"You know what? Maybe the weirdos in that one subreddit were onto something when they said we need a slur for straight people. Like for fox' sake, the saying is 'the blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb' not 'blood is thicker than water'! You're taking away the exact opposite message from what was intended. This is 'the customer is always right' all over again! I wouldn't call it straggot though. That's just uninspired. Like come on people, surely we can think of a better slur for cishets than that.
Maybe Karen would work? Would need a male version of that though. The good news with making up gendered slurs for cishets is you only need two of them because they don't think there's more genders than that. And before you ask, yes, they really do think that. And try to force that belief onto others. Why do you think I'm brainstorming slurs for them?"
~ Foxfire, 2037, not in a state of mind that can be described as sober
The target-rich environment was indeed perfect for working off my frustrations with this new apparent teammate of mine.
Liam continued being very unhelpful, but Naruto had finished his upgrades and thanks to some dream learning, he now not only knew how to handle his shuriken-launcher but also that - with the right ammo - it could replicate some of the ninjutsu found in the actual anime.
Thankfully Liam had finished 'refilling his mana storage' shortly before it was time to actually head into the hive, so we did that as a group. We eventually split the party, with Liam going off on his own because Naruto didn't want to be alone and I couldn't stand to be around Liam much longer, but somehow everything went smoothly.
Hive exterminated, points and tokens on hand and protector class dinner in belly, we all decided to call it a night and figure out where to go tomorrow morning. I did leave Inari and Kurama patrolling the area, scanning for Antithesis-tissue and if need be taking care of that, and with that, I headed back to where I had jumped onto the 11-express, I discovered that riding my new flying swords was a fast enough way to get around for now, to collect my other two foxes and finally headed back to my office, to go check if there was any urgent paperwork I had forgotten to file on account of everything that happened yesterday.
And while I was doing that and thinking about what to name my other two foxes, my ears suddenly twitched towards the sound of the door to my office suddenly opening.
I turned around to look at whoever would come to my office at this hour, not expecting a Janitor to still be working.
To my surprise, a young teen walked in, looking pretty disheveled and lost. Their gaze immediately fell onto my ears and whatever they had came here to say would evidently have to wait, as they struggled to comprehend 'Foxwoman in this office.'
They looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place them exactly. Maybe a student I had seen in a lecture sometime? That could be an explanation for why they were here.
Mind you it wouldn't explain that they were here roughly two hours after office-hours ended, but it would explain why they were here in general.
Before I even realized it was happening, I tilted my head, and asked "Uhhh... Can I help you?"
That seemed to finally reset the bluescreened brain. They blinked a few times and shook their head, before finally speaking up.
"Aunt Luna? I- is that you? A- why- Are you a superhero?"
Aunt Luna? Oh! Oooohhhh! Of course. They look familiar because I've seen them at family-reunions occasionally.
But why were they here? I had very limited contact with my parent's oldest daughter, a woman I refuse to call my sister.
It made no sense at all for one of her children to seek me out. Especially in the age of cellphones and the internet. Sure, I had her blocked on just about everything, but I haven't blocked mom and dad.
For that matter, I was still in the family-whatsapp-group, she could have reached out there. Unless this wasn't an attempt of her to reach out to me.
"I- uhh yeah? I guess? Sorta? Why are you here at this ungodly hour? Did Cristine fuck things up?"
I got a nod in return. "I- I didn't know where else to go... I really don't want to sleep outside."
What? WHAT?! Nope, hold on. Pause. Rewind. Can someone explain the plot to me? I feel like I've lost it.
"Why would you... What happened? Are you okay Ni-"
I didn't get to finish that word.
"NO! Please. Don't say that name. It- it hurts. And the flags, so I figured... Nevermind, sorry."
Holy shit, the last time I've seen someone deflate so fast was when Chad McChadface realized a supposedly conventionally attractive face and the fact that you bragged about how easy this is going to be beforehand is not in fact enough to pass a spoken exam.
"Okay, I'm not going to call you by that name. Is there any name you'd prefer me to use?"
After an encouraging nod, they did speak up, very faintly, barely a whisper.
"Katie."
A normal person probably would have had difficulty understanding that, but thankfully I had greatly enhanced hearing.
"Alright Katie. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I also have a lot of questions, so let's start with the most important ones: Are you okay? Did you have dinner yet? Do you want to go somewhere we can talk over dinner or cake or ice-cream or whatever?"
Katie did like the idea of dinner and I felt like I could go for seconds, so to go talk over dinner we went. I had initially asked her what she wanted for dinner, but upon seeing her panicked expression after realizing I was asking her to make a choice, I quickly suggested a ramen-bar that wasn't too far from here.
She had never had ramen before, and it was way too expensive normally, but their ramen was good and she looked like she could use a tasty meal to go with whatever bullshit she'd gone through. I had some hypotheses, but I wouldn't voice them until after getting confirmation.
The walk to the actual bar was mostly quiet, but once we settled down, I made sure to tell them if they needed to talk about anything, I would listen. I had paid extra to get us a private-ish booth.
I had a feeling money wouldn't really be too much of a concern for me going forward.
"So she randomly decided to go clean your room, which she never does normally, goes snooping in your closet, finds a skirt and her immediate reaction is to yell at you and kick you out?"
They finished slurping the noodles and broth on their spoon and nodded.
"I figured she would out me to everyone else and I didn't want to risk facing any more hate. I came here because I figured she wouldn't tell you."
Holy shit. Did Katie not know? It would be on brand for that vile woman not to mention anything. I picked up the bowl and finished drinking the rest of the deliciously rich soup, before responding.
"I don't think she did. Mom and dad would rip her a new one if they found out she kicked you out. They wouldn't care about you being trans or queer or whatever. They're kind of backwards, but they also really care about family.
"Mom and dad, for all their faults, mean it when they say family has to stick together. No matter what. Hell I'm pretty sure you could be a wanted criminal and they'd help hide you from the cops. As much as it pains me to admit, they are principled when it comes to that.
"So yeah, they wouldn't actively support you - or approve of you transitioning, but they also won't stand in your way or anything. Speaking from experience."
I set down my bowl and drank a bit of water, while I waited for their brain to catch up with what exactly I'd just said.
"Oh by the way, you'll want to try the chocolate lava-cake with matcha ice-cream. It's to die for."
I may or may not have purposely waited until she was about to say something.
"Nevermind all that, did you just say what I think you said?!"
Poor kid was looking about ready to jump onto the table to shake me down for answers.
"Pretty much," I shrugged, "Your lovely aunt here is about as queer as they come. Literally. I have gone through every letter in the acronym. The long one. LGBTQIA+. Well except for the plus I guess.
"So does this mean you don't want the cake? Because trust me, it's not something you want to miss out on. I will not be sharing mine."