And now, to continue my efforts to contribute to C&C on the FFML, ABC, 
XYZ, CIA, NSC, DOD, DOE, KGB, GRU, FSB, SIS, EIEIO....

Elsa Bibat wrote:

A long in-hiatus fic slumbers back awake - actually this has been posted to
my LJ but wasn't released on the FFML.

Lesson 0 can be found in the link below.

	Which I vaguely recall C&Cing waaaay back when, but I'm gonna need to 
re-read it.

Disclaimer: As always, Sailormoon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi. Use without
permission.

	Is that an order?  :)  Or did you mean "useD"?

********************

The Education of Usagi Tsukino

A tale set in the Dances Set to the Music of Time sequence 

	Which is the one where Belldandy is Kosh and the Hounds of Tindalos are 
Pluto's pets, right?

By Elsa Bibat

Lesson 1

Learning

	"I can see this is going to be one of those *painful* learning 
experiences."  -- Washuu, in John Biles' "Children of Fire," just before 
everything goes pear-shaped.  Again.  (and Mihoshi's not even around to 
blame for it!)

********************

1996:

Usagi Tsukino, future Queen of the world, was pissed.

	So, what was she drinking?  Guiness?  Killian's?  Some microbrew?  :)
	Sorry, just indulging my inner Brit/Ozzie for a moment.

"SETSUNA!!! I know you're in there! Open up!"

	I don't dislike Setsuna, usually, but I do have to admit to a certain 
desire to have Usagi smack her into line, sometimes.

That was Haruka Ten'ou impression as she shared a glance with her long-time
lover.

	Ten'ou's -- posessive.

"Think it would be surprise her that Setsuna just left for New York a few
minutes ago?"

	drop "be"

Michiru just rolled her eyes and smirked in the most unladylike manner.

	Michi?  Unladylike?  PERISH the thought!  :)

"I have dinner to cook. See you later." With that, the teal-haired woman
flounced away. Must still be mad about the anniversary thing, the blonde
grimaced. It was so not her fault that the race organizers scheduled it that
way, but Michiru was taking none of it.

	Ooooo... Poor Haruka.  I've no doubt that a Michiru scorned is a 
Michiru to be feared.  And everyone thinks it's *Haruka* that wears the 
pants in that relationship.

Another harsh round of knocking interrupted her contemplation, followed by
Usagi's voice screeching for the Guardian of Time's head on a stick.

	Pluto Pez dispenser?  Gotta be one around *somewhere...*

Sighing, Haruka reached for the doorknob to cure at least one of her
headaches.

Besides, Setsuna left a letter.

	Sug:  "had left"

********************

Usagi scowled as she watched Rei waving goodbye, while the dark-haired girl
herded the other Inners away. Yesterday, after leaving her weirdo sensei's
home she went to visit the Outer's apartment. They weren't of much help.

	Outers' -- plural posessive.
	Sug:  "she had gone to visit... hadn't been..."

Just a letter from the Guardian of Time on how everything was fine and that
she should go with the flow.

	Setsuna, you big chicken.

Hmph

	Missing punctuation.

Today, she had somehow managed to convince everyone to take a look at her

	Sug:  "the Inners" -- 'everyone,' in this case, does not appear to 
include Haruka, Michi, or Hotaru.

new sensei, hoping that someone would back up her suspicions. Luna and
Artemis were no help; Setsuna's seal of approval was good as gold for them.
Eventually, she had managed to wear them down and get them to come with her.
Rei had met them on the way from Juuban High, also interested in what sort
of person 'could stomach teaching you anything', so she said.

	You know, Rei, Ami's standing *right there.*

They had arrived at the estate's gates to be greeted by the two ravens
again. One look at the pair and Rei just smiled, shook her head and

	--started quoting Poe.  :)
	Hm.  I wonder if Deimos and Phobos vouched for these two...?
	

pronounced everthing was fine. She then gave her best friend a smirk that
just said 'you are _so_ screwed, Usagi-chan' according to the young Tsukino
girl's Hino face vocabulary and proceeded to convince everyone to go on

	Sug:  put "Hino face vocabulary" in quotes.

home. Soon, only the young blonde and her waiting pair of feathered
guardians were left.

	"Guardians"?  Since this is from Usagi's viewpoint, mostly, I'm not 
sure "guardians" quite describes how *she* feels about H&M.

One of the dark birds let out a derisive caw and fluttered down to perch on
her right shoulder. It regarded her with an ebon eye, the avian gaze somehow
conveying amusement at her predicament.

	Yeah, I remember these two.

Usagi stuck out a tongue at it.

"Careful, he might take a peck. Tongues are a favorite of his."

"ACK!"

	No, no, Usagi, you don't ACK until *after* the ICMP packet arrives.
	<crickets>
	Okay, okay, no more lame attempts at network-centric humor...

The harsh voice cut through the silence like a sharp knife. Husky and low,
Usgi recognized the voice of her teacher and she turned in surprise.

	SP:  Usagi.
	Sug dropping "she"

Weyland-sensei was standing underneath the shade of a nearby tree. Dressed
in the same black clothes she wore yesterday, she looked like a gaunt
spectre.

	Hm.  Weyland...  the Norse smith-god?

"Sensei!" Her quick bow forced her her shoulder's unwelcome tenant to leave

	double "her"

abruptly, launching itself into the air and fluttering to her teacher's
waiting hand.

The older woman bowed in formal response and reached her laden hand to her

	Sug:  reached<>moved

right shoulder, letting her pet jump to another perch. A flutter of wings
and its twin had landed on the redhead's left shoulder, mirroring the other
bird perfectly.

	...redhead?  Wait, I coulda sworn that Weyland was supposed to be 
"Dances"'s Urd....  Time to re-read ch0 again.

"Hugin prefers tongues." Ruffling the right-side raven's throat feathers
with affection, her gloved hand disappearing into the ebon plumage. "His
brother Munin likes the eyes."

	Narrational sentence lacks a subject noun.  Sug "...affection, 
Weyland's gloved... disappeared into..."

A tight little smile appeared on Weyland-sensei's face as she gestured for
her young charge to follow her.

	Mmm... that last "her" might be droppable.

"Come, child. Twilight is coming and we may as well get the preliminaries
over with."

	Y'know, when a one-eyed person with two ravens with those names (which 
makes Rei safe, even if she loses an eye) starts talking about 
'twilight,' I start getting a cold feeling.
	Gotterdammerung, anyone?

Puzzled, Usagi followed the red-haired woman as she walked off into the
trees.

********************

The young blonde trudged alongside her teacher, managing to keep pace with
the longer-legged woman's stride. Weyland-sensei must have stood a little
over six feet, taller than Haruka or Mamoru. They were taking quite a while
in their walk, which disturbed Usagi to no end. It wasn't possible that such
a large estate could be found in metropolitan Tokyo. Something strange was
happening and she didn't like it.

	Nah, you're just going in circles, Usagi.  And the ravens are eating 
your trail of odango crumbs.  :)

"Child, may I ask you a question?"

"Er...okay." Great. More qestions. Usagi really didn't like questions. They
usually meant that she'd be embarassed by her own ignorance.

"Aren't you curious?"

"Huh!?" This was getting weird.

Turning her face towards her, Weyland-sensei spared her a look with her eye
as they continued their trek.

	Eh... that whole line just reads very awkwardly to me.

"Curiosity, child. Don't you want to know?"

	Well, that would depend.  Know *what*?

"Know?"

	No?  Yes?  Maybe?  :)

"To know the answers. To know the reasons."

	This is where'd I'd be saying "What reasons?  Which answers?"  But I'm 
not Usagi.
	Thank goodness.

Usagi just looked at her blanky. Weyland-sensei sighed and shook her head, a
slight gesture of impatience.

"For example, why aren't you asking me why we seem to be taking quite a bit
of time to reach our destination?"

	"Um... I figured that if you wanted me to know, you'd tell me?"

"Er..." Usagi blushed.

Her teacher smiled, a surprisingly gentle expression on the redhead's face.
"Japanese politeness, I see. My dear, asking questions is one of the things
I'd like to teach you and I assure you I will not take offense to any
question you may ask, though I may defer answering them to a different
time."

The older woman returned her gaze forward, continuing both her walk and
explanation.

"Setsuna has told me of you, child. She is of the opinion that you have
potential and I agree with her. For you to unleash that potential you must
first learn to learn and the first step in learning is asking questions. You
must have the desire to know if you wish to actually know."

	I dunno... maybe it's just me, but that seems awfully circular.  Did 
you mean for it to come across that way?  That last bit in particular 
borders on being a tautology.

"But-" Usagi blurted and stopped.

"Yes?" Her redheaded teacher asked they walked on.

	Uncap "her"

"But, I don't want to know." The young blonde muttered and her head drooped
in misery.

	""...know," the young blonde muttered, her head..."

"Why?" One word, yet the tone was filled with both understanding and
amusement.

	Sug:  "One word, and yet it carried a wealth of..."

Why? Usagi wondered. Looking back at her life for the past few years where
she went from normal schoolgirl to savior of the planet, she decided on an
answer. "Because... it makes things so complicated. Sometimes... it's better
not to know. I just want everything to be simple...easy. I don't want to be
special. I just want to be me. I know it's selfish but can't someone else do
it?"

	Or can she at least have *part* of her life not be taken over by 
Destiny?  This job will eat you whole, if you let it...

The tone of her teacher's response was kind, the voice it was delivered in
like sandpaper on glass.

"'Saying, Mother, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless,
not my will, but thine, be done.'," The eye turned to gaze at her again,
this time with a considering look. "But, my dear, can you afford not to
know? Is being special all that bad?"

	Weyland's mixing her holy writs, I see.

"I..." Thinking again, the young girl thought of the adventures, the thrill
of it all, the beauty she had seen and the magic she had experienced. "It's
not so bad," she finished lamely.

	Sug:  "it's not *all* bad."

A smile from Weyland-sensei and they continued their trek.

"Normal people think complexity is bad, that being different a curse. In the
end, my dear, it is all a matter of perspective. You just have to have the
right eye for it. As to how this relates to you education-Ah ha! Here we
are! Just in time, too."

	The right eye, or the left?
	Sorry, I can't get the mythological references out of my mind.
	Sug:   "education... Ah ha!" or "education -- Ah ha!"

It was a small glade. A large tree, standing like some grim solitary giant
holding up the sky, was at the center. An old-fashioned well of wood and
stone stood just underneath it. Dusk was fast approaching and, to Usagi, the

	A tree?  And a WELL?!?  In THIS context???  Usagi, RUN!!!!!!!  Before 
you lose an eye, or your head.
	Either that, or some creepy little girl is gonna come crawling out of 
it and try to give you a heart attack....

image somehow held some strange import.

"Come along, dear. I think you'd be quite thirsty after such a walk."

	<runs around in circles screaming>

Motioning for her, Weyland-sensei strode towards the well with a purposeful

	Sug:  "motioning for her to follow, Weyland-sensei..."

gait. Usagi hurried after her, the dying sun leaving long shadows on the
ground. Stopping at the well, the older woman dropped in the bucket, heard
water splash and started to crank the wheel. In a few moments, the wooden

	Sug:  "crank the wheel" <> "turn the crank"

vessel, filled with water, came into view. Picking up a wooden dipper, which
Usagi only now noticed, the one-eyed redhead dunked it into the
liquid-filled container.

Raising the dipper to her lips, the older woman drank it all in one gulp,
eye closed, a sigh of refreshment indicating the pleasure of the cool water.
When she turned to her charge, a strange light seemed to have been born in
her single eye. Dipping once again into the bucket, she presented it to
Usagi with a smile.

"Take a little sip. Water refreshes. It will make things a bit clearer."

	Yeah, *water* refreshes, but that ain't water.  Or at least, it isn't 
*just* water.  Weyland's choice of words is rather suspicious here -- as 
if she's trying to mislead w/o actually speaking a direct falsehood....

Usagi might have been dense, but even she could sense that there was another
meaning to her one-eyed teacher's words. She wanted to say no, but there was
some strange power in Weyland-sensei's eye that compelled her.

"All right." Usagi took the dipper from her teacher's hand and took a sip-

	ARRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!  Great.  Somebody break out the eyepatches.

the world blossomed outwards-inwards

music-piping flutes from the centre of the universe- from the dawn of time

	It's got a great beat, and you can Dance to it, too.  :)

around her, the grass turned from green to brown to dead ashes under winter
snow

	<blink>  dead grass doesn't turn to ash... not unless there's *fire* 
before that snow....

the tree behind her grew to encompass the sky and the roots were gnawed by
the lowly worms under the earth

	Or maybe One Great Big Honkin' Worm....

an eye, a great bright burning eye set into a face that has seen pasts of so
many worlds, eternally beautiful and terrifying in its wisdom

	Okay, I think we can rule out Sauron, here.  "Pasts..."  Urd?

the dying sun lanced red fire across the firmament like tentacles grabbing,
seeking

	<hastily checks for any LEMON tags...>

the wind rose up swirling turning, whispering secrets of the ages

the solid earth rumbled displeasure in its endless sleep

the water churned in her stomach spreading into her skin leaking out of her
pores

all was chaos, all was change

it was all so beautiful-

Her cheek stung, a sudden sharp pain, and she noticed that she was back. As
the pain in her cheek spread across her face, Usagi realized that she had
been slapped.

"Sorry about that. But first-timers almost always need to be pulled back."
Her teacher's apology was punctuated by a small laugh, the harshness in her
voice turned it into a vicious bark of amusement.

	Sug:  turned<>turning

"What was that?" The young girl looked around. Everything had returned to
normal.

"That was the world through one set of eyes. How was it?"

	One set?  *Which* set?  *WHOSE* set?  And what are they likely to 
charge for the rental, once they start sending out their bills for the 
fiscal quarter?

"It was... strange." Usagi smiled, though it made half her face hurt. "It
was beautiful."

Weyland-sensei smiled and reached out with a hand to the younger girl's
burning cheek. The pain disappeared.

"And that, my dear, is the first lesson."

	Mmmm... I don't get it.  Although I suspect all will be explained, 
slowly, as the story progresses.

	Nice to see another Dance step -- it's been a while.

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