1571/Occult Amies

Occult Amies
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	Club Building
Synopsis:	A meet at the occult club turns into a deep conversation!
Cast of Characters:	Ahmya Karashima, Amanda Faust

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Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Ah, the Occult Club! Widely viewed as one of the more esoteric and weird clubs, though oddly enough not the weirdest one. Known to constantly be seeking magic and mysteries, claiming to cast magic or hexes only for nothing to actually happen beyond stuff that is only viewed as a coincidence.

At the moment, the Occult Club is in a relatively calm moment, having just completed a ritual of ultimate doom upon their enemies! The ultimate doom?

Moderate stomach discomfort.

Look, they're occultists, not /evil/. Ahmya, of course, directed her part of the ritual at whoever hurt Mamoru. Not that it was likely to actually do anything, even with someone who was /actually/ magical there. It was mostly just a lot of chanting in latin with fake magical circles drawn on a chalk board with 'sacred chalk' and burning enough candles that they had to cover the fire alarm.

In this lull, Ahmya could be found sitting at one of the tables in the occult club room, reading a book she was holding in her left hand, one pinky holding the edge of a prayer slip that she was slowly drawing runes on with her right hand. Multitasking, go! "Okay, let's see... rune of soothing... and a rune of healing... uhm... what else would be good to put on this." She mumbles to herself under her breath.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's just feeling a bit melancholy. Damn having the emotions of a teenager again... She's just, heading back from a computer club meeting, when her brain decides to focus on how no one else here is in the same situation. Frowning, she looks for a distraction, and sees the labels on the club rooms. She wonders what they read in literature club. Maybe she should -- no, does she really have the time to absorb even more media? And there's the Occult Club clubroom. What nonsense, everyone knows magic's not--

    Amy stops in her tracks.

    Hold on... but magic turned out to be real. What if they've actually found things we've missed?

    ... A moment later, she opens the clubroom door. The red-headed transfer student is wearing her uniform skirt and a green T-shirt with a chibi tiger on it with the word 'nyo' over it.

    Aaand there's people here. "Um. Uh. Hello. I was just wondering, uh, what the Occult Club actually does..." she asks. Eyes drawn to classmates she's seen before. Karashima-san is here? ...Okay, yes, the girl with the eyepatch being in the occult club totally fits...

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
See, the thing is, magic /is/ real! ... But most people can't actually do or properly comprehend it. The eye-spider hiding in the corner of the room informs Ahmya someone is approaching her, so as Amy started to walk towards her, she first gently caps the inkpot she was working out of, and dips the calligraphy brush she was using in some water, giving it a quick little swirl to get the worst of the wet ink off of it before she sets it aside.

Just before Amy speaks up towards her, Ahmya turns in her seat to face her.

Something that might be a bit off-putting, considering she shouldn't have been able to see Amy.

Yes. She did in fact set that up by putting her left side to the wall.

"My, my~. A curious young woman wanders into the den of darkness!" She stands, half-bowing towards Amy. "The Occult Club exists for the research and understanding of occult occurances and the casting of spells and hexes." She says cheerfully, a small glimmer in her uncovered eye. "For instance, we research ghost sightings and if we can sometimes we'll even go on trips to visit haunted places. We just finished a ritual, as well! The Ritual of Ultimate Doom! ... ... ... In spite of its name it's actually a pretty mild ritual, honestly. According to the Book of Ultimate Darkness, the ritual is supposed to curse your enemies with the worst of discomforts... a tummyache! Uwa ha ha ha ha~."

...She's overacting, yep. The theatrics are real here. She shifts one eye towards the others. Luckily absorbed in cleaning up in the ritual or their own research, or chatting among each other. A few girls wearing giant floppy witches hats, some glasses-wearing guys wearing oversized robes with 'evil' edges... things like that. Her voice drops low, to a whisper. "Most of it is utter nonsense though. The school carefully guards the books with real magic in them." She winks. Which since her other eye is covered, just looks like an over-exaggerated blink. But she does the rest of the body language for said wink, so it probably works out.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The door opened and there were footsteps. It's not that hard to realize a person is there, right...?

> My, my~. A curious young woman wanders into the den of darkness!
    Oh okay we're doin' this apparently.

    Amy's stonefaced for a moment while she listens and decides how to play along or not.

    A tummyache.

    Amy looks down. The tiger on her shirt is about stomach-level. "...I mean, some tummyaches can be really bad. ...Actually I can think of some poetic use for that."

    She lifts her head and looks around. "Damn, though, you got style. Love the hats and robes!" She smiles.

    Yeah, the body language and tone sells the wink. Although... she whispers back, 'Wait, there really are such books?'

    She glances over the group. "So uh... how has that gone? Found any hauntings? Students reporting impossible things happening to them? People acting weird? It..." She looks down at the floor, for the moment trying to act the part of the Normal Nonmagical Teenager. "It would be nice if magic were real. I looked into, like, Atlantis and psychic powers and stuff when I was a kid... I mean like, a few years ago, but nothing I tried worked."

                              --- 26 years ago ---                              
    The school bell rings. The fifth-grade class start grabbing their things and leaving, but Mallory stops to talk to a girl with long brown hair and tanned skin. Her facial structure by chance resembles his, if someone were specifically looking for that; it's not really obvious with the other differences, given his own pale skin and white hair. "So I was reading books about psychic healing and stuff." She listens with interest as he continues. "The first step is to channel energy through someone and back to yourself. I've been practicing and I think I can feel it! Pushing energy into someone and pulling it back in..."

    "That's great!" says his classmate, in earnest excitement. "You could win a Nobel Prize for this!"

    And that's when he suddenly realized that none of this magic stuff could be real. A real psychic would be so incredible a phenomenon the world would recognize it.
                              --------------------                              

    Remembering that puts him in mind-- her in mind of what these kids are going through. Reading books like that, thinking it might be real...

    That makes it easier to fake some interest. "So, who did you curse? And what'd they do to deserve the worst of stomach aches?"

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"Oh yeah no, the name for the ritual is just very intense for what it actually does." Ahmya says with a soft chuckle. The comment on the style gets a cheerful smile from Ahmya, who currently is wearing a deep purple kimoni with spider webbing designs on it.

"Oh, yeah, of course there are such books. Though most occult books are just written by people who just are trying to make some money more than proper grimoires of magical power." Ahmya says with a helpless shrug. "I find the best place to find more real magical items are at the most sketchy looking thrift stores you can find, or little shops ran by little old ladies." Nod.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely, we've found hauntings, people reporting impossible things, people acting weird..." Pause. "It helps that I have shrine maiden training, though, so I'm more able to spot spirits and such than most." She adds. "Most things that spread aren't anything real though. Like people acting weird usually is just someone needing to eat something, or someone who needs to go to a doctor nine times out of ten. Other times... usually it's unexplainable or just people being weird to try and go viral on social media."

So, who did you curse?

"Whoever hurt my friend." Ahmya says, her tone dropping. It had been lighthearted, somewhat joking at this point. "Whoever they are deserves worse, even." But adding her energy to the ritual would have been irresponsible. Because other people who didn't deserve a curse might have been. "I know they're saying it was a freak accident, that nobody was at fault for his injuries, but I know it wasn't." She says, that one eye shifting to not meet Amy's face. Ever so slight guilt underneath it even with the anger that had one hand that was partially hidden behind her trembling. A soft breath, stabling, calming herself.

"Most of the time it's nothing so dark here, though. Blessings. Wishes for good luck, or people asking us to give them a charm to help them find love..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Even Ahmya is wearing different clothes. "...Wait, when did you have time to ch-- oh, I guess you'd keep costumes here in the club room..." Amy nods.

    Magic books, huh? "Little shops that weren't there yesterday, huh?"

    Shrine maiden training... "Really? Huh. You'd think I'd be able to spot some things too, but I've never noticed anything..." wait, did she say that out loud? Whoops. Hopefully they just believe she's chuuni, too. Well, she did just say she'd looked into things before...

    Actually, hang on. What if the club heard of something really happening? "Wait, what kind of people acting weird?"

    She listens to the explanation and nods along, slumping a bit. "Wait... but if it's unexplainable, doesn't that mean it might be magic? I wanna hear about some of these cases later. If somebody bodyswapped or came here from an alternate universe, has anybody even thought about what to look for?" Is she getting a little too into pretending to be into this?

    Come to think of it, people like Hinoiri and Bow did come from alternate universes... and someone, somewhere, might have timeleaped to make all these timelines Madoka somehow remembers... What if this club noticed things we didn't?

    Someone hurt Ahmya's friend? "Oh." Amy sombers up a little. "I hope they get the worst stomach ache, then."

    Amanda then stands up straight and listens to the rest. "People really do that, huh? There's a shrine to a love goddess over at the beach, do people ever go there and give offerings?" She scratches her head. "Stuff like that's pretty common in Japan, right?"

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"Well, also, I just change out of my school clothing in the bathroom since I live off-campus and like my own style more than the school uniform." Ahmya says, looking down at her kimono. "This is a bit more formal than usual, though, since we were doing a ritual." You'd think with a ritual they'd at least try to match, but nope, she looked somewhat out of place compared to the more witch and wizard-like outfits.

"Oh yeah, little shops that weren't yesterday are the /best/ places to find odd little trinkets." Paaaause. "Be careful with those though. Listen to the shop keepers if they warn you that something is cursed." She adds.

Paaaause. She taps her chin. Hm. "Well... you see..." She pauses. "It's... so spirits aren't necessarily ... seen? It's more like..." She crosses one arm over her chest, the other one resting under her chin. "It's more like a feeling. Most of the time spirits that don't enter the cycle of death and rebirth are people with strong attachments to a place." Ahmya frowns thoughtfully at that. "So like, people with strong obsession, or high emotions when they passed away." It sounds like psychic nonsense to most.

What kind of people acting weird? "Uhhh... depends from case to case? Sometimes saying weird things, sometimes claiming they're seeing monsters or whatever. Usually by the end of it it's determined there was a gas leak or something in the area of their house, though." Paaaause.

"Oh, hey, I know who you're talking about when you say someone who came from an alternate universe. She's pretty neat, huh? Really strong, too!" She's, of course, referring to Kaori, not Madoka and Homura... but that's beside the point.

"Hm? Yeah. People do worship and leave offerings at shrines. My family runs a shrine to a harvest kami. It's not a very popular one since we're in the middle of tokyo, but we still get a few visitors anyway."

Back to a previous question, though, Ahmya seems to be thinking, quietly tapping her lip as she does. "I haven't heard of anyone being bodyswapped though, per se... though sometimes people can change pretty drastically... I mean, like me, where I lost my eye over a vacation after an encounter with a jyrougumo spirit at her waterfall."

There's a pause, before Ahmya says, "Ah, not to say she stole it or anything, Aunty Rache is great, we had an awesome conversation and it was more of a trade."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Listen when shopkeepers warn you something is cursed. "Yeah obviously. ...I've read manga."

    Amy listens to the ghost talk, and ah yes, of course. The people who see actual youma or the like turn out to have been near a gas leak. Interesting that they remembered the monsters, though...

    She's pretty neat, huh? Really strong, too! Amy thinks of Hinoiri and how Sunbreaker and Phantom wiped the floor with her and the others not too long ago. "Yeah..." -_-;

    Amy quirks an eyebrow at the mention of this encounter. "Uhh, what? So what did the jyrougumo have to do with losing your eye?" She asks, and nods at the explanation that it was a trade. I guess she can openly say the truth about that since the rest of the club will think it's just the usual...

    But, that example aside, "You said 'people', not just yourself. change how, pray tell?" Amy asks, steepling her fingers and looking like she thinks she knows something while leaning forward slightly.

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"Yeah, you'd be surprised how many people assume 'I've read manga so I know how to be safe and avoid getting cursed!' and then get cursed anyway." Ahmya says with a roll of her eye. "Not that I think I have to worry about that with you."

"I feel like we're talking about different people from your reaction." Those people didn't actually remember a youma, most of them were just hallucinating due to lack of sleep or something, rather than piercing the veil. But that's beside the point. "The person I'm talking about was a bit... aggressive, but I think is actually a good girl, the one you're thinking of seems to be less so."

"Hm? Oh, it was a trade for her 'blessing', but since she's a spirit of a youkai, it's not as simple as just giving me a gift with nothing in return, you understand." Ahmya says, with a helpless shrug. "Besides, it's a much better explanation than 'I was dumb and got my eye bitten by a spider' which is what might have actually happened." Ahmya says, her tone a bit joking as she sticks her tongue out.

"Uh.." She taps her lip. "I mean... sometimes it's changing hair color, though a lot of the time that's just someone using dye... sometimes their personality changes... but then later you learn those people went through something... uhm..." She muses out loud. "I heard one guy turned into a lobster-man from one of the boys but honestly I think that one was just a sunburn." She says with a soft giggle.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Reading manga doesn't make you safe! Amy rubs her arm and looks awkward, "Yeah, fair, I didn't really know how it was gonna go." Magical girls don't turn into eldritch monsters in manga!

    Amy's met Kaori too, but Hinoiri is more recently on her mind. Amy smiles and nods, "Yeah, I think she's a good girl underneath it all."

    Blessings can only be traded for, not given? "I guess... not like I know what being a youkai is like..."

    She drops her arms back to her side. "Changing hair color could mean something magical happened! Like in Slayers... And a personality change is pretty clearly-- ah. Yes, of course, sometimes something happens that changes people. Especially around this age, when people are still trying things out to figure out who they are."

    Do I really know who I am? I just kind of stumbled into things... Am I trying to be anyone, or just letting things be? ...No, I'm trying to believe in hope and love and such, even if it turns out real magical girls aren't like that...

    If it gets me killed, at least I'll have lived like this instead of being constantly stressed and paranoid and failing anyway...

    Amy returns from her thoughts. "A lobster-man? Huh. I guess I don't really have an in with the boys anymore..." She slumps a bit. "Honestly, they're kinda hard to talk to now, most of them... With a lot of them there's always this weird, like, wondering if I'm talking to them because I like them or something..." She looks away awkwardly. "How's someone even supposed to handle that? We're all just people... not all that different inside..."

    She slumps a bit more and looks down at the floor. "...Or, maybe we are after all and I never understood them in the first place... The more I think about it that sounds pretty plausible, huh..."

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"I still think we're talking about someone different from each other... but that's okay." Ahmya says with a soft chuckle. It's good that Ahmya can smile and say that, regardless of who she's talking about. "Also be cautious of anyone trying to /oversell/ something's powers to you because sometimes that's something with huge downsides." Ahmya adds.

"Mm... it's not necessarily because she was a youkai so much as her story, her origin is... less than good? It's hard to get a blessing from something that's seen as evil, if that makes sense to you?" Ahmya says, doing her best to explain. "Meanwhile a more benevolent yokai might be able to just give a blessing... but then again, it's pretty rare to get something for nothing, soe maybe they're still doing a trade of energy instead... like when you get tired after doing things for a while."

Muse muse. The explanation of the changing hair and personality change gets a warm smile from Ahmya, "If you're not already in a lot of clubs... you might do well in the Occult club. You have the right kind of excitement for things being magical." She says, once more doing that over-exaggerated wink.

"Mmm... does anyone know who they really are? I don't think that's really something to focus on." Ahmya responds, reaching a hand out to gently poke the center of Amy's collar bone. "It's more important to be at peace with and accept who you are, I'd say." The comment on magical girls gets a soft hum from Ahmya though.

"Hope and love come in many different forms, so I'd say... don't give up on those." Nod. "Oh yeah, I heard that from the club leader, he's over there, the one with the bowl cut and glasses that's wearing the 'Demonic Robe of Justice'." She points out one of the club members, motioning her hand towards him.

"And, like, honestly... I don't think boys are necessarily that hard to get along with? But you might have some hangups about interacting with them that you haven't realized yet. But if you just talk to them normally, they seem to get along with me just fine." She pauses, then adds, "But also I have an older brother so I might have more experience with it."

Maybe we are all that different inside after all. "Mmmm... I'd say... yes and no! You're overfocusing on some things I think. People are pretty different from person to person, I mean sure at the end of the day we're all just people trying to get along, but if everyone was exactly the same... I mean... things like this occult club wouldn't exist. Or it'd be a lot bigger than it is! People are different, and honestly...? That's okay. Because it makes this world that much more beautiful to behold, and that much more interesting to live in."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Be careful of anyone trying to oversell. Amy crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, saying as wryly as she can manage, "Like getting a wish and becoming a magical girl?"

    Arms still crossed, she hmms. "Well, that's just unfair to a youkai trying to help people, isn't it? Making it harder for them to help people... who made that a rule..."

    A place in the Occult Club? "I'm in the Computer and RPG clubs, I dunno... And there's only so much time in the week... but, maybe. I'm not excited for magic per se, it's just..." She scratches her head and tries to think of how to put this. "I'm weird. I feel... more at home in a world where people are dealing with impossible strangeness, than one where... everyone feels their life is comfortable and familiar in a way mine will never be."

    The sheer irony of this girl telling her 'oh I have a brother so I've been around boys more' is just... what can she even say to that? u_u;

    "Yeah, some of 'em are normal to talk to... but then I'm kinda lost whenever the girls are talking about who they think is cute or whatever, too, so..."

    She takes a breath and straightens up at the assertion people are different adds beauty to the world. "...Yeah. Yeah, you're right." she agrees, smiling slightly. "The stories I read..." 'and that I'm stuck living, she mutters not quite under her breath, "are all about the differences between people and how they feel in different situations. So the world would lose something if there was no difference."

    Are these two even following what eachother are talking about, half the time...?

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"Ah, yeah, no, that sounds way too good to be true." Ahmya says with a soft nod. "Though, it might not be, sometimes it's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not. The trade of a wish for risking your life every day in combat might not be that much of a terrible trade at the same time, so if you know what you're getting into I guess it's not ... that... unfair ... I guess."

There was a pause. Ahmya tilts her head. "Mmm... it's less that... I mean, talking about Aunty Rache... she isn't really trying to help people. She's just doing her thing. I just happened to save one of her daughters from being harmed by someone, so she decided to repay me. I wouldn't say she's a good person, but she's not necessarily a bad person, either. She's more like a part of nature. She doesn't go out of her way to do anything bad, I can say pretty confidently though."

The explanation is listened to, and Ahmya gives a small smile and nod. "Well, if that's how it is, than that's just how it is." She shrugs helplessly. "But of course... this is absolutely a world full of impossible strangeness. I mean, even without discussing magic or anything, just look at humans. A race of creatures with basically no fangs, claws, or any real hunting weapons on them, somehow survived through a lifetime with other, more vicious and angry creatures. I mean sure, humans are good at using tools, but there's no good explanation for how humans managed to survive as long as they have beyond sheer dumb luck, most likely."

The explanation of the boys gets a soft chuckle. "I feel kind of lost in those conversations too, not everyone is interested in that kind of stuff. That's just how it is. Romance is... messy. And boys can be /really/ weird." She laughs softly.

They're probably mostly getting the gist of what each other mean, probably. Mostly. Kind of. Maybe. Ahmya, in spite of how she looks and acts sometimes, is surprisingly sharp, after all! ... Sometimes! "Stories... are stories. There's usually a grain of truth to them, but I wouldn't necessarily look too deeply into all of them. But... yeah. How people react to different situations... usually they cover that pretty well!" Pause.

"That said, if we go any philosophically deeper than this I'll admit I'll find myself a bit lost because we are digging very, very deep holes right about now."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    If it's worth it or not? "Yeah." Amanda answers, plainly and a little too quickly.

    Then she blinks and looks at Ahmya.

    "You... really don't know about me, huh? Shoot, I'm awful at keeping track of secrets, which is why I mostly try not to bother..."

    Ahmya says she can't understand how humans survived. Amy just looks kind of stunned. "Um. Because we're better at working in groups than anything else? Going from ape to human was hundreds of thousands of years of seeing which of us could make other humans work with us better to survive and pass on our genes -- a contest no other animals were involved in. I mean, I guess cats and dogs did, but you see where it got them: They couldn't compete with us, they're our pets. Although I guess that did a fair bit to improve their survival compared to wild animals. At the cost of being domesticated."

    Amy continues, "Plus, we have the advantage of ranged weapons. A thrown spear or even a rock is something no other predator can do. And we can chase other animals to exhaustion. Animals can sprint faster, but humans can run marathons when they're in good shape."

    "I think all that did a fair bit to ensure our survival; the fact that we came out of that with brains that could invent language and eventually technology is just icing on the cake. Or why we dominate the world instead of merely surviving." Amy stretches. "Plus, maybe some of us could use magic before it... went away, or whatever." This isn't the time and place to tell where the veil really came from.

    Back to more normal talk! She laughs along at boys being weird.

    "I mean... I like discussing philosophy and stuff? But uh, maybe you wanna do it outside of club?"

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"I know vaguely of you. We've been in a few incidents together." Ahmya responds calmly to Amy, her head tilting as she muses on it. "But, we haven't encountered outside of incidents, and when in incidents, usually there's a relative lack of socialization, so I recognize you, but I don't know you." Ahmya says with a helpless shrug.

"Humans domesticated cats and dogs long after they survived the early years of humanity, though, didn't they? But like. What about before humans discovered fires? Discovered tools?" Ahmya muses out loud. "Then again, maybe at that point we survived like livestock, since we could survive off of anything we could... so we could scavenge off of the land and kill things smaller than us, maybe." Paaause.

"But like, even so, it's weird, isn't it? We're such a weirdly dangerous creature for our physical capabilities." She says with a helpless shrug. The comment of using magic before it went away gets a bit of a snap of Ahmya's finger. "See, that's what i mean, we don't know, it's possibly explainable or theorized, but do we REALLY know?"

"And it's not like I dislike discovering philosophy and stuff but also like... uhm. I'm just a weirdo who does spells for fun, so like. I only have so much depth to my ability to philosophize!" She says, lightly doing the 'bonk her own head with a silly stuck out tongue' pose. "You know? ...And eh, basically everyone's doing their own thing or going home. That's all."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Recognize her, but not know her. Amy nods, "Yeah, we should talk later..."

    She blinks. "Cats, yeah, they may have just been kinda lucky. Dogs though? Hard to tell just how long ago the things that became dogs and wolves started working with us. Clearly a long time though, since the same game works on them. No other animal is like that. Some theories suggest maybe the dogs taught us to be less selfish than the apes, but who can say? Maybe caring for others is just an inevitable consequence of ensuring they'll work together with you at all costs." Like livestock? Amy quirks a brow at that phrase. "I just told you. We work in groups. We spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving to do it better. Plus, thrown rocks. And chasing prey to death. And being omnivorous so we can eat fruit too. That seems like a pretty good set of animal abilities. Before you count everything else the brains we spent so much time evolving can do."

    She sounds pretty convinced these explanations are obviously correct. Giving Ahmya another weird look. "Um. Yes? That's kind of the point of science. Plus, if this didn't happen, then why is it so ingrained in us that we look at natural processes and make up, like, gods and weather spirits and then try to appease them and beg favors from them like they're people? It's because we're super-specialized in solving all our problems that way and the resulting habit kept us alive this long. We can't help it."

    And then a crack develops in her theory, and this her confidence, and she sounds a bit more uneasy. Now that the rest of the club's not paying attention or gone home... "Although, wait... if youkai and spirits and stuff are real... then I guess we aren't entirely wrong to do that... but where'd they come from? And... doesn't that just mean that we luckily developed just the right superpower to get help from them, too?" She slumps a bit. "Like... cats get help from us..."

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
"We introduced ourselves at the end of the thing with the cerberus, but didn't talk much, yeah." Paaause. The talk of humans and working in groups and such gets a tap of Ahmya's lips. "Yeah, but like... we didn't always have numbers, though I suppose we do spread faster than some animals, but most animals spread faster than us... so I dunno. I think we just got lucky where we evolved at, honestly. A place where we weren't all that interesting to hunt... then again maybe evolving from apes would have helped us too, probably early humans were a lot stronger than modern humans since we don't need as much strength now." She muses.

"Hm, maybe. I think if I go too far down the line of thought I just had my kami will get upset with me, and I'd rather not anger them." Ahmya says with a soft chuckle. "Though, they're said to be gentle, so they might be understanding..." She might have to make an offering later. Muse muse.

"Yokai are... questionably real anymore. I haven't seen any ... living ... ones, really. Aunty Rache isn't alive either, she's a spirit." Which makes the trade all the weirder, but that's beside the point. "A lot of Yokai are said to come from things that are long-lived and beloved, though, so I suppose in a way they're spirits to begin with, though..." Ahmya crosses her arms in front of her after that. "Anyway. This conversation has been lovely, but I should start my trip home." She straightens up, "I'm sure we'll meet again sometime." She adds, before turning to quietly start gathering up her stuff to get going.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy continues to give a bit of a weird look at Ahmya's musings about human evolutionary history.

    She sometimes forgets others haven't had as much time to read and absorb information as she has. "There weren't always a lot of us. There didn't have to be, just to survive. And yeah, without clothing we had to stay in very specific weather. I doubt strength is as good an advantage as throwing things."

    "But like, we were in the African savannahs and plains, not some island with no competition. We still fear large predators, and cave hyenas were such good competition we're still casting their descendents as bad guys in stories... Not to mention there may have been magic ones running around that copy our voices to trap us, since oh right magic's a thing."

    "Spirits..." Amy taps her lips in thought. "I guess that's something I need to think more about, how they fit into all this."

    Ahmya's ready to go, and it seems the club meeting is over, but before they leave...

    "Hey, um, thanks! It was really nice talking with you." Amy offers a hug. "Sorry for... uh... womansplaining evolution, just... uh, I guess, like, I spent a lot of time absorbing science and stuff and getting praised for doing so, so..." She shrugs. "I hope we can talk again soon?" she asks, with a hopeful smile.