#I'll just give you a transformation and a WIP :P

[scifigirlgamez]

Sailor Moon but Superhero TTRPG

Look... if you give me the opportunity to look into playing a superhero ttrpg and making a character for it just as I’m finishing watching the Sailor Moon Eternals movies (parts 1 & 2), you will be getting a magical girl OC. I’m going to go through my process of how I made my magical girl superhero for the Legends ttrpg. I also like the idea of her gaining her powers well into adulthood as a twist to the magical girl genre where it’s mostly teens fighting bad guys to save the world. Like, “Oh you had an established routine as an adult? Have fun trying to weasel yourself out of getting to work late because you were fighting bad guys in a mini skirt and can’t tell anyone.”

What’s the point of me saying all this? Idk I just wanna info dump about the process I went through to make this character yesterday and today.

So buckle up and let’s get into it :D Have fun reading

To start, I looked at the Sailor Guardians naming conventions and their themes. Each of them are based on planets or celestial bodies in our solar system, most of which are named after Roman or Greek gods/ goddesses. So I went forth and researched greek gods and the planets/ moons in the solar system and I found out that Ceres is a designated dwarf planet in our solar system and just so happens to be a counterpart goddess to Demeter; both of them are goddesses of agriculture, fertility, some elements of love, and Demeter in particular is also a goddess of sacred law. I REALLY liked Demeter’s mythology more so I went with a mashup of both and it spun into the idea that I sort of wanted to do a Harvest Moon/ farming themed Sailor Guardian :D

So now I have Sailor Ceres, Pretty Guardian of Harvest and Love. Her civilian name is Demetria or Dem for short.

I settled on this only to realize one of the Amazon Quartet in the show is already named Sailor Ceres >.> but since in-universe for the Superhero ttrpg it’s just our real world with a slightly shifted AU I can ignore the already established Sailor Ceres and play it off as my character cosplaying their own Sailor Moon OC and also a sprinkle of canonical “sleeping powers that have to be awakened” like the Sailor Guardians actually had.

So now I’ve got to figure out power sets and transformations. The Sailor Guardians all used either pens or later broaches to transform. The Inner Guardians also rarely changed their outfits until Sailor Moon does a huge power up (I’m pretty sure the Inner Guardians outfits didn’t change a huge amount until the end of Eternals). The Guardians have about one or two powers at a time, gradually swapping each out for a better move over the course of the series. Sometimes they used magical items in their attacks like Venus and her chain which she later added a sword to (the names of their attacks we will get into in a bit because if you look at the english translations only they’re absolutely ridiculous). Sailor Moon had the most attacks as she often cycled them out for new abilities. She also almost strictly used magical items for her attacks (excluding the supersonic crying she used in the very beginning of the series); she had her tiara, moon stick, chalice, etc. 

With this knowledge we can establish that we need a means of transforming but also a weapon or something to use as a conduit of our powers. Based on how ability points are used in this TTRPG setting for level zero I’ve got maybe 6 points to use across the tiers for powers and abilities; A-tier costs 4 points, B-tier 2 points, and C-tier is 1 point each. There’s a huge list of options between regular weapons, elemental abilities, basic attributes skills (ie: strength, charisma, etc). 

Let’s start with our magical powers since that’s the easiest. A-tier has a “magic spells” we can put points into. This opens up more options for what KIND of magical spells I want. I didn’t have access to these pages and needed to wait to talk to my cousin who would be the GM to go over them. So what I did instead was look over the names of all the Sailor Guardians attacks. If you just read some of these out they just sound like words slapped together. Let me give you some examples:

- Moon Gorgeous Meditation

- Rainbow Moon Heartache

- Jupiter Oak Evolution

-Venus Wink Chain Sword

So I thought, for my attacks I could keep them somewhat thematic but I could be a bit goofy about it? And since I’d have limited ability slots for a bit I could maybe go for a seasonal theme for the attacks. I came up with a few including but not limited to “Summer’s Shining Sunrise”, “Swathing Harvest”, and “Winter’s Breath”. Those sound cooler than the Sailor Guardians attack names but this is just the first draft, we can workshop goofy things in later. Plus, the actual spell attacks that were chosen at level zero were slightly different but we will work up to some thematic ones (I really liked Winters Breath). These names were just to help establish a baseline for thematic approach. 

For the first spell everyone by default gets a Magic Blast but I can choose the Unique Effect that it has so I just decided that it’ll just Push the enemies back like 3 meters. One of the spell names I came up with earlier, “Summer’s Shining Sunrise”, is close enough to Blinding Light which is... self explanatory. For the personal flavour text I’m going to have the blade itself shine blindingly bright like the Sun. The second spell I wanted something nature-y and on the list is a spell called “Vine Whip" that’s plant control (vines come up from the ground and whip the enemy and do earth damage). This one I named “Nature’s Wrath” >:) 

Now... the weapon of choice. After more research I found out that Demeter was also known as “The Lady of the Golden Blade” and also presides over life and death (like plant life or death as a goddess of harvest? Idk I’m just rolling with the wikis). There’s depictions of her golden blade being either a sword or frequently sickles. But there’s also been precedent for her to have a scythe. Which, yeah that’s cool as hell and I’ve always loved the idea of scythes as weapons (thanks Soul Eater). So we have our weapon now as a Golden Scythe :D 

The thing is... at this point I had to establish that the weapon was not strictly a Magical Weapon (it’s not going to be Mjolnir where it has all the magic powers itself) and was just a regular weapon where I would use it as a conduit for the Sailor Guardian’s magical powers. So how was I going to get my character to transform if I’ve already spent most of my points? Magic Spells is in the A-tier list which means it costs the bulk of my points at 4 out of 6 and a regular weapon is 1 point. I can’t have yet another magical item, that’s from the B-tier list that costs 2 points. 

For the answer to this we have to go to another show in the magical girl genre; Cardcaptors (or Card Captor Sakura). If you aren’t familiar with the show basically this little girl uses a magic staff to activate/ release the creatures from magical tarot cards in order to collect the remaining cards that had escaped (Gotta Catch ‘Em All). Those cards and the staff are what holds the powers that she is able to use against enemies as the creatures manifest outside the card when called upon. The thing I’m pulling from this show is that the girl in this show doesn’t transform but her staff grows from the size of a necklace charm to an actual weapon with an incantation. So while the Golden Scythe isn’t a “Magic Item” in and of itself with it’s own magical properties/ powers, my GM has agreed that this is what we can do to allow my character to transform and it will compress into a charm until activated. We also agreed it would have notable durability via Plot Armor for reasons lol we can’t have the end of the scythe chip off when it hits the ground or something now can we? 

To recap, we now have themes for the names of my character and her superhero persona and powers, the way the powers function with the opportunity for flavour text, and also a weapon!

But there’s something missing... I still have 1 ability point left to spend :O And there’s ONE power that is a common theme in Sailor Moon that I haven’t mentioned... 

THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. 

THAT’S RIGHT.

When the going gets tough the inspirational and motivation speeches gets TOUGHER. 

As it turns out, there’s a spell for that! It’s apparently listed under “Empowerment”. But that’s a magic spell to delve into later and instead my Ability point will be spent on the C-tier ability “Emotion Manipulation”. Now that may sound... well like I’m going to manipulate people’s emotions. But I’m gonna use it for (mostly) motivation and inspiration for Extra BOOSTED Power of Friendship for my allies XD BELIEVE IN YOURSELF SO HARD YOU HIT THE ENEMY HARDER. I mean I could also use that ability for other things but I think it would be amazing if I had that as the basis for learning the Empowerment spell later on. To end this post I present to you a visual WIP of my Guardian:

[walkingstackofbooks]

5 times Julian watched Miles die (and one time he didn't)

When a bar fight goes horribly wrong, Julian does everything he can to save Miles. It's not enough. Miles dies, and Julian is left bereft and distraught. But this is a time loop fic, so when he wakes up the next day, Julian finds the universe has given him another chance to save his friend... And another... And another. There are many ways for Miles to die on a space station, and however much Julian tries -- furiously repressing his ever-increasing grief and dread to focus on this so-important task -- he just can't seem to stop the endless cycle. It doesn't help that, although his feelings are really too much to deal with, his friends keep pressing him to open up to them. He's fine, he insists, until he really isn't, and discovers that he does need a shoulder to cry on after all. Grief, hope, rage, hurt, comfort, despair, joy... A roller-coaster of emotions accompanies Julian through the most challenging six days of his life, and he is so, so tired.

Sound like your kind of story? Within the next few weeks, my fic 'Vision Awry' - a remix of the DS9 episode 'Visionary' - is going to start updating again, so now's the perfect time to go and read the first half! 😉 (while it's still a manageable 50k... :P )

From the end of September, I'll be resuming my regular posting schedule every week until the story reaches its conclusion - so if you're looking for a feels-y Julian WIP to subscribe to that will have both •definite updates, and •a definite end, may I shamelessly recommend that you give my fic a whirl? I am incredibly proud of it, and am so excited to be on the verge of sharing the rest of it with you all 🥰

[jaimebluesq]

WIP Wednesday 06/29

All right, Wednesday isn't over yet where I am so it's not too late :-p Back to my "Jin Zixuan plans the hunt" fic, complete with title, cover art, and a foreshadowing cliffhanger...

Jin Zixuan stood outside the main Jin stable, watching as a young boy saddled up two mounts. He normally preferred flying to riding, but was perfectly capable of managing a horse ride on occasion.

As long as the mount was gentle, of course.

He leaned his shoulder against a nearby post, resisting the urge to let out an undignified sigh. “Are they almost ready?” he called out to the boy within.

“Nearly, Jin-gongzi. It will take but a few moments.”

He leaned forward to check that the boy was doing his job properly, then leaned back into the post-

“Jin-gongzi?”

His shoulder slid against the smooth wood and he stumbled backwards, only just catching himself before he fell. He coughed and patted at his robes in an attempt to maintain his dignity, glancing over to Jiang Yanli where she approached from the main building. He then stood up and decided to act like nothing had happened.

“Jiang-guniang.” She smiled at him in welcome, the expression transforming her plain features into something quite stunning. “You are just in time. The horses are nearly ready.”

Her eyes opened a little wider. “Are we going somewhere, Jin-gongzi?”

He nodded. “I have to see my cousin with regards to some of the planning while he's working away from Koi Tower, and thought it to be an excellent opportunity to show you some of Lanling's beauty. And knowing of your lackluster cultivation, I thought travelling by horse would be welcome.” She winced at his words and he mentally berated himself. “What I meant to say was that swords were evidently out of the question and-” The light in her eyes dimmed as she looked down at her hands. Was there no way he could salvage this. “I- I thought- When I was a boy, I used to sneak away to feed the horses apples,” he said softly, admitting something only a handful of people knew. “They're very gentle, and handsome steeds, and... I thought you might like to meet them.”

Jiang Yanli no longer looked down at her hands, which he considered a victory. He rushed forward, seeing the stable boy leading two horses out by the reins, and took one set in his hands. He led the light brown mare over to Jiang Yanli and nearly shoved the leather reins in her direction. “This is Glory. I learned to ride on her and she will serve you well.”

Despite himself, the hand holding the reins began to tremble.

Jiang Yanli looked into his eyes and for a moment the rest of the world faded just the slightest bit. By the time he remembered how to breathe, her eyes had moved on to Glory. Jiang Yanli reached out a hand, bypassing the reins and instead running it comfortingly up and down Glory's forehead.

“It's a pleasure to meet you.” The horse let out a light snort as if to return the sentiment. Jiang Yanli then took the reins from him, their fingers brushing the slightest bit.

He nearly jumped and pulled his hand back.

“I'll... go get my mount.”

Minutes later, they were both seated and set their horses to a canter as they rode away from the stables.

For over half an hour, they rode past cottages and farms and fields of green and gold. Jin Zixuan described the crops that were being grown and the relationships between the farmers and the Jin, taking great pride in showing off his home. Jiang Yanli was mostly silent, nodding when appropriate and occasionally asking questions, giving him further opportunity to display his knowledge.

Thus far, the day was going quite smoothly, and he was pleased with himself.

Soon enough they reached the tall wooden walls of the camp at Qiongqi Path...