Another teaser from chapter two...

[Bob Schroeck]

After dinner, Usagi retreated to her bedroom with Luna, who had
returned to her cat form, to discuss the afternoon.

"You're going to help me with the magic exercises Doug-sensei
gave me to do, right?" Usagi asked.  She lay spread-eagle on her
bed, her hed hanging over the edge with her ponytails draping
down to either side of her to pool on the floor below.

"Oh, certainly," Luna said pensively. "I must admit that he has a 
most unusual approach to magic, though.  I have never encountered 
anyone who thought of it as a kind of science and engineering 
combined."  She was sprawled out in a typically feline boneless-
looking puddle, and had her eyes closed.

"Really?"  She rolled over onto her stomach, and began kicking 
her feet.

The cat nodded absently.  "Every mage I've known treats... 
*treated* it as an art.  Oh, there are fundamental principles and 
techniques one learns, even a lay practitioner like myself, but
every true mage then develops along their own special path, which
reflects and in turn shapes the unique qualities of their very 
being.  The Queen..."

"The Queen?" Usagi interrupted.  "You mentioned her that first
night, but that was all."

"Queen Serenity of the Moon," Luna explained.  "She was your
commander-in-chief in your earlier life, and she was the one who 
sent your soul forward to be reborn in this era.  Serenity-sama 
was one of the greatest sorceresses in history, with a style and 
form of magic unique to herself, bathed in and built of purest 
light."

"Wow."  Usagi bit her lip and tried to imagine what the Queen
might have looked like while using her magic, but all she could 
bring to mind was an image of herself all grown up in a white 
silk gown.  "Baka Usagi," she murmured to herself.

[Niteflier]

And when she looks back on this conversation she'll smile, I bet.

[DHBirr]

Minor spelling error in the second paragraph:

She lay spread-eagle on her bed, her hed head hanging over the edge with her ponytails draping down to either side of her to pool on the floor below.

I'm not sure about Luna's use of the phrase "a kind of science and engineering combined."  Engineering doesn't work without science, even if the engineers aren't thinking of it in those terms, so "science and engineering combined" in reality is just engineering that works.  It seems to me that it might be more accurate if she said something like, "a kind of science; his approach amounts to engineering, but using the magical rather than the non-magical aspects of nature."  

Of course, you've established that Luna is still partly amnesiac, so maybe that's causing her to use less-precise language than she normally would've.  Or maybe, as a "lay practitioner," her grasp on magical theory isn't all it could be.  She doesn't have a Doctorate in Astral Physics, I'm guessing.

[Bob Schroeck]

Thanks for the typo catch; I've made the fix in the dev file.

Yes, Luna's being imprecise in the way that the average person would be imprecise about a technical subject they know little about. She's not a trained mage, but she knows how to do a couple things, the way someone might know how to replace a light switch without having all the skills and knowledge of an electrician -- and has about just as much technical vocabulary. What she's trying to get across to Usagi is that Doug's approach is very mathematical/structured where she's used to mages who operate semi-intuitively. (Not coincidentally, "semi-intuitive" is basically how I see Usagi in canon embracing and extending her magical takents. Doug's instruction is going to change that a bit.)

That said, I like your rephrasing a lot -- but it doesn't really sound like something Luna (both in canon and as I'm portraying her) would really say.

[Labster]

Yeah, DHBirr's version sounds like how Ami would describe it, not Luna.  But honestly, when I heard "science and engineering combined", I thought she was describing not magic but Doug as a part-scientist, part-engineer.  Which I think is a fair assessment.

> "Queen Serenity of the Moon," Luna explained.  "She was your commander-in-chief ...

I just want to remark on the modernity of this statement.  In a traditional monarchy, the leader of the army was called king.  Or queen.  Or in the Roman republic imperatores were leaders of armies... until imperator became a title for the monarch.  But for those of us living in republics, you have to explain the connection.

Oh, and on the general topic, Sailor Magic in the manga is much less Vancian.  But that's all about the stock footage reuse.  I get the feeling they can do anything with magic related to their portfolio, but settle on a few techniques because it's hard to come up with cool names.

[DHBirr]

On a less nit-picky note, I see Luna either has come to trust Doug a bit more by this point, or has given up arguing with Usagi about it and is pretending to trust him; she raised no objection at all to the girl doing "the magic exercises Doug-sensei gave me...."  I guess we'll learn, or at least get more evidence, which it is when the full chapter comes out.

[hazard]

It's quite possible that while Luna doesn't trust Doug's character and intentions she does trust he knows his magic and has enough professional pride not to deliberately screw with Usagi's training, especially in the face of the threat that is Beryl and Metallia.

[Star Ranger4]

I certainly can agree with that, Hazard.

[DHBirr]

It's quite possible that while Luna doesn't trust Doug's character and intentions she does trust he knows his magic and has enough professional pride not to deliberately screw with Usagi's training, especially in the face of the threat that is Beryl and Metallia.

I have to quibble.  If she mistrusts his character and intentions, a logical development from that would be to suspect that deliberately screwing with Usagi's training is his reason for being there.  Admittedly, not as an ally of the enemies she knows — "The aura lacked any kind of dark taint, so they were unaffiliated with the youma." — but still....

[hazard]

Let me clarify then, Luna may not trust Doug's political position, but she trusts he does not want to die, and training Usagi properly is the best way to make Doug not dying happen. The Loonie may be a Loonie but he's self evidently not suicidal, therefore it's reasonable to accept that Usagi will be trained to the best of his capabilities.

And he's a very good teacher. In magic.

Luna's sure that she can handle dethorning his political angle once the current situation is handled.