The Making of 'Waltz of the Moon'

Wow, looking back on all this 'The Voice' seemed to take a lot more effort than this one did, but hey it's done and I am damn proud of the work and time I had poured into it. So let's take an inside look.

The Plot:

The interesting thing about this one is that the plot didn't really change. The main concept remained, but got tweaked when I added this and that to it. But over all I feel that this wasn't such a bust because the readers seemed to enjoy it on a good level and I had a lot of fun.

The base of this plot was kind of interesting. The name of this piece once again came from 'Final Fantasy VIII'. One of the BGMs is called 'Waltz for the Moon'. Naming it this I felt that it was a good way to close the gaps and questions about WuFei's problem.

What's the deal with Yueh:

Yueh is everything that WuFei isn't. Being a pervert for example. Yueh is very strong, intelligent and dependable when he has to be, but admit it people, wouldn't you want to have fun more than be serious and work all day?

I enjoyed dealing with Yueh, especially when he blurts out random things that tend to be a little too thought out. He's also extremely optimistic which is another thing that WuFei isn't.

And Muru:

Seki said I as very sneaky in putting in that thing about him being Mura. Originally Muru was a she, but I decided to have a bit more fun and made her a him.

I find Muru/Mura's character funny because they act almost nothing alike even though they are the same. I think with Mura it was more along the lines of she had a task at hand and was determined to finish it. Where as Muru threw himself into a pit of depression until he decided to do something about it and find his husband.

Is there anything not excepted in Heaven:

The Heaven in this story is paradise. The only thing not excepted is evil and bad intentions. Sex is not included in that seeing that it IS paradise. But the fallen people who have had bad intentions and whom have no remorse or haven't atoned for their sins will be extinguished, to put it bluntly they no longer exist. The souls themselves and the vessels are destroyed by Ruby.

Originally were you planning to show more of Heaven:

No. But after talking with Seki I felt that I should. I really didn't think that I needed to in the beginning, but Seki asked a lot of questions about the Soldiers of Heaven and Heaven itself. And I am extremely grateful to her because without those pieces I'm going to assume that it wouldn't have come out the way it has, so thank you Seki-Chan.

So what are the overall pairings in this now:

The overall pairings would be Heero with Duo, Quatre with Trowa, WuFei with Merin, Mura/Muru with Yueh, Kamui with Celestia and even though there was very, very little Zechs with Noin.

I feel that the GW pairings are very basic for AU. In all of the AU stuff I had read these pairings existed as well as Treize with Lady Une, which was mentioned in this, sort of, I just didn't put it there because Treize had died.

Why does Quatre have the Mark of Heaven on his robes and why bother changing Heero's outfit:

Fair question. Quatre's a white mage, being that kind of mage means that he draws all of his power from heaven so technically he represents them in some way. The other reason is classified.

As for Heero, I wasn't really planning on it till I realized that he may not have been able to conceal his pistol. I ignored it for a while until I drew the picture of him and Duo that is up in my fan art section. I thought about it for a little bit then just drew him in the Sanzo garb. So the sutra is basically the representation of him being a paladin. I'm thinking that he might go back to the Subaru robes for the third story.

How do the battles come out the way that they do, really:

I've been playing 'Big Eyes Small Mouth' for I believe almost four years now and that's the system I've been using. I take two D6, give the heroes and villains something that's called an ACV and DCV. The ACV is the number that they have to hit or roll under to successfully attack and the DCV is the same thing only for defense.

It was awesome! When I was writing the battle with the Elemental Spirits, I was on Merin's initiative and I intended for her to attack Chi all along, what I didn't count on was rolling two ones. I crit! (It's odd. My dice are usually cursed…)

I'm amazed how well this has worked out while writing both 'The Voice' and 'Waltz of the Moon'. I do apologize however for the people who read this for the combat seeing that this had very few battles. I'm like 'Xenogears' more plot, less action. But good.

How do you come up with the lyrics for the 'songs':

I sit there and think about what's been happening in the story. In 'The Voice' the lyrics had to do with all the pairings in there, but I also gave it a voice (no pun intended) as if it were one of the characters singing and Wings of Fate happened to be Mura.

Second Tear was a lot easier to write and I think that was because it's WuFei and Merin. I just get this feeling about the plot within the story line and it just flows and giving the 'song' a vocalist I think it comes out a lot better, especially when you can see clearly what they are trying to say.

Any other random comments:

Yes. There is one filler story that's going to be done for this saga. It's a fic I am doing on request for Seki that happens to be my Xmas gift to her.

Special Thanks:

I would still like to stretch my thanks out to all the companies that make RPGs, I love you all. Thank yous also need to go out to Seki and Hee-Chan who have been here since the beginning of this whole thing and the rest of the thanks goes out to all the readers.

What's to come:

What else, but another sequel. Feel free to send me your comments by emailing me at quatre_chan5@hotmail.com.

Thanks again and keep your eyes out for 'Power's Rebirth'. Coming soon…