To reply, post publically or e-mail the author at <stormwalker@airmail.net>
Enjoy!
The FFML Refugee List
For those of you to whom this may look familiar... this story has been
released before on the FFML. This version, however, has been massively
rewritten (to the tune of increasing about 25% in length), so I thought it
merited a repost. I'll also be posting chapter 2 tonight, so keep an eye
out for it. Chapter Three is presently in the works.
Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> presents...
Hello, my name is Jonathan Thompson. I know, I know... it sounds
strange. You're wondering how a five-foot-six, redheaded, very
well-built eighteen-year-old *girl* ended up with a name like that,
aren't you? It's a long story, trust me. And the real story is how a
name like that ended up with this body. Confused yet? I'll bet you
are. Now... you sure you want to hear about this?
You're sure. I've got to warn you, though... you'll think I'm
insane. Everyone does at first... but I've got witnesses for most of
this, and I have other ways to prove the rest. It really did happen.
You sure you want to hear this? Okay... it begins about a year ago,
back when I was male *all* the time...
************************************************************************
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Gemini
A work of fanfiction by Douglas A. Reeves
Episode One - Callings
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: This story was inspired by John Biles' "Senshi: The
Merchandising", and operates on a similar concept. It is not set in the
Sailor Moon universe, but uses concepts from that series. These
concepts are used without permission, but I'm not making any money off
of this, so please be merciful and don't sue me. I don't have anything
to take, anyway.
You might call this parody, as it is in its own way... but it has some
serious story elements as well. At any rate... enjoy the show.
************************************************************************
It all begins about a year ago, with a videocasette that one of my
friends gave me. Said it was from Japan, something called "anime". He
talked about how cool it was, so I took it home and watched it. It was
Neon Genesis Evangelion, and it definitely *was* cool. I decided I
could get into this anime thing, but I never knew just how much it would
get into me. Pretty soon I was addicted. I had a part-time job at the
time, working after school; I was saving money for a better car. Never
got the car, but I got a lot of anime.
This stuff is like a drug. The more you get, the more you want.
What I wanted was the new stuff... stuff straight from Japan. I wanted
the tapes you couldn't buy over here yet. So I found a club, and met
some "fansubbers". They set me up... I got what I wanted.
Just like anything else, there's good anime and bad anime... and
then there's Sailor Moon. Both good and bad, from what I saw. Of
course, that wasn't much... just the "R" movie and a couple of episodes,
but it was enough to get me hooked. Sailor Moon kinda grows on you--a
lot like a cancer. The first time you watch it you laugh, because it's
so silly. You might even heckle it... I know I did. The second time,
though, you start to see through the silliness... and that's when it
gets its hooks in you. The show actually has some depth beneath the
pink sugar-heart charm. The third time I saw it... that was it. It had
me... I started buying the manga, even though I couldn't read it.
I still hadn't seen more than a few episodes, though, and I didn't
know much about it. Sailor Moon is one of those addictions you don't
talk about if you're a guy--not with my friends, anyway--so I didn't
have a lot of chances to see more. My first anime convention would
change all of that. It was late May, right around my birthday, and
though I didn't really know what to expect, I knew it would be a weekend
to remember. So, off I set, looking for paradise.
If you've never been to a con, there really is no describing it.
For an entire weekend some unsuspecting hotel is transformed. It's like
a different world... an anime world, in every sense of the word. It's
*everywhere*, from the costumes (some very good, some not so good, but
all interesting) to the video rooms, to the panel discussions, if it's
anime, it's there. Normal people tend to freak out a bit when they see
it... but for the fans, it's as close to being there as we come.
On top of that, there is the dealers' room. Every sort of
merchandise you can imagine, from anime, to manga, to toys, to music,
to models, to computer games... and more, so much more. There's some
really great stuff there... and some real crap, too... but nobody seems
to be able to agree on what is the great stuff and what is the crap.
Y'know the old saying about one man's junk and another man's treasure?
Visit the dealers' room in an anime con, and it'll take on an entirely
new meaning.
It was in the dealers' room that Sharon found me. Sharon, you see,
was one of my "anime friends"... someone I knew from the anime club I
had joined... and she was a Sailor Moon fan. A *big* Sailor Moon fan.
To give you an idea, she was dressed up as Sailor Moon. Not a half-bad
costume, either... though it helped that Sharon looked the part. She
had the long blonde hair and the blue eyes for it, and though she looked
a couple of years older than Usagi she fit the kawaii mold perfectly.
Her hair didn't quite go in Usagi's meatball 'do, but no human alive has
anime hair. Sharon even had that 'klutz' act down--not that it *was* an
act, mind you... I never thought someone could really be *that*
uncoordinated until I met Sharon.
"Hey, Jon!" she called out from halfway across the packed chamber.
"I found something cool! Come over here!" I shrugged and started
picking my way through the crowd; sometimes my opinion of "cool" didn't
quite agree with hers, but it couldn't hurt to look. When I finally
reached her, she thrust a small, light-blue stick nto my hands. "Happy
birthday!"
"It's not my birthday till next--" I started to protest, then
stopped. "Is this what I think it is?" I looked at her oddly, then,
wondering what had possessed her to buy me such a thing.
"Yeah! It's a transformation wand!" she answered excitedly,
showing me the one she'd bought for herself as well. Hers was silver,
with the tiny image of a crab embossed at one end. Mine had a pair of
twins rendered in similar fashion, I noted, turning it over in my hands.
"Aren't they good replicas?" she gushed. "They must be handmade!"
They were well-constructed, I had to admit. They looked *real*, so
much so that I couldn't even tell what they were made from. Too heavy
to be plastic, too light to be metal. Wood...? No, they didn't have a
grain to them. Maybe it was a better gift than I had given her credit
for. "Where'd you get these?"
"Table back that way," she answered, looking over her left
shoulder. "Hey... the guy's gone!"
"Must've sold out."
"I can see why," she observed. "The price was right... but I
didn't see anyone else at the table."
"Oh, well," I shrugged. "Thanks for the gift. Now come on...
there's so much more to see!" As we slipped through the crowd toward
one of the exits, I dropped the wand into a pocket.
Something tugged a little at the back of my mind just then, but
I didn't think much of it.
*****
So, are you getting the idea now? Yeah, I'll bet you are. You're
already looking at me like I'm insane. Well, it just gets better. I
wish I was insane... that might be easier to deal with. Look, if you
don't want to hear this...
...ok, I'll keep going. But wipe that silly look off your face.
*****
I saw some more Sailor Moon that night; I hadn't planned to catch
that particular showing, but I just felt like it for some reason. It
wasn't one of the better episodes, though, so I sort of lost track
somewhere along the way. Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I found the
replica wand again.
There was just something about that wand... it bothered me. Some
kind of touch on my mind. No, more than a touch... images, and words
to go with it. Disturbing, really... but I was having too much fun to
worry about it. I shook my head, deciding I'd been watching too much
of this stuff--not that I intended to stop. Still, I couldn't quite
get it out of my head. Of course, I had other things to be concerned
with... my friends and I were going to slip into one of the room parties
that night.
All I'd heard from them was how fun it was, and the crazy things
that happened sometimes, and how I couldn't miss it. It was a chance to
do something wild, to have a little fun... and while Sharon said I was
just being stupid, I'd have been remiss in my duties as a teenage male
if I didn't get in *some* trouble. So I went.
You have to understand... I'd never really *done* anything
blatantly stupid in my life, so I had no idea what I was getting into.
No sooner had we found our way inside when my friends all seemed to
vanish into the crowd. No problem, though, I knew what to do next...
finding my way over to one of the tables, I got myself something to
drink.
That was, of course, my seoncd mistake. My first was listening
to my friends and going to the party to begin with, and my third was yet
to come. You see, I'd never had alcohol before, and after a couple of
drinks I was totally plastered. I ended up in the middle of a group of
people talking about costumes, and whose were good and whose weren't.
By this time, my judgement was evidently a bit clouded, because I
vaguely remember holding one hand over my head, and hearing my own voice
say...
"You think that's a good costume, do ya? Well... take a look at
this! Gemini Star Power... make up!"
Suddenly, I was dead sober, looking at an instantly silent roomful
of stunned otaku--all of whom were staring at me as though I'd just
grown a second head. Fuzzily aware of what had just happened, I looked
down at myself and screamed.
Gone were the t-shirt and jeans I'd been wearing. In their place
was a light-blue and white stylized sailor fuku, complete with
ridiculously short skirt, tall boots, and long white gloves... and the
body to match. I hadn't grown a second head, but the two rather
prominent mounds that jutted out from my chest were more than enough to
justify the stares... oh fuck. It couldn't... this couldn't be. I
looked up, at the hand raised over my head, and there was the
transformation wand, slowly fading out as the lightshow around me
dissipated. My mind froze from shock, unable to deal with what it was
seeing... what it was feeling... what I had become.
I stood in stunned silence, my mouth opening and closing but no
words coming out. When finally I did find a voice, though, it was even
more disturbing... a soft, smooth alto tone that only hammered home
what had been done to me. This wasn't my voice! This wasn't my body!
"Tell me I'm dreaming..." I said almost pleadingly. "Someone tell me
I'm dreaming."
Just then, the door flew open and another girl, similarly dressed,
burst into the room. Grabbing me by the arm, she yelled something about
being late for cosplay and literally dragged me out the door, sparing me
further embarrassment. Once we were safely away, she stopped, pushing
me up against the wall, yelling in my face... I still don't remember the
words, being as I was in shock, but the voice shook me back to something
resembling coherence. Drawing a deep breath, I looked up into the face
of my rescuer. It was Sharon.
That was the first and last time I ever got drunk.
*****
Desperate to get away from the crowds, to find some space to think,
we trudged out to my car. On the way out, we heard a couple of shouts
of "Great costume!" and the like, but nobody really seemed to pay us
that much attention. For that, I was grateful.
As we passed through the front doors of the hotel, I got a brief
glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I was... well... beautiful, and
that realization shook me to the core. If I'd seen myself in the halls
at school, I'd have asked me out in a flash. A violent shudder passed
through me then, and I'm sure I must have looked odd as I recoiled from
my reflection. Sharon pulled at my arm, tearing me away from that
dreadful moment, and I recovered myself and went on.
Finally reaching the car, I slumped down into the drivers seat,
barely remembering to unlock the door for Sharon. Not wanting to see
myself, not wanting to think about what had happened to me, I focused on
her. Sharon was stunned, blankly staring out into the parking lot as
she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, the rather short skirt
drawing my eye for a moment as it left an interesting view. I guess
there was some small comfort in that--at least I still *thought* like a
guy--but I really wasn't that interested under the circumstances.
Instead, my gaze moved to her face, where a single teardrop formed at
the corner of her eye.
For a while we just sat like that, neither of us able to find the
words we were looking for. There weren't words for this, anyway.
Finally, after a while, I said, "This can't be real. This has to be
some kind of crazy dream." I shivered... that voice still freaked me
out.
Sharon shook her head, but still did not look at me. "It's real,"
she answered, her voice thin and weak and yet carrying a certainty that
chilled me. "I've... dreamed of this before, and it wasn't like this.
Didn't feel like this. Can't you feel the power inside you now?
Dreams... dreams don't *do* that."
I sighed, trying to defy it. I had to deny it, even as I felt the
stirrings of magic within me. "It has to be a dream. I've been
watching too much anime... I'm too worked up over the con. Something.
This is the real world, and this just doesn't happen."
Sharon unfolded her legs, leaning forward to look up at the stars
through the windshield. For several moments she sat like that...
moments I will never forget. Sharon, as I'd known her, was gone...
transformed. There was a presence about her that she hadn't had before,
a presence that nobody had, and there was a seriousness in her eyes I'd
never seen. It wasn't just the fuku, though its shimmering silver and
white suited her perfectly... this was within, not without. Something
had awakened inside of her, and that something was stunningly beautiful.
More importantly, though, it *was* real. Sailor Cancer. Even as I
took in the wonderous transformation that had occurred in my friend, my
mind added that if Sailor Cancer was real, then Sailor Gemini had to be
real, too. The weight of truth bore down on me in that moment, smashing
through all my denial and crushing my resistance to powder.
This really was happening.
Then she turned to me, and the spell broke. "I'm sorry, Jon," she
whispered, the tears running down her cheeks. "This is all my fault. I
gave you the wand, even after I felt the power in my own."
I shook my head slowly, trying to take everything in. It was too
much. Magic come to life, Sharon's transformation... my own, even more
startling one. "It... it can't be your fault, Sharon," I stammered.
"You can't blame yourself for this." My mind was running triple-time,
a blaze of discovery and revelation coming too fast to interperet. This
was magic... and I was unused to the way magic worked. I could feel
things I shouldn't be able to feel, and see in ways I shouldn't be able
to see. I fought through the mad scramble of images and sensations,
searching for an answer that would give meaning to it all. "Sharon...
this was... meant to be, somehow. You didn't choose the wands; they
chose you. They know us, somehow."
She nodded, and I could see something change in her eyes then. "In
the series... they don't work for just anyone."
"Yeah," I agreed, feeling a new weight descend on my shoulders.
"Which means I'm stuck with this. It's fate."
"Jon..." she whispered, reaching out to touch my shoulder. I
pulled away, knowing she could not understand why, knowing it hurt her,
but unable to do anything else. This body *felt* differently, and I
didn't want to be reminded. "Wait," I whispered, looking for a way...
I didn't want to hurt her any more than she already had been. "Let me
try..." I concentrated, and felt a warmth flow over my body. I didn't
have to look at myself then to know; even if Sharon's worried look
hadn't relaxed, I could feel the difference as I returned to my natural
form. "Ok... I can change back, then." Looking at the little wand that
had brought me all this trouble, I sighed. "It's not... too bad, then.
Maybe I won't have to use it."
Even as I forced a smile with the words, though, the new voice in
my mind knew better.
*****
End Episode One
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desaix@sysnet.net
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
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