So I’ve come to a sort of random realization: I can’t write “Guardians” unless my sister is here.

You may have noticed that I’ve only ever updated it during the summer, and I finally realized it’s because that’s the only time we are both living in the same town for an extended period of time, i.e. the only time I have time to write while she is also here. I’ve written several scattered scenes for chapter 7 over the past few weeks, but I keep hitting a road block in the form of, “Oh, I don’t know if this makes sense, I need to ask Lizzie,” or, “Do you think this is dumb? I wish Lizzie was here to help me.”

But she’ll be home in two weeks so I figured I’ll just hold off until she gets here and can help me figure out how to tie everything together in chapter 7.

In the meantime, I’ve had an idea floating around in my head for another short PGSM story recently, and with Three Weeks for Dreamwidth coming up in a few days, I thought this might be a good way to get involved. I’ll be sure to post here if I decide to go forward with it 🙂

Yes, yes, I know, I suck. Almost six months since I updated here, let alone updating my fanfics. And the thing that really gets me is that I legitimately thought this time I was going to get a chapter of “Guardians” out in a reasonable amount of time! I totally freaking outlined chapter 7 AND chapter 8, I had story notes coming out the wazoo, and I was super excited about writing it, I couldn’t wait to buckle down and get to it.

But you see, in late August/early September this little thing called Monster High happened. If you don’t know, MH is a new doll line put out by Mattel that has an accompanying cartoon as well as some novels… and they hooked me HARD. For like 3 or 4 months, all I could think of was Monster High. This wasn’t really a writing fandom, but those dolls… you don’t understand. I was spending like every hour of the day posing them and taking pictures. You don’t understand how cute these dolls are. Anyway, I tried to write, but all I could think of was MONSTER HIGH OMG GOTTA CATCH COLLECT ‘EM ALL, and I thought, “You know what? To heck with it. I have fandom commitment issues like no one would believe. In a few months, I’ll be sick of MH and I can go back to PGSM.”

And guess what? A few months have passed and I’m sick of Monster High. Do I know myself or what?

Anyway, so this means that barring any major catastrophes (which seem to happen frequently in my household, unfortunately), I should be able to get back to writing next week or so, after the season finale for House of Anubis has aired and that fandom takes a break from consuming my every waking thought (see what I mean about commitment issues? As an aside, have you SEEN that show? It’s like crack!! I know of no one who has seen it who has not devoured it like potato chips and then demanded moar).

Thank you all, as always, for being patient with me. I hope that the new chapter of “Guardians” will be worth the wait. 🙂

I always re-read my previous chapters before I start a new one, so I’m not really sure how this happened…

In chapter 5 of GotE&M, I had Nephrite tell Ami not to tell anyone that they were looking for the stuff about the feud. This is because originally, they were going to find all that stuff on their own. Why? Because I started writing this thing in 2004 when I was 18-19 and what do you mean there are other characters in this series who should be included?? Back in those days, I wrote romance and if it didn’t have to do with the romance, then why even bother with it? That’s why Rei and Makoto were like… barely in it. That’s also why, in the original outline of the story, Luna and Artemis were not going to be in the story. At all. I couldn’t figure out how to include them, and as far as I was concerned, they weren’t necessary.

Fast-forward to 2010, I’m still working on this thing and I’ve reached the point where I’m out of the material from 2004. I had written like 5 pages of chapter 6 back in 2004 and I stopped because I was really stumped and didn’t like where it was going. There’s a good reason for this: it was crap. It just took 6 years of maturing as a writer and as a person for me to figure that out. I’d been stuck at a road block on that chapter, and when I finally got past that, the chapter went in a really different direction than what I would have written in 2004.

Nowadays, I still like romance, but in moderation–I’m not going to be writing a story that’s just like “I LUFF U, LET’S MAKE OUT” anymore (I’ll leave that to Stephenie Meyer). Thus, GotE&M isn’t just the story of Nephrite and Ami’s twu twu wuv (and later down the line, Zoisite and Minako’s… spoiler? XD) anymore… I want it to be the full story of what happened in the Silver Millennium, one that can explain how everything that happened in PGSM came to be. Yes, Ami’s relationship with Nephrite (and Kunzite) has a lot to do with it, and I hope that when you see more of Zoisite and Minako’s relationship, you might understand why they act the way they do in PGSM. But there’s a lot more to it than that. I think it’s important to see how Serenity transformed from the sweet girl we see in the PGSM flashbacks (and the one we’ve seen in GotE&M so far) into the tough bitch Princess Sailor Moon was. We need to understand how Luna and Artemis figure into this, and how they become who they were in PGSM. And we need to understand the relationship between the Silver Crystal, Metallia, and Serenity/Usagi. These are all things that I want to cover in GotE&M. So the story has evolved, and this is just part of the reason chapter 6 had to change.

I also realized that it just didn’t make sense for Ami to be the only character driving the story just because “I liked her best” back in 2004 (P.S. funnily enough, she’s not my favorite character anymore, so now I look back on my old stuff and think, “Why did I use her so much?!”). And there are other things that matter in Ami’s life besides her ~luv~ for Nephrite, other people who are just as important. After getting older, having real relationships and seeing other girls doing so as well made me realize that your boyfriend is not, and shouldn’t be, your life. Ami has a great group of friends in the Senshi, and that needs to be a factor in stories about her. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense for Ami to want to include Makoto, her closest friend after Usagi, in the search. So that’s what I did.

I’m personally very happy with the way it went, but it does create a plot hole between chapters 5 and 6. This really is the downside of fanfiction as opposed to writing, for example, a novel that no one but your editor sees until it’s finished– with fanfiction, it’s “publish as you go.” This is why on most of my newer fanfics, I have been waiting to upload until it’s completely finished, so if I have to make revisions, I can without creating problems. But in GotE&M’s case, it’s too late for that.

So the question now is, “Just leave it? Or revise chapter 5?” I’m planning on going for the revision (I have typos I want to fix, anyway). But for those of you who have already read it… sorry for the plot holes. XD

Finally, chapter 6 of “Guardians of the Earth and the Moon” has been published.  This chapter went through a lot of evolution, which is a large part of the reason it took so long to write/publish (that, and the fact that I’m easily distracted XD). You see, I started writing this fic back in 2004, but it was all on binder paper… so I had to type it, which is why it took me so long to get even this far. Chapter 5 was the last chapter I’d written back then. From Chapter 6 on, all content is brand-spanking new.

Because of the amount of time that’s passed since I wrote the first five chapters, you might see a slight difference in style between chapter 5 and chapter 6. I’m hoping it’s not too bad (my sister betas for me and she didn’t think it was a drastic departure from the previous chapters; it could be that I’m being overly critical XD).

This chapter also went through a lot of revision as I came up with new ideas to tie in more aspects of the PGSM timeline, as well as ways to give the characters more depth and backstory. Hopefully you will enjoy these additions. Here are some notes I had regarding this chapter that I hope will answer any questions you might have (here there be spoilers):

• This chapter goes into Princess Serenity’s backstory much more. I wanted to find a way to explain why Serenity is still a princess (not queen) if her mother is not present. The most logical explanation for this something that has occurred throughout history: a regency. Serenity is ruling with the help of advisors such as Egeria and others until she comes of age. In this story, Serenity is 18 and will become queen when she’s 20… that may seem old, but there’s a reason for it which will soon be explained, and it has to do with the Crystal.
• Speaking of Serenity, we see a harsher side to the Princess in this chapter. This ties into what we see in PGSM: she looks so sweet in the flashbacks, and yet she’s so cold as Princess Sailor Moon. Serenity’s under a lot of strain right now because her heart is telling her one thing, but everyone else is telling her something else; but there’s more to it than that. We’ll be seeing more of this evolution of her character, as well as the reasons behind it, in chapters to come.
• The Ethereals are probably my favorite addition in this chapter, so I hope they’re not too “WTF” for everyone else. 😛 I had been trying to think of a way to include Luna and Artemis, but was having trouble  figuring out how to incorporate talking cat plushies. My solution to this six years ago was to just ignore them. XD But then I recently came up with the idea to make them shape-shifters… I won’t give you more details than that and what Serenity explains about them within the chapter, since I don’t want to spoil you. But I’m looking forward to introducing Luna and Artemis and revealing more about the Ethereals, who will be playing an important role in the story in the future.
• I reference a lot of Greek and Roman mythology in this chapter, although I use the names loosely (a lot like Naoko Takeuchi’s borrowing of Selene and Endymion for her own story, heh heh). For example, Egeria’s name (and character) is based on Roman mythology. According to legend, a nymph by that name was the wife of the second king of Rome, and she was also his chief political advisor. Many of the laws and traditions in ancient Rome were begun by Egeria. It’s only fitting that Serenity should such a strong political leader as her advisor! I had a fun time coming up with this character, although I don’t think she’ll be playing a very big role in the story.Other mythological names in this chapter: Deukalion is actually the name of one of Endymion’s ancestors. The names of the months are based on the Athenian lunar calendar. Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth (tying in with how “Mariel” means of the sea [although that’s a Dutch name], I thought the princess of Mars should have a name that tied to her powers as well).

I think that’s it… if you have any questions about the chapter you’d like me to answer, feel free to post them here! ♥

Tags: Guardians Chapter Notes

I am so annoyed/embarrassed. When I uploaded “Guardians of the Earth and the Moon” to PGSM Fanfiction, I had to use the text box instead of uploading the document since I didn’t have MS Word on my old computer. The formatting all disappeared so I fixed it manually, and then like a year later I went back and saw that all the sentences I’d italicized had appeared TWICE, once in italics and once in regular formatting. I was totally mortified so I went through and fixed it, quadruple checked it, and called it a day.

Well now I’m getting ready to add a new chapter so I go back and re-read the old chapters, and what do I find? Some of the doubles are back, AND on top of it, in places where I’d fixed the italics problem, there are whole paragraphs missing!! I am so incredibly embarrassed!!! How can anyone read it?? I have so many positive reviews for the story on that site, and I’m like, “HOW?? HOW COULD YOU HAVE ENJOYED IT?? IT’S DROWNING IN TYPOS!! IT’S F–KING DISTRACTING (OH, GOOD)!”

I haaaaaate reading fanfics that are filled with typos/missing sentences/double sentences. If it’s just typos, but the rest of the writing is good, then I don’t mind. But this is downright terrible. I’m so frustrated. Every time I think I have it fixed, Haha think again!!

Now that I have MS Word, I think I am going to re-upload the chapters which should take care of the formatting problems. The only issue with that, though, is that I’m not sure if the version (of the fic) I have saved on my harddrive is the same as the one on Fanfiction.net, and whether either is the same as the one on PGSM Fanfiction. (I don’t think there will be major differences [at least, I hope not], but there may be typos I fixed on one version that I missed on another).

EDIT: Haha, just kidding, it doesn’t take .doc files, only plain text and (certain) HTML files. That doesn’t really work for me since I use a lot of formatting in my stories and it will detract from the story if it’s lost. And the online text editor is no longer on the site, with only an HTML box in its place. Dammit, it looks like I’m going to have to hard code all the new chapters from now on.

FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

“After the End” is a Neph/Ami short story set after the end of the series (but before the Special Act). I am planning on writing a number of other stories set in this continuity (the first one of these is “Reunion“, which is a Zoi/Mina fic), so I wanted to give some more details about the universe.

1. Stories set in this continuity are written with the assumption that the Shitennou were reborn as humans just as the Senshi were in Act 49. I believe that this actually is the case in canon, although I know many people disagree with me. If you want to read a lengthy argument as to the whys and hows of this theory, you can do so here. Reading that rant might be a good background to reading the fic, although it’s totally not necessary.
2. In this and other fanfics set in this continuity, the Shitennou’s human names are:
   

   Jadeite = Jun Kiiroi
   Nephrite = Naito Akai (his given name was borrowed with permission from my sister’s story “Darkness Emerging“)
   Zoisite = Zero Shiroi
   Kunzite = Ken Kuroi

   The way I thought of these names is kind of a funny story: when I started this fic, I was sitting there trying to think of what they should go by on Earth, and I thought, “Oh, I’ll give them corresponding colors for their last names” (Red, White, Black, and Yellow). So I looked up the colors and I was thinking, “Wow, I’m so original.” Well, I later realized that my “clever” name choices were actually the same names the Shitennou-police had in Act Zero. In my defense, I’ve only seen Act Zero once and it didn’t have subtitles on it, so I wasn’t really paying attention to their names (I also didn’t know back then that they were named after colors… the things you learn!). There’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

   For their given names, I chose names that started with the same letter as their Shitennou names (“N” for Nephrite, “Z” for Zoisite, you get the picture). I didn’t use “Shin” for Kunzite because, since he has his memories now, I honestly can’t see him wanting to use that name (or acting the way Shin did, haha).

3. For this and the other fanfics in this continuity, I have tried to do a lot of research so that it won’t seem like I’m so obnoxiously clueless about Japan. I felt like in some of my earlier PGSM fanfics, they were acting much too American. I really want to make something that is believable for the culture they’re in and would be as believable as a real episode of PGSM, but not being Japanese and never having been there, I can’t claim to be an expert. Hopefully I didn’t screw up too bad. Please forgive me if I did.

If you have any questions about anything you encountered in the fic, feel free to comment here and maybe I can answer them! XD

Guardians of the Earth and the Moon is just a giant soap opera where everyone’s lusting after each other and very few people are winding up happy. I’d apologize, but I’M NOT SORRY! Mwaahahahahhahaaaaaa. I very rarely write unrequited love stories, so this is pretty fun for me. Plus, I see it as entirely necessary to get us to the point we need to be, namely everyone dying in a fiery explosion.

So, what’s the point of this post? Guardians of the Earth and the Moon chapter 5 is up.
Fanfiction.net Version | PGSM-Fanfiction Version

It’s 17 pages. SEVENTEEN PAGES!!! I’m a crazy woman. But I feel awesome. Recently I have been crazy-enthusiastic about PGSM, NephAmi, and this fic. And the romance parts didn’t make me squirm this time. WHOO.

CHAPTER 4 IS DONE

FANFICTION.NET
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3130921/5/Guardians_of_the_Earth_and_the_Moon

PGSM-FANFICTION
http://fanfiction.kirari-pgsm.net/viewstory.php?sid=178&chapter=5

THX TO EVERYONE WHO SAT THROUGH MY EMBARRASSED RANTS THE LAST 2 DAYS. The story gets more plot-heavy from here, so I shouldn’t be making any more mortified rants…

And I actually only wrote up to partially through Ch. 6, so the rest will be new stuff based on my outlines and thus I can make it less embarrassing. Good.

…I’m trying to type a Zoisite and Minako scene right now. Allow me to show you, with illustrations from Love*Com, what I have spent the last five minutes doing every time I read the next line I’m supposed to type:

Okay…it’s not that bad…but I can’t write it…urgh…

It says…”His chest clenched and he felt himself nearly overwhelmed with desire seeing her sitting there like that.”

THERE I TYPED IT FORGIVE ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED

*dies*

I need to get over this complex.

OMFG HOW COULD I HAVE WRITTEN SO MUCH? I’VE TYPED SIX PAGES AND I’M ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH THE CHAPTER. WTFFFFFF

2004 LISA, WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO I GET YOUR AMBITION BACK?