The big one: Character discussions!

[Bean Bandit]

Beck hatesex

How does it factor in? Sex ideally is the consumation of a relationship based on strong emotions.

The emotions don't have to be love.

The way they clash, It's easy to see how they could either come to blows, or abuse sexual intercourse in a fight for dominance.  To me, anyway.

[Bean Bandit]

Reiko post

Hotaru's mother intimidates Makoto muchly. >_> She's very well aware Reiko's been nothing but kind to her, but she can also feel the force of the personality underneath the kindness.

Honestly, I'm kind of curious how they would interact if Reiko softened a little to her daughter's near constant companion, and Makoto was less guarded.

I actually turned the idea of having her be the one to find Makoto leaving the graveyard over in my head a few times-but really, I couldn't think of a way to make it comfortable...Especially now that Makoto's really coming out of her shell.

[Asrana]

Mmmm. Yeah, I'd never quite imagined at first them shooting back and forth like that. It was originally in my head as a sort of *sigh...* Exasperated thing. When we actually started bouncing real problems into them? Oi.

Where did it start? I don't know, really. I think Yohko's bakery sort of cracked it, putting them in direct touch again. Hotaru at the same time...well, she did used to blame ehr mother, a lot. Dad was at least casually supportive (Souichi's casual about everything, though), so why did mom still have to be hatefully perfectionist? It was a bit of an abandoement thing she has less of these days, though she still holds some grudges about the whole mess...well, yeah, it keeps coming back to her alienation at school.

Hotaru thinks she couldn't have been that good of an actor when she was seven, and honestly, that mom just sort of ignored her hoping things would turn out well. She does admit some guilt these days as to nto having told her mother, and later learned how to conceal everything and done just as...it's still a sore point that her mom couldn't figure out that 1st or 2nd grade Hotaru was suddenly in the thick of it.

With that in mind, Hotaru's trying to make up for lost time, but...well, she and Reiko are both cynical, sarcastic people. I doubt they'll ever lose the barbing and needling, or just plain saying more than they should, jujst some of the grudge feelings behind it all, and they might some day honestly look like they're not trying to tear each other apart.

Her incoming sibling...hmmm. It's a mixed bag for Hotaru. While she likes that a) Her family's stable enough that it's happening, b) It happened not as a result that she disappeared for a month...well, it's something that'll especially be taking over her mom's already sort of crammed time. She's also foreseeing hateful, hateful babysitting in the future, being a responsible twelve year old with an infant sibling.

Moreso, she's even more unsure if she wants a sister or a brother. While she mgiht relate better to a sister...she's scared that if she herself doesn't advance rapidly in the department of 'normalizing', her mom may just give up and try to replace her with her sister. Probably unfounded given the age difference, but eh.

So those two have a LOT to sort out, I guess, though Hotaru growing up a it more and getting away from her old class will probably help an awful lot. (She wants to be in Rei's class, dammit!) As an aside, she would have too much fun watching Mai and her cohorts squirm at having to call ehr sempai.

Notes stuff: As I said in the Reiko omake: Mom IS good looking enough to distract on her own! It's one of the things Hotaru's honestly looking forward to - growing up to look an awful lot like her mother. Though this touches one one of the positive aspects of their relationship, in that Hotaru unashamedly wants to be JUST LIKE her mom in adulthood. She's almost to the point where she'll start sking after dirty adolescent secret stories!

I swear she's bi! Dammit! There go my Mizuno/Tomoe parents partner swap situation ideas!

See, I could get into Ikkuko too even, that'd just be...weirdly funny. Moneywise? Hmmm...Hotaru's aware of it in a way, but she honestly doesn't apy attention to how much she has, it hasn't mattered before. Might change a little, Janna's poverty made her almost physically uncomfortable. <add 'typical rich girl' comment about that here>.

Oh yeah, and the requisite:

THE TOMOE SOCIAL EMPIRE IS UNSTOPPABLE, ALL BOW BEFORE EMPRESS REIKO

Ahem.

[Asrana]

Hotaru's mother intimidates Makoto muchly. >_> She's very well aware Reiko's been nothing but kind to her, but she can also feel the force of the personality underneath the kindness.

Honestly, I'm kind of curious how they would interact if Reiko softened a little to her daughter's near constant companion, and Makoto was less guarded.

I actually turned the idea of having her be the one to find Makoto leaving the graveyard over in my head a few times-but really, I couldn't think of a way to make it comfortable...Especially now that Makoto's really coming out of her shell.

This is another thing...she really, really, REALLY wants Reiko to like Rei and Makoto, as the two senshi she feels closest to. Rei's less of a problem, being more what Reiko might want Hotaru to be like, involving less sleeping outside of the house, and with a whole lot less direct involvement in some of the nastier spats over senshi stuff than Makoto.

On the other hand, Makoto's Makoto and Hotaru's Hotaru, so good freaking luck on Rei being the primary influence. She DOES plan on doing a lot more back and forth between houses really late at night now that she can teleport. It knocks out osme of the objections Reiko had earlier, and lets her split her time better.

[Bean Bandit]

This is another thing...she really, really, REALLY wants Reiko to like Rei and Makoto, as the two senshi she feels closest to. Rei's less of a problem, being more what Reiko might want Hotaru to be like, involving less sleeping outside of the house, and with a whole lot less direct involvement in some of the nastier spats over senshi stuff than Makoto.

Makoto feels, honestly, that she hasn't been a point of contention, because she's an orphan, and Reiko would look like an utter bitch if she tried to seperate them. >_>; But Makoto can feel a certain amount of disapproval from Reiko.

[Anastasia]

Beck hatesex

How does it factor in? Sex ideally is the consumation of a relationship based on strong emotions.

The emotions don't have to be love.

The way they clash, It's easy to see how they could either come to blows, or abuse sexual intercourse in a fight for dominance.  To me, anyway.

Mmm.

Okay, I get what you're saying. I wasn't thinking on quite that track there, but I see all too well. Hatesex ahoy?! Shades of Reiko and Hotaru?!

[Asrana]

Mmm.

Okay, I get what you're saying. I wasn't thinking on quite that track there, but I see all too well. Hatesex ahoy?! Shades of Reiko and Hotaru?!

Over at least one dead body. >_>

[Bean Bandit]

wasn't thinking on quite that track there, but I see all too well. Hatesex ahoy?!

What track WERE you thinking on? Just out of curiousity?

[Ebiris]

I did think it interesting that Reiko was the one to instigate the parents having more contact with each other, as well as being the parent most involved in senshi stuff (making a point of meeting us all at Makoto's and going on the camping trip).

I guess it fits, in a way. Despite her workaholic nature, if she was as insular as Hotaru then those two wouldn't have had such a rocky relationship, so it does serve to emphasise her social side.

Heck, Reiko might even be the first of us to meet Rei's dad, since she's the closest to moving in those circles of power!

edit for HLS: While I think both Hotaru-chan and I would be relieved that if Tomoe/Tsukino sex happens then it won't involve us, I think after the initial mindscarring, Usagi would find herself a lot more open-minded and experimental if even her beloved mother can indulge in some lesbian hijinks. So consider what could be unleashed!

That said, I can see Ikkuko and Reiko being close friends, albeit with an edge of (non sexual!) tension. Admittedly, Reiko seems to create tenseness with nearly everyone, but I think both of those two would sometimes look at the other and think 'What if I'd done things differently in my life?'

[Anastasia]

Reiko post

Hotaru's mother intimidates Makoto muchly. >_> She's very well aware Reiko's been nothing but kind to her, but she can also feel the force of the personality underneath the kindness.

Honestly, I'm kind of curious how they would interact if Reiko softened a little to her daughter's near constant companion, and Makoto was less guarded.

I actually turned the idea of having her be the one to find Makoto leaving the graveyard over in my head a few times-but really, I couldn't think of a way to make it comfortable...Especially now that Makoto's really coming out of her shell.

There could be a nice relationship there. Reiko feels all the world for Makoto; an orphan living on her own in a difficult city gets Reiko to care. However, toss in the normal daughter issues as well as some personal misgivings? TENSION MAX!

We'll see how it goes, anyway.

[Anastasia]

wasn't thinking on quite that track there, but I see all too well. Hatesex ahoy?!

What track WERE you thinking on? Just out of curiousity?

More of anger and strong emotion turning into passion. More of an angry metamorphasis than a furious bodily communication of said anger. On another note, I can so see Beck putting it in the backmost door on Makoto just to prove that point. <_<

[Anastasia]

Mmmm. Yeah, I'd never quite imagined at first them shooting back and forth like that. It was originally in my head as a sort of *sigh...* Exasperated thing. When we actually started bouncing real problems into them? Oi.

That's exactly how it came off to me as well. 'course, tossing Hotaru's myriad issues into it sure messed with things!

Where did it start? I don't know, really. I think Yohko's bakery sort of cracked it, putting them in direct touch again. Hotaru at the same time...well, she did used to blame her mother, a lot. Dad was at least casually supportive (Souichi's casual about everything, though), so why did mom still have to be hatefully perfectionist? It was a bit of an abandoement thing she has less of these days, though she still holds some grudges about the whole mess...well, yeah, it keeps coming back to her alienation at school.

Hotaru thinks she couldn't have been that good of an actor when she was seven, and honestly, that mom just sort of ignored her hoping things would turn out well. She does admit some guilt these days as to not having told her mother, and later learned how to conceal everything and done just as...it's still a sore point that her mom couldn't figure out that 1st or 2nd grade Hotaru was suddenly in the thick of it.

Mmmph. On looking back, the bakery was an important step. It wasn't a huge step - it started as Reiko's most notable attempt to get Hotaru out of the house and having fun. It just happened to hit gold, more power to her. Opening the floodgates a crack that way really began things, as well as nicely feeding into Hotaru and Makoto meeting.

Did Reiko know something was wrong? Almost certainly. Did she grasp how bad it was? Probably not, at least not at first and fast enough to break either pattern that was established. For all that she's a very perceptive and intelligent woman, I think she had her blinders on, as well as was deeply into her work at the time. My take is that this basically subtly encouraged her to obsess on work even more so, furthering the rift.

This is a case of 'take it how you will'.

With that in mind, Hotaru's trying to make up for lost time, but...well, she and Reiko are both cynical, sarcastic people. I doubt they'll ever lose the barbing and needling, or just plain saying more than they should, jujst some of the grudge feelings behind it all, and they might some day honestly look like they're not trying to tear each other apart.

Gee, that sounds like basic family dynamics!

Her incoming sibling...hmmm. It's a mixed bag for Hotaru. While she likes that a) Her family's stable enough that it's happening, b) It happened not as a result that she disappeared for a month...well, it's something that'll especially be taking over her mom's already sort of crammed time. She's also foreseeing hateful, hateful babysitting in the future, being a responsible twelve year old with an infant sibling.

Moreso, she's even more unsure if she wants a sister or a brother. While she mgiht relate better to a sister...she's scared that if she herself doesn't advance rapidly in the department of 'normalizing', her mom may just give up and try to replace her with her sister. Probably unfounded given the age difference, but eh.

This sounds like a set of normal issues for a teenager to have with another sibling on the way! I know the gender and likely name of the baby, though I won't spoil it. So I'm getting exactly what I want with the baby, we'll see how it hashes out as it goes on.

So those two have a LOT to sort out, I guess, though Hotaru growing up a it more and getting away from her old class will probably help an awful lot. (She wants to be in Rei's class, dammit!) As an aside, she would have too much fun watching Mai and her cohorts squirm at having to call her sempai.

I'm tempted to get you, Rei and Kotono in the same class.

Notes stuff: As I said in the Reiko omake: Mom IS good looking enough to distract on her own! It's one of the things Hotaru's honestly looking forward to - growing up to look an awful lot like her mother. Though this touches one one of the positive aspects of their relationship, in that Hotaru unashamedly wants to be JUST LIKE her mom in adulthood. She's almost to the point where she'll start sking after dirty adolescent secret stories!

Oh, that could be fun! Just...fun! <_<

I swear she's bi! Dammit! There go my Mizuno/Tomoe parents partner swap situation ideas!

To also touch on what Usagi said in her post; it's good omake bait, but I really feel parental hijinks would be rather cheap'n'crass in the main game. Mmm, killer good omake bait...mmm!

See, I could get into Ikkuko too even, that'd just be...weirdly funny. Moneywise? Hmmm...Hotaru's aware of it in a way, but she honestly doesn't apy attention to how much she has, it hasn't mattered before. Might change a little, Janna's poverty made her almost physically uncomfortable. <add 'typical rich girl' comment about that here>.

Basically. It didn't come up much, though it makes for potentially amusing 'Kotono and Hotaru get a little money obssessed over something' scenes.

[Anastasia]

Mmm.

Okay, I get what you're saying. I wasn't thinking on quite that track there, but I see all too well. Hatesex ahoy?! Shades of Reiko and Hotaru?!

Over at least one dead body. >_>

Except maybe in omakeland? That could be a sickeningly good and weird omake if you wanted to get into power dynamics.

[Anastasia]

I did think it interesting that Reiko was the one to instigate the parents having more contact with each other, as well as being the parent most involved in senshi stuff (making a point of meeting us all at Makoto's and going on the camping trip).

I guess it fits, in a way. Despite her workaholic nature, if she was as insular as Hotaru then those two wouldn't have had such a rocky relationship, so it does serve to emphasise her social side.

You're right. Reiko's Hotaru without the introvert side as far as that goes. She's not the sort to sit by and let stuff pass her by. Hell, if there was a way, she might've even taken powers.

Heck, Reiko might even be the first of us to meet Rei's dad, since she's the closest to moving in those circles of power!

It's possible they've met. I've kept Rei's dad entirely in a very minor roll - I meant for Gramps to take up that roll instead, but some misfortunes occured. More on that later in another post.

edit for HLS: While I think both Hotaru-chan and I would be relieved that if Tomoe/Tsukino sex happens then it won't involve us, I think after the initial mindscarring, Usagi would find herself a lot more open-minded and experimental if even her beloved mother can indulge in some lesbian hijinks. So consider what could be unleashed!

That said, I can see Ikkuko and Reiko being close friends, albeit with an edge of (non sexual!) tension. Admittedly, Reiko seems to create tenseness with nearly everyone, but I think both of those two would sometimes look at the other and think 'What if I'd done things differently in my life?'

The first paragraph is amusing omake bait. The second is about how I see it - they see the path not taken with each other. It makes Reiko wonder if she should've stayed at home after all, and it makes Ikkuko wonder where she'd be if she'd gone after a career. Even if both women are happy, it still stirs the pot.

[Asrana]

Except maybe in omakeland? That could be a sickeningly good and weird omake if you wanted to get into power dynamics.

No, no, the dead body doesn't stop existing in omake land. I just get more creative in how I kill them.