Terra in Tokyo

[Cheb]

There is a slight possibility that it protects them from environmental effects, such as when they were at the North Pole during a blizzard and Usagi was the only one shivering.

The anime, despite all their difference, is based on the manga. In the manga the Senshi were powerful beings, able to fly through the space. And the vacuum is *very* cold.
So it could have passed into the anime.

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Add here the calculations we performed to know how much strength you need to jump 5 meters up (as Senshi do). Both methods give estimation for the strength increase approx. 10x

A bonus which at least Minako has naturally. 'Cause she's an ex-title character. ^_^

She landed one blow, making his lip bleed. Then he took her seriously, and her luck ended.

And Sailor Jupiter also got whooped by Prince Endymion later on. Another argument for transformations actually making characters weaker.
Also, at the beginning of the R series, in that one episode where the rest of the team got reawakened, they were doing pretty well not even having memories of the previous season.

No shcoolgirls are *that* tough.

This one is. ^_^
While Sailor Moon can stand up in 16x gravity, that's not an always-on effect. She was straining pretty hard and pumping out a greater-than-normal amount of power from her crystal and rod and stuff. She was pretty drained afterwards, such that they were worried about being able to teleport out afterwards without her help, so I wouldn't count extreme effects like that as what their transformations typically do. If it were a passive effect, she wouldn't be straining nearly as much here.
I'd say... there's probably not much of a straight physical bonus for transforming, if in fact one exists. Where the benefit lies is in their ability to tap into planetary powers, allowing them to fire off elemental blasts and tap into additional enhancement power when needed. The transformations themselves... well, they may as well go shopping at the mall for all it helps them in terms of passive effects.

Beat Arby with a can of antifungal agent

We tried, but he's really squirmy, so we haven't managed to land a blow on 'em. Arby's kind of tough to beat in straight battles.

The anime, despite all their difference, is based on the manga. In the manga the Senshi were powerful beings, able to fly through the space. And the vacuum is *very* cold. So it could have passed into the anime.

Yeah, they seemed to be a few notches more powerful in the manga than the anime. They were able to toast the generals without too much trouble in the manga, for one.

[lwf58]

Chapter 8 is up at http://boliver.florestica.com/tint/index.htm

[Cheb]

Wow.
I am strting to wonder: What the hell is an Arby Fish then...? Smells like a complex background.
I'll be waiting for next chapters.

"Did you remember to use the right honorifics?" Ami inquired.

A side note: we here, in Russian, do have a set of speech forms - probably not as impressive as in Japanese, but still there are 2: familiar " (-chan, -kun, <none>)" and respectful (-san, -sensei, etc). Using the proper honorifics (once memorized) would be as natural as breathing for any Russian (or German).
And exactly as in German, the familiar form is "You"-singular, while the respectful form is "You"-plural (like adressing multiple people).
I wonder: how many languages do have such mechanisms...?

[lwf58]

Yes, there is a very detailed and well-developed background for ArbyFish.
ArbyFish were based on a stuffed toy that Ben and his brother Danny got when they were young. An image is available at http://boliver.florestica.com/art/arbyfish/index.htm
The ideas behind the ArbyFish were created by Danny, and a monograph can be found at http://boliver.florestica.com/oneshot/aao/index.htm
Ben has been writing for over 10 years, IIRC, and his version of the 'Fish have been developed all that time. His Arby was created in a lab experiment on Mercury during the Silver Millennium, and was the only ArbyFish around for a very long time.
In the sprite web comic, other 'Fish show up, but they are time-traveling into the past to do so.
There is an ArbyFish story dealing with Bruce's origins (for the main NETTG timeline) at http://boliver.florestica.com/oneshot/pdaao/index.htm
Arby is known to the 'Fish of the future as the First One. After the SM, he released spores (like the fungus he is associated with), and the spores landed in various environments. Which environment they landed in determined what kind of 'Fish they became when they grew. There are thirteen known species of ArbyFish, and two unconfirmed species.
Something to note is that the majority of 'Fish think and speak in ways that are easier for humans to comprehend. The Green 'Fish are the ones that are, perhaps, the most alien as far as logic goes. The least comprehensible to speak with are the Gray 'Fish, who talk and write their words in alphabetical order. Arby, the First One, is the most alien of all. However, his logic makes perfect sense to other 'Fish.

[lwf58]

Josh has been reading ahead in the raw chapters and commenting privately, so as not to give away spoilers. I just asked him if we could post those here so that you all can see his impressions. They'll be posted as the chapters come out.
**********
Chapter 6:

Josh: Well I just read ch6. Expected something like that with the time loop. Standard SM fair. Nothing new to say. Has the expected timing issues. The Spirit of Terra coming out was neat, but... Well the whole chapter was going to be contrived. Still painful.

Chapter 7:

Josh: This has better pacing and the humor's crisper. Terra's introspection is better here. One cares about her more. You have that much at least.

Ben: Her personality does develop as the story goes on, yeah.

Josh: However the rest of the cast are still complete cutouts.

Ben: Yeah, one of the unfortunate side-effects of doing a story focusing on Terra in a compressed form has been that any other characters don't get the treatment they deserve. I can't do a Minako-only episode, for example. Or perhaps I can... Well, fleshing out takes time and size. I'd do that in NETTG Classic without hesitation; have a bunch of scenes describing characters' feelings and interaction. I simply didn't include it in this format.

Josh: You can try for a balance. To commit the horrible faux-pas of mentioning my own work, "The Return" has a second tier cast of probably 30 people, and balancing them in relation to the central tier of a dozen... not to mention keeping the main cast in perspective. It's hard, but I think it's worth it. The problem with concentrating on just Terra is that anyone else she repeatedly comes into contact with isn't fleshed out. An improvement, but still not much happens.

Ben: Took a couple years to finish the story, so I suppose I adapted to the format gradually. May need to do more heavy work on the first few chapters then.

Josh: You might want to invest in condensing this fic. Making it like 14 chapters or something.

Ben: Hmm... Could work. My guidelines for chapters were ~30k in size, and if I went above that I was probably doing something wrong, so went my internal suggestions. I planned for 25 chapters and still ended up with 27.

Josh: Well... look at what happens in each chapter. Is that the level of plot you feel comfortable with? I also hope you don't mind this digest form. Me sending a few paras for each chapter.

Ben: No, that's good. Very good, actually. When I finally emailed chapter 27 to Larry, Esa, Chesu, and Jason Hanks, the first email I got back was from Larry chewing me out about how much he didn't like the story. ^^
Larry: Hey, I didn't chew you out. I said that there were things I absolutely hated, but I pointed them out and told you exactly why I didn't like them.

Josh: As opposed to my chewing you out?

Ben: The first email I got from Esa about it was basically, ">_<;; Epilogue please," because the story's ending does leave a fair bit open. But Esa did comment about the story as a whole that, "It's good... very good." I do agree that the story isn't really what my style has been thus far, though.

Josh: Hrm. It glimmers through. It's just not as sharp as your style was before. You are finding your voice again. So far the chapters seem a bit better.

Chapter 8:

Josh: Ah, here we go. Villians being right and proper. Brainwashing and killing. Hmm... I assume sailor V is different from Sailor Venus this time around. And Bruce. And Terra's using the "royal we" in her internal thoughts Stargate reference, heh. So far this is the best chapter yet. It doesn't have the odd pacing issues that the previous ones had. Of course there was no lagging introductions, no rushed introductions, no major battles that were IMO botched, just a simple "episode" that advanced the plot nicely.

[Cheb]

ArbyFish were based on a...

Thanks for the link

Ben: Took a couple years to finish the story,

Oh. I see, then. I also have a bad habit of very slow writing -- I have one story I started in 1993, but it isn't finished yet.
It's always so when you approach the finale you discover that your first chapters are out of style, and you need to rewrite them... Remeat multiple times [sigh]

[lwf58]

Ben is a much more serious writer than I am, but none of his other stories are finished. The whole point behind TinT was to have one multi-chapter story with an end. Now we're going back to try and make it as good as possible. The early chapters posted will eventually be revised too.

[lwf58]

Chapter 9 is up. This one had a new ending added from the draft version.
Here's what Josh had to say about the first draft:

Alrighty, ch9
Well, Beryl seems smarter. Guess Bruce scared her into semi-competent action. Good that your referencing the adopted daughter. And in a not bad way
And now onto the silver crystal hunt.
And Terra finds a game that somehow... fits. Whole genocide thing :p
Now what were the initials she put in? TF?
Usagi might be a bit too dumb, unless she can't do basic addition.
And the generals stumble right onto the senshi... Well, having the grandfather be a great youma and the granddaughter be a senshi... All proper and canon.
This is the best chapter so far. You're in the groove, your writing is crisper and your pace is on. The squirrel chasing scene does go on for too long and wrecks some of the buildup, but that's not too bad.

[Cheb]

I wanted to write some heartfelt comment on this chapter overall, but my brain just doesn't feel good People, d not overexert yourselves, it's bad for your mental processing capabilities!
Why the hell Arby makes her run through the city naked..? It that a way to lift her spirit, or what?
Beryl is smart... I still think she is the most intelligent and competent beng in the entire 1st TV season. She made only one mistake, underesimating Endymion's love for Serenity - but who wouldn't? Her point of view here was skeved, because she loved Endymion. And it wasn't her fault that Usagi had more raw power than her and Metalia combined.

"That game was too easy," commented Terra at how quickly she'd gone through it.

AFAIR from the original NTTTG (I read very little and my hemory is hazy), Terra was some world-destroying monster, adopde by Serenity, right?

Usagi might be a bit too dumb, unless she can't do basic addition.

Well, she *doesn't* know any kanji. Not even one. Not even when she grew into Neo Queen Sereniti (see the letter below - it's written in pure kana).

"Not paying attention?" asked Rei. "Why not?"
Ami leafed through Usagi's textbook and pulled out a comic book.

You see...? You see? She isn't stupid!
...Just lazy as hell [feels a kindred spirit]

[lwf58]

Why the hell Arby makes her run through the city naked..? It that a way to lift her spirit, or what?

I have no idea... other than this is a comedy, and it's funny. We'll have to see what Ben says about it.

"That game was too easy," commented Terra at how quickly she'd gone through it.

AFAIR from the original NTTTG (I read very little and my hemory is hazy), Terra was some world-destroying monster, adopted by Serenity, right?

That's right. She was the Galactic Destroyer, a being that came into existence a very, very long time ago and which wandered around doing what she knew how to do-- blowing things up. See http://nettg.com/comics/index.php?page=2
After running into Queen Serenity and finding out that the energy of the silver crystal was the only thing in the universe that could harm her, the GD inadvertently mind-melded with Serenity and found out that there was a deep-rooted aversion to directly harming children in Serenity's psyche. So with the last of her available energy, the GD took on the form of a young girl, and got stuck that way because recovering from the battle took much, much longer than she thought it would. Serenity adopted the girl, knowing what she was risking. The rest is in the story.

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Why the hell Arby makes her run through the city naked..? It that a way to lift her spirit, or what?
...
I have no idea... other than this is a comedy, and it's funny. We'll have to see what Ben says about it.

Hmm... Let's ask Arby!
Ben: Arby, why did you make her run naked through the streets being pursued by a million crazed squirrels? Was it part of her training? Did it help develop her character? Is this for some grand unknown purpose in the future?
Arby(^_^): No, no, no, that was just for fun!
And, yeah, Terra's really this big dangerous monster-thing.