Well, the Deathbuster/Elf arc is over.

[Anastasia]

Whew, that was a long one. Let's get down to business, folks.

The arc started with the end of the Corwin mess - I won't go into that here. Fair warning, since I don't want to dredge up that fiasco again, and it's of only passing relevance to this arc. If it's germaine to your comments, go ahead, but I don't want this to become Minakogate. Anyway...

I'll start with a few thoughts, and we'll discuss from there. I'd like a free flowing, relaxed discussion of the arc, asking each other questions and getting answers(as permitted, the GM can't tell you EVERY little thing. ^_^)

My first thought is the entire tone of the arc versus the Space Criminal arc. From the PC end of things, this arc went much better. No disasters like the Cynthia incident or Orestes, or insanely powerful foes like Oxyite. Perhaps because of this, perhaps not, the girls had a fairly successful run - they managed to purifiy Mugen completely, instead of having it end in a messy meltdown. The Elf threat ended on a similiar good note, Makoto keeping her boyfriend and the Tree of Life being reborn on the Moon.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled that my PCs did so well. Congratulations are deserved all around. Usagi, Rei, Ami, Makoto, Herb, Haruka: All of you did a superb job. Take a moment and pat yourselves on the back and have a cold one. You've earned it thrice over.

The annoyance is that this was a funky, oddly working out arc from the GM's point of view. I won't go into it in depth yet, but the gist is that many things didn't quite work how I figured they would; and several big battles never quite panned out. Had a chat with Usagi about it, and I think I agree: It almost feels that things were gotten almost too easily this arc. I'm not blaming myself or my PCs, though. I think it's the results of a few flukes, some odd outcomes/choices and just wacky luck.

And as a final thought for the first post in this topic, sorry SD. You should have been around for this last battle. >_> Don't worry, though. Trust me on this one.

[Halbarad]

I said it in chat, and I'll say it again here: my biggest comment for this arc is a big "way to go" for Rei for how well she handled the Deathbusters/senshi dilemma. It was very well played-out, and I thought all of it was believable, in a very difficult situation to play.

Seeing more of Makoto and Herb (particularly Makoto) was nice. I'm hoping we can continue the trend from here. Welcome to the Angst Club, Merc. ^^

My only real complaint is with my own character. For a large portion of the first half of the arc, Usagi was more or less relegated to a support character position. Part of this grates because I tend to be active as a player and having no real scenes of substance was getting on my nerves, although I managed to calm down a bit after a while. I'd still like to see that avoided a bit more in the future though. -_- I don't mind letting other people take center stage, but that doesn't mean I want to get turned into an extra, either. It improved towards the end of the arc, thankfully, but I'm hoping we don't head down that road again - with me or anyone else that really wants to take a hand in the plot of an arc.

And as a final note, I stab Dune yet again. When am I going to get an analysis of Usagi? ;_; You never did get to it after Metallia.

[Ebiris]

Okay, to start with, I'll respond to the comments regarding Rei's Deathbuster dilemma.

I'll admit, I was pretty unhappy with her being brainwashed a second time. I was more or less certain that her 'purification' would be a very ugly scene, and leave her pretty much unplayable as a Sailor Senshi, since the other girls (quite rightly) wouldn't be able to trust her ever again.

Amazingly, things didn't happen that way. Rei not only shook off the brainwashing herself, but did so in such a way that she's now at the most well-adjusted and stable she's been since the game began, something that I'm really glad of.

Now, onto the apparent 'easiness' of this arc. I can't deny that we've pretty much led charmed lives throughout most of this, turning both enemy groups in this arc into dedicated allies without losing anyone in the process, but it's worth remembering that at least one person we meant to help got killed. Purifying Kaolinite probably wouldn't have been easy, if it was possible at all, but we had stated that as our intention before the battle at Mugen...

Still, even if nobody got as utterly trashed as Rei did in the fights with Oxyite, our enemies did manage to land a fair share of good hits. Usagi was just a shade away from getting killed in the battle at the tree, and the fight with Germatou/Guinvain, and NPC Ami had to burn EP to survive against Ann.

Speaking of Ann, I really enjoyed fighting her. Even though I never hit her once, and she never hit Rei once, the two of us really went at it to try and inflict some serious harm on each other in a couple of pretty intense fights. We haven't really interacted at all since everyone made nice, but I am a little curious to see how things go...

Aside from the Big Plot Battles, I've enjoyed fighting the various Cardians and the Heartless that've shown up throughout this arc. Previous Youma were rather boring, just running around and shooting damaging attacks, but now monsters of the day are producing surprising and interesting effects to keep us on our toes during battles, and I appreciate the change as being for the better.

I'll touch on something now that I've been building up throughout this arc, even though it's only been seen in omakes so far, I expect it to gain some significance in the between arc time, with Rei's birthday coming up and all. Rei desperately misses her parents. She has Grandpa, and she loves him to bits, but it's not the same as having a real family unit. Usagi is effectively considered family by Rei, and even if they hadn't gotten together romantically, that would still be the case, and as an extension to that, Rei sort of considers Ikkuko a surrogate mother figure. She's been hit pretty hard by the Ikkuko's disapproval, and that's only hearing it second hand. I expect when Rei gets a scene with Usagi's family it'll be fairly interesting, though...

Rei and Usagi's relationship has went very well so far, but the one fight they have had is indicative of further troubles down the road, especially if Endy does start showing up more and teaching magic to the Dumpling Head (as an aside, I'm not all that happy with Endy being overly 'magical'. He's a Knight in Shining Armour archetype, and giving him a bunch of spells really goes against the grain). Rei is very comfortably secure in pretty much all aspects of her relationship with Usagi except where Endy comes up. Not only is she aware of the feelings Serenity and Endymion had, which Endymion most definitely still wants to pursue, she's also rather uncomfortably aware of the fact that Usagi would have gone back to him if Rei hadn't pushed her against the idea.

I doubt that insecurity is enough to really hurt the relationship, unless Rei does something fantastically retarded, but it's a potential trouble spot I'm aware of.

Okay, I think I'm all talked out, now. I'll let other people post until I come up with something else to say.

[Anastasia]

I said it in chat, and I'll say it again here: my biggest comment for this arc is a big "way to go" for Rei for how well she handled the Deathbusters/senshi dilemma. It was very well played-out, and I thought all of it was believable, in a very difficult situation to play.

I'll second that. As a GM, I was somewhat open ended exactly how this would effect her - I left it in her hands to play out. She stepped up nicely, making it work.

Seeing more of Makoto and Herb (particularly Makoto) was nice. I'm hoping we can continue the trend from here. Welcome to the Angst Club, Merc. ^^

Yeah. Both needed more screen time; making them the main players in the Elf saga instead of Usagi and Mamoru worked nicely. While I wasn't really expecting Makoto and Alan to get it on like it happened to...things did work out anyway.

Amusingly, though, I could see Makoto doing that once she got her claws into a guy. So lonely...she gets the chance to get somewhere and she goes for it out of instinct.

My only real complaint is with my own character. For a large portion of the first half of the arc, Usagi was more or less relegated to a support character position. Part of this grates because I tend to be active as a player and having no real scenes of substance was getting on my nerves, although I managed to calm down a bit after a while. I'd still like to see that avoided a bit more in the future though. -_- I don't mind letting other people take center stage, but that doesn't mean I want to get turned into an extra, either. It improved towards the end of the arc, thankfully, but I'm hoping we don't head down that road again - with me or anyone else that really wants to take a hand in the plot of an arc.

Heh.

To be honest, I did tone down Usagi's role this arc in favor of focusing on other PCs. While this does go against the grain of the canon, I feel that it gave other characters a chance to shine, while Usagi still have some screen time.

But yes. I understand what you're getting at.

And as a final note, I stab Dune yet again. When am I going to get an analysis of Usagi? ;_; You never did get to it after Metallia.

I'll get to this in a separate post. It's going to be a looooong one.

[Halbarad]

Rei and Usagi's relationship has went very well so far, but the one fight they have had is indicative of further troubles down the road, especially if Endy does start showing up more and teaching magic to the Dumpling Head (as an aside, I'm not all that happy with Endy being overly 'magical'. He's a Knight in Shining Armour archetype, and giving him a bunch of spells really goes against the grain). Rei is very comfortably secure in pretty much all aspects of her relationship with Usagi except where Endy comes up. Not only is she aware of the feelings Serenity and Endymion had, which Endymion most definitely still wants to pursue, she's also rather uncomfortably aware of the fact that Usagi would have gone back to him if Rei hadn't pushed her against the idea.

I doubt that insecurity is enough to really hurt the relationship, unless Rei does something fantastically retarded, but it's a potential trouble spot I'm aware of.

Points about Endy's characterization aside (as I really can't comment on that):

Usagi's current view of Mamoru/Endy is as a friend, and little more. While she does believe he's past his little mental lapse back in December, it still shook her BADLY (thanks to the fact that he more or less threatened to kill her not in the heat of battle under Metallia's control, but over a cup of coffee in casual conversation.) She can't bring herself to hate him for that, as she knows he was in a very difficult position (as was she, thanks to the criminals at that point) but neither can she bring herself to trust him enough to love him again. Her original reason for going back to him was to settle; she was having serious doubts that she could ever find anyone to love her for the person she is, not for the title she holds or for what she does.

As for Rei's problems with it, as a player I can definitely see it. IC, Usagi is aware that Rei isn't too happy about her interacting with Endy at all, but on the flip side of that she can't just cut him off completely either - it just goes against her nature. I agree that I don't think this is going to cause anything more than a bit of friction between the two unless one side or the other takes drastic steps - and I certainly don't see Usagi doing that, at least. I can't really see Rei doing anything, either, but that's something for HER player to address more than me. ^_~

[Anastasia]

Ah, Usagi.

Well.

From the get go of the game, she got plunged into a hellish mess: the one two punch of the Starlight Tower incident coupled with her mother getting gutted and nearly killed in front of her a few days later. The first one had her defenses down, so the second hit Usagi full on. She couldn't really twist or squirm, she had to look full on at what happened.

It wasn't pretty.

I think this is what started the change in Usagi. If she was just a normal girl, it would have been normal for her to do nothing while her mom was injured. But since she's Sailor Moon...was there any excuse for her to let that happen? Faced with that, I think Usagi got it through her head that she truly had responsibilities, ones she couldn't run from. With that, Sailor Moon started to finally mature.

Then, with the revelations about the Moon and Queen Serenity, not to mention DK Rei, Usagi saw more and more what could happen if she let herself weaken. Queen Serenity had been made into a mockery by Metallia, and Rei was turned into a bloodthirsty, if sexy, beast. If she ran, she'd be like Serenity, if she gave into the Dark Kingdom, she'd lose her soul like Rei damn nearly did.

Instead, she stepped up and lead the girls as they assaulted Beryl and Metallia, finally putting an end to the threat for good. In the process, Usagi had really begun to grow up and past her childhood and into an adult - canon Usagi would have had fits with DK Rei or Queen Serenity in this game, yet our Usagi coped and overcame.

Next, the Space Criminals. In a situation that was simply hellish, Usagi had to deal with phantoms from the past not only immensly powerful, but without the aid of her Crystal. Eeeeeek. Despite some setbacks and near disasters, Usagi made her way through, in the process becoming the Queen in name and in reality.

---

She's grown. I mean, that's what it really comes down to. She's lost some of her innocence in the flames of battle and passion, becoming a bit more worldly while still being a pure light in the sky. Am I in total agreement with how she's turned out? Not quite. I occasionally have minor quibbles with Usagi's choices; Halbarad and I interpret Usagi slightly differently. Crying over Kaolinite was.....just................

....yeah. Not one scene I'd rather focus on, all things considered. It felt like Hal was trying way too hard there.

As a side aspect of her regaining more of Serenity and her own new inner focus, she's doing better in school. I can live with that, since it reflects how she's actually grown up. Good bunny. >_>

[Anastasia]

I'll admit, I was pretty unhappy with her being brainwashed a second time. I was more or less certain that her 'purification' would be a very ugly scene, and leave her pretty much unplayable as a Sailor Senshi, since the other girls (quite rightly) wouldn't be able to trust her ever again.

Amazingly, things didn't happen that way. Rei not only shook off the brainwashing herself, but did so in such a way that she's now at the most well-adjusted and stable she's been since the game began, something that I'm really glad of.

EDIT - Yes, Minako played a role in this, but I'm going to gloss that over. She's not really that central to the thinking here.

Heh.

Before the Mugen entrance exams, I had a good long think about the entire thing, and if I'd let you girls get in, period. With Rei's sensitivity, there was no way in hell she'd not notice the Deathbusters forming or the Mistress 9. So if I went with Mugen, I'd have to deal with that sooner than later, and probably sooner.

So, faced with Rei being limbo schoolwise again, which would present it's own headaches, or putting them in Mugen and dealing with the Witches, I chose the latter. Further, I decided go to the full route and go with immersion. Why not turn the tables on Rei and get her into the Deathbusters?

This required a few changes from the canon, though. Firstly, from all thec canon showed, the Witches were loyal followers of their own choice. But if the Mistress was using more underhanded measures on Rei, it also stands to reason that they would have been employed on the others. So...especially with the campaign, it made the Deathbusters digging up 5 magically inclined girls more believable. >_>

Anyway. Partly because Rei mentioned the character, partly because I like her myself and party just because, I paired Rei with Eudial. This was on purpose - not only as a constant foil for Rei, but as she felt her way around the brainwashing, someone to compare to.

And in time, to save.  That was my secondary intention with her, to give Rei a way out with her, or vise versa if Rei lost herself. I had an idea that Rei wouldn't be thrilled to be 'washed a second time in game, so a way to get out herself was a good backup.

More so since it turns out he had those concerns about Rei's scenario.

Shaking off the mind control with Eudial didn't hurt her, it reaffirmed what was right with her since she had to find that again and nurture it, with Eudial's own recoveries as a further guide. Rei had to instinctively go with the good parts, and when it broke...

Saving Mugen a good deal herself and breaking two controls helped Rei atone in her own mind, I reckon, as well as seeing the Witches now fighting alongside her friends. Turning Mugen into what it is now is a testament to what Rei did right in mind and spirit.

Or something. I got to ramblin' there.

Now, onto the apparent 'easiness' of this arc. I can't deny that we've pretty much led charmed lives throughout most of this, turning both enemy groups in this arc into dedicated allies without losing anyone in the process, but it's worth remembering that at least one person we meant to help got killed. Purifying Kaolinite probably wouldn't have been easy, if it was possible at all, but we had stated that as our intention before the battle at Mugen...

Heh. As it went on, I was expecting at least Eudial to get out, and some of the writing was on the wall about the Deathbusters as it progressed. The elves...heh. I actually stuck mainly to canon for them. Go figure.

But anyway, to Kaolinite. As you can probably guess, she was the designated real baddie of the Witches 6. Not only was she touched more than the other Witches(A extrapoliation of her Magus title from the manga), she had also made a willing choice at a point to serve the Mistress at one point. Saving her would have been almost impossible, since even if you purified her, she'd still be evil of her own choice and volition. Take that how you will.

By the way, she panned in battle. Argh. Wasn't happy about how I played here there or how that wound down. I toyed with her surviving that critical, but then Eudial and Ami smacked her like hell. Oh well.

I'll pick this up in the next post. I'm not sure what SR's limit for a post is, but I'd rather not butt heads with it.

[Anastasia]

Still, even if nobody got as utterly trashed as Rei did in the fights with Oxyite, our enemies did manage to land a fair share of good hits. Usagi was just a shade away from getting killed in the battle at the tree, and the fight with Germatou/Guinvain, and NPC Ami had to burn EP to survive against Ann.

The only hit that stands out in my mind is the one Alan landed on Makoto at the Friday Night Mall Disaster. For once, the dice cooperated with me. ^_^

Past that? The Guinvain fight kinda fizzled utterly. Having slept on it, I'm not sure why I played that hand so aggresively, even with a Talisman in view. I should have just kept Germatou in control instead of going right to the big guns. Related to this, I'm probably going to not nerf Combined Attacks, but I will alter it a bit. That was just wacky crazy damage, man. What if one you hits a critical on one of those? O_O

NPC Ami was something of a special case, to be honest. Despite taking critical damage, she was probably the safest of all the Senshi there. Due to the entire Panda thing, I was NPCing her. As such, I wasn't going to wantonly kill her off and say, "Hey, Panda! Welcome back...oh, and I killed Ami! Sorry, dude!" I just had her eat the hit and get KO'ed. In retrospect, I'd have kept her out of that battle entirely, but so be it.

And on a final side note for this segment, even with the uneven villian/good guy HP scale, Rejuv almost makes up for that. Odd way to find balance, eh?

Speaking of Ann, I really enjoyed fighting her. Even though I never hit her once, and she never hit Rei once, the two of us really went at it to try and inflict some serious harm on each other in a couple of pretty intense fights. We haven't really interacted at all since everyone made nice, but I am a little curious to see how things go...

Truthfully, I liked those fights, too. In the event Ann got a really good shot in, I was even planning for it to be a 2 damage cut across the cheek for dramatic effect, and to spur things on. Rei has a way of not getting along with the bad girls...

As far as Ann now, I have a few scenes planned out with her and Rei, to see how that goes. More downtime shenanigans, pretty much.

Aside from the Big Plot Battles, I've enjoyed fighting the various Cardians and the Heartless that've shown up throughout this arc. Previous Youma were rather boring, just running around and shooting damaging attacks, but now monsters of the day are producing surprising and interesting effects to keep us on our toes during battles, and I appreciate the change as being for the better.

^_^

I'm having a blast making them up and taking things from difference sources. For example, Armea came from when I was watching my brother play through the Tower of Fanatics in FF6 again. Hi, auto reflect! I'm going to continue this trend, and try not to make one so uber that it'll flatten the girls. The Monster of the Day fights were just more fun this arc.

A pity the Daimons never got going, but I'll save those designs for later.

---

I'd rather not going into Rei's family and that too much, except to comment that I am planning a Dinner at Usagi's and a Birthday scene for her. Let's just say things should be....interesting.

---

Rei and Usagi's torrid affair will be a post all it's own, too. That's too much to piggyback on another subject.

[Anastasia]

Oh, and as an aside before I go into anything else.

Re: Mamoru's magic.

In theory, I don't disagree with you, Ebiris.

In the canon, his Tuxedo Kamen personality is shown to be largely a stereotypical knight type...

If you ignore the roses, the cane, the transformation, the leaping, the abilities as DK Endy, and even that gay Smoking Bomber thingy from the manga.

I felt it was laid out fairly well that magic was common in the Silver Millenium, especially among the upper class. Under that lens, Endymion having magic in this day and age isn't THAT bad. He *is* Endymion fundamentally, not just Mamoru with Endy's memories. That's another important note here, too.

[Merc]

Amusingly, though, I could see Makoto doing that once she got her claws into a guy. So lonely...she gets the chance to get somewhere and she goes for it out of instinct.

Damn those teenage hormones! XD

Like we'd talked before, I was also pretty surprise when things went that way. I did expect Makoto to end up with the necking and general making out with Alan, but the sex? Woo boy. Glad we at least kept those out of scenes. >_>;

But man, we're really horny 14 year olds. Usagi and Rei seemingly didn't even hesitate after just getting the thought in their heads. XD

and Rei was turned into a bloodthirsty, if sexy, beast.

hah

Aside from the Big Plot Battles, I've enjoyed fighting the various Cardians and the Heartless that've shown up throughout this arc. Previous Youma were rather boring, just running around and shooting damaging attacks, but now monsters of the day are producing surprising and interesting effects to keep us on our toes during battles, and I appreciate the change as being for the better.

The heartless were pretty cool, it would have been nice to face more of their type.

The only hit that stands out in my mind is the one Alan landed on Makoto at the Friday Night Mall Disaster. For once, the dice cooperated with me. ^_^

You know, about that. While I actually liked how it turned out, that he damaged me just after I damaged him, which set up for a small dilemma later about hurting him again, or the possibility of being hurt by him, I'd oddly enough not meant to attack Alan. XD

I'd wanted to attack the cardian, and in hindsight, I'm glad I was unclear as to my target, since not only would it have hurt to attack it, it wouldn't have presented that unique scene.

And on a final side note for this segment, even with the uneven villian/good guy HP scale, Rejuv almost makes up for that. Odd way to find balance, eh?

Not really. As always, the system favors high soul stats, so rejuv isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. For the most part, the impression of balance is occuring simply because the two characters with the highest soul stat are the ones who tend to rejuv the most or be in situations calling for rejuv.

I was actually fairly lucky making my last rejuv roll, and that was only because of that -1 bonus I had due to the scene. I can't really justify putting more points into Soul, and making more special attributes like I have for EC soul check rolls wouldn't make sense. I might as well just justify putting more points into it somehow if I'm gonna do that.

To tell the truth, I'm not bothered by the importance of soul stat. It's fairly understandable for the world. I am, however, bothered by the fact that body and mind stats just don't get enough roll checks.

It'd be nice to see more plot/battle related rolls on them, as opposed to relatively trivial stuff like testing to get into Mugen or playing video games. Outside of that, the only time I recall a mind stat was Ami trying to outhack the witches, and I can't really think of many body checks.

Okay, sure, I know the 'show' is Usagi's, it is called Sailor Moon for a reason, but a little more balance would be nice.

I don't mean screentime, I certainly don't want to overshadow Usagi regularly, even if it was a hell of a lot of fun for the arc, but some opportunities to shine with our own talents would be nice.

There's plenty of things that could lead to body checks, like Rubeus' gravity trick (even if for Usagi that was more will than body), being held by a monster, etc. Ditto for mind checks, I mean, we have been getting smarter opponents, shouldn't that play in somehow?

So yeah, the soul stat is going to dominate the game, no matter what. But rather than something like the current 99% soul, 0.5% body, 0.5% mind checks, even something like 70% soul, 15% body, and 15% mind would be a lot cooler.

[Anastasia]

Damn those teenage hormones! XD

Like we'd talked before, I was also pretty surprise when things went that way. I did expect Makoto to end up with the necking and general making out with Alan, but the sex? Woo boy. Glad we at least kept those out of scenes. >_>;

But man, we're really horny 14 year olds. Usagi and Rei seemingly didn't even hesitate after just getting the thought in their heads. XD

Again ignoring the Usagi and Rei stuff until I get to it's own post.

Yeah...well...

I didn't really plan for you two to do the deed. But it happened., so........heh. Yeah, good thing when knew when to cut off those scenes. >_>

As for the Soul stuff:

Yeah, Soul is the biggest of the three stats in this game. The system for the Sailors fundamentally emphasizes it. Also, it doens't help that two of our biggest dice roll generators(Usagi and Rei), are using skills that rely on Soul to check.

The problem with the Mind stat is that in practical use, it's purely a number to check against. I'm not going to make a roll and say "Your character just figured this and this out," when instead you should be RPing it.

As for Body checks, yeah. You have a point, I think that some monster attacks could use a Body check instead of a DCV check. That's something to chew on, and to increase the value of the Body stat.

[Anastasia]

Rei and  Usagi: A teenage lesbian love story or just two horny girls? YOU DECIDE!

---

Kidding. ^_^ But anyway...

After Minako and Rei's rocky relationship and subsequent breakup, Rei and Usagi started spending a fair bit of time together. Both girls needed someone to lean on after the events of the Space Criminal arc, and their friendship grew far stronger.

Eventually, as Usagi was dealing with fallout from the Endymion episodes, something changed and they kissed. One thing lead to another, and...

That's the short version. The longer version involves OOC politics, some bullshitting, a lot of IC growth, and just a dash of omake ideas spilling into the main game. I won't go into that here. What I will go into are my thoughts on Rei and Usagi in general.

---

Back in the day, there was an occasional OOC and IC joke about Rei and Usagi having somethin' going on. I remember this used to drive Corwin to high levels of annoyance. Funny how that worked out, eh?

---

I think a part this came because Hal and Ebiris have good RPing chemistry. Perhaps it's natural for this sort of thing to flow from that, just how in real life natural compatibility can lead to a relationship you wouldn't expect. Anyone who has had a friend who is of the opposite sex, and one that became more than a friend one surprising night can attest to that. Two needy girls turned to who they knew, trusted and loved.

---

As a counterpoint to all the cheery perfect acceptance they've gotten from everyone else, I decided that perhaps Usagi's mother might now cotton to Rei humping her daughter at first. Now, this'll provide some grist for the angst mill, but overall it should lead to some character growth for all concerned.

Unless Setsuna's been stopping by more than just that one time. *Snickers*

[Halbarad]

After Minako and Rei's rocky relationship and subsequent breakup, Rei and Usagi started spending a fair bit of time together. Both girls needed someone to lean on after the events of the Space Criminal arc, and their friendship grew far stronger.

It was really DURING the events of the Space Criminal arc that things really started to go down that road. I'd say the first real motion in that direction (closer friendship) was after the talk with Rei about Endymion and the fight with Minako that ensued. Usagi being there for Rei while she cried... I just saw that as a very strong bonding experience for the two.

Eventually, as Usagi was dealing with fallout from the Endymion episodes, something changed and they kissed. One thing lead to another, and...

Ah yes, the infamous sleepover. Originally done as an omake for the downtime between arcs, and on a whim we decided to call it canon. Rei stole Usagi's precious first kiss (!) and Usagi got very, very confused. Prior to the decision to make this canon, any Usagi/Rei overtones were mostly jokingly tossed around in the OOC channel - the sleepover was originally something to kill a little time while we were breaking between arcs, and the kiss was sort of a dare - would Rei actually kiss Usagi or not? She did... and things started rolling from there.

Since we're already on it, I'll continue with a bit more of the longer version. The original confession took place shortly after the presentation of the Moon restoration project (MRP); Usagi and Ami showed off their work on the Moon to the other senshi and all but Minako had a sleepover there in the library afterwards. The fact that it was a sleepover reminded Usagi of the LAST sleepover she'd had with Rei - leading to some heavy thinking - and so she went for a walk in the palace, and Rei followed. One thing led to another, the miko kissed the rabbit, and a confession was born right then and there - except that on reflection, we decided that it moved things on a BIT too fast.

So then the omakes started. While waiting for Dune for main game scenes, Eb and I must have omaked variations on the confession between the two a half-dozen times or more. It gave us a few interesting perspectives on the relationship between the two, but they all stayed simple omake stuff.

The real confession occurred after Usagi's one-senshi-invasion of Mugen. She was caught by Professor Tomoe/Germatou and ejected by Rei; needless to say, the miko was more than a little ticked at Usagi about that. The two met and had a serious talk at the Shrine, and Usagi finally came to the realization that Rei really did mean more to her than anyone else - more than just a best friend. And away it went...

I think a part this came because Hal and Ebiris have good RPing chemistry. Perhaps it's natural for this sort of thing to flow from that, just how in real life natural compatibility can lead to a relationship you wouldn't expect. Anyone who has had a friend who is of the opposite sex, and one that became more than a friend one surprising night can attest to that. Two needy girls turned to who they knew, trusted and loved.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Eb and I do seem to work together really well; I enjoy RPing scenes with him quite a bit, as we seem to have a fairly good handle on how the other plays and our styles work together quite well. I don't know that this would have forced ROMANCE between the two characters, but I couldn't see Rei and Usagi being distant in any sort of fashion - it's just too much fun for me at least to RP scenes with Rei. ^_^

As a counterpoint to all the cheery perfect acceptance they've gotten from everyone else, I decided that perhaps Usagi's mother might now cotton to Rei humping her daughter at first. Now, this'll provide some grist for the angst mill, but overall it should lead to some character growth for all concerned.

I appreciate that. As said before, this arc has almost been TOO easy, after the neck-deep angst of the Criminal arc. It's nice to have a few bumps to deal with; the tough times are definitely more interesting to play than the good times (for the most part).

[thepanda]

I blame the school, my dearly departed laptop, and myself for my untimely disappearance from the game.

;_;

Beyond that I got a 'little' character growth going there, thankfully. Oh, and Lita was fun. >_>

I... really don't have much to say. v_v