102. weird, USA.
Written expressly for corellianjedi, Weird, USA's #1 Fangirl for all time, who's been more than patient with me while I focused on other things.
Amari falls head-over-heels for a series from Olivia's childhood....
They settled in for a bedtime story, the three of them curling up in Amari’s bed while Ben finished the dishes. Olivia opened the battered copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, flipping the yellowed pages to the bookmark between chapters five and six, only to pause when Amari tugged at her sleeve. “What is it, Strong Man?”
Who’s the girl on your shirt, Mama? he signed.
Olivia glanced down; it seemed like she’d always had this shirt, so faded from hundreds of washings that the picture printed across it was almost invisible, only the vaguest outlines of the character still discernible. She really should have tossed it ages ago, with its fraying hem and the holes along the collar. But it was so comfortable, and sleep shirts didn’t have to be presentable. “Her name’s Ami, but when she’s dressed like this she’s called Sailor Mercury. She’s from a TV show I watched when I was only a little bit older than you, called Sailor Moon.”
I like her blue hair and sunglasses. Is she a superhero?
“Yes, she is. And she’s super smart, too. She’s the smartest person in the story.”
“Like Hermione?” Scout chimed in, wriggling to fit more snugly in the curve of her mother’s arm.
“Yes,” Olivia laughed. “She and Hermione would have been best friends. Now, where were we…”
“Okay, tiny humans, what do you want to watch after lunch for movie time?” Ben asked, slathering the strawberry jelly over slices of bread. “Muppets? Star Wars?”
Mouth full of apple slices, face smudged from the sandbox in the backyard, Amari began signing furiously. Can we watch Sailor Moon?
“Sailor Moon?” Ben laughed. “Gosh, I haven’t thought about that show in years! Aunt Charlie and Mama used to watch that all the time-how do you know about Sailor Moon?”
Mama’s shirt. I want to see the blue-haired girl.
“Mama said she’s like Hermione!” Scout said.
“Yeah, I could see that… Well, lemme see what I can do. Sit down at the table and eat your PB&Js, okay? And no flicking grapes at each other.”
Turned out there was an entire Youtube channel devoted to Sailor Moon with every episode uploaded. Ben plugged his laptop into the TV and plopped down on the couch between the kids, propping his feet up on the coffee table with a conspiratorial “Don’t tell Mama,” aside when Amari pointed with wide eyes.
Halfway through the episode, Ben glanced over to find Amari sitting with rapt attention, eyes shining and hands clasped together in his lap. Scout had slid off the couch, not nearly so enamored, and was quietly playing with her Matchbox cars, driving them up Amari’s giant plush Stitch as if it were a mountain. When the video ended another in the queue immediately began-when Ben got up to stop it, Amari was quick to grab his arm with a pleading expression.
“Let Scout pick something now, bud.”
One more! Just one more!
“Scout?”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said nonchalantly. “I wanna color now.” She clambered up, disappeared into her bedroom, and reemerged with the lunchbox of crayons hanging from one hand and the jumbo Spider-Man coloring book in the other. Sprawled out across the living room floor and set to work picking out crayons, laying them out in a neat, straight row before beginning a page. Ben watched her for a moment with a smile-so often she sounded like Charlie, when she was stubborn or angry or making demands. But then she’d sit down and quietly color or paint or draw, utterly involved in her art and comfortable with stillness and silence, and she was the carbon copy of her mother.
After the second episode, Ben wanted to put his foot down and unplug the laptop. He and Olivia had agreed that the kids would have a limited allotment of television time a day; that they would encourage them to play outside and read and be creative rather than sit on a couch all day and night. But the excitement on Amari’s face was too bright, and he couldn’t bring himself to dampen it. A couple extra hours wouldn’t hurt…
At dinner, over the lasagna and garlic bread, Amari couldn’t stop gushing about Sailor Moon-or, more precisely, Sailor Mercury. Ami had the prettiest hair, and a handheld computer that was the same color as her hair, and she was so nice and shy and quiet. She could control water and bubbles, and helped all of the other Sailor Scouts with their homework. He liked Ami the best, but all of the characters were cool; he liked how the Scouts had different powers and colors, and how they were all such good friends even though they liked different things. Olivia had to remind him twice to stop talking and eat before his food went cold, but she didn’t stop smiling.
“I have to admit, I’m surprised he loves it so much,” Ben said later when they were in bed, hair damp and tousled from the shower. “I practically had to drag him away from the TV.”
“It’s a great show,” Olivia murmured against his shoulder. “It’s got great messages. There’s no wrong way to be a girl. Everyone can save the day. Friendship is a source of strength. Love conquers all. That sort of thing. Plus, the Scouts are all kick ass.”
“True. And there are worse things for him to be obsessed with.”
That weekend, Olivia climbed up to the attic and rummaged through the Tupperware totes until she found the one full of books she’d collected from her mother’s basement not long after they’d bought the house. There was an old, leather-bound set of Louisa May Alcott’s novels, most of the Animorphs series-she’d been utterly unable to part with them, and knew the kids would love them someday soon-and several of the Redwall books.
And, covers still glossy, the complete manga collection of Sailor Moon. The edges of the pages were yellowed and curling slightly, and years ago on a rainy weekend she had filled in several of the pages with colored pencils; this was not a set that would fetch a fine penny at a collector’s auction. But she knew that wouldn’t matter to her son.
He was camped out on the couch, fleece blanket draped over his shoulders and knees tucked beneath his chin. His oversized Stitch sat beside him with a bowl of trail mix resting in its lap, and he would reach over blindly and feel for the bowl rather than tear his eyes away from the TV, slipping raisins and pretzels into his mouth in between action sequences.
“Hey, Strong Man,” Olivia said, sitting down on his other side. “You really like this show, huh?”
It’s the best show ever! Amari signed. Daddy said there are movies, too?
“Yep, a bunch of movies. And before it was a TV show, it was a comic book.”
Like Iron Man and Batman?
“Sort of. But in Japan, comics are called manga, and you read them in the opposite direction from the way we read comics. Right to left.” Olivia set the stack on the coffee table. “And I happen to have all of them-we can read them together, if you’d like.”
Amari promptly untangled himself from his blanket, stood up, and wrapped his arms around her neck, kissing her cheek firmly as he squeezed. She returned the hug with pleasure, rocking him to and fro as she rubbed his back. “I’m really glad you like Sailor Moon so much, Strong Man. It was really important to me, too, when I was little.”
“Hey, check out the Teefury shirt for today,” Ben said.
Olivia looked up from the paper she was grading, turning to see the laptop Ben had lifted and angled towards her. “Oh God, that’s perfect.”
“Course, he won’t get the Mucha reference-”
“Ben, he’s my son. Of course he’ll get the Mucha reference. Order it.”
“We should get Scout something, too, then. Don’t you think?”
“Check Threadless for something with Indiana Jones. A shirt for each sounds about right.”
When the packages arrived, it was like Christmas. Amari hugged them both until they were breathless, bouncing up and down as if there were springs in his feet and clapping with joy. In no time, he’d yanked off his current shirt and donned the new one, running to the bathroom to admire it properly in the full length mirror. Scout was no less enthused with her new Indy Jones tee, and was quick to add the fedora Aunt Charlie had brought her last Christmas.
“Now the trick will be getting them to wear anything else,” Ben said dryly as their children pounded through the house, too ecstatic to sit calmly.
Ben was miles away, engrossed in the adventure of Shadow Moon, when Amari dropped down on the park bench beside him with a solid thump. The boy crossed his arms and sniffed, face screwed up against tears. Ben set aside his book and put his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Hey, Strong Man, what’s wrong?”
After a long pause, Amari heaved a loud sigh and uncrossed his arms to sign. Boy on the swings called me names. Said I was sissy because of my shirt. Said boys shouldn’t wear girly things like this.
“Amari, you know that’s not true, right? Boys can wear whatever they want-and girls can, too. You can like and do whatever you want, and you should just ignore anyone who says otherwise because they’re just being mean-spirited. There’s nothing wrong with Sailor Mercury.”
I know. He sniffed and rubbed his hand across his nose. I told Scout to tell him that. I said Sailor Mercury was just as cool as Iron Man. And he just laughed and pushed me off the swings.
“Point this bully out,” Ben said grimly. “Think I better have a talk with his parents.”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” Scout said matter-of-factly, walking up. There were new grass-stains and smears of mud across the knees of her jean. “I pushed him back even harder, and he ran away crying like a baby. Now who’s the sissy?”
“Jean-Louise,” Ben sighed. Aaaand there was the Charlie influence coming out again. “Even when someone’s mean to you, you shouldn’t be mean back. You come find me, or another adult, and you let us handle it.”
“Why?” Scout asked, all innocence. “I handled it myself. C’mon, ‘Mari. Let’s go do the slide.”
“You know, I’m really glad our kids follow their hearts,” Olivia said, looking out the kitchen window as she sipped her tea. Scout was hard at work building a sand city for her Matchbox cars to drive through-Amari was running circles around the trees with a giant bubble wand, striking dramatic poses that were oh so familiar. “They wouldn’t know a gender norm if it bit them in the behind.”
“Yeah,” Ben agreed, hugging her around the waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. “It helps that they’ve got such awesome parents to set good examples for them, huh?”
“Mm-hmm. Amari told me he wants to have a Sailor Moon party. He’s been talking about the show so much to his friends that they’ve all started watching it now. Jessica likes Sailor Mars the best, and Wesley likes Sailor Jupiter. I thought I could bake a cake and frost it with all of the symbols.”
“Would there be costumes?”
“Maybe-why?”
“Because you’d be a really good Sailor Moon. You’ve already got the hair for it.”
“You want to see me in odango buns, Benjamin?”
“I like seeing you in anything, Mrs. Nettles-Hawthorne.”
“You’re so smooth.”
“It’s a curse, really. My cross to bear.”
Amari falls head-over-heels for a series from Olivia's childhood....
They settled in for a bedtime story, the three of them curling up in Amari’s bed while Ben finished the dishes. Olivia opened the battered copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, flipping the yellowed pages to the bookmark between chapters five and six, only to pause when Amari tugged at her sleeve. “What is it, Strong Man?”
Who’s the girl on your shirt, Mama? he signed.
Olivia glanced down; it seemed like she’d always had this shirt, so faded from hundreds of washings that the picture printed across it was almost invisible, only the vaguest outlines of the character still discernible. She really should have tossed it ages ago, with its fraying hem and the holes along the collar. But it was so comfortable, and sleep shirts didn’t have to be presentable. “Her name’s Ami, but when she’s dressed like this she’s called Sailor Mercury. She’s from a TV show I watched when I was only a little bit older than you, called Sailor Moon.”
I like her blue hair and sunglasses. Is she a superhero?
“Yes, she is. And she’s super smart, too. She’s the smartest person in the story.”
“Like Hermione?” Scout chimed in, wriggling to fit more snugly in the curve of her mother’s arm.
“Yes,” Olivia laughed. “She and Hermione would have been best friends. Now, where were we…”
“Okay, tiny humans, what do you want to watch after lunch for movie time?” Ben asked, slathering the strawberry jelly over slices of bread. “Muppets? Star Wars?”
Mouth full of apple slices, face smudged from the sandbox in the backyard, Amari began signing furiously. Can we watch Sailor Moon?
“Sailor Moon?” Ben laughed. “Gosh, I haven’t thought about that show in years! Aunt Charlie and Mama used to watch that all the time-how do you know about Sailor Moon?”
Mama’s shirt. I want to see the blue-haired girl.
“Mama said she’s like Hermione!” Scout said.
“Yeah, I could see that… Well, lemme see what I can do. Sit down at the table and eat your PB&Js, okay? And no flicking grapes at each other.”
Turned out there was an entire Youtube channel devoted to Sailor Moon with every episode uploaded. Ben plugged his laptop into the TV and plopped down on the couch between the kids, propping his feet up on the coffee table with a conspiratorial “Don’t tell Mama,” aside when Amari pointed with wide eyes.
Halfway through the episode, Ben glanced over to find Amari sitting with rapt attention, eyes shining and hands clasped together in his lap. Scout had slid off the couch, not nearly so enamored, and was quietly playing with her Matchbox cars, driving them up Amari’s giant plush Stitch as if it were a mountain. When the video ended another in the queue immediately began-when Ben got up to stop it, Amari was quick to grab his arm with a pleading expression.
“Let Scout pick something now, bud.”
One more! Just one more!
“Scout?”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said nonchalantly. “I wanna color now.” She clambered up, disappeared into her bedroom, and reemerged with the lunchbox of crayons hanging from one hand and the jumbo Spider-Man coloring book in the other. Sprawled out across the living room floor and set to work picking out crayons, laying them out in a neat, straight row before beginning a page. Ben watched her for a moment with a smile-so often she sounded like Charlie, when she was stubborn or angry or making demands. But then she’d sit down and quietly color or paint or draw, utterly involved in her art and comfortable with stillness and silence, and she was the carbon copy of her mother.
After the second episode, Ben wanted to put his foot down and unplug the laptop. He and Olivia had agreed that the kids would have a limited allotment of television time a day; that they would encourage them to play outside and read and be creative rather than sit on a couch all day and night. But the excitement on Amari’s face was too bright, and he couldn’t bring himself to dampen it. A couple extra hours wouldn’t hurt…
At dinner, over the lasagna and garlic bread, Amari couldn’t stop gushing about Sailor Moon-or, more precisely, Sailor Mercury. Ami had the prettiest hair, and a handheld computer that was the same color as her hair, and she was so nice and shy and quiet. She could control water and bubbles, and helped all of the other Sailor Scouts with their homework. He liked Ami the best, but all of the characters were cool; he liked how the Scouts had different powers and colors, and how they were all such good friends even though they liked different things. Olivia had to remind him twice to stop talking and eat before his food went cold, but she didn’t stop smiling.
“I have to admit, I’m surprised he loves it so much,” Ben said later when they were in bed, hair damp and tousled from the shower. “I practically had to drag him away from the TV.”
“It’s a great show,” Olivia murmured against his shoulder. “It’s got great messages. There’s no wrong way to be a girl. Everyone can save the day. Friendship is a source of strength. Love conquers all. That sort of thing. Plus, the Scouts are all kick ass.”
“True. And there are worse things for him to be obsessed with.”
That weekend, Olivia climbed up to the attic and rummaged through the Tupperware totes until she found the one full of books she’d collected from her mother’s basement not long after they’d bought the house. There was an old, leather-bound set of Louisa May Alcott’s novels, most of the Animorphs series-she’d been utterly unable to part with them, and knew the kids would love them someday soon-and several of the Redwall books.
And, covers still glossy, the complete manga collection of Sailor Moon. The edges of the pages were yellowed and curling slightly, and years ago on a rainy weekend she had filled in several of the pages with colored pencils; this was not a set that would fetch a fine penny at a collector’s auction. But she knew that wouldn’t matter to her son.
He was camped out on the couch, fleece blanket draped over his shoulders and knees tucked beneath his chin. His oversized Stitch sat beside him with a bowl of trail mix resting in its lap, and he would reach over blindly and feel for the bowl rather than tear his eyes away from the TV, slipping raisins and pretzels into his mouth in between action sequences.
“Hey, Strong Man,” Olivia said, sitting down on his other side. “You really like this show, huh?”
It’s the best show ever! Amari signed. Daddy said there are movies, too?
“Yep, a bunch of movies. And before it was a TV show, it was a comic book.”
Like Iron Man and Batman?
“Sort of. But in Japan, comics are called manga, and you read them in the opposite direction from the way we read comics. Right to left.” Olivia set the stack on the coffee table. “And I happen to have all of them-we can read them together, if you’d like.”
Amari promptly untangled himself from his blanket, stood up, and wrapped his arms around her neck, kissing her cheek firmly as he squeezed. She returned the hug with pleasure, rocking him to and fro as she rubbed his back. “I’m really glad you like Sailor Moon so much, Strong Man. It was really important to me, too, when I was little.”
“Hey, check out the Teefury shirt for today,” Ben said.
Olivia looked up from the paper she was grading, turning to see the laptop Ben had lifted and angled towards her. “Oh God, that’s perfect.”
“Course, he won’t get the Mucha reference-”
“Ben, he’s my son. Of course he’ll get the Mucha reference. Order it.”
“We should get Scout something, too, then. Don’t you think?”
“Check Threadless for something with Indiana Jones. A shirt for each sounds about right.”
When the packages arrived, it was like Christmas. Amari hugged them both until they were breathless, bouncing up and down as if there were springs in his feet and clapping with joy. In no time, he’d yanked off his current shirt and donned the new one, running to the bathroom to admire it properly in the full length mirror. Scout was no less enthused with her new Indy Jones tee, and was quick to add the fedora Aunt Charlie had brought her last Christmas.
“Now the trick will be getting them to wear anything else,” Ben said dryly as their children pounded through the house, too ecstatic to sit calmly.
Ben was miles away, engrossed in the adventure of Shadow Moon, when Amari dropped down on the park bench beside him with a solid thump. The boy crossed his arms and sniffed, face screwed up against tears. Ben set aside his book and put his arm around his son’s shoulders. “Hey, Strong Man, what’s wrong?”
After a long pause, Amari heaved a loud sigh and uncrossed his arms to sign. Boy on the swings called me names. Said I was sissy because of my shirt. Said boys shouldn’t wear girly things like this.
“Amari, you know that’s not true, right? Boys can wear whatever they want-and girls can, too. You can like and do whatever you want, and you should just ignore anyone who says otherwise because they’re just being mean-spirited. There’s nothing wrong with Sailor Mercury.”
I know. He sniffed and rubbed his hand across his nose. I told Scout to tell him that. I said Sailor Mercury was just as cool as Iron Man. And he just laughed and pushed me off the swings.
“Point this bully out,” Ben said grimly. “Think I better have a talk with his parents.”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” Scout said matter-of-factly, walking up. There were new grass-stains and smears of mud across the knees of her jean. “I pushed him back even harder, and he ran away crying like a baby. Now who’s the sissy?”
“Jean-Louise,” Ben sighed. Aaaand there was the Charlie influence coming out again. “Even when someone’s mean to you, you shouldn’t be mean back. You come find me, or another adult, and you let us handle it.”
“Why?” Scout asked, all innocence. “I handled it myself. C’mon, ‘Mari. Let’s go do the slide.”
“You know, I’m really glad our kids follow their hearts,” Olivia said, looking out the kitchen window as she sipped her tea. Scout was hard at work building a sand city for her Matchbox cars to drive through-Amari was running circles around the trees with a giant bubble wand, striking dramatic poses that were oh so familiar. “They wouldn’t know a gender norm if it bit them in the behind.”
“Yeah,” Ben agreed, hugging her around the waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. “It helps that they’ve got such awesome parents to set good examples for them, huh?”
“Mm-hmm. Amari told me he wants to have a Sailor Moon party. He’s been talking about the show so much to his friends that they’ve all started watching it now. Jessica likes Sailor Mars the best, and Wesley likes Sailor Jupiter. I thought I could bake a cake and frost it with all of the symbols.”
“Would there be costumes?”
“Maybe-why?”
“Because you’d be a really good Sailor Moon. You’ve already got the hair for it.”
“You want to see me in odango buns, Benjamin?”
“I like seeing you in anything, Mrs. Nettles-Hawthorne.”
“You’re so smooth.”
“It’s a curse, really. My cross to bear.”