[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 2 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

[Black Aeronaut]

Alright, I feel like the plotting and planning is running a bit slow, so I guess maybe we should figure out a little more what's gonna happen in the second arc before we can sort out what happens in the first arc.
Here's the basic idea: the First Arc culminates with most of the major metropolitans on Earth being turned into Unreal Estate in orbit over the planet - especially ones that are major ports (air or sea) and home to major military installations (such as San Diego or San Antonio).  This will be the doing of some insane person that feels that Earth needs to be ready for 'the invasion' or some other BS.

I'm open to suggestions who it is and what their motivations may be, but I wouldn't be at all offended if it was Heinz Doofenschmirtz.  

*Ahem*  That's more for Arc 1, and to set the stage here.

I had the idea that once things move into orbit, that other stuff starts showing up.  Most concerning would be the SDF-1 Macross in a stand-off with Commander Breetai's fleet.

Thoughts?

[Bob Schroeck]

Good idea, this thread -- I suspect you are going to want a lot of Chekhov's Guns hung on your collective wall before you end the first arc, and this is the way to inventory what you need.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

In that case do you think that it'd be a good idea to have the plotting threads for arcs 3 and 4 as well?

[robkelk]

We might want to wait a bit for that, unless you want to plant some Chekhov's guns for arc 4 in arc 1.

[Black Aeronaut]

Well, not so much Checkhov's Guns for Arc 1.

What I mean is that we probably should have the end-game and the mile stones that get us there at least roughed out - not to the point where we can't have new writers coming in, but enough that we now have a lay of the land in our heads and know what plot points we want to hit along the way. Some of those might need some set up; not so much as a 'Chekhov's Gun' or such, but just plain, ordinary plot development.

I already know that there's gonna be some developments that might jump out at us along the way, but even so... Well, you get the idea. :p

[robkelk]

Quoting from the "Planning for Arc 1" thread, for Reasons (although those Reasons might not make themselves known until Arc 4):

...

Since it's come up: What I'm thinking for my SI's building - and plans change as stories are written - is the dynamics settle down into a few different families, official or not. Usagi would insist that laws regarding polyamourous relationships apply to everyone equally (not just the nobility), and she and Mamoru together have the power and lineage to make their claim to the Sol system stick if the Juraians complain. Whether that means group marriages for everybody or for nobody remains to be seen.

• First Family (with a Head of State and everything): Usagi, Mamoru, and Rei, with Chibi-Usa as a dependent.
  
• All alone because of that thrice-dammed curse: Minako. (Just ask her. Everyone else will consider her to be part of the building's first family, especially Usagi, Rei, and Mamoru.)
  
• Second family: Luna and Artemis, with Diana as a dependent. Yeah, going with canon here - there aren't a lot of talking cats out there to add to this dynamic, and they seem more comfortable in feline form than in human form.
  
• Third family: SI-Rob, Mii, Ami, and Makoto.
  
• Fourth family: Kamijo Touma (who hasn't shown up yet), Mikoto, Kuroko, and Misaka Niiko (sister 10032), with Index (who hasn't shown up yet) as a dependent. Touma/Minako is canon. Touma/10032 is strongly shippable by canon; he saved her life specifically and the other clones' lives generally, she was the first person who he ever gave a gift to, and she canonically has feelings of some sort for him.
  
• Fifth family: Ruiko, Kazari, and ... somebody. (Not Accelerator.)
  

If it ends up "group marriages for nobody", then the relationships presented to the outside world are Mamoru/Usagi, Luna/Artemis, Rob/Mii, and Touma/Mikoto.

As for the Jack of Kinrowan characters, Jacky's canonically in an on-again-off-again relationship, Kate is single and wants a relationship, and Finn hasn't expressed an opinion on the matter.

I don't know (or am not sure) what to do with Accelerator, Misaka Kokono (10339), Misaka Nana (13577), Misaka Rei (19090), Misaka Misaka (20001, a.k.a. "Last Order"), and Kazakiri Hyoga (who hasn't shown up yet but by canon has a connection to Misaka Misaka). All I am sure about is (a) Misaka Misaka and Kazakiri Hyoga stay together, and (b) that Accelerator isn't about to marry the sisters of the clones girls he killed, even if he does Get A Clue™ and stops being an asshole all the time. (Luckily for him, it's canon that helping to look after Misaka Misaka is giving him at least part of that much-needed clue... but he might end up alone anyway.) It would be reasonable for spoilers-regarding-canon to include a Misaka Sister in each of the first, third, and fifth families listed above; the girls might even be interested.

...

[Labster]

Huh, I didn't see this plan coming.  I thought we were going to do something with RWBY villians?  Either way, it puts a whole new spin on the term "flyover states".

In real life, a defining characteristic of major metros is that they import almost all of their food.  This represents a Problem.

On the other hand, if coastal California fell into the sky instead of the sea along the San Andreas, there'd be more than enough land to support the population -- especially if you did the whole slice from the SF zoo to Cabo San Lucas.  My "three Californias" plan may be a little different lol.

In the long term, Sakura Kinomoto will be the anchor of my group.  I mean, c'mon, at age 10 in canon she's slinging the equivalent of 9th level D&D spells.  Not to mention the divine spells like HOPE and "everything will be ok".  And then there's Tomoyo Daidouji, who's so ridiculously perceptive that as she gets older, she'll see through just about everyone.  (She'll be able to remake the world, so that everyone on Earth knows the true magnitude of Sakura's cuteness, ho ho ho ho!)  Akari has some sort of fey magic, which shouldn't be too surprising as she's an undine.  <spoiler> will be important too, as she can handle low-level youma or mind-control plots, or dance-fighting (in case that comes up).

I haven't given too much thought to relationships, beyond SI/Tomo/Yomi and Sakaki/Kaorin (this will take Tomoyo a lot of cupiding).  Sakura/Shaoran, of course.  Sonomi seemed pretty tsundere for Fujitaka, but you may have noticed I did include Nadeshiko on my cast list, so not sure where that would head.  I've got a lot of girls; would Tenchi like any extra?  I've also only filled half of my complex as of yet, which means I probably got a bit more work to do in Arc 1.

As far as Jurai recognizing the claim of the House of Serenity: Dance of Shiva has drifted towards headcanon for me on a number of things.  I think it's more likely that Jurai has never withdrawn its recognition of the lunar house's monarchy.  Ipso facto, she's already the monarch.  I guess that only makes sense if those particular fictions crossed paths in the past.  But either way, because of various multicanon space-trees, I think Tsunami would consider Usagi to be queen as soon as she wanted the job.

[Black Aeronaut]

I always kinda felt like Jurai was playing the role of a sort of regent until Earth was able to stand on its own.

As for arable land.... Well, if you grab enough of the land surrounding Bexar County, then having sufficient farm land shouldn't be an issue. While the soil here isn't incredibly fertile, it was still a shallow sea bed for some time a while back, and that makes it good for a number of things.

Go out far enough and you'll get all the important parts of the Edwards Aquifer - such as the recharge zone that has all the major sinkholes that feed massive rainfall runoffs directly into the aquifer. (And I do mean 'massive' here, like tens-of-thousands of gallons per minute massive.) If you get that, then to preserve the aquifer's filtration action you can pump the water that's been treated at treatment plants up to the recharge zone and into a suitable sinkhole so the aquifer can finish the purification process with its natural biofiltering action.

Hrm.... A bubble that size would definitely mean that you'd have your very own weather patterns. Meteorology would become a field of incredible importance, especially if you could control the light transparency of the bubbles to control how much solar energy the air is absorbing. A well trained meteorologist can tell you exactly how to vary the light levels to get the best effects. And since the bubbles are respectively smaller than Earth, there's fewer variables to keep track of, so I would imagine that it would be more predictable...

Though we probably wouldn't get thunderstorms anymore. Pity.

[robkelk]

Huh, I didn't see this plan coming. I thought we were going to do something with RWBY villians? Either way, it puts a whole new spin on the term "flyover states".

I think the idea was to protect cities from the RWBY villains by moving them into space – which merely exposes them to interstellar dangers instead. Oops.

In real life, a defining characteristic of major metros is that they import almost all of their food.  This represents a Problem.

Yeah. Ottawa is unusual in that it has vast tracts of agricultural land within its metropolitan boundaries, substantially more than other major cities in Ontario. If we were to rely on only what we produce, nearly half the population would starve. And we'd be one of the least-affected cities.

If our cities in flight are going anywhere away from Earth, they'll need "agro ships" along the lines of original Battlestar Galactica but substantially larger. If they're staying nearby, they'll need fleets of transport spacecraft dedicated to moving food.

On the other hand, if coastal California fell into the sky instead of the sea along the San Andreas, there'd be more than enough land to support the population -- especially if you did the whole slice from the SF zoo to Cabo San Lucas.  My "three Californias" plan may be a little different lol.

In the long term, Sakura Kinomoto will be the anchor of my group.  I mean, c'mon, at age 10 in canon she's slinging the equivalent of 9th level D&D spells.  Not to mention the divine spells like HOPE and "everything will be ok".  And then there's Tomoyo Daidouji, who's so ridiculously perceptive that as she gets older, she'll see through just about everyone.  (She'll be able to remake the world, so that everyone on Earth knows the true magnitude of Sakura's cuteness, ho ho ho ho!)  Akari has some sort of fey magic, which shouldn't be too surprising as she's an undine.  <spoiler> will be important too, as she can handle low-level youma or mind-control plots, or dance-fighting (in case that comes up).

Yeah, Sakura's definitely at or near the "semi-divine" level of the power meter, along with Usagi.

And I can see Akari having water magic... or maybe mind magic (she does make friends easily, after all), or both.

I haven't given too much thought to relationships, beyond SI/Tomo/Yomi and Sakaki/Kaorin (this will take Tomoyo a lot of cupiding).  Sakura/Shaoran, of course.  Sonomi seemed pretty tsundere for Fujitaka, but you may have noticed I did include Nadeshiko on my cast list, so not sure where that would head.  I've got a lot of girls; would Tenchi like any extra?  I've also only filled half of my complex as of yet, which means I probably got a bit more work to do in Arc 1.

If you go with Sonomi/Fujitaka, that would make Tomoyo and Sakura stepsisters. I could see Tomoyo accepting that as second-best to what she really wanted but knows she won't get (Tomoyo/Sakura)... so, Shipper On Deck?

And there's no question those empty rooms will be filled eventually.

As far as Jurai recognizing the claim of the House of Serenity: Dance of Shiva has drifted towards headcanon for me on a number of things.  I think it's more likely that Jurai has never withdrawn its recognition of the lunar house's monarchy.  Ipso facto, she's already the monarch.  I guess that only makes sense if those particular fictions crossed paths in the past.  But either way, because of various multicanon space-trees, I think Tsunami would consider Usagi to be queen as soon as she wanted the job.

Sounds good to me, even if we're trying to avoid influences from other fanfic.

[robkelk]

If our cities in flight are going anywhere away from Earth, they'll need "agro ships" along the lines of original Battlestar Galactica but substantially larger. If they're staying nearby, they'll need fleets of transport spacecraft dedicated to moving food.

Or maybe not. Sometimes, "human interest" news stories have eeriely relevant timing...

Tiny farm in a 40' shipping container

"The container can essentially hold the same amount of leafy greens as would a traditional two-acre farm," said Phil Hatcher, who founded what he believes to be Nova Scotia's first freight farm this spring.

[Black Aeronaut]

There's lots of workarounds. One of the more interesting ones that I've heard of is an earth-ship component that is a hydroponic greenhouse where the hydroponic water is recycled through a pond that grows tilapia.  Very effective.

[Black Aeronaut]

Here's a fun idea. For one of the first holy-shit moments, the island of Mayan and ASS-1 show up, just in time for the Bird Human to come and flip humanity The Bird. Think Washu can get a trace on the Bird Human when it folds out?

[Dartz]

The plan has always been for them to use their actual background as a kayfabe story....

Will anyone recognise it?

I like the idea of the Genaros girls being revealed as artificial. Not sure where to take it from, but having live intelligent androids in the world.... what happens next? Either as a close to their first season or an opening to the 2nd

[Black Aeronaut]

Well, there'd probably be a lot of people, corporations, and governments that'd like to get their hands on them.

[robkelk]

Including Academy City, who won't give a damn about their civil rights.

[Dartz]

True, perhaps.

But in this case, nobody has built them. There is no entity that can legally stake a claim to ownership, who can say they paid a price for the girls, or who can say they built them in a factory and, after quite a while turing.... it's obvious they're passed the Touring test.

It'll also make Elizer Yudkowsky piss himself because he hung up on them months before.....

[Black Aeronaut]

That won't stop some people. For example, someone might try to get them to sign for a recording contract... but in the fine print is a stipulation that makes it so they literally own them, lock stock and collar. And we all know that the recording industry is full of shady characters like that.

[Mamorien]

and, after quite a while turing....  it's obvious they're passed the Touring test.

If you'd brought that to Callahan's on a Tuesday night, I believe it would've received the Supreme Accolade. If you ever get out to Key West, you might test whether The Place still holds Punday Nights.

It'll also make Elizer Yudkowsky piss himself because he hung up on them months before.....

And that's before he finds out that this is in fact the simulation.

"So, basically, we're copies on Yggdrasil's sandbox page. Or in its pastebin, whatever term you prefer."

[Black Aeronaut]

FYI, I moved the relevant posts over to the Season 1 Thread, since Callahans is something much more likely to happen sooner than later.

[Black Aeronaut]

So, Norgarth over in the Season 1 Thread said something and I said something back that got me to thinking:

As Season 2 is where entire locales, such as Academy City or Perfection Valley, begin to show up, it would probably be a good idea to start planing that out, especially as some of these are going to overlap with each other (such as various interesting fictional takes on Tokyo).

So here is the question: what does everyone want to bring in and how do we go about it?

[robkelk]

I definitely want Academy City, as a source of high-tech goodies, espers, and devious enemies. It's okay if it gets shifted a bit.

Don't need any of the Sailor Moon baddies. By the end of the anime, she'd dispatched them all anyway.

And de Lint's take on Jack the Giant Killer is a wainscot world; it can slide in (and possibly already has) without anyone noticing.

[Labster]

Well, would you be interested in buying some real estate on Mars?  There's so much to choose from.

At the very least, we should have the Sailors' castles.  Always nice to have an orbital HQ.  Also, depending on how long they've been unattended, they might make an interesting dungeon crawl.

I will probably want to bring in Southern Cross Island, because I've been wanting a Star Driver crossover for a while now, so I'll probably just have to do it myself.  There's no real outside contamination if they're still in the conspiracy (because island, not because the characters are competent at keeping a conspiracy). But if the giant robots start appearing outside of zero time, looking all fabulous, people would notice.

I'm not sure if I'd like Gameindustri to appear on the far side of the Bifröst, or just have a few CPU girls drop into the local Basilicom (which I'm sure would be museum in the Getty Castle).  Poor Nep, her share energy would be so weak in our world.

I'd also like a competent villain.  Big bads that are just nuts annoy me quite a bit.  And honestly, it leaves a pretty short list of who to use: Salem and Naraku come to mind first.  Akio and the Antispiral.  I suppose the leaders of GENOM, too. I'd also be okay with alien intelligences, like Neuroi, Chthugua, or Kaworu.  OK maybe not quite the last one, lol.  Not sure which ones are worth it, but we may want to have several of them.

To me, the magical formula that make Sailor Moon work was that 90% of it was slice of life, and 9% of it was goofy monster of the week.  And then there was that 1% of it that put children in mortal peril, because they know they are the only ones standing between ordinary life and ten thousand years of darkness.   All y'all who think that I'm just writing happy comedic stories have another thing coming.  But the villain should be someone worthy of it, worth giving up the peaceful daily life to stop.

@Rob: So we have Sailor Moon from the end of the first anime, after Stars?  I've been meaning to ask for a while.  I'd be okay with it after S too -- they're still enjoyable, but nothing of great value would be lost.

[robkelk]

Well, would you be interested in buying some real estate on Mars?  There's so much to choose from.

At the very least, we should have the Sailors' castles.  Always nice to have an orbital HQ.  Also, depending on how long they've been unattended, they might make an interesting dungeon crawl.

Oh, yay - dungeon crawls. I wonder whether Sailor Teleport is capable of taking passengers?

I will probably want to bring in Southern Cross Island, because I've been wanting a Star Driver crossover for a while now, so I'll probably just have to do it myself.  There's no real outside contamination if they're still in the conspiracy (because island, not because the characters are competent at keeping a conspiracy). But if the giant robots start appearing outside of zero time, looking all fabulous, people would notice.

I'm not sure if I'd like Gameindustri to appear on the far side of the Bifröst, or just have a few CPU girls drop into the local Basilicom (which I'm sure would be museum in the Getty Castle).  Poor Nep, her share energy would be so weak in our world.

Digression: When I hear "CPU girls", I think "OS-tan"...

I'd also like a competent villain.  Big bads that are just nuts annoy me quite a bit.  And honestly, it leaves a pretty short list of who to use: Salem and Naraku come to mind first.  Akio and the Antispiral.  I suppose the leaders of GENOM, too. I'd also be okay with alien intelligences, like Neuroi, Chthugua, or Kaworu.  OK maybe not quite the last one, lol.  Not sure which ones are worth it, but we may want to have several of them.

That's a big reason why I want Academy City. Aleister is a chessmaster, using the others as his pawns. (And we all know what happens when a chess player only has pawns... but he's reasonably competent despite that. And he has access to technology that's demonstrated as being capable of building a working space elevator that isn't situated on the equator.) Members of the Kihara family range from competent-and-deadly to competent-and-crazy; pick the level of menace that your story needs. And then there's the esper/mage enmity.

To me, the magical formula that make Sailor Moon work was that 90% of it was slice of life, and 9% of it was goofy monster of the week.  And then there was that 1% of it that put children in mortal peril, because they know they are the only ones standing between ordinary life and ten thousand years of darkness.   All y'all who think that I'm just writing happy comedic stories have another thing coming.  But the villain should be someone worthy of it, worth giving up the peaceful daily life to stop.

@Rob: So we have Sailor Moon from the end of the first anime, after Stars?  I've been meaning to ask for a while.  I'd be okay with it after S too -- they're still enjoyable, but nothing of great value would be lost.

Yes. Quoting from post #16 in the main thread:

As Rob handed her a pen, he realized that Rei and Ami had made sure Usagi got one of the chairs when they came in. Then he remembered that Ami said she had read The Incomplete Enchanter when she was in middle school - past tense - which implied that she had graduated to high school already. Then he realized where in the story the Sailor Senshi had come from. "You're exhausted, aren't you, Tsukino-san? I'm sorry that I asked you to come to this office instead of going to you."

"Why would you think that?" asked Rei, very quickly.

Usagi giggled, surprising everyone else. "He's read about us, Rei. He's seen the anime. We're anime characters here, remember? He probably knows what I did just before we showed up in Ottawa."

"So, what happened?" asked Mikoto.

Ruiko answered first. "I think episode 200 happened." She turned to Usagi. "You fought Galaxia, right?"

Usagi nodded. "Yes. And I won, and I undid what she did, and there was a flash from the Ginzuisho, and we were here."

Rob nodded again. "And what you did to undo what Galaxia did must have taken all of the strength you had left."

Which of course means that the very end of episode 200, where Usagi and Mamoru were alone together, hasn't happened. Despite SI-Rob's discussion with Mamoru about Canadian laws about "sexual interference", he's expecting that they've already known each other, possibly someplace quiet during the Halloween party.

[Black Aeronaut]

Well, would you be interested in buying some real estate on Mars?  There's so much to choose from.

At the very least, we should have the Sailors' castles.  Always nice to have an orbital HQ.  Also, depending on how long they've been unattended, they might make an interesting dungeon crawl.

Oh, yay - dungeon crawls. I wonder whether Sailor Teleport is capable of taking passengers?

Oh man.  This would just be BEGGING for trouble in the form of Benjamin going completely and totally unhinged from 1) have a whole helluva lotta targets to choose from and 2) Washu gives him a little present...

We outnumber you. We will find you. You are alone, and we are colony.

Have you ever watched a snake kill something? It's awful. It's so awful. I watched a man die of a terciopelo bite once. Out by the northern wall. I still have nightmares about it. Anyway, that's where VEIST comes from. The inspiration, I mean. Weapons with all the power of a venomous creature. Plus an onboard AI with that creature's killer instincts. And now there's the Colony. A grenade launcher packed with fully mobile, AI-controlled insectoid detonators, each one designed with a taste for blood. We've made some pretty messed-up stuff. You've probably seen it. You know. But we've never made anything like the Colony before.

Benjamin is going to be running through these castles, laughing like Babs Bunny with a Chainsaw, while gleefully and utterly annihilating everything creepy and crawly.  And Washu will tell everyone to just let him be for the moment and make sure nothing sneaks up behind him... though with the way he's absolutely terrifying the not-so-native wildlife, that's a slim chance.

I will probably want to bring in Southern Cross Island, because I've been wanting a Star Driver crossover for a while now, so I'll probably just have to do it myself.  There's no real outside contamination if they're still in the conspiracy (because island, not because the characters are competent at keeping a conspiracy). But if the giant robots start appearing outside of zero time, looking all fabulous, people would notice.

I'm not sure if I'd like Gameindustri to appear on the far side of the Bifröst, or just have a few CPU girls drop into the local Basilicom (which I'm sure would be museum in the Getty Castle).  Poor Nep, her share energy would be so weak in our world.

Digression: When I hear "CPU girls", I think "OS-tan"...  

Oh, just rez up Cybertron on one of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian Points.  That will give our infomorph friends plenty of real estate to play in, especially if we can get the Decepticons to finally chill the fuck out.  (Although, if Cybertron is too big for that to work, then I guess we can do an Earth-Sun Lagrangian Point instead.)

I'd also like a competent villain.  Big bads that are just nuts annoy me quite a bit.  And honestly, it leaves a pretty short list of who to use: Salem and Naraku come to mind first.  Akio and the Antispiral.  I suppose the leaders of GENOM, too. I'd also be okay with alien intelligences, like Neuroi, Chthugua, or Kaworu.  OK maybe not quite the last one, lol.  Not sure which ones are worth it, but we may want to have several of them.

That's a big reason why I want Academy City. Aleister is a chessmaster, using the others as his pawns. (And we all know what happens when a chess player only has pawns... but he's reasonably competent despite that. And he has access to technology that's demonstrated as being capable of building a working space elevator that isn't situated on the equator.) Members of the Kihara family range from competent-and-deadly to competent-and-crazy; pick the level of menace that your story needs. And then there's the esper/mage enmity.

I'll be fine with competent villains as long as they understand that there are equally competent 'heroes' who have no qualms whatsoever with putting a bullet through their heads and understand that there is never sufficient enough firepower.  

To me, the magical formula that make Sailor Moon work was that 90% of it was slice of life, and 9% of it was goofy monster of the week.  And then there was that 1% of it that put children in mortal peril, because they know they are the only ones standing between ordinary life and ten thousand years of darkness.   All y'all who think that I'm just writing happy comedic stories have another thing coming.  But the villain should be someone worthy of it, worth giving up the peaceful daily life to stop.

@Rob: So we have Sailor Moon from the end of the first anime, after Stars?  I've been meaning to ask for a while.  I'd be okay with it after S too -- they're still enjoyable, but nothing of great value would be lost.

Yes. Quoting from post #16 in the main thread:

As Rob handed her a pen, he realized that Rei and Ami had made sure Usagi got one of the chairs when they came in. Then he remembered that Ami said she had read The Incomplete Enchanter when she was in middle school - past tense - which implied that she had graduated to high school already. Then he realized where in the story the Sailor Senshi had come from. "You're exhausted, aren't you, Tsukino-san? I'm sorry that I asked you to come to this office instead of going to you."

"Why would you think that?" asked Rei, very quickly.

Usagi giggled, surprising everyone else. "He's read about us, Rei. He's seen the anime. We're anime characters here, remember? He probably knows what I did just before we showed up in Ottawa."

"So, what happened?" asked Mikoto.

Ruiko answered first. "I think episode 200 happened." She turned to Usagi. "You fought Galaxia, right?"

Usagi nodded. "Yes. And I won, and I undid what she did, and there was a flash from the Ginzuisho, and we were here."

Rob nodded again. "And what you did to undo what Galaxia did must have taken all of the strength you had left."

You know, it's funny because Takeuchi-sensei originally only intended the manga to be nothing but a parody by combining magical girls with Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers).  She never expected that it would become so wildly popular, and I feel that we should all tip our hats to her for managing to shift gears like that in her writing.

Which of course means that the very end of episode 200, where Usagi and Mamoru were alone together, hasn't happened. Despite SI-Rob's discussion with Mamoru about Canadian laws about "sexual interference", he's expecting that they've already known each other, possibly someplace quiet during the Halloween party.

....

....

....

I'ma gonna go run off to the Season 1 thread with this.  Ciao, baby!  

[Labster]

Oh, just rez up Cybertron on one of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian Points.  That will give our infomorph friends plenty of real estate to play in, especially if we can get the Decepticons to finally chill the fuck out.  (Although, if Cybertron is too big for that to work, then I guess we can do an Earth-Sun Lagrangian Point instead.)

According to some canons, Cybertron is Saturn sized (but hollow).  That would technically "fit", even at Earth-Moon L1, but uh... you'll need to ask Randall Munroe what would happen next.  I think it you wanted to put a near Earth-mass planet into the inner solar system without causing everything to go wonky, I'd suggest Earth-Sun L3 (the Counter-Earth/Nemesis point), or in the Asteroid belt (tidal stress won't do much to a planet with that much metal), or in Jupiter's orbit, or Jupiter L3/L4/L5.

Also, who's Tuxedo Cybertron?  Galaxia might have killed them all in her home universe, but I doubt they would have gotten Sailor Jurai.  My vote: Sasami, though a quick google search says that Ranma is also a popular Sailor Jurai, lol.

You know, it's funny because Takeuchi-sensei originally only intended the manga to be nothing but a parody by combining magical girls with Super Sentai (aka Power Rangers).  She never expected that it would become so wildly popular, and I feel that we should all tip our hats to her for managing to shift gears like that in her writing.

For sure, I think like a lot of that feeling came from Ikuhara-sensei and the other anime directors.  I like the slower pacing, you know?  Takeuchi-sensei did quite a few things right though: mixing ordinary life with the broadest scale plot imaginable, across space and time; writing a framework flexible enough for story building in the anime and other fanfic; making the enemies cosmic horrors; making the consequences of war real; and writing characters the audience can really identify with.  But that feeling of contrast with ordinary life, that really only comes through strongly in the anime.