Bulletin Post #1

[holiestlove]

Hello one and all,

My name is Jonathan Harker, some of you may know me, others may not. In my world, I worked as a solicitor's clerk for many years before becoming a proper solicitor. That said, I am rather good at gathering information and putting it into a proper order. The reason I write this is I have a project in mind to hopefully help us in the future.

To those who were part of the story that we experienced recently. I would like to meet with you to gather information on what you recalled or did not. I do understand it may be embarrassing for some, so I will accept anonymous information as well.

I can be found in the Maker space if you would rather speak in person. Thank you all for your time.

-Jonathan

[ The letter is tacked to the Bulletin, written in very fine script.]

Comments

[holiestlove]

Yes, and no. [ He confessed. Yet, besides confusion, there was curiosity and worry. ]

They changed your gender? Are you alright? [ It was the only way he could think to phrase the question. Everything else could wait, he wanted to be sure his friend was okay as his mind tried to wrap around it all.]

[ohaiyo_isekai]

…Michiko greatly resembled who I was in 2019 in San Francisco, on the other side of the world.

One might say I was not born in a body that accorded to the shape of my soul.

[…if you were a confused cis man from Victorian England who needed this explained to him simply.]

For all that I’ve lost stature, this one from my games of sword and sorcery is far less wrong.

[holiestlove]

[ He listened before nodding slowly. After all, he was a cis man from Victorian England, and did not grasp the full extent, and yet he nodded. ]

So, when you ended up in the new world, your new body was closer to the shape your soul desired?

[ Jonathan rephrased it, setting his slate pencil aside for now.]

Well, aside from the lost of stature, of course.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

I actually had the matter well in hand on the other side of the screen. There are pills, potions and procedures for making wine where the Gods provided grapes, even in your time, and Virtual Age medicine is potent.

But you are describing the situation that my friend who I shall call Deedee Yeowoo found herself in, finding herself on the Shores of Awakening as the latest in a long line of Amazonian healers she played in our storytelling games without ever before suspecting she was that type instead of fancying that type.

The urge to emulate a father worthy of the role, who died senselessly of a plague in her youth, had become a mania to her. It took a lot of gentle nudging from me - and not so gentle pointed statements from our mutual friend who I shall call Ace - for her to consider being a worthy daughter rather than a perfect son.

[holiestlove]

I did not know of this, but I am glad to hear it is something that can be helped. It would be a crime to have to live in a way you did not wish. Circumstances, willing, of course.

[ Though he had been born poor and came into money just after returning home. He knew not everyone could do a job they loved, or meet the other half of their soul. Any happiness worth having was worth chasing.

He nodded once more, folding his hands as he listened.]

Curiously, as I am trying to process this, these games that lead to the new world. Are they like the vampire games you spoke of recently? In playing these games, or in the new world? You and Ace helped your friend become the person they wanted to be? [ He seemed less confused, just trying to fill in the blames. No judgment in his eyes, or tone. Just curiosity. ] I do apologize for asking so much. I just want to fully understand as best I can.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Yes... and no. The Wonders of Mundus was built with the rules from one of our favorite tabletop games in mind, with some idiosyncratic renaming. Strength became Vigor, Resolve and Guts swapped positions.

But it was built as an immersive world, an illusion that one could touch, taste and feel with a miracle of science we called a NeuroHelm.

Until someone attacked the game world itself, and it stopped being an illusion. Any more than life itself is one, anyway; I once had to reassure one of the former distaff-carriers, now a full fledged and sapient human being, that all the world being a stage and all it's people merely players was a condition far from unique to Mundus.

[He sighs.]

...I will get to the hatching of Deedee, as she would have put it, but first I should say I am telling you this for three reasons.

[holiestlove]

[ He mouths the names switched to commit them to memory, not wanting to start writing again yet. Everything Hikaru is saying is a little confusing, but he was doing his best to take it all in and learn.

Nodding when Hikaru sighs.]

Yes, please, I would very much like to hear more after. Please continue with the reasons.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Firstly and foremost: you were worthy of it. For a long time I lived in fear of those who would... who would force others into shapes as frozen as their hearts, we drops in a vast warm ocean of humanity. Sophonity, one supposes, though we had no proof of nonhuman Namers on my Earth. But your relentless humanity in the face of those who would take it from you dispelled any fears I may have had of how you'd react to the truth of me.

Me, who had to stitch my mantle of manhood, and you, born to that purple, but performing masculinity correctly and well for the sake of a Mina not even your own.

[holiestlove]

[ Jonathan started to smile as Hikaru spoke. A small swell of pride at seeming to pass what felt like a test he didn't even know he was taking. It was then that he reached over the table and to take Hikaru's hand if he was able to. ]

There is no world where I would ever expect you to be anything that you are not. You are my friend, Hikaru, though I may not always understand. I will always be here for you as a good friend should be.

[ Finally, his smile cracked a little as he gave a soft laugh.] Performing masculinity correctly? Oh, if only Mina and I's school teacher could hear such a thing. You have no idea how oft I got in trouble for holding her arm, or anything else deemed a woman's place in etiquette. I have never put much stock about such things, Hikaru. Though, you are correct where Mina is concerned, I would do anything for her.

[ His Mina, but the Mina here is dear to him as well.]

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Never putting stock into such things as are born from the fear of being thought womanly is doing it correctly. As the Story reminded me when I took up a needle and thread again.

Secondly... Mina knows. For Min'a Ha'arker, her Role, was the healer who...

Gods, I despise the 'egg' metaphor. It repeats the lie that it's only self-made women who struggle with this. When an egg hatches, a chick comes out, you see. Or perhaps the slang in your time would be 'bird.' Either way.

And when you grind beans, you get some hot Joe. Heh.

But say that Min'a got Michiko out of her shell. When Siobhan stormed her hospital ship looking for her, she found someone tentatively asking people to call him Mitch, and suggested the name Hikaru to him.

[holiestlove]

Well, I had not considered it like that, but you have a fine point. We will return to the needle and thread.

[ He wanted to learn, even if he would be awful at it. He couldn't ask Mina to do everything for him, simply because he never learned how.]

Min'a Ha'arker? Curious that they did not alter her name closer to her full name, or maiden name. [ That he jots down in his elegant script. Trying to write the name the way Hikaru said it.] And thank you for telling me, I would rather not have to keep things from Mina, but I will if necessary, but I would rather not.

[ Because keeping things from Mina has never backfired horribly...

He listened as Hikaru explained, nodding. ]

Siobhan? Oh, no, Mitch seems so unfitting for you. Though, which do you prefer?

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Definitely Hikaru. He actually came up with a secret third thing, a very clever one, but as that is my true and legal Earthly name, you will forgive me if I do not want it spread around. I have enemies on Earth, thanks to opposing those Earthlings who would conquer Mundus, and if I still live there the last thing we need is for one of them to firebomb my address. You understand.

...and the third thing I was made painfully aware of when I realized that there is no reason that in another world, my story or more likely Deedee's would make a fine animated series, and with any luck an incomplete fansub of it would show up in the Stacks and catch Rin's attention or something.

[holiestlove]

Absolutely, I understand the dangers that could bring. I need not to have that, even if I would not share it. You are Hikaru, that is all I require.

[ He spoke with the wave of a hand. If Hikaru was the name Hikaru wanted, that was the end of it. Just like with Konrad, he would be Night Haunter until the end of time to Jonathan. Hell, he only called Mina by her full name when he was being deadly serious. ]

You mean like the box... [ Trying to remember the name. Before snapping when it clicked back.] Television! Something for that?

[ The time traveler paid attention! ]

[ohaiyo_isekai]

Yes, a recorded television show. Or an illustrated light novel, come to that. I met someone who's light novels I'd read, and I trust you will understand if I do not share who.

So.

At some point after fighting monsters on the beach, I had been wounded and collapsed. Deedee, who had gained potent healing magic applied as a massage, took it on herself to treat those wounds, and kept making the kind of jokes about being less than a man that spoke to me of Michiko's 'well I'm hardly the most feminine of girls' jokes, you know? The desperate attempt to laugh instead of weep.

So I divulged to her the secret you, Mina, Laina and Siobhan now share, in the hopes that she would feel comfortable enough to confess her worries to me.

[He pauses, and rolls his eyes, and scoffs.]

Ace just bluntly stated "I'm a trans woman, doofus, and do you want to be a girl?" to her, to far greater effect.

[holiestlove]

Yes, of course, as I said anything you share is between us. Or with Mina, if she asks to see my notes. That goes without saying, I feel.

[ He nodded listening, again some of it goes over his head, but he listened intently.]

So, all three of you made the changes to the way your souls were shaped? [ It sounded so simple when he said it, yet, his mind felt it must be complex. ] I don't need to know the name if they are here, but is Deedee one of us here? I feel like I might have missed that detail.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

She is not, no. Nor is she shy about this point of her biography, among trustworthy folk. We changed our forms to better match our souls.

Transgender, beyond our born sexes, as your trans-sylvania is beyond the forest. Cis as in cisalpine is the word for those born in comfortable skins.

Siobhan is a native daughter of Mundus who we met later; Laina a learned friend, a priestess-archivist whose god and patron granted her insight into my Earth.

[holiestlove]

Thank you, I had wondered if the term was shortened. [ That helped as he nodded with the explanation of the terms. Latin wasn't his strong suit, but his studies at the Lincoln’s Inn did give him enough knowledge of Latin to grasp it. Not to mention, he knew what Transylvania meant.

He was silent a moment before he spoke, reaching up to push his bangs back again. ]

I do not understand, but I accept what you're saying. [ His tone remained kind, worried he might mess something up, his words were important when it came to his friend's trust.] In the way that I do not understand the technicalities of how the telegraph transmits messages, but I accept that it does.

[ohaiyo_isekai]

That is all I could hope for. After all, you… hah, haven’t had need to take the blue pill for yourself though those are mostly estrogens, my testosterone was red ironically enough - this must be terribly alien to your experience.

Better acceptance and friendship without the words than any number of people who should know better and still call me - treat me as - a woman.