The Galaxy Cauldron is proud to have a Festibration in this special writing contest!

The theme for this writing contest is "Christmas" You are free to interpret the theme as you like. The rules are as follows: 

Rules
1. Entries must be 1000 words or less. 
2. Entries must be rated PG13 or lower. 
3. Entries must be related to the theme. 
4. Your entry must be a new entry created specifically for this challenge. 
5. You may only submit one entry. 
6. You may not show your entry to anyone else or post it elsewhere on the Galaxy Cauldron until after the contest is over and the winner is announced. 
7. Sailor Moon themed entries are encouraged, but not required.

Note: Please PM your entries to Tuxedo Mistress by December 20, 2013. Voting starts on December 21 and lasts until December 23, 2013. All questions may be directed to Tuxedo Mistress.

(I can post, right?)

I'm entering this! I'm currently typing out my entry.

of course you can post! and yay! later, just send me a PM wit your entry so I can put for voting on the 17th =)

o_o two days to write?! oh goodnesss >.<

I suppose I could change it to the 17th, and then voting would start on the 18th...

oops! fixed the dates. this me getting all the dates wrong LOL

I've got two entries - aaaand I'm at the beach LOL

is it okay if i pick some OCs and write with them? will it give me away?>.>

I need an idea to spark in me! Cause I want to join in on the fun.

it's oka, crystal. the rules state that it doesn't have to be sailor moon themed, however now everybody will know that entry is yours.

also, i got a third entry today =D

is it the 17th or the 20th for the due date?

the 20th, i screwed up the dates on saturday LOL

Bump! Three entries! Two days left!!!

*eyes Uranus*
Where is your entry??? =D

XD we're giving finals later today, so i should have time to write then!!

((o_o)) I'm moving and free time has been limited, lol XD

I have to hurry!! I want to try!!

Four entries! Don't wait until the last moment! Tomorrow is the last day!

“Man, I can’t believe that Neo Queen Serenity made us decorate the Royal Christmas Tree this year,” Sailor Vesta grumbled, flopping onto a marble bench. Like her comrade Sailor Ceres, she was wearing her sailor fuku and a frown.

“For once, I have to agree with you,” Ceres sighed, elegantly perching beside her. “Have you seen the Tree? It’s always decorated with the most extravagant of Christmas lights, the most magnificent patterns of garland, and just…it’s not the decorations themselves; it’s the way they’re placed so perfectly that makes everyone in Crystal Tokyo feel festive and come to the Palace to celebrate! How on Earth are we going to create that?”

“Well, I believe that we can do it!” came a voice somewhere to their right. Ceres and Vesta turned and saw Neo Sailor Moon walk briskly out of the Palace entrance and into the garden. The pink-haired Senshi clutched a scroll in one hand and several pencils in the other. Behind her walked Sailors Pallas and Juno, both carrying gigantic boxes of lights, garland, and various other decorations. Pallas seemed to be levitating hers using her telekinesis, while Juno was carrying hers like one might carry a pizza box. She glowed with a green aura, which told Ceres and Vesta that she was using her “Strength Enhancement” attack to do so.

When the trio reached the Garden Plaza where Ceres and Vesta were sitting, Pallas and Juno let go of their boxes. They hit the ground with a huge thump, but this did not seem to bother Neo Moon. Instead, she kneeled on the ground and unraveled the scroll in front of her. The four Asteroids crowded around her, wondering what on Earth the scroll was for.

“It’s a drawing of a Christmas tree,” explained Neo Moon, as if she read their thoughts. “And some pictures from previous years that Aunt Makoto lent to me.”

“Where the heck did the Queen get that gigantic tree?” Vesta inquired, pointing at one of the pictures.

“Probably got it shipped from somewhere,” Juno speculated, taking her tiara off and wiping her brow. She sighed and put her tiara back on. Her green aura had faded.

“Well, I don’t know where Mother got hers, but I do know where we can get ours,” Neo Moon declared confidently. “In fact, I know an easy way we could all pitch in. We’re all in our Senshi forms right now, so why not use our attacks to our advantage?”

The Quartet all thought about this for a while. This did not seem like a bad idea at all.

“Pallas could levitate ornaments,” Pallas suggested slowly.

“I could help with the garland, and maybe grow some holly,” Ceres added. Then her face seemed to light up, and she said, “I could grow the tree! But I’ve never grown anything that large before…”

“I think you’d be able to do it,” Juno pitched in. “As for me…I could use my super strength and speed, as well as acrobatic ability to help out. And I could give you all energy boosts if you all need it. Perhaps I could do that while Ceres is growing the tree?”

“Thank you!” Ceres sighed with relief. “I’m definitely going to need that.”

“What help will my attacks be?” Vesta inquired, raising one eyebrow. “All they’ll be good for is setting things on fire.”

“Actually, that is true,” Neo Moon admitted, furrowing her eyebrows and placing her hand to her chin in thought. “But you’re pretty athletic, too. You can help out Juno.”

“And I can give you an energy boost if you need it,” Juno offered.

Vesta shrugged. “Sounds fair enough.”

“Right!” Neo Moon clapped her hands once and abruptly stood up, rolling up the drawing. The Asteroids stood up as well, looking to their leader for directions.

“First thing’s first,” Neo Moon remarked. “We need to grow the tree, and it’s always done in that wide open space over there.” She pointed down the path to a large, circular area. Ceres nodded, a determined expression on her face.

“All right, Juno, do your thing.”

“EVERLASTING ENDOWMENT!” Juno cried, glowing green again. This time, she held her hands out in front of her and transferred the green light to Ceres. Ceres suddenly felt like she could run a marathon, and gave a confident smirk.

“You all need to stand back.”

The others did so, and Ceres yelled, “FLORAL ENCHANTMENT!”

After a period of intense concentration, the ground started to rumble. Suddenly, a gigantic pine tree burst out of the ground, growing more and more in size as it shot for the sky. The others watched in awe at this spectacle.

Once they admired Ceres’ handiwork enough, the others got to work. Pallas levitated the ornaments onto the tree, while Juno and Vesta wrapped the garland and lights around it and Ceres grew holly as well as made the branches longer or shorter to help out with the placement of the decorations. Neo Moon acted as the commander, telling each Senshi where to place everything, whether or not something needed fixing, and offering up words of encouragement. Finally, Pallas placed the star on top of the tree, and then they all stepped back to admire their handiwork.

“Amazing,” Juno breathed.

“Gorgeous,” Ceres whispered.

“Awesome,” Vesta murmured.

“Beautiful,” Pallas gasped.

Indeed, the tree was quite magnificent. None of the Asteroids knew exactly how they achieved making the tree look as festive as it ever did, but they were proud of it nonetheless.

Neo Moon beamed. “You guys all did a fantastic job.”

“You helped out, too!” Pallas protested.

“Yeah, don’t leave yourself out,” Vesta agreed. “As cheesy as it sounds, I think it was the teamwork of all of us that helped us succeed.” Ceres and Juno nodded enthusiastically at this.


“Thanks, guys,” Neo Moon said, blushing and transforming back to Chibiusa. “I can’t wait to show this to Mother!”

Young Usagi Tsukino ran as fast as she could towards the shopping center, her desperation to get her friends gifts driving her speed.
A procrastinator, Usagi repeatedly told herself over the previous weeks that she would make time to buy gifts.  And yet, here she was; shopping for her friends on Christmas Eve.
 She had saved up thirty thousand yen just for her friends.  If only the shops weren’t sold out of everything.
She had two hours to buy five gifts.  That wouldn’t be so hard, right?
 “If I were an Ami-chan…what would I want for Christmas?” Usagi said, staring at the surrounding shops.  Her eyes landed on a book store, and off she went.
 Ami had been pouring over hundreds of old anatomy textbooks from the library recently; looking quite pitiful when she held the secondhand books.  So, Usagi decided to buy her a three-thousand yen anatomy encyclopedia.  One down.
Usagi had been looking at Rei-chan’s gift for a while.  It was quite popular, so when Usagi arrived at the store, three other girls were already fighting for it.  She approached the counter and batted her eyelashes at the salesman.
“I would like to buy these robes,” Usagi said sweetly, nodding towards the priestess robes that were being manhandled by the other women.
The man rolled his eyes and snatched the robes.“I’m sorry, but these robes are for priestesses only.  You’ll have to go somewhere else,” he said.
Usagi whined, but the salesman persisted.  She huffed and went back outside, slipping into an empty alleyway and pulling out her disguise pen.
“Disguise Power!  Turn me into a graceful priestess!” she said, raising the pen into the air.  A white light engulfed her, dressing her in the same robes Rei wore.  
Giggling, she went back into the store and stood tall, trying not to fall over.  “Sir, I would like to buy these robes,” she said, in her most mature Rei-chan voice.
“Alright, that will be seven thousand yen,” he said, taking the robes off of the wall and putting them into a box.  Usagi smiled and handed him the yen, taking the bag and heading outside.
She transformed back and headed towards a culinary store.  The winter air bit her skin, making her cheeks red and her fingers numb.  
The store was massive; how was she ever going to find something for Mako-chan?  
Usagi walked through every aisle, but she couldn’t find the perfect gift.  She was about to leave the store in defeat when something caught her eye.
“No way!” she squealed, running through the store.  
People were staring at her and shaking their heads, but she Usagi didn’t care.  She had found the perfect gift; an apron with a dark green trim, along with a light pink bow on the top that resembled Makoto’s senshi fuku very accurately.
Usagi didn’t hesitate to pay the two thousand yen.
Minako was the easy one.  Usagi headed towards the beauty store, knowing exactly what to get.
She entered the store, immediately grabbing a bag and filling it with beauty products.  Shopping for Minako was easy, because they similar tastes.
By the time Usagi bought all of Minako’s beauty products, she had ten thousand yen left for Mamoru.
All month she had been agonizing over what to buy for him, but he insisted that he didn’t want anything.  So, she was on her own.
She walked past a jewelry store and yet another light bulb went off in her head.  She knew exactly what to get him.
The jewelry store was massive.  Usagi scrambled around the store, searching for the watch department.
She finally found  the perfect watch.  It out was silver, with tiny gold pieces scattered on the chain. The cost was was eight thousand yen, so she decided to use the remaining two thousand to get it engraved with roses.  She cradled the product in its box, heading towards the exit.
And for the third time that night, something caught her eye.  No, not something, someone.  Mamoru. 
He was standing in the necklace section with a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, similar to Usagi’s.  Her eyes filled with tears as he opened up a box and removed a glittering necklace.  She turned around and lifted her hair so he could put it on her.  
Usagi lost it.  The box with Mamoru’s watch dropped, causing both Mamoru and the girl to look in her direction.  “M-Mamo-chan…” Usagi whispered.  
In seconds, Mamoru was standing in front of her.  “Usako, let me explain,” he said.
 “H-how could you?  I thought…was everything we did together a lie?” she hissed, tears falling.
Mamoru wiped the tears from her face, shushing her.  “It isn’t like that.  I was…she was…modeling,” he said.  
“What?!  You sick son of a…” she started to say.  The girl approached and handed Mamoru the necklace, quickly walking away.  Usagi was about to go after her, but Mamoru stopped her.
“Just calm down.  She was modeling this necklace for me…because I wanted to see how it would look n you,” he said softly.  Usagi froze.  
“W-what?”
“I asked her to try on the necklace so I could see what it would look like on you.”  Mamoru turned Usagi around and clasped the necklace around her neck.  It had a silver chain with a crescent-moon-shaped pendant made of diamonds.  
Usagi’s eyes filled with tears and she started to cry again.  Mamoru tilted her chin up so that they were looking at each other.  “Why are you crying…?” he asked.
She sniffled.  “Now your gift is ruined,” she whined.  Mamoru looked down and picked up the box, opening it to reveal the expensive watch.
“Usako…I told you not to get me anything…” he said, taking the watch out.
Usagi pouted.  “What kind of girlfriend doesn’t get her boyfriend something for Christmas?!” she said.  Mamoru chuckled and pulled her close.
The clock on the giant tower down the street chimed, signaling that it was midnight.
“Merry Christmas, Mamo-chan,” she whispered.
“Merry Christmas, Usako.”

Christmas was a really depressing time of the year for me. You know, not knowing what was my real name and having no memories of my family really took a toll on my holiday spirit. Every year at the orphanage, we would have this trimming of the tree followed by the mass at the church. Normally, I'd just help feed the poor at the Soup Kitchen and then stay in my bed, until eventually people stopped asking me to join them.

After I left the orphanage and moved to my brand new apartment, I hoped things would remain the same and for some time, they did. However when I was 18, something magical happened. I have always known my girlfriend was a social butterfly and I loved her for it, but nothing would warn me of what was to come.

I arrived home after volunteering at the Soup Kitchen just to find a trimmed tree and an amazing smell. Apparently, Usagi thought I shouldn't spend Christmas alone and decided that since I wouldn't go to her house or Christmas dinner, she would bring dinner to mine.

Her mother was, along with Mako-chan, finishing preparing the turkey. Shingo was playing video games in the living room. Ami-chan and Tsukino-sama were talking about the meaning of Christmas. Minako-chan and Rei-chan were arguing over the music. All of them were so caught up in their current activities that no one noticed me. I just stood in my door looking at the scene. I realized, then, my girlfriend was not at sight. After looking at the balcony, I saw her golden hair and just followed suit.

She looked like a goddess, my goddess. White dress and little curls in her hair... and her smile shone so much. She held a box in her hands, which she gave to me when she got closer. It was then that I saw something funny over us. We were standing under a mistletoe. So I leaned down and kissed her.

In that moment, my holiday spirit came back. I couldn't believe I had spent all this time alone in such a special date, alienating myself from this, the unit feeling, the love, the joy. Because of her, my one true love, I realized Christmas is a time for celebration, and it didn't matter that back then I thought I had no motives to celebrate, because now I do have a motive. I have her, my guardian angel.

The evergreen trees in the studies and entrance halls were decorated in garland and dressed in candles, wreaths were on the walls, holly graced every mantle, fires blazed in every fireplace, ribbons of red and green gave color to rooms, while musicians began carols and hymns that filled the castle with comfort. Endymion stood at the top of the stairs and took it all in, breathing deeply the smell of evergreen and fresh baked goods, enjoying the warmth of the season. Yuletide was here.

He descended the stairs, adjusting the clasps of his cape, knowing exactly how ridiculous it looked even as he knew how important traditions were. When he reached the bottom of the stairs Cassie, one of their maidservants, approached him with a small tray of china, a fond smile on her face as she looked up at him. “Prince Endymion, how handsome you look!” she fawned in much the same way as a mother would. He smiled halfheartedly in an attempt to placate her as she swapped the tray to balance on one hand so she could twitch the heavy red cape material into place and pat down the fluffy white trim. “The children will love you!” He smiled again, nodding slightly, causing the golden circlet to fall farther down to fit snugly across his brow. She stood back, smiling up at him, and then jumped a bit. “Oh! Would you like some hot chocolate?” she asked, pouring the sweet-smelling drink from the metal teapot and into a small teacup. He accepted, taking the teacup from her, and she excused herself to continue with preparations for the evening’s festivities.

Sipping carefully from the hot drink, he walked over to the window and smiled; the moon would be full tonight.



The tour began on the backs of grey horses, their saddles and bridles decked in tiny silver bells and bunches of holly. He led the procession through the crowded parade grounds, Kunzite, Zoisite, Nephrite and Jadeite following behind, each of them decked out as Yuletide Judges, wearing attire nearly as outrageous and opulent as his. The people cheered as they passed, little children hugging their mother’s legs or their father’s necks as their parents reminded them of the importance of the “Yuletide Judges”. Every year they were watched over by the benevolent Kris Kringle, who would deem them as either naughty or nice, but on the eve of Yule the Yuletide Judges would tour the city, making the last calls on the children who lived there. They would hand out treats and talk with the children, deciding once and for all if they would be visited by their dear friend Kris. If they had been naughty, this was their last chance to prove themselves good.

The duty of being a Yuletide Judge was a near-lifetime affair; when a judge retired he trained a younger lad to be Kris Kringle’s eyes and ears in the city, and that lad would continue the tradition for years on end, to keep the myth and spirit alive through continuity. Prince Endymion had turned Yuletide Judge when he was thirteen, taking over for one of his father’s knights just a few short years after learning the truth about Kris Kringle. One by one his friends were turned to Judges as well; Jadeite had been the latest and last to become one – he went through his ‘training’ last year through Sir Denevine, and now the group of five Judges for Elysion were complete, and they would keep the tradition for most of the rest of their lives.

He enjoyed the tradition, the emotions the children experience when he meets them, the trepidation, nervousness, and anxiety, only to watch the fears disappear when he decides that their nice levels outweigh their naughty and pardon them for the year, he also liked watching his friends’ styles, though he thought some were a little more annoying than others. Kunzite treated it as a true trial, making the kid unbelievably nervous before making his decision. Zoisite actually pulled the kids aside, one by one, and with a small scroll had them repeat everything naughty they had done and subtly hint that they had forgotten a thing or two. Inevitably the kid would start panicking, but he would pardon them; he said that he really wanted the kids to regret their mean streaks, and, typically, the next year the kids he had visited behaved a lot better than the year before. Nephrite was more jovial about the whole thing – he would stare them down, make them turn in circles, ask them a few strange questions, and typically pardon them, though he always acted suspicious and would involve other kids in one kid’s judgment, asking questions like “Has he been a good boy this year?” “Hmm… what do you think, does he deserve a gift from Kris?” or “I don’t know… should I pardon him?”. Jadeite was a little more aloof with the whole business, and would sometimes get flustered with the more outgoing kids, but he’d get used to it. 

It was a long day, but slowly they made their way through the city, splitting up to interview the children of different homes, or sticking together to face a large group of them (sometimes they were followed). Zoisite’s scrolls, rather than being filled with the naughty deeds of children, were a census of the children of the town, and as they saw each of them he would strike their name from the list. If the child wasn’t at home they would typically find them with a group of their friends, awaiting the Judge’s arrival nervously; but if they couldn’t find the child at all, he or she usually turned up at the Yuletide ball, their parents in tow, eager to find a Judge and earn his approval before it was too late.

When they arrived for the start of the Yule Ball they were tired but feeling fulfilled; none had given a poor judgment, though the rumors of such a terrible event still roamed the city; grabbing a quick meal in the kitchens they saw the last of the presents being wrapped, preparing for their midnight deliveries, and knew that no child would be disappointed come morning. None ever were.

VOTING IS UP!!! =D

voted these were all fantastic

Voted!

Person who wrote #1: You were my second place pick! Very cute!

bump! today is the last day to vote!

Wow! it's close!

it is!

two great stories!

o_o what happens in the event of a tie? A second round of voting, or two winners?

a second round of voting. i'm gonna post the tie breaker now

GUYS, PLEASE VOTE AGAIN ON THE TIE BREAKER!!!

[Only admins are allowed to see this link]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND... the results are in!

After a really close voting when we had a tie, the results for the tie breaker were:

.

Now, for the entries...

Entry #1 - Nyota
Entry #2 - Miss Moon Rose
Entry #3 - Tuxedo Mistress
Entry #4 - Sailor Uranus

That means... Entry #3 is the winner! Congratulations... me?

Now seriously, thank you to all who participated and I hope we'll see you on our next Writing contest!

Also, thank you all who voted for me =)