[OOC][PLOT] The Fifth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, god, there's a crossover that should not be... Blossom/new!BSG

[Black Aeronaut]

RE: The Time Gates,

Not to overrule Rob, but I would like to say that, yes, they did arrive... and once they did The Goddesses locked that shit down faster than flies on stink.

Which would certainly explain why Setsuna would be so out of it, beyond just having all that history updated in her mind...

Thoughts?

[robkelk]

Present, but functionally unavailable - sure, why not?

[Labster]

Not sure whether to post this here or in the crossovers that should be thread, but:

Team SSKY: Sakura, Shaoran, Kerberos, Yue. Their names are colors too -- pink, plum, black (sounds like kuro or crow) and white (as Tsukishiro). Sky is a color of blue. Fairly sure I'll use the name in this story, but I think it would make a good crossover set in Remnant, too.

[robkelk]

That's your story to tell. Nobody can take the SSKY from you. Not even the folks in Pensacola.

On a different note, I recall somebody's driving Deliveroo ... Here's an event for you.

[Rajvik]

That's your story to tell. Nobody can take the SSKY from you. Not even the folks in Pensacola.

On a different note, I recall somebody's driving Deliveroo ... Here's an event for you.

Por que?

[robkelk]

Theme song from Firefly: "You can't take the sky from me."

[robkelk]

Over a half-decade ago, in the forum discussing the Buffy Step, Bob made a comment:

Now I don't know what plans are in place for Hearts of Steel S, but it would be interesting to see if Sailor Moon would show up as divine or not. And if she did, would she be an incarnation of the Moon Goddess (who traditionally has three aspects, much like some other triune goddesses we know) or another type of goddess altogether?

Assuming that Sailor Moon is divine.

-murmur

No, that's not entirely fair.
Sailor Moon/Serenity is not the Three/Four.  But if you take something mentioned in a Silver Millennium flashback in the original Japanese verbatim, she might be their daughter.

Hmmmmmmmm...

I have yet to show any of the Megami interacting with Usagi in our little story... although, unless she and Mamoru are, er, elsewhere, while the goddesses show up for the Halloween Party, I doubt I can get away with that for much longer.

[Rajvik]

Theme song from Firefly: "You can't take the sky from me."

Facepalms
I should have caught that

[Black Aeronaut]

I drive for Uber/UberEats, unfortunately. And Bristol is a long long ways from San Antonio. Unless Washu-chan wants to set me up with a portal over yonder... :V

Love the idea about Team SSKY. Ruby and company (Teams RWBY and JNPR) will probably want to work with them to get them up to snuff as well as hone their own edge. (Funny thing about being a teacher - sometimes you learn much more than you teach!)

And there won't be much lack for teachers. Tenchi can teach Jyuraian Kenjutsu. Sasami can teach Jyurain long-staff. The elder Takamachis: Ninjitsu and Kodachi. Teletha: tactics and strategy. Mao and the rest of Urzu Squadron: urban combat, small group tactics, and asymmetrical warfare. The Harlaowns and Gil Graham: Midchildan Magic System. The Wolkenritter: Belkan Magic System (and tactical magecraft, too).

And Benjamin? Knowing how to triage and manage "Bad Situations" - particularly emphasis on knowing your limits and when to call for help. (While I've had the help of a lot of people IRL, that wouldn't have happened if I never recognized when I was in over my head.)

[robkelk]

Makoto and Mikoto can teach electrical combat. So can the Misaka Sisters, but they're not as good at it. However, they know at least the fundamentals of urban combat and would probably send at least one Sister to the first session that Urzu Squadron teaches on that - then they'd all show up for the subsequent sessions, because memories gained by telepathy are a poor substitute for muscle memory.

Ami would soak up as much magecraft as she could, around her pre-med courses, and would be willing to teach at least basic first aid.

Mii would share her empty-hand martial arts knowledge with the Takamachis (probably something based on Fairbairn and Sykes's Close Quarters Combat System, but Academy City would have developed it along slightly different lines than the Shanghai Municipal Police did in our world), and would pick up what they'd be willing to teach of ninjitsu. And, while Mii doesn't have an offensive esper ability, she would at least know the theoretical basics of combining martial arts and innate powers; she might even be able to teach Ryoko something there.

Rob can teach "Working with Bureaucrats 101" (using the system to your advantage instead of wasting time going around it), and will be quite happy to sit beside Mii as they both learn tactics and strategy from Tessa.

Sasami and Makoto would trade recipes.

[Bob Schroeck]

Sasami and Makoto would trade recipes.

Occasionally with Belldandy, I'm sure -- and Kasumi Tendo once that NPC apartment comes fully online in the story.

[Dartz]

Berlldandy makes Apple Pie from scratch, after all

[robkelk]

Berlldandy makes Apple Pie from scratch, after all

I think that's a meme now. How long has that been a meme?

And if The Three really are Usagi's mother, what should she be learning from them? Other than how to make apple pie from scratch.

[Labster]

Well, Skuld can teach Usagi how to make robots, and Urd can teach her how to pick up guys.

[Rajvik]

Well, Skuld can teach Usagi how to make robots, and Urd can teach her how to pick up guys.

Or just brain fry them, I'm sure Urd will swing through Pensacola to do so on occasion. 
Bostwick would slide right in with Uzu squad,and be able to teach how to blend in better to ALL of them.

[Black Aeronaut]

Really, I would view it more as an 'Adoption By Default' scenario.  Or, at the very least, that she's a descendant of Trinity's Overbeings much like how Sailor Cosmos was supposed to be her own descendant.

(And on that note,  does anyone else see Sailor Cosmos playing a vital role later on down the line?)

It could actually make for a very lovely bit of closure for Usagi's story - that after everything has been said and done, The Three convince her to apprentice under them for a time.  The Sol System can govern itself, and the Jyuraians (along with their getting-along-like-a-house-on-fire allies, the Abh) won't be far away when help is needed.  Mamoru and Chibi-Usa go with her because they can learn a few things as well.

Without Usagi there to pull them all together, the other Senshi will feel free to pursue their own interests, which will free up Ami to be with Rob while they explore the Metacontinuity.

On another front, we really haven't talked much about Doctor Doofenschmirtz's plot - namely, where he finds a bucket of Handwavium from Fenspace that the Goddesses somehow missed (like Andy and his open boxes of antimatter, that) and decides that he will turn the landmark buildings of the world into space ships.

Why?

Because he's somehow twigged to the fact that aliens are real, and he wants to get a jump on things by opening Earth's first used space ship dealership.

And Perry isn't gonna be around to stop him this time.

Of course, this means that in Season 2 we're obligated to have this bit as well:

"Aren't you a little young to be going out into space?"
"Why yes.  Yes we are."

[Labster]

Sailor Cosmos isn't Usagi's descendant per se, she's Usagi's reincarnation.  In the same way that Eriol Hiiragizawa and Fujitaka Kinomoto are the same person as Clow Reed.  At least that's how I interpret it -- it's also possible that she is Usagi herself, or Chibiusa.  But well, the manga had a theme of death and rebirth, and how destruction would always exist when life existed.  It's most poetic when you extend that out in cycles on cycles -- the Silver Millennium to the modern day to Crystal Tokyo to whatever age lies beyond -- an age that Cosmos implies could end if she fails in her own mission.

It's highly unlikely that she's in the Metacontinuity unless she's coming directly from the manga continuity, where um, everyone died.  Well, except Naru and Umino and all the NPCs.  Oh, uh, spoilers.  But on the other hand, anyone that could be a threat to Sailor Cosmos would be a threat to anyone in our setting.  You know, like Azathoth-tier threats.  Might be interesting, but hold on to your SAN points.

And it might set up a Kikyou/Kagome dynamic over Mamo-chan.  I always loved that dynamic in Inuyasha, a tsundere quarreling with a past incarnation/tsundere over the same guy.  Girls, you're the same person, you're jealous over yourself!

On the other hand, finding Kinmokusei should be an early goal for spacefarers if for no other reason than because the planet's name is the best pun ever because delicious sailor traps it would be a good source of allies, and a neat place to write out another culture.

I've only shared this with a couple people before, but this is a little scene I wrote a five years back, set after the end of the Sailor Moon manga.  Sorry in advance for the tears.

Those Left Behind

    Chief Inspector Sakurada Natsuna looked over the case files once again, hoping that she could solve the disappearance of the ten girls.  Hoping, even after so long, to get some clue of where they had gone.
    But she knew.
    In her heart, she always knew what could happen to a soldier.  That being a soldier means you don't always come home.
    She didn't even know what had happened this time.  She had blamed herself for not knowing -- the other times had been so obvious -- but she had never been any help those times either.  There was never anything she could do but wait, and believe in them.  But after nearly a year of waiting, the time had come.
    She looked at framed picture of a blonde teenager on her desk, with a red bow in her hair and a red domino mask on her face.  There was a photo of the same girl in her files, but this picture was from three years ago.  The girl smiled and made a V sign in the photo, but that only made Natsuna's mood worse.
    She picked up the photo and spoke to it, "I made a promise to you, and I intended to take it to my grave.  But they have to know.  They can't live like this, not knowing.  Truly..."
    Her voice became a whisper.  "I'm sorry V-chan, so sorry."
    The policewoman's eyes overflowed with tears, as she finally gave in to the fact that her comrade, her coworker, her beloved Sailor V was not coming back.  Hot tears streamed across the glass covering the portrait, until she pulled it across her breast.
    Chief Sakurada pulled herself together.  She felt lucky that no one was watching her; it would never do for her command to see the cool, cheerful woman so distraught.  It was her job to be the cool and collected one.  The one who other people relied on.  Just like Sailor Venus, and the other Sailor Senshi.
    It struck her that whatever mission the Sailor Senshi were on, it must have been successful.  There had been no massive disasters since the circus left town.  However, it wasn't hard to put two and two together; after this long, they all must have paid the ultimate price to save the world.
    She held the portrait up once again, and wiped it clean with the edge of her scarf.  "Thank you. Goddess or girl, whatever happened, I know I can never repay you for what you have done.  Thank you."
    She steeled herself for the task ahead.  She had no idea how she would handle the media, who were still in an uproar over the missing Azubu-Juuban Ten.  But she knew who she owed an explanation to the most.
    By the time a young man entered the room, her demeanor had settled into a steely resolve.  "Wakagi-kun!"
    "Yes?" he answered reflexively, not sure what this was about.
    "Gather all of the families.  The Ainos, the Tsukinos, Mizuno's mother.  All of them.  Even the friends, Naru and Hikaru."
    "Was there a breakthrough in the case?"  Wakagi's heart started racing with excitement, at the prospect of hope for the girls, and maybe even that one missing college student who had never made it to America.
    "A breakthrough?"  Natsuna considered the word.  "Not in the case -- maybe a breakthrough of the heart.  Or breaking a promise."
    "Huh?"
    "What are you standing there looking like an idiot for?  Get to calling them!"
    "Yes ma'am," Wakagi acknowledged, hurrying out of the office.
    Natsuna leaned back in her chair and sighed.  It would be a daunting task to explain to the families that their daughters were Sailor Senshi, magical guardians, without seeming like a complete lunatic.
    Everyone knew of Sailor Moon, of course.  But that's a far cry from saying that your daughter was secretly a guardian warrior, who got killed on some unknown mission.  They might not even believe her; revealing the secret she shared with Minako might come at the cost of her job.  But she owed it to their families, and to the girls themselves, to let their families know what their girls had done.  What the Senshi had done for them, and for the entire world.  If they had given their lives in the line of duty, they deserved to be remembered.
    And Natsuna prayed that one day, they could all be reincarnated into a happier life.

[Labster]

I guess everyone took the week off. Just a reminder that we are at T minus 30 days for the release of the Halloween story. I'm trying to knock it into shape but there are still missing parts. If they're with your characters or SI, please add them. I may edit your writing for structural issues, please check the wiki history for changes.

[robkelk]

Likewise.

BA, is there a common room at Westwood, or just the courtyard with the pool?

[Black Aeronaut]

No common room. Just the courtyard. The complex has all the doors to the apartments facing inwards, and a mezzanine providing access to the second-floor apartments. I'll take a pictures when I get back home so you can see.

[Labster]

Could there be a common room in the fictional version?  Doesn't have to be big, just like a foyer with some mailboxes and a few chairs.  I'm thinking of the place that my dad went to when he ran a polling place in the last election.  It's not too uncommon for apartment complices to have areas like that, not bigger than an apartment, that are public.

(And yest I know complices isn't a word, the real plural is complexen.)

[Black Aeronaut]

Here, see for yourselves.













Putting in an "enclosed space" would actually take away from this place, not add to it.  The entire setup is open-air.  The only, and absolutely only, enclosed space besides the apartment units themselves is the manager's office in the center of the complex, and that actually was not original.  It was added in provide a larger space than the small office at the end of the far wing.  In the story, I've gone back to the original manager's office and we've turned the added office into the foyer for The Onsen.

[Rajvik]

What about the breezeway, we can enclose it somewhat and temporarily, we have the power (tools) and we have the knowledge.

[Norgarth]

what do you need an enclosed space for?