#because senshi is always blessed

[acatpiestuff]

More dunmeshi scraps

[thechekhov]

Chekhov Reads Dungeon Meshi: CH46

D....dark Laios?

I mean, you DID consent!

The fact that ghosts can pass through walls and take other things with them... it kind of elicits another type of organism. Like, what can pass through cell walls? What other parts of the body can just yoink stuff from one place and bring it to another?

Congrats! It's all just been a dream!

I'm sorry what the SHIT?!?!?

Well, I-- .... yeah, I GUESS.

Though it looks more like one of those carousel horses.

I think this is probably still inside the dungeon. Very... DEEP. Inside the dungeon.

What? WHAT?! These things are like regular animals down here???

Oh, I--hm. I see.

Ordered by WHOMST?

Is this just an entire society of (humans??? ghosts?) that lives here in the dungeon deep? Is there still a king under the mountain? Are the rumors of the king dying not true at all?

........or are these people and descendants of adventurers who came in but were never able to leave? And the fact that Senshi points out that none of them are old.... are they ageing?

Laios, Senshi n--...... welp. There they go.

Bless this man and his absolutely non sexual obsession with monsters. But.

Izutsumi, who is a human-level intellect beastkin (though she's low on wisdom and patience....) is being very.... beast-ly and soft here. She's being magically compelled, presumably, to chill the fuck out.

Which means all these monsters are also under the same effect? Isn't that a little fucked up? They're basically under a permanent drugged effect.

Also. Hm. 'short lifespan' is....relative. Short lifespan compared to what? Immortality?

Orcs know this place exists....?

These people planting things for fun means they're absolutely trapped here like spirits.

Keeping up appearances for. Whom.

These poor people have no new incomers to talk to, huh.

Oh, I uh---- ................ hm. THat's not at all what I was imagining either.

Fashion is cyclical after all I guess....

Mmmmm. Mmmm-hmmmMMM.

WHEEEEZXE

Knowing I've finally hit these two absolutely iconic panels... amazing.

......I guess it can only do so much to make her docile...... she still doesn't like Laios.

Why does he look familiar...?

....so Derghal had a son. And a grandson. So then why is there a bid for the throne...?

Laios. Laios, is milking the minotaur the ONLY thing you did? Or was there more to it? Laios.

It's interesting. That bartender said he was 600 when he started his now-400 year old ale. So. That means they're 1000 years old.

That means that they're about as long lived as elves? Haven't gone mad yet. But that's still a long time.

That's kinda worse, yeah, but a loss of the self is a type of death, in a way...? So....

The most throwback of all time.

Actually, I feel like that's been there for a while, although it didn't always look EXACTLY like a lion's head. I feel like the little living armor he keeps in there made it that design? But how would it do that on purpose?

this is what it looked like some chapters back. Yeah, it's been sculpting into a lion's mane for a while now.... Ohohohoh playing the long game are we? 👀

Ah, it's not a wolf. How tragic for you, Laios. It'll never work out.

Also, damn, those wings sure be lookin like Falin's very non-dragon wings. What a wild coincidence. I'm sure that doesn't mean anything. :)

laughing hysterically. This poor guy can't get a break. He's been running from responsibility and inheritance for his entire life and it still catches up and trips him purposefully.

There is definitely a certain amount of tragedy there, yeah. These people aren't asking Laios for help because it's easier. They're legitimately stuck in a nightmare scenario. Unless you're someone who can get pleasure from other avenues, living all that time without the basic needs will drive a person mad. Elves live just as long, presumably, but they're still able to eat, I assume.

I'm honestly more surprised they're all as sane as they are.

.......King of Forgor.

[pyreo]

i've seen dungeon meshi around tumblr for what feels like a decade now and it's all been manga panels of senshi showing bulge. which obviously means I respected it but didn't know anything else

so anyway I'm up to episode 9 now and here's my ongoing thoughts about it:

The character dynamics are the best thing about it, I think everyone pretty much Gets It from seeing any page of the manga

There's a lot of great jokes - verbal jokes even! Which is tricky to do in translation but they still absolutely work

I really like how there's an underlying theme of.... being responsible for yourself and what's around you. the focus on balanced meals, and of food being a blessing and not something to treat like a burden. That the most survival-strong individual, Senshi, is almost always advising how to make something taste better because enjoying something is part of surviving too. The constant references to sustaining an ecosystem in their dungeon, though it's an unnatural area broken by time and filled with horrors, it's portrayed as a place worth respect and that no matter how creaetures came to be there, they deserve a way of life too

I like how Senshi's personality is portrayed through only doing things that take effort. He always takes longer or puts in more work when possible because he sees learning and training oneself with practice to be the most fundamental part of growth. He only dislikes magic because it seems like a 'shortcut' that skips the necessary responsibilities. He refuses to wash his beard because he doesn't care if it makes magic less effective - but he immediately does when Marcille spends the time and work to create him some soap, which he wants to use without hesitation

I actually love Marcille's voice acting, she's got so much personality in her voice and I just enjoy hearing how she feels like saying anything

Laios is a perfect balance of being very endearing and also just impossible to deal with. He's great. A male protagonist with such innocence and wide-eyed enthusiasm is also refreshing

Chilchuck is. Well I know what a moe gap is now and if I had a nickel for every short, cropped-hair anime boy who was Actually A Lot Older and Not Cute

My fav moment by far is Marcille begging Chilchuck for the barest bit of info about himself, and him grouchily revealing his age, but because she and Senshi live hundreds of years they hear '28' and only get affirmed in their belief he's a kid, and meanwhile Laios just learned he's actually the youngest party member and defers to Chilchuck's authority immediately

[teecupangel]

I just thought of a great world that Desmond would love (hate). What if he wound up in the miraculous ladybug or sailor moon world? How would he deal with all of the magical crap?

I would like to take this time to show this again XD

I’m going to focus on Sailor Moon because I’m most familiar with that XD

First of all: I mean… at least it’s not Puella Magica. Desmond should count his blessings.

Alright, let’s talk about how this would work.

At first, Desmond would believe he had just been transported into Japan and would try to contact the Brotherhood. It’s during this time that he gets to encounter one of the monsters and he’d be surprised, going “what the fuck?” before just going “fuck it” and trying to take down the monster himself.

Sailor Moon and her team arrives while they’re fighting and Desmond has to watch these clearly teenage girls fight the crap out of that monster with magic powers.

At first, he thinks “Isu bullshit?” and then goes “Naaahh” because that would be too much.

Something weird is going on, that’s for sure.

So he leaves before anyone could ask him how he could stand toe to toe with a monster, his hood hiding his identity (there’s a bit of “did Tuxedo Mask forgot his suit?” but Usagi is sure that the strange hooded man wasn’t Tuxedo Mask).

Anyway, Desmond couldn’t get in contact with any of the Assassins.

When he goes to the supposed Assassin safe house in Japan, he gets to talk to the boss of a yakuza clan who tells him that he had heard of the Brotherhood but they were apparently wiped out centuries ago. It’s all very mysterious but the legend goes that the Assassins and the Templars joined forces to defeat a monster from beyond the skies and they sacrificed their lives to ‘defeat’ that monster.

Desmond isn’t sure just how accurate that legend is but it seems to be an explanation to why there’s no Brotherhood.

He stays in Japan because… well… the monster he saw fell from the skies so there’s a possible connection there.

He has no idea what the hell this magical shit is but, by god, he was going to try and interrogate one of them.

Unorganized Notes:

Desmond uses a reversible hooded jacket that’s black and white. He uses black most of the time, reversing it to white when he’s hunting monsters. He also wears a white face mask to hide his lower face. He would like to stress he’s not a superhero or whatever the fuck is up with Tuxedo Mask. He just don’t want anyone recognizing him.

Speaking of, he finally meets Tuxedo Mask and they do not get along. Not at all. Tuxedo Mask thinks he’s too violent, Desmond is always wondering what the hell is he supposed to be doing.

Someone tries to call him the Hooded Mask and Desmond hates it.

He gets a part time job in a bar. Well… it’s a cozy restaurant during the day and a bar during the night. Usagi and her friends eat there more often because of the hot foreign bartender. (Desmond has made so much Shirley Templar thanks to them. His boozed Shirley Templar is a huge seller too)

The Yakuza boss he talks to helps him with his fake identity and gives him a place to stay, giving him info about how the monsters seemed to be centered in the district he woke up in. Desmond wondered why the boss was helping him, the boss tells him to just indulge her because she had always enjoyed the legends of the ‘great’ Assassin Brotherhood. This boss is this world’s version of Mochizuki Saeko, the mentor of the Japanese Brotherhood during modern day.

The Sailor Senshi has a crush on Desmond because he’s older, nice and hot. Even Usagi but Usagi would like to stress that Mamoru is hotter.

Desmond is pretty sure his regulars are the Sailor Senshis because (1) they look a lot like them and (2) they whisper sometimes and Desmond’s hearing has been enhanced by his Eagle Senses that he can still hear them. He doesn’t confront them though because he doesn’t necessarily want to get in the middle of anything. He just wants information to why he’s here and how to get back to his world.

He does help them out when they’re fighting monsters, going as far as carrying them out of harm’s way and it’s clear that they’ve eaten up more than they could chew. It’s a common occurrence where Tuxedo Mask tries to encourage them while Desmond tries to remind them that it’s okay to not be strong enough and to leave it to him. His methods are… well… quick and painless.

Depending on which arc we’re going for, if Chibiusa is already in the story, she doesn’t like Desmond. She thinks Mamoru is still the best and Desmond just smiles at this because… well… what else is he supposed to do?

Speaking of Chibiusa, if she uses the hypnosis ability of Luna-P and it makes him very wary of the kid… and want to check Luna-P because that thing feels too much like a POE.

That’s right! The Moon Kingdom are Isus! To be more exact, they’re the Isus who left Earth and made a home on the moon to escape the Solar Flare. So yeah… Desmond needs to find a way to contact someone from the Moon Kingdom OR get to the Moon Kingdom as the answer might be there. Maayybbeeee.

(Sailor Pluto might actually have the answers he needs but he doesn’t know that)

[fallloverfic]

Me: I read/watch Delicious in Dungeon for The Plot The Plot (spoilers for S01E13: Red Dragon III/Good Medicine, and CW: blood):

Thank you Trigger for adding this, this was not in the manga, blessings be upon you and your families. I did not know that last episode Chilchuck asking if they'd never escape the crotch would be prophetic alkdjalj

Listen, if I told you how many screencaps I took of Laios in his civvies/pajamas... well. He looks beautiful. 15/10 great job, Trigger, thank you.

I am also still soft for the siblings.

He is so worried about her.

Laios do have a lovely back, though.

Shoutout to Trigger for keeping all the times Senshi and the other characters faceplant in each other's crotches for this whole little arc lol I took so many screencaps of Laios though, you have no idea how long I've been waiting for them to animate this.

Unconscious luggage Laios is the best. Love how Senshi carries him (and that all three guys are standing behind Marcille, who is protecting them).

Just laser-focused for me.

And the party pile alkdjlaj I was waiting for this so much alkdjalj Poor unconscious Laios, with Senshi squishing his crotch. Poor Marcille, stuck beneath both their tank and their bulky damage dealer and their rogue, all after fighting an army of blood dragons and using ancient magic to revive someone. Life's never fair for the mage.

I always loved the way Chilchuck just lifts up Laios' leg alkdjlaj The tall-man is literally too tall for him aldkjalj

I have been specifically waiting for them to animate this for months lakjdlaj This whole sequence is one of my favorite parts of the manga and ahh they did such a good job!!!

They kept the chest push, just incredible. Bless.

I just love how Kui really explored how races of different sizes and heights interact with each other and how it changes different things. Laios is literally a tall-man and the tallest member of their party, and the buffest in a different way than Senshi is (Senshi is sturdier and generally far stronger, but Laios is their tank for a reason). And despite Senshi's strength, and Laios being badly injured, they still cannot fully compensate for the fact that Laios is still the biggest of them all.

Also they added this alkdjla And I love it so much alkdjaj In the manga, Laios has his left leg pulled back a bit to make room for Chilchuck (or maybe just because it's how he sits down after Senshi and Chilchuck finally push him over), but here he's literally between Laios' legs in part because Laios is just so tall and Chilchuck is just very small by comparison.

I just ahhhh Chilchuck trying to keep him seated just kills me...

Ahh these shots just end me. They all look so good and I love how they're arranged. I love how desperate Chilchuck is to appeal to him, because Chilchuck doesn't want him to die T-T He knows how much Laios is hurting over Falin, both mentally and physically (he is still recovering from when she hit him), but...

Overall this was a phenomenal episode, and it was adapted really well. I loved how the characters played off each other, the voice acting and music were wonderful, the animation was excellent, just... ahhhh

Other delicious Plot:

The Plot in Episode 3

The Plot in Episode 7

The Plot in Episode 9

The Plot in Episode 11

The Plot in Episode 13 (you are here)

The Plot in Episode 14

The Plot in Episode 15

The Plot in Episode 16

The Plot in Episode 17

The Plot in Episode 18

[isekai-crow]

Dungeon Meshi Ep 2

The beautiful bouncy animation is soooooo good. So much sakuga and love has been put into this anime is so apparent from the very first scene.

ALSO MAN. THE FOOD and also FAT APPRECIATION IN THIS SHOW.

Not only are there characters of all sizes and body weights, with no body shaming to be found whatsoever, the fact that the wiki has everyone's BMI recorded, and there is a strong light shining on needing to eat full meals to function, and that your cravings mean your body is lacking something and you should listen are all great and important things, and I love that this show is highlighting all that.

And then there's fucking Laios.

Bless this man.

This is a lovely episode about book smarts vs street smarts, and both having their place, and that we are always learning new things.

And also lots of screaming.

Episode Spoilers Below the Cut

First off, good on y'all for fighting against the Basilisk, that was very cool teamwork with Senshi and Laios. Makes for some cool screen shots.

But Also.. This man is DYING of poison. And Senshi has the remedy, looks this man in the eye and is like, yah, nah, I'm using this for dinner.

Thankfully dinner is the cure. BUT FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Y'all PLUCK and ROAST a whole ass chicken that's the size and probably the weight of a roast pig... That's at least 10 hours of cooking, I'm sorry, that man dead lmao

lawl SUPER DEAD.

Next is Marci's experiment.

She's a little bookworm who trusts what she's learned in her classes and has to do things by the book! I love that she's not all talk though. She takes her time to set up and plan it, and executes it perfectly! She's just fine!

Juuuuuuuuust fine.

This whole after scene is delightful. I LOVE THIS SHOW. They're such a lovely little found family. Marcille being forced to be honest with her partners because she's been brain fried is good for a Tsundere, and them being reassuring to her is such a.. TTwTT lovely relationship.

THE CHICKEN IS THE TAIL. WHAT IS THIS SHOW I LOVE IT.

The other shining stars of this episode are Chilchuck and Senshi.

Poor Chilchuk, he's just a stressed out little halfling guy trying to keep his friends from dying, and not having to eat Roast Dwarf.

Senshi is full "I Will Cause Problems On Purpose" and "This Is Fine" all in one.

Capybara was like THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!!! When Senshi just.. straight up had his finger in the boiling hot oil. Dwarves -> Forges -> Hot things are fine (・ω・)

perfect temperature reading. my brain often tells me to do this and I'm so glad I don't.

I love the ingenuity of using the traps to cook! Sasuga Senshi for the idea and Sasuga Chilchuck for making it a reality!!

I also appreciate that I will NEVER BE COOKING ROAST GIANT BAT, but that I'm getting a "Kewpie 5 Minute Cooking Style" recipe walk through.

Throwing in a screenshot here cause Capybara noticed how sweet it was that the Chilchuck's burnt kakiage was also lovingly drawn into the presented plate.

THE ENDING LINE QwQ

Bread can't replace meat. Nor can meat replace bread. But when they're together, they're more delicious. Both Food and People remain the same. Dungeon Meshi.

A lovely quote to wrap up the episode. The final bit could be taken a bit ominously (people are also dungeon food) but for now I'll take it with a grain of salt. (badumtsss)

[real-life-senshi]

WE HAVE PGSM 20TH ANNIVERSARY SENSHI REUNION!!!!!

Miyuu, Mew and Ayaka posted on Instagram! :DDDDD Ayaka made the same post on her ameblo too! I had a feeling it's going to happen because Ayaka mentioned she was travling into Tokyo for a day since she's moved to Sendai now, but she made it sounds like it was only for work, but I'm so glad my hunch was correct and the ladies arranged to meet up!!!!! I could cry reading their posts! 😭

SAWAI MIYUU

いろいろなお祝いの会💖 20年かぁ みんなが戦士で本当に幸せ あらためて 出逢ってくれてありがとう ずっと一緒にいてくれてありがとう これからもずっと、、 #美少女戦士セーラームーン #🌙 #セーラー戦士 #戦士会 #pgsm #仲間 #戦友 #かけがえのない存在 #小松彩夏 #🧡 #北川景子 #❤️ #安座間美優 #💚 #泉里香 #💙 #沢井美優 #💗

A celebration of various things 💖 20 years already. I feel so blessed we were all a Senshi Once again Thank you for being part of my life Thank you for always being by my side And for all the years to come ...

KOMATSU AYAKA

安座間の結婚のお祝いと今月誕生日の里香＆沢井のお誕生日のお祝いをしました🎂💕 ⁡ なんだかお祝いが続いていて嬉しい🥰 ⁡ 戦士のお祝い事があると私も色んな方からお祝いしてもらえるので、私まで幸せな気持ちになれるんです☺️❤️笑 ⁡ 昨日も、お話しましたが私たちが出会った作品でもある実写版【美少女戦士セーラームーン】の放送開始から20年🌙 ⁡ この作品に出会えたおかげで、かけがえのない大切な仲間に出会えました💖💙❤️💚🧡 ⁡ 20年経った今でもこうして大好きなみんなと集まれて、笑って過ごせることが本当に幸せです💕 ⁡ いつもバイバイしてからも話し足りなくて ずっと連絡を取り合う私たち😝 ⁡ 20年経ったけど『変わらないねうちら(笑)』なんて話しながら、変わらないで一緒に居てくれるみんなに『ありがとう♡』と思った私なのでした☺️🧡 ⁡ 景ちゃんデビュー20周年＆ 写真集発売おめでとう✨ ⁡ 安座間結婚おめでとう💐 ⁡ 里香、沢井、まだちょっと早いけど お誕生日おめでとう🎂 ⁡ I wanna be with you. My best friend♡ ⁡ #戦士 #戦友 #仲間 #戦士会 #安座間美優 #泉里香 #北川景子 #沢井美優 #小松彩夏 #誕生日 #誕生日会 #結婚 #お祝い#幸せ #絆 #美少女戦士セーラームーン #セーラームーン

We celebrated Azama's marriage and Rika's & Sawai's birthday this month 🎂💕 I'm happy that these celebrations keep continuing 🥰 Whenever there is a celebration for a Senshi, I also get many messages of congratulations from all kinds of people, so it doubly makes me happy too ☺️❤️ lol As I mentioned yesterday, it has been 20 years since the work where we all met, the live-action of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" began airing 🌙 It is thanks to this work, I got to meet my irreplaceable and most precious friends 💖💙❤️💚🧡 Even though 20 years have passed, I'm really happy that I can still get together and laugh with everyone I love like this 💕 Every time after we say bye-bye we still feel we haven't talked enough with each other, so we keep in touch all the time I told everyone that even though it's been 20 years "we've not changed all all (lol)", and then I shared my deeply felt "thank you♡" to everyone for having been with me without change all these times ☺️🧡 Congratulations to Kei-chan's debut's 20th anniversary & the release of her new photo book✨ Congratulations to Azama on her marriage💐 Rika and Sawai, even though it's a bit early, Happy birthday 🎂 I wanna be with you. My best friend♡

AZAMA MEW

💗❤️💙🧡💚

昨日は、沢井と里香のお誕生日のお祝い＆私の結婚もお祝いしてくれました🥰

　 そしてなんといっても！10月4日は、 実写版「美少女戦士セーラームーン」放送開始 20周年でした🌙

その日がデビューの景子も20周年❤️ 　

ということで、いろいろおめでとうの日でした🥳 　

歳だけは立派に着実に重ねているけど、 中身と関係性は10代から変わらない大切な仲間です。

　 そして20年経っても私達を応援してくださっている方々が 本当に多くて…感謝です♡ 　

これからもよろしくお願い致します！ 　

#実写版美少女戦士セーラームーン#20周年#戦士#sailormoon

Yesterday, we celebrated Sawai and Rika's birthdays & my marriage🥰 　 And what a special day! October 4th, Was the broadcast of the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon's 20th anniversary🌙 That day was also the 20th anniversary of Keiko's debut ❤️ 　 So it was a day of celebrations for many happy occasions 🥳 　 Though we are all steadily and admirably getting older, But through the connection inside us, we are still the same precious friends we have been since our teenage years. 　 And there are so many people who are still supporting us even after 20 years….I am so thankful for all of you ♡ 　 I thank you for your continued support moving forward!

[lunargoddess40]

SM FanArt Paintings: “Moon & Chibi Moon- Guardians of Love & Justice” (SM Cosmos June 2022 Birthday Edition- On Sale Right Now for $130.00!!!!)

Happy Birthday to the Pretty Guardians of Love & Justice & my #1 childhood heroines from “Pretty Guardian: Sailor Moon”, Usagi & Chibiusa, as I give you my “Guardians of Love & Justice” Birthday Painting for their special day!!!!

In celebration of the SM 30th Anniversary continuing on my “SM Cosmos” Movie Collection series, this special birthday painting features the Tsukino Girls as Eternal Sailor Moon & Eternal Sailor Chibi Moon as the legendary mother-daughter duo make their grand entrance with their respective Senshi poses all glossed up with glitter, polka dots, and gloss!!!! I’m super happy and proud of this masterpiece as I really want to make it special for the Tsukino girls because they’re favorites growing up and making it for them during the 30th Anniversary just makes it even more special, I’m so blessed and honored to complete this masterpiece and I’m glad I was able to fix their highlights before today!!!!

This one is for you, Usagi & Chibiusa, may you forever & always reign supreme as our Guardians of Love & Justice worldwide!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!

🌙This painting is also on sale right now for $130.00 if you guys want to buy them, please follow me on @lunargoddess40 and leave comments to purchase them!!!! Thank you for your support, Sailor Guardians Forever & Always United!!!!🌙

🌙P.S. This is a FanArt painting made by me.🌙

💖SM Cosmos & Characters: Naoko Takeuchi with Toei Animation💖

[susie-dreemurr]

I just realized I never posted my dungeon meshi ep 18 liveblog hold on

They’re talking about my boy, Mad Mage beloved <3

Laois and Marcille you guys are way too optimistic gods bless. Senshi and Chilchuck are just like me fr fr, we know that shit ain’t working

WIAT THERE WAS SOMEONE ELSE HERE

QUE??????

Cringe fail shapeshifters lmao

Ok Laios is, once again, just like me fr fr. my memory of ppl’s appearances are also pretty vague so I easily miss vital details about their appearance, like he did about Chil and Senshi 😭

The way he’s speaking reminds me of Falin 🥲

Guys maybe the ones who aren’t participating in the conversation are imposters— nvm they started to participate it’s jover. They too stupid </3

As someone who is very Laios, yeah I wouldn’t trust his observation skills that much either. Well, if the imposters act OBVIOUSLY different he might but I know he’s just like me fr fr so that’s why I doubt. I’m shit at people.

You’ve not lost trust :(

Not the childproof cap 💀 also Ngl the instant he asked for help I would think he’s the impostor because “the REAL Chilchuck would never ask for help so easily!”— THATS WHAT IM SAYING

Okay Ngl the Marcille imposter is good at this

PFFFF MARCILLE SO TRUE!!! She is the only one who realizes because she ain’t

LETS GOOOO LAIOS I ALWAYS BELIEVED

NO MAMES LAIOS DOGBOY

Oooo he’s smart

Oh my god. She found out. The fish eggs. Lmao

LETS GOOO THE CAT GIRL IVE HEARD SO MUCH ABOUT

Ep 19

[worldwright]

Good evening !

Getting into a psych ward in France takes a very long time and all, so imagine when today, 3 months and a half after I was told I was on the waiting list, I learned that I wasn't actually. I wasted 3 months and a half waiting for nothing. The hospital said they were doing all the things for me, because I can't, and then didn't. And nobody apologized when I confronted them about that. So, great.

Fortunately, I was with a friend the entire time (good lord, without her idk where I'd be, she's too kind for this world)

So that's how I ended up buying some jasmine green tea and a figurine of the poorest man alive dead

I fucking needed good things after what I learned today, because how the fuck am I supposed to trust any medical staff now ??? Like, I already had a fear of them, but now ??? It's over

I don't believe in luck, because it doesn't make any sense. What's good luck or bad luck ? How someone can be lucky or unlucky ? Why am I never lucky ? Why do I always get the short end of the stick ? Because that's not luck. Because if it was that means no one is responsible for whatever keeps happening to me. From what they explained to me, it was the fault of the psychiatrist I saw that day. They didn't know about it until I went to the hospital after the call with the psych ward. Because I called them. Because 3 months and a half is a long time to wait.

What a bunch of assholes. They said that they "couldn't do anything other than just putting me for real this time on the waiting list.". I lost 3 months and a half because of someone's fault. And now I am finally at step one.

Waiting. I'm back at waiting. And the only thing I can do is talk to my psychiatrist (bc she works at the psych ward I'll be) and hope that she can do something for me. Which is something she's really, really bad at

So, yep, great day

But at least I ate well and got tea and a Toji ?

Have a wonderful morning my friend !

UGH that makes me so fkn pissed. like about all the things. like why do medical professionals never face consequences. why were there no checks in place to alert them that they'd forgotten to do something. why do they pick on the people who are already obviously less able to stand up for themselves. why do we live in a culture of such individualism that there's no community safety net. and WHY is it so hard to even begin to unravel any of that

toji!!!!!!!!! that's such a cool figure auuuuuuuuuuuu

i'm kind of having a really hard time existing in the present rn... can't really work very much but i can't get myself to do chores either....... at least i'm seeing my family tomorrow. i may just go hang out at their house instead of running errands......... (my mom got covid a few weeks ago so she might like the company now that she's recovered)

sometimes i think about how my consistent sleep, eating, and exercise patterns are probably boosting my mental health a LOT lol. like if i didn't have that built-in routine i would probably be way worse off than i am. helps me keep my motivation to get meds cuz like. i have friends that don't have that consistency and they are doing Not Great

watched the new episodes of dunmesh and heaven official's blessing last night!!!!!!!! thank you senshi for motivating me to finally eat the shrimp tempura in my freezer lmfaooooooo

also i figured out how to torrent stuff. should probably buy an external hard drive if i keep saving shows lmfao

it snowed last night!! only about 1cm, and it only stuck on plants and grass, but it's pretty!!!

hope the rest of your evening is relaxing! (also hi Leo, thanks for talking last night!)

[luxshine]

Y yo a ti, Cas -segunda parte. Because of course Mexican Cas pulled us out of despair and can throw us back in.

Ok, so the last 24 hours have been a bit of a rollercoaster and now I have another post to write about how dubbing is made. Because I love Misha a lot, and I respect him but… the whole rouge translator thing just doesn’t jive with reality.

Now, first of all I want to make a disclaimer: I do not believe that there’s a conspiracy to keep Dean closeted and away from Castiel. That makes absolutely no sense, no matter how you slice it. Among other things, conspiracy implies intent, and I really doubt the CW, Warner Bros and everyone involved in the marketing choices cares that much. At most, I think that there was a misunderstanding of marketing/PR and now people are doubling down on trying to pretend it didn’t happen. But a conspiracy? Nope. This isn’t THAT important, and it would require a LOT of people involved to make things work.

Which is precisely why the rouge translator thing doesn’t work. Because you would need a conspiracy to MAKE Destiel canon in order for it to be real.

Second: As I write this, I still don’t have an answer from the voice actors. But rest assured, WHEN they reply (or we can organize a panel so YOU guys can ask directly), I will tell you the absolute truth. If I am wrong with my assumptions, and it WAS a rouge translator, I will let you know, and I will admit I was wrong. And if it was from the audio (say, a Jensen adlib) or the actual script? I will also let you know.

Third: I don’t doubt that Misha REALLY believes the rogue translator thing, if it was told to him by TPTB. There’s no reason to believe he knows how dubbing works in Mexico, nor how many people check the final product. Or that he even watched the episode, instead of believing it was a fan clip. Also, I respect him immensely and I don’t want any hate send his way.

That said, let’s go into how dubbing works, again.

For the sake of argument, I will start with the idea that yes, there was a “Rogue translator” who decided that THIS was the perfect moment to make Destiel canon. Not, say, Season 8 when he could have translated an “I need you” from Dean into an “I love you” when the god tablet thing happened, not in season 12, or during the purgatory prayers. No, the best moment was two episodes before the finale, when he had to know that Cas was not coming back. 

And yes, the translator knew Cas was not coming back because when we translate series, we get them in packages of 5 episodes or more at the time. So they must have had 15x16 to 15x21 (The interview special) all together. So they knew that this was Cas’s exit from the series.

Now, in my previous post I said how in the old times, we used vhs tapes and paper copies of the shooting scripts (when they were available that was not always). Now a days, we get the video file and a word document (if we’re lucky. If not, we make the word file). Translate everything. Go through it AGAIN to make sure the lip sync matches and that we don’t have huge speeches when there’s a small window of time to say the speech because of the language differences. Check that we didn’t accidentally used a slang word that only Mexico would understand. If the show is not PG-13, make sure our swearwords are not too bad or too localized. THEN we send it to the studio, which prints about four copies of the script and hands it,and the video, to the Dub director.

The dub director then goes and re-watches every episode, while checking the script. Some directors don’t speak the language, so they’re just checking cadence, time, and the damned lip sync. (And if you, as a translator, don’t match the lip sync? You are either back to training or out of a word if you get too many strikes). So sure, you could slip a change of line there, IF the director doesn’t speak German, or Japanese, or Hindi.

But almost every single dub director speaks English. So a change from “Don’t do this, Cas” to “And I, you, Cas” would be noticed then and there, and changed to the right line. Which means that, for the rogue translator thing to work, we’d have to add also a rogue dub director.

And honestly, do you see a professional dub director with more than 15 years of experience (because you don’t give a series to a newbie, and Supernatural had the same dub director for all it’s run) risking his job for ONE line?

Anyway, in the times before the plague dub actors were called in groups to the study to record, in order to save audio tracks. So, for example, all the Inner Senshi would record together when doing Sailor Moon, and I assume in Supernatural, Sam and Dean’s lines would also be recorded together, while Dean and Cas might have been or not. Depending on times and so on. So you’d had at least 3 people in the studio: Dean’s VA, the dub director and the sound technician. ALL of them checking what was being said, what was in the script, and listening to the original audio.

Some actors would also make corrections to the script there, making some lines easier to read, and, again, checking those damn lip letters (Can you tell I HATE the lip letter thing?) . I remember fondly the VA for Sailor Jupiter, Araceli de Leon (RIP), who was known as “The Corrector”, since she would go through ALL the scripts for everyone with a red pen. The day I handed a script she didn’t find any corrections, I was jumping out of joy. So if 15x18 was recorded AT the dubbing studio? Someone who knew English could’ve caught the difference between the “Don’t do this” and the “And I you”, making it harder for our rogue translator to go unnoticed.

But let’s say it was recorded post-quarantine, when voice actors work alone at home, in their own private sound studios. I have no idea if they would have the director at hand through zoom, but I assume so. In any case, the VA would STILL have the original audio to know how the lines were said, and after 4 years of dubbing Dean Winchester, I will assume that the VA knows at the very least a little bit of English so if his script said “And I, you Cas” but he heard Jensen say “Don’t do it, Cas”, he would’ve made a correction there.

That’s now two people who would have to ignore the rouge translator’s actions, and even help them, in order for this theory to work.

And then the audio goes back to the director, who checks it again, makes sure it is lip synced and well acted, and sent to the audio technician who mixes it all, and now we have a THIRD person who could’ve said “Hey… uhm… this line? Is not what it says in the original” and by this time, we’d have to have a conspiracy to keep that “And I, you, Cas” in the final product.

Which brings me to person number four: Once the dubbing is done? It’s reviewed by the client (In this case, WB Latam), who gives the final say and CAN ask for redubs if necessary.

Story time. When I was doing this for a living, I got a series that had the WEIRDEST line ever. A line that made me triple check I was hearing things right (because it was a damn adlib that I couldn’t check with the script)

It was: “I’ve been listening to jazz even since I was a sperm swimming in my father’s testicles”.

So yeah.

I was a pro, so I didn’t censor it or change it and send it as it was to the director. Who OF COURSE called me and asked “Are you 100% sure that’s the line?” (This was in Japanese, and he didn’t speak Japanese. He trusted me). And I said “yeah, but if you need to change it, we can find another way to say “I’ve been a Jazz fan since before I was born”. “ He, Jack bless him, said “Nah. If that’s the original, let’s keep the original”.

The client was NOT amused and we had to change it in the final product.

Now, this was a throw away line by a secondary character that never appeared again in the series, in a small scene that probably only I remember. And the client still said “Nope, change that”. I’d like to believe that a line that changes the relationship between two main characters would have the same, if not more, scrutiny from TPTB.

Which makes now four people who would have had to either ignore the actions of the rogue translator, or actively participate in a conspiracy to make Destiel Latam canon.

Which, I dunno about you, sounds like way too much effort for something that was going to last for exactly one second before Cas got sucked into the Empty.

Someone made a mistake? Probably. But I am more willing to bet it was whoever sent the master video file to the studio than the dub studio, if that line wasn’t supposed to be there.

[lightdancer1]

A scene from the ATLA/Sailor Moon crossover

"You mentioned Sailor Saturn once." Setsuna looked up from her studies and put her pen down when she saw Azula standing at the doorway with two cups of hot tea. She smiled a little and Azula gave her an ironic grin, something in this that Setsuna had seen in the doors but knew her daughter would speak of only when she was ready.

"Why are there only three of you now?"

Setsuna sighed.

"It's a long story, and not one that speaks to the benefit of the old Kingdom that was. But....it does need to be told." She gestured, and as Azula passed out the tea she took a seat to Setsuna's right.

"In the time before time, Earth and all of its planets existed in a realm founded by Queen Serenity's mother, Queen Selene. She called her Kingdom the Golden Kingdom, and they discovered a species of entities barely removed from the great apes of the forest, save that they had stood upon their hind legs, acquired fire and the power of speech.

She took this crude stock, this entity called in its own mind Homo sapiens, and she uplifted it, bringing it to nine worlds. Each of them was protected by a being of her kind, nine of them all told. One for Mercury, for Venus, for the Moon itself, for Mars, for Jupiter, for Saturn, for Uranus, for Neptune. And for Pluto."

"But not Earth?" Azula raised an eyebrow.

Setsuna nodded.

"A curiosity meant that the Golden Crystal of Terra could not be passed to a Senshi. To the Kings of Earth and to their sons, but not to Senshi."

"So Senshi are women?"

"Not entirely, Uranus is proof of that. Uranus is male and female as Uranus wishes to be, and so is Haruka. It is how Haruka is, and the world accepts this without demur. Such has always been the gift of the Uranians."

Azula nodded.

"Which is why she-"

Setsuna nodded. "It is."

"Selene's Golden Age spanned two and a half thousand years, and with the King of Luna she had a daughter, proud and immortal in a sense. Queen Serenity, who grew to her own age and desired no mere mortal nor Senshi-blessed one to be the mother of her own child."

A shadow crossed Pluto's face.

"We were all sworn to loyalty to the old Queen but no kingdom falls to Chaos's whispers like this if all is well and if it truly mirrored what we believed it to be. Something attacked our world and hewed down Queen Selene, in a terrible battle that slew all our parents.

What it was, we do not know. The Old Queen would not say. There were stories that it was the Harvester of Souls stirring from the Cauldron, or perhaps it was merely some great manifestation of the Great Enemy."

Azula had questions she wanted to ask but she did not dare ask them as her mother slipped deeper into the paths of memory.

"Serenity went to a far distant place in a flare of wrath, it was said, to avenge her fallen mother and all the Senshi who had vanished with her. What little she has said spoke of the Heart of All That is, the Galaxy Cauldron. The place where stars and souls are born. She returned bloodied and yet pregnant, and spoke with triumph of casting down a great monster and humbling it."

Setsuna shook her head.

"She was pregnant, and with that pregnancy that lasted a longer term in gestation than any mortal woman's would be, twelve months instead of nine, we of the Outer Senshi were born three months before our Princess was. The Inners a half-year after."

The shadow crossed her face more deeply.

"So we grew and we were trained, the Outers with the Outers, the Inners with the Inners. At first we thought it was simply because of a task but it wasn't, not truthfully. In that first life I was known as Trista to the other Senshi, and we all went by different names. And in the past, the Golden Age, there had been a Senshi of the Moon to guard the Queen. In the Silver Millennium Queen Serenity refused to allow anyone to claim that title, and raised her daughter, Princess Serenity, to take a very specific set of paths."

She shook her head again.

"And then came the day of investiture, and the point where we understood the nature of what it was that we were, what we were asked to do. I was bestowed with my castle and its guardian, all of the Senshi were. Myself first, then Neptune, then Uranus. And then Saturn."

She shivered.

"She was younger than you were, at the age of ten. The youngest of all Senshi to be invested and that itself seemed, and was, wrong. We were allowed to grow to maturity in a physical sense, at least. She was not. So the Old Queen did something terrible and we, her Senshi, were forced to go along with it."

She sighed, the shadow now a deep gloom and something in her mood or in the ways her powers could surge at the strangest of times meant that the air seemed to stand still for a moment before it passed.

"She put Saturn into a trance, to awaken only for a single impossible and terrible moment. The end of the world as we knew it, to summon her glaive, and to bring it down. An end to the world and its rebirth. You know that I am Senshi of Time, Neptune of the Ocean, Uranus of the Heavens, which often means the wind, and can also mean the very power of planets themselves if she wills it to mean this."

Azula nodded.

A strange expression crossed Setsuna's face, of nostalgia mixed with elements of distaste.

"Saturn's title, and her function, reminds me of some of my....distant cousins. She is Senshi of Death, and Senshi of Destruction. The closest of all of us to the power wielded by our enemies, and from that closeness such power. And what was her reward for bearing so great a burden? To be placed into enchantment like the daughter in a fairy tale accursed by a witch, purely to be brought out and wielded to slaughter the world as it was."

The shadows grew deeper and there was a sense of gloom and loss as Setsuna continued.

"And so, a thousand years later, a curse placed upon our Princess at the moment of her birth came true. She defied the ban placed on Terra when the sorceress Beryl made contact with a being of World-Destruction empowered by the Great Enemy and drew great sorcerous power from her. Not from enmity and strife did our realm fall but from the twisting of its very power and virtues against it.

The great and arcane fetters fell, and though we shielded our own planets and Saturn's as well, it was not enough. Beryl was slain by Venus at swordpoint over the corpses of Serenity and Endymion. That much the spirit of the Old Queen said. She was mortally wounded herself, had fought and defeated her own love over the body of her second and in her last breath she destroyed the witch.

And then Metallia herself descended, a towering giant of fire and flame and smoldering darkness, something already capable of ending worlds but empowered with a great dream. Queen Serenity had banished Metallia and her spell was partially in effect, then, but for it to complete we too had to make that decision.

And so, in the end, in grief and shame and failure, we did. We touched our talismans together and they awoke the fourth of the Outers. Born anew to die, and to take all of us with her. Down went the glaive, and I went to the Doors, and to the long loneliness there with only the intermittent presence of those....cousins...for occasional company for so very long."

Azula let out a breath she'd forgotten to take.

"How horrible," she said, a low voice with a strangled tone of fear to it.

Setsuna looked at her with eyes that displayed the full weight of grief and shame.

"We know who the Inners are. We know who the Princess and Prince are. We do not stay away from them from pride, but from failure. It was our task to fight, and if such a threat as Beryl or Metallia arose we were not fixed to our Palaces. We could go to the Inner system. We should have gone, we should have seen. But we were blinded, and so all was lost, and so we were forced to fulfill the wickedness that the Old Queen forced upon all of us, in the end."

She shook her head.

"And now you're here," she said, looking at her and for a moment it was not just Setsuna (not yet Setsuna-mama to her but that day would come soon, very soon). It was Pluto as well. Two sets of eyes and gazes in the same face, both weary with the burden of eternity.

"A girl who was never given the chance, who was taught all her life that she belonged as a weapon, as a sword that talked and moved and was allowed in the eyes of those who knew no better to be treated like a person." Azula went very still for a moment.

"We could not do right by Saturn, when we find her again in this life, I hope that we will. The poor child has suffered enough in that life alone for ten thousand lifetimes. We can do right by you, and we will."

"Why?" Azula's question was quiet.

"I'm just-"

Setsuna raised her hand.

"You are. It wouldn't matter if you had no magic at all. No-one deserves the kind of lives given. I'm not sure if Haruka or Michiru would put it this way, or if it would ever be a thing they would do, but I believe this is why they've seen what I've seen, too."

Her smile returned for the first time since before the topic they discussed had set in, since before that day had started.

"We can give to others the kindness we were never given. And defy the Light as we defy the Dark, and both alike in the name of the virtues the Light claimed to represent, and which in truth Princess Serenity and Queen Selene did but Queen Serenity could not, not entirely."

She grimaced.

"And as I said, your magic is irrelevant to it. You exist, you are here. And that is all that is required."

The look of bemusement on Azula's face and the ways a kind of warmth crept into her gaze would be long remembered by Setsuna, and so too the look of gravity in golden eyes that darkened with emotion, the girl going over to her and putting an arm around her. It was the second time in their relationship that Azula had done so, the seed from which would grow a great forest of change in immediate terms and in a longer-term pattern only Setsuna knew the fuller details of. And even she knew the delicious elements of uncertainty, and that too was a thing to be savored.

[docholligay]

For Haruka and Michiru - What would their lives be like if they had never met?

We are driftwood, in the oceans of time. Birth is the first great gamble we ever make, pitched into the sea and set out to whatever current comes to carry us, and Michiru knows this to be true. Haruka, of course, has a romantic view of life, and to her mind, they were star-crossed lovers, always meant to find the other. Haruka could only ever have been Uranus, and Michiru was born to be Neptune, and so they always would have met, always would have loved. 

Michiru loves the foolish, reckless naivete Haruka is still able to have, that air of childishness that allows her to believe in magic and beauty in a way MIchiru is sure she must have at one point, but cannot recall ever feeling. 

She loves it, but she knows it to be a pretty sort of lie. 

It was not fate that made her Neptune, that made her Haruka’s, but a simple twist of chance. She was in the right time, or the wrong one, depending on how one looked at the requirements of her life, when Neptune had needed to be born, and it had descended upon her with the same random quality that caused the stars to fall. It was the same for each of them. They were not the attendants of long past, simply contained those people inside of them. Admittedly, that made one difficult to separate from the other, and Michiru often wondered if her coldness was her own before shaking her head and knowing that though she and Neptune’s distance may lie on parallel strings, they were not the same. 

Who might she have been, if not the second coming of Sailor Neptune? What might her life have been, if she had never he;d Haruka’s hand in hers? 

It would be easy to imagine that she would have never married and become some sort of pedigreed spinster, but she knows that this is not so. It is only Haruka that gave her the will to buck, even in the smallest way, the throne to which she was born. She would have accepted the Kaioh mantle, and married well, though she still would have married a woman--she can blame neither the Moon nor Haruka for that--and would have likely taken up her own appointed home, with her and her similarly purebred wife, much to the quiet approval of her parents. 

She would have left Tokyo long ago, she knows. She dreamt of nothing else as a child, of taking up with her mother’s family and running away to France. There were plenty of old-money names there, as well, and no one would have been terribly disappointed to see her marry into one of them and rarely darken the shores of Japan. Her brother Ryuji would have been thrilled, which was really the only argument against it. 

Michiru would be sitting in some manicured garden in France, perhaps with her coterie of friendly acquaintances, sipping wine together. LIfe would be pleasant enough, of course, for she never expected great joy or deep passion for much other than her violin or her canvas, in moments when the music said what she never could, or when she could cry out in the form of a brush. But there would always be an emptiness. Perhaps should would be lucky enough to never notice it, but it was MIchiru’s experience of life that she was rarely lucky in the large ways. She would go through life carrying this cavernous room in the hallways of her heart, and try to fill it with children, and fine wines, and appointments to museum boards. After a time, she would come to accept that this was how all people lived. Had she not been easily on that path before she fell in love with Haruka? 

Haruka. What would become of her, if never laid down with the burden of senshi life? With the burden of Michiru herself? 

Haruka always would have married, also, but in a way altogether different from Michiru. Haruka always would have married because Haruka would always have had the love to give and the need to give it. The need to receive it. Whatever else might have happened to her, that would always have been true. 

WIthout Michiru, she might have fallen in with the chop shops, of course, and eventually been caught, and have done time in jail, but this wouldn’t have mattered, either. Perhaps life would have been kinder to her and she would have fallen in with a proper mechanic’s shop instead. Perhaps she would have taken a job at the fish market, happily butchering fish and chatting to the regular customers who came every week, offering up ideas about what was good that day, what they might want to avoid. Something physical and direct and utterly unmoored from the world into which Michiru had thrown her. She would be happy, never having to guess at the rules, coming home every night smelling of work, to her small but warm apartment. 

She would have come home to a girl, of course, a girl Michiru tried to imagine even as her thoughts recoiled from the very idea. She would be from the same class as Haruka of course, and perhaps similarly earnest in her desire to work her way up from the bottom. A blue-collar sort, maybe a cook or server. A hostess at an izakaya seemed to fit right, hair in a high bun, a few tendrils falling out as she worked. She and Haruka would sit and watch TV together, the nights she wasn’t working, and drink cheap beer, and Michiru could she the smile crinkle all the way up into Haruka’s eyes as their foreheads touched. 

Her family would love Haruka, and invite her to family dinners, tease her with playful jokes, and ask if they were going to have kids yet. She would roll her eyes, a bit, but Haruka would grin and look over to her, knowing she had asked the same question, and eagerly awaited the answer. They would never try to trap her in a misstep, or mock her for her inelegance, but love her for all her love for their daughter, and all her hard work. 

Haruka would be incandescently happy. 

She thought of these things, sometimes, as the strings of moonlight lit across their bed, connecting them. It would have been a kindness to Haruka, to have that freedom. To never know the gilded cruelty of Michiru’s cage. What must it be like, to love a creature carved of marble? She was built more than she was ever born, chipped away bit by bit until they had created the daughter they needed her to be. Haruka was chained to her now, and Michiru’s own selfishness meant the work could not be undone. 

But we are driftwood, in the oceans of time, and if this was the shore that they both had washed upon, than Michiru would take it as a blessing, and hoped Haruka would never know how wonderful life might have been.

[keyofjetwolf]

Bonus Question Answers! (non-anime animated noms)

This was SO. FUCKING. HARD. This question went so much better than I expected, and I’m only sad I lack the artistic skills to make it all a reality.

Below, my PAINSTAKINGLY selected top answers, If yours is listed below, you’ve earned an entry in a random draw to win a GIFTENING liveblog OF YOUR CHOICE

---

Q: The Senshi suddenly find themselves in a very different animated world. Which cartoon power (think Looney Tunes) do they each now possess?

*  Usagi can make literal rainbows happen when she smiles.  Rei can set anything on fire with her mind (she feels a bit cheated because she can do that at home too).  Ami can write down anything in her special notebook and it literally changes reality around her (she does not share this with her fellow Senshi, because she knows the full weight of this power.  She did, however, write Michiru having a bad hair day for just one day.  Just one.)  Makoto has the ability to pull out any ingredient she wants from any pantry/door/closet.  She usually uses this for cooking purposes, so she won't have to purchase groceries.  Minako has the ability to mimic any voice in the world, whether she has heard it or not.  Hijinks ensue.  The Outer Senshi sensibly escaped from the new animated world right after Michiru recovered from her bad hair day.  They don't speak of the experience. -- @amberlilly  [The whole thing was so solid, but what absolutely sent it over the top for me was Ami using her powers to fuck with Michiru in the most petty benign way, which is EVERYTHING.]

*  Usagi is definitely rocking the exaggerated tear gushers.  Ami can pull charts/diagrams out of nowhere at any time.  Rei combusts when she gets sufficiently mad.  Makoto has birds fly around when she sings while cooking or cleaning.  Minako breaks the fourth wall to make jokes and asides to the audience.  Chibi-Usa is somehow able to walk through ludicrous danger without getting touched, because the censors won't allow kids to be hurt in this show. Haruka can make girls melt into puddles of goo with her flirting.  Michiru can summon a servant at any time to take care of an unpleasant or potentially dirty task for her (including to take the slapstick comedy for her).  Setsuna has access to the script.  Hotaru just sort of appears sometimes, just standing there, silently and menacingly, but never does anything on-screen (though you may hear the occasional off-screen screaming).  Oh, and while I'd like to say Mamoru gains the power of inexplicable entrances... he kinda already has that one.  --Darkcloud k'California  [Again, I loved all these, but particularly Chibs saved by the censors, Michiru’s poor hapless slapstick avatar, and everything about Hotaru, thank you.]

*  Usagi: The power to be found charming by every character she encounters and somehow escape all consequences and damage by simply remaining oblivious, a la Tweety Bird.

Rei: The power to explode, reducing her surroundings to charred wasteland, but remain relatively unscathed (perhaps a bit singed)

Ami: The power to grow multiple arms, hands, and hundreds of fingers in order to do tech stuff

Makoto: The power to punch someone through a brick wall, possibly several, and into someone's family dinner. It's always some surprised-looking family's private event. Often the same family.

Minako: the power to, Bugs Bunny style, apply lipstick and seduce ANYTHING. Which, according to her, is a power she already has.

Haruka: The power to run off a cliff and keep going until she looks down. She never learns to not look down.

Michiru: The power to stick a pin into any other character and cause them to deflate like a balloon

Hotaru: She just gets to actually be used. It is thrilling.

Pluto: She will observe this strange planet from afar with her huge telescope and breathe the Martian air and look great in a kilt and Roman-style helmet. --  @incorrecttact  [Your set-up and punchline delivery style on all of these was perfection, and I legit lol’d at Mako and the poor family she continually interrupts.]

* to make dynamite go BOOM (Rei obviously); to have their opponent chase them to the point where they're floating in midair and then their opponent falls 5000 feet but they calmly walk back to land (like Wil E Coyote & the Roadrunner) (Usagi); the power to blow kisses to their opponent (which are clearly poisonous and end up killing the chap) (Minako); the power to have their opponent's entire arm shattered if they try to even punch them lightly on the arm (Makoto - this is canon anyways, but moreso exaggerated here hehe); to open a book and start reading it out loud and words start showing up on screen, confusing tf out of their opponent (Ami - also canon already)  --@midnightdrops  [Each of these were great, but Usagi and Mako as you described them totally sold me.]

* usagi: can now float on yummy aromas, so long as they lead her somewhere tasty! the others play a quick tournament of jun-ken-pon each time it happens to determine who will be responsible for steering her from blissfully drifting into traffic. again.

ami: is now possessed of x-ray vision! only she can neither turn it off, nor control its intensity. she is working on developing a set of goggles to dampen the effect, and secretly hopes they will make her look like geordi laforge.

rei: rei-chan is now blessed with the power of song! her heartfelt melodies soften the malice of even the most one-dimensional baddie, and influence public policy on a global scale. international success life, yo! i guess she's really a hard worker!

makoto: has become something of a cartoon cupid! in a poorly-ventilated room, her mere presence has bystanders declaring their love for one another within minutes*; and her decadent wedding cakes are the hit of second marriages across the country. *all of them so like her old senpai, and none of them falling for her, alas!

minako: employs her considerable powers of confidence and charm to convince the others she now has access to Plot Manipulation, mainly by engineering and taking ownership of a series of happy accidents. her real power is to literally jump out of her skin when she's startled*, and she has no intention of EVER letting the others know about it.  *minako discovered this new ability while she was changing a roll of toilet paper, and a spider dropped onto her hand. the leader of the inner senshi had never been so horrified. her bones were so slick and cold, her skin a hideous unwiped pile, and then THE SPIDER CRAWLED INTO THE PILE and she STILL doesn't know if it ever got out and sometimes her skin itches REALLY bad and you know what let's stop talking about this right now okay???

setsuna: can now manifest a giant pencil and erase the enemy! but doing so would be breaking The Greatest Taboo, and leave her impaled upon the pencil.

haruka: her new empathetic ability is remarkably similar to Ma-Ti's "heart" ring (Captain Planet and the Planeteers, 1990 - 1996). basically, she's just like really soft at you, and it inspires you to take more positive actions toward yourself and the world at large? she protests about wishing she'd received something tough and intimidating, but secretly is very moved by being made an instrument of kindness.

michiru: her intuition has mutated into fourth wall awareness, and the subtlety with which she makes this known to you is SO GODDAMN UNCOMFORTABLE OH MY GOD

hotaru: can now not only communicate with inanimate objects, but also render them permanently animate! you should have been there during the princess tutu crossover episode when she met lamp-chan - they're STILL inseparable, and chibiusa is SUPER jealous. speaking of which,

chibiusa: can now use hammerspace to store her endless series of magical geegaws and weird animal boyfriends.  -- @rasiqra-revulva  [Dude, you have got to stop making me snort laugh, it’s RUDE. Pure solid gold, every word, with a special nod to Haruka, MICHIRU, and Minako’s extended tragic cartoon backstory.]

* Usagi - like her name suggests, she is now Bunny. By which I mean she is now a very pink and blonde bunny (somewhere between Bugs and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit), but with super-elastic limbs to accompany her new form. Ami - Magical Science Powers up to and including ‘mix one brightly colored liquid in flask with another brightly colored liquid in flask, explosion, get hammer.’ Rei - An infinite supply of dynamite she can pull out of nowhere. This shouldn’t be as useful as it is. Mako - Literally suplexed a giant metallic youma not just untransformed, but before she has Senshi powers at all. I fully believe she could lift an anvil in canon. Minako - While Usagi looks like a rabbit, Mina now has the supernatural trickster abilities of Bugs Bunny. Implausibly effective bad disguises, persuasion, showing up out of nowhere. Chibs - Now that gun from her first appearance is a real gun, but it shoots anything from normal bullets to pies in the face to live birds. Pluto - The fourth wall is a real and tangible thing. Pluto can not just break it, but control it. If she wants to remove a layer of cel or suddenly turn things into sketch, she can do it. If she wants to teleport, she can skip in the animation. If she wants to suddenly appear as a Roger Rabbit-style cartoon in a live action field, or vice versa? Yeah, she can do that too. She basically uses this power to warp the layers of her cartoonish reality for pastry acquisition. Haruka - You’d think it would be Roadrunner speed. Haruka thinks it will be Roadrunner speed. But no, it isn’t. Space Jam is Looney Tunes, and Haruka’s power is Basketball. Michiru - Another power that’s just canonical: Wealth. Ridiculous, tremendous wealth. Hotaru - The funniest thing for Hotaru to be in a zany cartoon world is Even More Spooky. Nothing changes except the artstyle and a ridiculous supervillain cape.  -- Regalli  [Pluto, man. Fantastic and brilliant and I legit WANT THIS. Also though, Hotaru with a cape.]

*  Usagi gains the ability to eat anything and everything like the Tazmanian Devil, though she shares none of his aggressive personality; Minako enjoys fucking with people by bending reality (you know, diving into painted tunnels and stuff like that); Ami is able to utilize and test unreal technology without harm, like jet boots, massive bombs, tornado seeds, etc.; Mako uses body manipulations to change her size and shape--especially for blocking attacks to protect people or grabbing people (coupled with her immense strength); and Rei is the only one aware of the audience beyond the Fourth Wall... She tries not to talk to them but sometimes she just can't help it, especially when Usagi is getting on her nerves.  -- @thehubby  [I said pander to me, and you absolutely did. I can’t stop thinking about Rei trying not to make fourth wall eye contact, then just whirling around all “CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE THIS SHIT??!?” and as it turns out, that IS precisely what I wanted.]

---

I’ll be drawing for the bonus liveblog around the start of THE GIFTENING 2020 (currently looking to be Monday, 11 January 2021). Each bonus question is another chance to earn an entry, so keep those answers coming! I CAN ABSOLUTELY AND SHAMELESSLY BE BOUGHT.

[magic713m]

Before The Sun Sets

It was a beautiful day for the celebration in the Moon Kingdom. A wonderful event was occurring, celebrating the birth of the next heir to the throne, Princess Serenity. Everyone from the system was invited, including the King, Queen, and Prince of Earth. Among the other guests were the princess’s guardians Sailor Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. It was an amazing event, filled with music, dancing, and a wonderful feast.

Finally began the presenting of the gifts. Queen Serenity sat on her throne, with her most loyal advisor Luna standing beside her. Luna, wearing a beautiful yellow dress for the occasion, was also the princess’s nanny. She stood near the cradle as the event took place. The representatives for the other planets presented their gifts for the sweet princess. Some material, others had gifts that were not physical, but more mystical to bestow on the fair maiden. When the royal family of Earth was called, Queen Gaia picked up her three-year-old son and walked beside her husband as they presented their gifts to the princess. The Earth prince, Endymion, looked at his betrothed and the second their eyes made contact, the infant princess smiled and laughed, causing little Endymion to giggle as well. Finally, it was the Inner Senshi’s turn to present their gifts. Each Sailor Senshi represented their planets and were currently only children, around the Earth age of five. They swore eternal loyalty and friendship to the princess.

However, a blast of thunder roared through the halls. A black wind swept through the room as it dimmed. As light began to return, the guests stared at a figure in the center space of the room. The figure was a woman with long black hair, tied in a pair of buns. Her skin was pale and she wore a long dress and wore crescent-shaped earrings on her pointed ears. She stared at Queen Serenity with her blue slit eyes and gave a wicked smile.

“I see so many faces, filled with such joy.”

“Queen Nehellenia, what are you doing here?” Sailor Jupiter demanded.

“I wished to see what could be such a joyous occasion. More importantly, what possible event could not possibly warrant the invitation of a queen.”

Princess Serenity’s cries began to fill the quiet room and Nehellenia looked towards the cradle.

“Ah, the birth of the heir of the Silver Millennium. You did not wish for me to know, dear Serenity.”

“Queen Nehellenia,” Queen Serenity said regally, “You were not invited because of my fear that you would wish ill on my subjects. If you come here with peaceful intentions, you may stay. But if your purpose is to inflict harm, I will ask you to leave. You are welcomed, but your darkness is not.”

Nehellenia gave a loud and wicked cackle, “Serenity, the darkness is as much a part of me as the light is for you. Yet I am resigned to the corner of the moon hidden from the light. You should know the light will always attract the darkness.”

As she spoke, the dark aura around her spread, and gusts of wind were unleashed. The people fell to their knees as the Senshi prepared to fight the wicked ruler.

The four Senshi unleashed their attacks on the evil queen, but they failed to make contact with the evil queen, as she casually walked past the attacks, unable to even touch her, and threw the Senshi aside, approaching Queen Serenity. Luna placed herself between the princess and the wicked queen. Queen Serenity summoned a wand with a crescent moon, holding the Silver Crystal.

“Begone uninvited guest,” she said as she unleashed a blast of light from the crystal. The evil queen fought back, trying to use the darkness to suppress the light. She then looked at the infant princess as she dissolved into the darkness. The darkness filled the room but Queen Serenity was shielded by the light of the Crystal as she began expelling it.

“Queen Serenity, I will take away the most precious thing you cherish. I still have not provided my gift for the blessed occasion. My gift for the princess is this prophecy. The princess shall die before she will rule your kingdom. A prick from the spindle of a spinning wheel shall end her life. This I swear. ”

As the last word filled the room, the darkness retreated from the palace.

As the darkness faded away, people started to gather themselves, now with a feeling of tension. The princess was crying, and the queen picked up her daughter, comforting her, as Luna began to stand, to catch her breath from the attack.

“Your highness,” the queen’s advisor, Luna said.

“There is still a chance to save the princess. I have not yet provided her gift. At this moment in such a celebration of joy, there is a chance we could save her.”

“Luna, even with such a gift, altering Nehellenia’s curse will come at a cost. Are you sure?”

“She is our kingdom’s hope. We will do what we must to ensure it.”

Queen Serenity watched as Luna walked to the cradle and Luna placed a hand on the baby’s forehead.

“Beloved Princess Serenity: should the worst come to pass, and your finger pricked by a spindle, my gift to you is hope. The terrible prophecy shall not bring death, but vast slumber. And through true love’s kiss, this curse shall break. This I promise.”

At her last words, a bright light filled the hall.  Luna was gone, replaced by a black cat, looking over the child.

===========

However, even with Luna’s sacrifice to save the princess, it was clear the princess was not safe in her home on the Moon. After the celebration ended, the four guardians met to discuss how they could continue to protect their charge. While these girls may be children, they were trained on their home planet, preparing for any challenge they must face.

The four decided that it was best to take Princess Serenity away from her home and hide her away on another world until she came of age to inherit the kingdom and the Silver Crystal. They spoke with the Queen, who agreed and that night, the Senshi spirited her out of the castle, to the least likely place anyone would expect: Earth.

===========

“Usagi, get up!” the blonde-haired girl heard her friend shout, breaking her from her peaceful slumber.

“Why do you have to be so mean, Rei,” Usagi asked, hiding under her blanket.

“Ami tried to wake you, and you didn’t listen. So, now it’s my turn. Now get up. Breakfast is ready.”

Usagi sat up and stretched, letting out a loud yawn. The sun was shining into her small room. She washed herself, applying an elixir to her hair, unknowing that it was hiding her silver locks. After she finished washing, she put on her dress. Today was her birthday and she knew her friends had something planned for her. She wondered what it was. They were more guarded around her whenever the subject was brought up. But she had other things on mind.

===========

Makoto was preparing breakfast for the family. It had been sixteen years since the curse was placed on Serenity and the Senshi quietly spirited the dear princess from the Moon. They knew that Earth would be the last place the Queen of the Dark Moon and her ilk would expect to look when the princess had vanished.

Keeping their promise, the Senshi swore off their magic when raising Serenity. The last bit of magic they used was to create a cottage for them and the princess, along with furnishings.

They began calling the princess Usagi, and she grew up in a very happy home. They taught her about the planets and their kingdom and kept her educated on life in the kingdoms, though they had yet to tell her of her royalty. While they were protective of her, they gave her some space and freedom. Every morning, she’d go out to collect fruits and plants for their meals, as long as she promised to come back before dark. And occasionally, on days they needed materials, they would go into town and sometimes take Usagi with them.

They did, however, begin to notice that when Usagi went out to collect, she seemed to return a little later than she had in the past.

“Hm, that smells good,” Usagi said, coming downstairs, sitting in her seat as Makoto poured her some soup.

“So, do you have any plans,” Usagi asked.

“For what,” Rei answered, nonchalantly.

“Well, it is a special day,” Usagi said, waiting for someone to say something, “You know, like a special day for a certain girl…”

“Oh, right,” Ami said, looking up from her book, “It’s your birthday.”

“Happy birthday,” Makoto said, kissing her on the head.

“Wow, sixteen years, I can’t believe it. We should celebrate,” Minako said.

“Yeah, I’ll make you a special meal. We’ll celebrate when you get back,” Makoto said, handing Usagi the berry basket.

Usagi grabbed the basket. After she was gone, the four girls gathered.

“Is it just me or did she seem a little…eager to leave,” Rei asked.

“Maybe she wants to get back to catch us before her present is ready,” Minako said.

“Well, if she wants to spoil her party, then that is her fault, but right now we need to prepare,” Makoto said, gathering up supplies from the kitchen, “I’m going to make the best cake that the Usagi has ever had in her sixteen years.”

“I’ll set up the decorations,” Ami volunteered.

“I’ll make the dress,” Rei said, pulling out the fabrics and sewing supplies.

“And I’ll get the Sailor Wands,” Minako said, heading for the stairs.

Everyone immediately stopped and looked at her.

“What?” she asked, “It’s been sixteen years. We are just doing some quick chores for this one day.”

“Minako,” Ami said, “We can’t. We promised.”

“We can’t take that chance,” Makoto said.

“Minako stop this nonsense and come over here,” Rei said, “I need someone to be the dummy, and you and Usagi share a similar build.”

Disappointed, Minako walked back and stood near the sewing station.

“Since when can you sew,” Minako said, getting into position, as Rei began measuring.

“How hard can it really be?” Rei answered.

===========

Usagi strolled through the forest, humming. She grabbed a few berries and plants to bring back to the cottage. But she was searching for something else.

Suddenly, two hands covered her eyes.

“Got you, my lady,” the supposed assailant said. Once Usagi heard his voice she immediately relaxed. He let go, allowing her to turn around to a man dressed in servant’s attire for the royal family.

“Hello, Mamo-chan,” Usagi said sweetly.

“Usako,” he answered, using his special name for her, before giving her a sweet kiss.

Usagi had met the man, Mamoru, in the market several months ago. He was dressed in his filthy work attire, with his face dotted with dirt and grime, after having tripped in the street.

When their eyes had met, Usagi had known that she just had to talk to him. She was able to slip away from her guardians and the two had spent the day around the square. But as the day had ended, Usagi had known that her friends would be worried, so she had told the man that they could meet the following day, somewhere in the woods, near the creek. She had worried about how her friends might react if they saw someone knocking on their door, and she had been taught to be wary of telling someone where she lived, so she had figured that somewhere close to home would do.

They had begun meeting each other every few days. She had learned so much of him, and about life in the royal court of Earth. Their relationship had started off innocently, just simply talk or play. Learning about themselves, and their dreams. But it soon began to change into something more. A few weeks ago, they shared a first kiss, and their friendship changed forever.

She told him about her morning.

“Happy birthday, then,” he said.

“Thanks, it is a special one. My friends are planning something. I just know it.”

“I wish I could be there.”

“As do I. I know they would love you if they had the chance to get to know you. I wish they weren’t so overprotective.”

“It’s alright. I enjoy our time here.”

They strolled through the forest and talked about their day. Apparently, the Earth court was busy lately. The royal family was planning for a huge trip to the Moon. Soon, the teleporter to the Moon would be set and the family would be on their way.

Finally, the two reached an overlook on top of a hill and enjoyed the scenery of the kingdom.

It was too soon, as Usagi had to return home before her friends worried. She reached her meeting spot, where she’d part with her beloved. But Usagi didn’t want it to end yet.

“Mamo-chan,” Usagi said, stopping him in his tracks as he was heading in the other direction, “I would really love it if you could visit me tonight. At the cottage.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m tired of hiding you. I want you to meet them tonight.”

“I’ll come with you right now, if you want.”

“No. It’s better to wait until tonight. If they see you with me, they’ll panic and I do not want to know what they might do. I’ll tell them about us when I get home. It will give them some time to cool.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I love you and I want you in my life.”

“I love you too, Usako. I can’t wait,” he said, smiling.

“Remember, tonight. Right after sunset.”

“I look forward to it.”

They shared one more kiss, before heading in their respective directions.

===========

Makoto was finishing her four layer cake, and Ami was trying to hang the last of the decorations. As Rei tried sewing in the final stitches, Minako continued looking in the mirror with disgust. The fabric colors were clashing, the seams were hanging loose, barely holding the dress together, and Minako knew the dress was only one wrong step from falling apart.

“Perfect,” Makoto said, finishing icing the pastry, “Just need to add some candles.”

“Wow, Ami, the decorations…” Makoto began, finally noticing Ami’s work. Honestly, Makoto thought, while the decorations were nice, Ami covered most of the ceiling and the wall with them. And some of them were hanging, obtrusively, at neck level.

“Well, if Usagi didn’t know it was her birthday, she will certainly know when she walks through the door,” Makoto finished.

“And finished,” Rei announced, sewing in the last stitch. Ami and Makoto turned to see the dress Minako was begrudgingly modeling.

“Wow,” Ami said, “It’s certainly not the way it looked in the book.”

“I can honestly say you’ve added your own style to it,” Makoto said, trying to stifle a laugh.

“Really? Thanks,” Rei said, looking at the dress, “Hm, I think perhaps it might need a few more ruffles. What do you think, Minako?”

“What do I think,” Minako echoed, bitterly, “Well I-”

Minako turned and tripped on the long skirt, ripping the dress, as the seams began to unravel. She quickly grabbed one of the hanging paper-chain-ring decorations and it ripped off the ceiling, taking down the long line of rings, with one of the chains getting tangled around the cake As the girls went to help Minako up, Rei tripped over the fallen decoration and the cake was dragged off the table, onto the ground.

As Minako began to get up, she slipped on some icing and got covered in some cake. Everyone was silent, seeing all their hard work undone.

“That’s IT!” Minako shouted.

“Now, please be reasonable,” Ami said, trying to calm her fellow Senshi.

“Reasonable? I’m covered in cake and in a dress that was a mess before it trashed the house. And Usagi will be home within the hour.”

She stood up, and marched upstairs, with the dress pieces just falling off her in her path.

“Desperate times, desperate measures. I’m getting the wands!”

Rei picked up some of the pieces of cloth from the ruined dress, “Hate to say it, but I think she’s right.”

“Here we go,” Minako said, happily, showing their wands, which glowed.

“Careful,” Rei immediately said, “If we’re doing this, we have to do this right.”

Ami nodded, “We can’t let anyone know of this.”

“Alright,” Minako agreed, “Doors, windows, cracks, nothing gets a peek inside this house.”

The girls darkened the cottage, cutting off any natural light from getting in. But soon as the girls grabbed their wands, the place began to light up as the wands began brightening the room.

“Okay, so since we are pressed on time, we all do the same tasks as before,” Rei said, “I’ll make the dress, Ami will decorate the cottage, and Makoto makes the cake.”

“Hey, this was my idea,” Minako pointed out.

“Which is why you have the task of making this place spotless before Usagi gets home.”

“Fine,” Minako said, begrudgingly.

The girls went to their individual tasks:

Minako animated the cleaning utensils such as the broom and dust pan and other supplies, and began cleaning up the mess. She had the floor mopped and she was able to dry it quickly before anyone could slip on it.

Ami commanded the decorations to rise up and place themselves on the walls and ceiling, though this time higher, no longer a hazard to anyone passing by it. They looked more organized and less cluttered.

Rei waved her wand and the unused cloth pulled out. With cloth and scissors, and sewing material in motion, a beautiful dress was formed, not a stitch out of place. Something that was more suitable for a princess to wear.

Makoto was now in the kitchen, commanding the ingredients to go into motion to form her cake. While she preferred the satisfaction of cooking the mortal way, there was no getting around the speed needed that only magic could provide. The cake took shape and she waved her wand to cook the dough, ready within minutes, and she put the candles and icing in place.

The girls were finishing their tasks when they heard the gate outside open.

“Usagi’s back!” Makoto said, hearing Usagi humming. The girls quickly cleaned up their work spaces, and hid just as soon as Usagi opened the door.

“I’m home-” Usagi gasped, seeing the place decorated along with a lovely dress and a delicious cake.

“Surprise!” the girls shouted in joy.

“Oh this is so lovely,” Usagi said, looking at the room, “I can’t believe you all did this for me.”

“It’s a special day,” Minako answered, “and we have another surprise for you too.”

“Actually,” Usagi began, “I actually have a surprise for you, as well.”

Usagi cleared her throat.

“Well, um, for the past few months now, I have been meeting with someone, and invited him-”

“Wait, you met some stranger and he’s coming here?!” Rei interrupted. The girls bombarded her with questions.

“Who is he!?”

“What did he say to you?”

“Please, he is not dangerous,” Usagi answered, “We have been meeting for a while now.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you have always been so overprotective. I wanted to meet him without having to worry he would be scared off by my sisters.”

Usagi continued, “Anyways, we have kinda been...courting.”

“Usagi!”

“He was a perfect gentleman,” she continued, “I invited him over to meet you all tonight. He is a wonderful man and he is kind and-”

“Oh no, she’s in love,” Makoto interrupted.

Usagi said nothing but blushed in response.

“Usagi, I’m sorry to say this, but that is not going to work out. You’re going to have to stop seeing him,” Ami sympathized.

“What, why?! Why can’t I be in love? You haven’t even met him, so I don’t see why you are suddenly forbiddening me to see him.”

“Because you are already betrothed,” Minako blurted out.

“What?” Usagi was stunned. Rei glared at Minako, but looked back to Usagi.

“You are betrothed to the heir apparent of the Golden Kingdom of Earth. Prince Endymion.”

“That’s not possible. I can’t be betrothed. I’m just a peasant.”

“No, you are not. You are royalty. You are Princess Serenity, the long lost daughter of the Silver Millennium.”

Usagi’s eyes widened. She had no idea how she could possibly believe such news.

“That’s not possible,” she said, trying to form a coherent thought.

“It’s true,” Ami said, “We’ve been keeping you safe all these years, and tonight you will be revealed to the court, safe and sound.”

“And I have to marry a stranger? You can’t do this. I never asked for much, but this I know I want. Please don’t take him from me.”

“I’m sorry Serenity-”

“Don’t call me that! It’s not fair. I can’t-”

The princess began to breathe heavily and she fell to the ground. The girls ran to help her, but she screamed. She grabbed her head and suddenly the crescent moon symbol appeared on her forehead. As she screamed, a bright light shot up from the spot where she collapsed, into the sky. It lasted for a few seconds, but soon the light faded, and she was there, still displaying the crescent moon mark, and her hair turned silver.

“Your coming into your powers,” Ami said, “You are becoming the true princess of the Moon”

“We have to pack, right now,” Minako said, “I’m sorry we can’t ease you into this, but anyone might have seen that light. We have to move, get her to the Moon before sundown.”

Usagi looked up, her face still covered in tears, “But I promised Mamoru I’d be here. He’s expecting me to be here.”

“I’m sorry princess, but we have to go. I know this is harsh, but it is best you put him out of your mind,” Rei concluded

As they all hurried to pack, they failed to see a winged fiery eyeball watching them, hearing everything they say, before flying back to its wicked queen.

===========

Before the final day was over, the Senshi returned to the Moon, with their princess. They did not inform anyone of their arrival, just in case Nehellenia had spies planted in court. They didn’t even tell Queen Serenity, so that she would act normally, until the prophecy was defeated by sundown.

They finally made it to Princess Serenity’s intended room. The bed was all made up for her, and the place was decorated in the moon culture fashion. They helped her prepare for the ceremony and got her dressed into the gown Rei had made for her birthday.

“Princess,” Sailor Jupiter said, looking at the dresser mirror, “You look so beautiful.”

Serenity held back her tears, trying not to ruin the work her friends had done with her make up.

“I promise, princess, you will be happy,” Sailor Venus said, and quietly talked to the others in a whispered voice, “I just heard. The prince is running late. He did not arrive with the rest of Earth’s royal family.”

“Do we know when he will arrive?” Sailor Mercury asked.

“No. Hopefully soon.”

“Please,” Serenity began, “Can I please just...”

“C’mon,” Sailor Mars said, herding the others out, “She needs a few minutes.”

“We will be right outside, if you need us” said Sailor Jupiter, closing the door behind them, leaving the princess with her thoughts.

Serenity could not hold back her tears.

“Mamo-chan,” she whispered to herself.

“Usako“

Serenity turned around and saw a passageway she did not notice before. She got up and heard an echo through it. She got closer and closer to the passage, but felt a force, resisting her attempt to walk through.

“Mamo-chan?!” she shouted down the corridor.

“Usako”, Mamoru’s voice shouted back from a distance.

With more force, Serenity pushed through, into the passage. Unbeknownst to the princess, her Senshi arrived just in time to see her push her way through a big mirror.

Serenity climbed the stairs. The corridors made no sense, and she was surely going to be lost for days, but she continued to follow her love’s voice, calling to her. She finally reached a tower, and as she opened the door, she lost her breath. Standing in the room was Mamoru, still in the same outfit as he was wearing earlier that day.

“Mamo-chan,” Serenity said, about to cry. “What?”

“I saw you leaving and I had to find you. I am so glad you’re here.”

“Is this...” Serenity started, “Is this real?”

Mamoru extended his hand, offering it “Let me prove it.”

She hesitated, but she looked into his beautiful eyes, and unconsciously reached out for him, accepting his hand. But instead of the comforting warmth she was expecting, she felt a pinch on her forefinger. She looked at her hand and saw in front of her a spinning wheel, with a sharpened spindle, which she scratched her finger on. She looked back up and in place of her love stood a tall scary woman. Before the princess could say anything, she felt her eyelids getting heavy and she started to get dizzy, and soon everything went black.

===========

“I feel so bad for her,” Venus said, “She meets the love of her life, and we just took it from her.”

“Our duty is to the princess. She might not like all our decisions, but we are doing this for her,” Mars responded.

“And this is better for both kingdoms,” Jupiter added, “After years, we are so close to peace.”

“It still sucks.”

“Wait, do you feel that,” Mercury interrupted them. The girls stopped and felt a dark chill down their spines. They felt it coming from Serenity’s room.

“Nehellenia!”

They swiftly opened the door, and saw Serenity entering a mirror that was not there before.

“USAGI!” they cried.

They ran for her, but before they could grab her, she passed through the glass and the mirror was dark, sending no reflection.

“Out of the way, Mars Flame Sniper!”

“Jupiter Oak Evolution!”

Lightning and fire struck the mirror but it remained undamaged.

“It’s no use!”

Venus stepped forward, “Come on. Let’s combine our powers.”

Using their abilities, they directed it at the mirror and opened a way for them to slip in through.

“Usagi!” They shouted, their voices echoing through the various corridors. They heard nothing back. They split up and went through various corridors, but they continued running into dead ends or being drawn back to the same passages. The place was a big complicated maze, and they soon found themselves right back at the entrance.

“Nehellenia’s making us run in circles,” Jupiter said.

“Wait, the princess’s powers were unlocked. We should focus on that and follow it,” Mercury said.

“Worth a shot,” said Mars.

They closed their eyes and focused. They felt an intense cold in the world they were in. But soon, they felt a warm pull. They opened their eyes and followed the warm light in the distance.

They finally saw their princess in the distance, entering a doorway and the door closed behind her. They rushed forward, but it felt like the door was getting further away. But soon they reached it and pulled it open with such force.

“Usagi,” they shouted as they saw the poor girl collapsed on the ground, in front of a spinning wheel. Eyes shut, not moving. She looked uninjured, except a cut on her finger, her blood on the spindle.

===========

The Earth prince, Endymion, rode through the forest, following the path his love, Usagi, had given him, before she left. He decided that tonight, he would tell her everything. That he was a prince and heir of the planet, and he loved her dearly. And if Usagi could look past his deception, he was going to ask her to marry him. He did not care that he was betrothed to some stranger from another kingdom. He wanted to see his love everyday, in public, no longer as a secret in the forest.

When he had first met her, it had been a day filled with stress caused by his royal obligations. He had needed to get away, so he had disguised himself as a servant, as he had done on more than one occasion, and went into town, exploring the marketplace. It had been there where he met his angel.

He had not wanted her to treat him differently, so he had continued the ruse as a servant, and had continued their meetings in the woods. It had been a wonderful few months, being with her, getting to know her, as a wonderful person, with a beauty to match her soul. He needed her in his life.

He finally reached the cottage, where Usagi had said it would be, and got off his horse. He took a deep breath and knocked, but the door slowly opened, left ajar, revealing to a dark living room, illuminated by only the moonlight.

“Come in,” he heard a voice say. It wasn’t Usagi’s voice, but maybe it was one of her friends….maybe one with a sore throat.

He walked in, and as he moved further into the room, the door slammed closed and he found himself overwhelmed by what looked like small balls of darkness. He fought them off but he felt them draining him of his energy, collapsing to the ground. He tried to access the power of the royal Golden Crystal, but he lost too much energy to be able to use it. He looked up from the ground, too weak to grip his sword, and saw an old grey woman-like creature. She had blue robes and had a staff that had a flaming eyeball at the top.

“This is quite a development. A princess of one kingdom cursed, and a prince of another kingdom a prisoner of the Dead Moon.”

Mamoru remembered hearing stories of the Dead Moon. The very name stirred up dormant and vague memories of a terrifying experience he had as a child, when he visited the Moon Kingdom.

“My queen will love such a prize,” he heard the woman say as his vision went dark.

===========

The Senshi were devastated, their friend in a death-like slumber. By the time they found her, they were out of Nehellenia’s mirror dimension and they were in the tower of the castle. They arrived, in horror, to find Serenity lying on the ground, eyes closed, with a small scratch on her finger. Nehellenia stood before them, cackling as she vanished back into her mirror, as it disappeared. The Senshi knew the curse was fulfilled. They couldn’t leave their princess lying in the tower, so they carried her back to her room. The stairway back down was more direct, now that they were no longer travelling through Nehellenia’s mirror realm. It wasn’t until they were near her room, where they saw the full impact of the curse.

They soon discovered guards and castle staff having collapsed, in a similar deep slumber. They realized the curse was feeding off of Serenity’s power, strengthening itself to spread far and wide, putting the whole kingdom into a deep sleep with their princess. It was by good fortune that, being Senshi, they were able to resist the curse. They knew to end the curse, they needed Serenity’s love, Mamoru. If he loved her as much as she had claimed to love him, he could end the nightmare.

After placing their princess into bed, they took the teleporter back to Earth. They found that Earth was suffering from the curse as well; nobles passed out in the streets, knights fallen off their horses unconscious, peasants slumbering in the fields. The Senshi rushed back to the cottage, in hopes that Serenity’s true love would be there, as she said, and hoped he did not fall victim as well.

They arrived at the cottage and saw the door left open. They cautiously walked in and saw the place was a mess, showing clear signs of a struggle.

“What happened?” Mars said, looking around with worry.

“Hold on,” Mercury said, pulling out her computer and activating her goggles, and began scanning the room. She looked around and was directed to a small dark corner of the blackened room. “Over there,” she pointed.

Jupiter and Venus walked slowly and cautiously to the corner. Suddenly, something jumped out: a small dark black circular creature. It shot past the two Senshi and bounced around before escaping the cottage.

“Was that...” Jupiter began.

“It was a Lemure. One of Nehellenia’s,” Venus finished her sentence, “The Dead Moon Circus. They were here.”

“It looks like there was a fight,” Mars said, “Mamoru must have been attacked by them.”

“But I don’t see a body. So they either killed him, or he escaped.”

“That was just one Lemure. They travel in packs. If they caught him off guard, they could have overwhelmed him.”

“Which begs the question, why not kill him?”

“I don’t know. But if he’s not here, there’s only one place he could be.”

“Nehellenia’s castle.”

“We have no choice. We have to save him.”

===========

Getting to the evil queen’s castle was quite the feat, but together, the four combined their power to teleport into the castle. A trying task, which they wouldn’t be able to do again within the castle walls. The Senshi quietly snuck around the castle, finding a lack of security, only needing to avoid a couple guards.

They soon found themselves overlooking the throne room and found out why the security was so lax. There was a dark, twisted feast occurring in the large room. A celebration of sorts with vile monsters partying.

The Senshi looked disgusted by the event, but Jupiter looked on, “Over there.” She pointed and saw Zirconia, Nehellenia’s most loyal servant observing events. But the hag began to walk away from the room, and the Senshi quietly tailed her. They followed her to the castle dungeons, and they heard screaming, as Zirconia opened one of the cell doors.

“You choose when you want this pain to end, dear prince,” the Senshi heard inside, from a familiar voice.

“Mistress,” they heard Zirconia, “Your desires are almost achieved. The princess is gone, both great kingdoms are cursed, and the crystal is almost within your grasp. If you don’t mind my saying, you’ve had a long, productive day. Perhaps some rest can do some good.”

“Yes, perhaps I am pushing myself. Thank you.”

The Senshi took cover as they heard footsteps leaving the cell. They looked behind and watched, as Nehellenia and Zirconia left the small cell. Zirconia tapped her staff on the ground and the cell door closed behind her. She turned her head towards the Senshi and they ducked behind the corner, unsure if they were seen. They waited for a few moments before looking to see the hag leave the dungeon, behind her mistress.

They quickly moved to the cell, and Jupiter kicked the door open, with full force, breaking it off the locks.

There, they found someone they had not expected

“Prince Endymion,” Venus said. The prince raised his head, staring wide-eyed at his visitors.

“You-you’re the Sailor Senshi,” he answered, questioningly, not quite sure if they were real.

“What are you doing here?” Mars asked, as she, Mercury and Venus approached him and Jupiter stood watch. He was wearing his armor, but they could see burned marks and other injuries on the prince.

“They want the Golden Crystal.” he answered.

“How’d they catch you? Shouldn’t you have been protected?”

“They caught me off guard. One minute, I was going to meet someone at their residence in a woodland cottage, the next thing I know, I am being attacked and found myself in a dungeon.”

“Who were you supposed to meet?”

Endymion suddenly stopped talking, and looked away from them.

“Wait a minute,” Venus said, “Who was it exactly you were planning to see?”

He did not answer, still avoiding her gaze.

“Usagi?” Venus said. He slightly flinched, and she had her answer.

“You,” Venus said, “It is you? You’re Usagi’s Mamoru?”

“How do you know her?” he asked, as the last of his restraints were broken.

The Senshi’s eyes lit up to this revelation.

“We need to hurry, but there is something you must know, prince” Mars said, “We need to tell you the truth about your maiden.”

===========

Endymion could not believe it. The very news just sent shocks throughout his body. Usagi, the peasant girl he had met so many times in the woods, was the lost Princess Serenity, his betrothed. And was trapped in a horrible curse.

“You love Usagi, right?” Venus asked.

“Yes,” he said, quickly, without hesitation.

“Then there is hope. True love can break the curse. You can save her.”

“We need to go,” Jupiter said to the group.

Endymion closed his eyes, and used the power of the Golden Crystal to summon his damaged armor to repair and called on his sword to appear in his hand. The group of five made their way out of the cell, and proceeded out of the dungeon, when they heard a commotion. Noises of monsters getting closer to them, forcing them to run faster down to the corridor.

They travelled down the passage ways, until they made it to the courtyard. However, the yard was now filled with monsters, with Zirconia standing at the forefront.

“Senshi,” Zirconia said, “I have to say, it is a surprise to see you up and about. But I am afraid this is as far as you go. Our guest still needs to surrender the crystal.”

The five fighters stood back to back, surrounded by the forces of the Dead Moon.

“Kill them,” Zirconia commanded.

The creatures rushed forward, attacking. The fight expanded around the courtyard. At first, the group stayed together, but soon were forced to split off and fight the monsters with their powers. Mars used her fire attacks as she thinned the number of her attackers. Mercury used her water, sweeping away her foes, freezing them, and even misting the air to blind them. Jupiter used her lightning, taking out many foes caught in the lightning chains. Venus blasted her foes with raining light beams from the sky. And Endymion used a combination, blasting his enemies with his powers and swiping his sword at those who got too close.

The battle went well, until Endymion was blasted from a dark power, coming from the sky. He fell, and soon Zirconia was right in front of him, with Zircon on her staff.

Zircon flew from the staff, floating over the group, as Zircon levitated. A cone of shadow was released from the eye, and the group collapsed from it, as if being weighed down. As they were pinned, Zirconia unleashed powerful blasts, each hitting one of the Senshi.

Zircon returned to the staff as Zirconia laughed.

But Endymion defiantly stood up, and he felt the energy of the Golden Crystal flow through him. He pointed his palm at the hag and a shot of golden energy was released at her. She screeched as she tried to endure the attack. The Senshi stood, regaining their composure. They focused on pooling their power together. Endymion could hold his attack no longer and he had to stop, with Zirconia exhausted but still alive.

However, she looked at the Senshi. Eyes widened, knowing her fate.

“Sailor Planet Attack!”

Together, the Senshi used their power, striking Zirconia, and she and Zircon dissolved into ashes.

With their foe destroyed, the group made their way out of the castle walls.

===========

They made their way to the Golden Kingdom’s castle. All they had to do was get Endymion to the teleporter, to the Moon Kingdom, and he could free Serenity from the curse.

However, as they got closer, suddenly the road was bombarded by strikes of dark lightning.

They turned around and saw a figure from a distance, standing at the tower of the dark castle: Nehellenia.

She extended her hand again and from the tips of her fingers unleashed a chain of black lightning. The group scattered, dodging the attack.

Knowing how close they were to the castle, they made a run to the fortress. Lightning from the sky continued to crash down as they swayed back and forth from it.

With the castle in sight, the Senshi led Endymion, but they tripped. Looking down, the warriors found they had stepped in a field of webs. They looked ahead and saw the whole castle and the surrounding area encased in webbing.

The Senshi struggled to no avail. However, Endymion was fortunate to avoid the trap. He took out his sword, and channeling the power of the Golden Crystal, swiped the webbing, freeing the Senshi. They moved forward as he continued swiping at the threads. He was close, reaching the gates, but suddenly, in front of the gates stood a mirror, with no reflection but a dark void.

“You will not stop me, dear prince,” a voice said.

He saw before them Queen Nehellenia in the mirror as the object began to levitate. It ascended higher, and soon the queen’s silhouette formed around the mirror. As it reached high, it had vanished within the chest of the gigantic queen.

The Senshi and Endymion prepared for the last push to save their princess.

===========

Meanwhile, in the Moon Kingdom, the princess remained in slumber. Yet somehow, she felt something troubling her soul. That her loved ones were in grave danger. Not knowing how, she knew she needed to help and reached out to them. Her body began to glow and a bright beam of light was released from her body, heading to Earth.

===========

Endymion and the Senshi were now on the ground, Injured, failing to defeat the giant as she continued bombarding the field with lightning. She raised her hand, as it glowed with dark power.

Suddenly, a bright light from the moon created a shield around the group, and Nehellenia’s power failed to penetrate it.

“Usako,” Endymion said, knowing, somehow, that it was her power that saved them. He felt renewed strength as he stood, along with the Senshi.

“Let’s end this,” Venus said. The Senshi charged at the queen and used their powers, causing her to flinch and push backward.

Endymion picked up his sword, and saw it begin to glow with Serenity’s power. He focused his own power within it and it shined brightly. He charged at Nehellenia and threw the blade, embedding the blade into her chest.

She screamed, as an echoing, cracking, sound was heard. The Senshi stopped their attack, as the queen looked at the sword, not embedded in her chest, but in the mirror now floating outside her form, as more fractures began appearing. The whole mirror shattered into dust, and the queen screeched, as she, too, dissolved into the darkness. With all traces of her gone, the only thing left behind was the glowing sword, as it lost its shine.

Endymion exhaled, finally taking a rest, but suddenly, Mars and Jupiter helped him to his legs.

“Don’t rest now, prince,” Mars said, smiling, “You only have a little further to go. Someone needs to wake up our lazy princess.”

They let Endymion go, as he was able to balance himself on his feet, and led them to the planetary teleporter. Soon he was on the Moon, and the Senshi led him to the princess’s room.

And there he saw her, now in her princess gown, but his Usako, no doubt. He approached her bed and she looked so peaceful. He cupped her cheek and leaned in, placing his lips softly on her’s. He drew his head back and looked at her as she slowly opened her eyes.

Serenity’s eyes took a moment to adjust. Her vision was blurry, but soon her vision cleared and she was staring into those midnight blue eyes, of the man she loved.

“Mamo-chan,” she whispered.

He cupped her cheek, lovingly, “Usako.”

The two kissed deeply, and just as they separated, the Senshi burst into the room.

“Usagi,” they shouted. Endymion backed away as the four jumped onto the big bed, where each of the Senshi got a chance to give Serenity a big hug, as they all laughed, playfully.

Moments after Serenity awoke, the curse that had spread across both kingdoms had lifted and everyone slowly woke from their slumber. The Senshi were very quick to inform the royal parents of the events and the celebration was put back on track within hours.

Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion entered the grand room, arms linked, and the moment they were standing before the royals, Queen Serenity quickly got up from her throne and embraced her daughter, not having held her since she gave her to her guardians sixteen years ago.

The prince and princess were wedded, and they began the celebration by sharing their first dance.

“It’s funny,” the prince whispered.

“What is,” she asked her now husband.

“Yesterday, I was prepared to give up everything, to marry some beautiful peasant girl I met in the market.”

“What a coincidence. When I heard I was betrothed to a prince, I did not know how I could ever be happy with him, after courting a handsome stranger.”

They looked at each other, and smiled, sharing another kiss.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

[tiny012]

It's interesting how the rising climax of Usagi seeing Mamoru be killed right before her eyes followed by a nervous breakdown is something clearly depicted in all three adaptations of Classic,Crystal, and the manga, yet fans only seem to pay attention to the scene in Crystal alone solely just to have a reason to further demonize Crystal!Usagi's character as being too dependent on her boyfriend.

I said something about this when Crystal was airing but I’m going to go in more detail because it bothers me as well. 

It’s like in the 90′s anime, they made it look like a temper tantrum more than an actual break down which to me is worse.What made it worse is the fact she had it while they was trying to get out from under the twilight tower . So she pretty much almost put herself and the senshi lives in danger since they really was not in a safe place if you really think about it. Kunzite ( which he does) could pop up any moment and they would have been caught off guard.I supposed to be sympathizing with her not feel like she needs to hold it together so they can get out of there which . Which Rei had to slap her which should be considered as assault and also called her an coward… What makes it worse they just stood by, let Rei slap her and didn’t stay shit about it. Yes I know Rei is hurting since she had feelings for Mamo as well but that doesn’t mean you put your hands on her like that. 

Also don’t like how insensitive Luna is to the whole situation at well. ( Which is always a constant theme with 90′s anime Luna) 

Also the fact it felt a giant info dump compared to other versions when they tell the girls about their past. It’s more like business transaction than something that is pretty much will changed the course of Usagi and the girls lives. The whole thing felt like “ This your mission ! I don’t care you are having a temper tantrum ! You are the princess and this what you must do! ” ( So in a sense I don’t blame for being like “I want to be normal at the end.” ) Sometimes I feel like 90′s Usagi never had a real chance to fully embrace her role compared to her Manga and Crystal counterparts. 

Meanwhile Ami is like 

“Oh She be back to being Usagi soon! I found the exit!” 

God bless her.

In Crystal A matter of fact that one scene in the 90′s anime was actually two scenes in Crystal .

The first when they was in the command center and the second when they come over her house to to check on her and cut her hair.    

The first shot you see 

Artemis and Luna look full of sympathy ( but Crystal characters don’t emote!) 

Also the fact they are in the command center aka SAFE! 

You know what is more interesting to me? 

Crystal Usagi said nothing about she didn’t care about the mission or she didn’t want to fight. 

She said nothing about giving up the mantle of being Sailor Moon.

All she said is that she wanted Mamoru back and she’s not a princess which she gets dragged for that. 

She did say “ just an ordinary school girl who wants to fall in love” which to me her sperating her school life from her senshi life. 

But she gets dragged for crying and falling in love.

She didn’t say” Fuck the mission” which 90′s Usagi pretty much said. 

She didn’t throw her friends or Mamo sacrifice under the bus. 

Hell Crystal Usagi was like “ Where is she?” meaning she ready to go,get Beryl ass and get him back by using her powers. 

Second scene 

Her PTSD  triggered by thinking about Mamoru getting hit. 

You can tell your friend to be strong ,keep it together, and you got her back without slapping her and calling her a coward…… 

( I would have killed to have a scene like this in the break up arc.)

Also in the manga it’s almost the same thing but the crystal just added a little bit more. 

But Crystal is Anti-Feminist for having a girl crying and feeling she’s not strong enough to save her boyfriend and the world while her friends are telling her to be strong while she thanked them meanwhile 90′s anime is Feminist for having a girl get hit by her follow senshi for saying she didn’t want apart of the mission or fight anymore while her follow senshi just looked on and not said shit about it….

Oh BTW 

Sailor Moon Classic Episode 35 was directed by Takuya Igarashi (Male) and  written by Katsuyuki Sumizawa ( Male)

Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 9 was Directed by Kumiko Habara ( Female) and  written by Mutsumi Ito (Female)

So the episode written and directed by females gets called Anti-Feminist.

No wonder it’s my fave of Crystal.. lol

Mmmmm 

I’m going to have stop this. lol