--AUTHOR’S NOTES--


Hello all. And welcome to the never-ending Author’s Notes...

NO, no I’m kidding...no please don’t run away...*sigh* It’s just a
few little warnings...

OK, good. First of all, this is ALTERNATE REALITY/ALTERNATE
UNIVERSE, whatever you want to call it. No, not AR/AU like the
senshi live in 17th century England and have to catch the generals
as husbands, more like "wow, she thought about trying to follow
the real timeline and failed miserably." So, second warning:
here be much violence and some cursing. And most importantly
LOTS OF ANGST. *Havoc smiles gleefully* Mmmm. Good angst.

Anyway. There you have the major warnings. The minor
warnings...First, I’ve committed the grievous sin of mixing sub
and dub names...but for a reason! That reason? I really like
Serena and Darien a great deal more than Usagi and Mamo-
chan. Actually there’s more to it, but only some of it is explained
here. Which means, yes, there will be a sequel, if only to make
the voices in my head be quiet (that being the primary reason I
wrote this in the first place). But back to the warnings.

Still on the topic of names, the etymologies in the first chapter
are somewhat sketchy. If you’re really that interested in Gaelic
translations of names, email me. Also, I started off using some
Japanese name endings (badly), but I didn’t continue with it. It
actually does form a pattern, which I will continue in the
aforethreatened sequel.

For whatever reason (OK, I lied. For no reason at all...), I plunge
into two different foreign languages in the story, neither of which,
ironically, is Japanese. Go figure. Anyway, the translations for the
French and Gaelic comments will directly follow the paragraph with the
foreign language and will be enclosed in brackets. Comme ça.
[Like this.]

Below you will find a pronunciation guide for the Gaelic. Trust
me, none of it sounds like it looks. A year of Modern Irish taught
me that. *cringe*

This fanfic also has a soundtrack. Song lyrics appear in three
places, they are, in order: "Cannonball" by Clandestine,
"Dunlavy’s Castle" by Clandestine, and "Nightingale’s Lullaby"
by Julie Last. The rest of the songs played in the café are as
follows: "The Haughs of Cromdale" and "Take Her In Your
Arms" by Andy M. Stewart, "Peggy" by Clandestine, "Alasdair
Mhic Cholla Ghasda" by Capercaillie, followed by just about
anything by Loreena McKennitt. Listen to the music. Good
stuff. You can find it online (try LimeWire, the descendent of the
evil, sell-out Napster), or you can email me and I’ll get it to you
(somehow).

Let’s see...Oh yes. The idea of the Silver Crystal being
somewhat sentient is mainly taken from Dave Eddings’
BELGARIAD/MALLOREAN series. More good stuff. And my
basis for the various "mental talents" is a mixture of Anne
McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey. Yet more good stuff. The
cappuccino concoction in Chapter 3 is suicidally good stuff (Yes,
that IS the Voice of Bitter Experience speaking). None of the
aforementioned "good stuff" belongs to me, of course--except
the caffeine, for caffeine is universal. *begins to chant to her
shrine to all things caffeinated*

Neither, for that matter, do these characters. I’m simply
borrowing them to inflict a little torture, and I promise to put them
right back, with minimal mental trauma, when I’m done. Of
course, I’m making no money off of this venture, and if anyone
wants to sue, well...I can’t even offer my soul, seeing as how it’s
been sucked out of my body by my university. *grumbles in
general direction of administration*

Formatting notes: [translation]; //thoughts//;
~~flashback/remembering~~; *emphasis (or a note which appears at the
next paragraph break)*

One last note: PSYCHOMACHEA is a Greek word made up of
the words for "battle" and "soul" and can mean "battle for a
soul," "battle of a soul," or "battle in a soul." It is the title of an
epic Medieval poem by Prudentius (pay attention, there’s a quiz
on this later) about the battle between the seven deadly sins and
the seven virtues. Don’t read it. It’ll rot your brain. Of course,
so will this fanfic. Enjoy!


YE OLDE PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

I’m assuming people have a general grasp of how French
sounds. Gaelic, however, is not nearly as widely heard. I’ve
tried to give you a little feel for the language. If you’re interested
in it beyond my pitiful attempt, email me and I’ll direct you to a
few really good sites...

Sorcha naGealaí: SOOR-i-ha na-GYAL-ee; where the "h" is
kind of guttural (but not excessively so) and the "i" is almost
skipped over entirely

Banphrionsa: BAN-frin-sa; with all vowels short

Trathnóna Mhaith, a chairde: truh NONA WHY, uh HARje;
where the first O is long (as in bone)

Deartháireacha: JAIR-i-HAIR-ocka, or something like
that...phonetic spelling really sucks with Gaelic

A stóirín: uh store EEN

Go raibh (míle) maith agat, a Shorcha: gor uh (MEEL uh) MY uh
git, uh Hoor i ha (Damn confusing Irish grammar...how drunk
were they when they made this up???)

Is ea: SHAH; no, it makes no sense to me either.

Maidin Mhaith: MAH jin WHY