Usagi Quest (CK3/Princess Maker) (Sailor Moon)

[tygerbright]

I am sure Set will be unhappy with the visit from his (reincarnated) mother. Also, interesting that one of the Egyptian Pantheon left. That is a thread I will be interested to see picked up. Perhaps Astarte is already in Japan, and even if she isn't she soon will be.

There were a few grammatical errors I noticed. Do you want them pointed out?

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Astarte(Greek)/Ashtart(Northeastern Semitic) who might also be Ishtar (East Semitic) was more of an imported god than one of the original members of the Pantheon anyway.

 

[Themarineguy]

Los Angeles is an absolutely beautiful city late at night, Bunny Brown thinks to herself as she looks out over the city towards the coast in the distance.

If only the city was peaceful. The girl stands high atop a sky scraper, taking a moment to carefully adjust the mask that she had made herself. The mask that she can remember from a time before she herself was alive.

It's all really weird, and Bunny doesn't exactly understand all of it, but her friend Amy did a lot to try and explain it to her. Of course, even with Amy explaining everything, Raye still teased her about not understanding.

Raye was so mean, and at times Bunny just couldn't stand it. But... Raye was still a friend, even if they bickered.

How couldn't she be a friend, given the things that the three had gone through together. There is a crackle at Bunny's ear. "Missy Moon, you hear me?" That's the sound of Raye- Ah. Bunny shakes her head, reminding herself that she has to call her friend by her superhero name when they are in costume. It's only been a week since Bunny first went out, and she still struggles to understand just how much her life has changed now.

"I hear you, Missy Mars." The girl responds, making sure to say the proper name and not Raye's own. There is a snort from the other end of the line, and Bunny can't help but think that the hispanic girl must have know what she was thinking. "What's up?"

"There's a shoot out on Olivia Street." The girl says. It really is lucky for Missy Moon that Missy Mars's father is a police officer, and the seventeen year old superheroine is thankful for it.

"Olivia street?" The girl asks to confirm, getting a grunt of acknowledgment from her friend and ally.

"Yep. There's also been a sighting of the Tuxedo Thief in the area." Missy Mars confirms, and there is a moment where Missy Moon pauses, trying to understand what the thief is doing there.

"There's not anything of ShieldCo in the area..." The girl mutters under her breath, trying to understand what her nemesis is doing there.

"Yeah there is," Amy- Missy Mercury cuts into the line. Bunny and Amy have been best friends for as long as the strawberry blonde superheroine can remember. Amy has always had a head for tech, taking apart things and putting them back together even better than they were before. The girl actually has her own computer, one she built from the smallest of scraps that the team has taken to calling the Mercury Net. It is actually that very computer genius who built the headsets that the team are using now out of parts of some of the damaged cellphones that her father's factory made. Of course, there is the question of if Amy broke the phones while they were on the line so her father would throw them out...

But that is a question that isn't even going to be asked out loud, because Amy hates it when people accuse her of doing illegal things. The girl also always has a very solid alibi when people ask about those things. If they are connected, Bunny very carefully doesn't think about it, because she values her best friend more than she values the law.

After all, if Bunny was a law abiding young woman, she wouldn't be here, getting ready to test out her best friend's newest invention. "ShieldCo held a banquet down near Olivia street not too long ago to celebrate the completion of the new Charity center not far from there. Maybe Tuxedo Thief wants something out of there?"

That's a possibility, but before they can even guess about that, they need to arrive on the scene in order to solve the problem. "...You're sure this thing will work?" Bunny asks, glancing over her shoulder at the long flowing cape that Amy gave her earlier in the day.

"Yes, Missy Moon. I know it will work. I've even tested it myself. Don't be such a baby." Missy Mercury says, and despite the light way that the girl teases, Bunny can hear a bit of hurt from her best friend not trusting her.

"Fine, fine. But if this is like the Spaghetti machine..." Bunny says, before she breaks into a full on sprint, leaping high into the air and off the edge of the towering building. After a moment gravity begins to take hold of the girl, and the solid eight foot tall leap begins to drop down, towards the ground stories and stories below. Reaching back, the girl grabs hold of the edge of the cloak, and with a flick of her wrist and a pulse of the superhuman power inside of her, Missy Moon's cape transforms into a pair of solid wings in the shape of a crescent moon. Now a glider, Missy Moon begins to soar across the sky.

With a holler of joy, Missy Moon can't help but reflect on the last week that the group has been training and working.

For the last week the three girls have been fighting against not only Crime, but a strange group of mutants calling themselves the Dark Agency, as well as trying to stop that crook Tuxedo Thief from stealing form ShieldCo. The girl's aren't entirely sure where their powers come from, but Raye thinks that they have been infused with the DNA of aliens from the rest of the solar system that died out long ago.

Bunny thinks that is a little silly, but it's not impossible. Tilting down, the girl dives closer down to the street level before leaning back and soaring even higher into the air than she was before. There is a moment where she look up, seeing the moon in the distance, before-

A wall of something SLAMS into Missy Moon, knocking the glider out of it's shape as the girl's eyes flash with light. There is a second where Missy Moon knows that the moon is all wrong. It is supposed to look different. It isn't supposed to be empty. That is all that she has time to think, before the screaming of her friends manage to pierce her mind, and Missy Moon realizes what is happening. grabbing hold of the cape, she manages to reform it into its glider form.

"What was that?" Missy Mars asks, trying to understand what it was that they all felt.

"I...I don't know." Missy Mercury responds. "Missy Moon, get down to the ground. That might happen again. I'm sorry... I, I thought it was ready."

Of course, that is the reason that Missy Moon is the boss and not the others. Amy is prone to panicking when things don't happen the way that she expects them to, becoming flustered and wanting to turtle up and start planning and tinkering and just continuing to sit there until she has managed to account for every possible happening, while Raye on the other hand may be loud, and she may like to argue with Bunny... The girl becomes completely frozen by choice paralysis if she is given too many options. "No." Missy Moon says. "There's a shoot out, I'm going to go and help."

The girls may not know where their strange powers come from, and they may not know what their destiny is going to be, but they are going to continue pushing to help the world in the ways that only they can.

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Okay, the fact that American Sailor Moon is a thing is very weird.

I suppose it could be worse though. It could be Saban Moon.

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What are the odds they may be the dev team, unknowingly pulling from their memories of their past life, both to aid their sharp minds and in how to operate? I mean, they are celestial themed magical equipment users whom are reincarnates of the silver millennium.

Paradoxically, the Tsar is the greatest threat because he is patient, smart, and manipulative, but also Moon or Kagome just looking at him would kill him sooo...

The Egyptian Gods are just awful, momma needs to come and ground them.

Bach....could use some help.


A major blow huh? How high up was Lotus Man?

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Seems that the US may have the reincarnates of the dev team behind the disguise pen, egypt is dead set against anything that could threaten their power, putting them in a collision course with us because our mere existence is a threat. And Russia is a dangerous wild card, whom could be our ally, or our enemy, but will be dangerous either way, and may embroil themselves in a civil war.

 

[Lunaryon]

He was essentially at the same level as Jadeite, but more specifically it was the loss of the mirror that was the biggest hit to the Oblivion because it was how the method in which they brought back their soldiers if they were destroyed. You've managed to shut down roughly 1/3 of their ability to field troops in total.

 

[Tzaphquiel]

Hm, hopefully the Senshi can reunite with Bacchus and help him remember properly, sooner rather than later. As to Jupiter, well, one hopes they can forge a close bond, if nothing else.

The American counterparts are... quaint.

Ivan Vasilyevich does not seem particularly malevolent. Once the Senshi properly reach the international stage, perhaps they could reach an accord with him.

 

[Themarineguy]

He was essentially at the same level as Jadeite, but more specifically it was the loss of the mirror that was the biggest hit to the Oblivion because it was how the method in which they brought back their soldiers if they were destroyed. You've managed to shut down roughly 1/3 of their ability to field troops in total.

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...They probably should not have had such critical equipment RIGHT THERE!!!

 

[Sailor_Skarro]

...They probably should not have had such critical equipment RIGHT THERE!!!

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To be fair, they were not expecting Suddenly The Moon Is Angry At You

We weren't expecting it either, it was three crits in a row, how exactly could Oblivion anticipate the resident Moon Goddess going full throttle dropping into their laps?

 

[Ternasta]

Hmm, interesting perspectives. The Tsar being Ivan Vasilyevich is interesting, could be useful, he seems to be sane and rational at least. He might not be a threat at all, being a vampire isn't automatically evil after all. And Sutekh's little moment where he realizes the magic is stronger than him but represses it is rather telling. Also, there seem to be hints that the Egyptians were responsible for the Fade, but I could be mistaken, just a feeling I had.
Funny, really. All this stuff happening, people freaking out, and I can't help but wonder how they'll react when she actually gets the Silver Crystal.
Or was this the moment she gained the Silver Crystal @Lunaryon? Because it would be thematically appropriate, given what we've seen here.

 

[TricMagic]

Miku Kenjou's Sickness has been cured

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This is the best thing to come out of this event.

Second best is the American Versions of Sailor Scouts, this time with ancient DNA mixed in. Does that make them our cousins?

 

[FictionPack]

To be fair, they were not expecting Suddenly The Moon Is Angry At You

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But he was expecting Moon to attack this very location!

 

[Thalton]

But he was expecting Moon to attack this very location!

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THAT JUST MEANS HE WAS A BIGGER IDIOT THAN WE FIRST THOUGHT!

 

[Sailor_Skarro]

But he was expecting Moon to attack this very location!

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He was expecting Sailor Moon, kickass magical vigilante. He was not expecting The Moon Ascendant, Incarnation of Hope.

Honestly, he should be happy he got The Moon Ascendant, not Saturn Ascendant, Incarnation of Silence. If he tried this on Saturn he would have gotten ret-gone'd instead of just getting off with being punted back to being a normal.

 

[ExNihilo]

You know, the fact that we can give and revoke magic at will is probably really terrifying to some people.

 

[JmonsterNEO]

I am sure Set will be unhappy with the visit from his (reincarnated) mother. Also, interesting that one of the Egyptian Pantheon left. That is a thread I will be interested to see picked up. Perhaps Astarte is already in Japan, and even if she isn't she soon will be.

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Fun fact, Astarte is a proto-goddess, who is the basis of love and fertility goddesses in multiple pantheons, meaning that she's not natively Egyptian.

also, I'm very excited to see what will happen next

 

[Gmerguy]

To be fair, they were not expecting Suddenly The Moon Is Angry At You

We weren't expecting it either, it was three crits in a row, how exactly could Oblivion anticipate the resident Moon Goddess going full throttle dropping into their laps?

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Yeah, Note: we didn't see what the Dark Kingdom or Beryl thought of this, but given everything its basically slather barbeque sauce on Japan at best.

 

[GoukaRyuu]

Fun fact, Astarte is a proto-goddess, who is the basis of love and fertility goddesses in multiple pantheons, meaning that she's not natively Egyptian.

also, I'm very excited to see what will happen next

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TIL

I wonder if there's some Elder Scrolls-style mantling/avatars going on here, with with the Scouts so metaphysically significant that echoes of their roles are spontaneously appearing in other places around the world where some righteous butt-kicking is necessary.

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I was just thinking the same thing. You just phrased it far more eloquently than I could.

 

[Thalton]

No one saw that work in progress omake.

 

[frozenchicken]

I wonder if there's some Elder Scrolls-style mantling/avatars going on here, with with the Scouts so metaphysically significant that echoes of their roles are spontaneously appearing in other places around the world where some righteous butt-kicking is necessary.

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There are a few possibilities here.
-'Mantling' the echoes of Sailor Moon.
-The Queen's spell created 'engrams' that would become the basis of various Sailor Moons to oppose every manifestation of the Dark Kingdom. Unclear if this means we're not a real reincarnation or not.
-There was some form of intelligent action beyond just the canonical Queen Serenity's desperate attempt to resurrect everyone at the same time and place as the Dark Kingdom's return. Consider the fact that our Usagi grew up as the best friend of the reincarnation of Pandora (despite Pandora dying long after the Fall), which is 100% not a coincidence. Unclear if this was non-canonical Queen Serenity with more time to be creative or an additional person influencing things.
-.....This could just be Pluto messing with us.
-The reincarnations might not be complete reincarnations. Imagine that the souls of the Princesses got shredded by death, and different people received different pieces of their souls.
-Usagi need not have been the only Moon Princess. What if some of the Sailors had younger siblings who were reincarnated separately, so as to not put all eggs in one basket? (The similar names sounds like an argument against, but this IS the same dynasty that had Serenity, daughter of Serenity and Chibi-Usa, daughter of Usagi).

One interesting factor is that 'Missy Moon' does not appear to have any magic. This makes some options more likely but does not rule any out.

 

[Elder Haman]

My big thing is that I really want to keep Luna and Ami's personal actions clear to recover memories or work on the Mercury Supercomputer.

Luna just damn near got herself killed because she'd forgotten a basic safety principle of working with teleport beacons. Ami's constantly obstructed by the difficulty of using the Mercury Computer to retrieve information because of the bad filing system.

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I don't see how we can do that next turn because we got to get the magic teaching program started, and that needs Ami and Luna. Although maybe half their actions can be spent on that and the other half on their own issues.

If his mind is addled, if everything is blurred and dulled... Then the pain isn't there. If everything is warped through the lens of drunken fun, then he doesn't have to think. Because if he thinks then...

Then he remembers.

That is the last thing that Bach wants. He doesn't want to remember. He doesn't want to think or feel or anything. The worst part of it all is that he doesn't remember why he doesn't want to remember. He doesn't remember why he doesn't want to think. He doesn't remember why he doesn't want to feel.

All of those things have been sacrificed over his life. Why he sacrificed them, and what he got out of them...

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Huh... who is this?

No.. No he needs... something. Anything to try and take the edge off his mind again. Oh... This is... This ain't far from Central Park. Was that bridge that could be used to find the Summer Court still there?

Bach pauses as for the first time in the longest time he tries to remember, but everything is so... busy and dizzy in his thoughts.

Wasn't that bridge torn down after that slump back in twenty eight?

That thought is idle, but it brings the young man up short, eyes sharpening. Twenty eight?

Nineteen Twenty Eight?

That... That can't be right?

The man looks down at his hands again. There aren't any wrinkles. No scars. Not that he can ever remember there being any. Nor does he remember forgetting to have any, so he must have not ever had any.

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This is giving me Logan Wolverine vibes. Also Summer Court means fae and Seelie?

A wave hits him, sending a shiver up his back. With a gasp of surprise the oldest man on the planet drops the blunt, eyes snapping up towards the still empty moon. For a long moment the ancient stands there, purple eyes locked on the silver light in the sky, even as his curly brown hair waves in a wind that only catches himself. Just above his brow aches where the horns that once curled free once were.

The moon is empty. There is no castle, there are no gardens. No carefree princess to tell stories of his journeys, no Queen to advise and if the moon is empty... then Jupit- all the rest will still be empty too.

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Oh wow, so this guy dates back to the Silver Millenium.

Los Angeles is an absolutely beautiful city late at night, Bunny Brown thinks to herself as she looks out over the city towards the coast in the distance.

If only the city was peaceful. The girl stands high atop a sky scraper, taking a moment to carefully adjust the mask that she had made herself. The mask that she can remember from a time before she herself was alive.

It's all really weird, and Bunny doesn't exactly understand all of it, but her friend Amy did a lot to try and explain it to her. Of course, even with Amy explaining everything, Raye still teased her about not understanding.

Raye was so mean, and at times Bunny just couldn't stand it. But... Raye was still a friend, even if they bickered.

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Okay... so that's a thing.

"I hear you, Missy Mars." The girl responds, making sure to say the proper name and not Raye's own. There is a snort from the other end of the line, and Bunny can't help but think that the hispanic girl must have know what she was thinking. "What's up?"

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Huh, Shadow Jack reference, since his take on Mars was Raye the fiery Hispanic girl.

"Yep. There's also been a sighting of the Tuxedo Thief in the area." Missy Mars confirms, and there is a moment where Missy Moon pauses, trying to understand what the thief is doing there.

"There's not anything of ShieldCo in the area..." The girl mutters under her breath, trying to understand what her nemesis is doing there.

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Err... they got a Tux too?

All hell brakes loose, there is a towering pulse of magic that roars through the room, and as one every single of the sensors come alight as every single magical sensors in Edo comes alive. Asahi stares at the wall that shows the gathered sensors, trying to understand what he is seeing.

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Grammer correction: "breaks loose," not brakes loose.

Before Asahi has a chance to say anything, the door to the room is slammed open as a trio of Defenders storm into the room. "Everyone stay calm!" The defenders shout, and soon enough the young man who wants nothing more in life is being sent to meet with the Onogoro Emperor to explain what it is that he has seen. This... This was not the way that the man wanted his day to do.

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Oh, so Onogoro has a different Emperor, I wonder when that split happened. Was there a notable time when the Japanese royal family was divided? A notable son that went missing?

Saosis's Heir is raised in the Shadow of the Moon.

The Gods do not fear the name of their progenitor, nor they fear that fact that one such as Saosis could rise again. No. They fear this not, because they will make sure that it never comes to pass. Sutekh looks to his left, where Isis stares down at the ant before them. "Explain." The Goddess utters the single word, and the sheer force of the magic is enough to push the ant back, even as the weight of the goddess's will brings the ant to it's knees.

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Uh oh, the Egyptians are going to be coming for Naru. Got to prioritize Naru power ups I think.

Astarte is gone. Not dead, but the other goddess refused the way that the Gods ruled over Egypt. She fought against him... She defeated him. Defeated the whole of the Pantheon. Even brought Ra low before her... Ra when he was at his peak, unstoppable... Astarte faced him head on, defeated him. Then...

She walked away.

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Huh, so there's a goddess running around who is anti-Egyptian pantheon, is a team up in order?

Far, far to the North of Egypt, there is another ancient ruler that sits upon his throne. The Eternal Tsar of the Golden Library has had a very long day. Ivan looks down to the goblet of blood in his hand, as he gives it just the ever so slightest of swirls. It is days like these that make the man once known as Ivan the Terrible long for the eternal rest he was torn from so very, very long ago.

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Huh, so the Eternal Tsar is Ivan the Terrible, seems like he's already accepted the Masquerade will end. Potential neutrality there?

To be fair, they were not expecting Suddenly The Moon Is Angry At You

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Everyone knows that if you Wanna Be the Guy you have to avoid being killed by an angry Moon.

Fun fact, Astarte is a proto-goddess, who is the basis of love and fertility goddesses in multiple pantheons, meaning that she's not natively Egyptian.

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Isn't she also the goddess of War for Sparta or something? Is she Venetian or something?

 

[JmonsterNEO]

Isn't she also the goddess of War for Sparta or something? Is she Venetian or something?

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Phoenician, actually.

 

[Simon_Jester]

... this assumes that Beryl would admit defeat to the one girl she hates most in the entire universe.

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1) Your counterargument assumes Beryl believes the Moon Princess is awakened and directing the Senshi. She might believe that for several reasons, but there are alternate hypotheses to explain much of it. So she might (or might not) remain unconvinced that "get revenge on Moon Princess" is actually her new objective more important than "awaken Metallia."

2) Your counterargument assumes that Beryl will decide, faced with the Senshi crushing everything she sends to Tokyo, that she should seek revenge by direct confrontation, rather than by gritting her teeth and summoning Metallia to destroy all her enemies, rivals, and spurning lost loves in one go. Which would normally be a reasonable supposition, except that this was literally her plan last time and it WORKED. It just didn't stick as hard as she'd hoped.

 

[bengalqueen]

The Cosmos Shall be righted, and the undeserving cast from their thrones under the sands

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Yeah, this sounds like what needs to happen from what we see of the current rulers of Magical Egypt. Sorry guys, but this prophecy is one that you don't have the power to stop.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Ooooh. REACTION POOOST!

(haven't actually read anything posted since this post, no time right this minute)

Then he remembers.

That is the last thing that Bach wants. He doesn't want to remember. He doesn't want to think or feel or anything. The worst part of it all is that he doesn't remember why he doesn't want to remember. He doesn't remember why he doesn't want to think. He doesn't remember why he doesn't want to feel.

All of those things have been sacrificed over his life. Why he sacrificed them, and what he got out of them...

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Hm. Who is this man, and what does he mean?

He looks forlornly at the pub which just threw him out. Goddess, what he wants most is to go back in there. It wouldn't be hard to charm the lot of them into giving him even more booze. But... that's the reason they tossed him out.

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"Goddess." Interesting. Wait... is this... Bacchus? Pure speculation, mind you.

Olive skin and drunkenness support it.

Maybe if he's lucky there might be some old brownie with a little extra that he could have lost in his pockets that will make things better. After a few moments of searching deeper and deeper into his pockets, slowly the man pulls out an, half smoked blunt.

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Glimmers of divine power as a way to find pot? Also he can light cigarettes with a fingersnap, further suggesting that he is not normal. Oh, yeah, and...

The man brings the blunt up to his mouth, getting ready to inhale, but before he has the chance-

A wave hits him, sending a shiver up his back. With a gasp of surprise the oldest man on the planet drops the blunt, eyes snapping up towards the still empty moon. For a long moment the ancient stands there, purple eyes locked on the silver light in the sky, even as his curly brown hair waves in a wind that only catches himself. Just above his brow aches where the horns that once curled free once were.

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The horns. That settles it. That's Bacchus. And he remembers us... and he had a thing with the Princess of Jupiter. The 'ara ara' Princess of Jupiter.

Poor guy.

Los Angeles is an absolutely beautiful city late at night, Bunny Brown thinks to herself as she looks out over the city towards the coast in the distance.

If only the city was peaceful. The girl stands high atop a sky scraper, taking a moment to carefully adjust the mask that she had made herself. The mask that she can remember from a time before she herself was alive.

It's all really weird, and Bunny doesn't exactly understand all of it, but her friend Amy did a lot to try and explain it to her. Of course, even with Amy explaining everything, Raye still teased her about not understanding.

Raye was so mean, and at times Bunny just couldn't stand it. But... Raye was still a friend, even if they bickered.

How couldn't she be a friend, given the things that the three had gone through together. There is a crackle at Bunny's ear. "Missy Moon, you hear me?" That's the sound of Raye- Ah. Bunny shakes her head, reminding herself that she has to call her friend by her superhero name when they are in costume. It's only been a week since Bunny first went out, and she still struggles to understand just how much her life has changed now.

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Wait, we have echoes, like demented... 90s DiC dub parodies of our true selves...!?

Okay that is weird.

"There's a shoot out on Olivia Street." The girl says. It really is lucky for Missy Moon that Missy Mars's father is a police officer, and the seventeen year old superheroine is thankful for it.

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Our echo is older than us.

"Yeah there is," Amy- Missy Mercury cuts into the line. Bunny and Amy have been best friends for as long as the strawberry blonde superheroine can remember. Amy has always had a head for tech, taking apart things and putting them back together even better than they were before. The girl actually has her own computer, one she built from the smallest of scraps that the team has taken to calling the Mercury Net. It is actually that very computer genius who built the headsets that the team are using now out of parts of some of the damaged cellphones that her father's factory made. Of course, there is the question of if Amy broke the phones while they were on the line so her father would throw them out...

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Very, very weird.

It's like... um, I don't know how many of you have read the Chronicles of Amber, but it's like these are shadows of the real Senshi.

I wonder if there are more of them.

For the last week the three girls have been fighting against not only Crime, but a strange group of mutants calling themselves the Dark Agency, as well as trying to stop that crook Tuxedo Thief from stealing form ShieldCo. The girl's aren't entirely sure where their powers come from, but Raye thinks that they have been infused with the DNA of aliens from the rest of the solar system that died out long ago.

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...Very weird.

Must be very confusing for the Dark Kingdom, too. They can't be entirely sure this bunch isn't the real deal.

Well, until the Tokyo event just now, because I'm pretty sure the LA team isn't actually operating on the same level.

I wonder if there are more groups like this echoing us for some weird reason. It would certainly explain the Dark Kingdom not having already zeroed in on us as demanding their full attention.

The girls may not know where their strange powers come from, and they may not know what their destiny is going to be, but they are going to continue pushing to help the world in the ways that only they can.

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Whatever the hell is up with them, I wish them luck.

the young man is, in nearly every perceivable way completely and totally ordinary. And, that is exactly how he likes it. He likes his boring and ordinary job in the Ministry, watching a network of sensors that only very rarely go off...

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Oh bollocks you poor bastard.

Before Asahi has a chance to say anything, the door to the room is slammed open as a trio of Defenders storm into the room. "Everyone stay calm!" The defenders shout, and soon enough the young man who wants nothing more in life is being sent to meet with the Onogoro Emperor to explain what it is that he has seen. This... This was not the way that the man wanted his day to do.

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Hmmm, the Onogoro Ministry has its own mirror-Emperor or whatever?

Interesting.

Far, far to the North of Egypt, there is another ancient ruler that sits upon his throne. The Eternal Tsar of the Golden Library has had a very long day. Ivan looks down to the goblet of blood in his hand, as he gives it just the ever so slightest of swirls. It is days like these that make the man once known as Ivan the Terrible long for the eternal rest he was torn from so very, very long ago.

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Well, now we know which Czar.

Ivan IV was not a fool or a weakling, so that helps to explain how the same guy could keep on top of things for 400 years or so in lich form. We can assume he had his reasons for not reasserting control of public Russia.

And... in a strange way, it was death that was kindest of the Lich King. No more was the man bound by the weaknesses of his flesh. No more did he have to fear the whispers of the ghosts that lived inside of his head. Without the blood that run through his veins, no more could it be brought to a boil.

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Huh. Interesting. There's been a lot of speculation that Ivan IV fell prey to mental illnesses. Guess some mental illnesses don't persist when you're a disembodied wraith based out of a phylactery or whatever?

With a long laugh, Ivan IV raises his goblet high. "Long live the Tsar." He says simply, before taking a long drink. As he places the goblet down, there is a wave of power that runs through the Tsar's home, and Ivan realizes that is not something that people will be able to ignore. That is not something that will not be noticed.

It seems that ancient rulers plans for Russia will have to be accelerated.

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WELP.

The Mirror of Infinite Reflections has been confiscated by MCAT
A now Magicless Lotus Man has been taken into custody

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I wonder if we can find out (something of) what the Mirror of Infinite Reflections is, and how high up in Oblivion's ranks the Lotus Man was.

 

[Grue]

Isn't she also the goddess of War for Sparta or something? Is she Venetian or something

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Syncretism chain links all the way back to the Mesopotamian Innanna IIRC. Wonder of that's still the case, as that end of the mythology chain is the Symphogear-relevant one.

Uh oh, the Egyptians are going to be coming for Naru. Got to prioritize Naru power ups I think.

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TBH their fate is already probably sealed by the angry Azathoth-in-skirt even if they succeeded, but yes, Naru needs to be careful.

 

[Sailor_Skarro]

I wonder if we can find out (something of) what the Mirror of Infinite Reflections is, and how high up in Oblivion's ranks the Lotus Man was.

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Lotus Man=Oblivion!Jadeite. The Mirror of Infinite Reflections has something to do with how Oblivion brings its dudes back from backups, and its loss has apparently cut their total ability to field troops by a third. Word of Lunaryon is that the loss of the MoIR is the more major blow, which makes lots of sense.

 

[Teiresias]

Schoolteachers in parkas and adorable yellow-eyed children having to shout their questions to be heard over the educator's earmuffs. Any minute now.

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Speaking of the yuki-onna children, what was their reaction when they found out about things like ice cream?

One plausible scenario is demographic bottleneck- there are a lot less yuki-onna in Japan than there were in 1500 or whenever Inuyasha's heyday was. This would be due to a combination of this 'Fade' and of opportunistic demon hunters finishing off a lot of the survivors in the immediate post-Fade period. So you have a relative handful of yuki-onna who are like 300 years old or older, and they have big families, but the generation length of a yuki-onna is measured in centuries so the population hasn't rebounded yet.

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Definitely possible. Or maybe they just lived long enough to acquire a large number of permissions to have children, or they bribed the right officials.

I'd be surprised if the mortality rates on the reservations aren't awful, though, since they sound at least as bad as the Bantustan of apartheid-era South Africa. I think those had a rate of 1-2%, which is still incredibly bad, while allowing for most children to survive to adulthood.

It's possible but it seems a little odd. Remind me of the context in which she mentioned eight siblings?

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Here:

Unfortunately, the answers to her questions are a far more mixed bag than Kaede would have liked. Some of her questions were answered easily and plainly - For instance, Acting Director Samui is from Kagoshima, and has a large family. Indeed, the woman is the youngest of eight children.

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Astarte is AWOL after beating the shit out of the Gods of Egypt, who need a hard smackdown

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What's weird is that she just walked away afterwards and let the Egyptian pantheon win. I'm guessing that for some reason she couldn't make her victory stick - maybe some limitation on her power or something.