Suggested changes: {before : after}
On 06/05/2004 01:01 PM, Mark MacKinnon said:
Hello again, faithful readers. As regular {vistors : visitors} to my
webpage know, I've been fighting to get the next part of this story
completed and released for the last couple of months at least. Now,
finally, I'm pleased to be able to release it into the wild. While I
didn't get to the point in the story that I wanted to, I ended up
with enough material for two full chapters. It seemed like a much
better idea to give the readership something to read now rather than
waiting another six or eight months before releasing anything, just
so I could reach a fairly arbitrary point in the plot.
Just another typically average cliffhanger. :}b
The situation went from bad to worse when Yoshi was shot with a
silver bullet just as Jupiter arrived. She recognised one of the
Sisterhood; Yurina, the Black Rose, was in fact Lily, the girl who
had betrayed a young Makoto in her gang days. Jupiter's unleashed
fury reacted {the : with} Saekianna's false Banri, throwing {many :
some} of those present into Shadow Realm.
Just when all seemed lost, the ghost ship, Desidinder, appeared in
the crimson light of the Shadow moon, Nemesis, and the mysterious
singing girl seemed to give Ranma a clue to their salvation. Using
the key, Ranma managed to do the extraordinary and breach the barrier
between Shadow and the human realm, allowing the senshi to escape.
Unfortunately, Yurina was snatched away by Maia, who fled into the
human realm, thus depriving them of a means to discover the
Sisterhood's plans.
When Rei did a divination on some evidence from the police morgue,
however, things began to come to a head. In light of this new
information, coupled with the discovery of the body bags in Shadow,
it quickly became apparent that they had found a bigger piece of the
puzzle. The vampire had orchestrated the attack at the police tower,
using a Sister under her control to operate Silkaine's {Sphere :
Siren (AKA Genosphere)}. The bodies were taken to disguise the true
target of the attack: Cyrie der Kae, Saekianna's mother.
"Raine, are you mad?" he asked. "This is Galiraithe!"
"I believe Raine's point, Tam, is why now?" Kendra interrupted
gently.
One thought I had was to wonder if this was another plant by Wynneth,
but I don't think Gar would be fooled if she tried to imitate Larissa's
shade.
"Right now," Usagi said softly, reaching up to toy with the loose
ties of Makoto's {bouse : blouse}, "I'm worried about you,
Mako-chan."
"I agree," Minako nodded. Nobody asked me what I thought. If they
had, I'd have told them dinner was great. All things considered, not
a particularly insightful comment, so it was just as well that nobody
asked me.
It seems quite insightful to me.
"Piece of cake," Rei said with a sleek smile. "Since I used to be
one."
"A discussion for another time, I assure you," Haruka said darkly.
"Makoto, you want to talk to these werecats that the Inners have a
truce with."
"Ah, yes," Setsuna murmured, lacing her fingers together and resting
her chin in them while she pinned Usagi with her gaze. "That
promise."
It's interesting how the Outers' reservations keep coming up.
"Hotaru's going to be unhappy," Haruka muttered.
"Not if we find out something useful," Rei pointed out.
Just like the wraith trap in the warehouse?
"That is between the princess and Banri," Saturn informed him,
unwilling to admit that she, too was very curious as to what would
possess Usagi to do such a thing. "But I hardly see why you should
be concerned about Sailor Moon's relationship with an emissary of the
Dark Lady. Unless you are a worshipper of Alieva?" Saturn had never
known the man to show favour to any of the gods, but there were those
who kept such matters secret.
It seems to me the Inners might have mentioned the similarity in
appearance between Usagi and Dasma. It would help draw interest away
from questions about Ranma. There would be no reason for Saturn to pass
that on to Gar though.
First, there was the body stocking. Actually, stocking was a huge
overstatement; it was a black fishnet affair that made Minako's {lace
outfit : tight dress} look like a tarpaulin. At least I got a thong
to wear under it.
Smiling sweetly, she reached around me and let her fingers brush
against the small of my back. It felt like something was there,
pinned between the string where it looped over my hips and my {skin :
butt}. As she removed whatever she had put there, that tingle swept
over me again and the blonde stepped back, a crooked smile on her
glossy red lips.
"Oh, this?" Ami asked, touching the ribbon self-consciously. The girl
blushed even more furiously than she had during their previous
conversation, which puzzled Makoto. "It was in with the things
Minako brought. I was just ... just trying it on. That's all."
Just in case, mind you.
Unless Gareth had sent Rin after Yoshi in the first place. Rin came
back with a blood-stained trophy bearing Yoshi's scent and fresh
blood, and he was in good with the boss. Of course, that meant that
Rin had neglected to mention the presence of the Sisterhood. Damn,
this was getting complicated. Twists and turns weren't her thing;
she wished Mercury was handling this part all of a sudden.
Since the shifters are so sensitive to smells, mightn't they recognize
Makoto as Jupiter if they catch her scent? The senshi's glamour seems
mostly sight based.
"He was quite a useful asset in life," Vanka announced, noticing
Rei's gaze. "But shifters, they are beasts at heart and cannot be
trusted. So he became useful in another way." Vanka's smile told Rei
that she was quite serious. Rei only nodded, as though murdering a
werecat and making a rug out of him was the act of a completely
reasonable human being.
I wonder if he belonged to Gareth's pack.
As impressive as the big man was, my attention was really {rivetted :
riveted} by the other occupants of the tidy, suburban torture
chamber. There were nine of them, six girls, three guys. The first
thing that struck me about them wasn't that they ranged from striking
to stunning in appearance; I guess I was just getting used to the
unearthly beauty that reigned in this city. The triangular ears and
tails that each of them possessed, though, those were definitely
different. I didn't mistake them for costumes, like Minako's club
outfit, not for one minute. The ears twitched nervously, the tails
lashed, and the pupils of their eyes were elongated. These were the
real deal.