Hello! My name is Katelina, and welcome to Weekend Character Interviews. Using state of the art-mumbo-jumbo author magic, Jo has temporarily bent the laws of fictional space and time to allow various literary universes to converge long enough for me to ask different characters a few questions. Since I spend a lot of time in the Amaranthine series quizzing vampires on what they’re doing, where they’re going and why, Jo thought I would be the perfect interviewer.
Today we have Kin Diego from… Um… Hang on. What book are you from?
Arts and digital painting by Ven G Books.
Copyright © 2015 by Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr.
Diego: You go right on ahead and ask Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr. yourself. I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell you the rest of the books I’m featured in from the Crest of Dreams series. But as for my origin story; it’s a comic book named after my military project codename, Zue Beta, and based around the Crest of Dreams world.
K: There we go! Would you mind telling our readers a little bit about yourself?
D: The name’s Diego—Kin Diego and I’m a 21 year old teen super soldier killing machine designed to rip apart anything and everything in my path. I guess you can call me an experiment by the Damiroo military gone wrong. Before my parents were murdered, we lived in a city called Bisenti here in the Mnematode denomination in Damiroo. The only thing I love doing more than my hitting up some rapids and mountain climbing with my buddy, CJ, is taking my motorcycle for a spin. It’s perhaps the fastest machine on two wheels.
K: An experiment? And I thought my author was horrible. Can you tell us a little bit more about this?
D: Of course.Among the few people who survived the ATS-Dc epidemic in El-Versium 20 years ago my parents were one of them, and they gave birth to me. But as a child I wasn’t quite normal; having been born from two people who had been exposed to the virus I kinda grew immune to it—but that came with a few things: I was stronger than most people around me, my focus was sharp, I was a near-perfect human. And that’s when “they” decided to start rounding “us” up (people like me whose bodies had evolved to a super human state). They murdered my parents and thought to carry out experiments on me. They were trying to enhance me further beyond my physical abilities and now I live on borrowed time—whatever they did to me, it’s killing me. My cells and tissue are dying each time I exceed my compensation point and the only thing keeping me alive is a vaccine CJ created for me—what’d I say? Super genius! But whatever it is they did to me, they did it to the rest of the people like me. They chose to wage war against us and now we’re bringing the fight to them. We have to save the rest of the kids they keep locked up in their research facility and prevent them from taking any more of us.
K: You say “they”? Who are they?
D: The very same people responsible for turning me into this “thing” that I am—this violent beastly reflection I see smirking at me in the mirror. We have no leads as to who the real person is that is in charge of the teen super soldier experiments but rest assured we will find them, and when we do there will be bashing and tones of smashing.
K: Wow. I can’t even begin to imagine which is tough: dealing with what they made you, or with all of your past or – what would you say is your biggest challenge in this story?
D: Overcoming my rage. How am I supposed to not want to kill the very monsters that murdered my family, turned me into a reckless killing machine, and keep doing it to who knows how many more children around the world? I want to kill them so very badly, but is that really worth it? They wanted to turn me into a warrior and killer and if I do to them what they want me to do to the rest of the Domiciles then what’s the point of it all? I might as well go back and work for them.
There are a tone other challenges I face, though: dealing with the loss of my family, trying to find a way to stay alive in a dying body, and fighting against an organization I barely even know much about. But I blame Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr. for it all. I swear the day I get to see him I’ll punch him across the face—maybe that’ll make me feel a little better.
K: We could swap. I’ll kill your author if you kill mine. *looks nervous* Um, I mean, uh, we’ll talk later. Moving on, how do you feel you evolve during this story?
D: From the get-go I’m super pissed—but that’s exactly what my enemies want; I’m angry that my parents were murdered, I’m frustrated that I was injected with the newly improved ATS-Dc virus to enhance my body’s physical abilities yet it kills me more and more each time I exceed my compensation point, and I’m…afraid—that I’ll lose against my enemies; that they’ll take me back to the lab and have me lead the rest of their teen super soldier army in war against the other Domiciles; that I’ll die. But as the story goes on I loosen up a little after realizing that I’m not the only person who’s going to affected by this, and if I just sit around alone here in the forest countless innocent people will be killed by even more children that are in my exact situation. So I take up the responsibility along with my super genius buddy, CJ, and we move to taking down the organization spearheading this war and become the leader of the team of teen super soldiers.
K: Wow. What one event do you think really helps to shape your personality and future?
D: In all honesty, I believe it’s my parents’ death. Now before you kids go around and start having your parents murdered, let me explain a little. My world was happy before they died and at one point I always thought the story was all about me—that’s how my parents made it feel. I was their only child. But ever since I lost them I felt this gaping hole inside of me and I hoped to satisfy it with letting out my rage on anything that I feel deserved it. But I was wrong, I realized that the only way I was ever going to deal with it is becoming the man they always wanted me to be: strong, brave, sacrificing my own life for the sake and safety of everyone else around me—being responsible with the abilities that fate has given to me—that’s what drives me.
K: I have to ask, is that a cat hair on your shirt? Do you have pets?
D: One of CJ’s best attempts at keeping me from killing anything in my path was getting me a pet ferret and my only objective was to not kill it. It didn’t matter if I never fed it or didn’t clean it or walk it but so long as I never killed it then I would be a better control over my rage. By the way, the ferret is still alive and I’m starting to take a liking to it.
K: Oh, okay. I only asked because we once had an interviewee with a crazy cat…I didn’t want to relive that! But, anyway, that shows you have a soft spot. Does that extend to romance?
D: Emphatically yes, and I don’t get why! Like I said, I’m punching Venancio across the face for this. I mean really, c’mon? A romance of this magnitude? In the midst of a war that could reduce humanity to ashes again? Really, Venancio?
I have a friend I’ve been wanting to get together with for a really long time now, and she’s kinda a tech wiz. But I’m not just talking about any tech wiz, no this chic has a body of armor she engineered to help me and the rest of the teen super soldiers take down the people behind this madness. And as though that’s not enough, amongst the teen super soldiers is a girl just like me. She’s the one who freed me from my cell and risked her own escape for mine in order that I may go out, get help for the rest of the children trapped inside the facility. She was in the cell right next to mine, so we had a lot of time to talk. She has this insane belief that I’m the one who’s supposed to save the rest of the teens.
So now the fight is between the one that’s known me the longest and the one I relate with the most.
Arts and digital painting by Ven G Books.
Copyright © 2015 by Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr.
K: OooOOoooO! Triangle much? Your author is evil.
D: Yeah. That’s why when the series is over I’m going to start looking for a cure for this super human virus that they injected us with that’s killing us. And also I’m leading a troop to look for Venancio and bring him back to me alive!
K: Right? These authors think they’re God or something! We’re just supposed to put up with unbelievable scenarios and horrible things happening! I wish I could just escape to Hawaii or Tahiti sometimes. What about you? if you could have anything in the world, what would it be?
D: That’s a tough one. Well, it would have to be between saving the world from going into a state of total chaos and being normal. I’ve always wanted to be normal, but someone has to save the world and as my dad used to say “if not me, then who else would I trust enough to dump this responsibility on and expect to win?”
I do want to be normal, don’t get me wrong, and I’d give anything in the world to have that. Maybe that way I would have never lost my parents. But I have a responsibility to carry out, and though it’s sad that I lost people so dear to me it would be pointless to start crying around about it and let the world down because of my sorrows. So what I want the most in the whole world, is to win!
K: Not a bad thing at all. Though it looks like we’re getting short on time. If you could say anything to your readers, what would it be?
D: Don’t become a villain, otherwise start expecting a visit from me and it’s not gonna be pleasant.
K: And lastly, any special message for your author:
D: Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr. I swear to God I’m going to punch you across the face
K: Yep, that is about what I figured. Thanks to Diego for stopping by today. You can find him ZUE BETA by Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr. Visit the author’s website at https://cadlegomani.wordpress.com and the Crest of Dreams series Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/crestofdreams/
And a special thanks to Venancio Cadle Gomani Jr for playing along!
If you’re an author and would like your character(s) to be interviewed by me, then check out this very cool page that has all the details:
Amaranthine by Joleene Naylor 