prismatica | Text (shortly after the August Iris moon phase ends)

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Text (shortly after the August Iris moon phase ends)

Hello, fellow Moonblessed! This is the Principality Aziraphale and I have a few subjects I'd like to discuss with you, if you have the time to spare.

One is simply a request for good book recommendations, though I'm also curious if anyone has ever run into books here they were familiar with back home?

The other is particularly for those also blessed by the Iris moon... Have you had any trouble with shocking things? And people? My last phase resulted in my being quite affectionate but it's a bit of a hardship trying to cuddle when you keep accidentally shocking your partner.

[There is a possibility of Crowley threadjacking, forewarning.]

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He is. And I generally do.

The Prismals at least seem a bit more... Enlightened? From what I can tell? It would be nice to think humanity is headed that way as well. In regards to being nicer to one another, particularly where things like gender non-conforming and sexual orientation are concerned.

One can certainly hope. I'm given to understand the outlook in the West is starting to shift for the better, but that's probably going to take a while to work its way into Japan's cultural consciousness, especially since the notion will have to push back against some rather toxic conformity expectations.

The general lack of disgust or 'that's a phase, you'll grow out of it when you get married' here is refreshing.

There's still a bit of pushback in the West, unfortunately, but I don't doubt that it will meet with more difficult barriers in the East and take more time.

Harajuku street fashion and culture being the exception, of course, but they've been a bit ahead there ever since the Allied occupation of Japan, haven't they?

Oh, that's an awful, ignorant attitude, writing off one's identity, and so cruelly. Beyond that, it's not as if something being temporary would make it any less valid, anyway. We are all built out of our former experiences. One's sexuality may shift and change over the years, or it may stay strictly where it is, and that diversity is most important. It's one of many qualities that makes humanity so wonderful.

I did say 'starting to shift' for a reason. No matter where you are, that kind of change usually takes a while to trickle through society; if things have been speeding up in recent decades, it's probably because there's greater visibility, as well as the knowledge that it doesn't in fact cause the sky to fall or anything so dramatic.

Depending on who you ask, and sometimes when, Western culture is either what we need to aspire to or responsible for every bad thing that's happened to Japan since the missionaries first arrived. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle, as it so often is, but taking the time to consider which ideas are worth incorporating and how to do so without losing important aspects of our cultural identity is likely more work than most people want to put in.

I doubt my own attraction to girls would have even occurred to me if I'd never come here, so fortunately, that's not a reaction I've experienced firsthand. It is the prevailing attitude, though. In general, everything this place chooses to be would upset my mother greatly.

I consider that to be a major selling point.

This is all true, of course. But I do believe, when all is said and done, it will happen. Humanity is destined to grow. Change for the better is inevitable.

I've just remembered... Someone here told me they're from a time and place after a cataclysmic event has wiped out the entire surface of the Earth, and the surviving humans created a... Oh. What do you call it. Digital? Virtual? One of those words. Working copies, anyway, of themselves, completely intelligent, and sent those copies in their own... computer habitat? Into space! Humans are so remarkable. They evolved themselves, through their use of technology, to keep going, in order to survive. This wasn't evolution through genetics, this was born from creativity and sheer will. I'd never imagined such a result would ever come from humanity's new love of technology and computers.

-- Ah. Sorry, bit of a tangent there. My point being: I do believe humanity is capable of the change that is needed.

Of course, from what you say, I suspect not without first upsetting people like your mother?

That is quite an innovation.

Some days I think my mother is only happy when everyone else around her is miserable. She's never been pleasant company, especially so when she doesn't get her way. I've received one genuine apology from her in my life, and even that had to be brought about by outside circumstances.

Family is never easy, that was a lesson easily observed from six millennia among humans. Particularly when they have certain expectations of you and... Those don't quite match up with what you'd like for yourself. I do hope you look for and find your own happiness, dear, despite her attempts to make you miserable. At least being here should be a vacation from that, I'd imagine.

She wanted to vicariously live out her lost dreams of stardom through me, never mind that I wanted no part of that myself.

This has been a lovely break from her, it's true. And when I go home, it won't be too long before I don't have to deal with her at all - I'll find a way to keep in touch with my father once I move out, but I know he won't make me deal with her as a condition of talking to him.

That does sound like that may be for the best. A mother's job should be to nurture, support, and protect. I'm very sorry that wasn't the experience you got to have. It's certainly what you deserved.

I'm glad to know your father sounds fairly supportive, at any rate.

He is. He taught me to play shogi, before his health deteriorated and he became unable to play himself.

I'm sorry to hear about his health.

I'm afraid I've never played, though I do get involved with chess every now and again. It's another game played on a board, isn't it?

It is, yes. The board is slightly bigger, there are a few more pieces, and you can promote your pieces if you get far enough into your opponent's territory, as well as return captured pieces to the board to move on your behalf. Chess is all right, but I prefer the strategic options shogi opens up with those few variations.

I played competitively, and have every intention of doing so again once the damage from my mother's meddling with my career has been repaired.

I see. Is it something you've been able to do since you've been here? It sounds as if it's another good thing for you to be here to give you time to strategize a way to undo the damage that has been done.

Competitively, not as such, but I have found a number of people willing to sit down for a game or two, even if they don't know the rules yet. I taught one of my friends at home, before we arrived here, and that helped remind me to let myself have fun with the game as well as take it seriously.

[The rest will come with time, she figures.]

A very positive attitude to have. Do you miss playing competitively? I'd imagine there may be other competitions you could give a go while you're here, though perhaps that wouldn't be quite the same.

I do, a bit, but I think the break from high-stakes matches is doing me a world of good.

[And playing something else just wouldn't be the same, it's true.]

I can believe that. A bit of a vacation then? I admit, I've been attempting to look at my stay here that way myself.

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Text (shortly after the August Iris moon phase ends)

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