“Where did you get this?”
“Guy who usually comes by the place I work told me about it. In hindsight, that should’ve been a warning.”
“No kidding.” A pause before eyes focused on the screen – and nearly popped out of their sockets in the process. “OhmiGod, they don’t work that way! That’s not natural physics!”
“It’s called Gainaxing.”
“That’s not the point!”
“Yeah, I know. I’m actually more terrified that someone in Japan seems to think that all girls are like that.”
A sigh. “You know, couldn’t we have just watched something a little more normal?”
“Define ‘normal’.”
An accusing finger pointed at the screen. “Well, that sure as hell isn’t it! I mean, isn’t the newest season of Celestial Princess Dancer Mango on Netflix?”
“Yeah, but you have to watch Celestial Princess Dancer Mango S: The Movie ~Dreams in Our Future Past~ in order to get all the references in the new season,” was the response. “For some reason, Netflix doesn’t have the rights to it yet. I could probably find a fansub of it online somewhere.”
“No thanks – I think I’ve been scarred enough by the internet today, and—” Words cut off by a gasp of shock. “Oh dear sweet Lord, is she—?”
“Okay, this is getting too weird even for me, and I work in an anime store.” A dusky finger reached over and clicked the mouse button, closing the browser window. A wan smile followed shortly thereafter. “Sorry about that – I’m going to have to kick Quibble Pants’ ass next time I see him.”
“He was the one that recommended this?”
“Yup.”
A pause, followed by a smirk. “Make him suffer,” was the pleased reply.
Two African-American girls sat in a bedroom that looked like your typical teenage bedroom, albeit on the cleaner side of things. One of them wore a simple white sweatshirt over a tangerine polo and black jeans; while she wasn’t exactly a fashionplate, she was more in tune with style than most she knew. Her blue-and-persian hair was perfectly coiffed, bringing out the richness in her sapphire-hued eyes. The other girl, however, was earthier, currently wearing a coffee-brown Henley shirt accompanied by heavily-scuffed blue jeans; her hair was a short, shaggy mess of pearl-gray ending in lilac tips that somehow made her amber-colored eyes all the more striking.
The two were Minuette and Gilda Griffin, and for some incomprehensible reason to anyone who saw them, the two were friends. Anyone who did know them, however, still found it odd, but at least gave the two the benefit of the doubt.
“You want something to drink?” Minuette asked Gilda.
“Yeah, I could use something to work as brain bleach after that,” Gilda grunted, following Minuette out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen, where the former quickly threw together something looking remotely like nachos and waters.
“Sorry about the drinks,” Minuette apologized. “When your parents are both dentists, sugary sodas tend to become taboo around the household.”
Gilda gratefully accepted the bottle, ripping off the cap and chugging nearly the whole bottle in one go. “That’s fine; believe me, if my father had his way, that’d probably be all that we drink around the house, but we have to have coffee in the morning in order to survive.” She chuckled. “Hell, you should see my mom if she hasn’t had her cup of morning joe – she gets snippy like no tomorrow.”
“Sounds like my mom. Between my parents, my mother is the Queen Goddess of Snip,” Minuette said with a giggle.
“Then why aren’t you?”
Minuette blushed. “I…tend to take after my dad. He’s much calmer and more level-headed about things,” she admitted, then looked at the faint scars she had on her arms, a result of earlier in the year. “I wish I’d inherited more of his calm, believe me.”
Gilda looked at the girl’s arm for a second. “Yeah, Rainbow told me about what happened. Believe me, I’m sorry that it did.”
Anger welled up in Minuette’s soul for a second. “Oh, spare me the pity party, Gilda! What do you know about being used?!” she snapped, then backed off a second later. “Sorry about that. That was unkind of me.”
But Gilda took it in stride. “It’s all good. But to answer your question, I didn’t have the best of childhoods,” she admitted. “My birth father is in prison for, amongst other things, child abuse. My stepfather – he’s my real dad, as far as I’m concerned, but…trust me, you’re not the only one with scars. Mine are just in places that aren’t as easily seen.” She slumped in her chair. “It’s probably why I turned out the way I did.”
“A closet otaku?”
“Trust me, around my old circle of friends, it wasn’t exactly something that you admitted to. Garble, Lightning Dust, Rover, Switchblade, Brass Knuckle – all of them were into bitches, bass and brews. Even Dust, and she was as white as you could get.” She frowned. “If any of them had found out that I was into anime, they’d have punted my ass to the curb in an instant.”
“Same for me, too. There’s a movie from a few decades ago called Heathers that talks about friendships gone wrong. That was me, Waterfire, Primrose and Autumn. I grew up with Wai, but…now? Somehow we’d moved into the frenemies column, and now we’re just strangers to one another. Those three have their own circle and I’m still trying to find out who I am.” She gave Gilda a wan smile. “If they found out that I’ve loved mahō shōjo since I was a little girl, I’d have probably been bounced out of the group sooner.”
“Ma-what?”
“Mahō shōjo – that’s Japanese for magical girl, and—”
“You are such a dweeb,” Gilda said, though adding a smile to indicate she was joking. “But I thought you said you grew up with Waterfire?”
“I did. We used to watch Magical Princess Knight Celea when we were kids, but she ‘grew out of it,’” Minuette said, using air quotes. “I…didn’t.” A thought then came over Minuette. “You know, you never told me how you got into anime.”
Gilda shrugged. “Boredom, I guess. After having ended up at the Blanks, one of the rules was that we couldn’t do any ‘extracurricular’ activities, and since I was also prevented from hanging out with our old crew, going back and forth from home got boring for a while. So to kill time, I started watching TV and shit on the internet again. Came across an old dub of Yuri in the Star Palace on YouTube and it reminded me of the stuff I used to watch when I was a kid. Eventually I watched all of that, then some of the classics: Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, Evangelion, Citrus & Flowers, all that. Eventually I got hooked again.
“Fast forward to the day that they said I could go back to Canterlot High and one of the things my parents insisted was that I get a job so that I wouldn’t fall in with the wrong crowd again. I thought sure, I’ll go work at Burger Shack or something, but then a job opened up at Otome Road, and I just had to get a position there.” In the northeastern portion of Canterlot was Sakura Village, the local Japantown, and in the center of one of the various bland-looking shopping centers was Otome Road. Named after the famous “women’s anime district” in Tokyo, the namesake store actually had a mixed clientele, given that it was the lone anime bastion in Canterlot as opposed to the flotillas of various comic shops in town.
“And your first day on the job was the same day as the cosplay contest, wasn’t it?” Minuette asked.
Gilda laughed, nearly falling out of her seat in the process. “Oh, yeah! First thing that came to mind was ‘what did I get myself into’? First day of work, and I’m surrounded by people wearing these weird-ass costumes, some of which have no business being in any of them! Did you see that one girl wearing that metal bikini-like thing?”
“Oh, I know which one you’re talking about! The girl who was cosplaying Yulia from Extars Weapon:D.rive? Yeah, she was a bit, um….”
“Chunky?” Gilda offered.
“Chunky, nothing! I’d be afraid of wearing an outfit like that, and I’d like to think I keep in shape! I don’t know what she was thinking! As it was, I lost the contest to that one girl from San Palo who made that Galactic Valkyrie Shiori outfit. I mean, that was just some seriously professional work!”
“Eh, to be honest? Yours looked more accurate,” Gilda said. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, the girl with that outfit – it looked good and the judges said it was clearly made by her and not something she’d just bought online. But if anything, I thought that yours looked more like how Dancer Papaya’s outfit would look like in the real world.”
Minuette looked at Gilda with surprise. “You…you really think so?”
“Yeah. In fact, to be honest, the only reason you didn’t win the contest is because the boss didn’t think to have prizes for second and third place. Plus….” Gilda paused, leaning back in her chair, wondering if she needed to continue.
Pencil Code looked at the girls in front of him. “I dunno,” he told his panel of judges. “Minuette looks like an accurate copy of Dancer Papaya. If it wasn’t for the fact that she doesn’t have naturally yellow-and-orange hair, she’d be an exact copy.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever,” Quibble Pants demurred. “But did you see the girl wearing the Genesis Galactic Valkyrie Knights outfit? I mean, you just gotta appreciate the technical expertise that went into the costume! The details, the level of minor accuracy—”
“You kept staring at her tits,” Wallflower Blush told him.
“Who are you?” Quibble asked, and she glared at him in response. He ignored it and continued. “Look, she managed to get her costume to Gainax! Have you ever seen such technological detail?” He looked at the other guys who were judging. “C’mon! That kind of jiggletech takes talent, and I firmly believe we should reward such innovation!”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Wallflower groaned. “You’re seriously going to vote for the girl with the huge jiggling tits because she got her costume to do that over the girl who managed to get her costume to look like Dancer Papaya? Seriously? Or what about the girl who managed to make that near-exact replica of Catty’s leather jacket from Capture Alley? Or what about the guy who took the time to wear the cardboard costume that looks like the GX-5 Gladius from Bansizer?”
But Quibble hadn’t played his trump card yet – and now he did with brutal clarity. “Bountiful pontoons,” he said, leaning over the table as if divulging a grand secret to his fellow judges, almost all of which were male. The guys all looked at one another, save for one, and then as one, nodded their heads in agreement.
“Seriously?” Wallflower shouted. “Seriously?” She then wheeled on Pencil Code, who had yet to vote. “I swear, you so much as vote for this sexist crap and I am telling your girlfriend!”
Pencil Code gulped.
“Yeah, so the judges really thought the detail on her costume was practically professional-grade, which is why she won,” Gilda lied. “But if it means anything, that one chick – the one that goes to our school – she thought your costume was the best looking one.”
“Wow, that means a lot to me,” Minuette admitted. “Especially since Papaya’s my favorite anime character.”
“Funny you mention that; she’s mine, too.” Gilda took a bite of the nachos, then continued. “Why is she yours?”
“You’d laugh,” Minuette said.
“No, I don’t think I would, really,” Gilda told her. “You might think that someone would find your reasoning for liking her to be silly, but we all have our reasons and though they might be silly to others, they’re heartfelt to us.”
“Wow, that’s actually profound.”
“I do have my moments,” Gilda stated. “No, but seriously, why is she your favorite character?”
“I….” Minuette blushed, unable to say anything more.
Gilda sighed. “Okay, I’ll go first. Although anime really has a variety of styles, the truth is they all look like they’re white.”
“The term is mukokuseki, which is Japanese for ‘stateless’,” Minuette explained. “Basically it’s using the phenotypes of one ethnicity to represent no ethnicity, since accurate ethnic representation can only be done in the RL-type of art style….”
“Look, I didn’t need a lecture on why they do it, okay? I just know they do. But anyway, when they deliberately pick a foreigner, especially one who’s American, it always boils down to two looks: the rough-and-tumble badass white girl with flaming red hair and orange eyes, or the doe-eyed exotic beauty with blonde hair and blue eyes – who is also white. I mean, pick an anime that has a foreign character in it and that’s always the case.” She then smiled. “So in the show, when Dancer Mango announced she’d found the secret location of the girls who would be the Second Chorus of Dancers, I was expecting more of the same. And when they said that one was American, I knew that we’d see some typical blonde or redhead.
“So when Boogie Star appeared on-screen for the first time, I was surprised. I thought, if anything, she was either the damsel in distress for the episode or maybe the girl who gets turned into the monster. But when she shouted her Call to the Dance and became Dancer Papaya? I practically cheered, because there was a girl that could be just like me – someone I could identify with. To step up and be the big hero when the chips are down, and to kick ass and take names! It’s really why I just adore the character and why she’s my favorite.” Gilda closed her eyes and leaned back into the chair. “So that’s my take. What about yours?”
Minuette was quiet for the longest time. Finally, she took a breath and said, “I know this sounds funny, but…I always wanted to be a magical girl. I wanted to help others, but I wanted to do it on my terms. And I know that being a magical girl is impossible, but I always felt that was what I was meant to be. So when I heard Dancer Papaya’s Call to the Dance for the very first time, I….” She blushed. “It moved something within me. Something I didn’t think I’d ever feel after what happened to me earlier this year.”
Gilda was almost reluctant to ask. “What was that?”
“Hope.” The look in Minuette’s eyes was almost one of girlish desire, of a pure maiden being offered a sword of finest silver to use to protect all of mankind. “It made me want to do whatever I can to protect my friends and family against whatever’s going to come. I know that sounds silly, but maybe it’s because I want to make sure that nothing like whatever happened to me occurs to anyone else.”
“Not a thing wrong with that, Minnie,” Gilda assured her, “though most people who want to do that end up becoming cops, not throwing on a short skirt and tight top and trying to cast wind magic.”
“I know it sounds silly, but just like how you try to be a tough girl in order to get past your pain, I want to be a magical girl. The difference is just that what you do is more realistic and achievable.”
Gilda sighed. “And self-destructive,” she added. “I turned into the kind of person I didn’t want to become. I ended up at the Blanks, and pushed away my closest friend at the time.” The girl seemed to curl into herself, both body and soul moving inward. “I nearly ruined my own life because I hated Sunset,” she admitted. “The smart thing would have been to just walk away and let her destroy herself – but I’ve never been a particularly smart person when it comes to those sorts of things.”
The two girls sat there in an uncomfortable silence, until Minuette spoke clearly, and from the heart:
“In my life, I’ve loved, I’ve lost, I’ve missed
I’ve hurt, I’ve trusted, I’ve made a lot of mistakes,
But most of all, I’ve learned.
Because in life, experience is the hardest type of teacher.
It gives you the test first…
…and the lessons afterwards.”
Without even realizing it, she raised her hand, as if she were Dancer Papaya in the flesh, raising her henshin ring in order to Call the Power of the Dance to her.
“The saddest part of being strong
Is that no one ever asks you if you’re fine.
You carry on, because you must!”
Gilda looked at her friend for a moment she swore she saw Minuette glowing with the bright prismatic magic that was indicator of a Dancer – of a magical girl. She blinked, and in an instant it was gone, but for a moment she didn’t see Minuette as the girl who she’d recently made friends with and bonded over anime, but instead as a brave and sure magical girl, a modern shieldmaiden fighting the good fight in a savage land.
“I am the broken dream reforged anew!
I am the shattered promise moving forth to be kept!
I am Dancer Papaya – and I will fight for justice!”
Gilda looked at her friend once. Twice. And then, finally, “Did you just…?”
Minuette blushed furiously as she realized what she’d just done. “I, um, thought…maybe…it was the right thing to say?” At that, Gilda started to laugh uncontrollably, and a second later, Minuette joined in.
She wasn’t sure why or really how they’d formed their friendship in a short time and given their pasts, it probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise, but aside from that, she was glad it did. After a bit, they agreed to sit down and watch some of the shows either recommended, if only so that they wouldn’t have to go through another round of that sort of weirdness again.
Finally, however, as the day wore down, Gilda had to head home, and Minuette gave her a lift home. After doing so, however, she realized she hadn’t had dinner, so she decided to head off down to Hinoiri Sushi, if for no other reason that it was convenient to where she was at the time. Besides, sushi was Dancer Papaya’s favorite food, so it was kind of apt.
As she ordered the Sunrise Boat, she thought about the day she’d spent with Gilda and what they’d talked about. She also thought about her impromptu quotation of Papaya’s Call to the Dance. In hindsight, it seemed silly, but for a moment…Minuette actually felt as though she was going to change. As though a magic force of some kind had swelled within her and was aching to be let out, because there were people on this Earth who needed protecting and she was the only one that could do it. It was silly, she knew, but…somehow, that’s just how she felt.
“Well, if it isn’t the loser.” She flinched at the sound of the voice. Just months ago, she would have been thrilled to hear it. But now? Now it filled her with sorrow and dread.
She looked up to see her former friends. “Hello, Wai,” Minuette said softly and sorrowfully.
“Sorry, only my friends get to call me that,” Waterfire snapped. “I don’t recall you being on that list any longer.”
“Ignore her, Wai,” Primrose told her. “She’s just being a stuck-up skank. Hell, from what I hear, she’s so desperate for friends, she’s even hanging out with degenerates like Gilda Griffin nowadays!”
Autumn agreed. “Maybe Gilda’s just teaching her the thug life,” she taunted. “After all, if she’s willing to screw over her supposed best friend, then she’s already ready for that kind of lifestyle!”
Minuette clenched her teeth and her fists, unable to do anything other than take the insults. After all, she wasn’t Dancer Papaya. She wasn’t anyone as brave as Sunset Shimmer or her friends, or even someone as stupid as Noteworthy had been when he tried to chase after her. She wasn’t anyone.
“Shut…up…” the words came from her mouth.
But maybe…
She felt herself rise from the chair, unbidden. “How…dare…you….”
…just maybe…
“Gilda is trying to make up for the kind of person she was in the past. That’s more than I can say about you three!” Seeing the mollified looks on the three other girls’ faces, Minuette continued. “Yeah. She knows she wasn’t the best person in the past, but that’s just that – in the past. What have you three done? You let your bullshit ruin our friendship and you’ve screwed up your reputation at school because you wanted revenge against someone who wasn’t even to blame for what happened to us! And now you’re taking it out on Gilda, who wasn’t even involved? What is wrong with you three?”
“Just keep pushing your luck, Minuette,” Waterfire warned, her eyes narrowing. “You’re already on my shit list.”
“And you’re on everyone’s,” Minuette snarled back. She wasn’t sure where this was coming from, but now that it was flowing out, she couldn’t – and didn’t want to – stop it. So she brandished it like a weapon, because it was all she could do to protect Gilda, who wasn’t here. Admittedly, Gilda was the last person that needed protecting, but she wasn’t here to defend herself, and somehow, that incensed Minuette for reasons she couldn’t vocalize.
“I really should—” Waterfire began, but was interrupted.
“You should what?” The group turned to see Derpy Hooves standing there, surprisingly angry. “You should what, Waterfire? Dig yourself in deeper? Make an even bigger fool of yourself? Everyone knows at this point you’re little better than those you pretend to hate.” Waterfire looked at the blonde in surprise, but Derpy just shook her head. “Now, granted, I’m just a thin-brained short bus case, but at least I have the decency not to risk my neck when I’m already in shit-deep. What’s your excuse?”
“Those glasses aren’t going to save you, dipshit,” Autumn told her. “I’d just as soon as hit you as I would her.”
“You mean you can try. Remember, my father’s military – means I learned a few things.” The look on Derpy’s face was serious. “I already have an injured eye, so it can’t get any worse. You, on the other hand, have a lot more to lose than I do. So you want to take this out back?”
The two girls stared at each other for countless minutes before Autumn turned away. “C’mon, girls, these losers aren’t worth it,” Autumn said. Waterfire and Primrose gave final, angry looks at both Derpy and Minuette before storming out of the store.
“Thanks,” Minuette voiced.
Derpy shrugged it off. “No sweat, really. C’mon, you can sit over here with me and we can chat about your Dancer Papaya costume.”
Minuette looked at the blonde with surprise. “You saw it?”
“Yeah – my boyfriend was there and took pictures for the contest. By the way, he says he feels bad about voting for the girl with the Valkyrie Knights outfit, but he was kinda pressured.” She shrugged. “You know how guys can be sometimes.” Derpy gestured to the table where she had been sitting. “C’mon, we can talk about it while we eat, ‘kay?”
Minuette was all smiles. “Sounds like a plan,” she told Derpy as she picked up the stuff from her table.