Let’s Talk Story : Angel Hunt

Let us speak of story…

I figure it’s about time to do a catch up on story again and note all the branches, changes, non changes and happenings for every different storyline that is current. Especially since it’s been ongoing so long and there are newer arcs that I’ve yet to post in part or in full on the site because it takes me forever to do anything these days. So yes, the deets. I’ll go through them one by one.

Here we go. Starting with…

ANGEL HUNT

Angel Hunt in short -> Angel Hunt is about two child like gods, Hesue and his Other, who are two halves of a whole being, have no true gender despite preferring male forms and are in fact, really just some kind of projected thought. These two child-like creatures do not function in a linear fashion and can create (soulless) life at will. They only use this ability for the greater good. They basically go from one universe to another, finding habitable planets in which to play their games and then create things to participate in said games. Their games usually consist of a game board (which tends to be a copied section of whatever planet they happen to be on pulled into its own dimension), playing pieces (their created soulless life, aka, glorified action figures) and very bloody wars fought on their behalf. Somewhere along the lines, and years before the story begins, they decided they wanted to know what it would be like to procreate and fractured off pieces of themselves to make their “daughters”. They get bored easily and tend to stray from their games. And their daughters, who they lost track of shortly after they were made. There isn’t enough “the universe’s worst father” awards for these two, in truth. But the entire story itself is basically about this one huge game of chess played by two children who have more power than should be legal and really only care about one-upping one another and winning their games. It’s fun.

Or it is at least, to them.

Angel Hunt itself begins on Earth, which was just another planet in a long line of planets that got the honor of becoming the stage for their latest game. It’s split into several timelines/storylines and are thus ->

ANGEL HUNT PAST -> Angel Hunt’s past story takes place on what is at the time it begins, a primitive Earth. Hesue had been in a losing streak that he wanted desperately to break and when he happened upon Earth, he found that not only was it habitable for he and his Other’s next stage, there were also some formless chaotic entities milling about the core (basically – where there is order and life, there is also chaos and destruction. These chaotic entities were nothing more than the “run off” from the creation of the planet itself. As Earth formed, so they became) -well Hesue got the bright idea to use them to break his losing streak and offered them a deal. He could create life (aka, his playing pieces) but he couldn’t give that life a will of its own, so he offered them bodies in exchange for a short amount of years of their time in service to him. Most agreed, and the deal was struck, unbeknownst to Hesue’s Other.

Hesue thought he was pretty clever. It was win-win, as far as he was concerned.

The problem was that not all of these entities wanted form. Some of them, one in particular, was very happy existing as he always had. Hesue found amusement in this particular one’s obstinance and chose to force him into form anyway before he went along his merry way, thinking he had his win in the bag.

Only… a small act of genocide fueled by rage and pain threw a huge wrench into his machine and thus began the tale of his prized playing piece, now the last of his kind by his own hands, learning to live chained to form for the first time since he came to be.

Angel Hunt’s past storyline is written in a series of short to longer clips (as I’ve said many times before, I’ve never intended AH to be a continuous linear story so it tends to jump to what are more important key points instead of simply walking through point A to point B). It introduces Hesue, eventually his Other, Jenova, Fuan, Fanuel, Jun, Saiyuri, Shura and more and sets the stage for the entire story. It’s not a single person’s story and the cast of main characters are many (meaning there isn’t a single “main character” because all of them are important in their own right). In AH’s past storyline, you learn about how the game board came to be, Jenova’s creation, Jenova and Fuan’s history, Fanuel’s history, Jun and Saiyuri’s history and more. It’s currently in progress (because as I’ve also stated everywhere, while I wrote this story in summary in ’04, I’ve only detailed certain parts here and there over the years. I’m now finally tackling it head on and getting it out of summary and into its intended written word).

The start of it can be found on ANGELHUNT.NET -> right HERE, or, for those who don’t like the white on black reading (I do, but it’s because it’s always fit AH’s aesthetic, which is why Angel Hunt is coded accordingly) STORY tagline. Since it’s all in parts, I’ll be updating as I’ve fleshed the parts out. It will eventually lead up to…

ANGEL HUNT PRESENT -> Angel Hunt’s present storyline takes place in modern day Earth (starting in 2004, to be exact) This storyline introduces Megumi, her brother Kazuya and her adoptive brother Jun who arrives at Jenova’s mansion as per her arranged marriage to Jenova via her family’s doing that is to take place on her 16th birthday.

This storyline is self contained for a year into its progress, then the Angel Hunt universe begins to intercross with with the Steifen universe, which belongs to Evphaedrielle (any referral to the Rabbit is me referring to her. I’m the Mouse, she’s the Rabbit =3). Once the Rabbit gets her own journal up, I’ll link it to this since a lot of our character interactions are ongoing and are both important to the modern day, Future Effects and all AU timelines.

Which brings me to note, again, the changes that have happened and are to happen in these timelines to hopefully clear up confusion for those who are familiar with all the years’ worth of Roleplay storylines between my Angel Hunt characters and many of the Streifen characters.

Now originally, my characters were branched out to roleplay with not only Streifen characters, but a few others’ universes as well, starting in uh… 2006? 2007? -some time along these dates (I’m not good with dates, I’ll have to dig them up and have a look see to confirm, but you get the idea), when Aki from Streifen made an off handed comment on a post in DoA (Den of Angels, back when it was a forum that allowed character to character talk) to Jenova. It set off a chain of events that basically crossed Angel Hunt (modern day) with Streifen (also modern day). The problem was that not only was permission for this not asked by the one doing it, some of the characters used were changed to suit the branch out and were not as they were originally written and intended to be. Aki, Kallixstus, Ikkairius et al, were amongst these characters. Also, while years worth of roleplay was a lot of fun and did allow me to flesh out some modern day personalities of my own characters (which until that time, I’d only had a basic idea of considering that all my storyline took place in the past), certain parts of the roleplay did end up derailing Angel Hunt a bit and due to certain circumstances and choices made by the RP partners then, things that should have happened in the canon AH storyline never did, and other things that should never have happened in it, did.

Then, years later, the one (or ones actually, since at that time, there had also been interactions with other characters in other people’s storylines too) began to lose interest in it all, as people often do, and trailed. This left me with some major character problems for a very long time, because by then my AH characters had been completely meshed with their outside characters and it was near impossible to separate them. I spent years in character silence looking for ways around having basically had my characters written into corners and just… couldn’t find a way to get them out. No matter what angle I looked at it from, no matter which direction I tried to steer them to so I could begin writing for my characters without these others again, I couldn’t find one that would work. The AH characters are not short lived beings, most have the potential to live for hundreds, thousands, and in Jenova’s case, forever if he’s not killed, years and when they love, they do it forever. When they hate, they do it forever. There’s no temporary anything with them, and making a character simply go away or go silent to get them back wasn’t going to work. And doing (what I consider to be) a cop out by killing the characters off would only make everything explode in a very bad way.

This led me to one inevitable outcome; a reset. Either I do a reset, or lose some of my most beloved characters in modern day forever to a dead end and silence. It wasn’t much of a choice.

I never wanted to do a reset though -basically acting like nothing had ever happened at all, especially after so many years of story that I truly enjoyed, which is one reason I spent so many years *not* writing for them while I tried my best to find a way around it. I mean, no matter the issues that took all those peeps from the roleplay field in the first place, I’ll never regret the fun that was had when they were going strong and I’ve never wanted to simply wipe the slates clean and pretend nothing happened between my character A and their character B. It’s just not how I roll.

But unfortunately, and with the personalities of my characters, and without the outside characters in play, I finally had to concede that wiping the slate clean was the only way I could go to get my AH cast back. For a while this left me with some conundrums though since certain events that happened during those years were triggered by such and such character and once that such and such character was gone, said event would no longer take place in the way it had originally gone down. This is still a bit of a puzzle that’s being worked through with certain key points, since not all of the outside characters and worlds are being taken off the canon table (as I’ll list below) and despite the certain outside characters that are being taken off the table, the events triggered by them and the ones that should have been triggered but weren’t, are still considered canon to the storyline, so it’s simply a matter of figuring out the how and why without the original factor there and doing so without changing the end game result.

So the modern day changes, or what is now considered canon to my story line, are as such ->

Beginnings -> in 2004, Megumi, Jun, and Kazuya move to Jenova’s mansion as per the familial agreement for Megumi and Jenova’s arranged marriage. This is the storyline where you get acquainted with the modern day thems, where Jun has his first boyfriend and breakup, where a visibly changed Fuan is introduced, where Fanuel makes his reappearance and where Taz, Jun’s best friend shows up and they all settle into living as one big happy family under Jenova’s four story Victorian roof. Except Taz, who only comes and goes for visits.

Things no longer canon, roleplay storyline no longer considered canon/is now defunct -> Streifen goes back to its original creator and writer, as do the characters. Aki and Jenova do not meet, Aki is not a part of the modern day storyline anymore beyond his original intended interactions with Sashi as designed by his creator, the Rabbit. Neither is Ikkairius, Kallixstus, Ceeley, or anyone else associated with that original roleplay interaction. Also included in this is Tien Jen and all Turtle House related characters. Fuan does not meet Tien Jen. Technically, this should include Kessari, but Fanuel originally met Kessari before he moved to TH, and his relationship with the original Kess is still considered canon to me since it was short lived and important to later events involving Grumpus. The modern day storyline will simply continue from the 2004 beginnings without Aki and Tien Jen. Also no longer canon, and characters who are now completely taken from the crossed storylines are Kallix and Ikkairius. No events will have happened between Kallix and Shura, those storylines no longer exist. Lastly for the no longer canon list, is Io.

So Io, who was originally only ever written as “Hesue’s Other” in the original storyline was entrusted back then to the same person who had been writing for Aki and co. They were given a very strict base set of guidelines for his character and his looks, since his character is very important to the AH story (he is Hesue’s Other half, after all), but otherwise they were allowed to not only name him, since Hesue’s Other never had a name in the past, but RP him in our combined stories. The guidelines given were followed… up to a certain point, then, as they had done with the Rabbit’s Streifen characters, they took him in a direction he never would have gone. As I mentioned above, this caused some key story points to never happen, while causing some things to happen in the story that never should have happened. Mainly, in one RP, Io did something he never should/would have done, which is seriously hurt Saiyuri and pretty much ignore his own fractured piece, and in turn, derail an entire very important storyline progress with Megumi. With the reset, Io will go back to what he was meant to be all along = simply Hesue’s Other. All storylines where he hurt Saiyuri are no longer canon, and he no longer has that name. He may eventually get a new name, but for now, he’s back to his original nameless self and everything done in those RP stories with him are also no longer a thing.

Things still canon, roleplay storyline still considered canon and active -> Zephyr, Sashi (belonging to the Rabbit and a part of her Streifen story line) and later, Cade, Bella and Liz (belonging to Hornedhalo and Brendon), all events related. Jun still meets Zephyr as he did, only the circumstances are slightly changed considering the original event that made their meeting possible involved Aki asking to have Sashi brought in for help. New canon is simply that instead of Megumi and Sashi becoming friends years after the original modern day events like they originally did, they will have met first, prior to the events that led to Jun meeting Zeph. It will be Megumi who asks Jenova to bring Sashi in for help now (which really, was the trickiest part in all this since Jenova won’t do shit for anyone save the very few, or rather, the *only* two people he either loves or respects. Fuan is the first, but obviously, since in the modern day storyline, Fuan is extremely sheltered, so there’s no reason he or Sashi would be friends, and then Megumi, who is probably the only person out there beyond Fuan that Jenova respects. Due to the friendship she and Sashi did actually strike up in later timelines, she was the only way to go with this. So now, instead of them meeting years later, they will have met years prior and it will be she who asks for help on his behalf, once again giving Zeph a reason to be in the mansion to meet Jun). Shura will still make his appearance in modern day (originally he was killed off in the past and I brought him into modern day to specifically interact in RP, but after all the years of him being active in modern day, I decided he needed to remain… for as long as he does considering Jenova decimates him eventually), only his interactions will now be with Nine. Hesue’s Other will still manage to get into the mansion (the how is still being worked out however, since his original method involved Ikkairius, who is no longer canon), and Fanuel will still be kicked out on schedule, and in turn, everything between him and Saiyuri that leads to him meeting Cade remains the same. Which leads to…

The Crossover Game -> Everything in this storyline, which is roleplay between my AH characters and Brendon’s characters remains the same, save some minor cosmetic changes to be made for when Saiyuri brings Bella and Liz into the AH universe to ask Jenova for a favor.

Future Effects -> these are all timelines between the Angel Hunt characters and the Rabbit’s Streifen Characters. Some changes, both in whole and cosmetic are to be made to accommodate the reset and they are as follows ->

Non canon -> FE10 (takes place ten years from 2004), which was a Year 10 storyline between Jenova and Aki. This is a timeline that no longer exists. FE20 (takes place 20 years from 2004) between Jenova and Aki was the storyline with Sen’s creation. Because Aki is no longer in the picture, obviously, there would be no creation of Sen (since he was created from Jenova and Aki’s combined genetics). Despite Sen being a co-created character, his entire reason for existing is gone with the reset, so the Y20 storyline featuring it is no longer canon. FE35 (taking place 35 years from 2004) between Jenova, Aki and Sen is also now no longer canon. The storylines with them no longer exist in the Angel Hunt world.

Canon -> FE20 (20 years from the original in 2004) with Lan and the Rabbit’s Sashi remains canon, save cosmetic clean ups where Aki had appeared. These will be re-written to exclude him. FE20 with Jun and the Rabbit’s Zephyr remain canon, the events have not changed. FE35 (takes place 35 years after the original in 2004) between Jun, Zephyr, Lan and Sashi remain canon. Also in Year35, Samara still exists, she, Kashen (her father), Lyrian (her mother), Aduel et al remain canon characters, however any involvement with Sen is now no longer canon and the FE35 storyline involving the events around her will be reworked to exclude him.

Lastly for the Angel Hunt roleplay crossovers is all the Alternate Universes, most of them between AH and the Rabbit’s Streifen. They are as such ->

Any AU with Jun, Zephyr, Sashi, Lan, Innic, Taz, etc are all canon (as canon as AUs can be, lol) and are ongoing. Nothing in them have changed or will be changed.

Any AU that had involved Jenova and Aki, Samara and Sen are no longer considered canon AUs. These storylines no longer exist.

So that’s the “what’s what” on Angel Hunt and the various roleplay storylines. The next post (which prolly won’t be made today, or will be? We’ll see. Most likely not though because late) will talk about Ish’talla, Eden, Bridge and The StoryBook World since this one has gone on far too long (and really, I’m not even sure I managed to actually clear anything up or whether I just made it more confusing, but eh, at least I tried?). I posted most of this already in eljay, but I’m posting again for prosperity and then copy-pasta’ing in my WordPress because.

Because story. And my characters. They are important to me, yo.