On Thu, 27 Nov 1997, Mark Doherty wrote:

Hotaru: ...

?: Anyway, here we are again for some C&Cing. This time, it's a continuation
   of John Bile's *cough* little *cough* Shiva storyline. Almost pure Sailor

Arcadia:  Biles, not Bile :)

   Moon/original characters in this first chapter, although who knows how
   many series will be drawn into it by the end? Today's token anime presence

Lots :)

       "You fool!  You have not summoned a spirit!  You've 
opened a HIGHWAY for them!"  Saturn's face was livid with 
rage.  "You thought you could use the powers of darkness, 
but those who truck with the powers that hunger for souls all 
eventualy feed that hunger!"

?: The only reason you could take her seriously is that she can destroy
   the world. What a goody-two-shoes way of saying things. 

Hotaru: Good and evil play a large backdrop of what the Shiva storyline is
        about. And Sailor Moon is all about good and evil too.

Arcadia:  In a universe with real evil powers capable of devouring your
soul, warning someone they're asking to have their soul devoured is about
as moralistic as pointing out that eating Plutonium is BAD for you.  You
don't think people for causing a nuclear meltdown, either :)

?: But there you go, if it was Sailor Moon or one of the others, the villains 
   would be rolling on the floor laughing right now. 

Arcadia:  I'd be laughing too, but then I'd probably go hide.
 

        DID YOU THINK THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE 
WHERE FOOLS TRIED THIS EXPERIMENT?  I THINK 
THIS TIME...I'LL TRY AN ICE AGE.  OH, DR. WISE.  
THANKS FOR THE ORB.  MY CHILD WILL MAKE 
GOOD USE OF IT.  

        The Indian Summer of that age of Mankind came to an 
end.  It was time for Fall, and with Fall comes Winter, a 
winter that lasted nigh upon a thousand years.  But Winter is 
not the end of all things, for with Spring, the year, and life, 
are born anew. 

?: And then there was ice... Nice paragraph. No real explanation on
   why this ice age didn't kill off everyone, but I presume you'll
   cover that later. 

Arcadia:  Yes.  However, no one's told me that yet, so I can't help you
either.  All I have are goofy legends that talk about people making roses
sprout where they walked, and whatnot.

 

       She tossed her head, and long shoulder-length purple 
hair whipped about.  Arcadia was proud of her hair, but in the 
heat of summer, it got to be an annoyance at times, trapping 
heat and getting into her eyes.  

?: Ah! Shampoo's been reincarnated as a Sirian!

Hotaru: Ah... somehow, I don't think so. 

Arcadia:  I am NOT Shampoo.  Don't make me strangle you with my black
belt.
 

       Her birthday party had been when everything went to 
pieces.  Her boyfriend, Tony Pacarri had been in a bad mood, 
and she had been trying to get him to stop moping around and 
wrecking the party when there had been an explosion at the 
front gate and a skimmer full of people with black crescent 
moons on their foreheads had driven into the middle of the 
party and started to mow down all her friends and the family's 
servants.  Sammy had been cut in half by a monofilament 
whip.  Her aunt Traci had simply been run over.  Her parents 
had just gone into the house to get her presents or they would 
have died as well.  Tony died, throwing himself in front of a 
blast to save her.  

?: Sigh... sloppy. No finesse. How embarassing that they wear the
   black crescent symbol.

Arcadia:  I think they carve their meals with chainsaws.  
 

       That had been the final straw, along with seeing a second 
skimmer full of maniacs coming through the gate.  She had 
lost it completely, screaming so loudly that she was surprised 
her own eardrums hadn't burst.  Her screaming had been 
followed by an explosion that had flipped over the second 
skimmer and vaporized the first one.  She didn't know what 
had caused it, but the inhabitants of the second skimmer had 
come after her, and she had run, and run, and run.  

?: Well, well. She possesses the Royal Scream, which is sufficiently
   loud, annoying, and deadly enough to roast cattle. Both Sailor Moon
   and Chibi-Usa have used it to their advantage. 

Arcadia:  Luckily, I haven't met someone who can scream louder than me,
yet.
 

Hotaru: Mutter... mumble... I'm supposed to be the one who destroys planets.
        'S not fair.

Arcadia:  Note the 'XVIII'.  You were rather dead, dead, dead.
 

?: Sorry, can't agree. Magic is trusted when it does good because it is not
   rational. It does not require you to have a reason to be happy, it just
   makes you so. It does not give the fear that drugs do, there are no 
   side-effects or moral problems or social stigma to magic, and so it makes
   you smile. It's insidious. I would never trust magic such as this.

Arcadia:  Which is probably why you're not exactly Mr. Bundle of Joy,
yourself.

to meet you.  Please sit down.  Would you like a cookie?"  He 
started pouring drinks and putting cookies on plates, making 
sure that the little kid got his cookies first.  "And this is my 
son Ian."  He looked around.  "His sister Barbara is around 
here, somewhere.  Probably hiding again."

?: I just thought of something.

Hotaru: What?

?: Bear with me, it's been a while since I read the relevant chapter of SMZ.
   But didn't Pluto give up her 'outside time status' or something to marry
   your father? And then she started aging normally, or something?

Arcadia:  Yes, but the Senshi all have extended lifespans, thanks to the
Crystal.  She ceased to be totally invulnerable to time.  In time, Pluto
will die.  She's not around in my time.


 > Hotaru: (frowns) Actually, I can't remember. I think so.

?: It's just that it makes that particular sacrifice rather pointless, if
   the septic... I mean the silver crystal gave her immortality anyway.

Arcadia:  Going from infinite 'money' to 1000 dollars is a sacrifice, so
to speak.  Among other things, Pluto can no longer travel though time
outside her own lifetime, which will be important later.  

?: Have a hysterical screaming fit, running around the room shouting "We're
   all going to die! We're all going to die!"

Arcadia:  I'd love to see that too!  Of course, if she panics, it's time
for everyone else to just kill themselves now and get it over with.

       Arcadia gave a bigger sigh of relief.  "How soon can I 
go?"

       "Actually, I only said that because you asked me to."  
Himeko laughed, as did Ami. 

?: You know, people who say things like that are really asking for some bad
   karma.

Arcadia:  It rather disturbed me too.
 

       He handed her a cookie from the table.  "Here you go!  
Yeah, she can't hide from me!  I'm gonna be a famous 
detective like Sheerluck Homes one day!"

       "I'm sure you will,"  Hotaru said, rufflinghis hair.

?: You missed a space with the ruffling thing there. (turns to Hotaru)
   Well, you're not dead in the future. That's rare. 

Hotaru: No, just on the brink of madness thanks to internal forces beyond
        my control.

Arcadia:  The living are USUALLY much more interesting to have around than
the dead.

?: Very nice. Take a look, tell us what you think.

Opal: Hmm... that first paragraph actually sounds Australian. 

Arcadia:  Thanks!
 

Opal: Buggered if I know. Crazy Old Hodge? Mad Old Hodge suits me Aussie tastes
      even better, mind.

Arcadia:  Right. You go tell him.  I'll watch.

Opal: Zinc cream. Across the nose. Go on, ask another Australian. Can she
      be an archetype of Australia without zinc cream on the nose?

Arcadia: This is a non-Australian's perception.  She hadn't realized about
the Zinc cream, yet :)
 

       When it was fifty degrees at noon the next day, she 
started to wonder what was going on.  She was staring at the 
needle again.  It was warmer close to the needle, warmer by a 
good twenty degrees within a hundred feet.  This isn't natural, 
she thought.  

Opal: Celsius? All right, you're confusing me with this. Fifty
      celsius isn't especially cool, not even in December. It happens,
      especially in the deserts, but I'm not sure in this paragraph
      if it's that hot there because of the needle, or because Nature's
      just being normal. Some, you know, clarification here might be
      a bit 'elpfull.

Arcadia:  I should probably convert it to Celcius, but since the author is
a lazy American, it's in Farenheit :)

?: Anyway, that's that. An interesting begining, even though that's all it is, 
   a begining. Despite its size, not all that much really happened. Ah well. 
   Wait to see more, I suppose. So then, she's the one who dies off a lot in 
   fics set in the future.

Hotaru: He's the one who talks about dying in the future a lot.

Opal: And I'm the one with a live grenade in my hand.

Hanggrenade Man:  BROTHER!


John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

     The Moon Hill Gymnasium was crowded with students, most from Moon 
Hill, but some from other schools.  The special committee to pick the 
theme for the first spring dance had argued for weeks over a theme.  Many 
ideas had been suggested:  Love--American Style, Spring Sock Hop, Can't 
Stop Doing the Monkey, The Black Plague, Enchantment under the Sea, Zinc 
Oxide and You, Space Viking Vixen Women from Venus, The Progressive Era, 
and The First Spring Dance.  After extensive argument, the sole remaining 
conscious committee member had selected the theme "Our Gym Covered in 
Crepe Paper."  
--Sailor Moon Z #7