The Making of ‘The Voice’
From July 12, 2001- May 9, 2002 this fic has been in development. With so many changes, I am happy to say that it came out as well as it did. What you are about to see here is some of my comments about the story. Just to let people know this is technically an author’s note, but in a special kind of way. This will explain some things that I feel that needed to be as well as give you a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how it came to be.
The Plot:
The plot took a different turn than what was originally planned. The original idea had the same concept that this one does. That being freeing the black mage from the Cave of Oblivion. However since Duo didn’t have his voice, Heero and the others were going to mistake him for a female.
Another thing that was different was Shinigami. In the original the God of Death was supposed to exist and be the all mighty villain. Instead I decided to make it more interesting. Where their first concern is to get Duo, second defeating Romefeller and third continuing their normal lives. But at the end of disc 4, both Mura and Duo die. Leaving them to search for a way to bring them back. Completely forgetting about Chi and the war. Leaving it completely open for the sequel.
Where did the idea for the plot come from:
I’m a big RPG fan. I wanted to do an AU fic with RPG elements. I was listening to “Eyes on Me” from ‘Final Fantasy VIII’ and the part of the song that got me was; “how can I let you know I’m more than the dress and the voice?” That’s where the name of the fic came from and the plot was then underway.
I also took a tip from one of my all time fave RPGs, ‘Final Fantasy VII’. The plot in seven had so many holes. In particular whether Cloud is or isn’t a Sephiroth clone. (I brought it down to the fact that he wasn’t…) with that I made it so ‘The Voice’ took so many twists and turns, letting the reader decide what was true and what was total BS.
I am doing the sequel and that will answer all of your questions. Although who’s to say it won’t be like ‘Endless Waltz’ and leave you with more questions…
What do I feel is the weirdest part about the fic:
I think the strangest thing would have to be the fact that this is supposed to be mainly a 1x2 fic with 3x4. Instead it started to focus around WuFei and Mura. No, it wasn’t that I was trying to put the spotlight on the two of them, but it was the two of them that had made the conflict.
I gave WuFei so many things to deal with that he just became more of the focus than Heero and Duo. Although even with WuFei at the head of my attention the fic still did its job as a 1x2 fic. I’m not saying it came out the way I had thought in the first place, but hey it came out pretty damn good. ^_~
The G-boys:
The G-boys personalities got a little tweaked. Most of all would probably be my beloved WuFei. A lot of fic writers when they deal with WuFei’s childhood say that he looked up to and respected his father. I decided to do it the other way and in my opinion gave it some good plot.
Heero was still Heero, though I did make him question himself a little more. Quatre and Trowa were pretty much the cute couple and Duo was all right even though he did have an ulterior motive.
All and all I found it interesting how they interacted. The hardest part I found in it was writing for Duo because he didn’t show up until the end of disc 3.
Powers and Abilities:
When I started to write the story I was in the middle of playing ‘Final Fantasy IV’. While playing I thought of what classes the G-boys could be. Cecil, the main character, is a dark knight who turns himself into a paladin. Heero being the leader of the group, I thought he could pull it off. (Although Mura basically did what Cecil had done in FF4)
Trowa being an acrobat made it easy for me to make him a lancer/dragoon. Kain is the lancer in ‘FF4’ and one of the basic moves is called jump. See where that went?
Quatre being so kind and light-hearted I figured making him a white mage was accurate. Duo’s the black mage I felt that since he wore black I would just play off that.
The funny thing about the ‘Final Fantasy’ games is that when the classes are pre-assigned the summoners are always female. By making a village of summoners they were both sexes. The “transformation” deal with the males in WuFei’s family I had come up with in the early stages of planning, however if anyone wants to compare it to something, compare it to ‘Ayashi no Ceres’.
Costume Design:
The clothing wasn’t too hard to come up with. Drawing it on the other hand…
Anyway Heero’s were based on Subaru’s from ‘Tokyo Babylon’. Through out most of the fic I didn’t know what he was wearing, but Hee-Chan said she pictured him wearing this so then the decision was made.
Quatre is wearing a white robe that has an interesting design on it, however I will not say what it is at this time. (Although it was mentioned in the story, but not on Quatre) Duo, like Quatre, is wearing a robe except in black and it does not have that design on it.
Trowa’s armor was based on Albert’s from ‘The legend of Dragoon’. Dating the prince of Momoiro, you can be sure that Quatre has something to do with the way Trowa’s dressed.
WuFei is the only one out of the party wearing his normal stuff. I figured he would be able to get away with his normal garb.
Mura’s armor was based on Valkyrie’s from ‘Valkyrie Profile’. And her civi clothes were inspired by Lucia from ‘Lunar2: Eternal Blue’.
Ruby I think was the only one that doesn’t have clothing from somewhere else, not counting Quatre and Duo. She’s wearing a black top with black shorts, black gloves, a red sleeveless coat and black boots that have an odd design going around it.
OZ is wearing their normal stuff. Like WuFei I felt that they could get away with it. ^_^
If anyone would like to see these in actual pics go to my fan art and take a peek.
Other Characters:
The other people come in here and there. Blade came in on disc 2 and the end of the epilogue. Chi didn’t show up too often, but that was to put him in mystery. Ruby has one of the bigger roles, but only showed up at the end of disc 4 and the epilogue. Kirin and Melody only appear in the epilogue, rest assured though Melody has to appear again in the sequel.
One thing that surprised me while writing was that I managed to get all of the Gundam girls in there. Although Noin and Lady Une didn’t show up until the end. Plus I got Howard in there, what were the odds of that?
What’s the deal with Chi:
Well like most RPGs there is a semi and major villain. In this case Chi was kind of both. In the beginning he was sneaky, but kind of like the Turks were. And now he’s like Sephiroth where he will do anything to achieve his goal.
Like I had said earlier, I had played with the plot and gave it minor adjustments. So originally he was supposed to be a threat, but only in the beginning. Where as now he is pure ~evil~…
His name though is rather interesting. His last name Santo is from his adoptive family. Not actually knowing from the GW TV series I made it out that Duke Dermail had three daughters, you can probably follow where it went from there. His first name however means ‘blood’. Being a bloodthirsty character I figured the name fit him well.
Is Mura like my other original characters:
In some ways she is. I deal with characters that have a hidden agenda. In her case keeping the fact that she was a Romefeller soldier a secret and luring the four boys to the Cave of Oblivion.
Lina from the ‘Lina Saga’ was almost the same way, where she would supposedly fake being an ally. But then turns to fight with the heroes. Mura does the same thing, but ends up paying the price for it. So does Lina now that I think about it…
Anyway, a lot of you might think that I always write 5x?. Well true, but not. You see a select few of my characters don’t end up with WuFei, Mura being one of them. If you don’t know what I mean, go read through the adventure again and pay close attention to what Mura says and does. The big key there is when they are on their way to the Cave of Oblivion.
What about Ruby:
Ruby is a character that I had made for Hee-Chan. In a lot of fics where I have a SI, my character is always accompanied by another character. I do that because it gives me foundation on the personality and Hee-Chan has something she could draw if she got board.
In other cases where a SI of mine comes in, like the ‘Lina Saga’, I have made other characters and at least one of them is based on Hee-Chan.
Merin the “fayth”:
Like I had said the plot took a big detour on what was originally there, but the thing with Merin being WuFei’s final summon I had planned way before I played ‘FFX’. And the funniest thing is that it is very similar to the way Yuna gets her summons, where as with WuFei, the only one to be like that is Merin.
The Battles:
This was actually the first fic I’ve done where the battles aren’t total suck. I know the fight between Duo and Mura wasn’t the best, but one on one fighting isn’t my strong point. Especially since I though that it would be kind of boring if it were just the two of them.
But I felt that the final battle made up for that. I actually rolled two D6 to see if they hit or defended…
The Music:
I played and listened to so many RPGs during this story. I own the soundtracks to ‘Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete’, ‘Lunar2: Eternal Blue Complete’, ‘Thousand Arms’, ‘Chrono Trigger’, ‘Xenogears’ and ‘Final Fantasy 8-10’. Plus the soundtrack to ‘FF Anthology’, along with that I have many songs from games scattered on a number of other CDs. All the songs helped me with the battles and travels even the times in sorrow.
‘Wings of Fate’ was a song I had written for the fic. It is supposed to fit mostly with Heero and Duo and Quatre and Trowa, but you can definitely see where the WuFei stuff is implied. I never put it to music, but if you would like to tell me what you hear within your mind or heart when you read it feel free to email me.
Towns, etc:
All the towns I had come up with on my own. The same goes for the spells, except for Float. That came from ‘Final Fantasy’. Obviously the town of Vayeate is from Gundam W and the Cave of Oblivion came from ‘Valkyrie Profile’. You have 50% chance of finding one each time you use spiritual concentration.
There’s a funny story behind Parnois, but I don’t think my friends want to relive it. I had run a campaign and I came up with Parnois… I tortured them with it. The game basically went to hell before that so I figured I’d get my kicks out it. (I suck at GMing)
If you’re a ‘Final Fantasy’ fan than you could probably guess that “Pearl’s Judgement” was a spoof on “Holy”. In ‘FF6’ “Holy” was called “Pearl”.
Now the Sword of Crescens is another original thing that I had come up with, however when I wrote Crescens I was thinking of a crescent moon, then I realized that the name Crescens is what Emeralda’s Gear is called. And that is from ‘Xenogears’.
What did I do when I finished the fic:
I cheered that I actually finished it. And I listened to all the video game ending songs that I have. Me finishing the fic this week was actually kind of a funny coincidence that I had beaten Final Fantasy X Monday night.
So in honor of that I listened to RIKKI sing ‘Suteki Da Ne’, the ending to FFX first.
Special Thanks:
I would like to thank anyone who sends me feedback, but first and foremost I would like to say thank you to Hee-Chan, who has been my best friend for so many years and not hitting me upside the head when the 1x2/2x1 didn’t come in until much, MUCH later. She was the first one to hear this fic all the way through and encouraged me to write it more and more. (Although I sometimes think she just wanted the 1x2/2x1) Arigato Hee-Chan.
Kind of ridiculous, but I want to say thanks to Squaresoft, Capcom, Working Designs, Namco, Natsume, Sony, Enix and Atlus for making their RPGs as well as they do. It was because of all their hard work that ‘The Voice’ was able to reach the potential that it has. Thank you.
What’s to come:
First off I would like to announce that I own nothing, but what is mine. This is the being of the end. I would like to know what you guys thought of this piece. So email me at Keep an eye out for the sequel ‘Waltz of the Moon’. Coming Soon!