A bit after Cass willed her genre into slice-of-life and began her class, someone entered the classroom. Cass looked up to see Jon entering. The slug woman blushed as she entered a while after the bell rang.
"Hey, Jon. Take a seat, but, just curious, what kept ya?"
"Uhm... I actually stopped for a bit to watch the news this morning..." - Said Jon, clearly depressed, as she sat.
"...okay. Why so glum?" - Said Cass.
"Er... I saw some... stuff after the Sun changed. Companies going under, they were saying it might have harmed the economy... Taken a toll on society... There was even talk of changing the date system!"
"Y'know" - Said Cass - "This is actually a rather good learning moment, folks. Jon, remember the 2008 crisis?"
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 heard in on the radio on the way here. 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."
Karyn raised her hand - "So... If the government created a safety net... Why did it go under?".
"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 Sarah.
"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."
"How so?" - Said Rachel.
"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... First, I wanna apologize if I make anyone uncomfortable, I really don't mean to..." - said Jon, knowing he was introducing a thorny subject - "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... For... most people."
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." - At that, Rachel smiled a wide and very impish smile - "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."
"Right..." - 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. Meaning, the changed are taking this much better than the textbooks said they should. Heck, by all rights I shouldn't be here or this chipper. I changed on Saturday."
Jon nodded somberly, and the class was just as quiet.
"So, yeah. Chalk that up to one of the many impossibilities of the Sun change. We are all defying a rule of psychology by taking this as well as we are." - Said Cass.
"Y'know, compared to the other stuff we're defying, this is just a little bit minor, isn't it?" - Said Joey Hernandez, a fire-elemental changed who somehow did not burn or even char what he touched and resident class clown.
"Point." - Cass smirked.
Jonathan Meadows, an elfin student, raised his hand - "Uhm, unrelated question, though. What about this date change thing? Will it replace the usual calendar?"
"We're in the year 5772 by the Hebrew calendar. 4648 or 4708 by the Chinese one. And so on. I don't think people will care enough to really change the calendar. People do things for convenience, mostly. The Gregorian calendar spread because, well, there were lots of distant civilizations and the colonizers had learned to forge the nicer weapons first. Were it the other way around, we'd be using the Cherokee calendar or something. Now, though, civilizations are close and in close contact. The Gregorian calendar is used universally. This whole Post-Sun thing will more than likely just join a huge pile of other calendars used for other things. Japanese, Iranian, Korean, Hindu, even Unix time. I could bet this new one will just add to the pile. It ain't replacing the old one."
As the class ended, Cass knew her next one only started in a half-hour. So she went to the teacher's lounge, empty for the moment, and got online at her notebook. Lucas had still not e-mailed her, meaning the angel of vengeance 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...
