#Minako having to do all that on her own

[moghedien]

Minako's Sailor V era is something that can be so personal to me and also cause me so much pain

[drops-of-moonlights]

"Guided by the Crescent Moon, Agent of Justice, Blessed with Irresistible Beauty! I am Sailor V! You, who dares to disturb the peace, will fall to the power of my Holy Light!"

SAI! LOR! V! The Sailor V post!

We start with the girl herself of course! For Sailor V I'm mainly taking from the OG anime's depiction, though turning the collar into a cape and giving her odango is my own thing - if she's gonna be a decoy for Serenity SHE BETTER HAVE HER DANG HAIRSTYLE LOL. Minako becomes Sailor V at age 14, and fights against the Gem Agency (formerly the Dark Agency) in London for an entire year. Minako's dad had to move to London for work and he brought the entire family with him, then moved back a month after Minako finished her work as V.

As for the Gem Agency! Led by Danburite, he's the reincarnation of a low foot soldier that fell in love with Venus, but his advances were rejected. In the present time, he formed the Gem Agency after coming across a shard of Metalia's power (as it was before she awakened) and used it to create his 3 servants - essentially more advanced Youma.

The first of the "generals" is Carbon, who poses as a human named Narciso Ashworth. He has the power to bewitch anyone with a smile, which he passes off as just "having a lot of suitors". He manipulates said suitors to do his bidding and sometimes summons charcoal monsters. Minako is one of the many crushing on him and is the first of the enemies she kills.

The second one is Nacre, who poses as Pandora Avon, a popular idol. Her power is to bewitch anyone with a song, which gives her an edge as she can command thousands at a time. She can summon pearlescent monsters who focus on dazzling and blinding enemies. She's the second one Minako kills, after one of her concerts.

The final general is Silica, who poses as Vivian Stone, a gang leader who can bewitch anyone with a glare. She's the most active of them all, leading her gang members to cause mayhem and chaos. She creates glasslike monsters. She's the last one Minako kills after they attack one of her friends in London.

We end with Danburite himself! His current incarnation, Alexander, is a 17yo actor, famous for playing the love interest in a popular teen soap. He moonlights as Ace of Hearts, a superhero who later aids Sailor V in a ploy to weaken her defenses. He does all this to shut the voice in his head, incessant and full of anger, who seeks revenge against the Moon. Minako kills him upon her awakening as Sailor Venus, and Danburite curses her to fall to the same fate as him, the Moon never letting her rest. This proves true, as awakening as Venus makes SilMil Venus start to communicate with her, making Minako's life hell for the following year. Alexander's death, as an actual human person, makes big news, chalked up to an accident on set.

We end with a lil comparison! On the left is "Sailor Princess", the appearance Minako takes when pretending to be the Princess. She keeps most details from Sailor V, but ditches the mask and her tiara gem is a crescent. She becomes Venus proper the second Usagi awakens as Serenity.

[laugtherhyena]

Can we get some silly facts about your dra/sdra2 ocs :3 (beni, akira, mai, yukari, etc etc)

I added the random facts i got about Akira, Beni and Yukari in thes posts but I don't think I ever made one for Mai sooooo let's change that (even tho there's not many in regards to her)

-She's a huge Godzilla/Kaiju fan since she was a kid and Ippei used to take her to watch whatever new movie of it was coming out (he never understood what people found so fun in movies that are just huge monster destroys the city and fights other monsters). Her favorite Kaiju is Titanosaurs and she owns a bunch of VHSs and DVDs of Kaiju movies.

-She hates cooking and lives of take out and simple to put together meals. Her diet overall is really not that healthy, but Mai works out so much she ends up burning all the calories anyway. (She really loves drinking too!)

-Her apartment (Which is located within the Kisaragi foundation in living complex for those who work there) is very messy in the sense that things are stored wherever Mai finds it best to have them and not by conventional means; Why are there dumbells next to the bed? Morning workout, box of old classic music vinyls on top of the fridge? Easy to ignore his absence, Living room couch on the apartment balcony occupying the entire space there? Mai just likes the view, she's never been a huge fan of Tv anyway and she's put a big gym mat where the couch would be anyway. (Minako for sure brings this up as the reason she's never found a husband)

-Mai's the kind of person that will sometimes look at others around her age and think "What do you mean i could be a mother and ave children by now?? Huh? What?" (I don't think she necessarily wants to have children? At least not on her own account. If she got together with someone who really wanted them she would compromise)

-She often asks Ryutaro to help her put on the prosthetic for work. She like's the little guy a lot! She acts sorta like an aunt to him and became close to Midori by association.

-The reason Mai doesn't like using a prosthetic arm is because no matter how high quality it is it will never feel like how her actual arm used to and this difference annoys her more than having no second arm at all.

-When wearing it on missions tho, if things get rough, she has a habit of using the prosthetic as a shield/putting it in harm's way since it's just metal after all. The property damage annoys Kinjo at times, but it doesn't happen often enough for him to scold her for it.

-She is often regarded as immature for her age by a few peers. While that is true to an extent, Mai is incredibly proficient when it comes to work. More specifically;

-Bringing @despair-to-future-arcs Kisaragi foundation characters into the mix, Fukumi is one of her closest friends. They hang out outside of work and share secrets quite often.

-She initially got close to Naoto both out of them being assigned to train new members of Kinjo's division and their positions as 2nd and 3rd in command respectively, both of them have lost their families so there's a bond/mutual understanding on that fact as well.

-She may have a crush on him, but there's nothing much happening at the moment because Naoto is in an incredible bad mental health state and Mai doesn't have the ability to really help him given how she deals with a lot of issues through ignorance or distractions, which is really not what he needs. (She does genuinely care for him tho, and her inability to help him in a significant manner upsets her greatly.)

[alevolpe]

Hello love your art 🩷

Ok question if reí and minako had a discussion who would apologize first ?

Idk why but I have this silly idea of reí and mina getting into an argument/discussion and reí just telling mina to get out or something and mina coming back after like 1 hour and making a dramatic I’m sorry🥺,like reí opening the door and mina in the rain but in reality it’s usagi with a garde hose cuz she told her it would help for dramatic effect

Hello! Thank you! Hope you’re still around, this is yet another very old ask.

Your idea is very cute and Usagi would 100% do that for Mina.

With Reinako I think it’s very very dependent on what they are fighting about. Unlike Makoami, who I see fighting very very rarely, I think Rei and Mina fight on a pretty regular basis, but it’s almost never too serious, it’s just the nature of their characters and how they tend to play off one another, where if Mako and Ami fight, then it’s most often a very big deal.

If the reason for the fight is non-senshi related then most often I think Mina would be the reason the fight starts to begin with, but also she’d be the one to reach forward and apologize first, even if it might not be 100% her fault. Given the nature of Rei stubbornness and lack of self-reflection, for her admitting she’s wrong is no easy feat, and I think Mina understands this very well and takes the step to open herself to faults first so Rei feels more comfortable admitting possible wrongdoings from her part.

If the fight is senshi related then it gets way more complicated. Mina loves Rei, I’m not saying she doesn’t, but if Mina has to choose between the integrity of the team or her relationship with Rei, then she’d end up breaking up with her quickly and I think Rei would do the same. This is a mutual understanding in their relationship.

It’s a difficult line to ride, they have to keep these two “lives” separate, but at the same time they understand that they are essentially the same person as their lover. So I can honestly see them having disagreements as senshi, as leader and second in command, but their relationship as lovers remaining unchanged from their eyes. It’s something I don’t see any other member of the team outside of possibly Michiru in some circumstances.

So.. if they fight and the fight is senshi related I don't think there is going to be much apologizing most of the time. Maybe early on as the team is just starting and Mina still isn’t fully into her own as leader and goes too far with Usagi, that’s the easiest way I can see them fighting as senshi and Mina coming forth and apologizing.

All this said, does Rei ever apologize? Sometimes yes lol, but you’re not allowed to tell anyone.

[i-cant-stop-fandoming-help]

Bored so. Dra characters and if i think theyd be shit parents or not. (Not including people who are canonically parents)

I will reblog this with the sdra2 characters and what i think theyd be like as parents.

Mitch: he'd be an absent father

Kiyoka: i mean. She'd probably do decently enough. She wouldnt be perfect but she wouldnt be awful, either.

Kizuna: it really depends!! If shes a single mother, i think she'd really struggle with it. Both of her parents were bad, but still in her life, and as a single mother... i think she may unintentionally be bad. BUT!!! If she has a good partner, i think she, like kiyoka, could be a decent mother. I think she'd also definitely need to get some sort of therapy before being a mother, just so she can unlearn things that minako taught her.

Ayame: she'd definitely be a good mother! She'd make sure her child has a good balance between everything. 25/25/25/25 for games, excersize, schoolwork, and anything else. She would care a lot.

Kakeru: probably a good dad. I think he'd adopt kids, maybe teenagers, and try his best to make sure theyre happy as can be.

Kanata: like kakeru, i think she'd be adopting. And i think she'd be a good mom. After the good ando and his wife did for her, by adopting her and raising her with care and love, she'd want to do the same for other children out there.

Kinji: part of me is tempted not to include him because of the orphans.... hes actually their dad now. He was willing to kill to keep them safe so... hes at least decent. At most hes a great parent.

Haruhiko: probably decent. Not the best, not the worst.

Satsuki: i mean... i dunno she feels a bit complicated. She was raised in a large family. Her parents basically saw her as something else to help them profit, as they probably did with all of their kids. Almost all of her siblings saw her as competition instead of family. Keisuke was basically acting as her father, because neither of their parents did a proper job raising her. I think she'd have to realize how wrong all of this was before having her own kids-- only then do i think she'd be better than decent. Also i think it'd be best if she only had 2-3 kids because we are NOT repeating what her mother did. 21 KIDS???? JESUS CHRIST

Yamato: from the sounds of everything, Hanzo did a good job raising him. Because of his strong sense of morality, i think he'd be a good father. Not great, but not just decent, either. I think he'd help his kid with a lot of things, but possibly, unintentionally, make his kid worry about living up to expectations.

Mikako: i think she'd be a very caring mother. Not overprotective or a "they can do no wrong!" mother, but she'd care for her kids as if her life depends on it. I think, if there were ever a possibility of her finding out what kokoro did to her, it'd mess her up a bit and she'd worry more about failing as a mother.

Utsuro: ........would he even be present? I dont know. I dont think he'd even want to be a father.

Akane: its easy to imagine her as a mother, but shes gone through hell and back and she's experienced lots of poor treatment. She didnt really have a mother for a lot of her life, because her mother died when she was still young. She never knew her father. I dont think she really had any good parental figures in her life, other than the possibility of another maid or two caring for her when she was just starting out and when she grew up. But so many people have harmed her that... i think she'd be scared of having a child. I think she wouldn't want to bring a child into the world, knowing they could suffer the same hell she did. Knowing how cruel the world is. So, i dont know if she'd be a good or bad mom. I don't think she'd want kids.

Teruya: kojiro set a good example for him! He'd probably be a good/great dad! Bbbbbut theres a chance his kid could end up being terrified at the idea of being the heir to otorimart.

Tsurugi: SHIT FATHER!!! Maybe in a happier timeline, he would be decent. Maybe if given the time to escape the beliefs that his father placed on him, he would be decent. But if we go by the tsurugi seen in sdra2... i just dont think he'd be a good father at all.

Rei: AMAZING MOTHER. LISTEN TO ME. She's smart. She knows that what she experienced as a child was wrong. She would not want her own child to feel as unloved as she did. She was abandoned and had to fend for herself on the streets while she was still young. She would be hesitant on having a child, but she'd be an amazing mom to any offspring she has. I actually have written a fic with her as a mom! it's uh. for the fankidronpa i'm helping write. Here's the link. (it's going to be released in parts bit by bit as the fankidronpa itself actually releases, to expand on a character more :3)

Keisuke: i said it in satsukis portion, but he practically raised her. She was practically his daughter. (Meaning he likely experienced parentification of some sort which is a topic for another time.) But I think he'd actually do pretty good! At least... that's regarding DRA keisuke. SDRA2 Keisuke would not do as well, probably. He'd be decent, still, but after beginning to follow the same beliefs that Tsurugi follows... I don't know how to explain it, but I think he'd fail a bit in certain areas.

Ryutaro and Midori: Honestly? I don't know, with these two. But... I think they'd have to adopt. If they wanted children at all, I think they'd have no choice but to adopt. Why am i including them together?........ Listen they're the only ship i'm going to include in this post. They're their own people away from the ship, yes, but i think it'd be the same either way. The only difference is that I think ryutaro might not want children, and Midori would be worried about adopting a child at all due to the fear that she could die from any sickness at any random time.

Anyways it's 2:08 AM and I am your locally insane dra fan.

[writers-reach]

Heyyyyy welcome back from your break, hope you were enjoying your time and great day :D

I have a random silly request: separate characters of Minako Arisato (P3) and Yu Narukami (P4) having a S/O that just befriend shadows enemy like convince or help shadows, able to get shadows to join their party and fight alongside with SEES or Investigation Team to fight against their own shadows for them. S/O form their own Shadow Party that turn good shadows. S/O even recruit powerful shadow like The Reaper to join Party that S/O form for shadows.

Reader be like: "We are now friends, follow me"

persona 3/4: an s/o who allies with shadows (minako arisato & yu narukami)

notes: short, gn!reader, no persona 3 spoilers, slight persona 4 spoilers

minako arisato

she was... puzzled to say the least.

she was ready to give out commands to her team, ordering aigis to go on the defensive with her buffs and debuffs and akihiko on the offensive with polydeuces.

she was going to have you focus on making sure the team was at full health when... were you talking with these shadows? like, conversing with them? and they seemed to listen?

minako had no idea shadows were conscious enough to understand humans, let alone seem to respond back (though maybe not verbally).

"y/n... what... are you doing???" she nearly laughed in confusion, but when you turned to her with a wide smile and your arms outstretched, she couldn't help but smile back.

"oh! they were just saying they were fine with helping us pass this floor if we left them alone! they're chill," you replied.

minako shared a confused look with akihiko and aigis (the former of whom shrugged), but chocked it up to your infectious optimism and ability to talk to anyone, even strangers. even shadows!

yu narukami

similarly confused, but moreso he was worried for your safety when you seemed to be surrounded by a horde of shadows.

he was ready to go in there, metaphorical guns blazing, but he stopped short when he realised that these shadows seemed to be... listening to you?

"y/n, uh, care to... let me in on what's going on?" he asked, though never letting his longsword out of his grasp. he was still on high alert around shadows, after all.

"so, crazy story," you began, "these shadows here are willing to help us fight the boss. they don't like the boss, either, so..." you made gleeful shrugging motion. "teamwork!"

"...teamwork," yu repeated, processing what was happening before him.

the shadows seemed to agree, wanting to take down this dungeon's boss as well. but who was yu to argue against shadows helping? teddie was basically a shadow, anyways. it'd be a bit hypocritcal of him to not accept.

but still, he'd stick by your side to ensure your safety. yu wouldn't be able to live with himself if you got hurt.

[goddessalthena]

UsaMamo Week 2024 - Day 4 - Free Day

I'm late with this one, but better late than never, yes? This themeless installment just so happened to line up with wild card day. Fortuitous, no? A note to those of you who have read my previous posts in this series: I've added a timeline of sorts to the beginning of each chapter in order to make things a little easier to follow as we jump around. Day XX BU (Before Usagi) & AU (After Usagi)

(This is the third part. You can find Ch. 1 & Ch. 2 here.)

(Tentative) Title: A Matter of Timing Summary: Aged up, Friends to lovers UsaMamo Non-Senshi AU told in a series of snapshots. Rating: T (for language) Words: 3058

Free Day

Day 491 AU

“I know, I know! I’m late, but you would not believe the day I’ve had.”

Minako looks up at Mamoru with the expression of one who is not amused. "Har har har," she deadpans before smacking the seat of the empty chair beside her. "Sit your ass down, Chiba. You're three rounds behind."

Mamoru smiles and rolls his eyes before stepping aside. "Happy to, but we're going to need another chair." Minako blinks when she notices the woman to his right. “Everyone, this is Yūki Tomoko.” Minako’s eyes zero in on his right hand which is currently hovering directly behind the small of Tomoko’s back. “She’ll be joining us tonight." Minako’s eyes narrow.

All other eyes at the table go wide and a thick, palpable silence descends over the group until a shrill, “Hi, Tomoko-san!” rings out from the back. Mamoru’s eyes fly to the face he’s been dreading/anticipating seeing all week long. Even from a distance he can tell that Usagi’s cheeks are visibly flushed, but that’s more than likely due to the three empty beer bottles in front of her and not the fact that he’s brought a mystery woman to one of their gatherings for the first time since they met. He tells himself that that’s fine. That bringing Tomoko here tonight isn’t about seeing how Usagi reacts.

He figures after downing three or so beers of his own that’ll be easier to believe.

“There’s a free chair over here!” Usagi bellows, waving one arm in a wide arc. Makoto catches the rogue limb with a deft hand before it can hit her in the face. “Let me just—” There’s a screech of metal on tile and about two seconds go by before Mamoru realizes what she’s about to do. He reaches Usagi just in time to stop her from going ass over teakettle when she heaves the empty chair up off the floor. Makoto has frozen halfway out of her seat and is giving him a look that is part astonishment, part admiration. Mamoru shoots her an awkward smile as he settles Usagi back into her chair.

“Oh em gee, she’s so pretty!” Usagi hisses in his ear in the loudest stage whisper known to man.

Mamoru can feel the heat flooding his own cheeks now, but he manages to nod even though all he can think is, ‘Nowhere near as pretty as you are.’

It’s not until he’s carrying the empty chair back to a waiting Tomoko that it occurs to him to wonder why there’s an empty chair at all. Someone must be missing. His brain catalogues all of the faces he’s seen in the time it takes to swing his head back in Usagi’s direction. Makoto’s on her right, Ami’s on her left, and the douchebag is nowhere to be seen.

***

Forty minutes later Mamoru’s still wondering where Usagi’s jag of a boyfriend is. The guy has been glued to her side for months now—four months to be precise—crashing one get-together after another, trying to insert himself into their tightly knit group, seemingly oblivious to the fact that everyone but Usagi sees him for the pompous gasbag that he is. Mamoru wants to ask someone—mainly Usagi—where the chode is tonight, but he hasn’t had a chance. Bringing Tomoko to their regular group night has caused quite the stir. An eventuality that he had counted on but is now regretting.

The group has been peppering her with questions ever since she sat down and Mamoru can’t get a word in edgewise. Tomoko is completely at ease amidst a sea of inquisitive strangers as he knew she would be. He’s seen her manage raving meth heads in the ER without breaking a sweat, so she’s more than capable of handling this crazy bunch. Tomoko is intelligent, but not pretentious, confident, but not arrogant, witty, but not sarcastic. She is the perfect plus one and Mamoru cannot wait for her to leave.

Tonight is not going at all how he’d planned.

Reika draws Tomoko into a discussion about Cairo—they’re both avid travellers—and Mamoru leans back in his chair and tries to feign interest while keeping his gaze from wandering down the table. He thinks he’s been doing a decent job of the former, not so much of the latter. It might be easier to focus if he didn’t find Usagi staring back at him every second glance. Makoto has cut her off and swapped her to soda but her cheeks are still rosy. He wants to go over there and talk to her but he can’t. Right? That would be rude.

Right?

“You’re staring.”

His gaze slides to the left. Minako is eyeballing him. He doesn’t care. “Where’s—”

“Twat-wad?” Minako answers before he can finish. Her gaze flits to Usagi. “Not here.” That’s all she offers. Hard to say if that’s all she knows. She glances at Tomoko who is laughing at something Motoki has said. “Your date is charming.”

“She’s not my date.”

“Does she know that?”

“Yes.”

Minako drops the side-eye and looks him full in the face. Mamoru holds her gaze. After a few beats she raises an eyebrow and leans back in her chair before turning her eyes to Usagi. “Hmm…” she hums. “Interesting.” That’s all she says, but Mamoru knows that’s not all she’s thinking.

***

Tomoko joins him at the bar twenty minutes later. “Now that is a chatty crew.” Mamoru offers her an apologetic look but she just laughs. “They’re really nice. I never would have guessed a nerd like you would have such cool friends.” This isn’t the first time he’s heard this, and he doesn’t really know what to say so he just shrugs and takes a sip of his beer. “I don’t get it though, I thought you brought me here to appease a jealous boyfriend. Where’s Mr. Insecure?”

“MIA, apparently,” Mamoru answers, stealing another glance at Usagi. She’s hugging Ami and trying to coax her into staying for one more round. Usagi knows Ami won’t stay because she’s got an early morning and she’s the most responsible one in their group, but she’s asking anyway because she knows it makes Ami feel loved. Usagi is amazing like that.

“Damn, you’re in deep. No wonder he’s jealous.”

Mamoru jerks to attention to find Tomoko studying him with wide, sympathetic eyes. He opens his mouth to speak then realizes there’s nothing he can say so he just sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Tomoko laughs and pats his arm. “I won’t tell you it gets easier because I know how much it sucks, but who knows? He didn’t show tonight. Maybe your luck is about to change.”

“I don’t believe in luck.”

“Well then, I guess you’re fucked.” Mamoru nearly spits out his beer. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand then gives Tomoko a questioning look. She crosses her arms. “If you really don’t think luck is going to lend a hand, then you better stop watching from the sidelines and get in the game. You’ve brought me here to play defence when you should be on offence.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Offence?”

“Who cares if the boyfriend is jealous? It’s her attention you’re after,” Tomoko tells him, nodding her head at Usagi. “You want me to help you get it?”

They stand shoulder to shoulder as Mamoru considers her offer. Ami is finally parting from the group, but Usagi is insisting on walking her all the way to the door. Usagi never lets anyone leave without at least two goodbye hugs. Everyone complains about it but she never seems to care, and she always gets her hugs. No matter how much they grouse about it they all humour her. Because they love her. How could they not? She wears her heart on her sleeve. There’s not a false bone in her body.

Mamoru turns to the bar and sets his empty bottle on the polished wood. “Thanks, but I’m not interested in playing games.”

“Then why did you bring me?”

Mamoru sighs. “I told you. He doesn’t like me. He thinks I’m a threat.”

“Yeah, but why do you care what he thinks?”

“I don’t. I could care less what he thinks.”

“Then what—”

“He’s a jackass, but for some reason beyond my comprehension he seems to make her happy. Except for when he’s sulking like a petulant child.” Mamoru takes a breath and flattens his palms against the bar. “I didn’t bring you to spare his feelings, I brought you to spare hers.”

Tomoko lays a hand on top of his and quirks her mouth in a half smile. He tries to mirror the expression but his heart just isn’t in it. The harsh sound of shattering glass makes them both jump and whirl around. Usagi is standing in front of them and her feet are surrounded by shards of broken glass. She stares at the pair of them like a deer in the headlights for two, maybe three beats, then her face turns beet red and a string of barely intelligible apologies—and several curses—spout from her lips as she drops into a crouch. Mamoru and Tomoko cry out in unison when Usagi reaches for the glass, but they’re too late. The damage is done, blood is already seeping from her left palm, and everyone is springing into action.

A waiter is rushing up with a broom, Tomoko is asking the bartender for a first aid kit, and a chorus of voices are crying out in concern. Mamoru is only vaguely aware of all this though because ninety nine percent of his focus is on Usagi. He scoops her up from the floor and into his arms before she has time to fully register the injury. It seems like the natural thing to do; he doesn’t want her to step on any of the glass, and as he makes his way to the restrooms it simply never occurs to him to bother putting her down. It’s possible she’s protesting, but he’s too busy deflecting the group and telling Tomoko to bring the first aid kit to the ladies’ room to listen. It’s not until he gets inside and sets Usagi down on the counter next to the sink that Mamoru realizes how fast his heart is beating. He’s pretty sure it’s not because of the extra cardio.

He takes a breath and looks at Usagi. “Are you okay?”

She blinks up at him with those wide blue eyes of hers. “Yeah,” she says but her voice is shaky.

After a few more breaths he feels calm enough to take a look at her hand. The wound doesn’t seem very deep, he needs to clean it to be sure, but it doesn’t appear to need stitches. He raises his eyes to her pale face and shakes his head. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you not to touch broken glass?”

Usagi looks instantly repentant which makes him regret the gentle rebuke. “I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

“What? Don’t apologize,” he tells her, reaching over to turn the faucet on, “you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I ruined your moment.”

The quiet comment throws him off balance and he shoots her a puzzled look. “What moment?”

Usagi peers up at him from beneath her lashes and Mamoru’s heart skips a beat, but his question goes unanswered because Tomoko arrives with the first aid kit. Mamoru sees Usagi’s immediate blush but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it because there are more important things to focus on. He gets to work cleaning the wound. Tomoko offers to assist but makes no comment when he insists on tending to the injury himself. After they agree that stitches aren’t necessary—Usagi looks particularly relieved to hear this news—Mamoru dresses the wound. Usagi has been unusually quiet throughout. Mamoru chalks it up to shock.

“Looks like you’ve got this under control,” Tomoko says. Mamoru pretends not to notice the edge of amusement in her tone. “I’ve got an early shift tomorrow so I’m going to take off.” She flashes Usagi a genuine smile. “It was nice to meet you, Usagi. Take care of that hand.”

Usagi nods and offers her a shy smile in return. “Nice to meet you too, Tomoko. I hope you’ll come again. I promise not to bleed next time.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Mamoru says dryly.

Usagi shoots him a quelling look. “Quiet, you.” Mamoru smiles.

Tomoko laughs at the pair of them then turns and heads for the door. She lifts her hand in a casual wave and calls, “See you at the hospital, Chiba,” without turning back, and then she’s gone.

It’s just the two of them again.

Usagi gazes at the bathroom door for several moments before turning her eyes to Mamoru. A faint blush lights her cheeks when she finds him watching her. This small reaction kindles a glow of warmth inside his chest.

“Tomoko seems really nice,” Usagi says. Her voice is soft and sweet and maybe just a little bit timid. It’s not like her to be shy.

“She is,” Mamoru agrees, taking a small step closer to her.

“And smart,” she adds, raising her chin to hold his gaze.

Mamoru nods and places his right hand on the edge of the counter a scant few inches next to her left thigh.

Usagi swallows. “And she’s a doctor.”

He smiles. “Yes, she is all of these things.”

“You two look good together.” Mamoru looks past her, to their reflection in the mirror. He knows he’s biased, but he thinks they look good together. He wonders what Usagi saw when she was watching him with Tomoko. What she was feeling. Was it anything like how he feels when he sees her with—

“Usagi, where’s Hideyo?”

Her smiles dims and she looks away. There’s an excruciating pause during which Mamoru holds his breath, and then Usagi says the three words he’s been longing to hear for four long months. “We broke up.” It takes every ounce of Mamoru’s considerable self control to swallow the whoop of delight that bubbles up in his throat. Usagi stares down at her bandaged hand and mumbles, “Don’t tell Minako. I’m not ready to hear ‘I told you so’ yet.”

It’s not easy to force his features into a sympathetic expression when he’s feeling nothing short of ecstatic, but Mamoru understands that this breakup must be painful for her so he focuses on that and the urge to dance a jig begins to fade. “What happened?” Translation: how did the asshat fuck it up again?

Usagi’s gaze flits to his face then back to her hand. “I don’t…really want to talk about it.”

“All right.” He doesn’t really want to talk about it either. Sayonara, shithead.

“I just…” Maybe she does want to talk about it. “I think I made a mistake getting back together with him, and I’m mad at myself for being so stupid.”

“You’re not stupid, Usagi.”

“No, just hopeless.”

The bitter reply hangs in the air between them, reminding Mamoru that if anyone in this bathroom is stupid, it’s him. He cups her shoulders in his hands and waits for her to look up before he speaks. “I should never have said that. I was out of line.”

Usagi shakes her head from side to side and leans forward into his grip just a little. “You were being honest with me, just like Minako was. That’s what real friends do. They tell each other the truth, even when it’s hard. I want you to keep telling me the truth.”

‘Okay, I love you.’

He gives her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “Okay, I will.”

“Even when I don’t want to hear it?”

He nods. “Even when you don’t want to hear it.”

‘I hope you will though.’

“Good.”

Usagi smiles and Mamoru experiences a flash of perfect awareness. A window has opened. A perfect moment of opportunity, and there’s no telling how fleeting it might be. He’s had a number of chances like this before and he’s squandered each and every one of them. He promised himself it wouldn’t happen again. That when the time came, he’d be ready. The secret he’s long been harbouring unfurls in his chest and suddenly it’s too massive to contain. It rises up in his throat, sails along his tongue, and presses against his lips, begging to be set free.

“You’re a terrible singer.”

Usagi’s mouth drops open as Mamoru stares blankly into the mirror behind her head. A complete fucking moron wearing his face stares back at him. It’s unclear who, out of the three of them, is more shocked by what he’s just said.

“Shut up!” Usagi snaps, eyes sparking with indignation. She swats his chest with her uninjured hand for good measure. “I am not!”

Mamoru looks down at her and part of him wants to die. To just curl up into a ball right here and wait for death to claim him. But another part of him can’t help but notice how impossibly, unreasonably, irresistibly cute the girl in front of him is. That part of him thinks maybe it’s worth sticking around. You know, to see what she does next. He could go either way, but…

Usagi thrusts a self-righteous finger in his face. “I’ll have you know that some people really like my singing! I’ve been compared to Adele.”

Mamoru blinks. “Human people?”

“Shut up!” Usagi huffs as she hops down from the counter. “What do you know? Listening to you sing karaoke is like listening to an ox strangling a goat.” She sticks her nose up in the air and stomps off.

Mamoru stares after her in bafflement for a beat before jogging to catch up. He reaches the door and pulls it open in time for her to sweep through without missing a step. “An ox strangling a—what does that even mean?”

He’s gonna stick around. It’s definitely worth it. She’s definitely worth it. He wants to see what happens next. He’s got a good feeling that it’s going to be amazing. He can’t wait.

Today wasn’t the day. It wasn’t the right time. He wasn’t ready.

But he will be. One day soon, he will be.

***

Thanks again for reading! ❤️ NGL, three prompts was about three prompts more than I thought I'd write a week ago, but it's a welcome surprise.

Be sure to follow @usamamoweek for all of this year's content!

Many thanks to our awesome hosts @random-mailbox and @lilliebellfanfics for making this event possible. 😘😘

[thequietkid-moonie]

Sailor Moon request: Falling in love with their best friend for Ami and Minako please.

Falling in love with their best friend

[ HEADCANONS ] [ Ami, Minako ]

[ Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon / Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon ]

Sorry for making you wait! I been wanting to write this cuz the prompt is so good! And the Sailor Scouts are so lovely <3 sooo thanks for making the requests! Hope you like it!

Amy Mizuno

Amy have always had a hard time relating to others because of her reputation, she has great dreams and goals to achive so she have dedicated her life to her studies to be able to reach the dreams she has, but because of her intelligence and hard work that make her seem unreachable for others, except for you

No matter how you two have met not even if you aren't a top student like her, Amy is incredibly kind and even gentle, despite the imagen everyone else has of her she is actually quite easy to approach and yet, the fact that you have become so close to her to even be considerate best friends is something she holds dearly in her heart

Amy has underestimated her feelings for you, because of the comfort that brings being so close and for being best friends for a while now she have grow to considerate you part if her family, not being a strange ocurrance that you two hang out of the school or even that she invite you over to her house, she have grown so used to your precense and company that, even when her feeling started to grow in a more romantic way she didn't realiced it

For the longest time Amy mistook her feelings of longing for your company and wanting to share more of herself with you as simply your friendship, ignoring completely her flustered state since she didn't realice the diference (specially since she doesn't really has much friends)

Even if her mother noticed her daughter's feelings for you she didn't say anything about it (thinking it was the best to let her daughter deal with her crush and just quietly cheering for her), so it was until she started to feel slighly jealous whenever you spend time with your other friends (wich, of course it was completely alright, she knew you shouldn't stop your life for her) or when she became friends with the other Sailor Scouts, thats when she slowly started to realice that, actually, she didn't liked you only as a friend

Amy not only had a hard time realicing her feeling but also accepting them, for her you were like family and she felt bad for falling in love with you, she felt like she, somehow, was betraying the trust you had put on her since she sees you as family, but at the same time she knew she couldn't stop her feelings now, she likes you in a romantic way and denying it would not be fair for her nor for you

At the end it has to be her friends who reasure her and help her accept the feelings she has for you without feeling guilt, and she need even more help to decide to act on those feelings and try to win your heart, after all she somehow felt like she was doing something that she shouldn't, even so Amy managed to act pretty calm around you, she continue being your dear friend while trying to decide what to do with her feelings (altought, you may catch her lost in thought a few times, and if you point it own she will feel embarrased and a bit flustered)

Minako Aino

Minako is easy going and incredibly cheerful, there is no problems when it comes to befriend her since she is always kind and playful, it is so easy to get to talk to her and yet she holds dearly her friends, holding all of them close to her heart

Minako is quick to develop small crushes, constantly feeling attracted to people she finds attractive and not only for their apparience, and yet, the moment she truly falls in love is incredibly serious about it. But despiste how serious she takes those feelings she won't actually act on them until she is completely sure of what she feels since she would never dare to play with someone's feelings

Beause of how close you two are from each other and the comfort it exist for being best friends Minako will underestimate her feelings a bit, she realice her growing feelings pretty quick but for being nervous and even scared of not being reciprocated or even ruining the friendship she denies them as long as she can, trying her best to keep the friendly and teasing treat without turning things around in her mind and end up all flustered

Minako is a bit embarrased about the fact that she have fallen in love with her best friend, thinking is too cheesy and cliché and yet she absolutely loves it too! after all who knows her better than her best friend? If the feelings are reciprocated she knows it would be incredibly sincere since you already know a lot about her, about her lazy side but also her easily in love side and her more serious one too, so that would be really reasuring but she finds herself feeling insecure anyways

It would take her a while before being able to finally accept her feelings and is more likely that she does it in her own, one day while reflecting about it in a serious way (since, for being a Sailor Scout there is a lot to have in consideration, after all she wont just drop her duty or her friends for someone else), she will take her time before accepting her feeling and decide to act on them

Still, even if she have decided that she does want to try to win your heart she will still be a bit flustered by her feelings, trying to don't take much advances to don't make you uncomfortable and being slighly awkward whenever you hang out (just at first, she relax once the conversation starts flowing more naturaly)

Since you two are best friends there is the chance that you love her in a platonic way only, and she would totally understand it and will still apreciate it a lot, however that won't stop her from trying her best to win your heart and be able to express what she feels for you!

[daily-rayless]

15 Years of Minako

It's time for another character appreciation post – the last of 2024 – and we've come down almost fifteen years to the day for a very, very special character. I first played Persona 3 in 2008, and I enjoyed it, but it was in 2009 when Persona 3: Portable was announced that my interest in the game rocketed up through the roof and into the stratosphere. Because, guys -- we were going to get a female protagonist.

September 2009

I don't know what my earliest art for Minako/Hamuko/Kotone was, but this is the earliest I could find. She had no canonical name yet. Her game hadn't been released in the States. As you can see, I wasn't even quite sure what her hair was supposed to be doing back there. But I was still excited.

December 2009

I've talked before about why having a female protagonist matters so much to me. The short version is that in an ideal world, where male protagonists weren't such a continuous majority, maybe it wouldn't; but that world doesn't exist, so it does matter, it matters to me. Minato has always been a fairly take-him-or-leave-him character for me. Minako? I was into her before the game was even released.

March 2010

I was intrigued by her design, her bright red eyes, her fluffy curls, the way her vibe was so different from Minato's. And, actually, her vibe is somewhat at odds with the game itself. P3 is a game of sad blues and sickly greens and grungy reds. Minako is all bright reds and pinks, tropical orange, soft yellow, warm brown. They could have taken the easy route and just done a gender-flipped Minato, a blue-haired girl, quiet, rather closed-off and antisocial. They didn't. They gave us someone new, somehow who visually contradicts the status quo.

September 2010

And, once I played the game, I saw that not only was her design very different, she had a different personality – different dialogue choices from Minato, a different mood. As far as the major plot points went, she did the same things as Minato, but she felt like her own person, not a gender-flip. She does change the status quo. You can diverge from Minato's narrative in some small but significant ways, but even if you choose not to, playing as Minako still feels different from the original version.

December 2010

And, miraculously, playing the game lived up to my own dangerously hyped expectations. Getting new insights into the female members of SEES without the tropey baggage of being a male hero romancing them; Social Linking the male members while getting the option to romance them or not. The original Persona 3, with Minato, is a great game, but Minato had to romance all of the girls and he couldn't even Social Link the guys. Minako's route gives you a deeper, broader experience when it comes to the core cast.

February 2011

Her being female adds nuanced conflict to her rivalry/friendship with Junpei, brings introspective weight to Akihiko's protectiveness, complements rather than undercuts Yukari's attempts to assert herself and not be dependent like her mother. Mitsuru doesn't have to step down as SEES' chagrined leader and cede her authority to this new boy – she cedes it to another girl. Tropes can be done badly or well, and these aren't inherently better than Minato's route, but Minako's tropes are often less typical, thus they feel more original – thus, to me, they're more interesting.

May 2011

I want to make clear that while I prefer Minako over Minato, I'm not arguing she's the better character or should be the default. And I'm pausing to say this because, unfortunately, ever since Minako first arrived on the scene, she's brought her own tension to an often already combative fandom.

December 2012

“She's not canon!” You used to hear that. As if the protagonist of a game that had been made and published and could be played wasn't canon. “Yeah, but she's not really canon!” It felt like there was a push within parts of the fandom to devalue Minako as a character, delegitimize her.

February 2013

Unfortunately, it feels as if this attitude is somewhat shared by Atlus itself. While Minako got a game route, a stage play, and is featured in promotional art, her absence in the Persona 3 remake is glaring. I'm not sure what I think Atlus is trying to say by omitting her, if anything. I'm just so disappointed that Minako's route, the route that gives you the most variety in plot points and character exploration for the main cast, wasn't deemed worthy of remaking.

January 2014

Minako, that brave, funny, smart, defiant protagonist, wasn't deemed worthy.

January 2015

Like many silent protagonists, Minako's a character open to a lot of interpretations. Broadly speaking, the game allows you to pick dialogue options for a reserved Minako or a more forceful Minako. But whichever way you go, if you've played the game, you know she's a character with pain buried deep inside her.

November 2016

Her fandom, her specific fandom, often sees her as a girl who smiles and sparkles and fights to cover that pain. Looking at Minato, you wouldn't be surprised to learn he's troubled. But Minako will make you believe she's confident and happy for a very long time until something breaks that illusion and you realize there are secrets in that smile.

August 2018

Minako is passionate, enduring, stubbornly brave.

October 2022

But she's not canon, right?

June 2023

She's not really a character. She's just a theoretical scenario Persona played with briefly, then discarded.

September 2024

Too bad for us.

[real-life-senshi]

Hello Rei! Wait... is this Ajimoto Stadium or another film location? It looks familiar but the text is too blurry to see in the bottom left corner of the 1st image... oh well.

On top of my mind, the indoor location in the second image looks similar to the battle location of Act 15, Act 30 and Act 45 I think?

I love how PGSM consistently shows Rei actively trying to use her power to trace the enemy, and show it visually with a frame like this - usually with some form of visual distortion effect or 360 degree shot. It visually demonstrates how much is going in Rei's head, and as if how Rei's reading her surrounding around her.

This is so very fascinating to me, how quickly Rei tried to backtrack and doubt her own hypothesis earlier, just because she got here and couldn’t find anything (yet). This scene actually really influenced me on how I write Rei in my fanfic and how I try to portray her power:

Rei seems to have a really delicate balance in trying to perceive the world through her psychic power and her rational thinking. The combination of both gives powerful intuition, and she's quick to take action when she has a "hunch" that something is wrong, and she finds a way to rationalize it. Hence, her action in this episode - She believes something's wrong with Minako's behavior, so she goes after her and shows tremendous initiative and capacity for action by getting to this location within an episode. But as soon as she arrives, we see her try to find Minako or any sign of the enemy, and as soon as she thinks she's in the clear and finds nothing's wrong, she starts doubting herself - thinking she overthought it. She has shown no doubt before with her theory, but when faced with a perceived "fact" that she can actually see in person, she backs down, even though she only JUST arrived and hasn't done a full search yet. It's as if her initial confidence is so... fragile? I imagine this comes from a place where she's torn between accepting her powers as a reality for herself and also coming to terms with how unnatural it is, so she tries to learn to navigate a world without it... It's like - her quick action is a way for her to get things off her mind, to prove to herself if there is truly an issue or not, because if she chooses to not act on it, it's bugging her, and she doesn't know how reliable it is. So as soon as she did all she could and got to the result, if the result was not as she expected (ie she couldn't physically find anything wrong here), she was quick to drop it and assume she and her powers were wrong. (I hope I'm making sense. She has no second opinion to rely on, because it doesn’t exist at all. No one else can do what she can. Might need to redo this analysis later if I'm not getting my thoughts out clear enough.)

To live life like that, where you are trying to cope and navigate the world with a set of perceptions that is extraordinary and often unaccepted by people, must be so challenging, especially for a kid. The lack of a second opinion also means she’s left alone to make her own decision on how to use her power - it’s metaphorical to how Rei’s life has been to. Unable to connect and find others to lean on with her mother gone, her father abandoned her, and her peers isolating her from school.

Another thing this scene suggests to me is Rei's power takes time to reach across certain distances. In Act 15, we see how instantaneous and even minorly prophetic that Rei caught on that the Youma is near them nd about to create a sinkhole when the Youma is mere meters away from them.

Here, Rei takes a few moments before she senses Nephrite, and when she does we get the motion-blurred quick zoom in on her. It suggests to me the furtheraway something is, the longer it takes for her power to read and get the signal back to her.

I wish we could have this for Senshi transformation as the norm in the show instead of the CGI sequence. This just makes so much more sense instead of the sequential dancing around. It just gets so much target time to get attacked during transformation if the CGI sequence is canonically in real time.

[dial-p-for-placey]

The last of the proto designs! Now there is a lot I want to say about this design especially because I had to compile it from a handful of partial designs.

I get into all of this and my process under the cut! Please read this one! I put a lot of work into coming up with this complete design!

Okay so this design is based off of these 3 images

And as you can see there are already a lot small differences between them all but they are all too similar so I didn't want to draw each of them as their own (especially since the bottom pic the only real thing it has going for it is colored for reference)

So I combined them all. Took the crown and the double pauldrons and the battle bra since those are the most unique elements and very different from the other designs. I decided not to add the bow from the one pic since that looked similar to another proto design, though i did use her school bow color for the bra. Also the second image makes it look like the skirt was longer and I also remembered there was an interview (might have been included in the back of a manga printing) where Naoko said she originally wanted the skirts of the senshi to be longer but her editor made her shorten them so I kept the long skirt.

Next was the hardest part because none of these images have full color or Usagi's full body. So this is when I reveal to you that I do actually believe all these designs where supposed to be Minako for Sailor V (since Naoko came up with that story first). I don't have any proof of that and none of these designs have notes, but with that as a possibility I decided to pull from a proto Sailor V design

I took the skirt design/coloring since the middle image is probably just a lighting effect on it, but does make it look like there could be a white stripe on the bottom. Also made the stripes on her shirt ruled to tie into that. Also just took Minako's shoes since I have no idea what the design of them would be.

Also directly pulled Minako's color palate (the blue, orange/gold and purple-ish color) and the green from her gloves for the design on the top pauldrons (which was a clip studio brush for a ribbion/fabric that I molded to fit)

Like I said... I did a lot of work to compile this design together. It's not an official one and could argue that this Minako, but considering Naoko abandoned a lot of these design elements and then came back to them for Usagi I still think it's fitting to say this is a proto Sailor Moon

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

hello! i was wondering if you still wrote for persona 3, could you do general hc's for minako arisato and her s/o that's also in sees?

(Persona 3) Minako's S/O being in S.E.E.S

I sure do! And as a bonus because I miss writing the Arisato's, there's also Twin!AU HC's added (aka both male and fem MC's are present as siblings)

Minako cares for S/O greatly. She'd do anything to not have them in harm's way, doubly so considering her line of work.

Shadows were a threat to humanity, but it comforted her at least to know S/O wouldn't be affected by the Midnight Hour.

Until one night, they were still in a human form when it the clock struck midnight.

Her heart nearly stopped when S/O used an evoker, and summoned their own Persona.

And following that, they were asked to join SEES, much to her dismay and relief.

On one hand, it meant that she could keep an eye on them without worrying if they would get caught in collateral damage.

But now she had to worry about S/O getting killed by a Shadow.

The greatest threat however had yet to come:

Meeting the rest of the dysfunctional squad that were the other SEES members.

===

(Junpei) "Hey, you're S/O, right! Minako here just won't shut up about you!"

(Yukari) "Please, you'd be doing the exact same thing if you were in her shoes."

(Minako) "I'm right here, you guys!"

(S/O) "Minako's told me a lot about you all as well! It's a pleasure to finally-"

Aigis examined S/O closely, her irises seemingly changing focus.

(S/O) "...U-Uh-"

(Aigis) "Confirmed. S/O will not be an issue to Minako's safety."

Noticing their confused expression, Minako stepped in, clearing her throat loudly.

(Minako) "Ahah...d-don't mind her. She's a robot."

(S/O) "She's a what?!"

===

If S/O ever got hurt during their operations, Minako would not hesitate to tear the Shadow apart, but knew she had to keep her head cool.

She was the leader, and the rest of the team would crumble if they saw her panic.

Fighting against innate instincts, even in the heat of battle, she tries to not let her emotions dictate her actions.

BONUS: Twin!AU

Minato knows that his sister wouldn't choose anyone to be her significant other lightly, so he doesn't bat too much of an eye.

Normally if a person was trying to hit on her, he'd interfere immediately with a death glare.

He's respectful, but doesn't show much emotion around S/O.

---

(Minako) "S/O, this is my baby brother, Minato!"

(Minato) "We were born at the same time-"

(Minako) "I was born a couple seconds earlier, so I'm the eldest!"

(S/O) "Hah, nice to meet you!"

Minato simply nodded, his face and voice remaining deadpan.

(Minako) "Don't worry, he's usually this emo around everyone too!"

(Minato) "And she's usually this annoying every day. Though you already knew that, considering you're with her."

(S/O) "Heh, I sure do!"

Minako pouts at the both of them.

(Minako) "Don't call me annoying! And YOU especially shouldn't be agreeing with him!"

---

Minato eventually lets his walls come down around S/O, showing a bit more emotion whenever his sister isn't in the room.

It's usually a gentle smile or an extremely quiet chuckle, but it's a sign of trust.

If his sister trusts them, then he can too.

In battle, Minato makes sure to watch over them for Minako's sake whenever she can't join the team.

He knows it'll give her peace of mind. It'll also shut her up too.

(Minato) "If you ever need some help, don't be afraid to call for me too."

[sailormoonandme]

Long Rant Incoming!

I am honestly just exhausted with how the Sailor Moon fandom so often bashes the original anime, in particular when they do so by presuming bigotry of any kind on the part of the staff members.

Sure, show me a quote or an interview where they definitively say something and I will listen with an open mind. 

But why does this fandom presume that, for example, AnimeRei’s interest in men was obviously changed from the MangaRei’s more negative attitude because of sexism?

Or that Usagi being naked in the last episode whilst Mamoru was in his Endymion armour was again rooted in sexism?

Or that old favourite that has now become oh so trendy again thanks to Cosmos, that the Starlights were physically male in the anime (as opposed to simply dressing as men and pretending to be men) because the anime staff were being homophobic. More specifically, that this change was implemented so that the UsagixSeiya relationship was ‘less gay’.

Let’s talk a bit about that shall we?

So....

The original 1992 Sailor Moon anime had two men explicitly in a relationship in season 1, Kunzite and Zoisite.

It had two women explicitly in a relationship in season 3, Haruka and Michiru.

It had a character in season 4 who, to my understanding (please correct me on this as I am not overly knowledgeable on the subject), was trans, Fisheye.

When you go beyond the explicit into merely very obvious subtext, Sailor Moon’s track record for LGBT representation gets even larger. The pair of female animators in episode 21. Fiore and Mamoru’s relationship in the R movie. The fashion designer and his assistant in episode 140. Sailor Lead Crow and Aluminium Siren’s relationship.

Not to mention the UsaRei ship:

Or the MakAmi ship:

It’d be weird for a show with this kind of track record (that was indeed a trailblazer in the context of the time) to suddenly got cold feet over another female-female relationship.

Now there are two counter arguments to this:

a) Most of the above doesn’t apply specifically to Sailor Moon herself, the UsaRei ship being subtextual for this very reason. In other words ‘its okay for side characters’

b) Sailor Stars was under new management. It is entirely possible said new management had very different attitudes towards female-female relationships

Let’s tackle a) first. 

It’s okay to portray side characters in same sex relationships

First of all, Usagi was attracted to Haruka in episode 92. Even after she discovered Haruka was (in her eyes at least) a cis woman she still regarded her as attractive and desirable, usually blushing whenever Haruka flirted with her and being all too happy to dance with Haruka in episode 108. 

Isn’t it a little weird to argue it would be bad for Usagi to be dating another woman when there wasn’t a world of difference between how Seiya in the manga and Haruka in the anime were framed and presented to the audience. 

The main difference was that in the manga Seiya was explicitly pretending to be male and therefore would not have corrected anyone’s presumptions that she was a man, which is exactly what Haruka did at the end of episode 92 when Usagi and Minako discover Haruka is not a cis boy. 

Whilst we might argue that the character of MangaSeiya would have presented herself differently had she not needed to disguise herself, from a narrative POV if the anime had stuck with Seiya being biologically female she would have had to maintain that disguise for the overwhelming majority of episodes anyway. In other words, she would have been presenting herself as a cis male the entire time outside of Sailor Senshi fights. 

Second of all, the anime was still explicitly shipping Usagi and Seiya even after the big reveal in episode 188 where the Senshi and Starlights discover one another’s identities. In fact, episode 189 has Minako explicitly state that the Starlights are in fact girls:

Now, whilst Minako regards this as a dealbreaker for her own romantic affections for the Three Lights, Usagi is still obviously conflicted about her feelings for Seiya. This culminates in episode 194′s famous “Am I not enough?” scene and their conversation in episode 195 where Usagi lets Seiya down backstage and he kisses her goodbye on her cheek.

Before episode 194 the show was going hard on this ‘star-crossed lovers’ imagery and ideas, with the Starlights and Outer Senshi trying to pull the pair apar. Seiya even communicated to Usagi at night whilst she is in her bedroom , which imo is deliberately evoking Romeo and Juliet. Moreover, the animation frankly framing the pair in a romantic light, with plenty of blushes and soft lighting liberally appearing all over the place. 

Sure, on screen you have a biological woman and biological man. But the show has explicitly stated that that Seiya is not a man, or at least from Usagi’s POV that isn’t the case. 

Now one could argue that this is nevertheless reductive. After all, you still have a female role assigned and a male role assigned in the relationship. But again...how different is this really from Haruka and Michiru who are present and as explicitly romantic as ever in Sailor Stars?

In terms of ‘presenting’ as male or female Haruka and Seiya are in the same boat 99% of the time (the 1% is for episodes involving bathing outfits or other forms of partial nudity). Most of the time Haruka visually presents as (for its day) typically masculine until she assumes her Senshi form where she presents as more typically (again, for its day) female. The only difference between the two characters is that the viewer intellectually knows that Seiya has a penis that becomes a vagina whereas Haruka always has a vagina. But since in both cases we never see those particular pieces of anatomy it is a moot point.

So the argument that ‘on screen’ Usagi is not being shipped with a woman is irrelevant. To all practical purposes, from a purely visual POV she might as well have been shipped with someone just like Haruka. It didn’t make it ‘more acceptable’ at all. In particular when you consider the show heavily implies that Seiya’s male body was nothing more than a guise assumed on Earth for the sake of their mission. So, had anyone been extrapolating forwards Usagi and Seiya potentially forming a long term relationship, Usagi would have been in a relationship with someone who was biologically female anyway. 

Third of all, the ‘side character’ argument falls apart when you consider HOW popular Uranus and Neptune were. In Animage’s 1995 poll episode 110 "Death of Uranus and Neptune!? Talismans Appear" was voted the most popular episode. A major reason why SuperS was so unpopular was because the Outer’s were absent, which is why the very first episode of Sailor Stars practically revolves around them. Hell, exempting Usagi, of all the Solar System Sailor Senshi, Uranus and Neptune are the last ones standing, dying in the third to last episode of the entire show. 

This isn’t even mentioning HOW prominent they were in season 3. Like, sure, they weren’t the MAIN characters, but until Hotaru shows up, they were by far and away the most important characters in the show just behind Usagi. Sailor Moon S as a whole is ostensibly one great big ideological debate between Usagi’s idealistic philosophy and Haruka and Michiru’s more hardline realistic philosophy. 

To codify them as ‘side characters’ in the context of season 3 is akin to describing Mamoru or Chibi-Usa as side characters in the manga. That is to say, the difference between them and Usagi is a matter of mere degrees. Are we in all seriousness arguing that those degrees make the difference between how okay it is to present characters as part of female-female relationships? That’s rather ridiculous isn’t it?

Let’s move on to point b).

The new management didn’t like same-sex relationships 

Yes. It is entirely possible that the new management had very different attitudes towards female-female relationships than the people in charge of the prior four seasons of the show. Thus the representation present in the prior four seasons doesn’t excuse season 5 of being homophobic in its decision to make the Starlights biologically male.

You know what else is entirely possible? That there were any number of other reasons for that decision apart from homophobia.

Again, I’m willing to listen with an open mind to anyone that has a statement or an interview or something like that from production staff members that might support the above interpretation. But in over ten years of being a Sailor Moon fan I have yet to see anything that implies this rather damning motivation on the part of the production staff. At which point why is anyone at all just presuming the worst faith interpretation?

Here are some good faith interpretations for why the Starlights were biologically male:

- Making them biologically male could raise a bit of intrigue on the part of the viewers. Even if they figured magic was the reason how they could change from male to female, they’d still be enticed to watch to see the process in action. Which would be even more intriguing compared to four seasons of transformation sequences where girls simply put on new Senshi outfits.

- Making them male made it easier for writers to generate the show’s all important filler episodes and opened up more storytelling opportunities. 

If the Starlights are biologically female it would mean either scrapping episodes or scenes where the Starlights are involved in partial nudity. Case in point, episode 178 where Luna is revealed to have taken a bath with Yaten, episode 183 where the gang vacation at a lake and are in their bathing suits, episode 184 where the gang see Seiya getting out of the shower, or even episode 176 where the Starlights are in dance outfits which naturally are tight fitting and therefore do not leave much to the imagination. 

Perhaps these instances could have still happened with the Starlights as biological females, but it would have been trickier and required a lot more strategic thinking on the part of the overworked writers who were on a deadline. Making them male frankly just made their lives easier

- The anime staff might have simply believed that the idea of three women disguising themselves as men and maintaining such a secret amidst becoming super star idols, attending high school, etc was simply unconvincing, too big of a suspension of disbelief.

- Making them biologically male might have been a ‘creative flex’. What do I mean by this? Simply put it is not at all uncommon for people adapting a piece of media to throw something in of their own invention. 

This might happen out of boredom on the part of the people adapting the source material (it can potentially be dull merely replicating something) or it could occur due to ego (see the majority of modern MCU films and TV shows that change no end of things from the comic books). 

Ego, unfortunately is all too common amongst creative people, especially those who have made it professionally into the entertainment industry. There is a desire by many to put their stamp on a work, even if it is not a work of their own creation per se. 

This may well be the root of several other changes between the manga and the anime too, regardless of whether those changes have anything to do with gender, sexuality, female representation of other such issues. 

- Making them biologically males who transform into biological females, in the eyes of the production staff, might have been more avant garde and progressive towards the LGBT community as it rendered the characters as arguably trans or gender fluid characters. 

- And finally...it may well have just been a mistake. The manga and anime were produced simultaneously but also at very different paces, the manga releasing monthly vs the anime’s weekly schedule. 

Between Takeuchi’s busy production schedule, not to mention however else she was involved in the (by then massive) Sailor Moon brand, it is entirely possible that she either hadn’t decided upon, or simply miscommunicated her ideas for the Starlights, thus resulting in the anime staff misunderstanding her intentions or extrapolating them to be biological men in their civilian forms. 

Indeed, Takeuchi herself misunderstood the Starlights in the anime as she apparently missed the dialogue that implied they were biological females who used magic to become biological males for their mission on Earth. She instead got upset that they were men who were Sailor Senshi.

Now, I came up with the above off the top of my head and don’t have any hard evidence in support of any of it. Which means they all carry  just as much weight as the ‘obviously it was bigotry’ interpretation.

And, once again, I have to bring up the fact that Sailor Stars features Uranus and Neptune in a relationship and arguably even ramps up their flirtations compared to season 3. So, kinda weird that they’d include one female-female relationship in season 5 but would be apprehensive over another one. 

In conclusion

Can we as a fandom please just fucking STOP automatically presuming the worst of the original anime and its production staff?

Seriously, its really, really, really, really WEIRD!

More than weird though, it is simply unfair.

It is unjust. 

It is hateful, even.

Which is particularly ironic since this is a franchise literally built around a character who stands for...well...you know...

[nie7027]

Related to the all persona au I have that I have briefly mentioned before...

I've been thinking about my headcanon of how persona users become stronger/more powerful the longer they have had their powers and how that coupled with my headcanon about how the P1 and P2 casts are leagues more powerful than the neo persona casts (a single person from P1 or P2 would be able to take the the whole SEES or the Investigation or the Phantom Thieves on their own) because unlike the neo persona casts they received their powers directly from Philemon while the neo casts received it from the remnants of Philemon's power that Igor has means the P1 cast HAS to be introduced before the P2 casts in my all persona au.

Because the P1 cast being the ones to receive their powers first (and from Philemon) are the most powerful of them but they are also the ones who have been able to grow up accustomed to that power, to learn to control it as it develops and be aware of the huge responsability of it whereas the P2 cast didnt have that chance.

They are time bombs.

They have a huge amount of power they don't know how to control, they never got to learn how. Due to their circumstances they aren't even aware of the great power they have. They have no memories of that.

And if the memories ever return they would cause such an emotional overload that it would leave the person completely unstable. If only for a few minutes.

A few minutes too much considering the great amount of power they are unaware they have.

Decades of power they never learned to control accumulated along with mental unstability... That's an extremely dangerous combination

They are time bombs only someone from the P1 cast would be able to manage, not someone from P3/P4/P5 (maybe Minato/Minako but they are... you know.... Dead....speaking of Ryoji would also definitely be able to take them on but yeah he's unavailable too)

Even someone like the Real Tatsuya who actually got to grew up using his power isn't free of that because yeah he has decades of experience using his power but he also was trapped in a post apocalyptic dimension filled with shadows.

He's traumatized.

He lived for decades in a permanent high stress environment with next to no support (or none at all if he lost Katsuya at some point which is most likely the way im going) and accustomed to using his power without any constraint (there's only shadows around him, there's no need to care if he goes over the top and destroys everything in his path).

Upon returning to this side Tatsuya will be unaccustomed to living in a society, to having to restrain his power. And he will be in another highly stressing environment except completely different from what's he's used to because all will come from his head. His trauma.

He will hear a dog bark(having no heard anything but shadows for years) and he will go completely nuke over it in mere seconds launching super powerful attacks before he can even realize what hes doing. Just pure instinct and reflex he had to forge to survive the way he lived but that it's no longer useful to him here, back in the normal world.

He will need a therapist.

And Maki will be perfect for the job.

Not only is she a psychologist and a persona user who received her power directly from Philemon even before Tatsuya(so actually more powerful than him, if not one of the most powerful even in her own group) but she's also someone close to Tatsuya. Someone he knew and considered a friend.

Maki would know this and probably prepared for years for this (never losing hope that she would someday help the kids she couldn't help when she was younger).

She would appoint herself as Tatsuyas therapist the moment he steps back into our world, already applying all the psychology techniques she knows to help Tatsuya start processing his trauma way before Tatsuya or anyone else even realizes what she's doing.

It also fits nicely in my au because she's already also Akechis therapist which gives me an excuse to give them something in common, something that would help them get to know each other and bond over.

I imagine either Akechi or Tatsuyas exiting Maki's temporal office in the Shadows ops headquarters just as the other is arriving for their respective session and making small talk while Maki gets ready to receive the other.

Or them talking/complaining about the exercises Maki has ordered them to do and how much they frustrate them.

Just. I love when the au builds on its own

[yomiurinikei]

RYUTARO MAKI!!

okay so i think the reason why asks vanish is bc tumblr won’t load them for me past a certain #. what i get for having unanswered asks ig….

-fucking Sucks at fps games. really good at defense/strategy which he tries to play off as even better and cooler, but. he’s not winning this social battle. lmao get pwned

•^i think kiyoka once teased him and tried to offer to “show him how it’s done”… just to get her ass beat too. it’s calibrated weird!!!

•that said tho i think his soccer interest started getting Serious when his parents bought him FIFA as a preteen. as of the tragedy starting he’d been Deep into football for nearly two years

•knew the Most of Anyone he knew, about Any team. was most fascinated by players and their personal histories, ie when they started playing, etc.

•i think the maki family moved abt a year prior to the tragedy, ryutaro was doing Well socially but he didn’t have a history with any of his friends at the time

•first went ! abt mitch because he’s from a town near where the makis originally lived

•that isn’t all to ryutaros love of mitch though, he genuinely just. Likes him. he’s a Great player. i’m not getting flashbacks to 6.5 intro where we have to hear ryutaro yap. my eye is Not twitching. don’t look at me

•non despair au, has Nooo clue what he wants to do as an adult. i think he spends a while in internship/entry level Hell because he’s so flighty w where he is, what he’s doing, etc. just takes the first job he gets hired at that Works

•did you guys know there’s a difference between an allergy and an oral allergic sensitivity? it’s easier to exposure therapy away an oas…

•ryutaro had issues with a Bunch of fruits, so he exposure therapy’d himself into being able to have them. 

•it was seriously a Lot. he eats fruit salad more often than most because he’s paranoid about redeveloping his sensitivities 

•likes a Lot of different types of music, but like ->

•is So embarrassed abt some of it that half of what he listens to, he listens to via youtube dot com, on a private browser. 

•was sort of clingy to kiyoka as a kid? which she was ^^;; about because she wanted to go play with Her friends. ryutaro got teased for this a bit when he started school

•in general, tended to kinda teeter on the line between liked and disliked? was often in the Background of a friend group. kid who got invited to birthday parties unless the space was limited

•does Really bad living on his own. in canon this is because it was him and his parents post tragedy, not knowing for Sure what happened to kiyoka, for so long. 

•it was scary being somewhere by himself, he hates to admit it but he struggled a lot not being able to walk down the hall to check on his parents in the night. stayed w them for a while after they went to be closer to the foundation post 6.5

•started to live by himself after they expressed wanting to move back to their old home. didn’t want to tie them down… got his own place w/o really discussing it w them

•didn’t talk abt Any of this with Anyone, but did ask minako for help finding an apartment, and i think she talked w his parents casually, as fellow class 79 parents

•…she found a place for him in the same community as she lives in. they never discussed it, and ryutaro doesn’t even know Confidently if it was smthn intentional on her part… but it’s easily the thing she’s done for him that means the Most

•likes the dark in Theory but gets stressed easily. in general, just doesn’t like being alone? he’d like to wander around at night more but doesn’t have anyone to walk with

•tried to work out more post 6.5, both to keep up with the rest of the foundation, and because of how Stressed he was for midori during 6.5. i think he’s p good abt consistency, and his mental health doesn’t explode, but it’s just not Fun for him. not a hobby. he is proud of his progress tho

•also a big fan of dogs, but they’re less of a novelty to him than they are to midori. likes bigger breeds. 

•Geeeenuinely thought kiyokas invite to hpa was a prank. laughed @ her to himself then got stressed for a minute when it was clear she was Really “falling for it”. out of everyone in the family, he was the one who got the most light headed when they confirmed authenticity. 

[docholligay]

Choose Your Own Adventure: September

Finally getting into some real spooky shit. I hope you like at least parts of it ahaha. Enjoy! 3100 words.

The moonlight didn’t pierce this far into the house. Darkness surrounded every corner, and only the wavering flame of Haruka’s little lighter cast anything into the night. Haruka held it far from her face, ignored it as the tip of her thumb got hotter and hotter. But the black of it. It seems to be more than just the dark, it seemed to almost swallow the light. 

“Lena? Uh, Commander Oxton?” 

It was like the hallways and floor were covered in thick carpet, her voice not echoing at all, but stifling, quieting, into the walls. Everything beneath her was so hard, and only her voice seemed to come softer and softer, even as she looked. 

Where would she have run? It was hard to be sure. It occurred to Haruka, in that moment, that she diodn’t know Lena all that well, and that any kinship she felt between them was probably all one-sided, and that it was definitely weird to be the one going after her. But she still kept creeping forward down the hallway. 

She had to apologize for Minako. It felt odd to say it that way, but she felt it all the same. Mina wasn’t usually like that, she might say, and it might even feel true. Other than, of course, the fact that Mina was always like that. 

No, but that was wrong, too. Mina could be like that, but she was funny and usually she didn’t--the whole thing confused Haruka. Not that it took much, she snorted to herself. But as many people she’d seen Mina put on the defensive, and even as mean as she had seen Mina be, there was something about the way she’d attacked Lena that made no sense to her. Lena hadn’t even done anything, as far as she could tell. 

Was the hall getting darker? That seemed impossible, it had been so dark already. Maybe it was just the darker was getting fuller. The flat darkness was turning to one she could feel, plush, soft, like one of Michiru’s winter dresses, or the pillows on the couch at the country club. Something so thick it could suffocate you in its luxury. 

But that was stupid. Dark was dark, and mean was mean, and it was just another day of Minako Aino picking on someone because she felt mad or threatened or bored or whatever. That was it. That was all. Her lighter was just running out of butane. That was it. That was all. 

There was a break in the dark, like a door appearing in some dream, a bright block of light with an arch at the top. Her lighter flickered, and then died, leaving her crushed in the blackness, swimming through it, almost able to taste the salt of it as she walked toward the shimmering silver of that light. From somewhere off, she heard singing, a woman’s voice, high and clear as when her cufflink hit a fancy wine glass. 

She walked toward the light, and stepped through the door

----

“Lena.” 

You’re dead, she thought, but the words wouldn’t come. How long had it been since she had managed to keep a stray thought inside? Why had it been this one? You’re dead, she thought, but it felt so untrue, as he smiled at her, the same broad, crooked smile she wore on her own face, a keepsake passed from Oxton to Oxton. His eyes were bright and animated in the firelight, the crow’s feet around them only highlighting how often he had smiled in life. She had her mother’s eyes, but the freckles on her face were a mirror to his, two parts of a shared Milky Way. 

He was dead, and impossibly alive, and in the mental collision of these two facts, Lena could do nothing but wrap her arms around him tightly, and throw her body into his. 

“Dad.” 

Worse, then, or better, the knowledge of his death fading away as her cheek slipped against the comforting sameness of his tattered grey cardigan, the one only minutes before she would have sworn was laying across the back of her couch. How could he be dead, when she could smell the spice and wood of his cologne, that hopelessly dated thing she’d sprayed on herself at fourteen? 

“Everything’s all right now, love. You’re ‘ere now.” 

He ruffled the back of her hair, and there was something in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t hear it over the sounds of laughing and chatting behind her. She was home for Christmas. This was where she’d always meant to be, with her family, the only somewhat sloppily constructed puddings and the smell of warm meat. The brandy punch and mediocre beer. The happiness. 

It began to surround her, to fill her ears and her eyes and her throat like honey, sweet and perfect and suffocating. . 

“Right.” She pulled away, but only to drown herself deeper in the comfort of the moment. “Dad, I--” 

“None of that matters now,” he shook his head, “You’re safe, and you’re ‘ome. Well--” 

“Florrie’s.” Lena completed the thought, looking around. Hadn’t it been a bigger room? Hadn’t it been flocked in deep wallpaper and dark wood, just a moment ago? No, that all seemed so far away. Just a nightmare. It had always been a warm, cheerful, living room in West Ham, too small for the crowd but none the worse for it. 

She touched the strap of her accelerator, running her fingers against the strap until they wandered to the piece itself, as small as Winston could have made it. She sat down on the ground next to her father’s knee, trying to sort it all out.

She came in the door. She came in the door, and she didn’t come from the station. She kept shaking her head. This couldn’t be her cousin’s house. The last time she was at her cousin’s house, with her father, was before the Slipstream. Her father had died when--she willed herself not to look at him--he had died before she was found. Fight back. This was a dream. This was a wish. This was a particularly mean trick. She had to go. 

Lena turned her face upwards. There was the thumping of feet as a little herd of children came to her and tackled her to the ground. 

“Aunt Lena!” 

“You going to play with us?” 

“I missed you!” 

The alarm in the back of her mind sank under the weight of joy, and she grinend as she picked one of them up and ran toward the tree. 

---

Haruka was trapped in a snowglobe. Or so it seemed. The light refracted like glitter off the glass panes, little cracks here and there only making brighter flecks of light. Had she seen this from the outside? It was just a greenhouse, one of the fancy ones attached to old houses, but she thought she might have seen it from outside. Wouldn’t it have shone? 

She didn’t remember the moon being this bright, when they’d walked here. Yeah, it was raining. She’d been freezing in her leather jacket, and she’d be pissed that the water might ruin it. But now the moon was bright and full, and it pierced through the gloom to shine down on Haruka, walking toward the middle of the great glass structure. 

It must have been beautiful when it was still used. It looked dead now, the planters all withered and quiet in the moonlight. But it was still a bright spot in a dark house, and maybe Lena had found her way here, same as Haruka. 

“Commander Oxton?” 

The hallway had swallowed her voice, and the glass garden amplified it. Amplified it, echoed it, tossed it back and forth between the walls so many times it began to sound strange, began to say different things. The old stands where plants had once grown seemed like skeletons in the light, just the bare bones of what had once been a lush forest. 

No response. No one here. There was no way Lena could have avoided hearing her, as loud as the echo had been. She should leave. Look somewhere else. 

There was the clank of metal, and Haruka whirled around to follow it. Behind her, rising and twisting like a plume of a smoke, was a great dark staircase, iron turned and bound into complicated curls by the will of the house, twisted into a neat spiral up toward a balcony, and a litte door into another room. 

“Lena?” 

The echoes came again. Lena. Lena. Leave. Lena. Leap. Leap. 

Maybe she’d gone up there. It looked like the kind of place Haruka might go to be alone, if she’d had the kind of shake Lena’d had. She could tell Lena she gets upset sometimes too. Sometimes she doesn’t think she deserves to be here either. Like Lena told her she didn’t do school. It was okay. You didn’t have to be perfect to be good. She’d say that. 

“Commander Oxton?” Commander Oxton. Commander Oxton. Fucking Simpleton. Commander Oxton. Committed Moron. 

Haruka blinked, and shook her head. Her hearing wasn’t that good, true, but this place had a strange sound to it. Some of the echoes came back, and they came back wrong, and they came back inside her. They seemed louder than the others. But there were only echoes. They were still in her own voice. It was just the way the house was built, right? There had to be something about the way the the greenhouse seemed to curve into forever that made her voice say something different. She’d read about that happening in caves. 

No she hadn’t. But it sounded like something that might happen in a cave. Maybe she’d seen it in a movie. 

A scent grabbed her nose, pulled her face closer to that staircase. Everything in here was dead, it was cold and it was uncared for, and there was nothing here. But it smelled fresh and sweet, almost like Michiru’s perfume, flowers Haruka could not identify but knew were the kind kept in vases at the entrance of a fine home. Even in the bright grey of the moonlight, the skeletons of plants seemed to darken and green. 

She put her foot on the bottom stair. The clink of it echoed across that glass universe, a sneaker on the stair, a dress shoe against the steel, a knife against a fork. It caught in her throat, that sound. Hand on the black steel snake curling up toward the ceiling. Foot on that wrought, inky step. Stopped for a moment, a character in that snowglobe, light glittering around her. 

Haruka almost felt like a doll in its house, moved around by the whims of a child, unable to stop herself as she climbed that stair, still convincing herself she was looking for Lena at the top of it. 

Somewhere in the night, under glass, a flower bloomed, and a slender bit of rope began to slide from the ceiling. 

----

A perfect Christmas, that’s what it was. Better than any she could remember. They still hadn’t run out of pigs in a blanket. The children’s voices were sweet, and there was hardly any yelling, even from the adults, and all of it was in play. The pudding, by some miracle, had not been overcooked, even with the size of it. The night was magic and warm and seemed never to end, and Lena didn’t want it to.

This was it. The dream she clung to so many times as she carreened through time, as she lay in a hospital bed, as she fought her way back one more time. It was all for them, and it was all for this, the happiest she ever was, in a life full of happy moments. 

She giggled as she tumbled around on the floor, a child jumping over her back amd flipping onto the floor, Lena obligingly diving in to eat her tummy as she squealed. She always had such fun with them. It was a part of her important function in the family, being silly Aunt Lena. Maybe someday she’d have some of her own, if she was lucky. 

A flash, in her mind. A pretty redhead, waiting for her. Emily. How could she have forgotten? She and Emily had talked about having children--it would be no easy task, for the two of them, but it was something they both wanted desperately. It gave Lena pause, the forgetting.

“She’s only running a bit late, Lena.” 

His smile radiated at her from near the fireside. He’d read her mind. Well, of course he had, she’d been with her Dad all her life, and just the two of them for so much of it, as much as any Oxton can be only two. 

And yet. 

She sat still in the middle of the room, a few children still collapsing over her. Why wasn’t it too loud? Had there ever been a Christmas where Lena hadn’t stepped outside for a moment? It was a small room, and there were so many of them, and they were, loud, abrasive, proper East Enders, but to see this room, to hear it, more like, seemed closer to a Dickens Christmas special on the noble everyman. 

She stood, ignoring the pleas of what seemed to be her cousins’ little children, and walked over to sit next to her father. 

“Something’s wrong.” 

He laughed. “Know it’s a bit odd to ‘ave things go well for us, Lena, but it’s not wrong. Don’t always need to make us God’s chew toy. You can stay ‘ere.” 

He took her hand, and there was a pause as the fire crackled, and even the children seemed to quiet. 

“Do you like it? Are you ‘appy?” 

“Yes.” She immediately wished she could take it back, sensing the poison in it. “I’m--”  

She shook her head, even as she felt something twist inside her, begging her to stay where it was warm and the food was plentiful and her father was blissfully, impossibly alive. Flashes came, again. Fareeha. Fareeha was trying to get funding for things. Some partnership. She was meant to be helping. 

“I ‘ave to go.” She stood, looking for the door. “I can’t be ‘ere. This--” 

“Love, why? ‘Aven’t you given enough? “Aven’t we? Don’t you deserve this? Let it ‘elp you.” 

“Dad,” she took both his hands, pleading, “There’s things in the world, right--things that need fixing, and I ‘ave to go do it. Someone must. People all over the world, in trouble, and--if we go now, we can ‘elp. It’s lovely, this room, this place. But what of everyone else? Right?” 

“What is it to you, Lena?” He put his hand on her shoulder. “If the world falls to bits? What ‘as it done for you? Blame you? Put you on a pedestal, to drop you from it? You owe that world nothing.” 

Lena laughed. Clarity like a knife. Painful, bright, immediate. 

“You’re not me dad.”She stepped back and shook her head, the fire growing darker, “He would not fucking say that. Not Bert Oxton, not in ‘is worst moment.” 

She strode toward the door, as the Christmas tree crashed behind her, spilling glass confetti onto the floor in silvers and greens and reds. The chatter became a complete silence, the Christmas pudding letting off that sick-sweet burn of melted sugar as it lit aflame, but Lena grabbed the doorknob and twisted, hard. 

“None of this is real.” 

The thing pretending to be her father began to laugh behind her, louder and higher in pitch, until she turned. 

“Leeeennaaaaa” the end of her name turned back into the laugh, peakling and falling over itself. 

His voice began to warp, wrist, melt, into something that seemed both posher and wilder, an overgrown rose climbing the ruins of a stately home.

 “It can give you the carrot Lenaaaaa, or it can give you the stick.” 

She pulled hard on the deoor and  thundered into the hallway, her mind clearing completely as she did so, the intoxicating brandy and laughter falling away from her as she hurried through the darkness. She had to get back to the rest. They had to leave. The house knew things, the house was building things, it was still building after all these years. 

The hallway bucked and lifted and Lena flew up into the air and slammed to the floor.

 It blitzed a bright blue, and ages crowded in around her before snapping back. A fuzzy static buzzed around her, in the distance, “Tracer, what is your position, Tracer, come in Tracer.” 

It can’t be real. It’s only a trick. The house builds things, the house builds things, the house--the hallway began to shudder and groan, the metal grinding against the forces of time and losing the battle. She reached out for the control wheel, even knowing the cause was lost, a kind of turbulence she’d never felt. 

“Mayday,” she mouthed, and then shook her head, “It’s not real, it’s not real, I’m in a bloody--”

The hallways shuddered again, breaking apart,and a shriek of freezing cold surrounded her. 

“Tracer! Position!” 

She curled up with her hands over her head. ‘No no no no no. Not this. 

“Stop it! Stop it!” 

In a dark hallway not far off, armed with only a flashlight, Fareeha Amari stood, utterly annoyed. 

Everything had gone wrong. Lena was her first priority, It was too cold for her to be off by herself, and she hated the disorganization of it besides. There was, of course, the matter of what Mina had said. It was wrong, of course, and it had been exceptionally cruel to say. It was a sore spot, for Lena, and not a matter to be joked about. Not that Mina had been joking. 

But how to put it to Lena? She should have brought Angela. Fareeha was hopeless on these matters. She began to recite what she would say, in her head. Of course Mina was incorrect. No reasonable person could have expected you to assess bullet trajectory. She certainly would have succeeded if Lena hadn’t intervened, so it was better than at least the world saw Overwatch making an attempt. Lena did damage her position somewhat by later sleeping with the enemy in a very literal sense, and how did she--no! There it was again, the inevitable criticism. She would attempt to comfort Lena and make it worse. She was a red pen made flesh, and it was an unstoppable flaw, that she could not simply be kind. There always had to be a post-script to any kind word

There was a noise, soft and far away. 

Fareeha shone her flashlight down the hallway, and nearly called out when another cry, louder now, a scream, came up behind her, East End inflected and tortured. 

“YOU’RE ‘URTING ME!!”

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