Slayers TIME Author's Notes
By Mox Jet
Hi, everyone. I don't know what it was that caused you to click on the link to this story, but not only am I grateful you did, but hopefully you'll be grateful, too. I figured I needed to take a moment and mention some things to you all before I begin, and this seemed the best place to do it.
This is my first Slayers fiction. Granted, I've been writing Lina Inverse's character for a good solid three years now (I often lift her personality and insert it into a character from whatever story I'm working on at the time) but this is my first Slayers story. It was probably because I constantly give Lina some form of cameo that I decided it was quite possibly time for me to write a Slayers novel.
I've been in love with this series since about freshman year in high school, and now, I find it a wonder that I never penned down a story about it before. Perhaps it's a good thing, as I'm a much better author than I was back in the day, but in another sense, it's kind of sad that I've had a lot of built up energy towards Slayers that never really got used. Luckily for you all, I'm going to try and focus all that energy into this story, tentatively titled Slayers TIME. With that, I'm going to set for a few disclaimers and basic story fundamentals.
This plotline takes place somewhere between Slayers NEXT and Slayers TRY, mostly because I wanted to make sure I still had things like the Sword of Light to play around with. Lina is probably about seventeen years old, has been traveling with Gourry for approximately a year and a half, and defeated Fibrizo only a few months ago.
I will try to make this story as close to cannon as possible, but unfortunately, I don't speak Japanese and only have access to what translated materials I can get at. Mostly, it's based on the TV shows. I also have a semi-full knowledge of the OVAs as well as whatever I could scrap up of the original short stories that have been translated. Before you start reading, however, realize that a lot of this is my interpretation of what happened, and if there is some guidebook out there that I don't know about that contradicts me, I apologize. Take the story for what it is, not what it isn't.
On another note, I did watch the dubs, and even after seeing the subs as well, I have to say I prefer the English voice acting, for the most part. However, I also noticed that the characters are portrayed a little differently by the different voice actors (and actually, Lina's dialect is delivered differently by Lisa Ortiz and Crystal Martinez, the two English voice actors). I will stay as close as possible to what seems to me as the best possible characterization. There are a lot of bad Slayers fanfics out there, and when they're not bad because of poor writing/plot, they're bad because of poor characterization. A lot of fanfic authors need to realize that they can't simply take their favorite characters and make them act how they want them to act. Good characterization is, in my opinion, the key to a good fanfic, so please, if anything, tell me how I'm doing in that department.
That pretty much wraps up my introduction. I reserve the right to add to this section as I feel is necessary, so check back here every once in a while. Other than that, I appreciate your coming here and I hope you enjoy my work.
Peace out,
-Mox