On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Mark Doherty wrote:

      "We lost Dr. Wise's Time Orb, Poppa.  Whatever broke through 
has.  Poppa...it..."  Her voice trailed off.

       "What, dear?"

       She turned to Dr. Wise.  "Can someone actually time travel 
with that thing?"

        He thought for a moment.  "I think it would help you not get 
lost if you tried, but the sheer power that it takes to travel 
backwards through time is enormous."

?: That's certainly no joke. And yet Pluto goes either way with ease. Just
   how much power did the people who activated the power of the Senshi have?
   Just what sources do they truly draw upon? Their planets? Somehow, I doubt
   it's just hunks of rock giving them energy. 

Arcadia:  I honestly have no clue.

Pluto:  The Five Ruling Wizards were capable of reshaping entire planets.
Each of them sealed off much of their own power simply because they didn't
trust themselves with it.  Different ones used this power in different
ways.  Endymion, Astra, and Serenity shared their power with the
Guardians, the Zodiac, and the Senshi respectively.  I would go into this
in more depth, but it would take much space.

        The Wiseman was powerful, but not a match for Serenity, 
Demand thought.  He found the way here, he brought us all here, all 
those who fled Serenity's power, but he was no match for her, 
Demand thought.  He is a spider, who lurks in the shadows, a 
coward who flees honest battle, Demand thought.  

?: Do you know what the difference between knowing when to cut your losses
   and retreat, and not knowing that is? About six hundreds years of extra 
   life, so far, giving new opportunities at winning. Wiseman obviously is 
   just that, a wiseman.

Arcadia:  Demand's a twit.

Pluto:  He is a warrior with the strengths and weaknesses of such.  
   

      Jupiter boggled.  "But...I have to protect you, Serenity!  Who 
will..."

      "Who will threaten me here?  The worst that might happen is 
that I might overeat, or spill something on myself.  Besides, I will 
have Pluto with me, and Endymion."  She paused.  "And most of the 
other senshi are either within the palace or close enough to be 
called."  She turned to Pluto.  "Uranus and Neptune did return last 
night, did they not?  I didn't see them at breakfast."

?: Complacency on safety. The second great way for a civilisation to fall.
   The first, of course, is corruption and decadency. The third is rival
   groups/barbarians. Unofficially, of course.

Pluto:  I'm not sure who would designate an official list.  
 

       "No mugging?  Do you execute all the muggers?"

        He shook his head violently.  "We don't have the death 
penalty.  People almost never commit crimes for one simple reason.  
You can't get away with it.  It doesn't stop all crime, but it stops 
almost all of it."  He turned and pointed off through the park.  "The 
track is that way.  I'll be right back."  He got back into the skimmer.

?: That reasoning for little crime would have raised my hackles, if I was
   the one there. What about kleptomaniacs? People who find the thought of

Pluto:  Kleptomaniacs are rather rare.  Most property crime through
history doesn't come from maladjusted people and lunatics, it comes from
people who either choose to commit crime because they can't find another
way to avoid starving to death or who do it because they want something
and don't expect to get caught.  (Leaving out the category of actions
whose legality is disputed: ie, some subgroup thinks an action is or
should not be illegal and continues to do it in spite of the law, such as
disputes over commons rights in eighteenth century England, etc.)  Most
criminals do not want to be caught, and would find other methods to get
what they want than illegal ones, if they were guaranteed to be caught.
There are some people who are insane or fools, but most crime is not
committed simply out of maladjustment.  It's a way of meeting various
needs and desires that could be met in other ways.  Now violent crime is
another question entirely, because that often does come from more
irrational sources than property crimes.  

   maybe being caught thrilling? People who covet something that someone else
   has; after all, not everything would be able to be duplicated with magic,
   some items would be unique. And more, and so on. What truly stops them? 
   What could cause such fear of punishment, in a place that has no capital

Pluto:  The guarantee of being caught and punished.  Most criminals do not
expect to be caught, or they wouldn't do it.  Given that capital
punishment is not applied to property crimes normally in many countries
anyway, it's irrelevant to even bring up to the issue.  For that matter,
eighteenth century England had the death penalty for many crimes and it
didn't stop people.  Penalties alone don't do much unless it's believed
they are going to be enforced.

      "Basically, yes.  The Archetype of Destruction.  Sort of.  It's a 
long confusing story, but the only way to stop the Winter Queen 
was to close Kali's gate so it could no longer use all its power 
through her.  

?: Things seemed grim, until the Archetype of Disco arrived. After he blinded
   the Winter Queen with the light reflecting off his white leisure suit, he
   did a dance number that had her retreat in embarassment at being in the 
   same room as him. The world owes its continuing existence to disco.

Pluto:  Let's keep Travolta out of this.

 

      "Well, the museum was a lot more interesting than watching 
people run, even if it was full of lies,"  Gabrielle said.  "Although not 
nearly as bad as that awful, 'Book of Truth' the Senshi worshippers 
quote from."  Cocking her head, she began to proclaim loudly, "And 
lo, Serenity cast her bread upon the waters and gave forth with the 
breath of life, and the ice melted and the grass grew, and Serenity 
said that it was good.  And it was good."  She continued onward, 
making blessing signs at passersby.  Soon, a crowd began to gather, 
and she harangued them on the glories of the gods and goddesses 
made flesh that walked among them.

      Michael took a moment to curse the day he was born.

?: Oh yes, I like these ones. I'm not sure you need a comma before the 'Book
   of Truth' bit, by the way. I suppose it's hoping for too much to hear
   their side of what happened?

Pluto:  The continuing story of Albernia should help show you how they
view things. (as it develops)
 

      Michael sat at the table in their hotel room and tried to read 
'The Book of Truth'.  'And lo, the wrath of the most holy Rei is 
terrible to behold, her anger a fire that consumes all it touches.  For 
she is the Wrath of the Most High made flesh, the avenging angel, 
the one who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah at his command for 
their sins.  Yet too, she is the Angel of Song, her voice the cool 
breeze of the morning, her light that of the morning star, that 
heralds the coming of day.  And the people listened to the words of 
Imoron, as he spoke the words of the Most High, and they did 
dance and sing, and feast upon...'  Michael put down the book.  
"Damn you for making me read this stupid thing, Gabrielle.  I still 
think this is a stupid plan."

?: Ugh. _Who_ _wrote_ that _book_? They must die. Now. Or sooner, if at all
   possible.

Pluto:  Blame Imoron and his cohorts.
 

      Michael glanced over at Raphaelle, who was busily sewing a 
green robe with gold thread.  "What did you pick?"

?: Why didn't they just use one of those wardrobe things?

Pluto:  They're not used to using them, and they're not quite omnipresent
in all hotels.
 

      "I'm gonna be a Jupiter worshipper, I think.  We both do 
lightning."  She grinned.  "You should be a Small Lady devotee."

?: Oh good, that means in a very, very short time this place is going to
   become a load of pretty rubble, unless you're using the '900-year-old'
   manga version of the pink horror.

Pluto:  Nope.  We'd hardly call this Black Moon Rising if the Black Moon
Crisis wasn't going to happen in it.

       "Yes, indeed she is."  A voice boomed through the room, 
reeking of death and bitterness.  It was a voice they knew too well.

      Everyone fell to their knees.  Raphaelle buried her face in the 
bed and didn't even look up.  Michael said quietly, "Hello, sir.  How 
can we save you?"

?: Save you? Strange greeting.

Michael:  I meant 'serve you', but I guess my brain shorted out from fear.
 

       Only one thing preserved human life upon the frozen Earth.  
Two things, actually.  One was a fact, the other a being.  The fact 
was that the Winter Queen was too insane to carry out a methodical 
plan of extermination.  The other was a being, known only as 
'Wiseman', a sage of great power who traveled between the tiny 
settlements clinging to life against the cold, the monsters, and the 
Winter Queen's rages.  

       'Wiseman' was presumed to be male because of his name and 
his voice, but no one really knew for sure.  Indeed, the prophet 
Andros had been burned to death for claiming that 'Wiseman' was 
actually the Winter Queen in disguise, simply playing with the 
Kingdom of Albernia, like a cat plays with a mouse.  Few really 
believed that, and they burned as well, for any community that 
spurned the Wiseman's help was left to wither on the vine before 
the assaults of the Winter Queen, the monsters, or simply the 
vagaries of the weather.  

?: I'm sure Wiseman has quite the ulterior motive. Who doesn't in life?
   But nevertheless, I'm finding it easy to respect him so far. A few
   casual threats of unending agony do not a bad guy make, after all. ^_^

Pluto:  I could say more, but I won't.
 

      The Royal Palace was a three-story building of stone and dried 
clay, mainly distinguishable by its flag, which was a golden needle, 
and the stone pillar that jutted out of its heart over the roof, 
Angelica's Needle.  It was here than the King and Queen lived, that 
they communed with the great goddess Albernia who watched over 
the kingdom and preserved it from the ice.  Many gods and 
goddesses had died three centuries ago when the Winter Queen 
conquered the world, but their sacrifice had not been in vain, for 
the Winter Queen was cut off from the heavens, severed from most 
of her power.  Those few kingdoms that endured had the protection 
of some patron deity and of the Wiseman.

?: It was said before that the people prepaid in suffering for the 'wonder'
   of Crystal Tokyo. And yet, weren't these the people who eventually fled
   for Nemesis? Weren't the Senshi entrapped in ice? How much did _they_
   suffer in suspended animation, while people who etched a living were the
   ones forced to eventually flee? For that matter, what is life like outside
   of Crystal Tokyo? How is it for people such as the wandering people, who
   would probably prefer nomadity to living in a city such as CT?

Pluto:  Perhaps you'd like to watch the world suffer for nine hundred
years and not be able to do anything about it?  It wasn't a pleasant
nine hundred years, although it wasn't as bad as some suffered above,
either.  Not everyone who lived on the surface fled, either.  More on this
to come. (Not everyone lives in Crystal Tokyo, btw.)

 

?: Ah well, far more (obviously deserved ^_^) respect for the Nemesians in this
   chapter. Wiseman, quite often regarded as one of the most evil of 
   Sailor Moon's foes, came across as quite a decent guy, and the spies were
   decently cunning and certainly not half as stupid as the attack groups in
   the first chapter. It's shaping up as quite an epic, even if all the jumping
   around in time can put a strain on concentration.

Pluto:  The Black Moon Cult of Arcadia's day has rather gone down hill,
especially since Nemesis was destroyed by that N5 bomb.  And you normally
don't send total lunatics to spy, either (as compared to death squads).
More to be seen.



John Walter Biles :  MA-History, Ph.D Wannabe at U. Kansas         
ranma@falcon.cc.ukans.edu       
rhea@tass.org              http://www.tass.org/~rhea/falcon.html
rhea@maison-otaku.net      http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/

"We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the recognition... We do
it because it needs to be done.  Because, if we don't, no one else will.
And we do it even if no one knows what we've done. Even if no one knows we
exist. Even if no one remembers we ever existed." "I... I don't even know
your name..." "My name is Kara. Though I doubt that'll mean anything to
you."
--Christmas with the Superheroes #2, 1989: "Should Auld Acquaintance Be
Forgot"