“Lover and Hater of Tower of Hate and Love” (65.8) (Zeta)

I was half paying attention as the buddy action movie played, where the muscular secret agent just had a tank top and shorts on while her partner stood stoically nearby.

"Listen, you stuck up android," the muscular one said as she got up in the other's face. "If you keep pushing me to play by the rules, I'm gonna…gonna…"

"Going to what, agent?" The android woman leaned in closer. "I am merely asking you to abide by the parameters we're required to follow. If we go past those boundaries, then…"

"Then what? Maybe we should cross some boundaries together…put your damn pride aside for a second!"

"I believe you are the one who needs to put her pride aside, agent,"

"I think they need to put their pride to the forefront, honestly," Kalei said. "I didn't realize how lesbian this series was."

"Oh yeah, this probably led to a million awakenings," Diast said.

"Clamp and Tilt really need to put their arrogant pride to the side, but put the gay pride forward and start making out already." Marmalade said.

"Yeah!" Kalei said.

"There's a reboot coming apparently, hopefully that one lets them finally be together," Diast said.

"Pride, huh…?" I said.

It felt familiar in a way. I probably needed to put my pride about Tower to the side.

"I'll…be right back," I announced as I headed for the kitchen, where the back door to the apartment was.

I wasn't sure where Sai had left to, but I hoped they weren't far. It occurred how rare it was for me to walk around my own new neighborhood, but since Stella moved in with Dr. Diast, I usually spent nights staying at home when I wasn't at the dorms. It was strange going from a big city apartment to a quiet, suburban neighborhood, and I don't think I'd really even begun to process that yet. Sai wasn't in the alley, but some neighbors were from a few houses down. Normally I'd flee this kind of scenario, but I worked up the nerve to ask.

"G-greetings," I said. "I…um…live down there and…um, have you seen a person with horns and purple hair around?"

The middle-aged woman nodded. "Yep, I saw em chatting up a friend, they were headed up that way but I think they're just going around the block."

"Thank you!" I said.

Talking to someone? Maybe one of the other devils stopped by? I wasn't sure why, but if they were doing laps around the block that meant I could catch them.

I let out a strange, excited yelp when I spotted Sai walking with their hands in their pockets. They weren't with anyone.

"Sai!" I said.

"Oh! Hey," Sai looked around like I'd caught them in the middle of something. They checked their phone for the time. "Oh my god, how long have I been out? I'm so sorry, I lost track of time there."

"You're sorry?" I said. "I'm the one who's sorry! I thought I made you leave the whole party!"

"No, I just…" Sai said. "Wanna go back to your place?"

I tried to think of the right words while we walked back.

"You were talking to someone?" I asked. "Er, the neighbor told me."

"Yeah, a friend was in the neighborhood," Sai scratched the back of their head. "She just left, though. A big Tower fan like you."

"Really? You should have told her to come join us! Or…wait, sorry. Me being annoying about Tower again."

"You're not being annoying," Sai said.

"I totally am! Sorry for blowing up at you about it," I said.

"Thanks," Sai said.

We made it to my backyard, and sat on the steps, both of us silently agreeing we had to talk it out a bit more before we rejoined the party.

"I don't remember anything from back home, right?" Sai said, getting right to it. "I hate starting with that every time, but I don't even know what shows or movies we had back then. But I think they must've been awful because every time I see something that's so…not me. Or trying to pretend it's like me, and then it's not. It just pisses me off."

"Maybe it was all super straight shows there," I said. 

"Could be. I don't have my memories, but I have myself," Sai said. "And I know what I'm about. So when something's faking it, or being so basic and normal…yeah. I get mad."

"I get that feeling," I said. "There are some shows and books and movies here that people will recommend that are like. Painfully straight. Straight in that kind of way that looks you in the eyes after putting two girls who are all blushy and cute at each other, then goes, 'No. Girls have to fall in love with boys. That's what they do.' and it hurts and it sucks because they lure us in by making it gay but they can't really think about what being gay is actually like or what we'd actually want, and can't imagine anyone being a boy or a girl, or someone who was born a girl wanting to be a boy, or a boy wanting to be a girl, and definitely not any gender outside of the binary, so they give up and just default to what they do know. And what they do know is just…boring straight stuff. Tower I think gets a little better about it, but…" I bit my lip, trying to not defend my favorite show too much and start another argument. "I get it, yeah."

"It's OK if you like the show, one of my closest friends loves it," Sai said.

"And it's…alright if you don't like it, either, I suppose," I said. "For me, Tower was one of the things that helped me find myself, it awakened a lot in me. But I can see it also not being super great rep wise if you're looking for something more…"

"Like explicitly gay? Yeah," Sai said. "You argue for it just like my friend does, it's hilarious."

"Really? I'll have to have a word with them…" I said. "In the meantime though, we're watching this lesbian secret agent movie. It's not explicitly gay, but it's pretty gay if you wanna join us."

"That sounds great," Sai said.