"Lawrence R. Mann " ********************** Data File to accompany REUNIONS ********************** by Ryan Mathews and Larry Mann Copyright (c) 1995 Larry Mann, Ryan Mathews This datafile is meant to provide additional information and background for the story REUNIONS. Note: YOU SHOULD NOT NEED TO READ THIS FILE TO ENJOY THE STORY! If you find that's not the case, please let either Larry or me (Ryan) know, so we don't make the same mistake in future stories. -------- CONTENTS -------- I. THE UNIVERSE II. THE CHARACTERS III. THE HISTORY IV. OTHER INTERESTING STUFF V. THE LEGALESE ------------ I. THE UNIVERSE ------------ 1. General Information REUNIONS takes place in the universe of the Dirty Pair. For those who may not be familiar with the Dirty Pair, here's a brief overview. The year is 2141 (2143 in REUNIONS). Thanks to inexpensive faster-than-light travel, the human race has expanded across the galaxy, inhabiting over 3,000 planets. Most of these planets belong to a loose confederation known as the United Galactica, or "UG". With such a large sandbox to play in, crime is a bigger problem than ever, and the most powerful organization that exists to deal with the problem is the Worlds Welfare Work Association, WWWA or 3WA for short. The 3WA is a semi-private corporation, run for profit but with tight ties to the UG government. A goverment, corporation, or individual with an insolvable problem may petition the 3WA for assistance. If the 3WA's Central Computer agrees that such assistance is necessary, help is sent in the form of a team of "Trouble Consultants" (also known as "TC's"). Such assistance is not free, however. The 3WA's top team of Trouble Consultants are the Lovely Angels, two lovely young women, Kei and Yuri. They have the top rating because they have never failed to solve a case. However, the public is terrified of them, because their cases invariably seem to end in the destruction of the building, city, or even the planet on which the action took place. For this reason, the media has dubbed them "the Dirty Pair", a name Kei and Yuri can't stand. In each instance of destruction, however, the Central Computer has absolved them of blame. 2. The various versions of the universe, and how we resolve them One of the problems with the Dirty Pair is that there are three inconsistent variations of the Pair's universe out there. The first version is from the original novels by Haruka Takachiho. In the novels, Kei and Yuri are often women first and agents second, worrying about their hair and nails in the midst of a case. The Lovely Angels actually have the psychic power of precognition in the novels. If they hold hands and concentrate, they can receive a vision that will help them to solve the case. Their pet, Mughi, is a creature they picked up on an abandoned planet with human-level intelligence and the ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy. The second version arrived when the Japanese animation studio Sunrise bought the animation rights to the Dirty Pair and changed them around a bit. Kei and Yuri seem much younger in the animated version, even if they're officially the same age. Kei gains a prediliction for very large guns. Yuri becomes an easily frightened girl, hating the dark, rats, and such scary stuff like that. Usually, Yuri is portrayed as the brains of the outfit, but in at least one episode, she comes off as an airhead, surprising everyone when she solves the case. Their psychic powers appear only once, and when they do, they are surprised, as if it had never happened before. Mughi is now a creature created by the 3WA, who has intelligence and the ability to pilot their ship, but has no electromagnetic powers. Some characters were added as well, the most notable being Goulet (my preferred spelling, usually spelled "Gooley"), their supervisor, and Dr. Kueblestein, a quirky scientist who gives the Lovely Angels the occasional useful item. The third version hit the streets of America in 1989, when comic-book creators Adam Warren and Toren Smith, unable to negotiate a deal with Sunrise to purchase the rights to create an American Dirty Pair comic, went around the animation company to the Pair's original creator, Haruka Takachiho. In order not to be sued by Sunrise, they created an almost completely original version of the Pair, based loosely on the original novels. Warren and Smith created a dark, cyberpunkish universe, where the mind can be easily translated to software and vice-versa, and people control computers via "interface sockets" behind each ear. Kei retains her love of large weapons, and gains a short temper similar to the animated series, but worse. Yuri gains a great deal of maturity, and is the thinker of the team, although she seems to enjoy violent situations just as much as Kei. Homage is payed to the Pair's psychic abilities, but they are explained away as a hoax played upon the 3WA by the girls. Mughi is exactly as he was in the novels. So what is a fan-fiction writer to do, especially when he likes all three versions? Larry grounded his stories firmly in the comic book universe. What I did was to create a sort of cross-over universe, incorporating elements from all three. Kei and Yuri's personalities are somewhere in between the comic book and the animated series. Yuri does most of the thinking, Kei most of the shooting. Yuri is very intelligent, but Kei isn't as stupid as she is often portrayed in the comic. The Central Computer believes they have psychic abilities, but they've generally been unable to make them work. Mughi was found on a deserted planet, but he was then enhanced by 3WA scientists. I kept Kueblestein from the animated series, and the interface sockets from the comic-book. The rest of the cyberpunk elements I played down, except in REUNIONS, which is a sequel to both a story from the comic book and Larry's cyberpunk Pair story EXPERIMENT 101-E, which necessitated a cyberpunk feel. So if you're a fan of the Lovely Angels and you think, "I don't remember that part," it's probably something from one of the other Kei's and Yuri's. ------------------ II. THE CHARACTERS ------------------ Here is some background on all the major characters in REUNIONS who have previous appearances in other stories. THE LOVELY ANGELS The 3WA's top team of trouble consultants. The Lovely Angels are named for their ship, the _Lovely_Angel_. (Or is it vice versa?) The media has given them another name, the "Dirty Pair", due to the tendency of their cases to end in disaster. It is inadvisable to call them by this name to their faces, however. Kei -- Kei is brash and impetuous, with very little patience. She's not much for planning, preferring to shoot her way out of a problem. Although she's intelligent, she's mentally lazy, hating memorization and preferring to let Yuri do the thinking. Nevertheless, she'll occasionally surprise everyone with a good idea. Age: 21 Height: 171 cm Weight: 58 kg Measurements (cm): 91-55-91 Hair: Red, cut short in the back and long on top, which she wears in a bushy mop combed forward over a headband. Eyes: Brown Yuri -- Unlike Kei, who's always impatient to get to the action, Yuri's mind is always on duty, looking for answers or formulating the best next step. Yuri generally displays greater maturity than Kei, but she loves to needle Kei and make her angry. One of Yuri's many talents is computers: she is an expert hacker. Yuri has a special weapon called the "Bloody Card", a razor-sharp metal card she can throw that will return to her hand. Age: 21 Height: 168 cm Weight: 54 kg Measurements (cm): 84-56-90 Hair: Black, worn long in the back past the shoulder, with forelocks over the ears. Eyes: Blue THE NIGHTRIDERS The NightRiders, a team established several years before Kei and Yuri joined the 3WA, were introduced in Larry's EXPERIMENT 101-E. Darryn and Rumiko are a more ordinary team of Trouble Consultants, in that disaster does not follow them everywhere like it does the Angels. The 'Riders share a CyberAudio link, linking the audio and speech centers of each other's brains, allowing them to communicate telepathically. They also share a secret: Darryn and Rumiko are lovers, a relationship frowned upon by the 3WA. Darryn -- Darryn is a fully trained ninja. The mental and physical discipline granted him through his training has served the NightRiders well. He has the ability to analyze any situation quickly and directly. He is extremely level-headed, and very difficult to upset. Darryn's hand-to-hand fighting prowess is equalled by few, and he eschews guns unless they are necessary. Age: 28 Height: 185 cm Weight: 96 kg Hair: Blonde, short in back to moderately short on top Eyes: Blue Rumiko -- If you've met Kei, then Rumiko will seem very familiar. When she was Kei's age, she behaved in much the same way. Many years of experience has calmed her down, however, and taught her to think a situation through before acting. It doesn't mean she has to like it, though. Although not a ninja like Darryn, she has a ninja "wetware" package installed that impressively enhances her fighting ability. (NOTE: Rumiko's first appearance was actually in my story, THE BALLAD OF LORD ROBIN, where she was a face in a crowd and had one line. It was Larry who defined who she was, however.) Age: 28 Height: 172 cm Weight: 55 kg Measurements (cm): 81-54-88 Hair: Black, short, worn straight, falls to collar in back Eyes: Brown THE LONELY HEARTS The Lonely Hearts are original characters created for this story. A young, inexperienced team of trouble consultants, they provide a contrast to the "grizzled veterans" on the other two teams. Like the Lovely Angels, they fly a ship named after them. Daphne -- Like Rumiko, Daphne actually had her first appearance in LORD ROBIN. In her only scene in that story, she emerges from a meeting room where a massacre of trouble consultants has just taken place, calls Yuri by name, and collapses into her arms, apparently dead. In this story, we get to know her as a strong-willed, confident leader. Age: 20 Height: 170 cm Weight: 54 kg Measurements (cm): 82-54-88 Hair: Red, worn straight and long, halfway down back, thick on top, no forelocks Eyes: Left green, right (artificial) blue-green Nene -- Unlike her Bubblegum Crisis namesake, this Nene is blonde. Like her namesake, Nene is a whiz at getting computers to do her bidding. Perky, friendly, and outspoken, Nene is so optimistic, she actually looks forward to meeting the Dirty Pair. Age: 19 Height: 162 cm Weight: 48 kg Measurements (cm): 73-53-75 Hair: Blonde, wavy, worn shoulder length Eyes: Brown OTHER CHARACTERS Shasti -- Shasti was introduced in Adam Warren's DIRTY PAIR II comic book series. Shasti was the result of a 3WA experiment in which the agency's scientific division tried to create the ultimate trouble consultant. Shasti was created fron "scratch", paintakingly engineered from human genetic material and born an adult. Shasti has several improvements over ordinary humans, however, among them enhanced strength and agility, a reinforced skeleton, hardwired reflexes, preprogrammed fighting skills, and a brain with enhanced computing hardware built in. She is absolutely deadly in combat; even the most skilled opponents rarely last more than a few seconds. One of Shasti's more controversial features is her intentionally split personality. She can literally change her persona at will, swapping in whatever personality is best suited to the situation at hand. Shasti made the switch from hero to villain shortly after having the personality of a sociopathic criminal uploaded into her mind, in order to facilitate his capture. She killed the man, attempted to kill all her partners, then escaped in his ship. Age: 10 (apparent age : 28) Height: 178 cm Weight: 57 kg Measurements (cm): 93-56-92 Hair: Dark brown, worn several centimeters below the shoulders, medium thick on top, forelocks. Eyes: Blue Deirdre -- Deirdre was introduced in flashbacks in the DIRTY PAIR II comic book series. Deirdre was Shasti's partner during her tenure as a Trouble Consultant. Larry fleshed out the character in EXPERIMENT 101-E, revealing her an Intel. Deirdre had an incredibly powerful microcomputer implanted in her brain, allowing her make calculations and connections between pieces of information with much greater speed and complexity than an ordinary human. Deirdre was shot through the back and killed by Shasti to cover Shasti's escape. As we will see, however, death is rarely permanent in this universe. (Statistics at time of death) Age: 20 Height: 163 cm Measurements (cm): 68-48-78 Hair: Blonde, straight and short Eyes: Brown Paul -- Paul was introduced in DIRTY PAIR II as Shasti's criminal partner, appearing in only a few frames, with no lines to speak of. He is fleshed out in detail in this story. Age: 32 Height: 180 cm Weight: 94 kg Hair: Black, thick, and combed straight back. Eyes: Hazel (NOTE: He was portrayed with a beard in DIRTY PAIR II, but has since shaved it off.) ---------------- III. THE HISTORY ---------------- Brief synopses of the stories that lead into REUNIONS. EXPERIMENT 101-E by Larry Mann ---------------- A.D. 2135: Newly licensed Trouble Consultant Deirdre was asked to participate in a special project: her new partner was a woman named Shasti. On the firing range, and on their first assignment (working with a veteran TC team, Darryn and Rumiko) Deirdre noticed Shasti's incredible skill and soon discovered she was a bioroid. Shasti and Deirdre made an excellent team, and became the #1 team of agents by 2137. But the path was full of problems: Shasti was repeatedly forced to submit to tests and implants at the whim of their supervisors, and protests by Deirdre had little effect. At one point they even tried to suppress Shasti's memories of Deirdre but the attempt failed. Deirdre confronted her superiors on this matter and the Central Computer acknowledged that some mistakes were made. The final proof of worth came in 2139, when the Earth's Defense Net was attacked by a computer virus which threatened to destroy the planet by turning the satellites inward. Against all odds, Shasti and Deirdre were able to trap and destroy the virus and prevent disaster. It looked as though they had finally proved that Shasti was just as much a person as anybody else and deserving of freedom, and that the 101-E Project would finally be brought to a close... (Unfortunately, as _DPII: Dangerous Acquaintances_ revealed, this was not the case...) DIRTY PAIR II: DANGEROUS ACQUAINTANCES by Adam Warren -------------------------------------- In this story, Kei and Yuri run into Shasti while on vacation on the planet Rocinante, eventually foiling her attempted theft of a "gravity well compensator" that would allow ships to warp directly into orbit around a planet, or even directly into the atmosphere. The compensator was installed in the hovering luxury spaceliner _Lyra_ at the time, and when the engines were warped away by Shasti, the ship crashed to the ground, causing the "_Lyra_ Disaster" referred to in REUNIONS. In a parallel storyline, told in flashbacks, we learn how Shasti first met the young Lovely Angels, and how Shasti made the transition from trouble consultant to villainess, as described in Shasti's character sketch above. THE BALLAD OF LORD ROBIN by Ryan Mathews ------------------------ The story begins when a madman, calling himself "Lord Robin" begins destroying fringe worlds, worlds on the edges of known space. He accomplishes this by apparently warping an enormous fleet of warships directly into orbit around the doomed world, then bombarding it until no one remained alive. This was curious, since warping into a gravity well is known to be impossible. Kei and Yuri are assigned to go undercover and infiltrate Lord Robin's fleet. Once they accomplish this, they learn the truth of how Lord Robin accomplishes his sneak attacks. Rather than warping directly into orbit about a planet, his ships use a new technology called "half-warp", in which the craft warps from one end, but doesn't materialize at the other, instead getting intercepted and shunted into a parallel dimension called "mock-space", in which they travel invisibly and intangibly, allowing them to sneak into orbit undetected. Events conspire to bring down Lord Robin, and he dies along with his fleet, but not before he's fallen in love with Yuri. (Note: Both THE BALLAD OF LORD ROBIN and EXPERIMENT 101-E are available on MegaZone's anime archive. FTP to ftp.std.com/archives/anime-fan-works/. Email megazone@world.std.com for more information.) --------------------------- IV. OTHER INTERESTING STUFF --------------------------- 1. A brief history of REUNIONS REUNIONS may just hold the record for the anime fanfiction story that took the longest to write. (Although I understand there's a chapter in Undocumented Features that will blow the pants off REUNIONS, if it ever appears at all.) Clocking in at approximately three years, it's history is so long and convoluted that neither I nor Larry remember all of it. Here's what we know for sure: Early in 1992, I got the idea to write a story that would explore the character of Shasti more deeply. Larry had already written one, EXPERIMENT 101-E, but it dealt with the period before Shasti's little "malfunction" depicted in DIRTY PAIR II. I wanted to take a look at her after, to see if there was still a redeemable woman hidden inside the monster the 3WA had made her. As it turned out, Larry was also planning a "bad Shasti" story, tentatively entitled EXPERIMENT 101-E, PART II. We got to talking, and soon decided that both concepts could be merged into a single story. We decided to collaborate. Unfortunately, I was involved in the painfully slow process of writing THE GAME ETERNAL, a short Dirty Pair novel avaiable on MegaZone's fanfic archive (hint, hint :-) ). THE GAME ETERNAL took me over two years to write, during which time REUNIONS was stuck in a slow developmental stage. Larry and I exchanged Megs of email, slowly fleshing out the story. Eventually, the story took a distinct enough shape for Larry to write up a plot outline. When I finally finished THE GAME ETERNAL in 1993, it freed me up to give my full attention to REUNIONS. Then my employer sent me on the road for almost all of 1994. Constantly away from my computer, I didn't get much done. I tried to write longhand, and managed one page. I just don't work well that way. When I finally got home in October of 1994, I threw myself into REUNIONS. And here it is, *finally*! If the truth be told, I'm a little worried about the effect the delay will have on the reader response. In 1992, when the story was conceived, it was a sequel to two recent and popular fanfic stories. Three years later, the memory of those stories has faded somewhat, under the deluge of fanfic that has come since. Also, REUNIONS has become somewhat the fanfic equivalent of vaporware; I used to get the occasional message asking "Where is REUNIONS??" I'd tell the person I was working on it, but I had no idea it would take this long. If any of you are still waiting, I hope it was worth it. I think it was. 2. How do two people write a fanfic? I'm not certain that mine and Larry's is the first collaboration to hit the net. Actually, given the volume of stories, I rather doubt it. I don't read that much fanfic, actually, not having enough time for it. So, anyway, I can't tell you how others work the collaboration process, but here's how we do it. Larry and I share an interesting relationship. I consider him one of my best friends, and yet I see him only once a year, at the Anime Expo. The rest of the year, we meet only through phone calls (I always call him, due to the three-hour time difference), and email. We've collaborated in various ways on at least seven projects. Our agreement is that whoever thought of the original idea gets to go first when the creators are listed, no matter who may put in more work. Thus REUNIONS is "by Larry Mann and Ryan Mathews", because he came up with the idea first. Incidentally, that's the only clue we have, since neither of us can remember the original idea. For REUNIONS, we spent most of a year hacking out this part and that part of the plot, giving each other suggestions, shooting them down. The hardest part was coming up with what exactly Shasti was up to. Larry initially saw a revenge plot, but I didn't think that Shasti would engage in any venture that didn't result in material gain. At last, we had a finished concept. It was decided early on that Larry would plot and I would write. Larry took what we had up to that point and converted it into a detailed plot outline. Working from this, I wrote the story. I had complete freedom to change anything during the writing process, as long as I let Larry know about it. For the most part, it followed the plot pretty closely until the end, which we'd had trouble with and was very vaguely defined. At that point, I threw the plot aside and finished the story myself. As I finished each "Stage" (Larry's idea), I emailed it to Larry, who performed a process I jokingly referred to as "Larrification": reformatting, adding times and places, and adding the quote at the top of each stage. He'd then email it back to me, for a final fine-tuning before sending it off to the net. Is the best method of collaboration? I have no idea. I do think, however, that it's important to keep the actual writing chores in one person's hands, to keep the style consistent. 3. Miscellaneous stuff -- Things that were my idea: Andrew, Nance, including the gravity-well compensator, Shasti's final plan. -- Things that were Larry's idea: The Lonely Hearts, Bydon, Ariake, the _Artemis_ -- Things that we have no idea who's idea they were: Sending Kei and Yuri after Shasti, Kuan Yin being blown up, Daphne having been in the Econ Corps. -- The first two scenes in the prologue are re-writes by me of the opening to Larry's initial script to EXPERIMENT 101-E, PART II -- I never knew how much Larry was into metal until he began quoting Ozzy and Judas Priest to begin stages of this story... --------------- V. THE LEGALESE --------------- You really can quit reading now. All the truly interesting stuff is above. This is the legal part, which I'm doing more out of respect to all who inspired us than anything else. Ahem. REUNIONS is Copyright (C) 1995 Larry Mann and Ryan Mathews. This is a work of fan-fiction, and as such violates many copyrights and trademarks. For that reason, this work may not be sold. Freedom to re-distribute this work is granted, provided that the authors are made aware of such re-distribution and that the above copyright notice is included. The Dirty Pair, Kei, Yuri, Mughi, the Lovely Angels, the _Lovely_Angel_, 3WA/WWWA/Worlds Welfare Work Association, Trouble Consultants, Central Computer, United Galactica/UG are trademarks of Haruka Takachiho. Planet Elenore, Goulet, Lucifer Crime Syndicate are trademarks of Sunrise. Shasti, Paul, Deirdre, LaCombe, Ayoob, microsoft-plugs, interface sockets, gravity-well compensator are trademarks of Adam Warren. Lord Robin, half-warp, Alderon, Serpiens Seven, F-242, are trademarks of Ryan Mathews. The NightRiders, Darryn, Rumiko, are trademarks of Larry Mann. All other characters and concepts appearing in this story are trademarks of Larry Mann and Ryan Mathews. - - - - - -- "Again and again the laws of | Larry Mann a.k.a. R-Type nature prove laws aren't enough." | - Thomas Dolby | Writer/Illustrator for hire