Incidentally, the Dies irę that turns up from time to time in Eyrie works is part of the Catholic Requiem's text.

85 The Lisberger protocols are named for Steven Lisberger, director of the 1982 movie TRON. The visual style of virtual environments so rendered, of course, looks like the System did in that film.

91 I'm not sure where this impulse came from on Shiori's part, but whatever the motivation, it hasn't been followed up, for reasons that become obvious later in this movement.

Don't look at me, I didn't write the scene, I just illustrated it. PJM

105 There was going to be a love scene between two programs in TRON, but it was omitted after filming but before post-production. The description in the novelization implies that it would've had kind of a "Decker and Ilia become One With V'Ger" vibe going on.

123 The FairlightOS textures are sort of Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface-ish, probably because that's how Phil made them look when he did the artwork that ties into this scene.

171 Because, let's face it, like I need an excuse to draw Shiori in skintight datafilm. PJM

173 The idea for the Mini-Smiths was inspired by a fan-made Agent Smith UFO Catcher Doll that we found on the 'net, combined with the appearance of 'Agents' that assist Major Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell: Man-Machine Interface and Stand Alone Complex. It was just too cute to leave alone. :) PJM

187 After the Strong Bad clip with SB yelling "Stiny! Get me a danish!" hit homestarrunner.com, "Give me a danish" became EPU studio channel slang for "give me channel operator privileges," because older IRC clients denote channel operators by prepending @ to their names. It was a short hop from there to "get me a danish" being 25th-century hacker slang for "I want root privs on this system."

Ah yes, Get Me a Danish. One of my more satisfactory mergers of Bryce 5 and Photoshop. The data-disks were rect-to-polar translations of fiddly computeresque block graphics. Shiori was drawn and colored first, and then she and the data disks were put into Bryce as 2d objects - Shiori as a placeholder, the data disks for the final result. The treelike data conduits are actually trees created in Bryce (there's an actual tree-generation tool in 5 that wasn't in prior versions) without any leaves added and rendered with a glass material. One rendering pass was done so that Shiori and the Smiths (sounds like a band, doesn't it?) would reflect correctly off the more transluscent/reflective objects, and then another without them there so that the final image would have an empty space for the master detailed coloring to be put in. PJM

224 Indeed, it usually is; in the real world, a good many tricks people use to gain unauthorized access to systems involve overrunning buffers on the listener ports for harmless network services.

232 Apparently the Computer Emergency Readiness Team still exists in some form in the 25th century.

249 TO&E: Table of Organization and Equipment, the master list of all the IPSF's stuff, who has it, and what it's for.

251 There are certain disadvantages to having an AI so sophisticated she can think and feel like a flesh-and-blood person... such as the fact that she can screw up like a flesh-and-blood person too.

286 Agent Smith wasn't originally going to be able to do this, but the image was too much fun not to go with once it had occurred to us.

308 Love the Matrix movies or hate them - and I confess that most of the time I feel a little of both - there can be no denying that Hugo Weaving is the man. At least not around me.

315 This means that Shiori has put in an average of about seven hours a day on him - which would indeed tend to explain the near-self-destruction of her college career, especially if you consider the fact that she's cut back the time she's been spending on the project quite a lot since the previous Christmas break.

378 Like his twin sister Ayla, Garth Ranzz of Winath (another character borrowed from the 1990s incarnation of Legion of Super-Heroes) has the ability to generate and control powerful bursts of electricity. Any unsuspecting person assuming him to be unarmed and trying to pull something would be in for a very rude surprise.

435 Note that Sergei rates higher than Peril, Lesser Mazinger, and Tiny Robo. PJM

Well, yes. Serge is considered a security officer. --G.

543 "Hello, apple; call me Adam." A Biblical reference, as befits Kurt's seminary education, and probably the only thing Chuck Austen ever wrote that I liked well enough to steal.

814 People sometimes ask me how Gryphon and Kei can keep things fresh after 400 years of involvement without resorting to Really Weird Kinks. The answer is simple: volume.

(Some days I wonder if there's anybody out there who's even old enough to get that joke.)

821 The 3WA Master Computer was a constant source of bemusement and vexation to that organization's agents in the Dirty Pair TV and OVA series, mainly because of its impenetrably arbitrary habits when it came to assigning missions.

886 Prozium is a psychiatric medication that flattens emotional responses in humans. It's the government-mandated drug of choice in the 2002 film Equilibrium.

1075 This scene was originally written for a completely different project that never got off the ground. I was very amused when I suddenly found myself with a setting where the same two characters were sharing an office for entirely different reasons, giving me an opportunity to use it.

1225 I have nothing to say, save that thank the powers they have each other now. PJM

1237 Because we wanted a name that was a recognizable parody of Phantasy Star Online, whence the base concepts for UF-Ragol came, of course.

1347 One of our submarines is missing tonight
Seems she ran aground on manoeuvres
One of our submarines...

1424 "Street name. Need street name. ... Belkin. Good enough." I suppose if I had a different brand of surge suppressor near my computer desk, that'd be ProPower Circle.

1437 Mignola Point is named for Hellboy's creator, Mike Mignola, for obvious reasons.

1473 In UF, Hellboy was summoned to the mortal plane by Federation Nazis on the planet Niogi during the latter part of the Exile, and Kei was one of the people responsible for taking him into society - filling, more or less, the role played by the Torch of Liberty in Hellboy's origin story, as it was told in Seed of Destruction. She was his first friend, and later, when he was older, his first love. It didn't work out, but their parting wasn't bitter, and he is naturally very upset by her loss - doubly so because, though Hellboy is no stranger to loss, he never could have imagined that she, of all people, would be so suddenly taken.

1492 Yes, the girl is Illyana Nikolayevna Rasputinya, Pete Rasputin's sister. No, we haven't got round to explaining where she came from or what she's doing with Hellboy.

1683 Well, she's a deputy chief. There are several, one for each division. Yuri's the most senior of the bunch, though.

2091 I'm not certain exactly when Utena told Gryphon the Complete Story of Her Life, Including the Apocrypha, as it were, but it's apparent from this line that she did; she's talking about going to the amusement park with Akio, and all that that entailed.

2097 Indeed, in a way, she has.

2185 Colan Boulevard is named for early Daredevil artist Gene Colan, who also worked on many of the early Iron Man stories.

2250 Elza's last name is borrowed from volleyballer Karch Kiraly, for absolutely no reason; I just happen to have heard of him and filed his name away in my mental file of Unusual Names.

2377 Q-Boss appears in the first episode of Giant Robo: The Night the Earth Stood Still, in command of a large force of Black Hoods who are trying to capture Dr. Shizuma. It is unclear in the source whether he's a unique agent or simply the holder of a higher rank in the corps of hooded Big Fire agents. In UF, I've opted for the second interpretation; Q-Bosses are low-ranking Big Fire officers, roughly the equivalent of army lieutenants.

2474 Kate's general look and schtick in this sequence, along with this specific line, come from the Phantasm, the antagonist in the animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. This hearkens back to a very old design for an adult Kate we had kicking around the studio many years ago, before anything like the Symphonies were ever considered. That version adopted the Phantasm persona under similar circumstances, but ended up staying with it, becoming a long-standing scourge of the New Avalon underworld. She was an altogether unhappier and colder character than the one who evolved during the Symphonies, and her story makes a good case for not always going with your first impressions when designing characters.

A vestige of this version, who would have worn the full Phantasm mask as part of an armored costume based on a hardsuit, lingers in Symphony supplemental materials: Kaitlyn's film production company, which makes the New Century Zatoichi films in conjunction with Kanzaki Studios, is called Phantasm Films, and its logo, which appears at the bottom of the Zatoichi vs. the Crimson Lizard poster on the Symphony General Reference Images page, is the Phantasm's skull mask. (In fact, I PSP'd it out of a frame capture from the Mask of the Phantasm DVD, rather cunningly, if I do say so myself.)

There was also a rendition of Kate-as-the-hardsuit-Phantasm that I once saw, drawn by Larry Mann; and I can say for certain that that version of Kate was not] the much happier Kaitlyn Hutchins we've come to know and love. PJM

2512 Well, that explains where he's been disappearing to; he's been following her, trying to figure out how he could intervene. After all, if anyone in Kate's peer group knows the signs of an unhealthy obsession that may lead its victim to ruin, it's Saionji.

2645 As seen in Rite of Passage.

2745 I am occasionally stricken with images of such a cinematic extravagance that I despair of capturing them in text. This is one of those, though I think I ended up doing a decent job converting it to words.

2834 If there's a fatal flaw to Kaitlyn's makeup, it's that she's more than willing to shoulder a burden that's better spread out among those who care for and support her, in the belief that it wouldn't be right to burden them with her troubles. PJM

2906 Marvel Zombies may recognize Ambassador Kelly as the anti-mutant senator from the old X-Men comics. In UF, he's part of Bill Clark's cabal, dating back to the days when they were both members of the Earth Alliance Assembly. Kelly was Clark's predecessor as Federation Senator from Earth, a role he will shortly resume following Clark's ascension to the Federation presidency.

2936 Geoff Depew suggested the name of this worthy; he's a reference to former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who was, when this story was written, a reasonably credible candidate for the 2004 presidential election.

2939 The late Queen Shiva was Asrial's mother and King Jerka's widow. Ineligible to take the throne herself when her husband was assassinated, she became the Queen Mother upon Asrial's coronation. She died of natural causes in the late 2000s. As Lord D'hiin's remarks indicate, she remains beloved of the Salusian public; among Salusian royalists she is viewed as an icon of forbearance and motherhood, having put up with Jerka for most of his life and borne the daughter who many would come to see as Salusia's greatest monarch.

2978 Yeah, it's Boots the Chemist. Why should all the franchise stores to survive into the 25th century be American? There are HMVs and Virgin Megastores all the hell over the place in the FI-era UF universe, too.

3047 Based on a Tele owned by a friend of mine.

3188 True UF fans will know that this is Bell's favorite song.

3217 This is not just any Gibson ES-345. More on this later.

3338 Geoff Depew suggested Olaf's cameo.

Now, all we need is to have somebody attend a BotCon where Peter Cullen is a guest, and convince him to sing "Dare" into a tape recorder... PJM

3346 Don and Kitty's band was the prototype, the very first fictional band I put together out of characters in a story I was working on. It was a satisfying enough concept that it turned up again and again over the years. The key Wedge Defenders had one in the Golden Age of the WDF - two, actually, counting both Card No. 1 and the Clay Pigeons - and of course Kate's Art of Noise is the spiritual descendent of all of them.

3380 This song (the Smithereens' "A Girl Like You", from their 1989 album 11) might as well be entitled "Love Theme from Gryphon's Old Marvel Super Heroes Campaign".

3402 Another untold tale, this from the school year before Wounded Rose, that I hope to tell in greater detail one of these days.

3414 The Uncanny X-Band, naturally.

3545 No one can ever accuse "Workin' for the Weekend" of needing more cowbell.

3579 Kaitlyn very much enjoys it when the band plays "Who Do You Love?", though she's linguistically particular enough to shake her head a little sometimes and mutter under her breath, "Whom do you love, George."

3592 No, "Killiecrankie" isn't the only song Rahne knows, it's just the one people always seem to want to hear, presumably because it brings her intolerably sexy accent into full relief.

I faught on land, I faught at sea
At hame I faught me auntie, O
I met th' Devil an' Dundee
On th' braes o' Killiecrankie, O
And ye had been whare I hae been
Ye wad nae be sae cantie, O
An ye had seen wha' I hae seen
On the braes o' Killiecrankie, O

In fact (rather in the mold of her friend Kitty's favorite author, Emma Bull), Rahne has a band of her own; they're not as huge as the Art, to be sure, but Aconite is a fairly popular act in the Claremont coffeehouse scene.

3617 Who can resist Perfect Tommy references around Miki? Not Kate, that's for sure.

3648 This is presumably part of Queen Kaliand'r's cultural legacy.

3708 There are many version of "Won't Get Fooled Again". I cannot recommend highly enough the version from the original 1985 Live Aid megaconcert, and it is this version that plays in my mind whenever the Art cover the song.

3852 This "Big Red" moment brought to you by your hyperactive imagination. PJM

3878 This is not the very famous J.S. Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor that's always turning up in horror movies (and behind the "Worst Person in the World" segment on Countdown with Keith Olbermann); that's BWV 565. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, "Dorian", BWV 538, is a more complex piece, and, alas, virtually unknown to the general public. It is one of Kate's favorite pieces to play on a pipe organ, though she has to be in just the right mood to make it really work.

3927 Some scenes cannot be done justice in pictures, only words can sum up the feelings. This is one of them. PJM

3936 The Althenian habit is based on the costume worn by Luna in Lunar: Silver Star Story, since the name of their goddess, Althena, is borrowed from the name of one of the divinities of that game's world.

3972 A French-Canadian beer, one of several colorfully-named products of the Unibroue brewing company. Its name means "The End of the World" in French - thus Juri's bemused reaction.

3982 Pernod is the most famous brand of an anise-flavored French liqueur called pastis, which was developed as a legal alternative to absinthe after that drink (made with poisonous wormwood and believed to be psychoactive) was banned in France.

4057 Ragulin has inherited the musical equivalent of one of the great named swords, the Excalibur of guitars: Lucille, the axe of the legendary bluesman B.B. King. He may, in fact, have received the instrument from an avatar of King himself.

4092 I enjoyed doing Ragulin's dialogue for this scene very much.

4118 And now, the healing is complete. Or at least as close as it's going to get at this moment. PJM

4200 Eiko's title hearkens back to the tagline used on old Captain Marvel comics, in which the good captain was described as "Earth's Mightiest Mortal".

4303 Marty himself added that bit to the scene, though it was apparently as much a surprise to his UF avatar as it was to both versions of me.

4522 Only the second Symphony story to have a post-credits sequence, after the First Symphony's The Courtship of Princess Dessler.

Okay, reading this again reminded me of an image I had the first time I read this bit.
I have attempted to render it using the GIMP, but I have no skill.
The resultant image sucks, and I hate it, but I present it here in the hopes that somebody with actual talent can take the concept and do something worthwhile with it:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c395/Polychrome/Hellboy.jpg?x

I'll comment on the rest of this story when I'm better rested.
Polychrome

"How do we stay in business, you ask?"

Yes?

Dan B,
approximately G's age.

I didn't realize that Elza was probably Salusian until after I had gone back and re-read this scene more closely after my first reading of the story; my original impression was that she was of Hungarian descent. Salusians do seem to have a fondness for Terran and Terran-sounding names. Is this a case of parallel evolution, or is it more like the same impulse that caused Salusians to adopt ice cream as virtually a national dish?

2474 Kate's general look and schtick in this sequence, along with this specific line, come from the Phantasm, the antagonist in the animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. This hearkens back to a very old design for an adult Kate we had kicking around the studio many years ago, before anything like the Symphonies were ever considered. That version adopted the Phantasm persona under similar circumstances, but ended up staying with it, becoming a long-standing scourge of the New Avalon underworld. She was an altogether unhappier and colder character than the one who evolved during the Symphonies, and her story makes a good case for not always going with your first impressions when designing characters.

Indeed. I don't think I'd like Kate nearly as much, or that Utena would either, if you'd gone with that initial design. Do you still have a backstory for that original version lying around someplace? It might not make pleasant reading, but it'd certainly be interesting if only to compare and contrast with the Kate we all know and love.

-Joe-

indeed... which is a shame, as it finally got to me and I did some tracking down of it.

if the rest of you want to know what it sounds like, I was able to find an mp3 recording of it here:
http://centripetalnotion.com/media/music/BWV538-II.mp3

you can also find quite a few YouTubes of it by using BWV538 as your search term.