandparents' time? Although I guess, in a way, time is kind of accelerating these days. Perhaps life when you grew up wasn't -- recent political upheavals aside -- all that different from the meiji era, in terms of how people lived? Whereas like... Everyone else at our school has never known a world without the internet."

    Amy considers, remembering the passerby college kids having some conversation about smartphones before the meaniedokas showed up. "I guess no one here but the teachers even remembers a time before smartphones. Wow. So life in the 90's must seem like ancient history to them -- but the 60's wasn't so distant to me; People had TV and used landline phones. They didn't have videogames or VCRs, though... And computers became a big part of my life pretty quickly." She shrugs.

    No, you should eat what gets you fat. "God. I remember like, a week or two after the change a conversation with... was it Naru? Rashmi was there but I didn't know her yet. And someone mentioned worrying about getting fat and it was the first time I had the thought of 'Oh wait huh I lucked into a small cute in-shape body but I'm gonna have to work hard to keep it... I, uh, tried to skip food for the rest of the day..."

    "...So I'll remember what you said next time I want ice cream. Or baked goods. Maybe go to a cafe that has cakes and stuff... Hey, why does Japan consider that a girly thing?"

    A movie is chosen! "Fine by me!" She sighs at the insinuation she might have a serious fright, and comments wryly, "Not unless you intend to gaslight me into being afraid I broke the movie player."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"My grandparents were born a little after the Meiji era? My mom was, uh - she and my dad were high school sweethearts," Taro says awkwardly. "I'm a honeymoon baby. But, uh - yeah, it was really low-tech when I was growing up. The transformation between the 50s and the 70s was really wild to live through. Like you know those games where you start in a rural village and then end up in a sci-fi city? That happened for real in thirty years." It was. A trip.

And he grimaces. "...My ma had to move since since her hometown got bombed pretty badly, so I didn't really get to do TV stuff for a long time, but... On the other hand, I got decent at forums? I've made edits to my own wikipedia page!"

He has approximate knowledge of many websites!

"...You should never skip food. Fashion is stupid. health is forever. And ice cream is great! I would have given my mom sooo much ice cream if I could have, she was too skinny. I don't know why it's girly, food is food."

Maybe that's too simplistic? But meat is meat, blood is blood, sustenance is sustenance. Someday he'll stop being hungry. He'll care about the nuances then.

"Nah, that's below me. I am an honorable former villain," Taro says as he puts the DVD in. "One of Beryl's latex bunnies swiped me in the face in the lead up to Paris, which sucked. I figured they'd try and pull a similar stunt with you all."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That happened for real in 30 years. Amy whistles. "And now we all have pocket computers that can get information or talk to people all over the world whenever we want. The world was wild even before magic turned out to be real."

    "Wait, you have a wikipedia pa--? Oh, for the Slasher."

    Never skip food. Health is forever. She looks up at him with narrowed eyes. "Some of us like being small. If I'd known certain things when I was growing..." she shakes her head.

    And then. Blinks. "Sorry, 'latex bunnies'? What?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yeah, for the Slasher! I'm a yokai along with the Slit-Faced Woman and Hanako of the Bathroom," Taro says proudly. "You have no idea how much work it took to get people to know my name!"

Swapping between identities rapidly to get around the veil, whispering urban legends himself.

"Small is well and good, but - " And he stops himself, grimacing further. "...I grew up on rationing. We only got so much food cuz tehre wasn't enough being grown. So. It feels strange, how people now will try and eat less."

Right. Let's avoid that topic! With a different topioc!

"Oh, like, how Beryl only hired sexy women between the ages of 18-24 who wore skintight costumes to be her henchwomen. Her latex bunnies?" He gestures, va-va-VOOM, to attempt to demonstrate. "I'm pretty sure that's illegal hiring practices."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shrugs on the topic of food. It would no doubt have been an even more unpleasant struggle, had she known.

    Latex bunnies. "Wait, what?" Amy thinks back to some of her encounters with the enemy.

    "...Huh. For the past few years, I've felt like that trope was kinda unappealing? Like, there's... Guh. I always thought it was some of the less tasteful stuff an... artist I like, did, but" she throws up her hands. "Turns out it's real! Sure. Why not. Everything else is." She paces around in a little circle. I mean, they're villains. Of course they don't care about legal. It's probably not legal to drain energy or take over the world, or kidnap princesses, either."

    She stops and considers. "...First of all, how do you even get in and out of such a thing? Oh, I guess they can henshin." She mutters, "I henshin into a bodysuit too, it's just not latex... And it's got stuff over it."

    She starts pacing again, gesticulating. "Is there a point? I mean, she's mostly fighting magical girls, so-- Oh right, I guess a whole bunch of us are gay or bi." She stops and taps her chin. "Has it worked even once though?"

    Beat.

    "...Maybe it's not to distract us. Maybe it's eye candy for her?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I just want to know why all the cute girls keep on being hired by Obsidian just so they can die in a laser explosion. The money is good but it's not THAT good," Taro says, face scrunched up in concentration. "Like, do they get teleported away if they get damaged enough and that's why they don't leave a body? Is there insurance fraud involved? Obsidian was fantastic for me since I can't get valid government ID, but - this may be sexist, but I have to assume that beautiful young women have better options for their lives than fistfighting teenagers for magic rocks?"

He was in HR and mostly faxed paperwork, so he doesn't know a lot of internal facts about Obsidian, but he has questions that remain unanswered.

"...I dunno. I think most of the mahou who like girls are already dating someone? Or maybe I just know all the ones that are. I just think its kind of weird. Those clothes look uncomfortable."

says the man who has yet to see a youman in a banana hammock, but that's neither here nor there.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    'All the cute girls keep being hired by Obsidian.' Amy quirks an eyebrow. "Huh? There's a whole bunch of us at school and fighting them."

    She shrugs and sighs. "And I mean, depending on circumstances... Like, if I hadn't gotten the invitation letter? I'd be trying to make it as a streamer or something. As you point out, if I weren't directly opposed to them... they could be a pretty good deal. I get a paycheck AND an identity?"

    "And maybe some of them like doing it. Maybe trying to take over the world is their passion in life, or they love bantering with heroes or coming up with evil plans, or just... well, feeling powerful. They may struggle against us, but like... if you're a bully who wants to feel strong, maybe the whole 'being able to make an entire room full of adults instantly helpless with energy drain' thing is kind of appealing. Possibly more healthy than becoming a cop and getting a gun... heck, in Japan they don't let you just shoot people, so... yeah I guess a villain just would be more appealing."

    Uncomfortable? "I guess I can just check." She snaps her fingers and... nothing happens. "...Huh. I guess it's not cute enough on its own to work. But yeah I'd expect it not to breathe, but maybe if it's magic it does?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yeah, but you're not 18 to 24, you're too young to be caught in their net," Taro explains. "Everyone who's our age that works for them is in appropriate clothing. Like, I can't complain about agreeing to work with them, I understand the reasons why, but I can ask why they maintain that kind of dress code."

Trying to kill people for energy: he sleeps. Sexy outfits: real shit.

"I did like being powerful," he says, considering his tenure as a villain. "And I do like banter. You asked about worthy enemies back at the haunted house and like... as a villain, if I had to go down, I wanted it to be in a cool way that was memorable. I got hit with a car a couple of times, which hurt! But it was really cool, so I slunk off afterwards." It'sf iiiine.

....Hmm. "My outfits feel more comfortable when I'm transformed than when I'm in something similar for real, but I don't know if that's because I'm so used to transforming or if magic is just more comfy in general."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Everyone who's our age that works for them-- Amy chuckles a bit at that.

    She quirks an eyebrow at the comment about being hit by a car, but he did say he can't be killed, so this seems to just further confirm that.

    Outfits feel more comfortable when transformed? Amy has a suspicion about that, but... "Huh, lemme check." She strikes a pose with her right hand in a fist, arm crossing in front of her body like a toku or sentai hero about to transform. But instead of her normal henshin sequence there's just a shower of pink sparkles as she's suddenly in... an anime cosplay outfit! It's still kind of a bodysuit, and still has her henshin colorscheme albeit with the addition of black, but it bares the shoulders and thighs and there are armored vambraces and boots and armor on each side of her waist. And armored barrettes hold her hair in twintails. Because anime.

    She looks down at herself and lifts an arm. "Yeah no, this--oh." She lifts and shakes a foot slightly. "Huh. I was about to say it's uncomfortable in the same way as it is when I'm henshined," she taps where her legs come out of the torso suit part, "...but also now I can feel a slight weight to the 'armor' parts. The material isn't super heavy, but it's noticeable."

    She looks up at Taro. "Anyway," she points at him, "I figure it's just because you're more comfortable as the Slasher than in your human body."

    She says this as if it's expected.

Taro Yamada has posed:
He looks her up and down, considering things. "Not to be insulting, but that outfit looks really uncomfortable? Especilaly that hair stuff. But..."

He nods. "I do like being the Slasher better." She is right, andhe's not surprised she picked up what is, to him, an obvious fact. "

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shrugs. "I'm not insulted." She looks down at herself, "It's not the best costume, but... I happen to look like her, so." She puts her left hand on her waist armor piece while finger-wagging with the right. "And the point was checking whether henshin forms have magic that make uncomfortable outfits comfortable? And... I guess they could, but not in this case."

    She reaches up to feel the barettes as attention is called to them. "Huh? Eh... Okay, I guess that's a benefit of magic. Everything is perfectly positioned and you don't have to get in and out of it. So the uncomfortable costume is less uncomfortable than if you don't get it on just right." She smirks, "Heh, having to learn how to do the hair after being used to just transforming into it was actually a plot p-- nevermind."

    She waves an arm and pink sparkles all over and then is back in the outfit she came in with.

    She looks up at him curiously. "...Do you tend to stay in Slasher form as much as possible, when you don't have to be Taro? Like lounging around when no one's around but Dory?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"My cousin liked dressing me up when I was little. She was much older than me - I guess it was like playing wiht dolls for her?" Taro says with a shrug. "She put my hair up and it pinched. I wailed and my aunt had to itnervene."

His cousin hadn't meant any harm, but he'd been too little to use his words, so they'd all learned a lesson.

He tilts his head at the idea of a plot point, but - that made sense, if he thought about it. Magically having your hair and clothing prpared was different than doing it yourself. It was still tricky for him to put on a kimono by himself, to manage the obi and make sure his collar was straight. Not to mention the cost of actually obtaining a proper kimono... It was easier to simply transform.

He nods slowly. "I did before. No one would remember I was there, so I could go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. If I was hungry I could go bust up a vending machine, or I could lounge around on a rooftop all day. But now, people actuallly want to see - " Taro, he almost says, as if that's a different person - "me. Or they'd remember the Slasher. So I have to be Taro Yamada, not the Slasher."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy quirks an eyebrow at the mention of a cousin dressing Taro up.

    She wonders, had she an older sister or close older female cousin, might such events have led her to realize she was a girl sooner... Or just been another thing to repress and never mention once she knew it was weird.

    "Yeah. I uh, pretty quickly learned I'm gonna have to tie it back sometimes or it gets in the way. I got a pack of the most basic hair ties early on... and then immediately went and got the cloth-covered kind."

    She looks away awkwardly. "Honestly, I can't say I'm that unlike Souji in that way. I think, because of my wish, hair care is on easy mode for me. I dunno what to do beyond brush it, but when I wake up in the morning, like... well, look, unless I deliberately mess it up, it naturally settles into 'cutely disheveled'? Living in a girls' dorm, I have seen others with actual behead in the morning before they get to caring for it. It would, perhaps, be a trial to learn how to handle it properly. I've gotten some tips about using more than just shampoo, but there's like... a whole world of stuff..."

    She looks up at him. "I haven't dug into because there hasn't been time! Like, there's magic stuff, and school, and..." She looks away. "I have a manga hobby, after all."

    "I suppose if I particularly cared about hair style and didn't just... want to be a cute girl, like, if I wanted to learn to do twintails right..." She holds a hand up to her face. "Gods, I don't need my life to imitate manga any more than it already is."

    She listens to his story, and immediately steps forward to hug him when he finishes. "I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. You can be the Slasher around me whenever you want."

    "If it were me -- if my henshin worked that way -- setting aside the issue of school or work or whatever, I'd probably be uh... finding excuses not to turn back, even if I didn't realize what I was inside. Just. Girling around the apartment when no one's going to see. I'm... lucky, this is permanent. ...Should we be looking for ways to do the same to you?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro flusters a little as Amy raises her eyebrows at him. "There was only one other boy in my family. And four girls. I was really little as a kid so my older cousin really liked dressing me up. And my ma was a seamstress and sometimes she needed a model..."

It hadn't been weird! It was just clothing. And it had made them happy.

"You'll figure out hair when you have time," he says, nodding sagely. "Girls have so much more to deal with than boys to look pretty." wait. "Not that girls aren't pretty." Right!! "But it's easier for boys to be a mess in public." Nailed it!

And as to making it permanant... He hugs her back, then sighs, turning the idea around in his head. "If you asked me before I came to Tokyo, I'd have said yes right away. But now? If I stay as the Slasher all the time, that means you'll forget me when you turn eighteen. It's..." His face flickers through unease, an idea on the tip of his tongue. "....I like being remembered more than I like being strong," he says at last.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's quirked brow was surprise, not judgement! "Sorry, I didn't mean to... I was just surprised, but like. Society is dumb."

    Girls have so much more to deal with... "...I guess it's... I guess the expectation is there for us to look good? And I haven't learned makeup... but maybe my wish means I don't need to... although really, I don't... get it? Everyone at the dorm looks fine to me even without it..."

    Easier for boys to be a mess in public? Amy shrugs. "The first time around, the school nurse pulled me aside and asked if I was being abused. After that I started combing my hair, then I got a brush 'cuz it was easier. So I guess there's some point where people notice if you really don't care about your appearance."

    And he tells her of the choice he's caught in, and she frowns. "But that's... it shouldn't be a choice!" She throws her hands up and starts pacing. "It's not right! You should get to have both! Also, how the heck is that me gonna remember this friendship anyway. Oyaji club doesn't make any sense if she can't remember ever being an ojiisan.

    She stops and holds a hand to the side of her head. "How is she even gonna be me, when she can't remember being me, anyway?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"...well. I was growing up right after World War 2," Taro says, grimacing. "My hometown got bombed when Ma was still pregnant with me, so we moved north to Fukuoka. Japan was like... in BAD bad shape, then. So maybe it was that no one cared that I was a dirty goblin in school, because no one was doing very good where we lived."

Well, the other children had cared enough to mock him for it. And it was enough for his mother to sew until her fingers bruised, when she had a good day. But he was just another kid in a school in a city - what was one more lost soul when everyone wanted to move on from the war?

"It shouldn't be a choice, but it is. The world sucks," he says. "And even if you forget, then 'Taro Yamada' can meet 'Amy Faust' again. We could become friends a second time."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy winces as Taro reminds her of how poor his childhood was.

    They could become friends a second time. Amy shrugs. "Perhaps. It doesn't really matter to me." She turns to look at him. "I'd rather see you happier. See you getting to be the real you, in whatever time we have. It's not worth... Look, you don't know if I'm gonna fade, or if my soul gem'll get hit by a bus, or what. Take the happiness you can have now, while you can. Imagine if I was afraid to properly get into things, because I was worried I wouldn't be able to bear losing it later if I change back at the end of all this? Not letting myself become friends with you all beyond like... being magical girl and boy coworkers? What kinda life would that be?"

    "'I ate it all. Catch me if you can!'" She raises a fist in a determined gesture. "Where's the attitude behind that phrase??? Eat your fill! While you can! Not dwelling on when someone finally catches you!"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Clark Kent's still friends with Lois Lane even though he's really Superman," Taro says. "It's still a real friendship. Besides, even if I make a super cool monster, it's convenient being able to be human and go grocery shopping!"

And - there's a feeling, there, that he doesn't know how to describe. THe way she'd been trrified of him as the Slasher before he revealed himself against the way they'd grown so friendly when he was human. The way people knew his name and waved to him at school. The way that Chiyo's grandpa recognized him when he came to visit the wagashi store. The way that he could call Mamoru 'Prince Enderman' and get a groan out of him, not a rattle of fear.

No one could hurt the Slasher. He would return from death until his dolls were smashed, over and over, and everyone would leave him alone. But maybe it was - but - but it -

Maybe it was worth the risks if it meant he was. Not alone?

"Besides, I'm both of me, right? I'm Taro AND the Slasher. What monster doesn't have a tragic backstory, right? Jason wouldn't be nearly as scary without knowing how he was a sweet kid before he drowned!" he tries to explain. "And people on the internet were like, oh, little Jason was nice, what if we could see more of him?"

Was that it? Ugh, he wished he knew what this feeling WAS.

"You're not getting rid of me no matter what, even if there's memory stuff. So don't worry about it!" he declares - and then a laugh is shocked out of him as she says his henshin phrase. "Oh, that sounds so much cooler when you say it!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blushes at the compliment and looks away for a moment, "Thanks."

    After a moment, she looks back at him, pointing. "You shouldn't have to pretend to be 'normal' to go grocery shopping, or make friends! You should get to be yourself!" She clenches her fists and stamps her foot. "And... I don't know that movie, but then wouldn't the scariness be the idea that it could happen to anyone? Rather than making Jason scarier as a monster."

    She glares down at the floor. "The world is wrong. That we can't just... be ourselves. Even when we kinda get to thanks to magic, we still have to be mimics. It's not FAIR!" She stomps her foot again.

    She looks up at him and points again. "I get to be in a body I'm comfortable with all the time, but you don't?!" She slumps a bit, against the nearest wall or sitting in a nearby chair/couch. "I guess... it's more than most people get..."

    "But... ugggh!" She holds her hands to her head and shakes her head. "This is why we've gotta get ridda the Fade, get ridda the Veil, and let people benefit fully from magic! The world should... be better!"

Taro Yamada has posed:
...He's glad she's fighting for him. But it's just making the weird ache in his chest worse.

"....Do you think I could be the Slasher but still a human?" Wait, that sounded bad. "Like, be big and scary but not be.... scary-scary? Like normal people scary, not monster scary." He looks down at himself, then up at her. "I'm almost as tall as he is now. It wouldn't be hard to figure out how to make my hair look like his. And people take me more seriously since I look like a grown up..."

He's a mimic, and he'd be cursed even if he never had become magic. His aunt had warned him all serious not to talk about his hometown because everyone acted like people from there were cursed, so he'd stayed quiet. He'd become a curse, and he'd drifted away, and - And, and maybe, it would be good, to be a mimic to look like a person.

"I feel more like myself if I'm like this with you then when I'm alone as him," he tries to explain. "You make my world better by being here. I be stay human for that."

He doesn't know if he's making sense. That's practically the kind of thing you say in a love story, and neither of them are in love Like That. But being the Slasher was - maybe it was like that Western armor they had in knight movies. It protected you, but it made you Something Different...

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Could I be the Slasher but not something people have to be afraid of? "Of course!" Amy nods, enthusiastically, smiling. "Some people don't judge by appearance! One day people will be able to look how they want!" She holds up her arms and spins once. "Morphological freedom, bodily autonomy, that's the dream of transhumanism!"

    She starts pacing again. "And like, you can see it! People get along fine in online visual spaces where they look however they want!" And she's talking about MMOs and Second Life. Boy wait until she gets to try VRChat one day. "People dream of settings for stories where all kinds of 'monsters' live together in harmony! We can think of it! We can see it! We could have it, if technology and magic allowed!"

    She stops and turns and looks up at him. "I hear you. I'm more... me around other mimics; like us, or those temporarily suffering from curses or even just people thinking about it, really thinking about it. Or when immersed in stories about it. It feels more like homr, more comfortable, than any home ever did. I... did I not tell you about that?"

    She paces. "When I was running around watching over the toy-people Sailor Eclipse left in her wake until they turned back... like, it was objectively awful, as a thing to happen to them, but I felt at home. It felt familiar. Comfortable."

    "An' I was talking with Sailor Moon an' one of the others the other day," She's not sure if he knows who Jadeite is, "who remembered their lives from 14,000 years ago, and like... They're kinda mimics too, holding memories and lives that don't quite fit the modern Earthling teenagers they appear to be. And it felt more comfortable to know we were all in this kinda boat."

    Amy stops, and turns to him again. "But you don't have to choose. At least, when around me and just me, or maybe others who can understand... You can be around me and be yourself."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Freedom to exist. To be a monster. To be cursed. It's not like he can undo where and when he was born, or what he's become, or the way that time has warped him - but he also wants to be a person. He wants to be in the world where everyone is a monster; he wants to be in the world where he's also a human.

Can he have both?

"I don't think you ever talked about that," Taro says, rolling his words around in his head to try and figure out how to stack them. "But I feel like that too. It's better being with other mimics, because we know what it's like to have a foot in each world. But I - I think, that if part of you gets wiped away with the Fade, I want to chase you anyway. Because you'd still be you, even if you didn't have the magic."

Ugh, it feels like his mouth is full of concrete when he talks like this! He starts pacing, restless as a tiger in a cage.

"When I was a little kid," he says, dragging out a story that he's kept inside him for decades, "my auntie said not to talk about Ma's hometown. Because it got blown up REALLY bad, during the war, and people would get scared knowing where we came from. Ma had scars that didn't fade, even when almost twenty years had passed. Even when I was just a human I was a mimic, and so was Ma, and - I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't know if it matters!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy turns and walks over to HUG him. "That's messed up. Like it's your fault where you came from. Or that where you came from should matter! People are judgy idiots." She squeezes.

    "Before... I didn't know I was a mimic, but I knew I was different. Weird. Broken. I didn't connect it, but I've always been more comfortable around people thinking about being in different bodies, or immersed in such stories. Thus... thus the stories I continue to seek out and collect. Here and there will be a writer really thinking about the feeling... or someone like me, even if they don't know it, expressing feelings I can understand. And to find those parts, I'll dig through so much trash and cruddy stories."

    "What's normal is arbitrary. Fourteen thousand years ago, glowing people lived on the moon and interacted with humanity, in a time before the veil and the fade. On other worlds, people do all kinds of incredible things with magic. Thinking Earth is normal, or the only way to be... It's such a limited slice of the human experience. I dunno where I'm going with that, either."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro hugs her back - tightly, for once, like he's afraid she'll vanish if he doesn't hold on. "Well, it was, uh. It was pretty bad. The city burned so bad they didn't think the plants would grow back."

He doesn't want to talk about it. But it - it wasn't fair, but it made sense. That if you'd been touched by something THAT cursed, THAT terrifying, that it might spread...

"...I thought, if I had to be cursed, I might as well be in control of it. I wouldn't be the moron that dies twenty minutes in to show the stakes. I'd be the monster. If I had to be different, then they wouldn't get to ignore it."

He feels - bad, even as some of the tension has eased inside him. Because the two of them are the same, but they're also two different sides of the monsterous - coin? Die? She is transformation and exhileration, a blooming flower on a hot day. He has carved himself into a statue that cannot be harmed.

"Normal is arbitrary. I don't think I want a different body in the same way that you do? But I want... I want for people to not care about the curse."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Yeah, she can guess which cities he means one of. "I know what radiation is and how it works. Did nobody...?" Amy shakes her head. "No, I suppose education doesn't matter. Bigots looking for people to hate don't care about facts." She squeezes him back tightly. As he says he wants to be in control of it, she rubs his back gently.

    "...It's a different side of it, and not a terrible curse, for me. But I like the idea of not having to pretend to be a normal thing. Of letting people see what I really am. I don't mean what I was, I mean, the mimic, and not the thing it's mimicing. I do kinda wish there was some pride flag I could wear a pin of that people would see and just go 'Oh, you were raised in one body and ended up in another. Cool. Anyway,' or 'Cool. What's that like?'"

    "For all that society is freaking weird about it, I guess that's why I kinda... Like there's trans and I'm under that umbrella, sure, I mean, if it wouldn't offend real trans people, but like, that's not exactly my situation, is it."

    She lets go and steps back, looking embarassed and hesitating a bit, then forcing herself to plow onward with the words anyway. "So that's why I still kinda like... It's a fictional thing, but I see myself as a TSko, or TSmusume, or however you wanna say it -- I just like TSko 'cuz it's short -- but that's what I am, isn't it? Clumsily and fictionally-sourced as it may be. But I can't just tell my classmates that, now can I?" She shrugs.

    And looks up at him. "...There is no reason for people to care where you're from anymore, is there? Are people still' superstitious? Or... is that not the curse you mean, now...?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"You're overestimating how much a bunch of eight year olds care about scientific accuracy," Taro sighs. "And there was a lot of stuff about how being pregnant when it - happened - would mean the baby grew up stupid. Which, people aren't going to expect from me NOW, since I still look like a kid, but it was..." He scrubs his face. "I don't know. I'm not stupid. If there was something THAT wrong with me, it'd be obvious by now, right? "

....He doesn't know if he's glad that she picked up where he was from without him having to say it, or upset that he couldn't just. Keep avoiding the subject. Maybe both. It wasn't like this was a conversation he'd ever had before.

"...Ok, this may be me not knowing things, but isn't being a boy and then becoming a girl and being happy about it trans? Even if the transformation is magical it's still," gesture gesture, "trans-forming?" Hmm. "I actually don't know what a TSKo is. What is it?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy growls at the thought of the mean eight-year-olds, even if they're eighty-year-olds now. And winces at the mention of it happening during his mother's pregnancy.

    It's be obvious by now, right? Amy winces at the awkwardness of her best and most truthful answer. "That's hard to say. Some mutations would be. If a mutation contributed to neurodiversity, who's, like... looking for that? And if you have, like, increased cancer risk in old age... well, you'll never see that until you get to old age, will you?" she shrugs.

    And then shakes her head. "No, that's not really how it works, isn't it? She was already pregnant with you. Too late to alter a gamete or a zygote. I'm no geneticist, but if something did happen, wouldn't it make you a genetic chimera with a few mutated cells in some part or parts of your body? It might not even matter. A messed-up heart gene in your leg?" she shrugs. "Never gonna matter. And maybe any nonviable cells would've died off long ago and been replaced by healthy ones. Hell, maybe that's why you were so small -- spending energy replacing those cells in the womb." another shrug. "Who can say? You're alive and healthy now, so you're probably mostly good, but maybe talk to a geneticist when you're finally an adult, or once the veil is gone. Especially if you're worried about passing anything to your kids."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Isn't being a boy and then becoming a girl and being happy about it trans? Amy stares into the distance, the camera slowly zooming in on her eyes as the sounds of a battlefield fade in, and the transparent images scroll across the screen of countless online arguments about Bridget, confirmed trans character, or the lead of How To Make A (Girl) Fall In Love, or various supernaturally transformed characters. She mutters, "You'd think people would view it that simply, yeah..."

    Then at normal volume she answers, "Generally, yeah. Fictional examples are sometimes more complex than that due to inconsistant portrayal." She scratches her head. "Or real life, too. I mean, I guess an enby or genderfluid person's reaction to that might be different from a cis guy's but also not the same as a trans girl, right? I dunno, I've never talked to a genderfluid person and you haven't gotten turned into a girl."

    Exposition! Amy begins pacing and looking vaguely like she's lecturing to a class. "So as best I understand it between two languages... Japanese doesn't have a good native word for transgender. People trying to describe it are left with phrases like 'has the heart of a woman' but like. The specific idea? The 'Oh, that happens sometimes?' of, like, the inside doesn't match the outside, and you do what you can to make the outside match the inside, and everyone's happier all around if you treat them as they are on the inside and society should accept this?" She shakes her head, "People just lump that in with 'boy'* -- wait, that doesn't work out loud -- anyway, Japanese doesn't seem to have a good word for it, and so countless people have floundered with societally unacceptable feelings. Now Japanese just uses the loanword, [toransugendaa]."

    "In English, [transsexual] is an outdated term, now disfavored because the '-sexual' part makes it sound like it, well, is a sexual fetish or something at worst, or like it has to do with who you're attracted to, like homosexual, which is a confusion that helps no one."

    "In Japanese... we're kinda stuck with it as the word for fiction dealing with gender transformations -- well, that's not the right word either since it's not changing gender identity, ugh, the terms are all wrong, see, English is stuck with [gendaa bendingu]** which isn't really right either but anyway--"

    "It's stuck as a term for fiction like TG and transgender used to be in English, so uh. Thus uh. You could refer to a character -- who now appears female -- who underwent such a transformation as a [tee ess musume]***, for the genre she's in, or, like I said, why not TSko for short?" She waves a hand dismissively, "Actually I'm not sure which way people pronounce it, I've only seen it written... Or there's [nyotaikako]**** or something. It's not like there's a universal standard term. Somehow it doesn't happen the other way around enough for anyone to use a term, I guess that'd be like, [nantaika-kun]***** or TS-kun or something?" she shrugs."

    She looks away awkwardly, "Sorry for making you listen to rambling about this..."

TL Notes:
*"Boy"
男の子 otoko no ko, lit. "male child": boy
男の娘 otoko no ko, lit. "male daughter/girl": girlyboy/ladyboy/femboy/t**p/etc., popular conception does not distinguish between crossdresser, femboy, and transfeminine person 😔
**Look, it sounds weirder if you switch to normal English pronunciation mid-sentence!
***TS娘 T S musume or T S ko
****女体化, nyotaika, lit. "woman body transformation": turned into a girl, and we're sticking 娘 on the end again. 女 is the character for woman (onna), usually read jo ie. shoujo, josei, etc.
*****男体化 nantaika, see above but with 男/otoko/"man"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I was probably small because Japan was under rationing until 1955? I'm pretty sure the magic got rid of the cancer risk," Taro says, point blank. "I'm almost eighty. My Ma got sick when she was she was in her thirties. If I was going to die from cancer it'd probably have hit me by now - though I dunno how it'd interact with my powers."

He's checked. He's watched. He has had....regrets, at times. That he'd been too afraid of his inability to control his powers that he'd run away -

His mind moves away from the thought. He can't bear to think it through to it's conclusion.

Maybe he's being immature, but he'll take the topic change as Amy stares into the distance, having shrimp emotions about online discourse. He's alraedy rubbing his heart raw talking about his Ma.

"People are really weird about gender - not you, I mean, people who make it weirdly complicated or say people aren't real transgenders. Don't they have jobs?" What on earth.

"A transforming type... I don't know if I can get my whole head around it but it makes sense. You transformed magically so you get a magic gender." Right! "And being a tee-ess-ko is probably a more polite way to put it in Japanese than calling yourself an okama."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    He lost his mom when she was in her 30's? Amy winces at that. When was his mom in her thirties... when he-- ack, she, there she goes tripping over some thought saved in the other context again --when she was a very small child...

    Amy blinks. "No it's not a magic gender, my gender is still woman, this is just, like, the specific situation?"

    And at the last word she groans and rolls her eyes. "Urrrrggggggh. One, that's a rude word for a gay man and I'm not a man so it's definitionally wrong, and two, it's a rude word for a gay man and etymologically it should be as bad as the c-word is in English so I don't understand why Japanese flings it around so liberally." She throws up her hands. "It's weird! It's in places kids will see it! And when a kid asks what it means and what the etymology is what are you gonna tell 'em?"

    This has been Amy ranting about other languages' swear words.

    "...Anyway yeah, TSko is more polite than that or otoko no ko or anything, but also not a word anyone would understand except TSF fans, so," she shrugs and sighs.

TL Note:
*exasperated sigh*
オカマ okama: as a character type, basically means flamboyantly gay or a flamboyantly gender-non-conforming person with a visibly masculine body; as in English media, doesn't distinguish about the person's gender identity or reason for feminine or GNC presentation. Bluntly: In media, they're an okama if they're supposed to be ridiculous, and an otokonoko if they're supposed to be cute/attractive. *sigh* As far as word use and RL, probably comparable to f****t or t****y if used as an insult, although some people might identify with it and try to reclaim it like queer.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro winces as Amy starts explaining in detail the many, many issues with okama, and he throws up his hands. "I get it, I get it! I know iot's bad! I just - I didn't have any other words to use for decades, ok? Okama could mean transgender or homosexual when I was younger, it's - "

He puts his face in his hands and groans. "I knew about this stuff but not the words!" augh!! "Sorry if I'm defensive..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy holds out her hands in a 'stop/slow down' gesture, "Woah, you're not the problem!" She shrugs, "Hell, I'm not... honestly too clear on some of this. Maybe I've got it wrong, how it sounds to Japanese ears. And now we've got otokonoko, and people lump gay or transgender or crossdresser or femboy all under that, and obviously that's an identity some people find comfort in too, so..."

    She slumps her shoulders a bit. "The girl calling herself a TSko probably shouldn't throw stones, I guess."

    She stands up straighter and paces. "I don't know where to learn firsthand about Japanese queer culture, though. Like. I'd feel super awkward finding some support group and claiming to be trans, and what happened to me was magic and not the same as anyone else. The communities I already keep tabs on online are..." she makes a face, "full of weirdos who fetishize both otokonokos and this" She spreads her fingers over the middle of her chest to indicate herself. "...And also full of people who are probably trans and don't know it -- or maybe that do know it and are afraid to talk about it -- but I've got no idea like, how much of each there are and like. ...Yeah," she scratches the back of her head, "That's not very helpful for learning about actual queer people."

    (Author's note: I suspect the former far outnumber the latter, but less so the further you get in such that it approaches 3:1 the further in you get. That's a bit yikes though, yeah.)

    She looks up at Taro. "Although I guess um. If you do? Like guys? And might be non-binary? Then this isn't just my problem, and maybe you'll find community in places I wouldn't think to look."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I just ask what people call themselves and go with that," Taro says sheepishly. "The world is big, and the internet's gotten really hard to navigate in the last decade, and, honestly, it's been so long since I had enough time to think about stuff that I just don't? Or didn't. I've been thinking about it now."

He has no idea how to respond to that. He's thought about if he is a boy since Amy brought it up and decided yeah, that seems like the most fitting option of what was available; he's thought about other boys, like that long-haired guy from laser tag and Mamoru and cute little Adrian and he's really kicking himself for not getting Hot Laser Tag's name and. Yeah. He thinks he likes a man?

"I think I'm a boy who likes boys," he says with a shrug. "Boy works best; I tried thinking about being a girl and that didn't work, and being both felt funny. I don't think I'd marry a girl unless she was pregnant and the father was a lowlife so she needed someone to help her out. And I can't be the only person who's magic and feels funny in their skin."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The internet's gotten hard to navigate. Amy ugggghs. "Yeah. Like, we had good search engines and then greedy corporations ruined everything."

    She listens to the rest curiously, mentally noting some missing categories. "Neither, or in-between, or some mix, or like. A mix of neither and one? Is also an option. It seems like if someone's not just one or just the other it's kind of a... figure out whatever you like, deal? I haven't really talked to anyone who identified as non-binary."

    "...That also includes people who are sometimes one and sometimes the other but I don't think that's your case." She taps her chin. "Can someone be sometimes one and sometimes neither? I think I remember reading that's a thing too, but I've never talked to such a person."

    "But you're comfortable in the Slasher's skin, right? Still... what are you proposing, we start like... a mahou queer support group?"

    Amy blinks as that one works through her brain. "I'm queer? That's... so weird. Like. I mean. I guess. Does being demi or ace or something count? And wanting to be with girls like... I know that technically makes me a lesbian but like it never seemed weird to like girls? 'Cuz I was raised to think it's normal, it's liking guys that'd be weird. And I wonder if I like. 1% like guys?" She blushes a bit.

    "This is all really confusing! The experience I mean, not the terms. Well maybe a little the terms. Like if I'm asexual or demisexual or something does that make me not a lesbian? Is that still queer???"

    She throws up her hands. "I dunno! Wait, does this school have a gay-straight alliance? Maybe we can go ask them. About terms, if not about... my gender."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I miss forums. They were terrible too but I could navigate them, and I could have little art on the bottom of my posts that looked cool. And there less ads!" Old man is yelling at the Cloud!!

"...I'll give those a think too," he says, nodding and pulling out his phone to write the options down before he forgets. "If nothing else, I'll be able to for sure say that I'm very good at being a boy because I checked all the other stuff." There's so many different gender... It's like the ice cream store of gender. Many more flavors available than when he was a kid. "We probably should check and see if there's a club. That might have answers for both of us - but also, like."

Grimacing. "I think just having a mahou club might be good. I think that I like being the Slasher for magic reasons, not for boy reasons. If that. Makes sense?"

Hhhhh he should let it rest they should stay off topic but he really ought to - talk about it -

(Vision going dark as he staggered out of the room, feeling his insides quite literally freeze solid, and he couldn't stop that baja blast bitch from running off with Mamoru-Prince-Enderman but at least he'd gotten Adrien out - )

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "There are still forums. They're just, uh. Niche."

    Very good at being a boy because I checked all the other stuff. She points, "Yeah! See, that's the attitude we shoulda been encouraged to have years ago. Maybe I coulda..." She shakes her head. "Doesn't matter now..."

    A mahou club. She nods. "If we end up with anyone from generation Z... or is it Alpha now? They'll know this stuff better and can teach the rest of us. Uh, my roommate, Mio, she's the one who told me about demi being a thing. So she might know some more stuff."

    She quirks an eyebrow. "Magic reasons? Like what?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"We can't change the past, but we can change the future," Taro says philisophically. "You're a girl now, you checked all the angles." He pats her back gingerly. "And you'll figure out the lesbian stuff next. As long as you're happy, right?"

"If I keep on aging slowly, I can pass it all on." Hm. "That might be useful, actually, since I'm a good guy now. Everyone's afraid of the Fade,but having someone who can consistantly watch things would help, right?" If he could do it for vanilla history, he can do it for magic history!!

"Well... The Slasher heals from injuries really fast," Taro says. He's not - getting into how he needs Jack and Dory for it to work just yet. "And the slasher is really strong, and fast, and good at stuff. And I spent a long time living on my own. So if I like... tripped and fell and hit my head, or a car swiped me, it was better if I was the Slasher. Since I'd always get better."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blushes a bit. It still feels kind of odd to be called a lesbian, but she's also kind of happy to be lumped in?

    She nods at his idea of being the historian until the Fade catches up with him finally. "Makes sense. You're not the... only one, but it probably makes sense to have more than one, in case something happens."

    Ahhh. Safer as the slasher. Amy nods. "Yeah. I haven't really put that to the test -- aside from that one damn Witch's labyrinth that exploded, you hear about the train station? Yeah that was magic shit. -- I haven't really put it to the test, but ostensibly, as long as I have enough magic power left, I need not fear suddenly dying. ...Well, as long as nothing breaks my soul gem, either. They're certainly tougher than they look, but also not invincible, and I'm not inclined to test just how invincible they are."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"It can't hurt, especially with the whole, ou know. Beryl thing. Everyone got better but we didn't know that they would. If nothing else, it'd be good to have someone to call parents if things go bad."

Chiyo had died. Mamoru ahd been kidnapped. Usagi's smile was fragile at the edges. He hadn't known if Amy would return from Paris....

"Yeah. Don't try it out if you don't have to, dying sucks. If your body's anything like mine, you'll still feel everything. You'll just - get better, after a while."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amanda bows her head at the thought of 'call parents if things go bad.'

    She doesn't envy trying to explain that to someone. Their kid died defending the world, but they won't even be able to remember that, only a lie...

    Don't try it out if you don't have to. "Ha!" she gives a short, sharp chuckle. "Nah, when it gets that bad there's a pain shut-off--" She freezes mid-sentence and looks at him. "Wait, you're talking about this like it happened..."

    She turns to face him, concerned. "Oh no, Taro, what happened???"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Wait, you get a pain shut off?"

He didn't hear about that?? Jack, explain this! Jack, why doesn't he have a pain shut off??? Jack! Jack!!!

His grimace just grows. "I'm almost eighty and I've been living on my own for most of it. I've gotten into a lot of accidents." Gulp. "And a couple fights."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks, then nods. Ah, yeah. Dude's been magic for over 60 years, of course he's nearly died a few times.

    How on Earth is Sailor Pluto alive...?

    "...I suppose you could ask the same. I uh... look, Cho was in another dimension, and if Nezha had gotten past me to close the portal, she'd be stuck. I uh, realized too late that I couldn't dodge or he'd get past me, so..." She grimaces. "I didn't get time to think of a better option to take. Then the spear exploded. I didn't like. Examine myself in a mirror? Probably for the best. But I stopped breathing, and I don't see how I could've kept circulating blood. So, I know magic can keep my brain running even in the absense of fresh, oxygenated blood. And as long as my brain is running, I can puppet the rest of the body like a flesh golem. Or a zombie."

    "When pain's off there's some slight lag, though. You ever played a videogame with lag? You know how it is, you can kinda learn to compensate for it but it's annoying. Also when I stopped breathing I had to remember to do that manually if I wanted to. Talk."

    "...I don't know how much that would've cost me to regenerate -- Nezha lost his stomach -- heh -- for fighting us after that, said we win, and gave us some kinda divine medicine to heal up. Like senzu beans."

    "The other time, at the train station... I just know I had to constantly regenerate against intense flames for a few seconds. Didn't hurt but, I didn't exactly get an opportunity to stop and do a damage assessment, and Terezia had a supply of grief seeds ready for us."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I don't get sick anymore. That probably helps," Taro says. "Medicine these days is better in general, though. Air conditioning and street lights are really important. So is better food safety stuff. And railings on stairs and near bays and streams, those are really important."

It's not like it's common but. It's happened enough.

"...The way you do it sounds freaky but also useful. You're just piloting your body like an Eva. It doesn't hurt," he says quietly. "It's got to be weird to see yourself burning but not feel it. I'm glad you didn't feel that either. I've mostly avoided that but it's - not great."

He's doing it. His heart's in his throat.

"I fought that baja blast b - that Thetis. Beryl's henchwoman. She was going to mess up people so I tried to take her out." If she had been human, he would have won. He's sure of it.

"I lost."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "They warned you about stairs, bro." Amy mutters, softly. "They really did. I actually found some old government study on the internet once; The writer's comments make stairs almost sound like some eldritch entity."

    As for the description of piloting herself like an eva... she winces a bit at the memory. "Yeah, well. I thought I was gonna die, when I had a hole blown in my guts. I didn't really know that... I guess in the moment I figured general magical girl toughness must have also applied to keeping my brain conscious a bit longer, too, or something. I only figured out what happened later."

    And Taro tells her about the time he died.

    She blinks. And then remembers he said he remains conscious and feeling through the whole thing and winces. "Oh, man. Shit. Good thing she didn't know you're immortal. Um."

    She rubs her head. "Are you um. Okay?" she asks, concerned but not sure how you talk to someone who can't die about their death-like experiences.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"They did. You should be careful around live wires, being near waterways near storms, being out in the sun too long, and - ok, you can't do anything to avoid shit drivers but you should." His mouth twitches up. "The Slasher got hit with a car on purpose a couple times, too. Just - avoid cars in general."

0/10. He's going to rely on public transportation even when he gets past the fade. He is NOT driving. Those things are death on wheels.

"I don't know if I'm ok. I thought I was. I'm probably better off than some of hte people in Paris." Breathe in. Breathe out. "Don't drown. It's not good. Especially don't drown near someone who can turn it to ice. It's really not good." Breathe in. Breathe out. "Dory found someone to give CPR afterwards. I was out cold for most of that, but passing out is always shit. Stupid way to go."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Taro lists off obvious safety precautions, and Amy says, "I know -- oh right, you're used to being around teenagers now, fair." She holds a hand to her neck at the discussion of drowning, and winces at the thought of ice freezing lungs, tearing cell membranes in all kinds of nasty ways.

    "...It sounds like passing out was a blessing. I'd rather not remain conscious through that."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"It's all mistakes I've made, too. It took a while for me to be as old and smart as I am now," Taro says loftily, crossing his arms.

"But, yeah. I still pass out under normal circumstances. It'd be pretty miserable otherwise."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy thinks back to having her guts blown out by Nezha's staff. "...yeah. I... it'd be really bad if you couldn't turn off pain."

    "...Geeze." She looks back at him. "We've been through some stuff, huh?" She steps forward to give him another hug.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"We have been. This is a mess, huh?"

He hugs her back, hugs her tightly. He's been through all kinds of hell, but - at least he always knew he'd come bac. She didn't.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "...Yeah." She can just... enjoy the hug for a long moment. Closeness with another human being like she didn't have for so many years. More common now, but... She can never have too many hugs.

    Eventually, she speaks again. "But... because of it I get to be Amanda, and you get to be The Slasher. Err, or is it Kuiper Belt Cape now?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
He hasn't gotten hugs like this for a long time. A LONG time. It seems like the last six months have been filled with hugs and - does not think he's going to ever stop enjoying int.

"It's Kuiper Belt Cape now. I'm still workshopping it," he says with a crooked grin. "It' hard to save people if I freak litle kids out, right?"

Not useful! Can't save people if he scares them! Unfortunately.

"...I am glad we got to meet. I mean, we probably still could have if things stayed the same but it'd be. Weird." He would be almost eighty. She'd be in her thirties and possibly still a boy? "It's worth it."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I guess you could be some sort of friendly neighborhood monster. Like The Count on Sesame Street. Also, did Sailor Charon help you pick that name?"

    We still could have... She lets go and steps back. "I mean... I technically could have met everyone like that, but... we wouldn't have become friends. I wouldn't have met you at all, I didn't leave the house except for work. Unless you got into... stuff online and I talked to you there..."

    She nods. "That's what I've been saying, every time, that it's worth it. Even if I... Like even if I... If I bite it to some monster someday... It'll have been worth it, to get to do all this, and be this."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"No, I picked it myself. I figured that if non-planet celestial objects like Pluto were valid for naming, I could go for something along those lines. The Kuiper Belt's in a shaky position being both part of and not part of the solar system,so I thought it was suitable. And the Sailor Scouts are cool so I wanted in on the brand."

It's a cool brand! And it gives him an in, being semi-associated with a group!

"...I have no idea if I'd have been online at all. Or if I'd have lived that long. Family history of cancer, and all." BRO THAT IS UNDERSELLING THE HEALTH ISSUES,,, "Maybe I'd be part of some weird pinball machine forum? I was AMAZING at pinball. And at the original Pac-man! And Tetris!"

He gives her another squeeze in the hug. "It's worth it. We're helping people. And if you ever turn into a Witch, I will help make sure you don't harm anyone because I'll take you down first."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Squeezy hugs are the best! She nods, smiling earnestly up at him. "Thanks!"

    Wanted in on the brand. "Oh, yeah, I can understand that. I used a disguise in the past a couple of times so people would think I was from then, but uh, it never actually came up." She changes the same way again she did with the cosplay outfit, and stretches. "I couldn't find a fitting celestial body, though. So this is Chalcopyrite because wikipedia said-- well, it's a whole thing I can explain, but Isaac Newton probably was working with Tetrahedrite actually but there's less of a cool double meaning there -- and it's all made up anyway, it's not really an alchemical symbol, he used it one time, I went over his notes the other day and tried to figure out what he was doing and--" Amy shakes her head.

    "Anyway... I never got into pinball, sorry. I mean, besides like, Epic Pinball and the game that came with like, Windows 95.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Woah!! New outfit!! "It looks cool!" yeah! And he listens to her commentary,t rying to follow, and concludes: "It has a cool symbol like the other planets do, and it ends in -ite like Tuxedo Guy's bodyguards, right? And it has an alternate meaning that's probably very gender?"

Besides. "You can always start now! Though I think tetris is probably better for you. You were talking about how turning pain off made your reflexes worse, so if you could make them better, that'd help you adjust for the speed in Tetris."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    If you could make them better. "Huh... I don't think I can do that, but... I'll... poke at that. Yeah uh. Okay so. In alchemy, the female symbol, the venus symbol, means copper -- same derivative, right, mirrors used to be made out of copper and so venus's hand mirror would've been made out of copper -- and the male symbol, the mars symbol, means iron. I... guess because you'd use iron in spears?"

    Amy blinks. "And Earth is gold... ohhh that's why it was the golden kingdom. Huh."

    "Anyway, so yeah, they're never combined in alchemy because iron and copper don't make a useful alloy or anything. But Isaac Newton tried combining them because he thought it would be an ingredient in the philosopher's stone for... reasons about thinking chemical formulas were embedded in legends. And so in that experiment he used what was probably tetrahedrite, and somebody saw that and put it in the alchemy unicode block as iron-copper ore, and some wikipedia editor went 'iron-copper ore? What does that mean? Chalcopyrite?' because it's a major copper ore with iron in it, which brings us back around to why I think it's a better name than tetrahedrite:"

    She holds up one finger, smiling. "'Chalcopyrite' comes from greek meaning 'copper striking fire', You can see why a connection to fire fits my magical girl abilities." She holds up a second finger. "And it is an ore from which copper -- symbolically female, remember -- is refined, and uh... yeah I think you can see the metaphor?" She grins slightly awkwardly.

    "...Anyway if I ever have to pretend to be a sailor senshi I don't think they're going to challenge me on the mineralogical and alchemical connections of the symbol."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"...If anything, iron turns red and that's a girl thing," Taro says with a frown, pondering the genders of metal. "The Greeks were weirdos. We're giving mirrors gender now?"The more he learns about this stuff,the less he understands....

"Oh, so it's the boy-becomes-girl mineral! And it's your element! So it's definitely you!" he's got itt baybeeeeee!! "We could probably look on Wikipedia to see if anyone's named an asteroid after Chalcopyright or Tetrahedrite and you could claim that? Or you could be - wait, no, the planet between Mars and Venus is Earth and that's taken." Dammit!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Red usedta be for boys and blue for girls like a century ago." Amy observes. "What no it's... it's not that mirrors are female, it's... the Venus symbol. It represents the hand mirror of the goddess of beauty, Venus. While the Mars symbol is a spear and shield, right? So since mirrors used to be made of copper, it makes sense to then use the same symbol for copper, I guess."

    It's the boy-becomes-girl mineral! Amy blushes and covers her face. "I mean... I wasn't gonna say it quite like that, but... yeah?"

    She shrugs. "I thought about that, and whether Venus or Mars might have had guardians, but Venus doesn't have any satellites and Mars has Phobos and Deimos and their symbols... aren't that. Still, implying I'm a guardian of one of the other senshi, like the -ites are 'Tuxedo Guy's guardians, yeah, that seems... like a paper-thin cover that might hold up were I to run into someone who knows of the senshi but doesn't actually closely interact with them all the time, I guess."

    Amy shrugs. "I was down this rabbithole for hours a few months ago trying to work out if the symbol had alchemical significance. I double checked the chemical equations for whether chalcopyrite or tetrahedrite would get the same results he did and I think it was the latter but what am I gonna do, bug the unicode people? Bug the Isaac Newton's lab notes archival people? I'm... sure they must have a chemist on staff who already figured that out, right? Plus maybe I'm wrong, my degree is in Computer Science, not chemistry."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro nods, listening intently to Amy's continued explenations. "It'd be close enough. There's not a lot of time to really introduce yourself during a fight,anyway. Gotta keep it short and sweet, be memorable without revealing your hand. They may not get all the deep symbolism, but you'll know, and that's the important thing."

He purses his lips, considering. "...How would I go about becoming a friendly monster? I've adjusted my outfit a little, but I can't change the whole seven feet tall bit..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles at the 'you'll know, and that's the important thing' bit.

    She folds an arm and taps her chin. "I... don't actually know. Like, if you were known for doing good deeds and being friendly to kids, but... how do you become known when... the veil?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"That's the problem, isn't it? I look scary, and that's all well and good when it's good fo rme to be scary, but it's not like I can shrimk myself or something! And I can't really pull a Godzilla and have a film series explain things! And I don't want to wear something that looks silly to defang myself,either. What other options are there?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hmms. "I mean. You look big and... nonhuman, but... whether that's seen as scary kind of depends on what someone knows about you, right? Although you could always wear a mask. And like. Big people can be friendly too."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"What's a mask that's 'strong' but also 'friendly'? You know American Halloween,you might know a monster that fits the ticket..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hmmms, still tapping her chin. "I mean. A vampire or werewolf can be friendly if they're a friendly one. uhhhhh. A robot could go either way... like I dunno if there's a monster known *as* specifically a friendly type, really... again, that'd be more if you could spready your legend as such..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I know I look like a Western vampire, but those are pretty variable, and I don't want to start wearing Western clothing for the associations.... but they're close..." He groans and flops on the couch, bemoaning. "Kappas aren't cool enough! Yuki onna are so popular these days, there's probably already a mahou with the theme! Shuten Doji's taken! Everyone thinks Noh theater is creepy now!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy quirks a brow. "Would someone really see a yuki-onna as friendly? ...Is there a yuki-otoko? What's a Shuten Doji?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I mean, maybe? There's one in pokemon now." Hmm. "Shuten Doji's a famous oni from Mt. Ooe, best known for being defeated in an epic battle with Minamoto no Raiko - a guy in legend but there's like five different anime who made her a cute girl. Someone already has dibs on Shuten, it'd be a dick move to horn in on that."

(Especially the poor girl seemed to have been born into it, not chosen it. It was one thing to decide to be an oni,another to have no choice in the manner!)

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy ahs and nods. "Yeah, anime'll do that. The FATE franchise has been girling historical and legendary features for years. Very popular way to turn public-domain figures into waifus."

    "Maybe some kind of friendly giant? Like... hmm. You would know japanese legends better than me..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"We don't really have a lot of those." Drat. "Also, before you ask, I am not emulating Godzilla. I don't care for that lizard."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hmms, and nods. She starts to ask why he has a problem with Godzilla and gets as far as 'Wh--' before realizing a possible reason why and shutting her mouth.

    "...Shall we get to dinner and the movie, then?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yes. We got distracted," and Taro sits up and turns around, perching his chin on his arms, his arms on the back of teh couch.

"It's your fault. You're so fun to talk to. You better cut that out or we'll be here all night," and he sticks his tongue out.

It's him trying to cheer her up and cheer her on - they're both terrible with socializing. But it's also true. He really does like being here.

...it's funny, realizing that. That he WANTS to be in this room, that he's looking forward to doing this over and over again. It really is fun!!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy laughs as she is 'blamed' for the delay. She sits next to him, blinks at the feeling of couch against bare thigh -- senshi skirts are so short -- and sparkles back into regular clothes. "That wouldn't be so bad." She smiles and sidles up close, just... enjoying closeness, and rest, and peace, and not being alone.

    Who knows what will come tomorrow. But tonight... A silly movie, good food, and good company!