Well, said friend [I'm codenaming her 'Hotaru' for time being, as it used to be one of her nicknames when we were friends in the good old days] was wondering what I had been up to, if Setsuna was still alive and well or buried as a total memory. Here's the interview [thank God for IM!!], nicely edited on my part and adding more to it here while keeping her original semi-sloppy slang, as well as some old [but good] pics I have.
Keep in mind that, Setsuna is a fairly-altered remix version of me, so if she looks anything like [or unlike] me, well there ya go.
Hotaru: Ok Jenn, da crew back in Miami's curious: R u still keeping ur character Setsuna in ur world?
Me: Absofreckin'lutely!! Only gist of it is, I'm writing about her more than drawing her, but she's still getting her inklings goin'. But yes, Setsuna's still a fixture in my 'world'. *LOL*
[Setsuna and Shouriken, from a rewriting of Awakening, 2005.]
Hotaru: lol Cool beans, cool beans! Good 2 hear she's still alive and well. Wat have u been up 2 w/her?
Me: Recently she, like me, has moved to another town, got a job, chopped her hair short. Now she's growing it out, had it red in a story I'm still working on. Next story it's gonna be blue!!
Hotaru: BLUE!? WTF!?
Me: *giggle* Yes, my hair is blue now, so why can't she?
Hotaru: But I ain't never seen her w/blue hair! WTF!?
Me: Hey, if I can have blue hair, so can she. She's my semi-flip side, remember?
Hotaru: Aiight aiight, dat's cool. Understood. So wait--wat story??
Me: I'm working on a Joy Division fan fiction, 'A Closer Joy Unknown', which features Joy Division and New Order. It also has a time-travelling Setsuna, a weapon going on the loops, and of course Scarr being an absolute bastard...
Hotaru: Yeh I remember Scarr, he was 1 bad mofo. lol
Me: Trust me, he still is. *LMAO* He is never going to change, unfortunately.
Hotaru: So wat's da history with the SKs?
Me: Started in '96, when 'Sailor Moon' was the anime for me to watch. I got inspired to turn myself in a sailor-uniformed heroine, and the first weapon Shouriken [which is still her weapon of choice!] was actually inspired by Cloud's sword from Final Fantasy VII!!
Then came '97-'98 [8th grade], and with Valerie and Lenin and Zsoley I decided she needed some good guys to help her out. Added in Fabel and Alex, created another character, and here's what it rounded out to--
me - Setsuna [Makoto]
Valerie - Minako
Lenin - Mamoru
Zsoley - Sakura
Fabel - Haruka
Alexander - Ryuu
*original character* Anne-Mariae
That rounded out the original 7 good guys, now known as Team ReStart. [Their first team name was StarFighters.]
Since then she's had different StarTeams [they're all StarKnights now, but they're in different Teams, or Sectors, with some Teams split into Squadrons]. The Servers, Angels, Demons, Guardians, Sirens, Souls, Beachers, Spirits, and finally the Knights. Eventually it all fell down to it--there's the StarKnights, but with so many it was hard to narrow down the amount of teams. Luckily, I got it down [mostly] to a science...
Team [factoid]--
Excelsios [Setsuna's main Team, with much of the lot formed from the following 4 Sectors]
ReStart [the original StarFighters, with Sakura leading the lot]
Echoance [the Canterburian Order, led by Deaconess/future Bishop Megumi]
Soulstice [led by Setsuna's best friend Shinnin]
SwitchCross [guardians of the Royal Scepter, led by the SC's guardian Sorata--the resident vampire of the whole lot!]
[The Canterburian Sisterhood, later the main nucleus of Team Echoance, from An Abstract Angel's Guide to Echoance, spring 2006.]
Other Teams--
Serapheum [formerly the StarAngels]
Acolytes [formerly StarServers]
Oceanea [formerly StarBeachers]
Sirens [formerly StarSouls--formerly known as StarSirens!!]
Rebellion [the first group of StarKnights]
In 'A Closer Joy Unknown' a new Team assembles: Team 586, which is Joy Division/New Order.
[Setsuna and Joy Division (with Sakura, Sorata and Shinnin at the bottom), in the original cover of A Closer Joy Unknown, December 2006.]
Hotaru: So wat Team is Setsuna in now?
Me: She's in two, actually--Echoance [the Canterburian Order], and Excelsios.
Hotaru: Hold up--WTF is Team Excelsios about?
Me: Team Excelsios has been around for quite a bit actually. In ACJU there were two Squadrons for Team Excelsios, but the Team is mainly formed of Sectors ReStart, Echoance, Soulstice and SwitchCross. In the sequel to that [which is currently being planned, even though I'm not done with ACJU--sequel's prelude is done though!], there's the return of two characters I brought in last year, as well as the intro to a new one.
Returning characters ~ Ki'oh and Kaioh, the StarKnight Scions of Light and Darkness
New character ~ Kaguya, Setsuna's new boyfriend and the new StarKnight Scion of Darkness
Setsuna, Kaguya and Ki'oh form the Angelos Triage, the main characters in the story, though the true main character in the new 'Angelos' story series is actually Ki'oh.
[Setsuna after transforming, from Awakening, 2005.]
Hotaru: Kaioh's dat druid guy, right?
Me: Yep, but his role in the story is fairly simple - he gives his powers to the true Scion of Darkness, Kaguya, and disappears into the future Earth to guard it from his post in the Druid Circle. Or so that's how I'm planning it.
Hotaru: I remember u used 2 make mix tapes 4 ur stories and characters. lol U still doin dat for Setsuna and co?
Me: Definitely. I've made so many mixes for the characters [my personal favorite mix is the one I made for Keisuke from Team Echoance], and I don't use tapes anymore--I make mix c.d.'s, aptly titled StarMixes!
Hotaru: OMG!! lol So u know wat u gonna do 4 ur next mix?
Me: I'm planning a fairly interesting mix for Setsuna and Kaguya, as well as two for Ki'oh--one for just him and one for him and Setsuna, songs that remind them of each other. The main StarMix will probably have Polaris' 'Hey Sandy' as the theme song, the love theme being Death Cab for Cutie's 'I Will Follow You into the Dark', and even some old classics like 'What Is Love?' by Haddaway and 'Gypsy Woman [She's Homeless]' by Crystal Waters. And remember that song 'Pump Up the Jam' by Technotronic?
Hotaru: Hell yeah I remember!
Me: Well that's probably gonna be on there too. Not sure though. It might be.
Hotaru: lol Cool beans shorty! So wat else is new w/Setsuna and da crew?
Me: Well for one, the Angelos Triage will possibly square off against their Guardians [Setsuna = Ares, god of fire; Kaguya = Poseidon, god of water; Ki'oh = Zeus, god of thunder] so that their powers can finally blossom, but that's definitely not until later. I'm also planning a surprise moment between Setsuna and Ki'oh, but I just don't know where in the series I'm going to place it. Also I don't quite know how I'm going to put this into writing, so it may be a good handful of stories before we ever get around to THAT interlude!
Hotaru: OMG! lol Jenn u r bad!! Poor Setsuna!! ...wait, Kaguya know bout dat?
Me: Like I said, I'm not sure how this is really going to go down until maybe by the time I write the actual situation.
[Setsuna in her blue DOK Guardian uniform, from To Guard the Cross, 2006.]
Hotaru: So tell me more bout da soundtrack, girl!
Me: Other than what I told you, I probably will also add 'Disco Bambina' by Heather Parisi. She's really cool. That song was from 1980, and I'm actually listening to that right now!! *LOL* I am damn tempted to find the lyrics and sing along! Seriously! It's pure infectious Italian disco-pop. Lots of fun.
I am also planning to bring in 'So Sister' by the Verve, solely for the scene between Setsuna and Ki'oh.
Hotaru: So y is Kioh da main boi in da story, Jenn?
Me: I wanted to write something that, while involving Setsuna in a big way, would shine the spotlight on someone else for a change. In this case I chose the aptly sincere and surprisingly insightful Ki'oh, not only because he's someone I haven't developed in a long while but also because I wanted to complicate matters this time around.
Up to now it's been all about Setsuna, the people she knew, the places she went, etc. This time with the 'Angelos' series the focus is on Ki'oh. His good friend Kaguya's joining him in Scotland for a few months, the Princess he protects is back in America hanging on to whatever sanity's left from the events in 'A Closer Joy Unknown'. In all of this mess Ki'oh's feelings for her--that he suppressed AT WILL--eventually takes over.
Alright, I am actually going to write that story after all then. *LOL*
All the while he has to also guard his friend Kaguya, who's dealing with an unknown dark shadow in his lungs. And with his studies in graduate school and the fact that Scarr's still in the picture, Ki'oh basically has his hands full. Add his feelings for Setsuna on top of that, and you basically have him at his rarest, at his weakest--this is possibly him at his most vulnerable. And I think this might make 'Angelos' a fairly interesting soap opera waiting to be played out.
Oh and, the best part of it is, each Chapter in every Story will be told by one of the StarKnights!! For 'Angelos #0 - The Rising', the Prelude, I had Ki'oh speak up about bits and pieces of his sort-of fragmented past [and I say 'fragmented' because his past as a StarKnight in StarEarthia is still a mystery], as well as preparations for Kaguya's arrival in Scotland.
Hotaru: ok well I gtg so I check da blog later aiight?
Me: Sure thing, hun!! :-) Ciao!!
And so, I introduce to you all Angelos #0 ~ The Rising.
Enjoy, until the next round...
~ 'Sunshine'
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