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Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon and its associated characters and canon belong to Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. The text of this page was written by Dejana Talis and is her exclusive property. Not to be used without permission.  Well... here we are. After four long years of delays and excuses, "Against All Odds" is finally complete. This is the first time I've ever finished anything with multiple chapters, so it's a new accomplishment for me. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt I'm glad it's over. xD Some of you probably want to kill me right now, after reading the second half of this epilogue. ^^;; I feel a bit guilty about it, to be honest, but really it couldn't have ended any other way. I had this resolution planned from the very beginning, when I thought AAO would be only a few short chapters (haha). I imagined it would be another one of my canon-bending explanation fics; fast, interesting, and forgotten... By the time it got as long as it did, and drew people in as much as it did, it was too late to veer away from the cruel finale. Still, I really can't say I'd want it any other way. Please don't kill me. ^^;; *distracts you with a little Q&A!* Q. What's with Endymion having black eyes? His eyes are blue! A. You're right. Most commonly in canon he does have blue eyes. In many of the manga illustrations, however, his eyes are gray or black. When I started the story I thought it would be mostly manga-centric, so I felt free to choose either one, and went with the black for variety. Plus, it's a lot harder to write love scenes when both characters' eyes are the same color. :P Q. Why doesn't Venus' glamour work on Kunzite? A. Because she has genuine feelings for him. I meant to explain that in the story, but somehow it didn't make it in there. True love can't be won by tricks. Q. When Beryl first encounters Serenity in the Golden City, what was Beryl's incantation supposed to do? A. Beryl confused the crowd to create a mob Serenity would get lost in, and to gather a larger audience for her unmasking of the Princess. I think the final version of the chapter explains this okay, but several people were confused by the first release, so I'm throwing it in here. Q. Is Prien Motoki? A. Not necessarily, but if you want to believe he is, why not? I definitely patterned his physical character after Motoki. At the time I think I was working off the theory that everyone from the Moon Kingdom was reincarnated, but by the end it didn't work out that way. Following that pattern, Adele was modeled after Naru, and Talma was based on Reika. Q. Why do Serenity and Endymion keep dreaming about the future? A. In the epilogue I explain it away as an indicator of fate (Serenity's dream of Crystal Tokyo was particularly indicative of this), but the truth is, I just felt like it. :3 I thought it would be fun to see how my version of Serenity would react to her future self's life. Endymion's vision was done mainly for equal opportunity reasons. I did have a lot of fun writing those scenes. Q. So Usagi isn't the same person as Serenity just because she doesn't have her memories? That's silly! A. Your experiences make you who you are, don't they? Q. Will there be a sequel? A. The anime and manga are the sequel. :P Q. What inspired you to write this story? A. I hate to admit it, but there's an episode of "Friends" where Joey makes a comment about a stable hand falling in love with a princess. That's what did it. I don't even like "Friends." T_T Q. What are you going to do now? Are you leaving the fandom? A. A lot of people seem to think I'm leaving the Sailormoon fandom now that AAO is finished, but that's not quite true. I am planning to move on to other fandoms soon, but I have a few more stories I want to write before I let go of Sailormoon. I'm not coming up with any new SM ideas, but I have existing ones I won't leave without writing. Most notably, I have started what I hope will be my masterpiece as far as SM fandom is concerned: "Fantaisie Sign," which is about a different incarnation of the Sailor Senshi. I'm not sure yet what archives it will be posted on, because I don't know what content and rating it will end up having, but it will definitely be on dotmoon.net when it's done. (That will be a while, though, because I am never EVER again posting an unfinished story. x_x) Q. Where can we go to tar and feather you - erhm, I mean, to say hi? A. I'm planning to cut down on the number of archives I post to, but there are a few places I will always be. First is my LiveJournal, http://dejana.livejournal.com/. I always post notices there when I have new stories to share. Secondly, my personal website, dejanatalis.net, hosts all my writing whenever I can be bothered to update it. Other than that, I'm the administrator of dotmoon.net, so I won't be disappearing from there anytime soon. If you're a writer, reader, artist, or just love fandom, we'd love to have you join us at .moon. ^^ Q. Gimme some goodies! A. That's not really a question :P but okay. ^^ I've created a special website to host "Against All Odds." If you go to http://www.dejanatalis.net/odds/, you can download a PDF e-book of the full story, special cover artwork if you're the fanfic-printing type, and a tribute music video I made to celebrate the completion of the story. Any side stories or fan materials I may end up with will also be hosted there. Well, that is that! Last but not least, I have thanks to lavish on certain people. First, Ashaela, AKA Ice Princess/The Perpetual Lurker, my primary beta since day one, without whom none of my stories would be what they are. THANK YOU so much for all the help you've given me with this story from the beginning and staying through the end. AAO would not be the accomplishment it is without your input. Also, Sapphiregirl, Superkate, Jason, and Yumeko, all of whom edited and pre-read this story at various times. And Ruminant, my #1 fangirl, who bothered me to finish this story when I felt like everyone had forgotten about it. ;) (Wow, look at me writing a thanks blurb! So many new experiences involved in finishing an epic! xD) Finally, thanks go out to all of you reading this, everyone who reviewed and commented and emailed and IMed through years of excuses and delays and broken promises (and run-on sentences ;P). Everyone who had the patience to stick with me and read to the very end. I lost a lot of my reader base with my endless procrastination, but there were always a few comments to remind me why I was glad to be writing this. I appreciate it more than words can say, and thank you all. :) -Dejana Talis October 28, 2007 |
