the bathroom window

The last few episodes of the first arc were just as powerful as I remembered. I got a little choked up at the end in fact.

Pete admitted that he started watching just to appease me but ended up really enjoying it. It's an old anime but it's stood the test of time. The characters are likable, the plot is interesting, and I don't care what the naysayers might claim, those battles are cool. And there's something really pleasing about the astronomy/mythology match-up, there's something I just really like about each senshi being aligned with a planet and her powers reflecting that.

Usagi's an example of a character who gets the clumsy-cute girl thing down. She's no Mary Sue with ridiculous and arbitrary faults that aren't really faults at all - She'd a flawed hero and her immaturity and generally inabilities affect not only her, but also the success of the team. And watching the episodes in quick succession, instead of once a week, makes the characters' growth more apparent.

Excited for the next arc! I've seen even less of that one since I don't think all the episodes were ever released in the US. Eee!

He hadn't heard her approach, but when Nephrite looked up, there she was, Dark Mercury towering over him. her lips twitch, shifting between a smile of unabashed amusement and a frown of pity.

"Pathetic Nephrite," she taunted, squatting down to look him in the face, "Sitting in the mud, like an animal."

She was beautiful as a Dark Senshi, much more so then she had been as innocent and frail Ami. She moved with confidence and enjoyed her new found abilities. Fighting had become like a game; she played with Nephrite, prodding and poking with her blade, rather than stabbing and thus allowing him the dignity of falling in battle. She had no respect for death, nor of pain, and laughed harder when she bled.

But now the proof of their war was gone. The rips in her uniform had been mended and any mark he had managed to inflict, invisible. Back again to the seductive and cruel vixen, and back to provoke him.

He turned away, biting back a snarl. "Leave me," he commanded, desiring more than anything else that he had managed to best her during their battle. "I'll kill you if you don't."

The threat was an empty one. Mercury clicked her tongue patronizingly, "Come now, that's no way to treat a friend."

"Friend?" He laughed distainfully and shook his head. "Hardly."

"Hm." She leaned forward, placing her weight on her arms as she closed the distance between them. "Well, perhaps we should become friends, then. Get to know each other better, and all that jazz."

She was dangerously close now, her lips hovering just inches from his own. His body lurched into a heated response, his instincts controlling instead of his reason. Nephrite's eyes tore away from her mouth, but not before his tongue licked his lips in anticipation. "But why-"

Mercury kissed him, hard and with lips that scaulded his own. Her eyes fluttered closed and for a minute Nephrite saw her a normal girl experiencing her first kiss. His too, he realized absently, at least, in this life. He kissed her harder and she opened her mouth to allow his tongue entrance.

She pulled back slowly, smiling knowingly. "Are you finding my preposition more attractive now?"

"Prep-?" Mercury placed her hand casually on his thigh and stroked inward, slowly and smoothly. He swallowed and tried again, "Prep-?"

Oh, it was delcious seeing him wingle so, Mercury raised her eyebrow and tilted her head to one side. She'd own him completely; he was easy enought o beat in battle, no match intellectually, and before the day was through he'd be a slave for her pleasure. She allowed her heart to add that maybe, just maybe, she could make him fall in love with her.