As Cass finished her class and found a moment to will her genre into slice-of-life, someone entered the classroom. Cass looked up to see Mary entering. The unicorn-woman turned anime-ish as she approached Cass.
"We need to talk."
"Yes?" - Said Cass, curtly, not yet fully forgiving the trick she had pulled on Lucas the night before.
"That was necessary, Cass, and you know it." - Said Mary, well-aware of what had gotten Cass bothered with her. - "Anyways. I need you to talk to a student. Her name's Jon Gibson. She's scared of social and economic results of the Sun."
"Lots of students are. I try to tell them it won't make that much of a difference in classes. And I teach Jon. She seems like a nice girl, if a bit shy. Guess the gender change will do that to some people." - Said Cass.
"Yes, well, I'd still like you to talk to Jon in private." - Said Mary.
Cass sighed. "You're really not gonna let this go, are you?"
Mary smiled lightly. "I'll owe you one."
"I'll talk to her when I meet her again. Problem is I just taught her class." - Said Cass.
"Then wait here for a moment. Jon shouldn't be far." - Said Mary. She then swiftly left.
"Hey, will you tell me why you're so adamant about..." - Cass began. Mary had left before her next word.
"Jon. Come back here, please."
Jon looked up. "Er, Ms. Summers. Hello."
Mary walked up to Jon. "Hello, Jon. Ms. Wilkins wants to talk to you about something. Could you please go back there? Your next class is mine, yes, but I'll understand if you're late." - Mary was pleasant about the way she spoke it, and even phrased it as a question. Yet it was clearly not a request. And if Ms. Wilkins had wanted to talk to him, she'd have said so before he left anyways. Still...
"Uhm, sure." - Said Jon - "I'll be right back..."
Jon went back to Ms. Wilkins' room. This being Ms. Summers, she didn't really have a choice.
"Uhm, hello again, Ms. Wilkins. Ms. Summers sent me back to talk to you..." - Said Jon, her form taking anime-ish outlines as she entered Cass's radius.
"Right, about the economy and such, right?" - Said cass.
Jon blinked. Ms. Summers either knows or at least knows I'm worried... - She thought - "E-er... Yes. I was a bit worried..." - She understated.
Cass shrugged and sat on her desk.
"Jon, remember the 2008 crisis?" - Said Cass.
Jon nodded. "Yeah. My father would talk about how his company was laying off people..."
"Well, is he talking about it now?" - Asked Cass.
"Not that I remember, no." - Said Jon.
"You see. This sun thing did change the world. A LOT. But the economy isn't really dependent on it. Did you know there are clothes being made for the centaur and centaur-like changed? Shampoos for certain kinds of changed to wash their fur or their wings? The sun changing actually heated up the economy a lot. It created lots of new demand."
"Well, yes, but... I saw this news about this company that went bankrupt when half of their employees changed into aquatic beings..." - Said Jon.
"Yeah. I saw the news. But so what?" - Said Cass - "These people will be reabsorbed into a lot of new jobs that will require their skills. The owner still has the equipment. He could sell it or start it over after paying his debts and all. And if a company lacks the floating capital to get through a hiring and training stage, they were probably not gonna make it for long anyways. Heck, the government even created a loan fund to deal with this kind of stuff."
"So why did it go under?" - Said Jon.
"My bet? Two options." - Said Cass - "Either the company couldn't afford the collateral - thus would be a risk for default, and wouldn't be in that good a shape to begin with anyways - or the owner preferred filing chapter eleven and blaming it on the Sun so as to collect the insurance money. Or both."
"...which didn't really work, as the insurers are still in doubt about this whole thing..." - Noted Jon.
"Yeah, but it didn't hurt to try. I'm not saying this change will be good for the economy, it's just that it won't deal that much damage to it. Our economy was already in trouble. The sun didn't make it much worse. Heck, the BRICs actually got a jolt to their economies from this."
"Why?"
"Their economies were already expanding and quite heated. So this sun thing happens and it increases demand for new products. They'll have to deal with inflation risks, but, so far, it's been a boon to them."
Jon nodded. "I see. So whatever did this to the sun actually helped the world's economy?"
"I wouldn't go so far as that." - Said Cass - "It's just that it won't really harm it. The economy relies on people being people. And people will still be people, Jon. We are adaptable like that."
Jon smiled. "I see." - She felt relieved. At least she didn't destroy that with her wish. Still...
"Uhm... Ms. Wilkins, are you aware of any research about the changed and how they liked it? I mean, how many like their changes and such?" - Said Jon.
Cass shook her head. "Not yet. I heard one is being planned. Why?"
Jon blushed. "I just... wanted to know if this was a good thing..."
Cass smiled sadly. "Again it depends. I know of a priest that turned into a tree. Yet he doesn't mind. This anime thing is nice for me, but annoying sometimes. And I know of a certain angel woman that is simply loving it. Mostly, at least. I can only give you anecdotal evidence, but, as you can see, some people are loving it, some people are taking the good with the bad and some people are... enduring it. Yet..."
"Yet?" - Said Jon.
"I haven't heard of even one changed attempting suicide or anything drastic. And... And there is something psychology doesn't get going on too."
"Go on..." - Said Jon.
"Self-image and body perception are very important things. People with problems with them have to go through psychological treatment and so on, or might even go insane. Take gender identity disorder, for when a person has a mind of a gender and a body of another one. Yet the changed are taking it very, very well. I didn't hear of one changed undergoing or planning for gender reassignment or anything after changing genders, for instance. At least not after some three days. Whatever the light is doing, it's also changing our minds enough to prevent the major psychological consequences of these transformations. Heck, by all rights I shouldn't be here or this chipper. I changed on Saturday."
Jon nodded somberly. Whatever his careless wish did, it saw to it that people would live - seemingly. "Thank you, Ms. Wilkins. You gave me a lot to think about."
"Anytime."
Jon left to go to Ms. Summers' class.
Jon got to Ms. Summers' class a bit after it started, but Ms. Summers clearly didn't mind it. She kept on with it as normal. As people were leaving, however...
"Jon, I need to talk to you."
Of course. - Jon thought.
As the class left, Mary was alone with Jon.
"Remember the assignment I gave you?" - She said.
Jon nodded. How could he forget?
"I wanted to give you another small reminder regarding it, Jon. You must worry about that which you can change. The biggest things can arise from the smallest actions, yes, but you still cannot change things that are outside your scope just by worrying about them. If you wish to improve things after the Sun, you must act in a way that would do so. Regardless of how little power you currently hold."
Jon nodded again, this time slightly panicked, but doing a marvelous job of not letting it show. She knows.
"Now, go ahead to your next class." - Said Ms. Summers - "And treat this as a request, not as an order or an assignment: Try and make the world a better place. Every little bit helps."
Oddly, Jon felt this time it was a request. She nodded to Ms. Summers, said her goodbyes and left.
As the lunch break arrived, Cass found herself in an empty classroom, online at her notebook. Lucas had still not e-mailed her, meaning Lucas was likely free for the afternoon. She went on to look at sites, wondering how powerful the anime-changed really were and what they could do. Specifically wondering if she could make an animation "permanent". She researched on her powers a bit more, and took her jacket off for a quick test. She concentrated on the jacket, trying to will the animation to become permanently attached to it. She still had to do research anyways, and it might be possible with some technique she didn't yet know, but there was no harm on trying already. After a while of that, Cass moved to the other side of the room, wondering if it had worked, and turned back to look...
"Ms. Summers knows." - Said Jon at lunch.
Karyn did a double-take. "What? You mean she knows about... it?"
"Either that or she knows something, Karyn. The way she talked... She must know that something's off! Why else would she say what she said?
"Well, what did she say?" - Said Karyn.
Jon told Karyn about what had transpired. Karyn's eyes widened.
"Well-met." - Said Brittany as she arrived at the table - "How fare you?"
She looked at the two, taking in their expressions.
"...we are in a pickle, are we not?"
