TECHNICALITIES by Kondoru
Standard disclaimers
Thanks to JP for betaing.
In which a long standing problem relating to Our Anti-Hero Is addressed.
Hiss...hst...hiss.
C
Hst...hissss...hiss.
A
Hiisss...hst...hsst.
S
Hist..hisss...hiss.
Shaking of can.
S
Shisst...Hiss...Shhh.
H
...Shiis..
The graffito stands back, thoughtfully shaking their aerosol. Her hood is pulled over her head, but by her too neat skin and too evenly blinking eyes, we can see she is a silicon based rather than carbon based lifeform.
But this is a world ruled by robots...
...They take human form, you ask? Well, they supplanted humanity, it comes as no surprise they designed themselves to fit into a world of abandoned human artefacts.
And sometimes they can be `too` human...
These are two battle bots.
Humanoid, one is big and fat, the other small and scrawny.
They look like a caricature of knights of old.
The big one shakes his horned head. "So that's it, is it?"
The other looks doubtful. "I don't know. All I know is If we eat the bugger we will gain eternal life."
Two human sized forms stand next to a second set of daubings. One is in a purple bodysuit, the other wears deep red.
"So, our arch loser has got a fan club?" Asks purple guy. (one of the horns on his helmet is broken.)
"Seems so."
"How is it spelt anyway?" He asks. "I always thought it was Casshern...but this is spelt Casshan." (He really isn't sure.)
The red females steps back. "Bloomin illiterates." Is all she says. (She has no idea either.)
All the rest of the week, Dio and Leda argue as to just how their wayward brothers name is spelt.
It's the most interesting thing that has happened to them in years...
By a third set, There are two more gawpers.
These are miserable, ragged creatures, and our suspicion that they are humans is confirmed when one of them hawks and gobs phlegm on the street.
The other looks sad. "It's a crying shame."
"What is, Fred?" The other turns to look at what his companion is looking at. "Oh."
"Robots...Call themselves lords of the earth...yet they still vandalise a perfectly respectable inner city slum wall."
The two humans saunter off.
And again.
This person is human sized, he, or she wears a long black hooded cloak.
a gloved hand comes out, bearing an aerosol.
CASSHERN is corrected to CASSHAN.
They pull their hood back so as to better see what they are doing.
Revealed is shaggy black hair and piercing blue eyes...Above an all too familiar metal face mask.
...And yet they are definitely human...
"People are begining to talk." Ohji says to his comrade when she comes in.
Lyuze gives the professor a dirty look. "Talk, about what?"
"Some Chav is going about graffiting walls. They are writing CASSHERN IS SEXY." Ohjis begoggled eyes narrow in disapproval. "Only sometimes it's CASSHAN IS SEXY."
"And?" In Pre Ruin days, a robot caught vandalising the city would have been hauled up before the council and publicly shamed, that and been given a bucket of solvent and told to scrub it all off.
These days no one gives a damn.
"We know it's you." Ringo says from her corner. She has been sleeping in a pile of blankets.
"Don't you interfere." Growls Lyuze.
"Why `Casshern is sexy?`" Ohji has to ask.
Lyuze shook her head. "It's the worst thing I could think of to say about him."
And indeed it was pretty much the worst thing one robot could say about another. That they were as bad as humans at their worst.
Ohji looked sad. "Casshern is not an ordinary robot." He paused. "He might take it as a compliment."
"Garn!" was all Lyuze said. She had never dared enquire of Ohji just `how` Neos replicated; She had a feeling that it was the sort of thing no decent machine should have to know about.
She throws her aerosols down with a bang that makes Friender, who is nowhere near them, jump up in fright.
Lyuze storms into the back room of their hovel; Ohji picks up the cans and places them on the shelf.
Later when she has calmed down, Lyuze has to ask Ohji one thing.
"I used both spellings...Which is the correct one?"
Ohji steepled his fingers. He looked at Lyuze under the brim of his shabby cap. "Well, there are two schools of thought on that..."
A long time ago (just after the release of the live action movie in 2004, in fact.) I had an online conversation with a Person who had done some work for Tatsunoko, doing English translations.
I asked him, was it CASSHERN, or CASSHAN?
He told me that both spellings were equally acceptable.
Ah well...
There are, of course, several different Cassherns/Casshans...And each of them is equally valid.