"I know you'd have told me by now if you were Sailor Moon."
— Naru, in Episode 1, two years after Usagi had started being Sailor Moon
A very large epic Fan Fic series, completed with 25 episodes, by Jeff Hosmer and John Biles (the latter of who brought us Dance of Shiva
, which this series is set in the same universe as), starring the Sailor Moon crew. The story begins in Tokyo, the night before Osaka Naru's sixteenth birthday, with Tsukino Usagi spending the night at Naru's house so that she can prepare for Naru's birthday party. Consumed by guilt because of the page quote, Usagi spills the beans.
Of course, this being a Sailor Moon story, not all is well in Japan. The evening after Naru's sixteenth birthday party, the original senshi (plus Naru and Umino) are thrown out of a festival because Usagi managed to mess up some major plan that involved giving the Minister of Education a horary in a specific manner (don't ask, nobody knows why). Running the festival is the mysterious Capricorn, who works for the Zodiac, a remnant of the lost Kingdom of Odysseus.
Of course, it wouldn't be Sailor Moon without some legitimate monsters, which the Zodiac does not deal in. Can the Sailor Senshi survive fighting a two-front war? How will things turn out with Naru knowing about the Senshi being her friends? Does the new school that all the girls are going to have anything to do with this? And how is Sailor V over here if Sailor Venus is also over there?
The only way to find out is to read it! If that link doesn't work, there's an archived version through episode 19 here, and you can download the whole fic (no art/bonus material) as a zip file here.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptation Species Change: Downplayed with Luna and Artemis. They're still talking alien cats, but instead of originating from the planet Mau, here they come from Venus. They're also Voluntary Shapeshifters who can not only take on human form at will but also turn into big cats like panthers and tigers — though they had conveniently forgotten about this ability. Lampshaded by Artemis, who blames the centuries they spent in suspended animation.
- Aerith and Bob:
- Well, one letter out. The elf Derith and his dragon Bob appear in episode 14.
- The names in the TORG world run the full gamut, from Maggie and Sakura to Quinina and Dag Nabbit.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Parodied with the "so-and-so says" segments at the end of each chapter, which is of course a parody of the "Sailor Moon Says" segments from the DiC dub. Most of the major and several of the secondary characters get their turn to present a moral — with the notable exception of Usagi, who is constantly complaining that the others are taking over what's supposed to be her segment. The morals taught are frequently nonsensical, self-contradictive or they have nothing to do with the story that's being told. All this is repeatedly Lampshaded.
- Artificial Human: The Golems, including Noriko.
- Ascended Extra:
- Most notably Naru and Umino, who are supporting characters in canon but are major players in this fic.
- Tethys, the Monster of the Week from SM episode 12, plays a significant role in the finale.
- Badass Normal:
- The Trans-Dimensional Defence Club, a club whose purpose is to defend the school from supernatural attacks. Though it turns out not all of them are normal....
- Koishikawa Miki fights off a youma attack with ice cream.
- Yuuichirou wins this trope. As in canon, he will do anything to protect Rei. Even infiltrate the Dark Kingdom by himself while the Senshi are trapped in the Lexx world.
- Book Ends: The first chapter (not counting the prologue) starts with Usagi and Naru having a sleepover at Naru's place. The last chapter ends with Usagi and Naru having a sleepover at Usagi's place. For good measure, Naru is wearing the same orange pajamas in both scenes.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Rei, after her non-fatal Heroic Sacrifice, spends much of the final story arc as Jadeite's "Queen," having regressed to a villainous version of her past life, Aurora.
- The Cameo: Chibi-Usa does not appear in the story, but she does make very brief cameo in one of the "moral" segments, mainly so she can insult Usagi.
- Crossover:
- The most obvious one is Hime-chan's Ribbon, as its characters play important roles in the story and Himeko even becomes a Senshi herself. There are tons of smaller crossovers, though, as characters from other canons show up for cameos or smaller roles.
- Episode 11 features the Dirty Pair as a starship crew in the Silver Millennium.
- Episode 20 crosses over with the TORG novelizations, and includes cameos by The Untouchable Trio (plus one).
- Episode 24 crosses over with the Lexx universe, sort of.
- Miki from Marmalade Boy puts in an appearance; see Badass Normal above.
- Derith and Bob's first trip to Earth resulted in them accidentally peeping in on a certain household in Nerima as they tried to get their bearings.
- The prelude to the story, Symphony of the Planets, also features Ranma and Shampoo in minor roles.
- Darker and Edgier: The Dark Kingdom are a serious threat this time round. There are deaths, though none of named characters on the "good" side.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The original Dark Kingdom, a.k.a. Atlantis and about half of the modern Zodiac.
- Demoted to Extra: Usagi. She's one of the main characters in the first few chapters, but gets moved increasingly Out of Focus as the story goes on. This is reflected and Lampshaded in the (decidedly non-canon) "moral" segments, where Usagi is constantly miffed at not being the character to deliver the morals.
- Door Stopper: The unauthorized .lit file that's floating around weighs in at 3445 pages on the smallest text size setting in Microsoft Reader. Episode 20 alone is 56,000 words long, the length of a short novel.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Shows up every so often in the story, with girls physically or verbally abusing their male love interests, and it all being played as harmless, innocent or even romantic. It's most notable with Hotaru, who turns into a regular Tsundere around Derith — but Minako heaps quite a bit of abuse on her boyfriend Steven as well.
- Ethical Slut: Much to Ami's frustration, her past-life counterpart Athena was very much one of these. She slept around a lot, not caring overly much what sex her partner(s) were, but she did refuse to sleep with anyone who was married. (She did, however, not have any problems with seducing someone on the night before their wedding.)
- Fire-Forged Friends: Channeling Princess Serenity and worried because the inner and Outer Senshi remain separate cliques instead of functioning as one united team, Sailor Moon decides to form partnerships, with one Inner and one Outer to a team. There are definite tensions within some of the partnerships, especially with Haruka/Ami and Michiru/Rei, but both teams do end up with newfound respect and appreciation for one another.
- Flanderization: In-universe example with Minako. After turning into an elf, her impulsiveness, silliness and lust are exaggerated, which causes several problems for her.
- Genki Girl: Noriko, who never seems to run out of energy. Of course, she's a cyborg and only marginally human.
- Half-Identical Twins: Gemini are described as this, looking almost completely identical except for being different genders.
- Heel–Face Turn: Tethys, when she learns that youma were human once.
- How Do I Shot Web?:
- Averted in the age of the Moon Kingdom, as the Senshi were effectively apprenticed by their preceding office holder. The fact that the modern Senshi didn't get that was the impetus to what accidentally became the chronal body swap arc.
- Played straight when Himeko chooses to copy Sailor Pluto to attempt to calm down the suddenly awakes Sailor Saturn, only to find herself dealing with Pluto's time-vision. Especially problematic due to the fact that normally she only takes on the appearance of who she copies, and not any powers.
- I Hate Past Me: Ami reacts badly to finding out how much her Silver Millennium counterpart, Athena, slept around — she distances herself so much from Athena that Athena essentially becomes a second personality that provides running commentary in her head and occasionally takes over. A large part of Ami's Character Development in the fic is to accept and make peace with this part of herself.
- Inconsistent Spelling:
- Eri(c)(k)a can't decide on one spelling, sometimes using both within one paragraph.
- You have to feel sorry for Gwynnaefael - the authors really struggle with her name.
- Last of His Kind: Obsidian is the last of the original Golems.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Tethys is the daughter of Beryl and Magnetite.
- Mundane Utility: Ryo's power to foresee the future comes in handy to avoid long debates over what pizza to order.
- My Beloved Smother: After having spent most of the fic firmly off-screen, Ami's mother Miaka comes back with a vengeance to turn into a particularly controlling version of this.
- Named by the Adaptation: Ami's parents, Kensuke and Miaka. (The fic predates Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, in which Ami's mother's name is Saeko.)
- The Nicknamer: Noriko is noted for "her refusal to use the first syllable of any name." (Ami is "Mi-chan", Usagi is "Sa-chan" and Haruka is "Ka-kun.")
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Artemis, back in the Moon Kingdom, tended to "play the happy-go-lucky fool" to offset his Royal Bastard background and was picked for the role as Senshi Venus's advisor mostly because she felt sorry for him. Present day Artemis has mostly stopped doing this, though he sometimes gets a little silly because old habits are hard to break.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The general reaction when circumstances cause infant Hotaru to age back to early teen Sailor Saturn.
- Setsuna when she realizes that Himeko was able to fully access her powers and Time Staff when she imitated her, leading her to the realization that Himeko was the next Pluto.
- One-Steve Limit:
- A few minor characters end up sharing names. There are two Sayuris, three Kimikos, and two Hikarus (male and female - they even meet at one point).
- Maybe just a meaningless slip, but in the last episode, Ami's mother (previously Miaka) is named Ryouko, a name that was previously given to a character in the Lexx world.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: They even have names taken straight out of Tolkien.
- Our Elves Are Different: Elves have the glamour, good looks, pointy ears, immortality... but they're not universally good any more than humans are.
- Really Royalty Reveal: In chapter 16, Luna's mother is not only revealed to still be alive — she is revealed to be Queen Hecate, the Queen of the Venusian cats. Usagi is very surprised.Usagi: You have a mother, Luna?
Luna: Did you think I was dropped off by a stork or something? Of course I have a mother.
Usagi: If your mother is a queen... does that make you a princess?
Hecate: That is how it usually works. She really is swift, isn't she, Luna? Haven't you taught her anything? - Redemption Earns Life: Jadeite
- Reincarnation:
- Discussed, as are some of the ramifications of not being able to reincarnate in a universe where having more power than a beetle guarantees reincarnation. It almost becomes a Running Gag that pretty much everyone important in the Senshi's lives turn out to be reincarnations of people from the Moon Kingdom — to the point where it's a major surprise that Yuuichiro isn't.
- Pretty much all the Senshi's past lives are featured in the fic to some degree, and a lot of comedy and drama is derived from how different their current incarnations are to their past incarnations. The exception is Minako, who's pretty much exactly the same person in both lives.
- Reincarnation Romance: All manner of variations. Characters such as Naru and Umino who didn't have a Silver Millennium counterpart in canon are given one. However, the story shows that just because your past lives were a couple doesn't guarantee being one in the present, and vice versa.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Prevalent in the Silver Millennium (even though in this story, the Silver Millennium was 25,000 years ago and predated most of the myths!)
- Rock Theme Naming:
- The Dark Kingdom. Not just the Generals as in canon; the youma all have rock names as well.
- The Golems have a mixture of rock and metal names.
- Royal Bastard: Artemis, it turns out. He was born to Venusian nobility but never knew who his father was. Queen Hecate is quick to call him "bastard" and "mongrel," especially since she does not approve of him getting together with Luna.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Naru finds out Usagi's secret in the first episode. Some of the others who are "in the know", such as Ryo and Steven, bond over time into a semi-official group of "Sailor Auxiliaries".
- Near the end of the story, Ami's mother finds out and tells the rest of the Senshi's parents.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Turns out that Minako's parents knew the truth all along.
- Shipper on Deck: Minako. Especially prevalent when it comes to Makoto and Clark, but very much there for other potential couples too.
- Shout-Out:
- Minako's school is called "Experiment House" and she meets students named Jill and Eustace, an obvious reference to The Silver Chair.
- Several Dwarf names are taken from The Hobbit.
- Dag Nabbit wears a hat with "WIZZARD" on it, like Rincewind.
- Stellar Theme Naming: The members of the Zodiac are named after the zodiacal constellations.
- Stepford Smiler: Noriko. Underneath her bouncy personality, she's a cyborg who can't make real friends because she's afraid to let anyone know her secret.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Clark and Makoto. They struggle with their relationship being perceived as "wrong", but in the finale they decide to stay together.
- Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much all the regular characters, Senshi and non-Senshi alike, grow immensely in power and competence over the course of the fic. It's most prominent with Naru, because her increased frustration with being a Damsel in Distress and her growing out of it is one of the main plotlines of the fic.
- Tsundere: Hotaru, of all people, becomes one to Derith. It's all Played for Laughs, but she spends so much time hitting him for real or imagined slights that it borders on Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male.
- Unnamed Parent: By contrast to Ami's (see above), Rei's and Minako's parents remain unnamed.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- In one of the darkest plotlines of the story, the Dark Kingdom destroy an apartment building with its inhabitants inside. A named (but minor) character, Meiko, loses her family and her home. Apart from one mention of Naru visiting her to see how she is, that's the last we hear of her.
- In the Lexx world of episode 24, Spinel escapes when Anthracite kills Magnetite, which seems like it's going to be significant, but she doesn't appear again.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Athena's accent is represented by an extremely inconsistent version of this.
