Just Keeping Swimming | March Planet Mingle

[thespaceopera]

Who: Everyone!
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: Anywhere on Mafik
When: The month of March



[Welcome to Mafik, the water world! Hope you brought your best swimming gear and don't have a paralyzing fear of water, because that's all that's here! So get out those wet suits and enjoy life under the sea!

In other words, it's a mingle! ]

> System Information

Comments

[ahappylie]

Ah, well. [Seriously, wtf is going on right now. None of those people were women????]

I'm from Genji 1. I looked into it recently and that should be around...1864? On the Western calendar.

[castrationfist]

Oh, then you must know of the famed Shinsengumi?

[ahappylie]

Ah.. the Wolves of Mibu?

[Well, that was uncomfortable, but he can manage. He does it all the time in Kyoto and sometimes here.]

Yes, I've heard of them. It's hard not to hear of their exploits in the capitol.

[castrationfist]

That Okita Souji of theirs... I didn't believe it at first, but that Lightless Three-Stage Thrust couldn't have been anyone else.

[She sighs, annoyed.]

[ahappylie]

...

Oh.

[So he becomes a hero? And is brought back to life in the future? That's kind of-





Wait.





WAIT A MINUTE.


WAIT A HECKIN MINUTE.]

The Okita Souji you know is a woman?

[castrationfist]

Hm... I'm not sure you could call it 'knowing' her. Most of our relationship was trading barbs while we attempted to kill each other, you know? Well, she really hated me, I guess because of my legend, and I couldn't figure out her identity until she brought out her coat and flag... It was rare for me to be able to fight a Saber at all, but I managed until then. Then that flag summoned Kondou, and really, two Shinsengumi against one lone fox? Using her Three-Stage Thrust was just overkill.

[ahappylie]

[Okay, no, he has to laugh because?? This has to be a joke right?

Like ha ha, good one, Hajime. Yes, people called him girly all the time and Hijikata even though he'd turn out to be a good wife when he was a child, but they all know he's really a man.

Right?



Right?????

So he laughs because it's the only thing he can do.]

That is one person who I know is absolutely not a woman. Something must have gone wrong in the future.

[castrationfist]

Hm? What are you talking about?

[how do you know




have you seen okita souji naked]

[ahappylie]

[Oops, crap. Now he has to really work hard to keep his identity a secret.]

Well, I live in Kyoto and I've seen him. He is definitely not a woman.

[And yeah he has seen him naked!!! It's called a mirror.]

[castrationfist]

You'd have to be quite close to be that certain.

[ARE YOU FUCKING OKITA SOUJI]

[ahappylie]

[The answer to that question is A. Yes and B. Sometimes because self love is not a crime ok]

They often go through my area on patrols, so yes, I've gotten quite close.

[castrationfist]

Close enough to see her without clothes?

[ahappylie]

[He sighs internally and then sets the plushie he's holding back onto the shelf.]

I know what you are insinuating, but please believe me when I say I know him quite personally.

[Since he was a child, in fact.]

And he is male.

[castrationfist]

... You're very invested in this, aren't you? "Soujirou".

[ahappylie]

[He looks back at Tamamo and gives her a melancholy smile.]

I suppose you could say I am, even if I wish I could ignore it.

[Then he turns back to the stuffed animals.]

His life is going to be very difficult [and short] so I'd rather people knew him as he really is.

[castrationfist]

I see. Perhaps this is a difference between worlds.

As long as you don't intend to kill me again, then we won't have any problems.

[ahappylie]

[Again?]

Perhaps so. If I did kill you in another life, I'm sorry. You seem very nice now.

[And perhaps they won't have problems, but he's already wondering how much of a friendship he just lost. His name has always caused these problems, and even here, leagues and light years away from Kyoto, he probably should have known better.]

[castrationfist]

Didn't I already say? In the Holy Grail War on the moon, I was killed by Okita Souji's Lightless Three-Stage Thrust. It was quite a painful experience.

[She's watching him carefully.]

[ahappylie]

[The wariness in her posture says it all and his smile, while still remaining, seems hollow now. Of course, why would she ever trust him even if it wasn't him who killed her?]

I believe you. It is a brutal technique even when it isn't full of magic.

[He keeps his hands where she can see them, but also takes a step away as he pretends to care about looking through the stuffed animals again. Might as well give her space.]

[castrationfist]

[Well, then. Let's see if he can retain that attitude.]

Though if it comes to brutality, I think I still win. After all, you can ask King Zhou.

[It's all but admitting to being Daji. That's all it will take to make him see her as an enemy, she's sure.]

[ahappylie]

[King Zhou.... He searches his memory and comes up with Hokusai's drawings and tales. If he recalls correctly, King Zhou was in the throes of an evil fox spirit that delighted in the murder and torture of innocents.

Normally he'd be rather put out by discovering someone enjoyed torture, but then he also knows that the fox spirit fled China and came to Japan and there became quite a different type of person. If everyone were judged on past actions forever, then wouldn't everyone be worthy of scorn?

Considering how much blood is on his hands, and how much will be in the future, he supposes he can't judge.]

I could, but I would prefer to ask your husband now who knows you as you are, than someone who only knew you as you were.

[castrationfist]

[... She looks away, silently. She wants to ask Hakuno, too. She still worries. Is Hakuno really okay with an anti-hero, a monster like her?]

Do you think someone like me could have changed?

[ahappylie]

I don't know.

[He's honest about that because this is one of those questions where platitudes are just hidden cruelties. He doesn't know if people can change, even with a thousand or nine thousand years worth of time. He doesn't think he can change or stray from the bloody path he began as a child.

But he's seen people overcome amazing odds and stay true to the better version of themselves even when faced with life and death, the possibility of being murdered by the object of their vengeance or the horrific choice of becoming a murderer themselves.

For Okita, the choice was simple and clear. For Tetsu...he'd hesitated.]

People are capable of amazing things given the right motivations.

[He pulls a small aquatic eel with three tails down from the shelf. It has a seashell heart held in a pair of stubby little arms and a goofy but charming smile drawn on its elongated face.]

Especially people in love.

[castrationfist]

[She's tried. She's tried to change so many times, and in the end, she never can. Sometimes she's weak and falls back to evil. Sometimes it's not her fault, and she's forced to it, and blamed. Now, she can't even really keep trying. She'll go through the motions, but she doesn't believe she can ever be anything but the evil monster.]

Even if I love someone, in the end, I'm a monster. An Anti-Hero. I am an enemy of humanity to be trampled down by a hero.

[ahappylie]

Perhaps, but the fact that you try is something.

[She could, after all, give in and not care anymore.]

Some of us are fated to be stained red no matter how hard we try, but that doesn't invalidate the act of trying.

[He, on the other hand, doesn't really care to try. He just knows he has people he wants to protect and if that means killing everything in his way, then so be it.]

You may eventually do something evil here or at home, Tamamo-san, but I don't think that will change the way I see you.