Thread by @LuciaLobosvilla

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed and in physical pain today so I’m just gonna lay down for a while and tell you about the time I was tasked with coming up with a #SailorMoon AU pitch that made the characters closer to their Greek & Roman mythology counterparts.

Gather ‘round.

The character I started with was actually Sailor Jupiter counterpart Zeus.

Now OG Jupiter is fantastic and changing her to be more like mythology’s biggest asshole womanizer was a real challenge. But hey, I hit the ground running.

AU Jupiter was the middle child of three. She

had a younger sister (Neptune. We’ll her back to her) and an older brother (Pluto. More on that later).

Her civvie name was Zoey and when she was young, she found a hidden base underground. The base had called to her and though it had laid dormant for centuries, it came to

life. Zoey received the powers of Jupiter and was told that there were dark powers awakening. That they would need the Warriors of Olympus, the Sailors from the Stars, to save them.

As Jupiter, she was the leader of the Outer Stars. She was given a bolt staff which activated at

her touch.

Exploring deeper, she found a trident and a pair of fans. One for Neptune. One for Ouranos/Uranus.

She was to find the other outer warriors before the influence of darkness overtook them and turned them to their side. Time was of the essence.

And beside a crumbling

throne, she found a stasis pod. Contained within was a young man. With her powers, she released him.

He had no memories. He knew only two things: that he was to serve Jupiter, and that he had forgotten something very important. But he could not recall what...

Jupiter named him

Athens, and made him her body guard and messenger. Her right hand servant.

He was tasked with finding Sailor Moon: the scion with the ability to activate the other legendary weapons and awaken the powers within the other warriors.

You can imagine this made Jupiter rather cocky

and bossy. She got the place cleaned up and declared herself the queen of the Warriors of Olympus.

She and her sister Neptune (once her trident was awakened) guarded the base from the minions of darkness.

And it was up to poor Athens to scour the world looking for Sailor Moon.

Well, eventually he found the minions of darkness had found Sailor Moon’s locket. Athens mounted a stealth mission to retrieve it, using his bow and arrow to fight off enemies once he was discovered, but there were too many of them.

He fled, pursued by sharp fanged shadows.

He was gravely injured and collapsed in a public park in the middle of the night, being eaten alive by shadows no one else could see, clutching Moon’s locket to his chest.

It was then that a clumsy little insomniac happened to be trespassing by. Mostly she’d gotten lost on her

way to the 24 hour convenience store, wanting some late night snacks.

The hair-bunned and twin-tailed girl (call her Bunny or Usagi or Serena if you prefer) found him collapsed. Unable to see the shadow beasts, she ran to his side to check on him.

And I’m doing so, the locket

activated.

The glow of Sailor Moon’s powers dissolved the hungry shadows, and healed Athens from the brink of death.

And the girl found herself transformed into Sailor Moon.

Athens was initially elated, for he knew that finding Sailor Moon was key to his mission. And once

she found the other inner star warriors, Jupiter would surely reward Athens by retrieving his memories for him. She had promised!

Athens’ joy was short lived as he discovered that this girl was the most incompetent, most useless human being he had ever met. EVER. Bar none!

And what misfortune! Sailor Moon’s locket was now bound to her.

Athens had two choices. Either take the useless girl to Jupiter, confess what a mess he had made of his mission and hope Jupiter could undo the binding without KILLING the girl,

OR

Pull off a desperate scheme.

He could train this useless half-wit to be a warrior and pass her off as Sailor Moon! Just long enough for him to find the other warriors! Then bring them all to Jupiter and call it as good as done!

So being prideful, he opted for the latter option.

It didn’t go well. He tried

every form of martial arts he could teach her. She was dreadful at all of them. He tried to teach her tactics and strategy. She couldn’t grasp it.

Okay maybe she could activate some of her moon powers! He showed her the way he could summon his bow and arrow from the ether.

Try as she might, Moon couldn’t summon anything. Not a damn thing.

It was a disaster.

“You’re kind of a downer, huh?” Moon would laugh. “So what’s your real name? What do you do when you’re not trying to recreate an action movie training montage with me?”

Athens had no such

things. He was empty. Devoid of his full humanity. He would not have them until his mission was complete.

So he stressed to the Moon girl that she stop wasting his time and try to FOCUS!

What had he done in a past life to deserve this? He groaned. The fate of the world...

In HER hands?

Athens tried to stress to Moon that when the other warriors had their powers activated, they may not initially be themselves. That the trauma of their past as warriors, and any current hurts and grievances might rise in their hearts. They could be easily corrupted

by darkness. This was why she had to be prepared to fight them! To defeat them and incapacitate them if need be!

Moon wasn’t so sure about any of that... she just wanted to not flunk out of school if possible!

Such a lazy girl...

Eventually, Moon realized there was something

odd about her UPS delivery girl.

“What, that she practically lives here with how many packages she drops off for you because you can’t stop buying things online even though you’re perpetually broke?” Athens spat bitterly in one breath.

“No. She goes to my school!” Moon said.

And she ran off to greet the girl.

Athens had no time to deal with Moon’s eccentricities, so he sighed and flopped onto the bed, thinking he might take a nap and contemplate whether it would be more honorable to take his own life for his spectacular failure.

But when Moon went

to greet this girl, a strange thing happened. Something activated between them. And the Moon locket, which she had been unable to make use of for weeks, reacted.

It opened and released a blue wand. The delivery girl, upon touching the wand, felt the powers of Mercury consume her

and she was transformed.

Moon had been right. This was Sailor Mercury.

And like her namesake Hermes, young Hermia’s powers were over sound. She played a lyre which attacked with sound waves. Throwing Moon off balance. Cutting into her. Trapping her in a web of sheet music.

Useless as she was, Moon was unable to fight back.

Before Mercury could end her, Athens shot an enchanted arrow to shield Moon and jumped down to face Mercury himself.

It was not a battle he could win, as she was wild and unrestrained in rage. Overcome by her power.

It was then that Moon spoke.

“Hermia... that’s right. I HAVE seen you in class! You’re the smartest girl in school! You get all the top grades! You’re so talkative and witty. You make everyone laugh. But I never see you hang out with anyone.

The only times I see you outside of

class... is when you’re working. Always delivering packages. I’ve thought about it, you know. Someone my age working so hard... I doubt it was your choice. I can’t imagine what your situation must be like if you have to work so hard.

Of course you’re angry at me. All I ever do

play video games and sleep in and slack off. I’m barely passing my classes. And yet here you are, working everyday before and after school. And still you get top grades. Imagine what you could do if you had the privilege to be lazy like me. Imagine the potential... how far

you could go. How much you could achieve!

And you’re stuck. With such a handicap. With so many obstacles. And you’re still better than me.

No wonder you hate me. You have every right to be angry! I understand... I really do... I can’t imagine how hard it is...

But I do see how

amazing you are. To be able to get up everyday, knowing you’re facing impossible, unfair odds, and do it all over again... and win. Everytime.”

And just like that, the anger seemed to melt away, and Hermia gained control of herself. Returned to herself.

She looked up at Moon

with tear filled eyes and released her.

Only to embrace her.

“Thank you... for seeing me...”

Embarrassed and roughed up, Athens stood, dusting himself off. “I can’t believe this. After weeks of training, trying to find your power, it turns out your special ability is... you’re

kinda nice? Ughhh.”

Athens rubbed his temples.

“What’s his problem?” Mercury frowned.

“Oh, that’s Athens. He’s just kinda... like that. I don’t think he knows how to socialize with people.”

“It’s not my job to socialize. I have a specific and crucial mission!”

“Riiiight...”

Hermia smirked. “Is that why you’re dressed like an Assassin’s Creed beta design?”

Athens flushed and stormed off in furious humiliation.

Moon invited Mercury inside to explain the situation.

Hermia and Serena/Bunny grew close. Where S/B lacked common sense, Hermia was street

smart and clever in addition to being academically brilliant. She had the gift of gab and could talk to just about anyone.

And she was super hyped to be a super hero!

So that’s the basis of our story. Gonna take a break. Let me know if you’re wanna know about Mars or Venus next