Video | Llama 29

[firewalled]

Yo! Needed you all to know something important, so listen up, train!

[Rich is standing in front of the monitor in the music room, hands on his hips, looking very stern and serious... but then he smirks.]

Have you ever gotten ads online promising hot bisexual singles in your area?

[...Is he actually shooting fingerguns?]

It's me. I'm the hot bisexual single in your area. Just thought you all needed to know I am currently on the market.

Please field all date inquiries to my mailbox. Or my sleeper car, whatever. I'm rooming with Alice, but we are not an item.

[She would pretty much laugh in his face if he even implied they were.]

Comments

[subcircuits]

Right on! Bi solidarity! [Did Devero just pump a fist? Yes. Yes he did.]

[firewalled]

[Rich absolutely beams. He wasn't worried that people would judge him, but it's always nice to find a kindred spirit.]

You too? I probably should have guessed. The future is probably way more progressive than my dumb past world.

[subcircuits]

It is. [He knows enough about your dumb past world to feel confident in that assertion. He's grinning, at least?] --But yeah, me too.

[firewalled]

Well, I'm really glad you get to have an easy time with it. I... hope eventually my world will be a little more accepting of everything about me.

[He does smile back, though. Geez, he doesn't know why he's still so nervous. If Devero is okay with it, what does it matter?]

[subcircuits]

[Devero's small goes gentle and a little sad.] I hope so too, Rich. That queer persecution stuff from Before is such bullshit. You deserve better.

[firewalled]

It really is. My, um... my dad back home still thinks I'm just being a tomboy.

[And there it is. Rich finally felt okay admitting it. Though he does move out of frame for a minute, to curse himself for being so weirdly blunt about it.]

(in person)

[its_dad_sanzo]

[ Only once Devero is eventually done chatting and is no longer broadcasting anything on the ICP, does Koumyou chime in from somewhere near him. ]

Bisexual?

[subcircuits]

[It probably shouldn't surprise him that the term's unfamiliar to Koumyou, but somehow, it kind of still does.] Oh, er. It means I'm sexually attracted to folks of more than one gender.

[its_dad_sanzo]

I suppose I could have guessed that, from the word...

[ But he hadn't, because words don't always mean what they sound like they should mean! And in this particular subject, Koumyou still knows very little. Book-reading aside. ]

[subcircuits]

And I suppose I can guess that you didn't exactly get a comprehensive sexual education on your world, huh?

[its_dad_sanzo]

I'm a monk!

[ And had been since he'd been a baby. ]

Our sexual education begins and ends with 'don't do it'!

[subcircuits]

[Okay, that makes him laugh, though he covers his mouth with his hand an instant later in an attempt to stifle it.] Okay, okay, good point!

Maybe we should order you a book on the basics to go with your-- [Slight hitch.] --other reading?

[its_dad_sanzo]

It doesn't feel like there's much point...

[ Because he can just ask Dev if something comes up! And also, he's only ever had his radar pinged by one person. At age 47. Radar he hadn't even known he'd had, to be honest. ]

[subcircuits]

All right. [He's certainly not going to press, except to lean in and press his lips against Koumyou's cheek.] Just let me know if you change your mind, my world has great resources on all the various sexual and gender identities.

[its_dad_sanzo]

...Identities?

[ You lost him. ]

[subcircuits]

...Yeah? [This is such a basic part of his knowledge that he's once again surprised, even though he shouldn't be, by Koumyou's confusion.] I'm a bisexual cis man, that's my g-and-s identity. Most folks where I come from, that's an important part of who they are.

[its_dad_sanzo]

...

[ ... ]

...I understood about two thirds of those words.

[subcircuits]

[Oh boy.

Devero turns away finally from the ICP, pulling his legs up on the bunk and facing Koumyou. He opens his mouth to start trying to explain, then reconsiders and asks instead;] Do you want me to try and explain?

[its_dad_sanzo]

If it's an important part of who you are, then yes! I would like to understand.

[ Explain away, Dev-chan. ]

[subcircuits]

All right! [But he pauses and considers, and starts by asking Koumyou a question:] How many genders do they recognize, where you come from?

[its_dad_sanzo]

Well, um...

[ Where he's 'from' is the insular temple life, so... ]

Two? This feels like a trick question. Is this a trick question?

[subcircuits]

It's not. [He scoots all the way across the bunk to sit with his back against the wall, getting comfy.] Man and woman, right? And all men have dicks and all women have vaginas?

[its_dad_sanzo]

[ Koumyou scoots around as well to sit beside him, shoulder to shoulder. He visibly considers the question. ]

Well... maybe? Kanzeon Bosatsu, the Merciful Goddess, has both...

[ It's just not something he's given any thought to. ]

I assume there's humans and youkai like that too, but I've never met any that I know of.

[subcircuits]

We'd call that 'intersex'. Er, probably. [He actually feels a little strange applying a human label to a goddess from Koumyou's world. Hm.]

The Earth I come from, a lot of the cultures from Before had this thing where they only recognized two genders, and they thought your jennies-- that is, your genitals-- determined your gender. It was such reductive bullshit and caused a lot of people a lot of pain.

[Like most stuff from Before, lbr.]

We know now that the truth of the matter is there's a lot more to gender than just man and woman, and that jennies are more complicated than just male and female. When I say I'm cis, it's just a short way of saying I'm jenny-congruent-- that I have male genitals and I'm a man. But if I had female genitals instead, I'd be jenny-incongruent, so I'd be a trans man instead of a cis one.

[He hopes he's explaining this well. He peers over at Koumyou, drawing up a leg to wrap his arms around it.] You follow?

[its_dad_sanzo]

I think so...

[ If he sounds a little uncertain, it's only because that's a lot of new information about something he's never had a reason to think about. ]

So if your body doesn't matter... then how do you know what you are?

[ A very Buddhist take on all that information! Complete with existentialism for good measure. ]