His lordship Chaos presents Angel Electric +1 Rated: mostly PG ***** "I wrote [the story] in a weekend, a gift from the gods, easy and sweet as anything. Suddenly I was a writer transformed: I laughed in the face of danger and spat on the shoes of writer's block. Then I sat and stared glumly at a blank screen for another week, because the gods have a sense of humour." --Neil Gaiman, "Smoke & Mirrors - An Introduction" ***** ANGEL ELECTRIC -author's notes- Q: Are these really your notes about the fanfic? A: Somewhat. They are certainly a chance for readers to glimpse into the development of "Angel Electric," from its initial conception to the final sentence. You could call them "notes" as much as you'd call the entries in a diary a "reminder" of everything that happened over the course of a day. But these notes are also something for me to go back to one day; to reread and reminisce about my time spent in the Silver Millennium. Q: So in essence you're going to prattle on in the desperate hopes that some of it sounds lofty, artistic and at the very least possessing some shred of intelligence? A: Yes to the lofty part, and absolutely to the artistic part. But will I sound intelligent by the end of it? That's probably a judgement better left for the last question. If I've done my job right, then I'll have you all believing I'm only about half as intelligent as I truly am. Wait...is that right? Q: Will spoilers abound? A: It's like they wrote on the old sea maps whenever they came across uncharted waters: here there be spoilerdragons. Which is why I thought it might be better to place this at the end of the story instead of at the beginning. (See? Intelligent point number 1.) Q: Spoilers be damned, I want to read this before I read the fic. Will that ruin the story for me? A: Not really. While there's a lot of things I want to discuss, I am most certainly not going to talk about how Garnet is Beryl (sort of). Likewise, I am adamant about keeping secret the fact that Endymion is a sleeper assassin who will try to kill Serenity, or that the Silver & Golden Crystals are the starseeds of the old Soldiers who fought Metalia previously. And I resolutely refuse to let slip that in the end, the Silver Millennium falls and everyone dies horribly. Q: What if that last part about everyone dying did in fact come as a shocking and terrible revelation to me? A: Um...surprise? (And you're reeeeeeaaaaally not going to like episode 44 of the first season.) Q: Serious question for a moment: how did you come up with the idea for "Angel Electric"? A: My finger slipped? Actually, in a way my wife, Mel, can be thanked for it. Mel's a big fan of what I call the SenGen pairing: each of the Inner Senshi paired off with their corresponding Shitennou, as implied by Naoko Takeuchi's infamous picture. A long while back, Mel was rereading her favourite SenGen fics, with I think most of them being set in the Silver Millennium. When I asked why she enjoyed that particular style of story, we began to debate the merits and weaknesses of the SenGen pairings. Somewhere along the way our debate evolved into discussing what were the strengths and weaknesses of most SM fanfics set in the Silver Millennium. I had never written a fic set in the Silver Millennium. Perhaps that was my first mistake. As I'd never really explored the time period before, my imagination started plotting against me. Three questions in particular really got me considering the possibilities: 1) "What could have set Endymion's four most trusted Generals against him?" 2) "What sort of an enemy was Beryl?" 3) "What were the characteristics between the empire on the moon and the empires on Earth that made them so vastly different--and ultimately a source of conflict between the two worlds?" And there's also: 4) Could all this bloodshed have been prevented if Halcyon & Beryl had simply sat down for some tea and crust-free ham sandwiches? (To which, I think the answer is: perhaps, but only if they could agree on how spicy the mustard in the ham sandwiches should be.) It also didn't help that, years ago when I was still listed on active duty within the fandom, I had toyed with the idea of writing a fanfic examining the events that surrounded the Snow Queen's first appearance. In the Sailormoon Super movie, both Artemis and the Snow Queen herself make reference to the fact that she's returning to the system--not showing up for the first time. Interesting historical fact: in 1054 A.D., a star in constellation Taurus exploded, filling the Earth's sky with a light as bright as 400 suns. (The remnants of which are now known as the Crab Nebula.) Over the past half-century, scientists around the world over have confirmed this event by deciphering ancient Chinese & Japanese chronicles, and even an obscure Iraqi physician's diary. In each account, the descriptions were of a crescent moon, and a nearby supernova. Sometimes actual historical events just cater to a specific fandom, and in this case it fit the "Snow Queen" idea perfectly. (Huzzah for history! And intelligent point #2.) Q: Where did you begin? A: When I first sat down to write, I didn't know I'd be working on "Angel Electric." In need of a small break from another project, I just started writing something off the top of my head. It turned out to be opening scene I used for AE, and the nameless child turned into Endymion before the scene ended. At that point, I knew I was doomed and I'd have to finish the story. Three years later, here we are at the finale. Q: You spent almost 3 years on a single fanfic? A: Yes. Now that we've established I have no social life, let's scurry off to some other question that makes me look better. (Or at least not quite so misanthropic.) Q: Three years is a long time to work on a single story. What changed along the way? A: Originally, I projected that AE was going to be, oh, around 6 chapters long. Maybe no more than 30-40 pages per chapter. I didn't quite expect it to mutate into something quite so epic. As a result, one thing in particular suffered the chopping block. During the conceptual phase, I had toyed with the notion of doing two versions of the story. One would be AE itself, and the second would be an "AE: Renaissance Edition." While AE focused on the story from the Terrans' perspectives, the Renaissance Edition would have focused on the Lunarians. Certain crucial scenes would appear in both of them to link each side to the ongoing story (especially where the villains were concerned), and though the dialogue would have been identical in either version, the viewpoints would change. A discussion between Endymion and Serenity in AE would reveal what he was thinking at the time, and in the Renaissance Edition, everything would have been described through Serenity's eyes. Likewise, there were scenes in AE that deal exclusively with Endymion and his Generals planning behind closed doors. If I had done a Renaissance Edition, you would never see those. Instead, there'd have been new and different scenes being played out between Halcyon, Serenity and the Senshi. Had I gone through with it, I would have written an AE that was all-encompassing, showing major scenes from all sides and all characters, and then split them down the middle to create two utterly intertwined, yet separate standalone stories. I do admit, the idea was tempting, and the concept seemed incredibly cool...but here we are, 14 chapters later, with each chapter running at least 40 pages long. Had I gone through with a Renaissance Edition, I'd still be stuck somewhere on chapter 7. It probably would have taken me another year to get anywhere near the ending--and I also would have wanted to release the two versions of each chapter at almost the same time. So AE itself probably wouldn't have even been released at all by this time, had I gone that route. Unfortunately, my decision not to pursue the Renaissance Edition was not without its drawbacks. A lot of character background and development for the Senshi had to be left out as a result, and while I had histories for them all, I do feel I was not properly able to convey them for some, leaving a few Senshi looking one- dimensional. I'll go more into that later. But as a point of interest, there was also a possible Renaissance arc connecting Karasu to both Cioran and Setsuna. If I had gone through with it, Setsuna would have been revealed as a gifted farseer who is trained by Karasu when her sigil first appears. Since Karasu's also a member of the Seraphim, he teaches Cioran the lightning technique. (Granted, this was only sketched out at best, and could have clashed with the timelines where he took on Beryl and Nephrite as his acolytes while in "retirement" on Earth.) Q: Would you ever consider going back and actually doing a Renaissance Edition? A: Possibly. If I ever indulge my inner masochist and have nothing to do for another year or so, then there's the odd chance. Q: How about bribery? Will bribery work? A: If you happen to have a spare pool table and DDR arcade machine lying around the house (and are willing to pay what would no doubt be exorbant shipping charges), then I may perhaps be swayed. Check your other pants if you're not sure where you left such items. I find most missing things seem to wind up in your other pants. Including other, other pants. Q: What exactly is your view on the SenGen pairings? A: At the risk of getting many a shipper up in arms, I rather dislike it. Forgive me (please?), but I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to go along with the idea that all four of the Inners end up falling in love with a separate member of the Shitennou. Could one couple develop out of the group? Certainly. Two, perhaps. But all three or four coupling up together? My brain can't wrap around that one. (The idea of a great white shark chewing on a tank of compressed air while charging a sinking boat, on the other hand, seems perfectly plausible to me. So hey, nobody's perfect.) There were temptations to go the route of many other SilMil fics dealing with those relationships. Mel did try to cajole me into pulling off a SenGen set, and scuttlebutt has it Naoko herself did have something along those lines planned, but never went into greater detail about it during the run of the manga. However, when I looked at what the story was ultimately about, I knew where I had to go. While the relationships are of critical importance in many places, "Angel Electric" is not about the romance. It's about the end of the Silver Millennium. What everyone says, how they interact with each other, drives them all towards the tragic and bloody finale. I could have gone with romance and love. Instead I opted for an apocalypse. (And upon rereading that last sentence, I suddenly find myself incredibly scary and morbid.) Q: So why did you still pair off the traditional SenGen couples for most of their scenes? A: Mel may have lost the shipping war for this fic, but she did win that battle. She said if I wasn't going to pair the whole gang off, could I at least have them interact together in the pairs as shown in Naoko's drawing. I hedged until she gave me the "puppydog eyes" and my willpower suddenly had all the strength of tin foil. At the same time, I was curious about exploring the different ways each pairing could behave around and with each other. People are complex, and as such the bonds and relationships they form are just as complicated. (And in some cases, as convoluted as a Klein Bottle.) I wanted to portray the many possibilities, not just for the sake of writing a SilMil fic that defies the traditional SenGen pairings--and the way those character pairs tend to act--but also for the realism behind it. In my rendition, Minako and Kunzite hit it off immediately, even though their personalities seemed so different. Ami and Zoicite started out as a friendship, and in all honesty they probably would have ended up a couple as well if not for that pesky "Beryl brainwashing everyone" thing. Jadeite and Rei were ultimately hindered by Jadeite's "personal" issues. And Nephrite & Makoto simply didn't like each other from the get-go. It happens, incidentally. Two people can just meet and inexplicably rub each other the wrong proverbial way for reasons no one can fully explain. Not every relationship has to be one based on mutual affection or even respect. For as unpleasant as it is, rivalry and even hate are also connections that bind people together. Q: That's grand and all...but why did you spend so much time tormenting Makoto, you heartless bastard? Why?! A: Yeah, this one I've been expecting. I am aware it is one of the strongest criticisms against the fic, and I must sadly agree it is deserved. This relates back to the original tinkering with the Renaissance Edition. During that time, I fleshed out Makoto's background--more than any other Inner Senshi. (Ironically enough, she ended up having the least amount of screen time.) I should add a momentary disclaimer here: I do not hate Sailor Jupiter. In fact, she was my favourite Senshi prior to my discovery of Saturn during the S season. If you don't happen to believe me, take a look at the story "Mad Tea Party," which at the time was going to be my final send-off to the fandom. But let's return to AE. I wanted to show a Makoto of the Silver Millennium who was similar but not identical to the Makoto we meet in present day Tokyo. This SilMil Makoto is only just discovering the incredible amount of inner strength she has. I gave her a harsh family background she was desperately fighting to rise above...and unfortunately, because of the way she & Nephrite butted heads after their first encounter, I found it hard to write her into scenes with the other Shitennou. And because of the limited scope of AE, just throwing her into some of the scenes felt more than a little forced, and wouldn't help push the apocalypse forward. I've done the best with what I had, not that I'm offering it up as an excuse. Halcyon alludes to Makoto's family issues midway through the series, and I had been trying to have more scenes with her and Kunzite sparring/learning (which were ultimately scrapped, apologies). There's a lot going on with Makoto's character; it just happens to be almost entirely behind-the-scenes, which sadly means the story winds up looking rather one-sided against her. Makoto becoming Super Sailor Jupiter, however, was planned from early on. There's a reason I made her a casualty during the Snow Dancer siege: it gave her the chance to be recovered enough to descend to Earth with Jadeite & Nephrite. While I didn't want every Senshi to achieve their Super mode, I wanted Makoto to reach a point where her character was able to become as strong as we see her in the future. So if you're claiming that I made her a Super Soldier just to mollify the fans, I am pleased to inform you of the error of your ways. Q: Okay, fine, but you're still not entirely forgiven. What about Rei & Nephrite? A: That blindsided me, to be honest. Having the two of them work together was initially meant to achieve two purposes: have Rei evolve to a Super Sailor, and for them to discover Beryl's plans. Suddenly the two of them are having a moment--and I'm sitting back, scratching my head and musing, "Well, fuck-a-duck! How did this sneak up on me?" I played with it a little. Jadeite and Nephrite both acknowledge the growing love triangle at one point or another. Again, I didn't want relational angst to detract from the apocalypse, so I kept it toned down. Though the only thing that kept the entire situation from being resolved was Metalia's resurrection. Q: If they had been given the chance to decide, who would Rei have chosen? A: I honestly don't know. Life has a way of leaving many things open-ended and unanswered. This is one of them. Makes for a neat idea for a fanfic though, doesn't it? Q: How far along were you when you decided that Garnet was actually going to be Beryl? A: Oh, I had this one planned from the very beginning. Remember, I spent weeks trying to avoid sitting down and writing AE. During those weeks, the idea of Beryl having an unwitting alter-ego showed up. Garnet existed before I ever had Ami introduce her to Zoicite. And I made sure to set a number of clues along the way hinting to who and what Garnet might be. There's even one in her name. It's part of the reason I wanted to have as much of the fic written as possible before I started releasing the story. If there were newer revelations I stumbled upon or refined in later chapters, I could easily go back and tweak something I wrote earlier on without anyone noticing. Q: What was your inspiration for Lapis & Lazuli? A: I wanted Beryl to be cruel, methodical and above all dangerous. Lapis and Lazuli, on the other hand, I wanted to be batshit insane. There's a little bit of Druscilla (from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") in them, to be sure. But as the story progressed, the twins took on their own unique brand of homicidal craziness. Though I'm not entirely sure when or why Lapis& Lazuli decided to slide the twincest allusions into their dialogue, and in all honesty I'm not sure I want to know. They scare me that way. Q: What did you have to change from the anime or manga? A: That's right, I did mention that in the opening bit, didn't I? In retrospect, I think I more used the anime as my template, and whenever it was convenient I ransacked the manga for better ideas/plot points. Metalia being a progeny of the Chaos entity is something I definitely took from the manga. I might have altered the dynamic between Helios & Endymion, and possibly contradicted the manga with my explanation of what the Golden & Silver Crystals were. How Sailor Saturn erased all traces of Lunaria from the moon was also different in the manga. (Saturn had to be summoned; she wasn't already present.) There was also some debate in how Serenity & Endymion meet their demise. Originally, I wrote their final scene based on the anime, wherein Serenity leaps into the air after Endymion and they're both killed by Metalia. However, it was recommended I at least try doing it from the manga perspective, where Endymion is killed by Metalia and Serenity takes her own life. When I rewrote a new "test scene" to see how the alternative might look, I found myself really liking it instead. Then again, I'm pretty sure my version is still different from what the manga showed. The notable deviations from the anime were: Queen Serenity's name was changed to Halcyon. (Purely for practical reasons. Considering how many scenes where her and Princess Serenity are together, I wanted it to be easier to tell which of them was talking.) The Snow Queen's appearance. In the SMS movie, they way Artemis talks about the Snow Queen's original attack and how she was defeated implied that it was long before his time. As far as I can tell, the Snow Queen probably attacked Lunaria a few generations prior to the current group of Senshi ever being born. (Which does beg the question: were there different Sailor Senshi around at that time, and why?) But since Beryl's discovery of the Golden Crystal hinged on it being revealed during the use of Silver Crystal Power, I needed the Snow Queen to show up when she did. I also altered the way Beryl's attack on the moon was presented. In watching the anime, it's very apparent that Beryl suddenly rose to power courtesy of Metalia. Beryl's attack on Lunaria catches everyone off-guard. Hell, they're in the middle of a masquerade ball when Beryl's army shows up. Last I checked, that kind of denotes a surprise invasion. Unless I missed a memo about it. That happens a lot. AE runs completely contrary to what's implied in the anime. From the start, there's a sense of dread building, and by the time chapter 10 is done, everyone knows exactly what Beryl's going to do. It doesn't become a question of if Beryl will invade with Metalia; it's a question of which place she decides to obliterate first. Ideally, I managed to explain the masquerade ball at the end of the world decently enough. However Endymion and Serenity's dialogue needed a lot of tweaking as a result. In the anime, there's a lot of recap as Endymion brings Serenity up to speed on the apocalypse. Endymion: "Metalia's an entity made up of evil energy." Serenity: "You said that already. Twice." Endymion: "Oh. Did I mention she's evil?" Whereas in AE, they already know what's coming for them. I didn't need as much a recap as the two of them deciding what they wanted to do with the last hour of their lives together. Oh...and in the anime, Metalia kills all the Inner Senshi with one shot. And where's the fun in that? Q: What about Zoicite & Kunzite's relationship in the first season of the anime? A: A great writer can take even the most volatile of subject matter and craft it into a story that garners plausibility and respect amongst the readers for its treatment. A good writer at least knows when they can't even remotely pull something like that off, and just avoids the subject matter altogether. I had considered working that into AE. The underlying premise would have been that, between Kunzite's bloodline undermining his brainwashing and Zoicite's blatant resistance at being brainwashed in the first place, Beryl opts to alter the subjects of their affection and thusly altering their loyalties once and for all. When asked by the twins who the new "subjects of affection" might be, Beryl simply answers, "Surprise me." When they're next seen, Zoicite & Kunzite are a couple, loyal to Beryl (and themselves) with the Senshi not even being a factor anymore. This leads into their relationship as seen in season 1 of the anime. However, the more I mulled over that plot point, the more insecure I felt about writing it. While it does give a plausible reason for why they'd suddenly shift from romancing the Senshi to romancing each other, the reason itself lends itself to certain criticisms & abuses. Namely, it could be (mis)interpreted as an argument that if you're gay, you've simply been brainwashed into it, and really weren't gay to begin with, and can be "brought back" with love and effort. (Or, depending on the fic, healing!sex) That is not the sort of argument I personally support in the slightest, and it goes completely against why I'd have included the Kunzite/Zoicite relationship in the story. Ultimately, I felt that including this part would probably generate a shitstorm if I left it in, which would destroy the integrity of everything else I've worked so hard to create. So I opted to go for manga continuity, wherein their sexual preferences are a little more ambiguous from the outset. Q: What was your favourite part(s) of the story? A: The villains, no question. I adored writing every scene that had Beryl and the twins in them. Some writers argue that in order to have a truly believable hero, you first have to have a truly terrifying villain. Without the villain, the hero just idles around a lot. For AE, I did not want a weak villain. Beryl couldn't be some deluded revolutionary, or the "if your minions continually fail me, I may eventually punish you" evil masterminds we see in the anime. Something like that would have killed the story. Consider what she's up against. Halcyon has the power of the Ginzuisho. Endymion has the power of the Golden Crystal. His Generals are no slouches when it comes to fighting, and (in AE) they almost all display some sort of psychic ability. And the Sailor Senshi possess incredible combat powers. For Beryl to be a believable villain, she had to frighten them. And if she can frighten those people, that unto itself is a terrifying thing. That's the approach I took, and tried to reflect in every scene she was in. Beryl had everything meticulously planned out, and worst of all she had years to begin setting it all in motion. Years before anyone even began to suspect, Beryl was conspiring in the shadows. Every time Halcyon and the others thought they had taken the offensive, Beryl was still three steps ahead of them--and for a long time, no one knew what her ultimate goal was. Yes, we do know what happens in the end. Despite that I wanted, and hopefully achieved, readers to actually worry about what Beryl was going to do next as the story moved along. Interesting sidenote: Cioran was originally going to be another disillusioned Seraphim member, much like Spinel had been. However, Beryl was going to deliberately keep Cioran's betrayal a secret until she was certain there would be nothing lost by Cioran revealing his true loyalties. Probably marked by Cioran attempting to assassinate someone around the same time as she turned Endymion. In essence, you would have never seen his betrayal coming until it actually happened, and then you would (in theory) have gone, "Holy shit, all this time Cioran was a villain!" Cioran would have shown wavering loyalty, of course. He would have had no qualms about killing Spinel, but the reinstatement of the Seraphim Order was not something he'd been expecting in any case. Knowing he would himself betray the Order he had once fought so desperately to maintain would weigh heavy on his conscience. I think I'd sketched out having him switch sides and die protecting Endymion during the siege of Edo. However, the more I wrote Cioran, the more a willing betrayal on his part seemed incredibly far-fetched. His passion for the Seraphim Order shone through, and yet I didn't want to have Beryl simply kill him. Having the twins turn Cioran was the smarter way to go, I think. Cioran became the perfect antagonist for the Outer Senshi, and it made his death more tragic than cliché. At least I hope it did. (Cioran's name was also Lunarian for a rock/gemstone. However, I couldn't just casually slip that bit of information in without also hoisting up a neon sign over his head that flashed "I'M NOT A VILLAIN!") Q: In your opinion, are there any weaknesses in the fic? A: I hate to say it, but basing the story mostly from the viewpoints of Endymion and his Generals hindered a lot in terms of developing the Senshi. By limiting the perspectives of an enormous story, some things get lost along the way. As I'd mentioned earlier, I had at one point been toying with the idea of a parallel "Renaissance Edition" taking the story and many of its scenes from the viewpoint of the Sailor Senshi. As a result of choosing not to do that, Makoto just seemed to be there for me to hate her, and at times Serenity really seemed to serve little more than a romantic sub-plot or pretty set decoration. Another thing that still doesn't entirely sit well with me are the middle chapters. The duration between Spinel's attack and the Snow Dancer onslaught started to run the risk of dragging on & going nowhere as I wrote them. On the one hand, a lot of the casual scenes found there set up the dominoes that get knocked down when Beryl takes action. At the same time, I quickly started to feel like the story was veering too far away from what I wanted. (Kudos to the Fic Bitch for helping keep it on track, concise and contained.) You may agree or disagree, but the middle chapters are a little uneven in my opinion. Q: Why was "The End of Everything You Know" done a little differently from the rest of the story? A: Originally, AE was going to end with the ballroom scene shown in the anime (in here, it's the final scene found in Chapter 13). At the time, I saw no reason to write about everyone killing each other off in the final battle. The outcome of that is already well known among the fandom, and it's rather depressing if not gut- wrenching to consider. I wanted the finale to be Endymion and Serenity sharing their last kiss together before the end came. Like many things in life, the story changed & evolved in the meantime. By the time I had finished chapter 9, I realized that both Cioran and Lapis would still be alive during the final attack on Lunaria. Which begged the question: if my story had them around during the battle, why don't they show up in season one of the anime? "The End of Everything You Know" is both a finale and a way of tying up those loose ends. It answers some questions you would have otherwise been left with, but if you'd rather not read how your favourite characters are about to turn on each other in bloody ways, you can always end the fic at chapter 13 and its more optimistic ending. But if you skipped over "The End Of...", here are the highlights: Cioran is impaled by Uranus' Space Sword and his body burns to ash; and Lapis receives a point-blank Dead Scream to the face. (Yes, I can hear at least one of you cheering out there.) Q: What was it like to write the finale? A: "Angel Electric" has been a long journey for me. A long, strange, overwhelming and often times aggravating journey. And now we've reached the journey's end. Developing the concept from a series of ideas took only a few weeks. Breathing as much life as I could into those ideas took a few years. I've spent a lot of time now in the company of Silver Millennium. I watched Beryl manipulate everyone from behind the scenes. I saw the relationships of the Sailor Senshi and the Shitennou intertwine in different and sometimes unexpected ways. By chapter 13, everything had reached its grand culmination. I'd eaten, breathed and dreamt these characters for so long they started to feel like family. And so, to thank them all, I killed everyone. Q: You really are a literary sadist, aren't you? A: And how! I am a proud graduate from the Stephen King & Joss Whedon school of writing. Their motto: "Kill your children." You may adore the characters, and you may enjoy writing them, but you should never get so attached that you can't outright kill them or leave them alone if you need to. It's not healthy and you wind up doing more harm than good to both the characters and the story. (Anne Rice, I'm looking in your general direction here...) Q: Is there anyone you want to single out and mention for their help? A: Why yes, there are a few people I've been meaning to embarrass- er, thank. Fact of the matter is AE would never have gotten off the ground or been half as good as (I hope) it is without the constant help a specific few. I have to thank my wife, Mel, for roping me into the Silver Millennium in the first place, and for having the patience to listen to me rant on and on about different plot & character ideas, and for being willing to debate certain details about the cultures and customs that emerged from the story. I also have to thank (and I know she'll hate me for this) the Fic Bitch. She told me what worked. And more importantly, she told me what didn't work. There are not many people I trust with my rough drafts, and her critiques never cease to hit the mark every time. Without the Fic Bitch and her cavalcade of scathingly hilarious C&C going on behind the scenes, AE would probably have fallen apart somewhere in the middle. Check out her website at: ficbitch.wishing-blue.net Q: What sort of music did you write to over the course of this story? In many ways the music varied as much as the characters and scenes. The music was sometimes there to enhance a certain mood, or other times it created a whole new one. I think I'm one of those lucky few who can listen to one or two tracks repeatedly when it comes to writing. (And I do mean repeatedly. It's for reasons like that, that Mel insists I wear headphones when I write.) Whenever I write, I feed off the emotional high generated by the song. I'm a bit of a psychivore that way. For AE, I worked a lot with Depeche Mode's new album "Playing the Angel", as well as Hans Zimmer's fantastic score for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". I also made frequent use of the songs found in all 3 OSTs for the "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" TV series. The Italian tracks sung by Flaria Graziano are particularly beautiful and haunting, and worth you finding a way to listen to them. If I were to whittle down this fic's playlist, it would look like this: BOA - Duvet (Cyberia Mix) Flaria Graziano (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) - Dew Enigma - Gravity of Love Yoko Kanno (Turn-A Gundam) - Moon Christopher Beck (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) - Close Your Eyes Edwin & The Pressure - Let's Dance Flaria Graziano (Stand Alone Complex) - I Do The Servants - Cells (instrumental version) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST - Within Us Econoline Crush - Flamethrower Depeche Mode - A Pain That I'm Used To Origa (Stand Alone Complex) - Rise Clint Mansell - Lux Aeterna Klaus Badelt (Dead Man's Chest) - The Kraken E.S. Posthumous - Pompeii Q: Who inspires you when it comes to writing? A: Joss Whedon is the king of cool when it comes to dialogue. (There's a Whedon tribute/gag lurking in the fic, for all you Browncoats out there.) I adore the writing style and storytelling that Neil Gaiman so effortlessly seems to create. And Stephen King has an incredible insight into the nature and craft of writing. If you're an aspiring writer, check out his book "On Writing." It's well worth the read. Q: Would you ever consider writing a sequel to Angel Electric? A: Um...that might prove a might difficult, what with me having killed off the cast and all that in the finale. (Not to mention, Naoko Takeuchi wrote 20 volumes worth of "sequel" material.) Q: Not like that! Would you write a fanfic where the Generals are reincarnated or come back in the present day (post-Sailorstars)? A: Probably not, and that's even if you threw in a life-sized model of Godzilla (made entirely of blueberry waffles, no less) as part of the ongoing "DDR machine and a pool table" bribe. At the very least, I need a break from writing in the SM universe. At most, it would have to be a very impressive and very tempting idea that taps me on the shoulder and commands, "Verily, you must write this fic." Q: So what are you going to do now? A: Now? Now, I fulfil a promise I made to myself years ago. There are other writing projects I left behind in order to work on AE, and as of late I've been missing their company. It's time to return to those stories and see them to their own endings. I did what I set out to do: write a Silver Millennium-based story that wouldn't stop harassing me. With "Angel Electric" over and the Silver Millennium having met its demise, it's time for me to creep back into retirement, and eventually (as all things do over the passage of time) into obscurity. Hopefully you enjoyed what this fanfic had to offer. Hopefully you feel satisfied with where the story took you and where it ended. And hopefully, regardless of your thoughts on the quality of AE, if you were considering creating some Sailormoon fanfiction of your own, this has served as a catalyst to get you to write it. The world needs good SM fanfics, and the Silver Millennium definitely has room for more good stories. I honestly don't know when our paths might cross again, or if they may even cross at all, but here is where I say my farewell. It's been a long and strange and wondrous journey, and I am glad you were willing to take it with me. Ja. --His lordship Chaos, signing off. (Again.) March 23rd, 2007.