2236/Oyaji Club and The New Year

Oyaji Club and The New Year
Date of Scene:	15 January 2025
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	The Oyaji Club rings in the New Year!
Cast of Characters:	Taro Yamada, Amanda Faust

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Taro Yamada has posed:
It's New Year's Adam for the Oyaji Club! (As you know, Adam came before Eve.) Taro's got his New Years proper booked, and he's sure Amy does too, but that doesn't mean he can't set up something for the two of them to do as well.

"So! This is going to be a traditional Japanese New Year's celebration," he says as he leads her into his room in the dorms. There's two mochi stacked on top of each other with a bitter orange on top, two fancy black bento waiting, and two bowls of take out udon that have their covers all steamed up. "I don't know how to cook a lot of these properly, so I bought them. Since it's been a while since I had anyone to celebrate it with."

This time last year, he was hitchhiking from Sendai to Tokyo, clinging to trains with his blades and watching the world go past. Not much time for cooking.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Well it might be New Year's Adam for Taro; for Amy, New Year's Lilith seems perhaps a better fit. They're not going to get into a pointless argument about that, though! (Actual New Year's she's been invited to the Tsukinos'.)

    It's been awhile since the last meeting of "Oyaji Club": Amy and Taro getting together for dinner and a movie and talking about identity and psychological issues and whatnot.

    (Though an allusion to their unique backgrounds, the joke is that neither of them was ever truly an ojisan; Amanda having never been a man on the inside, and Taro having been magicall prevented from growing up and taking an adult role in society.)

    "Hey Tarooooo~!" Amy sing-songs outside the door; for the season, she's wearing a green T-shirt and red skirt under her oversized winter coat. Once inside, she rushes over to give her friend a hug, and then kicks off her sneakers since they're going to be chilling inside for awhile. She then hangs up her coat and sets down her backpack; nothing in it she really needs, but it's kind of force of habit going places at school.

    She's not wearing the ID around her neck this time.

    "I never really got to have a traditional Japanese New Year's! I've always just been alone at the apartment. And here, last year. Back home it was just... go somewhere with relatives I'm not close to, and get a third of the way through a glass of champagne before I can't stand the taste anymore."

    She turns to him and smiles. "I'm glad I get to spend it with you this time. Well, New Year's Eve Eve, but whatever."

    She walks over to look at the food appreciatively. "Ooooooh, it looks good! And smells good... I dunno if I'm gonna be able to eat all of this, there's so much..."

    "So, what do you usually do at traditional Japanese New year's?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
Once the door is closed, Taro henshins into Kuiper Belt Cape, which allows him to wear as fancy a kimono as he likes, thank you very much! A great blue mountain under a purple sky with sweeps over most of the fabric, and an eagle is outlined in the vibrant pink of the sun peeking out.

"Amy! This is going to be great!" he says as he scoops her into his arms for a hug.

"It's been a long time since I had one. I think the last one was in - oh, late 2000s, maybe? I was working at a pet store and we all got a New Year bonus. I figured I couldn't get away with getting O-Toso sake since we're both technically underage and it tastes bad, anyway, so we're sticking with the food. And most of what's in the bentos is finger food for us to eat all day! The only thing that's formal dinner-y stuff is the noodles!"

He bounces in excitement.

"So! This is toshikoshi soba, it's served at New Years and the noodles are extra long because we want extra-long lives and luck this year! But they're also soft and easy to cut so we can cut away the bad stuff from last year. All the soba places are going to be a zoo tomorrow, so we're skipping the rush."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    When Taro henshins, Amy oooohs and claps her hands together gently (not hurting them; she's been getting better at that), happy to see her friend taking his more comfortable form. And then she's scooped off her feet for a hug, and feels feelings about that, and decides to not think too hard about them for the moment, just smiling and enjoying being with a friend.

    Sake tastes bad anyway. "I never did like the taste of alchohol anyway."

    She ooohs appreciatively as he explains the noodles, and smiles at his infectious excitement. "I had no idea about the symbolic significance! So... did you want to watch a movie before dinner, or hang out and talk for a bit first, or...?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"We can talk first if you want! There's this show that comes on on New Years proper, Kohaku Uta Gassan, which is - I looked it up, it's like the Eurovision music contest." He did research! "Except it's all in one day. It's airing tomorrow, obviously, but I found a MewTube compilation of the best of previous years. I even remember some of them!" He's counting that as a victory! "And if we don't like that, we can put on a movie."

And he makes a face. "I don't know how people can drink beer. It tastes like drain water. And then liquor is like being punched in the face. Sake's supposed to be all elegant but it just tastes like hot...stuff."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I never watched Eurovision, honestly. I assumed it's like American Idol -- which I only saw maybe an episode of -- but European." She shrugs with an embarassed grin at admitting her lack of knowledge of that particular bit of pop culture.

    "Beer tastes weird. I only tried it once. The fruityness of cider helps it a little, but it's still not something I'd drink without a social expectation. Anything stronger..." She shakes her head.

    But, on to funner things! She smiles, "Sure, let's put that on! An' maybe talk a little too... we can pause it if we're missing a bit." She goes to bring some of the finger food bentos over to the couch, is there a table there, or...?

    While he's bringing the video up she asks, "So... how have you been, man? We haven't really talked in awhile. Figure any more stuff out, now that..." She looks a bit awkward as she realizes she's bringing up the implication that the rest of his life he didn't, but isn't sure how else to say it "...now that, well, I mean, you have friends and a positive environment?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I guess it's like American Idol? They're all competing to be the best band," Taro replies sheepishly. He's not terribly versed in this either.

"I used to bus a bar and - they didn't give me any booze, they were responsible adults, but one time I tried getting my hands on this thing called Long Island ICed Tea? It tasted ok. I fell asleep afterwards, though. I guess working two jobs is pretty tiring...."

The show pops up with a glittering logo. "This aired when I was a kid. They don't have any recordings of it from back then, though."

...and then she asks him how he's been. He grimaces, running his hands through his hair and leaning back on the couch. HE's got a little table set up in front of hte couch for the food to go - both the bentos and the soba.

"It's been really busy at the shop - mochi's a big thing at New Years so we had a lot of orders - and I've been..." His hands scrub down his face. "Can I talk about something fucked up?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Long Island iced tea is just iced sweet tea with alchohol in it, I think. Never tried it, seems like a waste of perfectly good sweet tea. Whenever friends said 'Oh, you won't be able to taste the alchohol in this!', they were always wrong." She says matter-of-factly with a little shrug, and sits down on the couch.

    No recordings from back then. "A shame. I know a lot of old TV was lost..." she acknowledges, sadly.

    She nods at the comment about busy-ness, and then her eyebrows go up at the question. "Yeah man, I'm fine with talking about... pretty much anything. 'Specially with you. What's up?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"No, it's like coke and a bunch of other stuff mixed together. It just happens to taste like American sweet tea," Taro says thoughtfully. "Sweet tea's better than matcha, I guess."

He huffs. "Yeah, no one recorded it. I know stuff like 'I love lucy'and some 'Astro Boy' got recorded, but it's pretty piecemeal. Especially over here since it was so soon after the war...."

Breathe in. Breathe out. "We fought a witch in - oh, it can't have been that long, can it? Feels like longer. The one in the doll shop. You know that one?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Not iced tea? "Huh, it is? I never knew. I do like sweet tea. My parents were from the south so Dad made some every day when I was a kid."

    She listens, curiously. And nods. "Yeah. That was... a trip. Normally you can tell when you've entered a Witch's Labyrinth, but... I dunno if the shop was just weird, or if it's because it's close to the Forgotten District, or what."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"My ma liked matcha, but it tastes really different. We can try it sometime? I don't like it, but it's very classic.

He gnaws on his lip, thinking.

"...I was so focused on getting that girl out of the cage, I completely didn't see her dad. I know he must have died, since we were all splattered with his blood, but I just. I didn't see it. Do witches kill people a lot?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Do Witches kill people a lot?

    Amy takes a breath, and lets it out.

    She breathes in again, nods, and speaks. "Yeah. Usually people they mark -- we call it a Witch's Kiss -- commit suicide, or are lured into the Labyrinth so the Witch can kill them. I always assumed they... feed on death, somehow. I don't know if it's possible to know why they kill people. Gretchen or Madoka might know; I just assumed they feed on death, like I said."

    "...I've killed a lot of Witches. Lost count of how many, at this point. Even Obsidian knows they're a bad thing to have around."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Even if it's not literal. Sometimes you get so miserable that the only way to keep yourself afloat is to hurt someone else, because that means you're still in control."

Don't. Ask how he knows that. He's not sure if he'll ever be ready to show that part of his wretched underbelly.

"Suicides, killing them, eating them... If Obsidian knows they're so bad, why don't they do anything about it? I get it for the people who want to destroy the earth, but if you're ruling it, you need living subjects."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy tries to maintain a neutral face as Taro reveals that. She's reminded, for a moment, that the person she's talking to has 80 years of memories... And has been through some dark times. Probably a lot of times she wouldn't have survived. "Hopefully you'll never have to feel that way again."

    Why doesn't Obsidian help? "Huh? They do. They've got a couple of Puella Magi on their payroll to hunt Witches, and like, if they get caught in a Labyrinth they're helping us kill it same as anyone else." Beat. "...Have you seen them not? They're not crazy enough to start experimenting with Witches, right?"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"I hope so. Being a good guy is kind of great? I still write to - oh, you may not remember, that little kid who had her dolls stolen by one of Beryl's flunkies? She still likes doll stuff so I send her crafting advice now and then."

Good kid. Sweet girl. He's glad she hasn't had her passions put out by being kidnapped that one time.

"Ok, that's good. I wasn't high up enough to really see what Obsidian was *doing*, so take this with a grain of salt, but I didn't really see them hunting them or messing with them." He grimaces. "Just feels like all their plots are kind of stupid when there's monsters literally eating people. Oh, here's my evil kingdom! Don't worry, that's the doll beast that likes skinning people alive!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles upon hearing the kid is still making dolls. "I'm glad she's doin' alright!" She looks at her hands. "I was never really into dolls, but I guess I am a little after getting turned into one."

    Taro rants about Obsidian. "Dark energy messes people up in the head. Changes their priorities. Remember it made Hinoiri... destroy the sun for a bit, or banish it or something. But like. Aside from paying some Puella Magi to hunt down Witches, what are they gonna do, put all their plans on hold until every Witch everywhere is exterminated? It's not possible, if there were no Witches..." She grimaces.

    "Sooner or later a Puella Magi will use up all her magic or fall into despair, and then you've got a Witch again. It's not like Kyubey's going to stop contracting people."

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Yeah, I remember. Hinoiri was so wild on dark energy she set my boss on fire. And Tuxedo Guy." Yeah, he knows his name is Mamoru Tuxedo Kamen Chiba at this point, but there's a certain comedy in keeping up the Tuxedo Guy gag.

He grimaces. "And we can't kill all the Kyubeys, or kick them off the planet, or put them under a curse. Which is a pain!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy thinks about that. "...I guess we can't know what's really impossible, with magic. Maybe there is some way to do that, but..."

    She holds out her hand -- the one without the ring on it -- and looks at it, turning it over, her eyes narrowing and lips pursing very slightly. almost imperceptibly. "...If we did that... If there's anyone else out there, who could never have become a magical girl without him, who'd never get a chance..."

    And the akumatized Sailor Jupiter's words pop into her head:

    "Why should only some wishes be granted?" Amy echoes the words spoken by another girl denied her ideal body by nature, and granted it only by magic others found objectionable. [Scene 2054]

    Remembering that, and how much she felt for Makoto, sends a twinge of sadness through her, and she hunches forward some. "It... it can't be right... for me to get this, only to deny it to others... but you're right, as long as he's out there he's hurting people, too..."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Oh. Oh no. He didn't mean to make her feel sad - !!

Nope. NO sads. Hug time now.

"The problem isn't the wishes, per se, it's that he's granting them without showing all the fine print. Like, you girls don't KNOW you'er going to explode into a monster when you get recruited! That's an important part of the process! So we'd have to make him learn ethics, because some wishes are worth the price, or we'd need to stop him, or we'd need to take the wishing power ourselves. Right now we're not trying to deny people wishes but stop a con artist from conning people."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's pulled into a hug sitting on the couch, but she's still thinking. "...I don't know if I would have agreed if I'd known. I probably would have said... i... it's better to not endanger others, just so that I can have a magical adventure. I'm not supposed to be a girl anyway, or so I thought then. I mean I can't strictly say this is for the good of all, is it? Maybe with other magical girls' help I can survive, a few others can survive, but..."

    She looks up at Taro, "We can't 'all live like this! We'll run out of magic without grief seeds, new Witches have to come from somewhere!"

    She lowers her head, forehead pressing against his chest, hands clutching at his kimono. "I don't deserve this! I had my shot and I failed! And, and, and people only care now because I look like this, or at least because I'm magic, and, and, and it can only continue because other people are dying for me and it's only okay because we didn't know them, because it's not my fault Kyubey tricks people?! But if he didn't..."

    She's been on the edge of tears and they finally start flowing, "I'd have only lasted a few weeks... and... and if I wouldn't have turned into a Witch after, I still might say it was worth it... Just to..." She sobs and tries to find words.

Taro Yamada has posed:
Amy mushes herself into him and Taro has to rearrange his arms, trying to work out how to hold her while she starts crying against his chest. Ohhh, this is not his forte, but he can't just say nothing - !

"You deserve this and you're really a girl," he starts, trying to untangle the web of things she's said. "I want Kyubey to stop so that you don't feel like people have to die for wishes to happen? You do deserve to live. Just because the way the world works is shit doesn't mean you're bad for being happy that you got your wish. Like. I've done some messed up stuff as the Slasher, right? But I'm also glad I lived long enough to meet you. That doesn't make me a fuck up, right?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She shivers a little at that initial reassurance. "...I don't know. Maybe you did fuck up, I mean, you got power and went 'I should be a monster that stabs people in alleys'... But I'm glad you got another chance and that I got to meet you." She looks up at him, then hangs her head and collapses into the hug. "If we deserve this... how can it be fair that we get it when so many others don't? When others have to become Witches to keep me alive??"

    She henshins without changing her outfit or position, although the belt pouches appear at her waist so she can pull out her grief seed. "This one was from a familiar that grew into a Witch, not a puella magi, I asked Madoka and checked, but that familiar came from somewhere, someone had to die... Most of them have been from former Puella Magi."

    She looks up at him, and then down at the grief seed. "What if this was... I dunno, Molly? What if the one I'm using a month from now were Usagi? What if the one I used a month ago had used to be Sakai-san? They might've... They were someone's friends! Someone's child or sister! Or... brother, maybe even. Do I deserve them all dying for me?!"

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Ok, yeah. Stabbing people isn't great," Taro admits, a little defensive, because - yeah it's bad, but he'd been doing it for so long, it was almost normal? But it wasn't normal.

"Well. That isn't fair," he says, looking at the grief seed. "That also fucking sucks, that this keeps happening. But - you can't get out of the system or you'll literally die. And you didn't start it. And, like - " He fumbles for words. "the world isn't fair. This all sucks.Other people shouldn't be dying. But we can't just die to get out of the stupid witch system either!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stares at the seed for a moment. "...So like... basically I can try to make up for it by ending the system? Or at least working towards ending it as best I can?"

    She closes her fingers around the grief seed.

    "If we did end it, then either I run out of magic and die, or... I'm not magic anymore, and then I won't remember who I am and I'm basically dead and replaced by someone else. I know it's the right thing to do, but..."

    She shakes, "I don't wanna die. I don't want this life, this existence to all be over, not tomorrow not in a few years! I wanted a life! I don't know how to live it, I don't know how to, to do whatever the hell it is everyone else does, and I'm a selfish pri-- a selfish bitch because at this point my greatest dream is just being taken care of and not having to worry about that!"

    "I don't know what to do with life or how to live it except this, this crazy be-a-teenager-in-high-school-again where I get room and board because I can fight monsters! But I still want it, the thought of it ending scares me." She slumps against him.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"It works for living, right? We gotta kill chickens to eat them. Which is not the same," he adds hastily, "but there's a bunch of bad stuff that happens that we can't change, so we either change it or live with it.

(He'd grown very good at living with Jack and his hungers. And now, bit by bit, he's changing himself.)

"....Isn't that everyone's dream? Who doesn't want to be taken care of? I spent decades barely scraping enough money together to sleep in tiny hotel rooms or living in abandoned buildings. We fight, but we have to eat. The stabbing scary shit was all I HAD. And even though living like a real person is better for me, sometimes I miss the focus of just being a cryptid."

"Fuck. I don't know where I'm going with this. I also have no idea what I'm doing? And if you're selfish,so am I, so you've got company."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "We can change it though. People used to got sick and die and no one could do anything. But we developed medicine. And so on."

    Amy shakes her head. "No I don't mean like 'it would be nice', sure, everyone would like that. But I mean the way some people wanna be a doctor or a singer or whatever, the, the, I talked to Akai-san, about what it's like to have a dream, is it like, something you imagine and think about every day? 'Cuz I started to realize that like... maybe the reason I never had a dream like that all my life was because being a girl was my dream and I just didn't know it was possible."

    "But I was, like, seeing with people with chara," she pauses briefly at realizing she misspoke an extra word, but it doesn't seem worth restating corrected, "and that got me thinking about how like, now that I have that why can't I imagine... like, I don't think about, I don't dream about being a game designer every day, or, or about being a singer, or about being a dad and raising a family..." she frowns briefly, catching that, "you know what I mean."

    "Like yeah I can kinda form a picture in my head but it's not... It's not what I think about every day, have daydreams about, not a future I imagine and fantasize about."

    She lets go of him and sits up straight on the couch. "You know what I do?? I imagine that when we graduate I find, like, some organization or person who takes in magical girls and helps them figure out adult life, or I imagine getting a do-over of non-magical life, a childhood or at least high school of actually figuring myself out, or I imagine getting isekaied and taken in by someone like Hannah, or..." She looks away and says softly, "...I'd accept someone considerably worse as long as I knew I was... valued. And not just for some skill that could become worthless someday or that I might not be able to do after illness or an accident..."

    She sniffles and takes a breath. "Something's broken. Something's wrong. Other people wanna be... stuff! Even stuff that probably won't succeed like an idol or an artist or president or astronaut! But instead of dreams like that I..." She falls silent except for trying to control her breathing.

Taro Yamada has posed:
No future. No dream. Nothing. Well - "Before I came to Tokyo, I was the same way. The only thing I saw in the future was getting stronger. I didn't have any dreams of doing anything otherwise. I was just kind of - existing."

But is it the same? It was -

"....Fuyuko-sensei was the one to get me to figure my shit out, back at Obsidean. And when I realized I wasn't ok with being a villain, she shoved me over to Kyouka-san. They help rearrange things for mahou. You've met them before, right? Is that something adjacnet to what you want to do?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy relaxes a bit and leans against him, as he says he was the same way. She can take a little solace in someone having shared the experience.

    But what he says next is surprising, and she kind of has to blurt out the less-on-topic part first: "There's someone at Obsidian who helps people switch sides?! Why wouldn't they just, like, use you?"

    Still, 'Is that something adjacent to what you want to do?' draws her. And her voice isn't crying anymore.

    But now she's intently thinking about something. "...It's not really a job that exists at this tech level. And it's not like, something I think of every day... I think. But..."

    She stands up in front of the couch, puts the grief seed away, de-henshins, and pulls a tissue from her skirt pocket, blowing her nose, dabbing at her eyes, and tossing it to the wastebasket.

    "Some people... they wanna be like this, right?" She points at herself. "And some people, they wanna be guys. Little skinny guys. Big tall guys! Or girls with more 'vavoom'" she cups her hands over the air in front of her, "And some people, they wanna be 2½ meters tall with horns!" She reaches over to tap one of Taro's horns lightly with a fingertip.

    "Some people, they want wings and tails and fangs and claws! Or fur or tentacles or to be a dragon or robot but there are all. kinds."

    She grins, "And you saw, right? How happy I was seeing that you get to be you, when you showed me the Slasher!"

    She paces back and forth in front of the couch. "After I learned that magic was real, and, y'know, had a moment to get over the whole initial holy-shit-I'm-a-magical-girl and holy-shit-I'm-a-girl things, and even moreso when I learned that in other worlds magic is seen as something you can understand and manipulate, the same way we do with Nature, I imagined a future with no veil, where we can use magic to help people, not just to save them from monsters but to help them be themselves!"

    She spins towards him, leaning over a bit if he's still sitting, and spreads out her hands. "There are a lotta people like us out there." She stands up straight again. "Born the wrong shape, or at least not quite the right shape. If I could have any job, I can't imagine that helping people get the shape they want would ever get old. Seeing them smile, seeing them happy to be themselves... the thought of it makes you smile too, you know?"

    And then her grin fades, and she calms down. "...But that's not a real thing. It's not something that exists in this time, or maybe ever. 'Morphological freedom' is a phrase no one else at this school has heard of, let alone an ideal anyone but a few transhumanists would ever think or talk about. So uh. I guess I kinda just rambled pointlessly there."

    She moves to plop back down on the couch.

Taro Yamada has posed:
"Oh, she doesn't like, WORK-work for Obsideon? She does the like law stuff and trains villainous mahou to do villain things. She saw I was going to flub villain stuff and sent me over. I think it's more of a like - making sure there's a balance of mahou? It's been ages, so don't quote me on that." It's been a while since he's seen Fuyuko-sensei. he should check in on her....

He listens and listenes and listens and... and.... Hm. For all that everything is going on -

"Is there a job to help other trans people change?" he asks. "Is that a thing? We can't make cyborgs or vampires out of technology yet, but I'm pretty sure that would do something..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. Another breath.

    "I can't say the thought never occured to me, but like. Endocrinology, I am given to understand, is an especially difficult branch of medicine to learn. So's surgery in general, let alone whatever fiddly bits there are about plastic surgery in particular."

    Amy stands up, turns around, and holds up her arms. "And me? I am... like I'm smart, but I am not med school smart. Also, I hate school. Like, this," She waves an arm in the direction of the classroom buildings, "is easy 'cuz most subjects I already learned through college-level, but college?" She shakes her head, red tresses swaying back and forth. "It is about taking whatever you like learning about and crushing that out of you." She lifts tightened fists in front of her to emphasize 'crushing'.

    "It is about extracting tuition from you, not about preparing you for a job, let alone helping you enjoy learning whatever it is you love so much you decided to devote your life to it." Her voice chokes a bit at the end there, and her eyes water.

    "I couldn't do that. I..." She sobs. "I can't do that to something I care about again! I'd never make it through med school, anyway."

    She takes a breath. "From what I've looked into it sounds like, aside from such specialists, it's mostly, like, GPs writing prescriptions or general medical personnel just, assisting with gender-affirming stuff the same as anything else."

    She plops back into the chair. "...If I liked school that much, I'd have already done this to get to work on brain-machine interfaces and uploading. But I was sure as hell never gonna get through that."

Taro Yamada has posed:
Taro considers all this as well, watching Amy pace around the couch.

"Ok, so maybe you don't become a doctor. There's other parts of gender medicine that exist, right? Therapists or reception people who can be trusted or people who make bras with extra breast in them or bras that remove - binders, sorry, that's the word. Or you could make clothing that makes people feel better about themselves? I don't think you need to go to college to learn how to sew, my ma did that!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy wipes her tears on her sleeve. The memory of parents pushing her to stay in college after it turned out to suck has her braced for having to argue against that, and she's pleasantly surprised and relieved Taro moves on.

    "I... guess. We've already like. Stepped a bit away from, like, I don't have this dream. this burning desire to do any of this. To think of it every day. Although I'll grant you that some, smaller role in an organization to help people, or helping some other way, might be something to that. A job I could take some satisfaction in, but it's not something you like..."

    She gives a high point on the far wall a starry-eyed look and clenches a fist in mock determination. "I'm gonna be the best medical receptionist ever! I'm gonna not misgender them and make them feel comfortable!"

    She relaxes. "It's not something you get a chara for, and it's not a career. Organizations and positions come and go. Nothing is... stable, in the 21st century."

    She shakes her head, then smiles. "But, thank you. For listening to me. Look, this all may well be academic. I could die to some Witch tomorrow. I may lose my memory in a few years. I should..."

    Her eyes water. "Enjoy the time I have... dammit," she wipes her tears, "why am I sad, I'm lucky! I get these years of friends and magic, a lot of people don't get that! I'm not going to sacrifice it for some maybe future that only happens if everything goes right for me! That's what I did the first time, I said 'oh, life will be better after I graduate' and I didn't learn how to make friends..."

    She takes a breath and turns and hugs him. "Thank you. For being one of those friends, and for being here. And for taking the hint and not arguing I should do super-hard college if I don't want to."

    "What about you though? What are you gonna do? You're not gonna fade for... awhile yet..." She looks up at him with watery eyes. "...Shit. You won't be you either once you do though, huh. I mean. You'll forget... basically everything... Shit." She lets go and sits up and wipes her eyes again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."