BethofDeath
Girls just wanna have pun
- Location
- Kakistocratic Christofascist Oligarchy of America
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wow, they sound like such Nice Guys.
Awww!
🦋 Team Butterfly Forever 🦋
- Thread starter open_sketch
- Start date
- Original Mature Novel
Wow, they sound like such Nice Guys.
Awww!
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Kumon is from Singapore. It's weird imagining magical girls going for the same maths tuition as regular people.For those who don't know, Kumen is a torture camp for making kids look exactly like their logo (it's a tutoring franchise)
I imagine Eve is making that exact expression during the Trig discussions
Is this an official term or just something spun up in the moment? Because as someone who tends to dip into the outer edge of what I now see as TCCZ, having a name to put your experience to is a godsend.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Amara feeling comfortable to tell her partner about her secret/Nightshade was super touching, loved that part.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
So, if they were in a cave, would it try to go out of the cave first, or would it plunge straight into the ground?
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
"not now brigid we've got more pressing issues!"
- Location
- Vermont
I know it's a bit late to make this comment, but Eve is getting an entire justification for the ethics classes right here again. These girls give me the impression the party would rapidly become murderhobos if they tried tabletop games.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
From context clues, we can assume the strings take the shortest path possible through air and following the surface of Earth.
I don't remember if we know for sure if they can go through solid matter ― I'd guess so, it just makes more sense to me that, for example, a connection to someone on the ceiling would point up and not at the stairs ― and, if so, if there's a limit.
My guess, based on nothing, is that the thread would point at the ground for anything they could break through with some work but to an entrance and a path for something really deep or maybe magically reinforced.
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
i basically just figured the strings follow the curve of the earth to maintain a consistent altitude (or rather transition between altitudes) because they're basically behaving the way they would to observers if the world was flat, keeping with them being like… repurposed elements of folklore
In all seriousness, getting a really precise measurement is probably impossible, and even if it were, their target is moving around so it's no very useful. Narrowing it down to a hundred kilometre radius is probably good enough, at that point you can fly to the closest airport and follow the strings in a car the rest of the way.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
- Pronouns
- They/Them/She/Her
Ah, looks like BART expanded more rapidly and/or differently in this timeline; neat.open_sketch said:
Maybe the superpowered battles led to lower Bay Area land values (and less powerful carbrained NIMBYs) that in turn made construction significantly easier and cheaper? Actually, yeah, IIRC we already saw some of that in residential construction; it sounds like it might indeed have applied to transit too.
(Whereas in our timeline, well:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZrrtF8Iy8k)
I got it, as far as I know!open_sketch said:
...Granted, I'm the kind of person annoyed her calculus skills are kind of rusty and she no longer remembers much at all how to do differential equations. I got fairly far up there in math, back in college. Difficulty with to-me-basic math isn't really one of my weaknesses, so it was just a simple matter of unpacking the text; IIRC I'd understood what Brigid meant before she even finished explaining it.
(Though I've continued to develop the detail I've thought about it in as I've proceeded through the comments.)
Ah, good point, good point, I'd forgotten to take into account the lines (presumably) being direct. So I didn't quite have the concept, but this ought to still be quite tractable, potentially even simpler.Gravitas Hunt said:
Either way, I think the references lines (Sage-Brigid) ought to be short enough that the map between them can be approximated as planar, and the distance between the point in Richmond and the point in San Jose can be approximated as a chord on a perfect sphere. So the measurements give angles between the Brigid-Lyra lines and the Brigid-Sage lines, latitude and longitude give approximate angles of the Brigid-Sage lines to the chord and the length of the chord (with an approximate radius of the Earth), if needed a plumb line could give angles between the Brigid-Sage lines, the Brigid-Lyra lines, and radial lines, look from that at where the two Brigid-Sage lines would intersect the sphere's surface again, aaaand I'm not sure off the top of my head exactly how to go through all the math, but from the above I expect I could figure it out if I needed to, and I'm quite confident Brigid can do it. Of course, with those assumptions, the location would still be approximate, but as IIRC someone else mention, Lyra's likely moving around at least somewhat anyway.samdamandias said:
(Say, for instance, that they somehow pinpointed her exact location, down to the millimeter position of her left big toe... inside Gare du Nord. How likely is it that position is still accurate within ten kilometers by the time they get there? So an approximate position's probably the best they can do anyway, and can give them a place to start narrowing things down with other methods.)
Not quite, I think:Aranfan said:
They have to be within line of sight to make it work, which doesn't give them much distance for the Brigid-Sage line if they're just swapping ends. That'd be better than nothing, but they mention measuring in Richmond and San Jose, which IIRC are basically at opposite ends of San Francisco Bay the long way, and standing a few hundred meters apart at each.open_sketch said:
...Though that mention of azimuth, thinking on it again and checking Wikipedia, has me wondering if maybe the strings do follow the surface of the Earth. My spherical geometry's not what it could be.
(Still, if they do, I think that that might actually be simpler after all, continuing to think more on this? Then they could just deal with angles on the surface, and... I think not even need to use the distance between Richmond and San Jose in the math? Not sure. Eh. Well, Brigid knows what she's doing here, I expect, and whether the strings point directly or follow the Earth's surface; that seems like the sort of thing she'd have investigated at some point already.)
...I don't think they are? My understanding is that her, Sage, and Eve's parents will be doing this in the Bay Area while Eve and Amara are on the trip.10ebbor10 said:
(As an aside, I mainly know where(ish) Richmond and San Jose are (without having to look it up) thanks to my special interest in trains, so, kind of amusing the application it's having to Brigid's plan here.
)Ahh, thanks! Sorry, I'd forgotten that, after not having thought about it in that much detail at the time.open_sketch said:
So, yes, with my current state of thinking on it, they can probably just do it with angles on the surface. The location produced'll still be somewhat approximate due to limits of measurement precision/accuracy, map distortions, etc., but it'll likely still be good enough to narrow down, say, one area of one city, or whatever, and then they can go there and look.
Pft, aye, looks like I wasn't wrong she'd have looked into the details.open_sketch said:
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
hoping to update either sunday or monday. sorry for the slowdown; i tend to hit these walls where i lose confidence in my writing really hard, and i'm stuck in one now. i really hope these decompressed chapters are working and i haven't killed the momentum too hard
DracoDracul
Transbian Communist
- Location
- Austin
- Pronouns
- She/They
I just want you to know this my favorite ongoing story that I'm reading right now.
- Location
- Soviet Canuckistan
For what its worth I've been enjoying this story straight through; and these last few chapters as they leverage a couple different abilities to try and make them work for stuff they're not really intended for is really interesting. Whenever you're ready to post more, I'll be happy and eager to read.
- Pronouns
- She/They
The decompressed chapters have let me get a lot better feel for the characters, and I'm really enjoying seeing them interact and reunite.
🦋 Chapter 7 - Patchwork (Part 4)
New
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
Her fingers trailed through your hair in a slow, reassuring sweep before she shrugged.
"If Nightshade is still out there, I doubt he'd want anything to do with any of this. He always said the worst thing to do after betraying somebody is to believe they'll take you back. Honestly, I think he'd be more inclined to help us than her," she explained.
"Didn't you just say he's only in it for himself? Why would he care?" Kimiyo asked.
"Well, he does live here now, unless he's found some way to leave the planet," Amara pointed out, then paused, clearly realizing something. "Which he might actually be able to do…"
"Melvin's promised to keep us in the loop, and he'd have told me," you replied. A few of the leftover Venusian mercs had surrendered after the Queen was banished, and that night Melvin had quietly turned up on behalf of his dad to take custody and apologetically attempt to establish diplomatic relations with the sovereign of Earth. You told him where the UN was, but he insisted. You instructed him to call back after you got a few weeks sleep, and then managed to convince him that until the coronation, he should obey the Prime Directive and make sure all the other aliens did too. You then had to explain what that was.
About once a year you got a cute little handwritten letter from him, it was very nice. He'd gotten married to a girl whose name had far too few vowels for humans to pronounce.
Talk turned to alien weirdness for a few minutes, mostly Brigid explaining a few of her latest theories. She was midway through explaining her suspicion that they were less an interstellar civilization and more a kind of extraplanetary equivalent of nature spirits when the doorbell rang. Amara patted her pockets, realized she didn't have any cash, and you all fished around in your purses until you managed to put together enough cash for a tip between the three of you.
Which is to say, you found enough money in your purse for the tip, while Kimiyo and Brigid sheepishly produced a small pile of yen and pounds sterling respectively. They were now studying each other's money, as was tradition.
Amara headed downstairs and reemerged duel-welding pizzas, and you turned up the volume as the Colbert Report came on. It was also a rerun, but you hadn't seen it; from May 9th apparently. Which… was a day after your NHK interview.
"Heads up, we might be on TV again," you mentioned, to a groan from Kimiyo. Fortunately, Colbert was too busy interviewing a vampire running for congress, because Normal Country.
"Do vampires fall under our jurisdiction?" you asked.
"As in The Masquerade. He's a LARPer," Brigid clarified.
"That's worse," Kimiyo added, sorting her assorted yens back into her wallet. "Uh, right, I hate to bring this up, but I need to ask about, uh…" She trailed off. "Rent. 700 dollars?"
"Yeah," Amara confirmed. "If you can, 'cause we're going to need it. Money was tight before we had to buy four last-minute flights. Is it okay to ask how you're doing?"
"Okay. I have a bit of money put aside, I can cover my rent for a few months while I'm job hunting," she explained. You cut in excitedly.
"She was living off of commissions in Tokyo, it's super cool," you said proudly. She blushed.
"I also wasn't paying rent in Tokyo, but yes. I might still have some money coming in even if I can't find anything, so I'll be able to stretch my savings. Don't worry about me," she said, then paused. "If you need, I can probably take on a little more this-"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we'll be okay," Amara said. "I've got something lined up with Cloudflare, that should be pretty good. You okay, Brigid?"
Brigid had the unfortunately increasingly-familiar look she sported when she was struggling to remember something, frustrated confusion that pulled her face tight as she stared into space.
"... I thought you had a lot of money. You were working for a startup. How long ago was that?" she asked slowly. You could tell she hated having to say it, equal parts revulsion and terror as she grappled with not being able to recall something she knew she knew.
"Two years," you said quietly. Her face collapsed; she honestly looked like she might cry.
"Right. Of course," she said. "Can you refresh my memory? It was… some kind of app, like AirBNB?"
"Of course, no problem. So… yeah, I did get hired by a start-up, right out of RIT, sight-unseen. They literally just looked at my degree and asked me how fast I could get back across the country to start getting paid triple digits," Amara explained. "The hours were predictably horrifying, but as I said, triple digits. Problem was mostly that the app itself was kind of a time bomb; the ads made it sound like a cool couchsurfing thing, but it was basically Lyft for landlords."
"Jesus," Brigid intoned. Oh, that was another one she hit with maximal Irish.
"Yeah, it was called 'Hostyl', like 'hostel', you know? It was sort of like AirBNB like you said, but aiming for tenants instead of tourists."
"Remember the CEO who had that prototype Google Streetview thing that Blackberry was hijacking?" Kimiyo asked. Brigid nodded slowly.
"Whitley?" she said uncertainly, and sighed with relief as Kimiyo nodded. Memory was weird.
"He was Amara's boss. I'll just say it, saving him was a mistake," Kimiyo explained.
"Agreed," Amara said. "Needless to say, they made out like bandits for about ten months after rollout, then Mr. Whitley sold the company about five minutes ahead of the lawsuits. I quit two weeks before the bank showed up to take people's desks in the middle of the workday, but I haven't been able to find anything permanent since."
"It's the transphobic racism," you added helpfully. It sometimes helped to spell it out for your white friends.
"Hey, it could also be racist transphobia," Amara said. "I've been doing a lot of random shit, I'm writing middleware documentation for Oracle's backend right now, and last month I helped set up an early UX pass for a banking app, but I mostly do API troubleshooting and developer support."
Brigid stared blankly; she was missing something in there, but you weren't sure which part. That was a rare sight.
"She fixes it when two companies' computers can't talk to one another, and she trains white boys to do jobs they won't hire her for," you translated. Brigid nodded slowly and nibbled at her pizza.
"Yeah, that. Not a great culture fit, overqualified, you know how it is," Amara said, an edge of bitterness creeping into her voice. "Says something that the only time I could get a job in this industry was when I was too far away to get interviewed in person, doesn't it? I make okay money, but it's inconsistent. This month was okay. Next month should be good. No idea after that."
"That sucks," Brigid said quietly, then turned to you. "And… you lost your job, I remember that?"
"Yeah. Abandoned Planet finally went under, landlord wouldn't renew the lease," you said. The place had been limping along for years when you got the job; the owner used to say that the only thing keeping it open for the last few years was that Books Inc got leveled and took the rent down with it in 2006. It couldn't last forever, but it was still sad.
"I liked that place," Brigid said quietly, munching her pizza. "Well, you did my taxes, you know what a mess my finances are. I… dunno what I can even do anymore."
"That's a problem to take on after you've gotten stable, okay?" you said. She glowered, but nodded. "Do you think you'd want to go back to school, if you could?"
"I doubt I could," she said sourly. "By the time I formally suspended my studies I'd already fallen considerably behind, and there's a lot of competition for DPhil programmes. I'd have to contact my supervisor, probably disabilities services, and apply for reinstatement, which I have to do within six terms…"
"That sounds doable?" Kimiyo pointed out. "How long is six terms?"
"Two years," Brigid said, stifling a yawn. "It's pointless."
"And how long has it been since you formally dropped out?" Kimiyo pressed.
"Suspended. Um… 2012. End of 2012. October," Brigid said, clearly struggling to remember.
"Then you still have time. We can help," you said. "If you want."
She shrugged, rubbing at her eyes.
"I'll try," she said, then yawned again and tried to focus on the TV. You settled back and turned the volume up again, just in time for Kimiyo to perk up at the guest announcement.
"Oh shit!"
"Ah, it's Kimmy's celebrity crush," you teased.
"Shut up!"
"Isn't she the one from that video game?" Brigid asked hazily, as Ellen Page came out on stage to cheers and applause. "She's going to be in X-Men?"
"Big deal. I'm an ex-man and I don't get invited on TV," Amara said without a moment of hesitation. Whatever Kimiyo was about to say was interrupted by an undignified snort of laughter.
"I just think she's cool," she managed eventually. "Celebrities being out makes it easier for everyone else, you know? Representation is important."
"And you wanna smooch her," you added. That was mean; you knew Kimiyo meant that stuff too.
"What of it?"
You watched to the end of the episode, then Brigid put down her half-eaten slice of pizza and muttered something utterly incoherent about tiredness. She staggered off down the hall, and you leaned back on the couch and crumpled against Kimiyo.
"Poor Brigid," you said quietly. "Hey, what happened to her laptop? I saw it was broken."
Kimiyo set her jaw, eyes narrowing.
"Well. First, they made her check her backpack as she was getting on the plane because they ran out of room in the overhead bins. It's a soft backpack, and they just threw it in with everything else." She was trying to stay level-headed, you could tell, but the anger was getting away from her. "She didn't say, but I think the flight was bad, maybe seizures. She couldn't find where her luggage was, and when she tried to ask for help she had a breakdown and they got a fucking rent-a-cop to make her leave. I found her sitting on the curb bawling her eyes out."
"Jesus," Amara muttered.
"Yeah. I had to go in and make them get her fucking bag, which is when we discovered it was broken," Kimiyo finished. "She's not doing great. No wonder she's tired."
You leaned against her and tried to pull her as close as possible; she was so tense against you, fists clenched, muscles trembling.
"Yeah," she concluded, closing her eyes; you were holding her too tight for her to use her hands for her breathing exercise, but she pictured herself doing it, and you were so close you could see it too. She very consciously changed the topic as she finally relaxed a tiny bit, leaning a bit of weight against you. "How are you doing staying awake?"
You opened your mouth to reply and yawned instead.
"Bad," you said, pulling out your phone. It was still far too early to go to bed; the sun was still up. "Okay. I declare movie night. Then we're going back to bed. Sounds good?"
Kimiyo nodded, so you sat up and fished for the remote to start up Netflix, fighting sleep as you shuffled past your usual stuff to the Actual Movies, pausing just for a moment at the anime. Kimmy had promised to watch the third season of the Planetary Saviour Haruna remake with you when she got back, you were saving it. She said it was more faithful to the manga, but you privately thought it wasn't as good as the 90s cartoon. That would have to be first thing after you saved the world.
You scrolled through the new arrivals and paused at a movie, the name familiar.
"Oh, how about Starman?" you proposed. Space alien romance movie from the 80s sounded like the perfect intersection of your whole polycule's interest, and besides it made you think about the song, which immediately wormed its way into your brain. "I want to love! you! Mister Star-man!"
"That's… not Starman," Amara said. "I dunno what that is. Starman is like… there's a staaaaaaar-man! Waiting in the sky! He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds, you know?" She blinked. "Like, Bowie?"
You both turned to Kimiyo, curious if she had a starman of her own. She carefully took your laptop, typed something into Google, and paused.
"Uh, it's what Super Giant was called in America apparently?" she offered. "I don't have a song for that."
"Cool," you replied, hitting play. "Cuddle time! Mandatory."
"Hold on," Kimiyo said, and you paused, having not even cleared the first title card. She took a deep breath, fists clenched and pulling at the material of her skirt, then turned. She squared her shoulders, head held high, breathing as even as she could will it. "Amara, I owe you an apology."
Amara stared at her, deer in the headlights, then smiled, looking away and shaking her head.
"Oh, don't worry about-" she began, but Kimiyo wasn't having it.
"Don't! You don't get to just play this off, it's not fair," she snapped, the anger she'd only barely stuffed back down from talking about Brigid flaring up again. "I've been a huge bitch, and it isn't okay."
Amara paused, and you could feel her cycle through all the reassuring patter she'd normally use in a situation like this, trying to find her footing. Kimiyo's phrasing wasn't helping; she didn't know how to engage around the word and wouldn't be caught dead saying it. Amara thought in straightforward ways, her mental voice at times like this was like an auctioneer rattling off possible responses, gesturing wildly between the person she wanted to be and the person she feared she was and the safe answer that was neither, the one she kept reflexively picking with your friends to avoid the worst option. It was hard to think off-script over the noise.
"Hey," Amara said finally. "I just want to know what's going on?"
Kimiyo's turn to look away, her face screwed up, thoughts buzzing in her head as she tried to figure out what she could articulate. Kimiyo's thoughts always felt like those youtube videos of people solving rubix cubes really fast, orderly fragments moving too fast along neat little rows to read clearly, just flashes of colour. Anger, envy, guilt, inadequacy, click click click, twisting to hide the faces she was too ashamed to voice. The actual memories and throughlines were tucked away tight behind the whirling panels, shadows briefly visible through the gaps before it all locked in place.
"It's… fucking… I had a huge fight with my family, just… with people I trusted my whole life. I couldn't get my shit together afterward. It brought back a lot of… dumb shit I used to think, okay?" Kimiyo said, wrestling with the anger to try and squash it down, pulling it close to her heart again. "I… I'm… I used to be better at this, fuck…"
The thoughts started moving again, click click click, the configuration they'd settled in too painful, burning against her brain as she tried to hold onto it. Amara's thoughts were rolling through nonsensical deflections and apologies, ways to try and soothe it, to reassure her by distancing herself, holding back because she knew nothing she could say would help even if she could think of nothing better.
Click.
"I got jealous, okay? I fucked up by staying," Kimiyo said, starting fresh, trying to force herself to relax so the words could escape. "I kept thinking, how am I supposed to come back now, how am I supposed to make up for this? How do I compete with…" She gestured, stopping herself before saying it, but you saw the words before they were locked away and Amara heard them in the silence.
"Prince Charming," Amara said. Kimiyo shrugged shamefully, eyes locked to the floor, and Amara's smile returned. She saw her in, the perfect moment, the words flowing naturally and drowning out everything else.
"Well, for starters, we aren't competing, and I know you know that. And second, it's not all on you. Mostly, sure, but I stopped showing up on the calls, I stopped messaging you, I sorta… let everything slide," Amara said, gesturing around the now-pristine apartment. "Thing is, the last few years have sucked for everyone, and I just sat here in my little pocket of okay and let it get worse."
Kimiyo was just focusing on her breathing, her thoughts jumbling up, nothing she could say.
"But look, who cares?" Amara finished. "Blame never fixed anything, so what do we do now?"
Click.
"Well, we could watch a movie together?" Kimiyo said, a smile creeping across her face despite everything. Amara nodded.
"Sounds like a good start."
Then they both turned and looked at you as you wiped a tear from your eye, the smile on your face so wide it was hurting.
"T-that was so beautiful," you managed, your hands clamped together for fear you'd start to applaud spontaneously. "I-it just-"
"Oh, knock it off," Kimiyo said bluntly, indicating with her hand for you to shift to the middle of the couch as Amara moved to take your spot. "And start the movie already, we haven't got all night."
"If Nightshade is still out there, I doubt he'd want anything to do with any of this. He always said the worst thing to do after betraying somebody is to believe they'll take you back. Honestly, I think he'd be more inclined to help us than her," she explained.
"Didn't you just say he's only in it for himself? Why would he care?" Kimiyo asked.
"Well, he does live here now, unless he's found some way to leave the planet," Amara pointed out, then paused, clearly realizing something. "Which he might actually be able to do…"
"Melvin's promised to keep us in the loop, and he'd have told me," you replied. A few of the leftover Venusian mercs had surrendered after the Queen was banished, and that night Melvin had quietly turned up on behalf of his dad to take custody and apologetically attempt to establish diplomatic relations with the sovereign of Earth. You told him where the UN was, but he insisted. You instructed him to call back after you got a few weeks sleep, and then managed to convince him that until the coronation, he should obey the Prime Directive and make sure all the other aliens did too. You then had to explain what that was.
About once a year you got a cute little handwritten letter from him, it was very nice. He'd gotten married to a girl whose name had far too few vowels for humans to pronounce.
Talk turned to alien weirdness for a few minutes, mostly Brigid explaining a few of her latest theories. She was midway through explaining her suspicion that they were less an interstellar civilization and more a kind of extraplanetary equivalent of nature spirits when the doorbell rang. Amara patted her pockets, realized she didn't have any cash, and you all fished around in your purses until you managed to put together enough cash for a tip between the three of you.
Which is to say, you found enough money in your purse for the tip, while Kimiyo and Brigid sheepishly produced a small pile of yen and pounds sterling respectively. They were now studying each other's money, as was tradition.
Amara headed downstairs and reemerged duel-welding pizzas, and you turned up the volume as the Colbert Report came on. It was also a rerun, but you hadn't seen it; from May 9th apparently. Which… was a day after your NHK interview.
"Heads up, we might be on TV again," you mentioned, to a groan from Kimiyo. Fortunately, Colbert was too busy interviewing a vampire running for congress, because Normal Country.
"Do vampires fall under our jurisdiction?" you asked.
"As in The Masquerade. He's a LARPer," Brigid clarified.
"That's worse," Kimiyo added, sorting her assorted yens back into her wallet. "Uh, right, I hate to bring this up, but I need to ask about, uh…" She trailed off. "Rent. 700 dollars?"
"Yeah," Amara confirmed. "If you can, 'cause we're going to need it. Money was tight before we had to buy four last-minute flights. Is it okay to ask how you're doing?"
"Okay. I have a bit of money put aside, I can cover my rent for a few months while I'm job hunting," she explained. You cut in excitedly.
"She was living off of commissions in Tokyo, it's super cool," you said proudly. She blushed.
"I also wasn't paying rent in Tokyo, but yes. I might still have some money coming in even if I can't find anything, so I'll be able to stretch my savings. Don't worry about me," she said, then paused. "If you need, I can probably take on a little more this-"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we'll be okay," Amara said. "I've got something lined up with Cloudflare, that should be pretty good. You okay, Brigid?"
Brigid had the unfortunately increasingly-familiar look she sported when she was struggling to remember something, frustrated confusion that pulled her face tight as she stared into space.
"... I thought you had a lot of money. You were working for a startup. How long ago was that?" she asked slowly. You could tell she hated having to say it, equal parts revulsion and terror as she grappled with not being able to recall something she knew she knew.
"Two years," you said quietly. Her face collapsed; she honestly looked like she might cry.
"Right. Of course," she said. "Can you refresh my memory? It was… some kind of app, like AirBNB?"
"Of course, no problem. So… yeah, I did get hired by a start-up, right out of RIT, sight-unseen. They literally just looked at my degree and asked me how fast I could get back across the country to start getting paid triple digits," Amara explained. "The hours were predictably horrifying, but as I said, triple digits. Problem was mostly that the app itself was kind of a time bomb; the ads made it sound like a cool couchsurfing thing, but it was basically Lyft for landlords."
"Jesus," Brigid intoned. Oh, that was another one she hit with maximal Irish.
"Yeah, it was called 'Hostyl', like 'hostel', you know? It was sort of like AirBNB like you said, but aiming for tenants instead of tourists."
"Remember the CEO who had that prototype Google Streetview thing that Blackberry was hijacking?" Kimiyo asked. Brigid nodded slowly.
"Whitley?" she said uncertainly, and sighed with relief as Kimiyo nodded. Memory was weird.
"He was Amara's boss. I'll just say it, saving him was a mistake," Kimiyo explained.
"Agreed," Amara said. "Needless to say, they made out like bandits for about ten months after rollout, then Mr. Whitley sold the company about five minutes ahead of the lawsuits. I quit two weeks before the bank showed up to take people's desks in the middle of the workday, but I haven't been able to find anything permanent since."
"It's the transphobic racism," you added helpfully. It sometimes helped to spell it out for your white friends.
"Hey, it could also be racist transphobia," Amara said. "I've been doing a lot of random shit, I'm writing middleware documentation for Oracle's backend right now, and last month I helped set up an early UX pass for a banking app, but I mostly do API troubleshooting and developer support."
Brigid stared blankly; she was missing something in there, but you weren't sure which part. That was a rare sight.
"She fixes it when two companies' computers can't talk to one another, and she trains white boys to do jobs they won't hire her for," you translated. Brigid nodded slowly and nibbled at her pizza.
"Yeah, that. Not a great culture fit, overqualified, you know how it is," Amara said, an edge of bitterness creeping into her voice. "Says something that the only time I could get a job in this industry was when I was too far away to get interviewed in person, doesn't it? I make okay money, but it's inconsistent. This month was okay. Next month should be good. No idea after that."
"That sucks," Brigid said quietly, then turned to you. "And… you lost your job, I remember that?"
"Yeah. Abandoned Planet finally went under, landlord wouldn't renew the lease," you said. The place had been limping along for years when you got the job; the owner used to say that the only thing keeping it open for the last few years was that Books Inc got leveled and took the rent down with it in 2006. It couldn't last forever, but it was still sad.
"I liked that place," Brigid said quietly, munching her pizza. "Well, you did my taxes, you know what a mess my finances are. I… dunno what I can even do anymore."
"That's a problem to take on after you've gotten stable, okay?" you said. She glowered, but nodded. "Do you think you'd want to go back to school, if you could?"
"I doubt I could," she said sourly. "By the time I formally suspended my studies I'd already fallen considerably behind, and there's a lot of competition for DPhil programmes. I'd have to contact my supervisor, probably disabilities services, and apply for reinstatement, which I have to do within six terms…"
"That sounds doable?" Kimiyo pointed out. "How long is six terms?"
"Two years," Brigid said, stifling a yawn. "It's pointless."
"And how long has it been since you formally dropped out?" Kimiyo pressed.
"Suspended. Um… 2012. End of 2012. October," Brigid said, clearly struggling to remember.
"Then you still have time. We can help," you said. "If you want."
She shrugged, rubbing at her eyes.
"I'll try," she said, then yawned again and tried to focus on the TV. You settled back and turned the volume up again, just in time for Kimiyo to perk up at the guest announcement.
"Oh shit!"
"Ah, it's Kimmy's celebrity crush," you teased.
"Shut up!"
"Isn't she the one from that video game?" Brigid asked hazily, as Ellen Page came out on stage to cheers and applause. "She's going to be in X-Men?"
"Big deal. I'm an ex-man and I don't get invited on TV," Amara said without a moment of hesitation. Whatever Kimiyo was about to say was interrupted by an undignified snort of laughter.
"I just think she's cool," she managed eventually. "Celebrities being out makes it easier for everyone else, you know? Representation is important."
"And you wanna smooch her," you added. That was mean; you knew Kimiyo meant that stuff too.
"What of it?"
You watched to the end of the episode, then Brigid put down her half-eaten slice of pizza and muttered something utterly incoherent about tiredness. She staggered off down the hall, and you leaned back on the couch and crumpled against Kimiyo.
"Poor Brigid," you said quietly. "Hey, what happened to her laptop? I saw it was broken."
Kimiyo set her jaw, eyes narrowing.
"Well. First, they made her check her backpack as she was getting on the plane because they ran out of room in the overhead bins. It's a soft backpack, and they just threw it in with everything else." She was trying to stay level-headed, you could tell, but the anger was getting away from her. "She didn't say, but I think the flight was bad, maybe seizures. She couldn't find where her luggage was, and when she tried to ask for help she had a breakdown and they got a fucking rent-a-cop to make her leave. I found her sitting on the curb bawling her eyes out."
"Jesus," Amara muttered.
"Yeah. I had to go in and make them get her fucking bag, which is when we discovered it was broken," Kimiyo finished. "She's not doing great. No wonder she's tired."
You leaned against her and tried to pull her as close as possible; she was so tense against you, fists clenched, muscles trembling.
"Yeah," she concluded, closing her eyes; you were holding her too tight for her to use her hands for her breathing exercise, but she pictured herself doing it, and you were so close you could see it too. She very consciously changed the topic as she finally relaxed a tiny bit, leaning a bit of weight against you. "How are you doing staying awake?"
You opened your mouth to reply and yawned instead.
"Bad," you said, pulling out your phone. It was still far too early to go to bed; the sun was still up. "Okay. I declare movie night. Then we're going back to bed. Sounds good?"
Kimiyo nodded, so you sat up and fished for the remote to start up Netflix, fighting sleep as you shuffled past your usual stuff to the Actual Movies, pausing just for a moment at the anime. Kimmy had promised to watch the third season of the Planetary Saviour Haruna remake with you when she got back, you were saving it. She said it was more faithful to the manga, but you privately thought it wasn't as good as the 90s cartoon. That would have to be first thing after you saved the world.
You scrolled through the new arrivals and paused at a movie, the name familiar.
"Oh, how about Starman?" you proposed. Space alien romance movie from the 80s sounded like the perfect intersection of your whole polycule's interest, and besides it made you think about the song, which immediately wormed its way into your brain. "I want to love! you! Mister Star-man!"
"That's… not Starman," Amara said. "I dunno what that is. Starman is like… there's a staaaaaaar-man! Waiting in the sky! He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds, you know?" She blinked. "Like, Bowie?"
You both turned to Kimiyo, curious if she had a starman of her own. She carefully took your laptop, typed something into Google, and paused.
"Uh, it's what Super Giant was called in America apparently?" she offered. "I don't have a song for that."
"Cool," you replied, hitting play. "Cuddle time! Mandatory."
"Hold on," Kimiyo said, and you paused, having not even cleared the first title card. She took a deep breath, fists clenched and pulling at the material of her skirt, then turned. She squared her shoulders, head held high, breathing as even as she could will it. "Amara, I owe you an apology."
Amara stared at her, deer in the headlights, then smiled, looking away and shaking her head.
"Oh, don't worry about-" she began, but Kimiyo wasn't having it.
"Don't! You don't get to just play this off, it's not fair," she snapped, the anger she'd only barely stuffed back down from talking about Brigid flaring up again. "I've been a huge bitch, and it isn't okay."
Amara paused, and you could feel her cycle through all the reassuring patter she'd normally use in a situation like this, trying to find her footing. Kimiyo's phrasing wasn't helping; she didn't know how to engage around the word and wouldn't be caught dead saying it. Amara thought in straightforward ways, her mental voice at times like this was like an auctioneer rattling off possible responses, gesturing wildly between the person she wanted to be and the person she feared she was and the safe answer that was neither, the one she kept reflexively picking with your friends to avoid the worst option. It was hard to think off-script over the noise.
"Hey," Amara said finally. "I just want to know what's going on?"
Kimiyo's turn to look away, her face screwed up, thoughts buzzing in her head as she tried to figure out what she could articulate. Kimiyo's thoughts always felt like those youtube videos of people solving rubix cubes really fast, orderly fragments moving too fast along neat little rows to read clearly, just flashes of colour. Anger, envy, guilt, inadequacy, click click click, twisting to hide the faces she was too ashamed to voice. The actual memories and throughlines were tucked away tight behind the whirling panels, shadows briefly visible through the gaps before it all locked in place.
"It's… fucking… I had a huge fight with my family, just… with people I trusted my whole life. I couldn't get my shit together afterward. It brought back a lot of… dumb shit I used to think, okay?" Kimiyo said, wrestling with the anger to try and squash it down, pulling it close to her heart again. "I… I'm… I used to be better at this, fuck…"
The thoughts started moving again, click click click, the configuration they'd settled in too painful, burning against her brain as she tried to hold onto it. Amara's thoughts were rolling through nonsensical deflections and apologies, ways to try and soothe it, to reassure her by distancing herself, holding back because she knew nothing she could say would help even if she could think of nothing better.
Click.
"I got jealous, okay? I fucked up by staying," Kimiyo said, starting fresh, trying to force herself to relax so the words could escape. "I kept thinking, how am I supposed to come back now, how am I supposed to make up for this? How do I compete with…" She gestured, stopping herself before saying it, but you saw the words before they were locked away and Amara heard them in the silence.
"Prince Charming," Amara said. Kimiyo shrugged shamefully, eyes locked to the floor, and Amara's smile returned. She saw her in, the perfect moment, the words flowing naturally and drowning out everything else.
"Well, for starters, we aren't competing, and I know you know that. And second, it's not all on you. Mostly, sure, but I stopped showing up on the calls, I stopped messaging you, I sorta… let everything slide," Amara said, gesturing around the now-pristine apartment. "Thing is, the last few years have sucked for everyone, and I just sat here in my little pocket of okay and let it get worse."
Kimiyo was just focusing on her breathing, her thoughts jumbling up, nothing she could say.
"But look, who cares?" Amara finished. "Blame never fixed anything, so what do we do now?"
Click.
"Well, we could watch a movie together?" Kimiyo said, a smile creeping across her face despite everything. Amara nodded.
"Sounds like a good start."
Then they both turned and looked at you as you wiped a tear from your eye, the smile on your face so wide it was hurting.
"T-that was so beautiful," you managed, your hands clamped together for fear you'd start to applaud spontaneously. "I-it just-"
"Oh, knock it off," Kimiyo said bluntly, indicating with her hand for you to shift to the middle of the couch as Amara moved to take your spot. "And start the movie already, we haven't got all night."
- Location
- Soviet Canuckistan
I love that she's keeping up with the alien dude. This is some really well done stuff, especially the emotional catharsis at the end as Amara and Kimiyo hash things out a bit.
Situation overall is less than great but they're getting a handle on things, and they're close to getting the whole band back together, at which point they should hopefully be able to get it all together.
Situation overall is less than great but they're getting a handle on things, and they're close to getting the whole band back together, at which point they should hopefully be able to get it all together.
DracoDracul
Transbian Communist
- Location
- Austin
- Pronouns
- She/They
I admit I capture something that genuinely terrifies me trying to job search after coming out. I'm in a remote position and I'm not out at work and I don't know what happens when cloud computing enters a death spiral once adnarok finally happens.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
You joined a landlord start-up called Hostile?
Are we sure she defected from the dark queen?
- Location
- The Midlands.
Nobody's immune to a slick sales pitch delivered by a professional bullshit artist. Especially when there's a very good wage on offer and they have debts to service.
So what? Is.... Is that guy the head of an organization that another group of magical girls is responsible for? Please tell me that they have magical girl juniors because that would be awesome.
addendum: Oh thank the Sapphic Saints. They finally talked. Yay communication between Adults!
addendum: Oh thank the Sapphic Saints. They finally talked. Yay communication between Adults!
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Great update - though I can't actually remember if Starman is any good, lol. I know it's a carpenter film!
- Location
- Nowhere
- Pronouns
- She/her
Look Amara spent centuries working for an evil boss, at this point the red flags are just homey.