#it's not like chibiusa can make it worse right.

[sailormoonsub]

NOW you speak???? And it's to tell me to, and I quote, "stay in my fucking lane"????????

[lil-dinopup]

The New Moon Rising (Sailor Moon Agere Fanfic)

This is a single chapter story about Usagi <3 Trigger Warning: Chibiusa spanks Usagi (and done extremely mean and wrong) this is portrayed in a negative light and NOT a good thing. Summary: When Usagi starts struggling with possible side effects of the age swap with Chibiusa and insecurities. Luckily she has a younger "cousin" she can put the blame on and no one needs to know the truth. But, how long can Usagi keep these little accidents a secret while she is dealing with so many conflicting thoughts and feelings?

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      Usagi didn’t know what to do. Mom was mad at her again for another low test score. It wasn’t like she didn’t want to do better. She wanted to try to do better, but studying was hard. Besides just studying being hard in general, she was also Sailor Moon. She had to fight monsters, she had to protect people. She was so tired all the time. Sometimes she felt like she could just cry and cry and cry. But, everyone already called her a cry baby. It wasn’t just school and being Sailor Moon. Chibiusa was always being mean to her and making her feel worse. It was the way Mamoru made her feel sometimes. She hated the fact the little girl slept in her room in her bed. She hated how Mom thought she was their little cousin. Usagi hated seeing how nice her mom was to the younger girl.

      She couldn’t help but miss when she was younger, when she wasn’t struggling so much at school, when life was easier, and when her mom wasn’t always so frustrated by her. 

      It had only been a few days since they had swapped ages, Chibiusa had used her magic to make Usagi’s family not see anything weird about it. It… had only been for that dinner. They had returned back to normal while they were sleeping. But it was nice. 

      Her dream of being stuck as a toddler, even younger than Chibiusa, had been interrupted by a wet warm feeling. It knocked her out of her dream. Almost right away Usagi realized what had happened. She was mentally freaking out, quickly she changed out of her clothes. Chibiusa was still sleeping, both of them were normally heavy sleepers. Chibi always kept a glass of water on the nightstand because she got thirsty at night and mom didn’t like her waking up and going to go get her own water. Taking the glass of water she carefully poured some of it over Chibi’s pajama pants. 

      “Chibi!” Usagi started to shake the pink hair girl awake. 

      “Huh? Usaaagiiiii why are you wakin me up?” The kid whined rubbing her eyes.

      Swallowing hard, the teenager bit on her thumb a little. “You wet the bed Chibi, I’ll help clean up” 

      The plan had worked perfectly. Chibiusa had thought she had really wet the bed, and was thankful Usagi was willing to help clean up and not tell anyone. The normally bratty girl was so embarrassed she was extremely thankful for Usagi’s kindness and help.

      Of course Usagi felt bad, but she had to lie. It was much less embarrassing for a kid to wet the bed than for a teenager to wet the bed. If anyone found out, Usagi would never live it down. No one bullied Chibiusa like they did her. It was a 1 night thing. It wouldn’t happen again.

      But it did happen again. Not the never next night. But a few nights late. It was after they had to deal with the Amazoness Quartet at the age ceremony. She hadn’t wanted to volunteer, but she didn’t mind meeting those weird circus girls. When asked why wanted to be an adult she tried to say it was because she wanted to marry Mamoru. But, those circus girls had many good points on why growing up and being an adult was the worst. Heck it was like how Mina had invited them to this “part time job” there wasn’t any yummy snacks or naptime. She was so tired. She hadn’t been sleeping well afraid she’d have another accident. She wanted to marry Mamoru; he was her soulmate. She wanted to be a pretty bride didn’t she? 

      Even though Usagi's mind was full of troubling thoughts, she had done everything right. She made sure to go to the bathroom before bed, she made sure to barely drink any liquids after dinner. She shouldn’t have had an accident. But, she woke up in bed sucking her thumb and the bed wet. 

      This time while helping “Chibiusa” clean up they were caught. Mom had caught her doing laundry in the middle of the night. 

      Before Usagi could say anything Chibiusa was already hugging the adult woman’s legs confessing the truth to her “aunt”

      Hearing how upset the bedwetting situation had Chibiusa made Usagi feel worse. She was always such a loud brat that Usagi didn’t think that Chibi thought she had an accident or… two would upset her so much. But, it had. Her mom comforted Chibiusa so sweetly and reassured her. Telling her it was okay and even girls at her age could still have accidents. She told Chibiusa that when Usagi was 8 years old that she still wet the bed and had to wear protection. 

      That made Chibiusa feel a little better, it hurt Usagi that her mom revealed it so easily. But, she was glad Chibiusa stopped crying. She tried to bury her shame and fears and all the icky emotions deep deep down. 

      It felt like everything was just piling up and up and up on her. Usagi found herself struggling not to be buried alive in all of it. She didn’t talk to anyone about it. It felt like she was the only one who struggled with these feelings. High school was even worse than middle school. It felt like Chibi Moon was so much more important than Sailor Moon with her being able to call on for her Pegasus friend’s help. Or whatever. She had Mamoru, who was a lot nicer than he used to be… and they were soulmates and lovers in a past life. It was romantic. But, sometimes when they got into fights he still called her an idiot or useless. Sometimes when she asked how she looked he would say fat. Before saying sorry because he was just a blunt person. 

      Her emotions had been so big lately that one of his simple blunt comments didn't really mean anything by it even if they had made her cry. He got frustrated with her and said he wished she’d “grow up and stop being such a crybaby” 

      Mamoru was supposed to be her soulmate. She had worked so hard to keep him. She ignored the mean comments that would sometimes slip out similar to when they hadn’t been together yet. He had cheered her up when she couldn't transform. Now he hasn't been around much because he was so busy with college. He still helped her, but it wasn't the same. She tried to tell her that Mamoru was just stressed due to his college thesis. 

      Instead of going home she went to the park, no one was there. Usagi sat in the tubes for what felt like hours. She remembered when she was younger and she had a fight with Mama or was mad because of her brother so she’d run off to the park and hide in the tubes for hours until Mama came and got her. She hadn’t even noticed when she started sucking her thumb as she hugged her legs. She wanted times to go back to when the biggest thing that upset her was when Mama gave Shingo the bigger piece of pie. 

      It was getting late, she was hungry and it was almost hungry. It was only while she started crawling out of the tubes she noticed that her pink skirt was all wet and gross. She wasn’t even sleeping? Why? How? 

      Usagi quickly fled home. By her luck everyone was already at the dining table and didn’t get up when she came in. “Usagi you’re late for dinner” Her mother called out.

      “I’ll be down in a moment. I just need to wash up!” She didn’t technically lie. 

      She would have to do her laundry later. The first outfit she grabbed were her pink turtleneck sweater that was too big and her black shorts. While she put on the outfit, she noticed Chibiusa’s pullups. Her mom had gotten them for the 8 year old to help with her accidents. Biting her lip she took one of the pullups. She fit in it, it was tight but it fit! The black shorts hid the pullup perfectly. 

      When she got to dinner, her mom was about to scold her, she opened her mouth and Usagi could tell from the look her mom had. But, then the blue-haired woman closed her mouth and her face softened. “You should start eating before the food is cold” 

      While Usagi ate, she was unusually quiet. She didn’t even get seconds, she barely finished her plate. She hadn’t noticed the others finishing eating or her mom encouraging them to go.

      “Usagi” Mama softly said sitting next to her, she put her hand on top of her hand, the one that didn’t have the fork.

      Jerking her hand away, Usagi looked around, having been startled out of her thoughts. Realizing it was just her mom, her tense shoulders dropped. “I’m sorry ma-mom. Is it my turn to do the dishes?” 

      She stood up, but the adult woman took her hand again. “No, it’s fine. But, are you fine Usagi? It looks like you’ve been crying?” Her mother asked her gently, she stood up, and placed her hand on her cheek.

      “I’m… fine mom… really.” She gave a weak, forced smile. 

      “You know I’m here for you Usagi? Your dad and me. If you ever are in trouble or need to talk to someone.” Her words caused the teenage girl to jerk away.

      Her mom wouldn’t understand, no one would understand, no one would get it. Not even the other sailor scouts, not Mamoru. How could anyone understand? It wasn’t simple boy troubles. Chibiusa was their future daughter. It must mean that Mamoru and her no matter what ended up together. Because how else would Chibiusa be here? Unless her going into the past caused her to end up in a parallel world of her own, it didn’t matter if Mamoru and her got together because this Chibiusa wouldn’t be their Chibiusa? So much of the things that have happened was because of Chibiusa. It would make sense. But, Usagi wasn’t smart, she was dumb. Everyone knew it, so she was probably wrong. Which meant no matter what no matter how bad the fight was or how mad she felt she and Mamoru would end up together.

      No matter what she did, she would grow up and marry Mamoru and have a daughter who at the best didn’t like her. Would in the future Mamoru say she was an idiot in front of their daughter? Would he say she was fat or a pig in front of her? Would Chibiusa grow up seeing her mom as a useless dummy? 

      Would she always be the useless dumb crybaby Sailor Scout that held the others back? Would she ever be the princess or queen they deserved and needed? 

      Would it be better if she just quit before that future came?

      She was being hugged, everything was blurry, she hadn’t even realized she had been crying, she hadn’t been making a sound. She hugged her mama back letting the smell of her blueberry shampoo her yellow turtleneck was soft. It felt like hours of her crying into her mother’s shoulder while the woman rubbed her back.

      “Is this about Mamoru?” her mother asked when she had finally gone to simple sniffling. 

      “Yea… No? Maybe. It’s more than just Mamoru. But I’ll be okay. In the end you can’t stop the future and you can’t change it.” 

      Mama tried to ask her more questions. But, Usagi just shook her head and said she was tired.

      That night she had another accident but the pull up kept it a secret. 

      She wanted to go back to being her usual bunny self. But, something felt different, something felt wrong. Everything felt so numb. She felt cold. It was like something in her had shattered. But with her shattered heart came clarity she hadn’t ever had. She noticed things like she realized now those weird circus girls had been the amazoness quintet. It was funny because she was dumb enough not to realize, but even the others didn’t realize. That wasn’t the only thing she noticed. It didn’t matter what happened, the fights they did, school, nothing matters. Because as long as Chibiusa was around it meant the future would happen whether she liked it or not. 

      Usagi was only 15, there were so many other things she should be caring about. But, it felt like nothing could make her feel again. 

      That was until she saw the stuffed bunny in the window of the toy store. It was a white bunny, but the inside of her ears was the same pattern of her bedsheets, her favorite pattern. Light purple with white bunnies jumping and crescent moons and pink stars. Its embroidered eyes were pink like the stars. The paw pads were yellow. It reminded her of a stuffed bunny she had as a little girl, but one day the bunny was gone. Shingo had accidentally lost it when he took it to daycare while she was at school. She cried for weeks. They tried to find a replacement stuffy but none of them was right. It was a little funny, because that Bunny was named Luna. Usagi bought the Bunny, Moonie.

      When she got home she lied to Chibiusa and her mom and claimed the plush was a gift from Mamuro. She hadn’t seen the guy since the semi fight. But, no one needed to know that. He was busy. 

      She went to sleep cuddling the stuffed bunny. Her dream was amazing. At first she was a toddler again and at the park with Mama, then she was a teenager still dressed the same. Mama didn’t care or seemed bothered. A monster appeared and she had to turn into Sailor Moon, but her outfit was cuter, there was a diaper, which made her feel a little embarrassed but no one made fun of her. Despite the outfit looking more babyish she was still useful and she managed to defeat the monster all herself. And the other scouts got there late and praised her and Mama praised her. Then, there was an earthquake and Mama was saying she had an accident. The earthquake kept shaking her. 

      Usagi woke up confused, rubbing her eye, her thumb was still in her mouth. She saw Chibiusa and she looked mad. “You wet the bed! You were wearin a pullup and leaked! You were always the one wetting the bed weren’t you! You framed me didn’t you?” 

      “Hnn?” Usagi moaned. She was so tired and she felt like she could cry a little. Chibiusa had woken her up from a really nice dream. She rubbed her face in Moonie’s fur.

      “You made me think I was a big baby! When it was you!” Chibiusa whispered angrily tears threatening to fall, she looked so mad. 

      Before the teenager could say anything. She found herself being pulled onto the floor. She barely caught herself with her hands. She found her butt in the air, Usagi tried to get back up, but Chibiusa was standing to close “Move” Instead the girl pulled the older girl’s pajama pants down, revealing the soaking pull up. 

      “No” She had heard the pink kid say and then after some movement a force hit Usagi’s butt hard.

      “Ow!” She squeaked. It hurt really bad! Looking up awkwardly, she saw Chibiusa was holding a hardcover book with both her hands. 

      “You Made Me Think I Was a Big Baby Not You!” Chibiusa angrily exclaimed each word she struck Usagi hard with the book. The pull up wasn’t helping cushion any of the impact. Each hit she let out a painful whine. 

      The door opened up, revealing the blue hair adult. Usagi’s mother saw her niece hitting her daughter with a hardcover book, giving her a crud spanking, while her daughter was wearing a well used pull up. 

      Honestly Ikuko put 1 and 1 together very fast. Chibiusa stared at her “aunt” now holding the book over her hand shaking, While Usagi looked up at her mother through tears.

      “Mama” She quietly whined.

      “What is going on here?” Ikuko demanded

      Chibiusa moved already telling her the whole story, while the woman got closer, Ikuko helped her daughter from her fallen position. 

      It was what Ikuko had assumed Usagi was the one actually wetting the bed and blamed her younger cousin and her cousin had been mad and decided to punish Usagi with a spanking. But she had used a hard book to make it really impactful. 

      Usagi didn’t say anything, she just clung to her mother crying into her shoulder shaking thumb in her mouth 

      Ikuko told the younger girl to go downstairs and think about how hitting someone with a book repeatedly wasn’t okay, while she dealt with Usagi. 

      When the younger girl was gone. Ikuko comforted her daughter while lightly scolding her for lying about the accidents. She worked on getting the bed clean while her daughter clung to her hugging her new stuffed bunny, holding her sweater with the other hand. After she had finished dealing with the bed she realized Usagi was in no state to deal with herself. So she had to help her teenage daughter. 

      She took Usagi to the bathroom with some new clothes, and a new pullup, mentally noting maybe getting nighttime diapers would be better. As Usagi cleaned up herself, Ikuko noticed the bruises the book left, it would hurt for a good bit to sit down, it wasn’t just her butt either there was bruises on her lower back and upper legs. She wondered how long and how hard exactly Chibiusa was hitting Usagi for. She wondered why she hadn’t heard sooner. Usagi wasn’t one to usually take a spanking so quiet. Was it because she was embarrassed because of the wet pullup? 

      In her spare pajamas and all cleaned up, Usagi looked softer and younger as she went back to hiding her face mostly in the stuffed Bunny’s fur. “M sorry mama. I know it was bad blamin’ Chibi n I know it made her sad… I just I just didn’t wan anyone to know.” She whispered timidly tears starting to form. 

      “And you will be saying sorry to Chibiusa. But, it didn’t give her the right to hit you the way she did. You both will be punished in the morning.” Ikuko said gently but firmly.

      “Can I sleep with you and daddy tonight?” Usagi whispered almost so quietly that Ikuko almost missed it. 

      Ikuko had a feeling this behavior regression stemmed from something much bigger. But, tonight was not the night to push for answers. She had a tired and hurt little girl to care for right now and another hurt angry little girl who needed to be told that while what she had done was bad her feelings were valid. “After you say sorry to Chibiusa” 

[docholligay]

Sailor Moon Tweaks

I wrote a version of this that is basically a fic outline in its own right, trying to spare you that, but: we’re adapting the 90s anime with a few things in mind and a twist. I actually like both magical girls as a genre and the Cosmic Space Epic bullshit we see in the manga, so I’ll be playing with that while adding a very significant cost to all such bullshit. Also, for this to be possible I would have to have threatened, blackmailed, or bribed SO MANY HBO executives SO HARD that we’re going FULL wish fulfillment, we got five thirty-episode seasons and a budget that will make Game of Thrones weep. (Why 30? Because while we won’t be beholden to the MOTW format, they do give some nice structure for character development and interactions, and we will want downtime, not just ‘minimum viable room for this amount of plot’ time, which I’d put at about 20-25 episodes.) The action sequences will be glorious, the transformation sequences will each cost about as much as an entire standard episode and will be played DEAD SERIOUS, and for everyone who complains about them I add another sparkly flounce to whoever comes next. Now, for the actual show. 

Okay, so mostly I tried to respond to these comments anon so i’m responding to the IDEA and not any personal relationship or feelings I have about someone (I don’t think i’M LARGELY a biased person, but I try wherever I can not to give myself the chance to be) But I HAD to check which response this was because I am OBSESSED with your tone here. I love you. i am not going to out you to everyone here but you MUST know that I did not expect the length or ferocity of this entire essay from you and I am CHARMED. I would love to hear your idea for these transformations, as I have many opinions myself. 

 1) In the first season, we get a SUPREMELY expensive SilMil flashback two-parter that reveals Queen Serenity, as she set her daughter for reincarnation, bound the core of the Silver Crystal into her daughter’s soul. (I think I’ve used this headcanon before, it’s a favorite of mine.) As she uses it, she will bind herself further to it, until the two are completely merged and she becomes someone powerful enough to restore the Silver Millennium and defend it against all harm. We see enough of what it’s like to realize this is not a good idea. The girls, who identify firmly as Earthlings in this life, are not comfortable with this. Worse, the ginzuishou’s kind of sentient and it wants the same things. For the rest of the series, every resurrection Usagi performs, every massive act of magic, and every powerup she gets that allows her to stay competitive with the escalating series of threats is slowly bringing her closer to that outcome. (Her hair steadily gets lighter in tone, the way she speaks changes when she’s in Serenity Form and that starts bleeding into her normal life, etc. Usagi’s arc is one half growing into someone who will fight for her friends and planet, and one half a very sparkly horror story as a magical rock parasitizes her and she knows it.) The growing distance from Naru is a symbol of Usagi losing herself to her own magic. 

I think I love this! It is nowhere NEAR where I would go with it, but I think it could be so good, and so interesting to pick apart that I actually think I do want to be on this writing team ahaha WE!!! LOVE!!! CONSEQUENCES!!! IN!!! THIS!!! HOUSE!!!

 2) That bleeds into the idea of Crystal Tokyo. Chibiusa’s future ceases to exist the moment she goes back to the past to change it (we’ll be making her about ten from the start here), but what she represents remains. She is the future where they fail, and the Silver Millennium is essentially restored, and Usagi as they know her is lost to be another Serenity. By the time they realize this they’re pretty attached to Chibs, but it leaves them unsettled. Can they subvert a destiny that seems set in stone? Beryl thought Usagi was too dangerous to live because of the Serenity line, was she right? Usagi is even more set on trying to save Hotaru, and as many villains as possible, because she ultimately wants to be able to save HERSELF. (She does get to save Hotaru, who gets the chance to redefine Sailor Saturn for herself and doesn’t become a baby, but this of course comes at the cost of more of Usagi’s own autonomy.) 

So what do you do with Hotaru then? My issue with Hotaru has always been that’s she’s a bit OP, and her and Pluto really cannot do a lot with the narrative other than die when they’re cast that way, which is why i sorta *wiggles fingers* about the whole thing. Which is basically a non-answer, and I cop to that, but i FEEL like Hotaru dying is the only other option and while I do enjoy getting murdered on the internet, I doubt HBO would. 

 3) Apart from the Black Moon Clan, all post-Beryl villains - movies and Doom Tree included - are from off-Earth. This is because the galaxy is magically active on the whole, with planets who haven’t awakened their potential frequently becoming vassal states to those who have. The solar system has escaped this bullshit since the fall of the Silver Millennium by being a backwater system where nothing really important is, since the Serenity line fell and somehow took the Silver Crystal with them. This is hinted at as early as season one, but serves as Season Four’s big reveal. Incidentally, the Nehellenia arc’s conclusion will be the Stars version, the Outers get a role in SuperS besides the special (though we’re keeping that because Peak Michiru,) and we’re cutting Helios’s maidens and secrets horseshit in favor of him being some kid who went to sleep as the Earth Kingdom was falling, woke up in the modern era, and is therefore a source of Earth’s old magical knowledge. So anyway, these three things culminate in the final showdown with Galaxia being a massive, awesome fight between the Senshi and all the allies they’ve gathered over the series on one end, Galaxia cutting them down effortlessly on the other, and her dealing a massive blow to the Earth that blows the masquerade wide open, forcing Usagi to use the Silver Crystal one last time, wipe Galaxia out, and resurrect the dead, leaving Usagi in a magical crystal flower bud at the epicenter of what was once Tokyo while the Silver Crystal finishes their metamorphosis. This is not actually the final fight. The ACTUAL final fight is the people who love Usagi versus the Silver Crystal itself for her, and by extension, the ultimate fate of Earth as the SilMil Mark 2 or a magically active planet capable of shaping its destiny for itself.

If you kill Usagi at the end of it all to save earth I will kiss you on the mouth. 

[mycoolwritingcorner]

Sailor Moon: Reignstorm - Chapter 3: Missing You

“Hey, kiddo, you almost ready?” Haruka said as she opened the door to her adopted daughter’s room. Looking in she found Hotaru sitting on her bed scribbling something into a notebook.

“Haruka-Papa! I told you to knock before you come in!” The black-haired girl said with a huff, quickly shutting the notebook.

“Sorry, sorry. Hey, what’ve you got there?” She asked, gesturing towards the notebook in her daughter’s hands.

“It’s nothing!” Hotaru replied quickly, a light blush crossing her face.

“Uh huh…” Haruka said, clearly not believing her, but deciding to respect the girl’s privacy, “Well, anyway, we’re leaving for the zoo in ten minutes so make sure you have everything you need.” She finished while turning to leave.

“Um… Haruka-Papa… I have a question…” The young girl said timidly, stopping Haruka in her tracks.

“Yeah, what’s up kiddo?” Haruka asked, entering her daughter’s room and sitting next to her on the bed.

“Well… when do you think Chibiusa’s gonna come back and visit?”

It was amazing how Haruka knew that this question was coming, and yet still completely failed to prepare herself for it. To be fair, however, Haruka couldn’t even begin to figure out what the right answer would be. Not only was Chibiusa Hotaru’s best friend (and basically only friend that was her own age), but Haruka could tell from a mile away that she was also Hotaru’s first crush, which just made the situation… so much worse. How could she possibly tell her that it was entirely possible, and maybe even likely that the next time she would see Chibiusa… was when she was born? Especially when she was still dealing with the loss of her father. 

“I… I don’t know, kiddo.” Haruka finally answered.

“Yeah, I figured.” Hotaru said, looking down at the ground in disappointment, “I asked Setsuna-Mama if she could let me visit the future, just for a little bit, and she said no.”

From what Haruka heard, it was less ‘asked’ and more ‘begged’.

“Sweetheart, you’ve gotta understand that it’s not that simple. Setsuna is very tight-lipped about the future, even with me and Michiru, but if she could I know she would-”

“She can and she isn’t!” Hotaru blurted out in frustration, gripping the bedding underneath her. Almost immediately, her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in regret. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I just… I just really miss her… miss both of them.” She said, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

“I know, kiddo.” Haruka said, putting her arm around Hotaru and pulling her in close, “I know.” She repeated, gently stroking her daughter’s hair. “Hey, y’know what though?”

“What?” The young girl asked between sniffles.

“You, and me, and your mamas are gonna have a wonderful day together today, okay?” She reassured while rubbing her daughter’s shoulder, “And on our way home we can stop by the video store, and you can pick out whatever movie you want for us all to watch tonight. How’s that sound?”

“That… that sounds nice.”

“Alright.” Haruka said, giving Hotaru one last reassuring rub on the shoulder before standing up, “Well, we’re all downstairs so whenever you’re ready we can go.”

“Okay. And… thank you.” Hotaru said with a small smile.

“Of course.” The Guardian of Wind responded before taking her leave from her daughter’s room.

“Alright Haruka… that wasn’t terrible.” The leader of the Outer Guardians thought to herself as she made her way down the hall, “Just gotta keep it together.”

While she tried not to show it, Haruka felt exhausted. Raising Hotaru on its own was already so much, especially with how terrified Haruka was of screwing something up. Sure, Sailor Saturn was a powerful warrior, but Hotaru Tomoe was just a little girl. A girl who needed a loving family. Not to mention that, even though she had taken a break from racing, there was still work to be done on that front. On top of all that was the fact that she felt like she could not truly settle into this new family life, for fear that a new threat could arise at literally any moment and disrupt it.

Michiru was faring a bit better than her, but not by much. Between the two of them they were getting just a few hours of sleep every night. The couple had essentially become a walking example of ‘burning the candle at both ends’.

When she reached the downstairs and met up with the two women who were waiting for her, Michiru immediately picked up that something was amiss with her partner.

“Where’s Hotaru? Is everything okay?” The Guardian of the Seas questioned.

“Oh, yeah.” Haruka responded, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion, “She’s still missing Chibiusa. But we talked it out. Personally I think it was a really strong parenting moment for me.” She finished with a smirk.

“I’m sure you did great, honey.” Michiru said with a smile.

The aqua-haired woman moved to give her partner a kiss, before hearing a scream come from upstairs.

“HOTARU!” All three women said in unison while dashing up the stairs. They each pulled out their transformation wands as they ran full speed towards Hotaru’s bedroom. Before they could make it, however, a black shadow erupted out of the little girl’s room and enveloped the entire hallway, swallowing up the three guardians.

…

Usagi had gotten much better lately when it came to sleeping in. While in the past it was almost a daily occurrence for the girl to do her morning routine in a frenzy and still get to school late, this was no longer the case. Now it was only a weekly occurrence.

The bun-headed girl donned her school uniform and checked herself in the mirror, adjusting her outfit and hair where necessary. That is, until her eyes drifted to a photo which sat on one of her shelves. Right next to a picture of herself and Mamoru sat a picture of her with her middle-school best friend, Naru.

How long had it been since she had exchanged words with the red-haired girl? While she was already spending less time with her during the end of her middle school days due to her Sailor Guardian duties, that divide only grew when the two girls got accepted into different high schools. Not helped by the events which transpired shortly into Usagi’s high school career.

But even after the Galaxia incident had been dealt with, and peace had been restored to the world, the guardian of love and justice simply had not made the time to reconnect with her friend.

With that thought, Usagi looked over at her phone, “Well, no time like the present.” She thought to herself, reaching for the phone “I’ll just give her a ring, see how she’s doing, and see if she’s free to do something this weekend! Easy…”

Usagi’s hand slowed to a halt before it reached the phone, however, “But I mean… it is pretty early. If she hasn’t already left for school she’ll probably just be mad at me for choosing now to call. And I wouldn’t wanna make her late or anything.” She mentally justified to herself, “I’ll just call her later… yeah, later…” The blonde thought as she gathered her things and exited her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

“Later…”

…

Ami met Minako in the school library during their free period to continue working on the song. She couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. In years past she would have been appalled at the mere thought of spending good study time on such a frivolous task.

“What is she doing to me?” Ami thought, a big, goofy grin spreading across her face.

“Uh, hey, Earth to Ami.” Minako said, waving her hand in front of Ami’s face. Ami sat straight up, her face turning red.

“Sorry! Sorry, I was just… um…”

“Off in Mako land again?” Minako said with a devilish smirk, causing Ami to turn even redder.

“Anyway!” Ami said, trying to get back on track, “I’ve got some rough ideas for lyrics I was hoping you could look at. How’s the melody coming along?”

“Alright. I don’t have a ton of practice but I’m working with what I’ve got.” Minako replied.

“Well, I was thinking, what if we asked Rei for help?” Ami questioned, causing Minako to immediately stiffen up, “After all, she’s got experience writing music, she could probably be a big help.”

“Um… well I uh… I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Minako said, avoiding eye contact.

“Why?”

“Well… um… ya see… I was hoping you could help me write a song like the one we’re writing for Mako for her as well.” Minako finally managed to say, blushing profusely.

“Oh. Well, I guess we could do that. I don’t know how we’ll be able to make it work though, since the song we’re writing for Mako is a love song.” Ami said, before taking a second to think about what Minako said, until the realization hit her like a ton of bricks, “Wait…” Ami muttered, just under her breath, “YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH R-?'' was the last thing the blue haired girl was able to say before Minako quickly silenced her by covering her mouth with her hand.

“Shhhh! Keep your voice down!” Minako hissed through gritted teeth. She eventually removed her hand from her friend's mouth, revealing it to still be hanging agape.

“Wow, I… what?! For how long?” Ami finally questioned.

“Oh, y’know… awhile…” Minako said nervously, fiddling with her hair.

“How 'awhile’ are we talking here?” Ami asked.

“Well, I…” was all Minako could say before letting out a massive sigh, “I’ve thought she was beautiful since the moment I first saw her. And her fiery personality (no pun intended) was just… wow.” Minako said with big, dreamy eyes, “But you know me, I have a crush on a new person every week! So I figured that this very… inconvenient one, would just go away when I got on to the next one. And it did! Well… kind of…” Minako continued, lowering her gaze down to the table and her notes, “Every time I thought I had moved on, thought I found someone new to obsess over, I always came back to her. Not like she was my rebound or anything! More like… like I was delaying the inevitable. But I kept telling myself that that was the only choice I had.”

“Because you didn���t wanna mess up the team?” Ami questioned, pulling from personal experience.

“I mean, there were a lot of things. Obviously the big question mark was whether or not she would even be willing to date another girl. But seeing how hopelessly in love she was with Usagi I figured-”

“Wait WHAT?!”

Minako simply rolled her eyes, “Geez, Ami, for a genius you sure can be dense when it comes to this stuff.” She said, “Anyway, even after that I told myself I couldn’t do it. First of all, I’m supposed to be your leader. If I were to date one of you it would just… complicate things. But even more than that, to be completely honest…”

“You would rather hold it in and have hope than risk having that hope taken away by telling her?” Ami finished for her.

“Yeah. But then we… y’know… we died.” Minako said with a faint, forced chuckle. “And that kind of… shook me a bit, y’know? Made me… reevaluate some things.”

“Trust me, if anyone knows how that feels, it’s me.”

“And after hearing your idea for Mako I thought maybe a song would be the best way to just… get it all out there. If it works out? Great! And if it doesn’t… well…”

“At least you won’t have to worry about losing your chance.” Ami once again finished for her friend, to which Minako simply nodded in response, “Alright, well, I guess we’d better get to work if we’re trying to double our output now.”

“Right. Well, what have you got so far?” Minako asked.

“Not as much as I’d like, to be honest. I want this song to capture how I feel about Mako but… well… easier said than done. I was trying to describe how I felt when I first met her but I’m completely drawing a blank.”

“Oh I get it, I’m in the same boat.” Minako replied to her friend.

“I mean, it was something so new but also…”

“So familiar.”

“It was… exciting but also…”

“Comforting.”

“Terrifying but…”

“Calming.”

“It almost felt like…”

“Deja Vu.” The girls both said in unison. The pair simply stared at each other for a moment afterwards, before Minako finally spoke up.

“Ami.”

“Yeah?”

“Write that down! Write that down!”

--

Aw, look at them go, working on their songs... But hey what was that with the Outers and the shadow thing and-?

ANYWAY, that's where we'll leave chapter 3.

NEXT TIME: The Sailor Guardians make their triumphant return to save the city from destruction once again, will they be able to pull it off, or will they need the assistance of a brand-new transformation? Find out in Chapter 4: Moon Spectrum Power.

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[agooberscast]

}!{ Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen just Usagi in your hands.

(Ya know, you’re right! Lemme drive da boat.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePT5vGkhYk8

“Mmm, what in the world am I even gonna do today?”, muses a very bored and round moon-rabbit. She kicks her legs idly, sighing loudly as she forces herself out of her bed. This is no day for moping when you’ve ample energy and ample shapes on you!

She ponders goodly, wondering what friends she could bother today. There’s always Ami! No, she’s busy being a doctor! How about Chibiusa? No, she’s still mad that she got them both banned from the local grocery store the other week.

She pouts and grumbles to herself...before her tummy grumbles back at her. Oh, duh! Her bestest friend she’ll always have! Her own body! She decides it is time for a date in tonight as she goes to peruse her stores. Wobbly bunny is wobbly as she makes her way to the pantry and cupboards.

“Uwaahh?! How can I have NOTHING?! Didn’t we just go shopping...? Two days ago?!”, mutters the young woman as she whines after. Curse her monstrous appetite, packaged in someone so lovely and sweet! Yes, she is humble, isn’t she? This plagued her through her teenage years and only got worse and worse as she grew up, too.

She hums and looks to her keys nearby, a very mischievous smirk forming on that face of hers. “If I don’t have food at home, I should go to where the food is~!” A suddenly determined bunny makes her way to the outside. It is time to decimate a local establishment! 

An evil laugh! 

No, a playful giggle.

Seeing her like this, it could basically be the same thing...

[medea10]

My Review of In/Spectre

How did I get into this anime? Let’s see what my check-list was back when I picked this up during the winter time. Does Crunchyroll have immediate rights to play it? Yes! Do I have one more slot open for weekly showings? Yes! Are you in the mood to hear Mamoru Miyano right now? Always! Let’s do it!

Kotoko Iwanaga is used to the abnormal and out of place situations. When she was 11 years old, she went missing for two weeks. During that time, demons asked her to become their “God of Wisdom”. However, Iwanaga lost her right eye and left leg as a result of this power. Fast-forward approximately 7 years later when she meets a college-aged male named Kuro Sakuragawa. She found a fascination with him, but kept her distance due to him being engaged to another woman named Saki.

But Kuro’s life changed when he and his girlfriend were on vacation and saw a kappa and the situation turned near-deadly. Due to an abnormality with Kuro, whenever it looks like he’s on the verge of death, he comes back to life. Thing is, his girlfriend Saki was absolutely set aback by this development and they wound up breaking up. With the news of Kuro and Saki splitting up, Iwanaga seizes this opportunity to spend more time with this young man as she asks for his assistance with dealing with the supernatural…

And to be her boyfriend!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: At the moment, Crunchyroll is the only one with authority to this anime and several weeks after the premier, they gave us an English dub. So far, so good! I’m getting a chance to hear a few of the newer voice actors and even some veterans like Cristina Vee. Now that some time has passed, all of the episodes are finally dubbed after a long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As you already know from sentence one Kuro spoke, yes, that is Mamoru Miyano playing another main lead role. Luckily for me, he isn’t spazzy and he isn’t a holy asshole. Next to him, we have Akari Kitou who I’m hearing quite a bit of as of recent. I really enjoyed her performance as this insightful little lady. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE: *Iwanaga is played by Akari Kitou (known for Aru on Hitoribocchi, Nene on Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and Kaho on Blend S)

*Kuro is played by Mamoru Miyano (known for Cilan on Pokemon BW, Light on Death Note, Tamaki on Ouran HSHC, Koutaro on Zombieland Saga, Rin on Free!, Death the Kid on Soul Eater, and Tsukiyama on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Saki is played by Misato Fukuen (known for Georgia on Pokemon BW, Chibiusa on Sailor Moon: Crystal, Iggy on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 3, Eruka on Soul Eater, Yami on To Love Ru, and Yin on Darker Than Black)

ENGLISH CAST: *Iwanaga is played by Lizzie Freeman (known for Cardinal on SAO: Alicization and Trish on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Pt. 5)

*Kuro is played by Brandon Winckler (known for Eugeo on SAO: Alicization and Dale on If It’s for My Daughter…)

*Saki is played by Lauren Landa (known for Kyouko on Madoka Magica, Michiru/Sailor Neptune on Sailor Moon [redub], Annie on Attack on Titan, Juno on Beastars, Xenovia on High School DxD, and Sakuya on SAO)

SHIPPING: Well, let’s see if I can make any sense out of this.

*Iwanaga x Kuro: I guess it was love at first sight for Iwanaga as she seemed to have developed a crush when she first met him at the hospital. And you could tell how disappointed she was when Kuro’s relationship with Saki was growing. Even when Kuro is still in the post-breakup mode, Iwanaga has the balls to ask him to enter a relationship with her in the span of a single episode. And even after the two-year time-skip…I guess they are in a relationship. At least according to Iwanaga they are! It’s just that Kuro is so damned uninterested it’s so hard to tell. I’m not sure if I’m fully on board with this ship. Mostly because of Kuro’s disinterested attitude whenever he’s around his “girlfriend”! Iwanaga is very controlling in this relationship and prone to jealousy when Saki re-enters the picture later in the Steel Lady Nanase arc.

*Kuro x Saki: Yes, Saki was Kuro’s former girlfriend. Actually, it was more than that! They were freakin’ engaged! But because Saki got freaked out by the fact that Kuro could regenerate his body if he gets severely injured, she ended the relationship. Yeah, I can totally see how that would be shocking for anyone to go through. Due to the mystery that Iwanaga and Saki were trying to solve, the romance talks kinda had to be put to the side. It seems as though near the end that Saki has put her feelings of Kuro in the past and seems to have moved on for the most part. Plus when Saki was engaged to Kuro, she felt inferior to ANOTHER past love of Kuro’s. And now we gotta talk about…

*Kuro x Rikka: They’re cousins! BLOOD COUSINS! But Kuro has a special place in his heart for his sickly cousin! I mean, his thoughts of being greeted by Rikka at home compared to his real girlfriend are freakin’ damning. Plus both of these people have the same anomolie courtesy of their fucked up family. I’m not sure after the whole Steel Lady Nanase mess if Kuro’s perception of Rikka has changed for the worse. I just know that there was definitely something between those two. Kuro brings all his girlfriends to meet Rikka only for Rikka to say something like, “she’s not your type”.

ENDING: For the majority of the series, Iwanaga and Kuro have found themselves in the midst of a mystery involving the death of a famous actress. Seems simple enough in an anime like this, an idol (Karin Nanase) dies suddenly by a steel beam to the face and comes back to haunt the world of the living as a ghost (later named Steel Lady Nanase). But it can’t be that simple! There’s gotta be reasons for Steel Lady Nanase’s existence and Iwanaga is gonna figure it out one way or another.

I mean, she knows the real truth. It’s just that someone is pulling the strings behind Steel Lady Nanase still causing havoc. She’s still running amok due to a fan website dedicated to the ghost. And that site has A LOT of traction with fans of all sorts. Add to this mind-fuck, Kuro’s “lovely” cousin Rikka is the administrator for the website. As I’ve mentioned before, she has that immortality power that her cousin possesses as well. And Rikka uses that power to keep things going with Steel Lady Nanase.

Iwanaga went through several scenarios to disprove Steel Lady Nanase’s existence. And all but one of those theories were poked by skeptics and even Rikka who was stalking the forums. It wasn’t until Iwanaga came up with the theory of Nanase meeting a woman who looks exactly like her and that her doppleganger was the one that died at the construction site. Somehow that was the theory millions of fans took as truth and this was how Iwanaga was able to take down Rikka and her fansite.

So everything is gonna go back to somewhat normal. Karin Nanase can rest in peace, the spirits around the area can rest easy without being tormented by a crazy bitch swinging a steel beam, Saki goes back to work as a police officer, Rikka is still lurking around, and we get a cute moment between Iwanaga and Kuro.

This anime started out strong, but once you realize that this Steel Lady Nanase arc was going to be covered in 10 episodes out of a 12 episode series, it kinda leaves this series a little underwhelming. The idea of having one character with the ability to communicate with spirits and another character with an anomolie in his body preventing him from dying seemed really interesting. Especially when you have someone like Iwanaga trying to solve mysteries and coming up with the best case scenario in every case! But that’s just it, we only got two cases in this 12 episode series. The manga still seems pretty new and so I’m hoping to see more development with Iwanaga and Kuro. It’s an okay series, it’s just that I give a hesitant recommendation with the warning that this will drag a bit when we’re stuck in Steel Lady Nanase hell for 10 episodes. In an anime season that was filled to the brim with mystery animes, I actually found myself a little more invested in Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. But that’s just me! You guys make your own judgments on which mystery anime of 2020 wins your vote.

Final note: The OP is a banger and as for the ED, it’s always a treat whenever Mamoru Miyano is singing!

If you would like to watch In/Spectre, Crunchyroll has all 12 episodes available for streaming in both sub and dub.

[pwnyta]

There is no dick grabbing??? If you look at the picture, the character's hand isn't even touching the other's pants- I'm not saying there aren't any implications there, but to say that it's straight up dick-grabbing REALLY makes it sound a lot worse then it is. The point of those characters is that one of them (an antagonist) was physically abusive to the other- The author's pictures are often a metaphor for something deeper in the story, so on the outside while that picture seems sexual- (1/??)

Pre-dick grabbing then. It was obviously sexual....

Im basing my opinion about the images(as in multiple images but I was referencing the one that I remembered most clearly sorry for the misunderstanding) I saw that the artist drew that were obviously shota-y. its not gonna tarnish her reputation or the reputation of her series if she draws little shota boys at least not in Japan. Nobody gives a shit. I dont give a shit either...

Im a CLAMP fan. A lot of people are! No one is at all bothered by the weird problematic aspects of Cardcaptor Sakura.

And I aint tryin to slam the writer/artist of this series. Its not like Horikoshi/Oda drawing their female characters questionably has stopped them from being massively popular.

All I was saying was there were problematic parts of the series that Ive seen that make me wonder how antis can be on board with it.

Does anyone know that twitter post/thread Im talkin about. Like the one with more on this like the artist making like little shota boys for one of those app games or something and her Pixiv art or something?

I DONT REMEMBER IT VERY WELL.

If this is the same nonny... you can see where youre making a lot of excuses for a lot of questionable things yeah? It wasnt a dick grab it was just reaching... its not literal incest its just a joke...

This is the level of denial im talkin about. Japanese artist from everything ive seen and all the series Ive read/watched dont give that much of a fuck about problematic fiction..

again Horikoshi draws his female student characters naked/in skimpy clothes all the time, Oda had Sanji almost marry a 15 year old and also in a movie Sanji got off the thought of watching Nami go through puberty again, CCS had Sakuras mum marry her teacher, her cousins in love with her and her friend was dating her teacher, Sailor Moon had Chibiusa in love with Mamoru...

I think you need to consider that shes(the creator) doing what shes doing on purpose and she doesnt care.

I dont watch/read the series so youre right in that I dont actually know but I mean... Come on.

[sanjuno]

Rereading your gorgeous SM/KHR cross idea and wondering how it would go if they meet earlier? Maybe where Ikkuko realises her no-good brother has a wife & kid and decides Nana needs to know what he has gotten her into? I just think babyTsuna needs more support and two cousin & extended guardians & friends would be amazing. Especially if Tsuna's first flame use is discovered/understood in the magic framework - Tsuna magically willing together an outfit & catchphases because that is what you do ;)

… Oh. Oh, my gods that would be glorious. Let me see, let me see… ok.

So it would have to diverge right around when Chibiusa shows up, because that’s the first time Usagi having relatives outside her household is brought into the narrative. So Usagi, having seen Chibiusa brainwash her parents and brother goes off about not having any cousins. Except oh dear Ikkuko has a good-for-nothing criminal for a little brother. Usagi is furious and also curious and it all cumulates in 12 year old Tsuna getting a surprise visit from his relatives and his “little sister”.

Tsuna doesn’t have a little sister! Cue the screaming and the panic (from Tsuna) and intent interest (from Usagi and Luna), because Tsuna’s seal may be fundamentally horrible but it does have a nice side effect of keeping his Flames and mind safe from outside tampering.

Shingo, being the naturally suspicious brat that he is, twigs to something being wrong because his cousin keeps insisting that he’s an only child. Tsuna’s protests about Chibiusa make more of an impact on Shingo because Tsuna is a new presence in the family and therefore Tsuna’s shrieks are not automatically dismissed as jealousy the way “stupid Usagi’s” dramatics were. Which all leads to Shingo and Tsuna investigating the discrepancy in Shingo’s memories and accidentally discovering that Usagi is Sailor Moon in the process.

Tsuna and Shingo are targeted by and/or get caught up in a Black Moon plot shortly after they discover that Usagi is a Magical Girl. Usagi panics when she finds her cousin and her little brother critically injured and/or brainwashed by the enemy and Moon Crystal Heals them both at the same time.

Tsuna’s seal disintegrates.

Tsuna and Shingo promptly burst into Sky Flames that contain a hefty degree of prismatic rainbow glitter.

Usagi panics more.

The boys are not any calmer.

Tsuna flash-crystalizes a tree. Shingo turns a garden gate into a portal that dumps all three of them into the throne room of the Moon Palace.

Praise be to the All-Seeing Void for the Palace AI that Queen Serenity left behind, because none of these flailing morons are calm enough to take the Sudden Magical Awakening with any grace. The AI directs them to a testing chamber where they can find out who the boys Patrons are. Shingo is a Knight of Janus (with power over doorways, beginnings, and ends), and Tsuna is a Knight of Sancus (with power over loyalty, honesty, and oaths). Usagi finally manages to regain coherency and explains the history of the Silver Millennium and also why they’re all magic.

Assumptions are made.

Assumptions like Usagi’s Lunar Inheritance cross contaminating her younger relatives through their blood connection. None of them have any idea of the Flames being anything except for Magic as a result of post-apocalypse reincarnation. Usagi drops her transformation and tries to do the glowing-without-tranforming fully thing she saw the boys do.

Her clothes shred apart under the force of White Sky Flames. Cue more shrieking. Usagi promptly summons up the ribbons and forms her Senshi uniform. Then she makes the boys swear themselves to secrecy. The boys agree because it’s not as if their clothes fared any better.

Shingo has a few moments of disassociation as he reconciles his flighty big sister with his hero Sailor Moon. Tsuna is having a small moment of panic over the idea of fighting demons by moonlight. Then Usagi gives the boys a crash-course in accessing their magical powers because they’re suck on the moon until Shingo can control his portals enough to get them home.

Thankfully, not only does the eventual transformation provide a semi-coherent users manual for their magic powers, but dropping the transformation restores their clothing to an undamaged state.

They do eventually make it back home. Whereupon they are hustled off by the rest of the Senshi for a debrief and also a rather frantic health check. Because Shingo and Tsuna are magic now and what theeeeeee ever-loving hell how did this happen?

Background to the hysterics of the Lunar Royal Shenanigans, Ikkuko has been getting to know Nana and has a 10 pound cast-iron skillet with her stupid little brother’s name on it. Kenji is prudently hiding behind his newspaper when his wife’s vindictive muttering about no-good deadbeat shames on the family name start rising in volume.

Mamoru avoids making an ass of himself because his fiancées family drama has been distracting him from his nightmares. Also the reality of Shingo and Tsuna waking up their Magic Powers is a huge, glaring difference from the “visions” Mamoru is being sent that he’s rightfully suspicious of how accurate they could really be.

Chibiusa is less likely to run wild or act out because her little trick on the Tsukino’s has gotten wildly out of hand and she’s worried it’ll get worse if she tries to correct it. However, Chibiusa’s initial relationship with Usagi is also a great deal better than it was in canon because Usagi has been so preoccupied with meeting and getting to know Tsuna and Nana that she has less energy to spare for getting worked up about Chibiusa being around, and also because Mamoru isn’t avoiding her Usagi isn’t displacing her resentment about that onto Chibiusa either.

So as soon as Usagi catches on to the fact that Chibiusa is the target of the Black Moon plots Usagi’s instinctive protectiveness of her secret future daughter ramps all the way up because of course Usagi has Hyper Intuition too and the Vongola Tri-Ni-Sette gift is being able to look up and down your current timeline. And so. The Lunar Royals close ranks with all due speed, and Chibiusa is accepted and welcomed with an understanding of her reasons for the brainwashing that took a lot longer to reach in canon.

The Dark Moon Clan get their asses Royally kicked. Pun intended.

The trip to Crystal Tokyo ends the arc, and Pluto is hella confused by the Knights of Janus and Sancus. This isssss… wrong. She doesn’t know where she went wrong but things definitely went wrong somewhere. Oh dear.

Also Neo-Queen Serenity doesn’t remember meeting Chibiusa as a teenager. That should be telling but it’s overlooooooked. XD

Tsuna goes back to Namimori, secure in the knowledge that he has his relatives to support him even if he’s still “dame-Tsuna”. Shingo gets regular practice making portals between Juuban and Namimori because Usagi may whine and complain about it herself but like hell is she letting her little brother and baby cousin get away with being undertrained. There’s no telling when the next Enemy will show up.

Chibiusa comes back for Senshi training, and is doted on by her mother’s past self and her father’s past self and her two Uncles. 

Chibiusa treasures her time with Shingo and Tsuna, because they’re weren’t there in Crystal Tokyo and Chibiusa is terrified of what that means. She’s hoping that they just didn’t have a Lunarian lifespan in her original timeline. She’s hoping that with their magic having woken up because of the changes Chibiusa’s presence made to the timeline that they’ll live to see the future Chibiusa comes from.

Chibiusa hopes, but there is a corner of her mind that is expecting the worst. Because Chibiusa is 900 years old and she didn’t know her mother had a little brother until she travelled to the past.

This is where KHR canon comes into play, because KHR introduces the concept of multiple timelines and dimensions as being related to but inherently separated from one another. Chibiusa didn’t travel to the past of her timeline, but to the past of a similar timeline. Chibiusa bringing up Usagi having a cousin changed the timeline. Even Pluto is clueless about the consequences of this. It’s fabulous. ^_^

The Mistress 9 and the search for the Holy Grail thing happens. Everybody gets their power-ups, and the Outer Senshi learn to Believe In The Power Of Love or else. Sailor Moon in Hyper Dying Will Mode is a thing of beauty and existential terror.

Due to the teeny-tiny fact that his seal is gone and all the damage it caused to his psyche has been magically bandaged by Usagi’s healing power, Tsuna is recovering from his trauma much faster than he did in canon. Not having Reborn sitting around to snipe at him for shits and giggles helps. Of course, Tsuna being Tsuna and a Sky and also a member of the Lunarian Royal Family means that he’s started tripping over his Inner Court with truly ridiculous frequency. This goes on for about a year but the relationships in question change very slowly due to Tsuna disappearing to be with his cousins whenever he’s not supposed to be at school.

But! Before anything can actually get resolved we have Reborn show up! Yay! ^_^

And now the KHR Daily Life arc is running congruent to the SM Dread Moon Circus events and it’s a mad banquet of chaos. Reborn is caught wrong-footed more often than he’s comfortable with. The fact that when Tsuna gets shot with the Dying Will Bullet he ends up wearing a sliver-embroidered version of Primo’s suit, complete with cape, is a mystery that Reborn is still trying to figure out.

But hey, at least Tsuna is actively recruiting his Guardians. That’s nice to see.

Tsuna called Usagi on the communicator to wail hysterically about being a Mafia Heir and they took him to the moon so he could hyperventilate in peace for a while. It helped a lot with coming to terms with the situation. Usagi has rightfully pointed out that Ikkuko’s tendency to snarl about Iemitsu makes a lot of sense if she knew her brother was a criminal. So yeah.

Usagi and Shingo stay well away from Namimori at Tsuna’s request. The last thing he wants to see is Reborn’s reaction to more of Primo’s descendants being of trainable age. Luckily Nana’s belief that Chibiusa is her daughter is conditional to Nana speaking to Chibiusa within the last 24 hours. Otherwise she doesn’t recall Chibiusa at all. Which means Reborn has no idea that Tsuna has cousins and a niece living nearby.

Tsuna and Shingo being part of the battles creates an opening for Tigereye, Fisheye, and Hawkeye to get flipped and because Endimiyon is paying more attention this time around the Prince of Earth takes them into his court. So during the “leeching life from the Earth causes Mamoru to fall into a malaise” drama, there’s someone else there to see the ghosts of the Shitennou trying their best to comfort their Prince.

Which naturally spawns a whole other side plot about Mamoru learning to use the Golden Crystal properly so he can pull one of Usagi’s tricks and resurrect his Court. This will, of course, eventually succeed because I like the Shitennou and I think they deserved better than what they got in canon.

Nehellenia gets smashed at around the same time the Ring battles are announced. The confrontations with Squalo and Leviathan happen, and Tsuna panics because there are Mafia Assassins coming for his Court and Tsuna isn’t the member of his family with enough raw power to raise the dead by resetting the entire planetary timeline back by a year. 

So Tsuna may just enlist Shingo’s help to abduct all of his Guardians and associated family members because panic and Lunarian protective instincts are not a pretty combination. The Namimori 10th Gen Crew stares blankly at the lovely view of North America offered from the balcony of the Moon Palace as Shingo pats Tsuna’s back and reassures him that “Aneki sent Mama to deal with the Family Shame so it should be safe to go home in a few days”.

Usagi blows in, radiating enough enraged Sky Flames to put even Hibari on his ass and promptly squashes Tsuna in a hug as she promises to be there and turn anyone who wants to hurt her “cute fluffy baby cousin” into dust. Fite her. Usagi dares you.

The news from Tsuna that the Mafia had discovered magic inherited from Silver Millennium citizens being reincarnated on Earth shook the Senshi up and they’re a lot more aggressive about their Guardianship of the Sol System then they were in canon. Also they are planning a massive social reform because do you have any idea how useful more magic users would be when the Enemy comes knocking? Even just having Shingo and Tsuna to help with the fights has caused significant changes to how quickly and successfully the Senshi were able to deal with various threats ever since Chibiusa first popped into the timeline.

So yeah, Tsuna has been funnelling everything he learned about how the Flame Mafia works back to Usagi and her Court so they can figure out how useful they’re going to be when it comes to reestablishing the Sol Kingdom. Having Tsuna’s new Court get killed off by professional assassins before they start working on that was not in the plan.

Something along the lines of the following conversation happens:

“Jyuudaime is a UMA?”

“I’m a Lunarian.”

“You’re an alien!”

“And you are probably a Martian, Hayato! Who cares!”

Then the Senshi drag everyone off for a training montage that starts with learning how to complete a transformation because trying to channel Celestial Power through a squishy baseline non-magical human body is just asking for trouble. It’s a large part of why so many Flame Actives die young. They burn out because they keep getting halfway through the process and then they get stuck.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Reborn is watching Iemitsu get his head caved in by a very pretty woman with Flames in her eyes and the type of voice projection that is unique to mothers and opera singers. Reborn would be more concerned about his dame student disappearing with his fledgling Famiglia so suddenly, except Ikkuko has made it very clear that she’s taken her nephew into her house until her horrible no good deadbeat criminal brother has left and taken his horrible no good wastrel criminal influence away from her sweet kind nephew.

So there, you drunken layabout shame on the family name.

Ikkuko flounces off, leaving Iemitsu heavily concussed and buried under about three kitchens worth of cast iron pans. Reborn doesn’t quite react fast enough to catch the Varia spy that was hanging around, but hopefully Xanxus has enough honour left to leave Ikkuko’s kids alone until after things are decided with Tsuna.

Of course, Reborn doesn’t need to worry about that because Usagi and Shingo are mysteriously nowhere to be found. Just like Tsuna and company are mysteriously nowhere to be found. How very mysterious. ^_^

The Ring Battles happen on far more even grounds, given that the Senshi have made the magic happen when it comes to the 10th Gen Guardians being able to use their Flames and associated Powers. It still comes down to the Sky Battle though, because drama. Tsuna looks at Xanxus from close range for the first time and oh.

So that’s where Chibiusa got her eyes.

Instead of Zero Point, Xanxus gets a face full of Moon Healing, complete with the mind melding memory sharing BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF LOVE blasting mystical heart-to-heart that brought Chibiusa back from the corruption of Wiseman’s Black Lady. There is so much glitter. Glitter everywhere. The Varia have no fucking clue what just happened. The CEDEF have no fucking clue what just happened. The attendant Arcobaleno have excellent poker faces but? They have no fucking clue what just happened.

The ghost of Primo and Secondo make guest appearances during Tsuna and Xanxus’ heart to heart. The most bedazzled of family feuds took place within the span of about 6 seconds. The fight ends. Xanxus spits out sparkles and concedes the Sky Ring to Tsuna.

Tsuna cackles, because he recognizes the Ring as being blood locked to his direct lineage and instinctively knows that the Ring is the best possible Channel for his powers. The Vongola Rings are gathered up and dropped on Luna and Artemis with polite requests that they study them and then fine tune or upgrade the Rings to match with Sol Kingdom expectations of Magic Foci.

The 10YL Arc is immediately derailed because Tsuna has experience with time travel to possible futures and he recognizes that they aren’t in their natural timeline anymore because the 10YL Tsuna didn’t have Usagi waiting in the wings to wreak holy righteous vengeance in response to his assassination.

Byakuran was not expecting to get lectured and then turned into a pile of glitter dust. No he was not.

The Sailor Stars have a lot more trouble dismissing the Senshi as childish and naive thanks to the Mafia politicking the Senshi have since been exposed to. Also, thanks to said Mafia information network, Usagi is informed of Mamoru’s death within hours of the plane exploding. Seiya’s attempts to charm Usagi are subsequently rejected without mercy because instead of feeling neglected by her boyfriend Usagi is in mourning.

The Galaxy Cauldron thing occurs with far less waffling around.

Then the Arcobaleno Trails happen, and Kawahira was not expecting the Crown Princess Serenity to show up and rip him a new one for being a jerk. Between the Silver and the Gold Crystals the Arcobaleno Curse is broken, the Vindice all get healed of their hatred and are living people again, and Kawahira gets put in time out on the Moon for being a jackass.

Mamoru and his Generals take point on dealing with Enma and the Simon because they are Earth Flame users and even before most of the life in the Sol System got wiped out Earth Mages were vanishingly rare. I mean, he knows now that the sharp decline in Earth’s magic-capable population was because of Metallica sneaking around and abducting them, but back at the time it was just an accepted fact that most Earth Born just didn’t have magic. Only now there’s this Mafia Family that does and given how Usage’s situation worked out Mamoru has suspicions.

Especially given how Mamoru was orphaned in a car crash and there was very little information available to be found on the “Chiba” family. Can we all say “cover up”?

Rei sticks an ofuuda on Daemon and exorcises him with extreme prejudice.

Mamoru and Usagi get married and the slow buildup to the creation of Crystal Tokyo begins.

The End. ^_^

[timemachineyeah]

Neo Queen Serenity though

Like, she gets a lot of flack for apparently being a bad mom, and if you only ever saw the 90s anime I can see how you’d feel that way, but I never got that vibe from the manga, and sometimes I just think about what she and King Endymion went through. 

Being a parent is super stressful. I’ve never had kids, so I can scarcely imagine, but I know how much I get imposter syndrome and worry that I’m making mistakes and hurting people when it comes to simple shit like having a job or looking after my cats. Even with fucking pets I’m like “is this the best food? oh no, he’s sick is it my fault?, should I be using a different water bowl?, are these toys safe?, am I even doing this for the right reasons?, what ARE the right reasons?” like and that’s a fucking CAT. Not to be dismissive of pet guardianship, because it is good and important, but like in the grand scheme of things my cat is never going to have to decide on a college plan or maybe kill some people or maybe cure cancer or anything. The stakes are like a thousand times lower than having a kid. 

So you have these first time parents with a whole lot of other responsibilities on their plates doing their best for literally the whole world while also being this really close couple and having this beautiful kid and then one day that kid stops growing up. 

Like, how long do you think it took them to notice? What were their first reactions? “I told you we needed to make her eat her vegetables” “But I don’t eat MY vegetables!” “YOU should also be doing that; you’re the QUEEN OF THE WORLD” “What is the POINT of magical immortality if I still have to EAT GREENS”

So they try diet changes, maybe some physical therapy. The longer it goes on the more concerning it gets. First, just small for age, then stunted, then... what do you call it next? You know they tried healing her with the Silver Crystal, basically the biggest Hail Mary they have, and it must not have worked. How much time did a perpetual seven-year-old spend in a lab/hospital with Mercury monitoring her? How scared was she? 

How many interventions did they try? How far did they go? How many people did they ask? How long did they look for villains who might have done this? How many years, or lifetimes, did they spend trying to ‘fix’ their little girl? 

Maybe they thought Death Phantom had cursed them, and thought banishing him would repair things. 

At what point did they realize their attempts to figure it out, to help, were making things worse? When did they stop and just accept this as the way of things?

I just think about Serenity through this. Obviously, ChibiUsa’s trauma is apparent. No wonder she felt isolated and friendless and alone. No wonder she became such an angry and possessive and insecure child. 

But I don’t have any blame to offer Serenity or Endymion. Something like that happening to your child is terrifying. Absolutely gut-wrenching. How much did she still wonder, 893 years later, if it was her fault? How much did they both wonder if it was their fault? Whether the biological match of the two of them, or a result of some bad decision they must’ve made that they just can’t pin down. Did they coddle her, literally arresting her growth, or abandon her leaving her vulnerable to something they could’ve prevented? Was their romance really some cruel evil thing after all? 

And even after they accepted it, to what degree did they then feel guilty for what the attempts to explain or resolve it must have done to their girl? Telling a child “you’re sick” because that’s the most comforting thing you can think of to tell her, because there’s no handbook for this. Making her go through possible years or decades of testing, in trying to help her and take care of her, but in the process inadvertently making her feel like she’s wrong or broken somehow. Like she’s a problem. Like she ruined their happy family. Making her yearn, more than anything, for acceptance, for adulthood. Realizing too late what you’ve done. But what were they supposed to do instead? NOT seek answers or solutions when something so inexplicable and dramatic is happening to their child for no apparent reason?

IDK. They get a lot of flack for being bad parents, but I don’t believe that, really. I think they were good parents in an inherently traumatizing situation for everyone involved, and I imagine even parents doing their absolute best in that scenario would end up pretty frazzled and lost and with a kid who has some hangups over it. 

[sailormoonsub]

Do you have any head canons abt nqs? Bc tbh she is fascinating. Between you posting the final arc and me vaguely watching season two of sm crystal so I can get to the decent animation, I'm thinking a lot abt how on earth usagi ended up like this

(takes my copy of Life Death and Meaning off the shelf) There’s an article in this book called, appropriately, “Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality.” Editor David Benetar’s synopsis of the article strikes me as distilled NQS: “An immortal life would be a meaningless one. One would inevitably become bored by an endless repetition of the same experiences. And if one’s character changed, such that one came to enjoy new experiences, then it would not be clear that it is indeed oneself who would have survived, given that one now could not identify with the preferences of that future person.”

Bernard Williams basically writes that, if you live longer than the programmed cell death inherent to both human biology and human culture, then you have two options: to become bored to death, or become someone else completely. 

It’s easy to run with this extremely spicy take when you look at Crystal Tokyo. It seems clear that NQS has become a different person from Usagi. Did time alone do that? If so, we would have seen the same thing happen to Chbiusa.... except we have no idea what Chibiusa was like at the beginning of her nine hundred years. Williams’ proposal of the effect of immortality might apply to her as well. 

I’ve seen a lot of speculation that something traumatic must have happened between the end of Stars and the 30th Century. What could possibly be worse than anything Usagi has already been through? Could this “event” just be “living ten times longer than anyone ever has”?

I’m reminded of the dilemma in the final arc of the manga. Sailor Moon has to make a choice: a) the universe can exist in peace, but there can be no new life or b) the universe will continue to exist in conflict, but at least there can be progress. Crystal Tokyo is as close to that first option as you can get, and as far as Cosmos is concerned, peaceful stasis is not the right choice. To go back to Williams, if the external world doesn’t change, the internal world will be forced to change instead. 

Of course, this is just one person’s thought experiment. I encourage you to check out other essays from this book... there’s even one defending immortality as an unequivocal good. After all, we all evolve and change over time, so what would stop that evolution from happening after the natural life cycle is over? Is there a limit to how much we can change before we are no longer, fundamentally, ourselves?

[sailoreuterpe]

Tender Touch at Dusk

@sirazaroff and I are unstoppable saps.

Ami didn't often worry about Mina’s physical health. As the most adaptable and agile of the sailor soldiers, Mina wasn’t ever going to fall prey to a mugger or a random fall. Ami felt secure in the knowledge that her girlfriend and roommate would be safe, even in the darkest alleyway.

Until she saw the telltale darkness of their room as she came home from her Organic Chemistry class. Ami hung her backpack on her peg and quietly placed her books on the end table by the door. She’d put everything away later; Mina needed her now.

Mina herself was curled on her (really, their) bed, completely silent and shielding her eyes with an arm pressed tightly against the light. Ami walked over and sat down as gently as she could by Mina’s golden head. Pressing her fingertips to Mina’s temples, Ami began to massage in continuous and patient circles. With both her medical expertise and her innate power as the soldier of ice, Ami knew that she would soon numb and sooth the migraine pounding away in Mina’s skull. But it would take time; as long as an hour could pass before Mina was able to move from her prone position.

“You have a test tomorrow.” Mina said groggily, the pain slurring her words. Ami smiled down at her and kept circling the tight muscles in Mina’s head.

“I'll study in the morning. You remember Orientation? They told us that, if you have to cram before a test, it’s best to do it fresh in the morning.” Ami declined to mention that she herself had been telling Mina that very fact since they were little girls.

“You’ll still freak out if you don’t at least do your vocab now.” Mina knew how important Ami’s education was to her and urged or slowed her as needed. It was a large part of why Ami loved her golden general: Mina always knew when to push and when to back away.

“I can do my words before bed. I always remember better that way.” Ami sighed in affection. “Besides, how can I focus on study if you’re over here in pain?”

“I’ll survive.” Mina sounded drained. It had to be a particularly bad migraine to even bring Mina down. She’d been dealing with them for all the long years that Ami had known her, and Mina could literally fight monsters with much worse.

Like she might have to do again. Ami frowned in sadness. So much for peace.

Mina picked up on the miniscule pause to Ami’s movements. Peeking under her arm, Mina smiled weakly up at Ami. “I’ll be fine. I took some aspirin a bit ago.”

“Did you call Usagi?” They had planned to go over to Usagi’s single dorm for Friday movie night, all five girls sprawled out over every inch of pink-decked room. It was just across the hall (literally; Ami had hacked the school room assignments and made sure) but Usagi was so enamored of her new college phone that she insisted that they call for every little thing.

“Not yet. I just laid down as soon as I got back from class.” Ami rubbed Mina’s temples in a steady rhythm, letting the blonde continue at her own pace. “I hate disappointing her.”

“She’ll understand.”

“I think she’ll decree Royal Movie NIghts when she’s queen of the world.” There was an edge of bitterness in Mina’s voice, usually so well masked as to be invisible to everyone but her fellow soldiers. Now, the edge was a sharp, unmistakable blade. “It’ll be the only normal thing any of us ever gets then, probably.”

“Is that what brought this on?” They almost never spoke of the things they’d seen in the future, or what ChibiUsa had told them about the thirteenth century. But they’d seen enough, and it terrified Ami. There were things no one was meant to see, even if the future was always shifting.

“No,” Mina said as she fully shifted her arm away from her eyes and into her lap. The late Autumn twilight seeped through the cheap paper shade on their window, turning the room a dark honey. “But I’ve been thinking about it since I can’t do much else right now.”

Mina paused and Ami waited, knowing that more was forthcoming. Mina was more open in the evening hours, when the dusk and quiet hid her unwanted vulnerabilities.

“I just wanted one fucking normal thing.” The bitterness was not just present now; it dominated Mina’s ragged voice, tinged with a deeper sadness than any of the others knew. Mina had been leader on the Moon, as well. “Just one normal thing for us all before we’re stuck in fucking mini skirts for the rest of our lives.”

“I thought you liked our uniforms.” Ami’s voice was kind and teasing, the affection clear.

Mina smirked, a little of the pain fading from her eyes. “I like you in the uniform.”

Ami laughed softly, mindful of her current duty. “You’re incorrigible.” Sighing after her healing giggle, Ami let her own voice fall. “We’ve never been normal, Mina.”

“Then peaceful, maybe. If we’re going to spend centuries in constant danger, at least let me go to drawing classes and play volleyball and get smashed on the weekends first.” Mina’s pale face pinched with pain again: the mental anguish just as bad as the physical. “The new enemy knows who we are.”

“Rei and Michiru don’t think so.” They’d had this conversation several times in the months since they’d entered university and a new round of monster attacks had began. Ami tried very, very hard to believe her psychic friends when they comforted her. Ami tried even harder to quell the tiny voice in her mind that screamed different.

“Nephrite figured out Usagi. So did Tin Nyanko. And a bunch of others.” Mina said wearily. “Why else would they be here? Every other enemy stuck to Tokyo. How did they follow us, if they don’t know who we are?”

“Rei thinks that they may be drawn to us some other way.” Ami widened her circles, and Mina hummed in relief. Ami’s fingers, with their magical cooling touch, pressed just enough to make headway in banishing Mina’s migraine. She’d been calming the other young woman for years. Like most things that Ami chose to devote to study, she was an expert now.

“Yeah, but that’s not much better.”

“If they don’t know who we are, then they can’t target anyone specific.” Ami’s smile faltered as she continued. “And our families should be safe.”

“Your mom could take them. She’s a hard bitch, but that means she’s hard.”

“Mina.” Ami scowled, only half of her ire real. Mina didn’t agree with most of Doctor Mizuno’s parenting, but at least she respected Ami’s mother for her dedication and drive. And if Ami was being honest, Mina was right. Her mother could be a hard bitch.

“What? It was a compliment!” The smile on Mina’s face was finally genuine, and and Ami’s frown turned upwards.

“The new enemy is dangerous, yes. But we’re going to do what we do best: protect Usagi and the world.”

“Or press continue.” Mina finished their team’s unofficial motto.Because the one perk of being apparently immortal soldier souls bound to protect Earth forever was this: reincarnation was always on the table. It was a fairly bleak solace, to Ami’s estimation, but then what about their situation was ever truly comforting?

Except for each other, Ami concluded as Mina replaced her arm over her eyes, spent with their talk. Usagi alone would be worth the fighting and the pain. Rei and Makoto were Ami’s rocks and steady hands. Artemis, Luna, Mamoru--they were all worth every injury, every nightmare, and every moment when Ami remembered that she would never, ever be truly free of the battle.

And Mina was worth all of that, too, in her own special way. Mina was Ami’s levity and her light. Mina made Ami laugh when she was in tears. The golden head that had shared her pillow for years now was full of dreams and ideas, never bowing to destiny.

Mina was going to be a star and she was going to take them all with her. All of them were going to do amazing things, according to Mina, and they were going to do those things as human women of Earth as well as reincarnated soldiers of the Moon.

Ami loved her so much.

“I’ll always press continue with you, Mina.” Ami rubbed Mina’s temples, trying to push every single moment of love into the gesture.

Mina smiled through her pain and grabbed a fistful of Ami’s baggy sweater with her free hand. “If this migraine ever goes away, I’ll even go find us quarters for the next game.”

“You’re on, Darling.”

[docholligay]

Silverleaf 15--Hidden Futures

We’re getting down to the final entries in this story! Please thank Benjamin for sponsoring it! Yu can see all of Silverleaf here. This entry is a little over 2000 words. 

Michiru looked through her little black book with a sense of intense disinterest.

This feeling was hardly new to her, as she had spent the greater part of her life with a unique and specific sense of boredom. Once she had discovered what it was that she was meant to be, and the line was laid out clearly for her, there was no need to have any sort of curiosity over the matter. She took violin and art classes and learned languages and English riding, pruned herself into every classic social grace and became an elegant hostess and clever conversationalist. She grew and she learned and she turned off the place in her mind that imagined there might be anything else.

When one is reared with the idea that nothing is beyond one’s reach, the specific idleness of the very rich sets in, something Michiru had long abhorred and found unavoidable. She was impossibly wealthy, terribly beautiful, and endlessly talented. The only fun that could be had was to see how far one could take all of that power.

And she had taken it masterfully far, until she had flown too close to the sun and slept with the wives of the Chinese ambassador, the head of Singapore Airlines, and the conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. Though, not all at once, she was quick to correct otherwise. She was a lady, after all.

Her parents had pulled her home after that, still being woefully alive and thus in charge of her trust, no longer feeling secure with her being across the sea bearing their name.

And so, the boredom persisted.

But whatever shadowy darkness--and it was too interesting and dramatic to even call it darkness, when it was clearly more of a pale shade of flat and very fashionable grey--lay within her, that sad unlit room where she waited for something that might be release, she still had a sense of duty, and a sense of propriety.

Which led her to consider her options for the ball. Her dress would be lovely and couture, as it always was, though the ball hardly called for it, and it would be perfectly acceptable for her to wear something from an earlier occasion, or, in truly dire moments, something off the rack. But there was something to be said for being an example to these girls of what they could be, what they were expected to be in future. Silverleaf had long been the garden soil that grew the blooms of society. Michiru had been educated there herself.

She was a prize rose, decorated and celebrated, whatever she might have gotten up to a world away.

Her mind turned to Haruka, the same as one touches a burn to see if it still stings, and her foolishness in ever entertaining the idea that Haruka could be even a casual affair. Her hair could bounce and shine as she walked down the hall, and her bright ties might be charming, and her smile might radiate all the way to her eyes, but that did not make her an appropriate mate for Michiru.

She had learned nothing from the affair with the English teacher, it seemed. Wildflowers grew in bunches, daisies and dandelions and Queen Anne’s lace all tangled together, but roses like her grew in lines, one next to the other.

But while she was required to pay whatever sacrifice of fantasy her station demanded, she was not required to make a monk of herself. And so, the book. She would find in it a girl of great family and intelligence and breeding, and she would be dressed neatly in fine suiting, and Haruka would see then that her rejection of Michiru -- which had been a kindness to them both, really, for Michiru had been so very silly to ask her in the first place-- was more foolishness on Haruka’s part than anything else. That she could have had the golden key, but lacked the strength to hold it. That Michiru was a prize.

She opened the book, but the door to her secret garden would remain locked.

___

“Okay, so I might be wrong, but were you on the national track team? Back about seven years ago?”

“Oh my god,” Haruka put her head on the table, “It’s been seven years. How did it get to be seven years?”

Elsa laughed. “Sorry to say, but we’re all adults now. Hurdles, right? I even remember you from middle school, I dropped to regular distance running because no one had a hope in hell of catching you.” She laughed again, the first rolling into the second, her dark hair that seemed almost magenta in its red curling around her face.

“Yeah,” Haruka took a wing and snacked on it thoughtfully, “never did make it to the Olympics. Got hurt.”

Elsa seemed chided for a moment, and this made Haruka feel worse, her tragic backstory once more bringing down the general mood.

“Fucked it up pretty bad, huh?”

Haruka nodded.

“Well,” Elsa picked up another chicken wing, “Guess I should have stayed in hurdles,” she grinned at Haruka, “played the long game.”

Haruka let out a peal of deep and appreciative laughter. Elsa was fun. She was charming and calm and Haruka felt at ease around her, and if she was not quite Haruka’s type, all messy hair and polo shirt, it could be forgiven for the way her laugh came easy, and made Haruka’s come the same.

They both had crashed and burned in their former romantic lives, though Elsa so much sooner, and Haruka could tell it bothered her simply by the way she never spoke of it at all, the kind of girl who put on a cartoon bandaid and carried on. Haruka wished she were a bit more like that, that she did not take the world so much to heart, but she could only be herself. The experience of life had taught her enough about what it did to her to hold it in ike she used to, and so she managed to vent the steam of it all, but still, there we times she wished she were more like the sunny and slightly goofy girl next to her.

“Home run!” Elsa hooted and held up her hand for a high five.

Haruka had, in many ways, learned to adapt and to compromise. If there was no initial spark, why not see if she could make one? Wasn’t friendship the better beginning to love? She did want to be friends with Elsa, very much, and that could become something else.

Love at first sight only happened in stories.

“Hey Elsa,” she fiddled with the label of her beer bottle, “you doing anything two weeks from now?”

___

Hotaru Tomoe thought she’d used up her life’s worth of disasters, and then she went to high school.

She was very used to the idea that she would die, and what thinking about that felt like, but it was more of a surprise to her the feeling of desperately wishing she would die on the spot. It didn’t even have to be a medical emergency, a well-timed bus could give her all the peace she greatly longed for as she stood in front of the house where Cere lived, larger than Chibiusa’s and even more grand, a monument to whatever things her parents had done to get here, which Hotaru was sure were underhanded at best and maniacally evil at worst, if she trusted the things said about Cere.

“Oh, you...you worry too much.” Sakiko said, but she sounded as if she hardly believed herself, “I’m sure she’ll have us do some stupid chore for her or something to give us back the letter. We’ll feature her in the yearbook, she loves the look of her own face.”

Hotaru listened to Sakiko’s chuckle, even as the wind carried it away into the night, wishing it was closer at her side and not slipping away as if it had been hardly heard at all.

“I guess,” she shrugged, as if unsure of what else to say. She had her doubts that Cere would be so reasonable. She had her own ideas that Cere might also have feelings for Chibiusa. That would at least explain her need to torment Hotaru in a way that didn’t have to involve Hotaru’s ability to be bullied.

Interrupting them both, the door swung open, a young women in a neatly pressed outfit before them standing tall, with keen eyes and a natural bearing that suggested this amount of ceremony was in her blood.

“We’re, uh,” Hotaru suddenly forgot why she had come at all, for a moment, “We’re, we’re--” her brain caught the hook again and remembered why she’d come, “We’re here to see Cere!”

It came out too excited for the eggshell and black formality of the entrance behind the woman, and she looked at Hotaru curiously.

“It’s for school,” Sakiko quickly interrupted, “we have a piece of homework we have to get from her.”

“I’m sure she could email--”

“It’s for a diorama.”

Hotaru envied Sakiko’s ability to confidently lie to adults, though she reminded herself that they were fifteen, and this should be normal. They were supposed to be stealing lip gloss and getting into scrapes and it was only Hotaru who was awkward and outside of the world instead of living in it.

The woman stepped to the side neatly and ushered them inside, and yet she had such an air of authority that Hotaru could hardly stop watching her as she removed her shoes, slipping her feet into one of the pairs of slippers that stood at the door in vast array. She took their coats and nodded to them, offering up an understood command that they were meant to follow.

Cere’s house not only looked rich but it had the smell of wealth, as well, that unique quality that is somewhere between aspirational and suffocating, the call of a siren and all the same promise of drowning.

She knocked at the door to a large bedroom where Cere sat on her phone, ankles crossed one over the other on the bed, her back straight against the pillows, and for a moment she very much reminded Hotaru of Ms. Kaioh. She waved away her the woman who greeted them and set down her phone, smiling.

The door clicked behind her, and Cere leaned forward.

“What can I do for the two of you?”

Hotaru toyed with the end of her sweater, unable to look Cere in the eye and all the more angry at herself for that fact.

“I’d like my letter back.”

It was a small mew of a request, barely audible on the air.

But Cere heard it, and Cere simply flipped her and shook her head. “I have no idea what you could be talking about.”

“Oh come on!” Sakiko popped, years of being in the same grade and school as Cere finally coming to a head, “Hotaru never did anything to you, Cere.”

But Cere did not react, simply grabbed a brush from the edge of her nighttable and began to brush her hair.

“What sort of a letter was it?”

Hotaru’s blush bloomed on the pale of her skin. Don’t make me say it. Please.

Hotaru did not know Cere, not really, and as she looked at her, she saw a strange look in her eye, something that she would not understand until many years later, long after Cere had matured and apologized for the whole affair, long after Cere had moved to more adult manipulations.

This was fun for her.

“I--it was personal.”

Sakiko looked at her, with a mix of pity and confusion. Hotaru was a bird caught in a net, and there was little either of them could do now. What was she meant to do? To tell Cere it was about Chibiusa, to hear her laugh over those secret and awkward pinings?

Cere nodded. “Well, I’ll be certain to let you know if I come across it.”

Hotaru looked out the window, where the great grey clouds had come and stolen any of the light of the night, and felt an overwhelming sense of despair.

The weakness of human beings is that we sometimes see only what is in front of us. The gate of the walled garden, the darkness of the night, or not yet realizing you are only at the middle of your story. We accept what is nw, not knowing that walls often crumble, the wind blows the clouds, and all stories come to their ends.

[natarisaru]

She’s real lucky Usagi didn’t decide to spank her right then and there. What kind of little shit tells their own mom this kinda crap? Even kids with legitimately abusive mothers don’t tell them they wish someone else was their mom, at least not to their face and out of the blue. It’s like “fuck you mom, i hate you and your guts. Anyway, make up with dad so i can be born, mkay?” That’s something I’d expect to hear from a poorly written shitty angsty teenager from a bad 90s sitcom, not a little girl who’s “mature” for her age and the eventual daughter of Earth’s future queen and savior. Jesus, she’s even worse than Rei right now here, and I fucking hate 90s Rei with a passion; no wonder half the fandom wants this version of Chibiusa dead.

Omg this little bitch I mean brat needs her ass whooped! 

YOU ARE NOT HELPING  BUT FUCKING IT UP. 

“ Oh yeah Saroi is prettier than you and I would rather have her as my mom than you. You better shape up before you lose Mamo and I will not be born.” 

At this rate, you don’t need to be born if you going to act like that. 

I’m just going to say what I said earlier before I went to eat. 

I tend to think that 90′s anime Usagi/NQS is the only version of Usagi/NQS that probably considered staying on birth control or getting her tubes tied early.

I don’t blame her not one bit to consider not getting pregnant with this ungrateful, selfish little brat.

Future heir be damned.

Don’t need that damn headache.

I’m starting to think about that scene in R when Chibs flashbacked about her mom not picking her up when she fell. 

I’m starting to think that Usagi probably was going to pick her up but probably had a flashback to when that brat did her wrong and just left her there to pick herself up/

I don’t like the possibility of Usagi being a bad mom to Chibs but the fact this brat put her through hell in the past… 

 That’s why I will always stan this Chibiusa 

This one is the G.O.A.T!

But wait! 

Damn! 

[sittingoverheredreaming]

Growing Up Fast Is Hard To Do: An Unhappy Outers Family Fic

Part Three (Part One/Part Two) (Ko-fi)

This part is about 1500 words, and pretty angsty.

There had to be something wrong with her, Hotaru knew. Haruka never took her to the same park twice, unless she was particularly wound up, and then she was greeted at home with stern whispers. Grocery stores were on a specific rotation. Hotaru got to go where she’d been before sometimes, but only with a different mother. She was encouraged not to talk to other children. They couldn’t stop her from observing. So she saw—there was a little girl who passed by the front yard every Saturday morning in her stroller. The little girl looked the same every week. The boys who shoved their parents’ quarters into the kiddie ride horse outside the grocery stores looked the same, too. Hotaru did not look the same. She grew every few days, pajama pants getting too short overnight. She saw children she’d resembled just days before struggle with tasks she could now do easily. Hotaru twirled a pen in her hand. She wanted to do something with the knowledge she was different.  

But that was where her knowledge ended. She’d asked Haruka first, knowing she was easiest to crack. They’d gone out toy shopping, Haruka promising to buy Hotaru anything she wanted.

“How about this?” she’s asked, pulling out an extravagant Play-Doh set in vibrant neon colors.

“It doesn’t look like much fun.” Hotaru took a breath. “Papa, should I find that more interesting than I do?”

“Of course not, sweetheart, you can like whatever you like.” Haruka picked her up, struggling some as Hotaru was too lanky to fit against her hip as she once had. “You don’t let anyone tell you what you like is wrong, whether it’s girl things or boy things or little kid things or adult th—well, not too adult now, but we can get you video games if you like, or—“

There was no one besides her mothers to tell Hotaru anything. Expressing that, though, would be a pointless diversion. “That’s not what I mean. A week ago, I might have liked that. This would have been the right aisle to take me to.” Another parent and child wheeled their cart into the aisle. The child bounced between shelves while their father looked on with resignation.

“I looked like that recently,” Hotaru whispered.

Haruka gave a wry chuckle. “You’ve never been that excited, sweetheart.”

“You’re missing the point!” Hotaru balled her fist and stomped her foot. “I was that size, and most kids stay that size awhile. Why don’t I?”

Haruka’s eyes went wide. She looked from Hotaru to the other family and back again. “Uh. Well. Um. Ah. Kids grow at different paces, I always grew faster than my moth—we shouldn’t talk about this here.” Haruka took her hand and led her out to the parking lot. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Hotaru. Don’t let anyone make you think there is.”

Hotaru had never felt such rage. How could Haruka-papa miss the point so badly?  How could she not see Hotaru’s problem at all? She seethed in silence all the way home.

Setsuna had fared no better.

“People age differently. I have been the same for longer than anyone, and I know a little girl who did not grow for a very long time, and then grew several years’ worth all at once.”

“But is that normal?”

“Who’s to say what’s normal, little one? We’re all different. That’s the beauty of life.”

“Some people are much less different.”

“That may be true.”

Setsuna-mama prided herself on knowledge, and on sharing that knowledge, but she would not share what Hotaru wanted.

“Why won’t anyone tell me what’s going on?”

Setsuna had the decency to look remorseful. “You will find out in time. We love you, Hotaru, and part of loving someone in protecting them.”

It was a true statement and a false one, and Hotaru wanted to rail against it but the dark suspicion that it was she herself that she was being protect from ate her into acceptance.

It was precisely why she could not ask Michiru. If there was some secret that made Hotaru horrible, Michiru would tell her. No dodging, no sugar coating.

Well, Hotaru, the Michiru in her head said, hands in her lap and uncaring placid smile on her lips. The truth is you’re not a child at all. You’re a monster. You’re too dangerous to be alone so we keep you here and suffer.

Hotaru scribbled thick angry lines into the paper on her desk. She could write and draw quite well now, but there was no satisfaction in it. She wanted the truth, she wanted to destroy the lie, or destroy everything, she wanted to tear down the world and make another, a better world, where she was normal and could meet other kids and had a family that loved her in a way she understood, and—

“Do you really want to know?”

Hotaru froze. The voice behind her was familiar yet foreign. It was not from any of her mothers, yet she felt she heard it often.

“You had some of that, once,” the voice said. “Though you were never quite normal.”

Hotaru braced herself and turned around. She saw not a stranger, but herself, older and taller, dressed in a strange sailor suit and holding something resembling a scythe.

“You were me,” the other said. “And we were sick, and we were violated, and we were reborn.” She knelt so they were eye to eye. “You can remember, but the truth can be hard. The happy parts as much as the sad parts.”

“I need to know. I need to know what’s wrong with me.”

The other smiled sadly. “There’s nothing wrong with you. All there is now is you, and me. And I can’t exist unless you let me. You get a choice this time.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You will. If you want to remember, you will. Now, are you sure?”

Hotaru squared her shoulders. “I’m sure.”

The other touched her hand to Hotaru’s forehead. A wall in her mind crumbled and the memories behind it surged forward in a wave. Her father, the accident, the parasite that had grown inside her. The fragility, the fear, the pain, the blossom of hope when she’d met Chibiusa. Her triumph with Saturn. Her rebirth. The decision to rest, to try for a normal life. Her father’s love, confusion, resolve to do better than the things he could no longer quite remember. And—

Hotaru’s eyes shot open. She stood in her room alone. Her pants were too short again, her sweater too snug, but this was no time to bother adjusting to her new height. She stormed out of her room to find Setsuna in the kitchen.

“You stole me.”

Setsuna stopped, dishrag in hand. “Hotaru—“

“You tried to kill me and then you stole me.”

Their eyes met. Setsuna was brave enough to not look away.

“I have only done what was necessary for the circumstances.”

“You said you loved me.”

“And I do.” Setsuna dropped her dish into the water and faced Hotaru properly. “We were made for the good of the world, not ourselves. As Saturn, you know that.”

“You want me to be Saturn, but I get to choose. It’s my choice, even if you try to take it away.”

“I know what you will choose. That is why I took you.”

Hotaru wanted to hit her, to scream, to become Saturn then and there and destroy the world. Worse still, she wanted these things because Setsuna was not wrong. Pluto was not wrong. Pluto did do what she saw to be right in the time stream, and how could Hotaru argue even as she hurt? She turned to leave the kitchen, and there was Haruka.

“I know what you did.”

Haruka froze, fear settling in behind her eyes.

“I will not give you absolution. You will not find it in me.”

“Hotaru, please—“

“How can you ask anything of me?” Hotaru did scream, now. Haruka was wrong, Haruka was human, Haruka had no right to understand her so little. “You would have killed me, and nothing you do will erase that. Nothing.”

“Hotaru, sweetheart, I—“

“Don’t call me that!”

“That’s enough.” Michiru came up behind Haruka, the terrifying picture of calm Hotaru knew she would be. “You can be angry, you can be hurt. We did what we had to, and so did you.”

“I want my real family.”

“Then go.”

“Michiru!”

She held a hand to silence Haruka’s protest. “You may go, if you’d like to explain all this to your father. If not, we will continue to provide for you.”

“I…” Hotaru thought of her father, barely recovered from all that had happened. He knew her now as a baby. Would he recognize her? Would she make him remember all mercy had let him forget? “I hate you!” She ran to her room, ignoring Haruka’s sobs behind her.

[thetrinketgal-collection]

Sailor Moon &  Samantha Vega ‘Luna P’ FAKE bag

Yeah, I went back to the shop selling bootleg bags copied from the Sailor Moon & Samantha Vega collaboration. Guilty as charged!

I have yet to get a few things fixed in the bags I already had (their straps are way too long for me, for instance), but still I had been eyeing this one for a while...

I love the designs of the kitty-inspired Samantha Vega bags, they are very cute and sleek but also very obvious references for those who know the franchise.

This one is not inspired directly by the moon kitties, though, but by Luna P, Chibiusa’s ball toy/pet, and as such, it was released in black only:

(source: Sailor Moon Collectibles)

Bootlegs, though, can be found in black, white and pastel pink.

So we are not fooling anyone with this model, aren’t we? Not that I expect anyone to think that I would spend more than 200€ on a single bag, no matter the quality... Still, remember that these products are illegal copies and the designs were stolen. Be aware of what you are supporting when buying them!

If you remember my previous review of the Luna and Artemis backpacks, I found them to be of nice quality. This one... not so much.

It makes a pretty good job of replicating the original product, even if the gems around the logo are a bit crooked. It even has the Luna P ‘antenna’:

Even though I am removing it, it’s so uncomfortable and silly-looking. And the leather on the zipper holders are going away too - they are too bulky. Well, overall, the whole bag is pretty bulky:

But again, that’s just what the original was like.

Now, for the problems...

For starters, this bag smells. It is the first time I have this problem with a cheap made-in-China bag, but seriously, it is like something from out of this world died in that bag and its stinky spirit decided to haunt the insides of the bag.

I have it airing out on the balcony at it seems to be improving, and it is not stinky on the outsides, so there’s hope. But still. Smelly >.<

The zipper is difficult to work, I’ll try to fix it with soap. And it lost part of its round shape - I’ll try to store it with filling to recover it, but I have to wait for the smelly smell to air out and such.

And speaking of the insides, the backpacks had a blurry-but-sort-of-accurate copy of the beautiful inside print. The original Luna P bag has the very same print:

(source: Sailor Moon Collectibles)

But the bootleg... Well, it is way more original.

And by original I mean trippy:

I don’t really know what I am looking at, either.

All the Luna P bags in the shop were like this, even the black ones. So again, you are not really fooling anyone with these bags.

I doubt the original had this problem, but the zippers open more than the fabric covers:

So if you are carrying keys or small stuff, use the tiny pocket. It is difficult to use, because the bag is stiff and the zippers are hard, but you really need it.

So basically, this bag is more of a show-off to complement and outfit than it is a practical bag, but it is usable:

The size is adequate to carry just a few essentials while looking pretty.

I’m not the greatest fan of the chain-only shoulder ‘strap’, but I’ll find a way around it. The length is right for me this time around.

The main advantage of the bootleg is the new colours:

All the kitty bags are available in black. Black is very cool and is always useful and it goes with everything, but sometimes I want a softer touch. Most of my regular bags are black already because I am too lazy to combine stuff.

Most of them are also available in white. White is cute and soft and goes with everything as well, but sometimes it can be boring as well. Still, if you want this model in white, bootlegs are the only way.

Last but not least, this pastel pink is very cute, remembers me of Chibiusa and turns any dark or monochrome outfit into a lovely pastel goth ensemble.

So in conclusion, the bootlegs of this model are of worse quality, but there seems to be work-arounds for their problems and they offer new colours.

[silverloreley]

Making my custom Princess Chibiusa doll - let’s start with the base.

Once upon a time there was a little girl (me) who was an avid Sailor Moon fan (as if I wasn’t to this day...). She didn’t miss an episode of the anime (at least until the show started to be moved on different times and channels for the stupidest reasons - thanks MOIGE and fuck you!)

Ahem.

The little girl had Sailor Moon doll, a Sailor Mars doll and a Sailor Jupiter doll. Then she obtained her very favourite: a Super Sailor Chibi-Moon doll (named around here Super Sailor Chibiusa or, at times, Chibiusity, because Chibiusa+Serenity. I guess it made sense at the time).

She also had a brat of a brother who snapped said doll in half (because if the doll was that of a warrior, of course she could fight with his wrestling figurines. Yes, he used to steal my dolls for that -.- ), but with some tape and a bit of creativity she managed to fix the doll enough to keep playing.

Flash forward a few (in truth nearly 20, yes I’m old) years. The Sailor Moon Eternal movies are about to come out on Netfilx and I thought “who knows if they’ll make a Chibiusa doll with her princess dress I only saw in the manga until now” (this means not the copy of Serenity’s dress but Chibiusa’s own pink dress). [In case you were wondering, the answer so far is no, I couldn’t find any]

And then I remembered I do have a Chibiusa doll and some (modest) sewing skills, so why buy another one when I can make one for myself?

Hence a dig into the depth of my childhood stuff, buried by time (not really, I keep most my dolls under my bed, lol) to find her. (I still have the original clothes and all the accessories save for her gloves, I removed them to check the damages)

And, fine, she’s a little worse for wear than I remembered her to be, especially the hair. Nothing I can’t fix, I thought. The doll is currently esteemed from 70 to 200 euros of worth, it’d be absurd for me to back down and buy another, I guess I’ll just do my best with what I have.

After something like a hour of browsing “how to fix dolls brittle hair” and similar, I decided to try a few of the suggested methods.

After one hour of soaking the hair  (and my hands, my poor fingernails are worse off than ever! sigh) in warm water with fabric softener and gently brushing bit by bit, I start to see the difference:

(left is brushed, right isn’t)

And two hours later I finally can let it dry, curled like Chibiusa’s hair should be. I used make-up remover cotton pads rolled up for curlers.

(Isn’t she cute?)

The next day the hair are all dry and ready to be tied. I used tiny elastic ties but I only had black so I covered them with white thread.

Anyway, this was the first part.

Next, the dress.