Silver Millennium Soldier
-9- The Color Blue
by
Mike Macdonald
(Age: 27)
copyright 03-08-2006
Age Rating: 18 to 127
What could have been another quiet day in the school courtyard took a turn, though not for the worse by any means. A turn for the different, you could say.
She’d been sitting at her usually table (the one on the far side of the courtyard where no one paid any mind to her), eating her usual lunch (tuna on white, apple juice, and a baggie of six small sugar cookies), and enjoying her usual company (no one) for no more than ten minutes, probably less. She’d only read two-thirds of the way through the latest chapter of her book and was anxious to finish it before putting it down again, since she often forgot what had happened earlier if her reading session hadn’t been drawn to a close by the first paragraph of the subsequent chapter, and she had to briefly recap what she’d already read to keep from confusing herself.
So, what could have been another quiet day in the school courtyard took a turn for the different before she’d started reading anything new. A voice startled her, and before she could look over her shoulder its owner was already swinging ‘round to the side of her table and leaning over to see what she was reading.
“You read Harry Potter?” said the voice of her pretty blonde classmate with the braided pigtails.
She didn’t quite know how to respond, so she just sat there like a scared animal, staring with her huge basset hound eyes at this equally huge smile now staring back at her. She at least managed to stutter out some asinine response the last time anyone at school approached her, which was the better half of a semester ago; he was a nice looking boy who asked about the definition of the Byronic Hero in English 5-6 who felt she was the smartest in the class, and then he never spoke to her again. Now her mind was a total blank and she felt like an idiot.
“Sorry, did you want to be alone?” the blonde girl said with a hint of concern on her face.
“Oh, no!” she said with more emphasis than she intended, then caught herself and lowered her voice. “No, you can sit here. If you want.”
The girl did so, still smiling and never giving her any funny looks. Maybe she didn’t hear her or something.
“I noticed you always sit alone,” the girl said.
“I get more reading done that way,” she said, looking over her shoulder casually, wondering if she was being set up for some kind of prank.
“You make more friends this way,” the girl said sweetly. “My name’s Serena.”
She finally returned the smile as she did fifteen minutes before in Art.
“Amy,” she said. “Anderson.”
“Well that’s a girl-next-door name if I ever heard one.”
“I hate it. It’s boring.”
“Hey, mine's Babbit,” Serena said with a sour look. “I’m sure Anderson doesn’t get you teased all the time in grade school.”
Her eyes were running up and down the contours of the other half of Amy’s sandwich resting on the table in front of her. Amy noticed this, and noticed how badly the girl fidgeted; her fingers looked as if they were trying to knit a sweater out of themselves.
“You want some?” Amy said, gesturing to the sandwich. “It’s tuna.”
Serena seemed taken aback, and said nothing at first, though her eyes never left the little plastic wrapper.
“I don’t wanna ask to share your lunch,” Serena finally said, “...but I don’t wanna turn you down, either…And besides, you already helped me in Art today.”
The half sandwich was held out to her before she’d even finished talking.
“That was nothing,” Amy said, smiling as sweetly as before. “Here.”
The look on Serena's face was priceless, like she’d never been offered anything without asking before. She was frozen for several moments, wondering whether or not it was polite to accept, and only did so with further prodding from the generous blue-haired girl. She took it and gobbled it down in seconds.
Amy forgot all about the book sitting within arm’s reach and watched the girl eat.
“I forgot my purse this morning,” Serena said with a mouthful. “Left all my food and arcade money at home. Swear I do it every other day sometimes…This is perfection! Not, like, dry at all, but not smothered in mayo, either!”
“Thank you. I almost didn’t have time to make it today. I overslept a little.”
Serena laughed. “Hey, story of my life. I’m late for homeroom every morning. Molly, too. My best friend. We walk to school together. Well, actually, it’s more like sprint.”
As she spoke, Serena eyed the bag of cookies sitting on top of Amy’s flattened lunch bag.
“Did you bake those, too-? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be…uh, coveting your lunch.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” Amy said, nudging the bag toward her, “Nutrition’s important. I bring extra for my walk home. Have a couple.”
Serena didn’t bother hesitating on this offer, and happily snatched two cookies from the bag.
“Mom bakes them, though. Not me.”
Serena relished the first nibble of the most perfect sugar cookie she’d ever tasted, and let the crystals sprinkled across the surface tickle her tongue before chewing and swallowing. Amy seemed to relish her reaction.
Serena gestured to the Harry Potter novel on the table. “So you like those books?”
“Oh! Yeah. They’re amazing. I’ve been reading them for the last couple years.”
“Aren’t they kids’ books?”
Amy’s courage faltered slightly, and she diverted her eyes.
“Well,” she said, “they’re aimed at children. But adults can enjoy them as well. Anyone who’s into fantasy tends to really like them.”
“Oh, so you’re into fantasy? Fairies, vampires, and the like?”
“Yeah,” she said with a tiny laugh, “sort of. Fantasy and ancient civilizations. It’s a fun way to escape reality. Maybe you have to be sort of a geek to appreciate it, I guess.”
Serena gestured wryly to their surroundings with her eyes.
“I guess it’s better than hanging around here.”
“Here you are!” Molly squealed, both girls’ ‘here’ merging together.
Amy recognized the cheerful redhead slumping next to Serena from Ms. Haruna’s Japanese class the week before, and certainly knew her old chessmate as his old man walk carried him to the spot next to her.
“We thought you ditched again,” Molly said, apparently somewhat winded.
“Who, me?” Serena laughed. Without missing a beat, she addressed her new friend and lazily waved her hand in the direction of the other two. “Amy, this is Molly and Melvin. Is it cool if they sit with us?”
“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” Amy said, giving the odd boy next to her a great big hug. “I remember you, Melvin.”
“Amy is a phenomenal chess player,” he said. “She’s the only one I’ve met at this school who can beat me.”
“I’m not that good. I placed eighth in the tournament.”
“Out of thirty-two people.”
Amy’s eyes met with the redhead’s, who, for some reason, was sitting with an idiotic grin plastered across her face, her eyes beaming like headlights.
“I like your hair a lot!” she said. “It’s so cute! Is it naturally black?”
“Yeah,” Amy said, stroking her hair uncomfortably. “Thank you.”
“That blue streak is adorable! How often do you dye it? I tried dying my hair in seventh grade and it didn’t go well at all.”
“Once a month, I think.”
“What’re you studying there?” Serena interrupted, nodding to Amy’s backpack.
Amy glanced at her bag and grew visibly flustered when she saw the black hardcover book poking out of its mouth. She immediately crammed it back in and zipped the bag closed, to the others’ surprise.
“That’s-” she started to say, stopped, almost finished, then changed at the last minute to, “-nothing.”
She knew the others would have been more inclined to believe her if she hadn’t made such a fuss over it, and now she could plainly see the guilt on Serena’s face for asking even though she had no way of knowing how personal the book’s contents might’ve been. Fortunately, a mewing black cat changed the subject as it leapt up onto the table and sniffed Amy’s lunch sack. She picked the cat up and set it gently on the ground again, where it proceeded to rub its head back and forth across her boots.
“You’re not supposed to come up here,” Amy said, petting it. “You’ll get in trouble.”
“Is that your cat?” Molly asked with the quivering eyes of a jealous little girl.
“No. But it keeps following me home.”
“Really?” Serena said curiously. “You, too?”
“Does it follow you home?”
“Yeah. It’s some stray I met one morning. She practically lives outta my house. Same little crescent mark and everything.”
The cat rolled on its back and started batting at Amy’s boot laces.
“That is cool," Amy said, watching it with a smile. "I always wanted a cat.”
“You don’t want this one,” Serena said. “She’s annoying. And she's probably got fleas.”
A sharp hiss jolted everyone in their seats and Serena felt something whisk between her legs, and the cat vanished into the bushes several meters behind her. Molly muttered to herself and held her heart to make sure it was still in its proper place, then began laughing with Melvin.
The cat’s glaring eyes, unseen by everyone except Serena, goaded her to follow.
“I think you offended her,” Melvin said.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go apologize,” Serena said as she walked after it. “With my foot.”
Luna hadn’t moved from her spot in the bushes when Serena caught up with her. She knelt down to rub her angry grimace in the cat's nose.
“What’s the big deal hissing at me like that, Kibbles n’ Bitch?” she hissed not unlike the cat did earlier, then pointed her thumb back at Amy. “And have you really been stalking her?”
“I’ve been observing her,” Luna corrected her. “Mina pinpointed her at the source of a large output of elemental energy.”
Serena turned this thought over in her head for a minute, glancing back at the timid girl in the charcoal coat now laughing with her own friends in her absence. Her smile was broader than ever, and the rest of her seemed more involved in her conversations the more she grew used to their company. The basset hound eyes never changed, though, even at a distance.
“What does that mean? Is she-?” Serena shot back around to face the concerned feline. “Is she a bad guy?”
“It’s possible. Artemis has his own suspicions. She may, in fact, be another reincarnation.”
“Another reincarnation of what?” Serena said, “You mean like…?”
She gestured to herself, resting her hand over the pretty locket representing all her grief.
“I’m still looking into it. I’ll need you to keep in contact with her. It’s nice that the two of you have already hit it off, so you can stay close to her.”
“I’m not comfortable with the idea of you dragging her into this. She seems really sweet. She doesn’t…She doesn’t need this.”
“It can’t be avoided, Serena. If she’s a friend, you will need her. If she’s not, she must be liquidated. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, keep tabs on her when you can.”
Amy was just beginning to wonder what a girl could possibly have to talk about with a cat for so long when the pigtailed girl returned to the table. She was visibly agitated, and whatever the source it was none of her business, so she said nothing and continued to laugh with the others.
“You have plans after school, Amy?” Serena said as she sat again.
“I’m going home to hit the books. I have a test in Economics this week.”
“Yawn! Come to a movie with us! These two haven’t seen the new Sailor V movie yet.”
Amy couldn’t remember the last person she’d befriended with such ease, and the last thing she wanted to do was disappoint. But as a practical child, she couldn’t very well abandon the academic tower she’d been building since grade school.
“I dunno, it’s thirty percent of my grade…”
“Don’t think about it. Do it. Come with us. Molly, you’re game, right?”
“Practice right after school, remember?” Molly sighed.
“Okay, you suck,” Serena dismissed her friend and moved on to the next contestant. “Melvin? C’mon, you dig blondes that fight evil, right?”
“Now that you mention it,” Melvin said in a thoughtful tone that really bothered her. “I would like to learn more about this Sailor Moon. I hear she’s rather attractive.”
“Alright,” Serena said with another throb of the temples, “it’s down to you and me, Amy. You in? C’mon, I’ll introduce you to the hot arcade manager after.”
Molly’s eyes pulsed and she sat upright, giving Amy a serious look fit for a critic discussing her favorite movie. “Oh, he has got buns of steel.”
“I’m not going to make it, anyway,” Melvin said. “I’m going to a play at the college right after school. Have you ever heard of Lament of the Swan?”
Like Hayata to Ultraman, Amy suddenly underwent a dramatic transformation and startled everyone at the table.
“You’re going to see that?” she said, barely able to contain herself. “Oh, this is the last week it’s showing, isn’t it?”
“That is correct,” Melvin said, brandishing three tickets like a con man. “I happen to have extra tickets in case any of my friends wanted to go.”
“I wanna go!” Amy said. “I’ve been dying to see that show for months!”
Serena understood what Melvin meant the previous week when Amy had briefly been the subject of conversation.
“Oh, but the Sailor V movie doesn’t strike your fancy,” Serena said, rolling her eyes.
“Stage productions are great,” Amy said. “You don’t wanna see it?”
“It’s something to do, I guess. What’s it about?”
“It’s a tale from the Dark Ages of jealousy and murder,” Melvin said while twiddling his fingers at Serena in a foreboding manner. Everyone snickered.
“Sounds good to me!” Serena said, leaning over to the tired redhead next to her with narrow eyes. “You’re gonna miss out on murder, Molly.”
“I know,” Molly sighed. “I sure suck.”
*************************
Despite only one third of the group being renowned for a talkative nature, there wasn’t a single awkward silence during the entire walk to the Cherry Hill University auditorium, and for once Serena got from Point A to Point B in her hometown without some misfortune stumbling, teetering, and plopping in her lap. Amy had never enjoyed such camaraderie, and naturally Melvin was just happy to take two lovely young ladies to the theater for any reason.
Misfortune did, indeed, avoid the trio that particular day, because it had business elsewhere under the unwitting noses of the public. At that very moment, Sunny Valley hospital lost another of its patients, a man by the name of Cunningham brought in two days earlier after a severe traffic accident. He was expected to recover until his condition suddenly worsened, and he seemed to simply give up and release his grip on the realm of the living. He was the twentieth of such instances in the last month.
“What’s the time?” the doctor asked his chief nurse, a rather striking woman with an unusually cold set of eyes.
“Twelve-Oh-One,” she said.
“If you’d be so kind as to deliver the sad news to Mr. Cunningham’s wife when she gets here?”
“Of course, Doctor.”
Once the poor, wretched man was covered up, the doctor and his assistant hurried away to tend to three more cases of a similar nature. The chief nurse took the liberty of tidying up the room, straightening the bedsheets, unhooking the deceased from the EKG machine and his morphine bag, even changing the flowers next to his bed and removing the shimmering black crystal from which they were sprouting.
Another M.D. and a team of paramedics were wheeling a young woman into the emergency ward who looked less than ninety pounds and yet had no history of anorexia or drug use that any of her loved ones were aware of. The only possessions found in her purse were a tube of lipstick, a green compact, her wallet, and a very unique bottle of perfume; unique in that the glass of the bottle, or perhaps the perfume itself, was made to appear as though it had an unearthly glow to it. In the hospital lobby, the televisions introduced the facility’s latest patrons like a grim game show host.
“…a total of fifteen women dead in the last month, apparently from exhaustion. The cause of death, like in all the other cases, is unknown. Sherry’s family says she was physically active and known to be very healthy. Police are confident that this may be the result of a new narcotics ring, but have yet to find any solid leads or cooperative witnesses…”
**************************
The play was indeed full of murder and betrayal, and was every bit as wonderful as Amy had hoped, and much more fun than Serena had anticipated. The play was nearing its climax, half of the leads were dead, and a dashing young prince strode back and forth across the stage in something of an interpretive dance personifying his inner struggles, on a set depicting a crypt devoid of cobwebs but nonetheless dismal and uninviting. The prince collapsed against one stone coffin with a melodramatic sigh (squeezing a similar one from the pigtailed blonde watching him in the audience) as his equally manly militia captain entered from stage left.
“M’lord?” the captain said. “I’ve been searching for you.”
“What is it, Captain? Is it urgent?”
“Nay, but it is good news. A messenger arrived last night to announce that your brother, Cedric, is getting married this fall.”
The prince chuckled. “Married. ‘Tis nice to hear pleasant news for once. When thou hast the time, send another message back to his castle. Tell him his big brother said, ‘Wait not ‘til fall. Marry right away, and do nary let thine eyes go astray.’”
“He’s hot,” Serena whispered, never taking her eyes off the stage, and shushing someone back who shushed her for her critique.
“Whatever you say,” Amy whispered back.
The show progressed through another series of scandals (which Serena hardly paid attention to, preferring to focus mainly on the pretty dresses of the Romantic era and the seemingly bottomless bag of handsome actors the school had donated to the show) to an assassination plot orchestrated by the savage villainess and executed by her manservants, who posed as weary travelers on the main road to the plywood keep of the show’s deceased heroine. The intended victim, the prince’s female general and a feminist’s dream come true, rode onstage gallantly upon a live white horse; the live horses always caused a bit of murmur among the audience about how difficult it must have been to train animals as stage actors.
“Milady! Milady! Please help us!” one phony peasant called out to her, gesturing madly to a fallen comrade who lay sprawled on the stage floor in a somewhat silly and over-dramatic position.
The general’s voice was husky and loud, like that of a young boy’s rather than a woman’s, and it always jolted Serena in her chair.
“Good sir, what has happened?” she said.
“My friend has fallen from his steed! He has been unconscious for nearly a day now, and no one has been by to help! Please, I fear his death is nigh!”
Some of the audience members restrained themselves from shouting out warnings to the production’s reluctant hero. Ignoring the pleading eyes of her observers, the general dismounted and knelt by the comically fallen man. Her bronze hair flailed about her face as she walked and it nagged Serena terribly for reasons she couldn’t place.
“Let me help him!” the general said, not noticing the other men drawing their blades. “I have helped many wounded soldiers. I can heal him well enough to get him to the church in the Emerald Kingdom. The clerics will take care of him there.”
Before she’d finished, the man lying before her leapt to his feet and drew his own weapon, sneering, “You shall need it more than I, General!”
And thus the third of the show’s five battles commenced, drawing a bigger reaction from the crowd as the murderers were slain by the general’s near superhuman combat finesse. The show had wowed its audience with the live horses, enjoyable dancing, and more than a couple choice performances, but the most breathtaking feature thus far was the general’s scuffles. The actress chosen for the role was such an accomplished athlete that Serena swore she had been transported through a time warp and was watching an actual fight to the death at that very moment. This thought stacked on top of the general’s husky voice and the dancing locks of bronze, and all three together toppled over in Serena’s memory. She knew why the actress had stuck out in her mind since scene one.
She was none other than the thief-catcher from the week before.
Serena nearly exclaimed this to everyone around her when Amy covered her mouth and reminded her that they could be kicked out if she didn’t settle down. Serena quietly relayed the incident with the young knife-wielding thief, and how the general onstage at that moment had come to her rescue.
“Who is she?” Amy said, astonished.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get her name.”
“It might say in the program.”
The three of them fumbled with the program in the dark as the prince had another exchange with one of the other leads. Next to General Clorinda Ross was the name Lita Kaehler. Unlike the other cast members, however, there was no bio to match the name.
“I was sure I knew her from somewhere,” Melvin said. “I’ve seen her on the ice rink. She’s very professional.”
After the play’s tearful climax had passed, and curtain call had ended, the lights came up and everyone began to disperse. Only the three high school students in the middle of the auditorium remained, wiping tears from their faces as soft Celtic music reverberated throughout the room.
“You liked it, too, huh?” a red-faced Amy laughed when she heard Serena loudly blow her nose.
“It was really sad,” she said. “Why’d the general’s cute little daughter have to die?”
“To make you cry,” Amy said.
“Why don’t you go backstage and talk to Lita?” Melvin said with a nudge.
Serena looked at him as though he were joking. “I can do that?”
“Tell them the mugger story,” he said.
Still unsure of whether or not she would be arrested or something, Serena snuck backstage and stumbled about the labyrinthine theater building hallways until she smacked nose-first into the dapper young man who was a prince three minutes ago. She couldn’t think of anything to say at first to his handsome smile, simply standing in place until the moment had become as awkward as possible.
“You’re awesome,” she finally said.
Even his laugh was handsome.
“Why, thank you! Can I help you?”
“Um, yes,” Serena stammered. “I was hoping to meet Lita…um, Lita Kaehler.”
“Oh, sorry,” the prince said, “She got dressed out and took off already. Not sure if she’ll even be at the cast party. She tends to just do her thing and disappear. Does lots of little jobs like this around town all the time, I think. I was in a show with her last year.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Are you a friend of hers?”
“No, no, we just bumped into each other last week and I never got her name.”
“She save you from a mugger?”
Her eyes doubled in size. “How’d you know?”
“She does that a lot, too, from what I hear. She’s one o’ the coolest people I ever met. Anyway, sorry I couldn’t help.”
Serena felt dejected. Apparently her guardian angel from the previous week was on loan from some guardian angel temp agency and ceased to exist as far as she was concerned, and now she had to mindlessly wander back through the drama building’s confusing hallways empty-handed. Fortunately, the second time through was easier than the first, and she met the others back in the parking lot only fifteen minutes later.
“Didn’t find her?” Amy said as the trio headed back across town.
“No,” Serena sighed. “She already left. But I met the prince guy.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. I was like, ‘You’re really cute.’ And he was like, ‘Why, thank you, Miss. So are you. And so’s that hot little friend of yours with the blue hair. What’s her number?’”
“Shut up! He didn’t say that!”
“You’re right. But he was hurt that you didn’t come back with me.”
“Enough of your lies.”
“He wanted to give us a backstage pass, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t, actually.”
The trip to Amy’s house was equally uneventful, save the quick stop for ice cream. The jovial air of the city left with the birds, leaving nothing else for the day to bring except studying and sleep. Serena would have probably preferred doing so in the Anderson household once she saw it for the first time; it was easily twice the size of her own house, and the front yard was decorated with grapefruit trees proudly displaying citrus as large as basketballs.
“It’s alright,” Amy said to any astonished remarks about the house. Then she put on her kindest smile at the mailbox and faced her comrades for farewell. “Thanks for taking me to a play. I really liked it.”
Melvin and Serena agreed, again noting the horses and the parts that made them cry the most.
Serena almost turned and bid Amy goodbye then, but she stopped, glanced down at her feet and kicked a pebble into the hedge surrounding the “alright” homestead. Amy watched her with a curious smile and started to wonder if she'd been rude to her without realizing.
“Listen,” Serena said. “I, um…I said some mean things about you last week, and-”
“I must not mind it," Amy said, "since we’re friends now.”
Her smile never faded. Serena’s guilty frown couldn’t withstand it and soon she was smiling, too, and bouncing on her toes.
“Yeah,” she said. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Yeah!” Amy said, turning toward the house with a wave. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
The quiet girl vanished into her house and, with one final wave, left the pigtailed girl alone at her front gate with her waddling chess partner.
“She’s a very nice girl,” Melvin said.
Serena said nothing in response. She watched solemnly as a black stray climbed the tree nearest what she could only assume was Amy’s bedroom window on the second floor and leapt inside. She unconsciously caressed her locket again.
“Do you still want to go see the Sailor V movie?” Melvin said, gesturing to his watch.
Serena kicked another pebble, not thrilled with the thought.
“I dunno…” she said, searching for a nice way to avoid the proposition. “I’ll probably just go home. My purse is there, anyway, and as soon as I see my bed I’m gonna wanna pass out.”
She started back toward her side of town, wondering how she might be able to carry a conversation between herself and the school’s biggest geek.
“If you don’t want to be alone with me you can just say so,” Melvin said, pulling a groan from the girl’s chest and sinking her shoulders.
“Melvin, don’t do this again…”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? You’re only okay with my presence when someone else is with us.”
“It’s not that you’re a bad guy, Melvin, you’re just…”
Serena tried to remember what she said the last time she’d had this kind of anti-confrontation with the boy, but nothing came about, and he was clearly waiting to hear the rest of her sentence, only half-expecting it to be as insensitive as it was.
“…I dunno. Awkward.”
He looked at her for precisely ten seconds without ever changing his expression. Not that he ever did. He then turned and walked to his own neighborhood, alone.
“You can be very cruel sometimes, Serena.”
Serena considered calling after him, but then again, if he wanted to wallow in self-pity he could do it himself. She had her own problems to worry about.
**************************
Amy Anderson opened her little black book and skimmed through the pages, each one adorning one or more scribbles, sketches, and doodles: endless patterns or twisting hallways running on for eternity perhaps symbolizing boredom or insanity; drawings of cute, unidentifiable creatures, many of them going about the usual business of wild animals, but with missing limbs or other body parts; detailed pieces depicting ambiguous humanoids carving shapes or words into their flesh with knives and nails and other painful objects, one in particular removing its legs at the knee with a wire as if it were a daily routine; murals of such grotesquely dismal nature that any other girl’s mother would surely seek counseling for her child if she ever found it. It was safer than writing a personal journal in that it had the appearance of just another modern artist's sketchbook; no one could possibly know what had bothered her that day but she and she alone.
Today she saw nothing but a blank page. Normally, like Michelangelo, she could look into a blank slate and see an image within it trying to break out of its formless prison, and she would take her pencil in hand and shave the white away to free it like a bird from its cage. But there was nothing there today. Nothing at all.
And on this realization, she smiled, closing the book and tossing it on her desk next to a stack of four others just like it. She turned her focus to the novel chapter she’d yet to finish, giving her feline companion a scratch or two as it napped on the bed with her.
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
Here is my long-overdue review of this chapter of the Silver Millenium Soldier series! This chapter is as good as the last several have been, and it has all the hallmarks of them as well. Your unique take on the beloved Senshi characters is one of the best parts of this series, and the standout in this chapter is Amy. At first I thought her Goth characterization would not work, but it meshes surprisingly well with her standard "well-mannered and soft-spoken genius" personality and makes for a character development that should be quite interesting. Your sense of humor remains as great as ever, especially Serena's name for Luna and when she asked if Luna was stalking Amy. Another funny aspect is Melvin's effort to hang out with Serena that (typically) falls on its face.
As usual, you have a solid grasp of mechanics and word choice. How you keep crafting such superb tales with no decline in quality is beyond me, but you clearly have skill with fanfics. Since I am now back in college, I will not have nearly as much free time as I used to, but I will review your works whenever I can. Keep up the good work!
Welcome !
