dinohouse | [Fourze characters/Liveman family/anyone really/go wild]

My head rolls to one side as he explains, sort of. I vaguely know what he's talking about. Stars, obviously. The designs humans pretend exist in them. I wonder if that's what the spots mean.

"It still looks like my own true form." I explain. "Except for the... lines," I gesture vaguely where the lines in question were on the other body. "I'll accept it. Leo is appropriate." Like my Head Core. The lion.

"They have been dangerous." I admit proudly. "Perhaps they will be again."

"So. What will you do now?" I can't see him enjoying a visit from a certain gentleman with red eyes, or agreeing to recruit other Horoscopes. But why does that matter? Once the power of a Horoscope has been unleashed, that's really all there is to do (hence no sorrow over the loss of Miss Sonoda.) It's as natural as a leaf falling daintily to ground.

"Who knows?" I purr, holding the Switch up to examine it, turning it over and over. I look up at him again with a curious tilt of my head. "What do you do? You're a student, aren't you?"

"Yeah. One more year to go." More's the pity, but I do enjoy rakugo and my other ... extracurricular activities, "my school was founded to find the twelve Horoscopes and encourage experimentation with the Cosmic Power. But I figured why stop at the school gates?"

"Your school..." I muse. I wonder if Jou knows about this. I suppose I'll have to tell him now. I think the Switch is bound to me now, not like my Cores that could be used against me. "You think outside the box, then." I can relate. "Be cautious. It might catch you unawares in the end. Curiosity kills the cat, as they say."

"But the crab?" I have a little more respect for this guy than for Hayami. Perhaps I'll take his advice, "what about the school? There are kids living in that house, right? Do they go to Amanogawa?"

"My house?" It is. It's Jou's too, of course, and the other parents. But it's my territory, and mine to defend. I'm not sure any of the humans could do a satisfactory job. "Yes, there are students, and a teacher."

"Then how can they know nothing about the Switches? Maybe they just didn't tell you." Dramatic irony?

I raise an eyebrow at him, then scoff. "I didn't think to ask any of them." Why would I? I considered discussing it with Jou, and probably will now, but he's so... good, I wonder if he wouldn't try to make me destroy the Switch. I can't have that.

"And I'm still quite new," I admit with a shrug.

"Ask the audience ... phone a friend. I wonder if they'll tell you what you want to hear?" I open my fan in a mock-contemplative pose, "maybe they have Switches of their own. You would still be more powerful than them, of course. You're the ultimate stage in evolution."

Everything is just a show with him. It could be worse, I guess. Everything could be an experiment, like with Maki.

"I doubt it." About the Switches, that is. "They don't seem the type." The parents are all heroic, and the kids... "But maybe."

"There isn't a type of Switcher. All you need is a weakness or a desire ... and the Switch will find it." Or maybe you're just really bored and want a little more fun in your life. Worked for me.

Sounds familiar. These Switch users, Horoscopes, whatever they are, they have quite a bit in common with Greeed after all. Only they started out as human, and strive to be not. Quite opposite. Upside down.

I've done both.

I'm not sure which I prefer.

"Maybe I'll ask them, then."

"You could try. Doesn't guarantee an honest answer. Unless ... you could find a way to get it out of them." I indicate towards the Switch.

That will be an entertaining dinnertime conversation. I almost wish I'd bugged the house when I was in it.

I raise an eyebrow at him again. He is about as insane as Maki, obviously, though I'm not sure he's quite as interested in the destruction of the entire world. Hopefully.

He's also very lacking in a certain conversational surrogate, so I imagine he must be a bit harder to ruffle. Can't just knock the doll off his arm to make him shut up.

"They're my family now." I say cautiously.

"Your family?" I can feel my smile involuntarily growing. If this were an anime I'd have big starry eyes too, "perhaps they would all like Switches? Look at how well yours worked." I haven't even seen its full power over him yet. And with a whole family, the possibilities would be as endless as space itself.

Creepy. I wonder if he's already planning to shove his admittedly impressive claw through my stomach to retrieve the Switch that I am now cautiously returning to my pocket for examination at a later date.

"No, I don't think so." I'm not sure if I'm protecting them, and if so, what from. Being human, even temporarily, has had it's lasting effect.

Maybe I'm just protecting myself. Any one of them could turn out to be more powerful than me. I'm going to have my hands full with the crab, if he decides to turn against me.

"Shame. If they're anything like you ..." I leave the words hanging, then step down off the wall, "I take it you'll be wanting to keep the Switch, then?" No point ending the show prematurely.

I frown at him, consider taking a step back, taking a step forward, circling him, running away, but I manage to simply stand my ground and set my hands on my hips. "I thought you said it was mine now, anyway?" This could be potentially dangerous. "That it wouldn't work for anyone else."

"All of that's true, but you seem to be more ... separate from this Switch than would typically be the case. An advantage of having no humanity to surrender, perhaps?" Or perhaps some secondary effect of bypassing Ursa Major completely. At this stage I think I'll watch. Performance criticism has a time and place.

I nod, though I'm not sure how I feel about his words. I don't intend on being entirely sufficient on something external or easily stolen from me ever again, but that doesn't mean I want to give it up. "I'm just an experiment to you, aren't I?"

"Who said that? We're two of twelve generals. That makes us equal, right? The veteran may try to push his age over beauty, but the audience doesn't care." A concept that dear Hayami-sensei has repeatedly and embarrassingly failed to grasp.

"You and I are of one mind, then." I'll give him that. I already learned my lesson about trying to be better than my equals.

"Two of twelve?" He did mention that, but it hadn't quite occurred to me until now. "How many others are there?"

"Five, counting us. Or there were five, until one of them had ... a misfortune. It doesn't really matter. The power of that Switch has been unleashed." I bet that ridiculous ape in the braces still cries over her picture every night. Maybe I'll tell him. Having it be the last thing he hears would be the perfect fall of the curtain for him, "but ultimately, there must be twelve."

Sounds familiar, at first. I wonder what ultimately means for him. His human form can't be any older than mine appears to be. I wonder if he even ages, or how long this grand finale of his is going to take to come about.

"Twelve's a big number. Quite a lot of room for skulduggery and backstabbing." And I don't like the idea that normally this stage is a form of evolution. It would be like a Yummy becoming a Greeed by sheer force of will.

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