Kamen Rider Kabuto: The New Normal
Sep. 21st, 2008 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiriseTitle: The New Normal
Author: Estirose
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kabuto
Rating: 8+
Spoilers: Entire Series
Summary: Tadokoro helps a group of lost people after the end of the series.
Note: Wow! It's a Kabuto fic. It deals with Tadokoro and some of the aftereffects of the last few episodes of Kabuto. It was inspired by some author's notes for "En Paco, Flugas" that I was tagging today.
Tadokoro looked at the people in the room. All of them had been transformed by the radio pulse into Natives; thankfully, something inside them helped them hold their human forms so they could go about their lives. Of those genuine Natives left, he was the one entrusted to teach them a little about their new lives, help them adjust to being Native Worm.
"Thank you all for coming," he said, and some of them shuffled nervously. He didn't blame them for being scared, or being uncertain. "ZECT has asked me if I could help you understand your new life."
He wasn't sure if he was the right person to teach these people new things. But he couldn't help but feel protective of these lives disrupted by Negishi's plans.
"Has anybody had it explained what happened to them?" Tadokoro asked. Several hands went up, he was gratified to see. After a moment, pretty much all of them were up, followed by a shaky, last hand.
"Good," he said. "Does anybody have any questions?"
"It's permanent, right?" one woman asked, when he called on her. "We are... well, Native Worms, I guess?"
"It's permanent," he confirmed. Several other people looked less than happy with the answer, as if they were hoping that they'd be going back to their human selves. "But being Native Worms doesn't mean that you lost the human that you were; it just means that you're now an entirely different species."
"You mean, just because we're not human, doesn't mean that we're any less ourselves," another woman said. "That we can go on with our lives."
"The government knows what you are," Tadokoro said. "It knows you'll live for a lot longer than a human. Other than that? You are the same people you were before. If you want to go in a new direction now, it's up to you. You might be very young to us, but you've got your entire lives ahead of you - up to a two and a half centuries. Keep that in mind when planning for the long term."
"We can't change forms, like the other Worms could?" a teenager said. He seemed disappointed by the concept.
Tadokoro shook his head. "For us, we keep to one human form, and one human form only. You'll notice that you all have bracelets in your Native form; it keeps you from accidentally absorbing somebody else. It's part of the agreement the Native Worm made with ZECT and the Japanese government. Betray that agreement, and we could all be dead."
Several people blanched at that. "I think I'll go on living," the teenager said.
"As a human," the second woman said firmly. "We don't know how to be anything else."
"In time you will," Tadokoro said. "But for right now, you are the same people you were before the madman did this to you, and we'll fight for you to make sure you don't become the monsters of your nightmares."
Several of the women, and one or two of the men, smiled in relief at that. Tadokoro was not surprised; humans were somewhat xenophobic, afraid of the other, and these people did not want to be monsters. They wanted everything to go back to normal.
Which it wouldn't for them, not ever again, but they could pretend. Become. Until they adjusted who they were for what they were now.
And he and the others would teach these accidental children. For their sake, and for their world's sake. Because they were the Natives' responsibility, and the Natives took their responsibility seriously.
Author: Estirose
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kabuto
Rating: 8+
Spoilers: Entire Series
Summary: Tadokoro helps a group of lost people after the end of the series.
Note: Wow! It's a Kabuto fic. It deals with Tadokoro and some of the aftereffects of the last few episodes of Kabuto. It was inspired by some author's notes for "En Paco, Flugas" that I was tagging today.
Tadokoro looked at the people in the room. All of them had been transformed by the radio pulse into Natives; thankfully, something inside them helped them hold their human forms so they could go about their lives. Of those genuine Natives left, he was the one entrusted to teach them a little about their new lives, help them adjust to being Native Worm.
"Thank you all for coming," he said, and some of them shuffled nervously. He didn't blame them for being scared, or being uncertain. "ZECT has asked me if I could help you understand your new life."
He wasn't sure if he was the right person to teach these people new things. But he couldn't help but feel protective of these lives disrupted by Negishi's plans.
"Has anybody had it explained what happened to them?" Tadokoro asked. Several hands went up, he was gratified to see. After a moment, pretty much all of them were up, followed by a shaky, last hand.
"Good," he said. "Does anybody have any questions?"
"It's permanent, right?" one woman asked, when he called on her. "We are... well, Native Worms, I guess?"
"It's permanent," he confirmed. Several other people looked less than happy with the answer, as if they were hoping that they'd be going back to their human selves. "But being Native Worms doesn't mean that you lost the human that you were; it just means that you're now an entirely different species."
"You mean, just because we're not human, doesn't mean that we're any less ourselves," another woman said. "That we can go on with our lives."
"The government knows what you are," Tadokoro said. "It knows you'll live for a lot longer than a human. Other than that? You are the same people you were before. If you want to go in a new direction now, it's up to you. You might be very young to us, but you've got your entire lives ahead of you - up to a two and a half centuries. Keep that in mind when planning for the long term."
"We can't change forms, like the other Worms could?" a teenager said. He seemed disappointed by the concept.
Tadokoro shook his head. "For us, we keep to one human form, and one human form only. You'll notice that you all have bracelets in your Native form; it keeps you from accidentally absorbing somebody else. It's part of the agreement the Native Worm made with ZECT and the Japanese government. Betray that agreement, and we could all be dead."
Several people blanched at that. "I think I'll go on living," the teenager said.
"As a human," the second woman said firmly. "We don't know how to be anything else."
"In time you will," Tadokoro said. "But for right now, you are the same people you were before the madman did this to you, and we'll fight for you to make sure you don't become the monsters of your nightmares."
Several of the women, and one or two of the men, smiled in relief at that. Tadokoro was not surprised; humans were somewhat xenophobic, afraid of the other, and these people did not want to be monsters. They wanted everything to go back to normal.
Which it wouldn't for them, not ever again, but they could pretend. Become. Until they adjusted who they were for what they were now.
And he and the others would teach these accidental children. For their sake, and for their world's sake. Because they were the Natives' responsibility, and the Natives took their responsibility seriously.
