Tag: inners

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

It would have been better if I’d written this yesterday, but eh. Here’s something inspired by Rei’s birthday, 800-ish words, and a different angle than I usually write from.

The cake had come out pretty good this year, Usagi had to
admit. She was no Mako, but the recipe was Mako’s and Usagi was getting much
better at following the finer details. Sure, the top was a little uneven, and
the sides had stuck to the pan, but the color was good and the taste was
better, and compared to last year, Rei would have to say Usagi had done good.
Or she would think it, maybe, and say something else. “Stupid Usagi, why don’t
you just buy a cake from the supermarket?”

Usagi scowled at the Rei in her mind as she got out the
frosting. “I can’t put love in a cake I don’t make, Rei-chan.” And they didn’t
make it right, anyway. Not for Rei. She liked simple spice cake with the
tiniest bit of frosting. Frosting was at least half the fun of a cake, but if
Rei wanted only a quarter of the fun, Usagi would let her on her birthday. On
Rei’s special day, Rei got what she wanted! Mostly, at least. Usagi still stuck
a big candle in the center of the cake. “I’m too old for candles!” Usagi could
hear her huff. “Besides, it gets wax all over the cake.”

They would bicker, and Usagi suspected that is what made Rei
happiest. Sometimes, she had to give her fuel for it. She had to let Rei yell
and stomp so that at the end of the day, they could have whatever moment of
tenderness that made its way through Rei’s façade. It made Usagi laugh at how
easy it could be. For all Rei’s bluster, for all she pushed and pulled and put
up walls, her warm little heart was as easy to unlock as Usagi’s cell phone.
Easier, even, because Ami had said Usagi should change every code and password
every few months, so Usagi put in the wrong numbers half the time.

The cake looked as good as it ever would, and so Usagi
slipped on her shoes and headed out.

The weather was better than it often was on Rei’s birthday.
Cloudy, but dry. It seemed to rain so often on her birthday, and Rei didn’t
much like the rain. Mina claimed it dampened her fuse and made her sputter. Rei
had still managed to explode then, but Usagi had seen some truth in it. Dry
days were better for Rei. Dry days were better for Usagi, too, and bright days
were best. A few clouds couldn’t get her down, though, not on Rei’s birthday.

As she got close, she saw Rei’s grandfather with his
caretaker. Usagi smiled to see him out.
He didn’t make it sometimes, as old as he was. “Hello, grandpa!” She
called.

“Oh, Usagi!” He beamed up at her. “Coming to spoil Rei?”

“I am!” She held out her cake for him to see. “I did a lot
better this year.”

“You do good every year.” He patted her arm. “Someday you’re
going to get married up, and Rei will miss your treats.”

“I don’t think so, Grandpa.”

“Oh, a pretty girl like you? If I were just a little younger,
I’d marry you myself.” He laughed, and Usagi laughed with him.

“I’ll always be here for Rei, even if I get married.”

He smiled more somberly now. “You’re a good girl,
Usagi-chan.”

“Try telling Rei that.”

“She knows.” He gave her one more arm pat, and then let his
caretaker lead him away. Usagi smiled after him for a long moment before
turning to head in.

“Sorry I’m late, everyone. You know your Usagi, never on time.”

She sat down and displayed her cake.

“It’s better this year, isn’t it? Soon, mine will be as good
as Mako’s!”

It wouldn’t, not ever, but Usagi would try. She lit the
candle. Really, even if Rei was worried about the wax, she had to appreciate
the flame harkening another year. It was probably symbolic. It flickered in the
wind in its own little birthday dance.

Usagi sat and watched the wax drip. It ran down in a little
red line, pooling on top of her carefully applied frosting. Rei would be
furious. Mako would be offended too, ruining her wonderful cake. Mina would
probably eat it, just to annoy the both of them, and—

Usagi shook her head. “We’re still together, aren’t we? Just
because I can’t hear your laughter, doesn’t mean you’re not here.” She breathed
in the calm, the way she’d been taught. “I’m happy I get to be with you on days
like this.”

The candlelight glinted on Rei’s picture frame. It gave her
eyes the illusion of life, and that made Usagi smile. She reached out to it,
and for a moment she could almost feel the warmth of Rei’s hand in hers. It was
enough. It was why she came.

The candle was burnt low now, the wax over taking the
frosting completely. Usagi blew it out and watched the smoke waft over the
grave.

“Happy birthday, Rei-chan.”

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment

Unpopular opinion:

When doing The Good Place AUs, it’s easy to see the similarities between Michiru and Tahini and go with it, but Rei actually slots into the “working to be good to beat everyone else” even better, and from there it opens up a nice inners-only situation, as Mina and Ami are obvious choices for Eleanor and Chidi, respectively

Mako as Jason is less direct, but god just imagine her trying to keep silent while the lie eats away at her and Rei is trying to strong arm her into talking, and then when she joins up with Mina she’s just like CAN I BAKE SOMETHING PLEASE, and Mina writes her off as simple

And for bonus points, Michael is Queen Serenity

AU where Beryl is the only threat ever. NO one but Usagi and the Inners are ever awakened.

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment
  • There is no Crystal Tokyo
  • CT is built on the back of tragedy and danger, in peace it can never come to be
  • Chibiusa is born in the 21st century, an ordinary child, a happy child with parents who treat her as their whole world
  • The Inners live relatively happy lives in simple peace, thought they’re never truly free. The threat that something else could come never goes away.
  • Haruka moves through life like a tornado, unable to calm the wind inside her. She can never shake the feeling she’s forgotten something, there’s a nagging at the back of her mind to do something, to be ready, to never sleep lest the moment comes
  • Michiru has always been a raging sea beneath a placid surface, she cannot distinguish the inexplicable emptiness inside her from the emptiness her poised life brings
  • She has dreams sometimes– she does not know enough to call them visions– of a past life spent fighting, and of fights that could come but never do
  • (Not awakening is different than not reincarnating, and having a part of you forever asleep is a cruel fate)
  • They never find each other, the poised socialite and the mechanic that blows through jobs and barely gets by. They went to the same school, once upon a time, but Michiru could never approach someone like Haruka.
  • Years before Beryl even came on the scene, a little girl died in a fire. No entities came to offer her father a deal for her life.
  • Pluto sits at her door. No sad child comes to befriend her. She has to believe it’s better this way. She’s found a peaceful timeline. It’s the best option. It has to be.

second-cause-genuinely-never-thought-about-it AU: Haruka or Michiru, but not both, are attacked by a Dark Kingdom-era monster and accidentally have her powers awakened early. With no Pluto around to clarify the actual mission and only everyone’s vague memories, she becomes a member of team. (When she comes in and what Inners are already active is your call)

~ sittingoverheredreaming ~ Leave a comment
  • It would be Haruka, because Haruka’s already aching to be something, she’s ready to be a hero and a part of a good thing
  • She comes in around the same time as Mako, as things are starting to get a little more serious
  • She gets on great with Usagi and Mako and has tension with Rei and Ami, but they make it work
  • The fact that Haruka and Mako fill the same sort of charge-in-and-fight role is not lost on Rei and Ami, but they don’t know enough about the Silver Millenium to be sure it’s strange
  • Minako does, when she joins up, expecting four girls and getting five
  • Her memories of the Outers come easier this time, because she is alarmed and if this is a threat to her princess, she needs to know
  • She lets Haruka stay and says nothing, but she keeps an eye on her
  • It doesn’t affect the story terribly much until the Talisman arc comes around, because by then Haruka is fairly happy and well-adjusted and part of a seemingly unbreakable team
  • Michiru still sees her in her dreams, but she’s untouchable. They’re supposed to have this mission together, but Haruka has no reason to join her
  • She fights alone, pushing away the inners as much as she can. She resents them, they have what shes supposed to have.
  • THIS ALSO MEANS AS THE DEATH BUSTERS GO THROUGH TARGETING THE INNERS, THEY ACTUALLY FIND A TALISMAN
  • Haruka has a team of friends ready to protect her, but it’s Michiru who saves her– she puts it together, knowing they were supposed to be partners, and distracts Eudial by shooting out her own Talisman
  • The problem is, as the smoke clears and they know what their mission is, is now Michiru has a Haruka who’s spent a year or so on the Usagi-can-do-anything team, and that Haruka isn’t game for killing a little girl
  • Michiru is left to make the hard choices alone (perhaps with Pluto, but Pluto has a strange relationship to the concept of choice)
  • The split between the inners and outers becomes even wider than in canon, Michiru and Pluto split off entirely, only coming back when the threat of Galaxia makes their help more important than what they tried to do