Appendices

WARNING: Massive spoilers await beyond this point. Read at your own discretion.
 

introduction / technical / background information / annotations / characters / timeline / character names / glossaries / fun extras / faq / notes /
 

Introduction

Just when you thought it was safe to read my website again, I do something like this.

Just when you thought it was safe to read crossovers again, yeah, I do something like this.

Ha no Ie now qualifies as the second fanfic I have written that demands italics for its name as opposed to the quotation marks of short stories. It is the size of a book, and as like my previous large work, Ocean Soul, it is completely unpublishable due to its nature as fanfiction, however tenuously it may be considered as such.

It has been recommended to me numerous times that I attempt original projects if I wished to put so much time and effort into writing something. And, I have to concede, I've tried. And I'm not displeased with what I've come up with. It's just that sometimes, for some things, it's fanfiction that piques your interest the most.

So that's why I wrote someone no one will ever read, I'm sure.

No, that's not being self-deprecative, as it happens. If you must know, my muse, Cassandra, seems to have a knack at crossovers above all other subjects, which, while beneficial in being able to successfully merge two seemingly unlike concepts, limits your reader base significantly. My last two great fanfiction successes have both been crossovers, granted, but in both instances I was serving a need for (purportedly) good literature that just wasn't being met by any other sources. Here, I'm crossing over a fairly unpopular series of videogames with an amazing novel that I can not even hope to ever compare to. Danielewski is an author whom I envy very much. If you have read this fanfic without having read his novel, I highly suggest you look into rectifying that.

As for those who have come to this having read the novel but not encountered .hack, I fear this may not have been quite so interesting for you. That's the unfortunate danger of such an adaptation.

And for those who have experienced both, you're a rarity.

That, you see, has been my dilemma. When I crossed over Good Omens with Dogma for "One Big Happy Pantheon", I did not fear for the result, because I knew there was a good chance that people coming across it would be familiar with both. Likewise, when I crossed over Pirates of the Caribbean and The Princess Bride (and later other things too) for Ocean Soul, I knew that the vast majority would know the former and at least a good percentage would know the latter. But expecting someone to, on one hand, know a set of unpopular games/anime/manga inside-out and upside-down, and on the other hand know a novel that is inside-out and upside-down, is asking a bit much.

So if you've come this far, whoever you are, I thank you. It may have been difficult, it may have been a strain, it may have been horribly confusing, but you made it. And hopefully the one thing it wasn't was boring.

~K.A. Rose
Craptor Productions
karose.com

17 June 2004, 21:03
 

Technical

start date: 26 April, 2004

end date: 17 June 2004

Written entirely in Netscape Composer 4.7. (Viva la obsolete browser!)

Best viewed at 800x600 resolution in Netscape or Internet Explorer in Times New Roman 12-point font. Use other resolutions, fonts and browsers at your own risk.

Made for karose.com. Link free, but do not redistribute without express permission. (This includes print-outs.)

Final file size (minus this page): 824kb

Word count: 91,985
 

Background Information

    Genesis for this project began with .hack//INFECTION, when the original idea came about during one of the darker dungeons (one of those in which you have to rely on your map exclusively). I can't say for certain, because ideas for things like this never tend to explicitly explain their own development, but I believe it's mostly result of a net friend of mine, Delphine Kiminsu, who was the one to interest me in House of Leaves and also happened to be a fan of .hack herself. Though she and I were not communicating much during the fanfic's development, it's safe to say this fact probably played upon my mind subconsciously.

    Initially it was thought to work best with an original cast of characters, probably a party of three acting as the primary explorers, and not to involve familiar faces from the canon at all. Even further, the characters involved would have had no connection to counterpart roles in the novel, allowing me to work from scratch on characterization. However, as I continued to toy with the idea while moving on to //MUTATION, it occured to me that Kite's role as an access character (as with all RPG protagonists, he is partially the personality of the person playing him) would make for ease not only in writing but in reading for others as well.

    Once it was established that Kite would be best as the protagonist, and he could also serve as the primary Navidson figure --for I knew the design would work better, too, if I retained some of the roles from the novel--, I was very much free to pick and choose the rest of the cast however I wished. I was very much in love with Sora thanks to //SIGN, so I tried him out for size in the first few chapters as a Reston figure. When I found he worked both in how he would react inside the house and how much potential there was to develop something between him and Kite, I knew I wanted to keep him, and turn him into more of a Tom character. Moonstone and Sanjuro were both picked because of how hardy they were more than their relationship to the Holloway team members, and in fact it was only after I'd imbedded Sanjuro far into the story that I discovered in //OUTBREAK that he was an American, thus making him even more useful in connecting to other characters that could serve as a bunch of sacrificial lambs the Holloway Team. Elk provided means of introducing a hacking angle, the story's counterpart to the novel's use of extreme-environment gear and camera jargon, and BlackRose was... well... her. In all honesty, the original plan with BlackRose was not with the ambition of a Karen Green counterpart at all, but once I discovered that was essentially her direction, everything around her just seemed to click.

    The technical aspects of the story were a bit more troubling. I knew, or at least I thought I had a decent working knowledge of computers, but this serves as the first fanfic in which I had to put any of it to the test. Most strenuously, as it happened. Fortunately, I was allowed to be vague in this setting, as it fell in line with the mood of the story. For when research was necessary, I usually queried some basic information on Wikipedia or quizzed my friend Bitstream, who also served as my beta reader, and at one desperate 3 AM his boyfriend too. Given more pre-planning time I would have certainly sought out some more resources, as I had for developing Ocean Soul, but seeing as I had started writing even before finishing the videogames, the notion of spending an extra few weeks on research (as with my aforementioned previous outing) just seemed infeasible. Anyway, Bitstream didn't complain much.

    As always there were a number of coincidences that popped up while writing. News articles that seemed very much in sync with what I was writing about, friends who would ask weird questions I'd not have known the answer to if not for my research conducted for this fanfic, and the like. I also discovered that I was successfully predicting things from later in the canon based on a limited amount of information available, which, though present in some other stories, really came to a head in this piece.

    Overall, at least I didn't go temporarily blind this time.
 

Annotations

(Because this entire fanfic is a psuedo-remake of the original novel, all points linking like events, character comparisons, et cetera, will not be annotated.)

"He had more experience under his belt (+15 Evade) than most players combined..."

If we're to assume the PS2 representation of The World is actually a far cry from the real deal the characters are able to experience, it would follow that they have far more equipment options. Plus, being a tabletop gamer, I couldn't resist a reference.

Obviously by this point the mp3 filetype would be more than obsolete, but the joke would fail if I tried for accuracy.

Pair of lines stolen from the protagonists of The Road to El Dorado, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, my two favorite screenwriters. This is now my second fic where I've made a point of referencing Elliott-Rossio films (the other fic was Ocean Soul).

Paraphrased line of Hannibal Lecter, from The Silence of the Lambs:

"Doctor Chilton does enjoy his petty torments..."

Howard Roark, protagonist of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, is an idealist architect. One of his major pet peeves is the arbitrary mixing of architectural styles.

Erwin Schrödinger once used a theory, since dubbed "Schrödinger's Cat", to illustrate the misleading properties of quantum physics. The theory goes, that if you place a cat in a box so to seal it completely, and include within the box a container of poisonous gas with a 50% chance of being released and killing the cat, quantum waveforms start getting a bit fuzzy. Because it is just as likely that the gas was or wasn't released, and there are no means by which to observe the result, the cat is effectively alive and dead at the same time.

Adamantine, though it sounds like a very feminine and frail name, actually means "hard as a diamond." Anyone aware of the Moh's Scale of Hardness should know that this means pretty much unbreakable.

Incidentally, no, Adamantine isn't really a Mary-Sue so much as a cameo. Adamantine appears in another story in the works about a romance developing between PCs of an MMORPG. But since I'll probably never finish that, I figured she ought to have some exposure.

In computers, different units of measurements are assigned to the quantity of bytes in a piece of data. 1024 bytes make a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes make a megabyte, and 1024 megabytes make a gigabyte. This much most computer users are relatively familiar with, because most PCs possess hard drives still measured in gigs. However, more and more on P2P programs we are seeing the shared data represented in the next unit of measurement, terabytes, which are, predictably, 1024 gigabytes. Given the common abreviation of megabytes = megs and gigabytes = gigs, it would make sense that the next unit, probably commonplace by this point in the future, would be abbreviated as well.

(For the curious, the next four units are: petabyte [1024 teras], exabyte [1024 petas], zettabyte [1024 exas], and yottabyte [1024 zettas]. These are typically only used when dealing with supercomputers.)

The title translates as "The Legend of Rheingold." Das Rheingold is a famous opera by Richard Wagner, chronicling events occuring to members of the Nordic pantheon. This would explain why this manga includes references in German, as well as samples of German folklore, such as the Lorelei legend that Sora mentions earlier.

As for the other details in the manga's description: Shonen Weekly is an actual Japanese manga publication, and many of its series get ported over into the U.S. distributor Shonen Jump. ("Shonen" means "boy" and refers to comics designed for that audience. "Shojo" is the female equivalent in both respects.) Rheingold Densetsu is also purportedly written by a pair of famous manga creators, a fact it shares with .hack's own genesis (it's touted as the brainchild of the creators of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell).

Despite Kite's misconceptions, this is a French film by famed director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and has nothing to do with samurai. In truth it is a very surreal (we're talking Terry-Gilliam's-Brazil-on-crack surreal) steampunk film about a destitute city's population of ophans in their struggle to defeat the mad scientist that has been kidnapping and killing their numbers.

The scene Sanjuro refers to involves two Cyclops (the gruntmen of the villain), naturally blind men who rely on Borg-esque cybernetic attachments to see. One Cyclops, in a fit of flea-induced murderous rage (probably hard to explain), murders his partner first by disconnecting his own eye gadget, then interfacing it with his eye, that the victim would be able to see himself from his killer's perspective. Pretty sadistic, actually.

The Immovable Rod is the DM's magic item of choice in every single D&D game I've ever attended. Ever.

Tim the Enchanter, played by John Cleese, is a character from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, cult classic legend. Also of note is the description of the 'mighty strongman' as having a pair of thumbs for biceps, the second of several Road to El Dorado references.

Most of this I got from Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, where, in the course of debunking some prevalant misconception, he discusses the physical shape of the universe, going so far as to describe it as "like a saddle." The idea that space is so designed that if you went in one direction you would literally never, ever come back to where you were is absolutely terrifying to me, of course, so I'm proud that this is one thing I happened to contribute to the story. Or rather, I wish Danielewski had included it and scared me further.

Sigma notation is a format in math with which to create series following a set pattern, typically geometric. There is a potential for a series to be infinite, which is exactly what it sounds: the numbers go on forever. At the same time, there are formulas to figure out the sums of sigma notations, including the infinite ones.

Just don't get me started on imaginary numbers, either.

IE, the cube-root of 42 in computerized notation. And yes, obviously, the 42 is a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. What story hasn't reffed that by now?

Ryo Sakuma is Bear's real name, as given (subtly) in .hack//SIGN episode 23.

Yes, I know, the lyrics here are from the English version of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but, first, tracking down translations of the Japanese lyrics would have been a task within itself, and, second, no one would have recognized it if I had. So just assume that these lyrics are sort of a placeholder. Yeah, that's right.

Yes, this is a reference to the .hack OAVs that come packaged with the games, but it's not a ham-handed reference done on principle. The definition given is accurate for the word, and was precisely the word I sought for in describing Kite's state of being.

See Fahrenheit 451.

IE, a debit card. If we can reasonably assume that by 2011/12 cash is a virtually nonexistent entity in most modern nations (or, if nothing else, in the uber-high-tech Japan) then a 12-year-old would be far more likely to have a small debit card than a cash allowance.

Actually, "pitch black" derives itself from pitch, a type of very black coal, so "pitch white" is a misnomer. But this isn't particularly common knowledge, so it's understandable that Sora would be thinking in these terms.

Literally "resurrection please" or "raise please" in lamish (see glossaries), this is the request most often heard in online RPGs such as Final Fantasy XI, wherein the penalty to EXP is much lower to sit around for hours begging for some kindly white mage to resurrect you than to accept a game over. I thought for a long time this was a needless exaggeration, but a recent over-the-shoulder viewing of FFXI at a friend's house will forever change my mind.

According to the strategy guide I purchased with .hack//QUARANTINE (hey, I'm a perfectionist) my description of the field should be right. Then again, this is coming from a book that, when prompted to show a picture of a Woody Grunty displays the picture and stats of a Milky Grunty, and calls it a Snakey Grunty in the subtitle. So who knows.

A reference to Being John Malkovich, where after spending approximately fifteen minutes inside John Malkovich's head the occupants, for reasons never elaborated upon (nor with a need to), are dumped out into a ditch along the New Jersey turnpike.

If you do "get it" then something's wrong with you, because I made it up.

While in America a remark like this would be met with a slight bit of ridicule, or at least skepticism, the idea of psychic powers isn't so hokey in Japan. If nothing else, the vast majority of anime characters possess some form of clairsentience that warns them of danger about to happen or already in progress. (See Hitomi Kanzaki in Vision of Escaflowne and Toya Kinomoto in Card Captor Sakura for examples of moderately powerful psychics.) So in such a scenario, the hope that Tsukasa might be a little bit psychic would be akin to hoping she has any other talents that might come in handy.

The speed at which tectonic plates move isn't sufficient to invoke an earthquake. Rather, earthquakes result from tectonic shifts because of built-up stress along tension faults, and the friction caused by plates sliding above/beneath each other in converging faults. No plates move fast enough for the vibrations to come from running into each other.

This is probably a technique utilized in a great wealth of literature, as well as other sources (Knuckles from the Sonic the Hedgehog games comes to mind), but here it's a specific reference to William Goldman's The Princess Bride-- which should be evident from Sora's subsequent line.

This is the only reference in Ha no Ie given to .hack//GIFT, a bonus animation that was packaged with the .hack//LIMINALITY DVD for //QUARANTINE. It featured the vast majority of the combined cast of //SIGN and the games vying to be the first ones to reach the Twilight Hot Springs (don't ask), drawn in the most incredibly wacked-out stylized SDs ever drawn. It's my understanding the animators were given the directive of inflicting as much pain on the viewer as possible.

In //GIFT, Ginkan (Silver Knight) chastizes Tsukasa for giving up on the objective so easily, questioning his manhood. Tsukasa responds, "I don't get this machismo. Male supremacy. Why do I have to put up with this kind of talk?" The reasons for which being obvious if you've watched the entire //SIGN anime. But then Kite chimes in, "That's right. It's not cool." Of course, not realizing that Tsukasa has very definite reasons for the criticism...

Inadvertedly feminizing male protagonists = fun.

Not, in fact, a reference to the .hack//Legend of Twilight's Bracelet anime, wherein Shugo has a regular tendency of breaking a tooth in an amusing way. Honest, I just like hurting my characters.

The verbal pronunciation of "OMG", an internet acronym meaning "oh my god." To verbally pronounce it is typically tongue-in-cheek.

Characters

Some readers will have come upon this having only watched the anime (.hack//SIGN) or only played the games (.hack//INFECTION, //MUTATION, //OUTBREAK, and //QUARANTINE), or been exposed only partially to both or one or the other or even neither. Here are brief profiles of the characters featured or referenced in the fanfic.

Obviously, there are some MASSIVE spoilers, so read at your own discretion.

Note that all data is correct to canon. This may be slightly out of date in the context of the fanfic.

>>from .hack//SIGN

Sora - A Twin Blade, ninja-type. In real life, a 4th grade boy. Ingame he is a maxed out "twink" character who utilizes his strength mostly to PK other players in The World. At the end of the series, he double-crossed Morganna and allowed Tsukasa and the others to escape with Aura, but as a result was Data Drained and placed in a coma himself.

Tsukasa - A Wavemaster, child-type. A teenage girl in the real world, Tsukasa is a male PC whose consciousness was trapped inside The World while her body languished in a coma for a period of 6 months. Bear offered to take custody* of her in the real world after learning she was subject to an abusive home, though it is unknown whether she accepted. She has an ambiguous, probably sexual relationship with Subaru.

Helba - A Wavemaster, adult-type, hacked character model. She is a notorious hacker who assists Bear and, later, Kite in unraveling the mysteries that surround The World. Very little is known about her, though it is established in .hack//LIMINALITY that her influence extends far beyond the net.

Bear - A Blademaster, celt-type. Astute and a good character study, he sometimes lends himself out as an Assist to newbie players. In real life, a well-known novelist.

Crim - A Long Arm, monk-type. Noble, passionate, a true knight to anyone who requires his aid, and especially the guardian angel of Subaru. He harbors high ideals for the gaming world, making him Sora's antithesis in a way. In real life, an undefined businessman of some kind, that requires a lot of international travel.

B.T. - A Wavemaster, adult-type. A very lonely individual in real life, B.T. uses The World to alleviate that depression. At least at one point, she was Crim's online girlfriend. She shares Sora's interest in collecting and sharing information.

Subaru - A Heavy Axeman, female. Confined to a wheelchair in real life, Subaru joined The World to be able to make friends without bias, and to walk under her own power. For a while she led the Crimson Knights, a group of The World moderators, until she disbanded them when she felt they were overextending their power. She empathizes with Tsukasa on a level much deeper than others, and by the end of the series the two develop a strong relationship that does not waver when Tsukasa is revealed to be a girl.

Morganna Mode Gone - An AI developed by the creator of The World, Harald Hewick, to watch over the awaking of his AI daughter, Aura. However, Morganna decided to prevent Aura's awakening instead, and trapped Tsukasa in the game to aid this.

>>from the .hack games

Kite - A Twin Blade, child-type. He joined The World at the advice of a schoolmate, Orca. He was subsequently looped into dark dealings involving the awakening of Aura, struggled to rid a viral infection from The World, and awaken the players who had fallen into comas playing the game.

Elk - A Wavemaster, child-type. He is a year younger than Kite, but very shy. He plays the game in order to make friends, but his only close friend of note is Mia, a (sort of) hacker. Visibly he is very similar to Tsukasa, so much so that Bear nearly mistakes him for the latter during their first encounter.

Mia - A Blademaster, original character model. The more anthropomorphic form of Macha, a creation of Morganna to collect player data. Because of her ties to the system she can be regarded as a low-end hacker.

BlackRose - A Heavy Blade, amazon-type. Outgoing and outspoken, BlackRose fights alongside Kite to solve the mystery to her brother's coma. She tries her best to stay optimistic in all situations, but she's nevertheless very emotional.

Sanjuro - A Heavy Blade, samurai-type. An American in South Dakota, Sanjuro teaches Japanese as a volunteer to local children. He is a great samurai enthusiast and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of samurai films.

Moonstone - A Twin Blade, ninja-type. In real life, a young athlete obsessed with training.

Wiseman - A Wavemaster, adult male-type. A mercenary allying himself with Helba and Kite. In real life, a schoolboy of (presumed) high school age, part of the soccer team, and an avid Digimon card collector.

Aquamarine - A Long Arm, female. A very minor character in .hack//QUARANTINE found in an optional dungeon, she and Moonstone meet after Moonstone quests for an item that she wants. It's easily recognized that Moonstone likes her a lot, going so far as to acquire her member address, but it is unknown how far their relationship develops.

Aura - The AI daughter of Harald Hewick, inventor of The World. Tsukasa's gang, and then later Kite and his comrades, work hard to awaken her and protect her from Morganna.

Bith - Right-hand man of Helba, who communicates on her behalf to Tokuoka and his cohorts in solving the mystery of The World's coma victims. In the real world he's very serious, although he has an amusingly large appetite.

Adamantine - a Long Arm, female. In real life, a geology professor in Arizona. She developed her hacking skills as an outlet to cope with such a boring field of study, but she's actually little more than a script kiddie. Very affectionate with Kite.

Holloway - a Blademaster, knight-type. The leader of the Holloway Team that created a website to chronicle their adventures in Delta House of Leaves. In real life, a high school student in Iowa.

Jed - a Long Arm, martial artist-type. A member of the Holloway Team, who managed to survive the atrocities of the dungeon. In real life, a high school student in Alabama.

Kirby_Wax - a Wavemaster, adult-type. The third member of the Holloway Team, who took up blogging duties when Holloway couldn't do it anymore. In real life, an accountant in California.

Judge_X - An American hacker in The World, character class unknown. In real-life, a 17-year-old South Dakotan boy. (He is named for a friend of my brother's.)

Sora's mother - Divorced, mid-thirties. She works hard to support her only son, and is constantly stressed.

Kite's brother - Age 8. He is an "average" boy into sports and comics, and is a particular fan of Rheingold no Densetsu, a series that Sora also reads and watches. At times he seems more perceptive than his older brother.

Timeline

This is based on best estimation using circumstantial evidence and conjecture. Don't hold me to it. I've given a generous amount of time that probably doesn't hold up under tight scrutiny, but anything more specific and I'll tie myself in knots trying to calculate it all.
 

Fall/winter 2008 - Tsukasa is trapped in The World. (Beginning of .hack//SIGN.)
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 15 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 9 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 13 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 16 years old.

Spring/summer 2009 - Six months later, Tsukasa is free, and Sora has fallen into a coma. (End of .hack//SIGN.)
--> Tsukasa is estimated at 16 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 10 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 13 or 14 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 16 years old.

Winter 2009/early 2010 - Six months later, Kite registers with The World and encounters Aura. Orca falls into a coma. (Beginning of .hack//INFECTION.)
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 16 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 10 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 14 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 16 or 17 years old.

Fall/winter 2010 - Kite frees Sora from Skeith's wand. (Middle- to late-.hack//OUTBREAK.)
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 17 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 10 or 11 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 14 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 17 years old.

Winter 2010/spring 2011 - Kite and his comrades defeat Morganna (Christmas 2010 [see .hack//LIMINALITY vol. 4]). Kite gains Tsukasa's, Subaru's, Helba's and Sora's member addresses. (End of .hack//QUARANTINE.)
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 17 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 11 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 14 or 15 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 17 or 18 years old.

Spring/summer 2011 - The World experiences a calm. Kite is now in high school. BlackRose is in college. Tsukasa is in her final year of high school. Sora is in fifth grade (his coma held him back a year).
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 17 or 18 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 11 or 12 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 15 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 18 years old.

November 2011 - Kite discovers the house. By now most of his friends in The World have stopped accessing.
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 18 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 12 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 15 or 16 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 18 or 19 years old.

Winter/spring 2014 - Shugo receives a special character model identical to Kite. (Beginning of .hack//Legend of Twilight's Bracelet.)
-->Tsukasa is estimated at 20 years old.
-->Sora is estimated at 14 years old.
-->Kite is estimated at 17 or 18 years old.
-->BlackRose is estimated at 20 or 21 years old.
-->Shugo and Rena are 14 years old.

Notes:
-Due to geographical location, proximity to a body of water, and other factors such as pollution, Tokyo doesn't actually get all that cold in winter by this point.
-Tokyo is the name given to both the actual city and the prefecture encompassing it, and has been termed by the government as a "metropolitan" prefecture. Given the size of Tokyo (geographically and in terms of population), it is completely within reason that a good number of The World players live there. More than that, it aligns itself with the claims of the anime. (Tsukasa, Subaru, Bear, Mimiru, and B.T. all presumably live in Tokyo, and possibly Crim and Helba as well.)
-The Japanese school system goes: grammar school (1 through 6), middle school (7 through 9), and high school (10 through 12). High school is not mandatory, and students must score high enough on entrance exams to be placed. (This excludes private schools on an "elevator" system.)
-Japanese school year starts in spring and goes until winter.
 
 

Character Names

Sora / Sora Yanaka - It made sense to me that given Sora's age at the time of .hack//SIGN, he would most likely have used his real name as his The World username. If we're to accept the theory that part of Sora's game persona (pre-Data Drain) is the result of a rejection of his real-life identity, it would follow logically that he would want to reinvent his real self through the game. Also to consider is his insistance on informality, stressing to Subaru not to refer to him with -san, and how this pertains to our own tendencies to refer to celebrities on a first-name basis. His surname comes from that of his Japanese voice actor, Hiroshi Yanaka.

Kite / Koushiro Aida - In the .hack videogames, Kite is voiced by Sayaka Aida (Japanese voice set) and Mona Marshall (English voice set), both of whom play the role of Koushiro Izumi/Izzy Izumi on Digimon. Since coincidences like that just don't happen in anime, the chance for a reference was too good to pass up.

--It's interesting to note that Sora is the name of a character from Digimon too, though that character was a girl. Given this, along with the VA coincidence, and even the similar premise, I think it's safe to say Digimon played a significant role in .hack's development.

Sanjuro / Stephen Brenner - More or less a bastardization of the name of my mentor, Stephen Ressel, who happens to live in North Dakota.  Brenner is taken from the German verb "brennen", which means "to burn."

Moonstone / Seki Gecchou - In Japanese, names are given with surname first and personal name second, so his name actually becomes Gecchou Seki. Gecchouseki is "moonstone" in Japanese.

Bear / Ryo Sakuma - I didn't make this name up. This is Bear's actual canon name as given in .hack//SIGN episode 23. (Note that "kuma" means "bear" in Japanese, and thus answers Mimiru's question of how Bear selected his username.) At least, it's there in the sub. Not sure about people raised on the dub version.

Tsukasa / Mitsuki Tsukasa - Although it's never specified whether Tsukasa is a first name or surname, given the character's gender ambiguity I figured it was more likely that this would be her last name. Her first name is that of her Japanese voice actress, Mitsuki Saiga.

Subaru / Subaru Nazuka - There's evidence to suggest that Subaru, too, would have used her real name in the game, given her unfamiliarity with games as a whole (we can compare her to the .hack games character Terajima Ryoko in this right). So, as with Sora, her surname is that of her Japanese voice actress, Kaori Nazuka.

BlackRose / Masumi Kurobara - If you've been paying attention, you know more or less how I got this name already. Her first name is from her Japanese voice actress, Masumi Asano, and her surname is simply the words "black" and "rose" together.
 

Glossaries

>>.hack- and game-specific phrasebook

Assist = Also called a Support. A high-level PC in an MMORPG who travels with a group of inexperienced players to help them level quickly. Assists are usually friends of the newbie players, but sometimes PCs will hire themselves out for the service.
BBLG = Bend Bars, Lift Gates. A stat used in 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons to describe a character's ability to perform actions like the aforementioned. IE, the character's ability to exert his or her strength effectively.
BGM = Background Music. The music played in association with an area in a game.
Chaos Gate = The portal through which those in the Root Towns transfer to the fields.
Character Classes = The variety of "jobs" in an RPG that designate a character's potential skills and stats, and more visibly its appearance. Character classes in The World as of .hack//QUARANTINE are as follows:
---Twin Blade. Light, fast characters weilding two dagger-sized weapons. Kite and Sora are of this class.
---Blademaster. An evenly leveled swordsman alsogood with magic. Balmung and Bear are of this class.
---Heavy Blade. A massive heavy-hitter weilding the largest swords. Sanjuro and Mimiru are of this class.
---Long Arm. A faster but still very strong character weilding a spear or javelin. Gardenia and Crim are of this class.
---Heavy Axeman. The strongest of the character classes, brandishing enormous axes. Piros and Subaru are of this class.
---Wavemaster. Devoted magic-users, working with staffs and wands. Elk and Tsukasa are of this class.
Dungeon = The multileveled interior of a field. "Dungeon" has long been the term applied to a setting in an RPG wherein the PC battles monsters, finds items, and often fights a boss.
Fairy's Orbs = Items used to chart the layout of a field or dungeon.
Field = The starting level leading into a dungeon, usually host to a great number of field portals, Grunty food, Symbols and Springs of Myst.
Grunty = Called Puchiguso in the Japanese version. These are strange pig-cow type creatures unique to The World, that players can raise and ride on fields and in Root Town Grunty races.
Grunty food = Items collected from the field to feed to Grunties in the Root Towns.
Helba Gate = A hacked item designed to function the same as a Chaos Gate, enabling individuals to access areas typically off-limits to them. In .hack//SIGN, Tsukasa and company are transported to Net Slum using a Helba Gate. These are, predictably, created by the hacker Helba.
HP = Health Points, or Hit Points. This indicates the amount of damage a character can take before he or she "dies" and the game ends. It can be replenished using spells or healing items.
Maxed out = A stat in a PC that has been boosted to its maximum possible parameter. Maxed out HP in The World is 9999 points, maxed out SP is 999, and the various character attributes, including character level, are maxed out at 99 each. (In the games, Helba is the only character who arrives maxed-out; even Sora seems to have suffered a drop of about 9 levels.)
MMORPG = Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game, such as The World. Real-life examples include Everquest and Final Fantasy XI.
Net Slum = A data-dump field created by the hacker Helba as a safehaven for discarded data in The World.
NPC = Non-Player Character. Creatures controlled by AI, or the system admin.
PC = Player Character. Creatures in the game environment controlled by humans.
PK = Player Killer. A PC that kills other PCs. Can also be used as a verb, ie, "he PK'd me" or "damn! I got PK'd."
Portals = Monsters in The World are released from large glowing portals. This is a unique spin on on-map enemies popular in RPGs these days. (Personally, I prefer random battles, but I guess I'm old-fashioned.)
Root Town = The hub areas of The World, that connect to all the battle fields.
Servers = The Root Towns of The World. They go as follows:
---Delta Server = Mac Anu.
---Theta Server = Dun Loireag.
---Lambda Server = Carmina Gadelica.
---Sigma Server = Fort Ouph.
---Omega Server = Lia Fail. (Anyone else notice the palindrome?)
SP = Skill Points. The World's version of MP (Magic Points) which are used to cast spells or techniques.
Spring of Myst = a pool of water into which a PC throws an item and is addressed by a water droplet-shaped character that will offer to return an item or turn into something else.
Sprite Ocarinas = items used to warp out from a dungeon.
THAC0 = (pronounced thay-koh.) Not a term used in The World, but rather an element tracing itself back to the original table-top roleplays, specifically Dungeons & Dragons. THAC0 stands for To Hit Armor Class Zero, and refers to a character's ability to inflict damage on opponents up to AC 0, in most cases the highest level of armor class. (This applies only to D&D editions 1 and 2. Wizards of the Coast, in their infinite wisdom, arbitrarily decided to discard this long-honored stat along with half of the other things gamers liked.)

>>Netspeak vernacular

That the internet should be fast creating its own dialects is of little surprise to anyone who uses the web with any decent amount of frequency; the internet operates at roughly ten times the speed of the real world, and more than that, humans are lazy beasts when it comes to typing.

Simple Netspeak phrasebook:

newbie = A new initiate to a location, ie, new to the internet, new to a community, or new to a game environment.
address = A URL. Unless specified, never references a real-world location.
ping = A call from one computer's host to another to determine whether the latter is working and responding correctly.
PM = Private Message. A brief text message sent to another individual. (Also called Flash Mail in The World.)
BBS = Bulletin Board System. The common Japanese terminology for a message board or online forum.
connection = Internet connection, ie, in our terms, a modem, DSL, cable, or T1-T3 connection. As of .hack//OUTBREAK, the fastest internet line was called a "rocket" connection, capable of 16GB/s.
comp = Computer.
blog = An online, publicly accessible journal, the most popular of which being Livejournal.
net cafe = A store much akin to a regular cafe, set up with multiple computers with internet access, which people can access for a fee.
firewall = A protection run on a computer that blocks those trying to enter through ports opening the computer to the internet. These are essential in warding off hackers and many internet worms.
overclocking = The action of forcibly sending a computer into processing at a higher speed, increasing the output of internal components. This typically results in massive amounts of excess heat, leading to a great variety of alternative cooling methods (larger fans, coolant cables, freezetanks, etc).

>>l33t*

Formerly a hacker code used to evade government crackdown, l33tsp34k is now most common among Megatokyo readers and other wannabe cool internet factions. It's best when used tongue-in-cheek, not as a serious mode of communication.

The sentences in this fanfic are all l1t3 l33t, and can be translated as following.

a = 4
e = 3
i = 1
o = 0
u = no change, or 00

|V|3d1um l337 goes further and replaces key consonants with appropriate numbers or symbols. Some consonants, such as f, are replaced with other consonants giving the same sound, like ph.

b = 6
c = no change, or ( or <. Compounded with k, it is usually interpretted as x or xx.
d = |>
f = ph
g = 9
h = no change, or |-|
j = no change
k = |<
l = no change, or |
m = /V\ or |V|
n = |\|
p = no change
q = not seen often enough to determine
r = no change
s = 5
t = 7
v = no change, or \/
w = \/\/
x = no change, or doubled
y = not seen often enough to determine
z = no change

|-|4r|>(00r |337 will not be examined, due to the ambiguity and scarcity of the form.

Most of Sora's l33tsp34k comes in the form of Japanese nonword expressions, and so do not have an accurate translation. If you've been brought up on the .hack//SIGN subs, these little sounds of his shouldn't give you any pause. If you're used to the dub, or haven't seen the anime, then you might not be so well-accustomed to Sora's distinctive speech patterns.

Simple l33t phrasebook:

j00 = you.
j00r = you're, or your.
n00b = newbie.
f00 = fool. Note that this bypasses the f = ph rule.
ph33r or ph34r = fear.
suxx0rs = sucks, is bad.
r0xx0rs = rocks, is great.
r0xx0rs j00r s0xx0rs/b0xx0rs = Rocks your socks/boxes (ie, computers), is really awesome.
h4xx0rs = hacking, getting hacked, was hacked. These days, also applies to game hacking in addition to computer hacking. Can also be used as a plural or singular noun (with or without the s dropped at the end) to become "hacker."
l33t = elite, ie, a hacker that's a cut above the rest. Nowadays meant more as a net user of great skill in some area.
sk1llz or m4d sk1llz = Skill, ability, competency at a particular task.
r00lz = rules, is cool, or dominates over another.
r00lz j00 = often, indicating dominance over another. In traditional hacking, the possession of another user's computer remotely.

>>Lamish*

This is another internet dialect but, unlike l33t, it can be verbally pronounced much more easily. That is because it was invented by the gutterfolk of AOL who just aren't very creative.

Aside from a general disregard for conscious self-editing, lamish is marked by replacing entire words, or as much of a word as possible, with a single character. Shortcutting is common. However, it can be agreed upon by most sources that much of lamish results from lazy typing, so there are few defining characteristics. Some include:

you = u
are = r
your and you're = ur
"er" sounds = r
be = b
oh my god = omigod or omg
what the fuck = wtf
"ate" sounds = 8
long hard s sounds = z
the process of laughing = lol (lit: laugh out loud), rofl (lit: rolling on the floor laughing), roflmao (lit: rolling on the floor laughing my ass off)
shut the fuck up = stfu (sometimes pronounced "stoo-foo")
be right back = brb
be back in a bit = bbiab (longer period of absence than brb)
as far as I know = afaik
got to go = gtg
I am/was away from the computer = afk, or AfK (lit: away from keys)

*It should be noted that in the games, Sora speaks a mixture of a l1t3-l33t variant and lamish. This is marked by the use of 1 as a substitute for l rather than i, the unusual inclusion of 8 as a substitute for b, replacement of entire words with single characters (ie, "you" to "u", "are" to "r"), and the random capitalization of normal characters, among other features. I have never known anyone to speak this way online, so I can only assume the scriptmen chose this path for its capacity for incoherency with most people without falling too far off the deep end into heavy cipher. For the purposes of this fanfic, since I wrote Sora's dialogue before discovering he actually spoke l33t in the games (call it being able to predict a character really really well), I've used general l1t3-l33t for more conversations with Kite, and the more cryptic |V|3d1um l337 for English-speaking communications.
 

>>Binary

To aid in replicating the effect of the original House of Leaves novel, I made every effort to heap additional layers of weirdness on top of the basic story structure. Part of this involved translating normal text out into the most basic of computer languages: binary.

It'd be too long to list a glossary, and anyway, I don't know one. Eheh. In all honesty, the English-to-binary translations come courtesy of this website. Try translating out some of the binary passages sometime...
 

>>Japanese

Though I have made every effort to "Americanize" the dialogue for ease of reading, there were times when for the proper feeling to be imparted I opted to leave the character's lines in Japanese. For these instances, I have provided quick translations. Most of this is very rudimentary language picked up, as any stupid American fan would, through watching a lot of subs. I also discuss some oddities of Japanese grammar to help clarify other passages refering to the language.

Simple Japanese phrasebook:

Ne = at the beginning of a sentence, "hey." At the end, "don't you agree?"
Baka = stupid, idiot.
Bakayaro = asshole, massive jerk.
Obaka = retard. (Crim and B.T. make a point of calling Sora this.)
Oniisan/chan/kun = big brother.
Oneechan/san = big sister. This and "big brother" are often used to refer to slightly older individuals that command respect and/or adoration from younger individuals, even if unrelated. (In .hack//SIGN, the scammers refer to B.T. as this, and in .hack//OUTBREAK BlackRose refers to herself as this when speaking to Kite.)
Ototosan/kun = little brother.
Imotochan/san = little sister.
Desho = a permutation of "desu", the "to be" verb.
Chotto = wait a second.
Kochi-kochi = come here.
Haiyaku = faster, hurry.
Taihen desu = there's a problem.
Hidoi = cruel, unfair.
Onegai desu = please, I implore you.
Daijobu = are you all right?, or a statement of being all right.
Yokata = thank goodness.
Tounikaku = nevertheless.
Sore = that.
Kore = this.
Nani = what?
Doushite = why?
Dare = who?
Doko = where?
Demo = but.

Some grammar points

Japanese sentence structure is, to my knowledge, much looser than English, and certainly moreso than other languages such as German. I can cite more than one source insisting that any order tends to work provided the verb is given last. Still, Japanese language tends to follow a certain system, which goes:

object - subject - verb.

It's important to note that the object, placed first as it is, is a direct opposite of what we're used to in English. In English, a sentence that reads:

I talked to Martha.

would grammatically in Japanese turn into:

Martha I talked to.

Clearly it's not always so simple and direct as that, and it's in fact this point of language that makes some translations from Japanese hard to understand at times. It isn't so much a case of bad translating; often the act of providing an accurate translation and providing something coherent are two things that do not mesh. Fighting as much as purist anime fans do that translations be "accurate", we bring it upon ourselves if the result is something less than readily discernable.

Also to consider that Japanese is a bit more abstract than English. We're far more used to concrete statements and concepts. Japanese regularly makes allegories out of flowers, weather, and anything else that's handy.

Past that, English has the great benefit of being almost entirely gender-neutral. That is, not only do most nouns not bear an identifying gender leading to an insane plurality of conjugation, but it becomes difficult to guess the sex of the speaker based on a small sample of type. Japanese is not so well-endowed, in fact, it goes in the opposite direction. There are various forms of "you" and "I" applicable depending on 1) sex, 2) propriety, 3) age, 4) social status, and 5) attitude. Although these are more diverse than I have been able to track in depth, some of these include:

Boku = male personal pronoun, a little informal.
Orae = male personal pronoun, a little tougher.
Watashi = gender-neutral personal pronoun, but more common in women.
Watakushi = intensely formal personal pronoun, more prevalent with royalty.
Atashi = female personal pronoun.
Anata = gender-neutral singular you pronoun.
Anta = abbreviation of anata, more common with males.
Kimi = singular you pronoun, more informal.
Omae = singular you pronoun, more common with males, most often used to address those not held in high regard.
Aitsu = singular, gender-neutral they/you pronoun. The equivalent of "es" in German or singular "they" in English, used the same as "it" but without the negative connotations we give it when attributing the word to a human being.

Pronoun Use

Kite- "boku" and "kimi."
Elk- "boku" and "kimi."
Sanjuro- "orae" and "omae."
BlackRose- "atashi" and "kimi."
Tsukasa - "boku", subbed with "atashi" in the real world, and "kimi."
Subaru - "watashi" and "anata."
Sora*- "orae" and "anta," sometimes subbing with "omae."

*Note that Sora seems to avoid pronouns as a general rule. Seems to prefer stating situations through the use of infinitive verbs, half-sentences and slurred child-speech. Much of this can't be carried over effectively into English

Additionally, the Japanese often attach suffixes to a person's name to indicate respect (or, depending, lack thereof). While it is fairly common to refer to someone by their surname without a suffix (at least not to their face), only family members and other close loved ones will refer to a person by their first name without suffix. In The World, most of the characters are not addressed with a suffix, because 1) it exists outside a normal Japanese social setting and 2) it's hard to determine based on available information what a person should be addressed as. Nonetheless, some suffixes include:

-sama = "lord," "master," person held in extreme high regard. Ginkan (Silver Knight) calls Subaru "Subaru-sama" for a good part of the series.
-sensei = "teacher," "doctor," lit. "person born before." A mentor figure.
-senpai/sempai = "upperclassman," "older classmate," a person on the older end of an age group (typically school-aged) commanding a lot of respect and adoration. Millie calls Meryl "senpai" in Trigun.
-san = generic suffix of respect, meaning basically "mister," "missus," or "miss."
-chan = a diminuitive "cute" suffix given typically to little children of either gender, and after the first few grades of school, typically only to girls.
-chin = I honestly don't know. It's used the same as "-chan" in all three .hack anime, but that's the first time I've ever come across it. Ever.
-kun = in children, the boy's equivalent to "-chan." Can also be used to address lower-ranking coworkers. Meryl is addressed in this way by her non-Millie coworkers in Trigun.
-tachi = not a suffix of the usual sense, but meant the same as "and company." Addressing a group of classmates might be done by saying "kimi-tachi", and referring to yourself and others collectively might be "boku-tachi." For the sake of time and effort in drafting notes I usually refer to the Kite and his friends involved in this story as Kite-tachi.
 

Fun Extras

>>Image Songs

Kite - The Dark (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
Sora - Close Your Eyes (Jump, Little Children), A Mad Russian's Christmas (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
Sora & Kite - Stay (U2), Trigger-Happy Jack (Poe), Growing on Me (The Darkness)
BlackRose - Down (Something Corporate)
Elk - I Wanna Fly (Sonic Adventure)
Sanjuro - Segata Sanshiro (Sega) (...why? well, just because)
Tsukasa - 10th Man Down (Nightwish)
 
 

>>Chapter Titles

The chapter titles are all lines (or fragments of lines) from Poe's "Haunted", a song written for the original House of Leaves novel. Those lines not used as titles are incorporated as lines in the narrative itself, and all are in the same sequential order as the song (except in the case of the chorus when the lines have already been used). The lyrics are as follows:

Come here
Pretty please
Can you tell me where I am?
You, won't you say something?
I need to get my bearings
I'm lost
And the shadows keep on changing.

And I'm haunted
By the lives that I have loved
And actions I have hated
Haunted
By the lies that wove the web
Inside my haunted head.

Don't cry
There's always a way
Here in November in this House of Leaves we'll pray
Please
I know it's hard to believe
To see a perfect forest through so many splintered trees
You and me
And these shadows keep on changing.

And I'm haunted
By the lives that I have loved
And actions I have hated
Haunted
By the promises I've made
And others I have broken
I, I'm haunted
By the lies that wove the web
Inside my haunted head.

I'll always want you
I'll always need you
I'll always love you
And I will always miss you

Come here
No, I won't say please
One more look at the ghost before I'm gonna make it leave
Come here
I've got the pieces here
Tell me gather up the splinters
Build a casket for my tears

I'm haunted
By the lives that I have loved
I'm haunted
By the hallways in this tiny room
The echo there of me and you
The voices that are carrying this tune

>>Quotes to Consider

"Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein."
--Friedrich Nietzsche
(Meaning: "And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes back into you.")

"Into the nightmare that forever deprives you of light."
--unknown

"I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape..."
--Evanescence, "Imaginary"

"But I hear your soul
Echo in the emptiness
All I want
But you can't change this loneliness
Look at what you've found
I'm falling down."
--Something Corporate, "Down"
(note: the first two lines are written down wrong, but I'm unable to perceive the words any other way)

"Hush, little baby, don't say a word
And nevermind that noise you heard
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet, in your head."
--Metallica, "Enter Sandman"

>>Deliberate References

The Matrix
The Road to El Dorado
Fight Club
The Princess Bride
Hackers
The Silence of the Lambs
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Sixth Sense
The Nightmare Before Christmas
 

FAQ

Q. What are these "easter egg" pages I keep coming across?
A. These are small parenthetical additions to the storyline that can be ignored without harming the narrative, but only help to better illustrate the situation. By the end of the story, including those on this page, there should be 33 easter eggs.

Q. I've read House of Leaves, but I can't seem to make a clear character-to-character comparison for some people in this fic.
A. It should be remembered that Ha no Ie is adapted from House of Leaves; it is not a strict retelling. Characters, events, and situations have had to be either combined or discarded entirely in order to function in this context. As a result, most of the characters --in fact, all of them-- in here take after at least two, often more, of the characters from the novel. Kite isn't strictly Navidson, Sora isn't strictly Tom; concurrently, the four females, Adamantine, Tsukasa, Subaru and BlackRose, are all part-Karen Green.

Q. There seems to be a bit of ambivalence over whether or not PKing is disabled in The World.
A. According to Bear in .hack//QUARANTINE, PKing is officially disabled as of the Key of the Twilight expansion. There are three theories on how this doesn't seem to apply for Ha no Ie:
-->The Adamantine theory, which suggests that the house bases itself from a very old programming code, and as such might disable some of the features available in recent The World expansions.
-->Characters still using the old expansions would be able to override the prohibitions of the new expansions.
-->When I started writing this, I was still on .hack//MUTATION, so I had no way of knowing unless I went out of my way to spoil the rest of the series for myself.
-->Information in both post-games addenda (.hack//SIGN episode #28 "Unison", and .hack//GIFT) negate this claim entirely, displaying characters either PK'd or threatened with it.

Q. What's Ramune?
A. A Japanese soft drink growing in popularity stateside, distinguished by its unique bottle shape involving a marble floating in the upper partition.

Q. Why do the characters use religious-oriented curses and expressions (ie, "thank god", "goddammit", "Jesus Christ", etc)?
A. There are, unfortunately, no good equivalents to these in Japanese that wouldn't be lost completely on the reader.

Q. What's a cram school?
A. Cram schools are special concurrent schools some students attend in Japan to help them prepare for high school or university entrance exams. Because getting accepted into higher-level education is very rigorous, not to mention competitive, these are often believed by parents to be necessary if they want their children to succeed.

Q. Wait, WAIT. What do you mean, Tsukasa and Subaru are ghosts?
A. After completing .hack//QUARANTINE and regaining the Twilight Bracelet, Kite is given by Helba the member addresses of Tsukasa, Subaru, and Sora. Helba reports that she had found these three wandering around Net Slum. For the characters themselves, Tsukasa seems stuck in a previous existence, still claiming to be trapped in the game and in total agony over her painful, angsty existence; Subaru has suffered catastrophic amnesia; Sora... well... speaks l33t. In a follow-up email conversation, Helba indicates that these three PCs may actually be wandering AIs created from trash data of the players' memories, not unlike the wandering ghosts in //OUTBREAK.
    The key words there are "may be." Although it's very clear from playing with Tsukasa and Subaru for any length of time that the two are not real, Sora isn't so easy to discern. For one thing, his memory is intact, and from conversation with him there is decent evidence to suggest he is aware of what has transpired and, more emphatically, what has happened to him. Of the three, he is the only one who seems fully sentient, and has responded to and learned from the experience. Additionally, though it would seem strange for Tsukasa and Subaru to be milling about in Net Slum, that isn't the case with Sora, who has prior experience with the place through his dealings with Helba. So, it's my belief that the Tsukasa and Subaru you play with in the game are ghosts, the Sora you play with is the real deal.
    Of course, that may just be the die-hard fanaticism talking, but shh...

Q. HEY. Isn't this just a rip off of that fic Ie no Ha?
A. Yeeeeah. That was mine. I changed the name when I discovered my grammar was wrong. Whoops?
 

Notes

The following are the only preliminary notes I took down while writing Ha no Ie. Normally I refrain from any kind of workshopping in relation to my stories, prefering to keep my notes mentally. But given the unique nature of this fanfic, I felt compelled to make a small bit of an exception.

Principle Characters

Kite- good as an access. Can cater personality to reflect own, as with the games.
Sora- experienced with the secrets of The World, mentor figure to Kite. Also justifiably terrified of the house.
Moonstone- "unflappable." If you needed stability, who would YOU go to?
Sanjuro- like Moonstone, not easily frightened. Also an American, a means to link Kite-tachi to the Holloway team.
Elk- the unexpected one, but somehow a necessity. Familiarity with Mia enables him to hack to a certain degree, a great asset to Kite-tachi.

Secondary Characters

BlackRose- the equivalent of Karen Green. The missing female aspect.
Tsukasa- a source for information and insight.
Holloway- named for the HoL character of the same role. American The World player.
Jed- another.
Kirby_Wax- another.
Adamantine- hacker, because both Helba and Mia are inoperative.
Judge_X- source of feedback.
Helba- another.
Wiseman- another.

Progression

Rumors > Establish Sora-Kite and BlackRose-Kite relat. > Exploration #1 > Sora's Insecurity > Exploration #2 > Moonstone > Exploration #3, first instance of the creature > Involvement of Elk > The Holloway Journal > Meeting with Tsukasa > Kite's doubts for Sora > Establish Sora's impetus > Exploration #4, descending the Spiral Staircase, long expedition, house reacts against occupants > Moonstone and Sora's deaths > Culmination of Sora-Kite relat. > Failed petition to Lios > Exploration #5 > Sora overcoming faint, phone call > Sanjuro drops out, Kite ventures alone > Tsukasa enters the house, later drops out, Kite is alone again > Attempted rescue, then evacuation > Reemergence of BlackRose > Locking of the field > Kite-BlackRose resolution, Sora's thesis.

Particular Features of the House

Great Hall
Spiral Staircase
Axis tilt
Sheer drop
Sideways Staircase
Window
Platform

Other Facets

-->Loading dock screen pervades all servers and nearby real-world environments, as well as visitor's mind.
-->Does not sustain illegal data.
-->Causes extreme cold (roughly 32 degrees Fahrenheit) around terminals from which it is accessed.
-->Prolonged visitation induces visitors into a comalike state.
-->Some killed in the house physically vanish from the real world, to appear in other places later without evidence of travel.
-->The Creature.

Specific Relationships to Track

Kite & BlackRose
Kite & Sora
Kite & Sanjuro
Sanjuro & Sora
Tsukasa & Kite
Tsukasa & Subaru

Human Qualities

Kite and Tsukasa as components of Navidson.
-->Relationship with the feminine
-->Relationship with sibling
Sora as a damaged figure
-->Is only worsened by the house
-->Development of trust and affection
Sanjuro as outsider/authority dichtomy
-->Remorse, repent
-->Concession to younger generation

General Notes

    Theme is human relationships. Companionship, friendship, brotherhood and love. Insecurity, social anxiety, support and reassurance. At the center of all of this are Sora and Kite/Tom and Navidson/Esau and Jacob. A further emphasis than is placed on the Navidson-Karen relationship trademarking the novel.
    Study human interraction.
    Trust is not immediate between those you would like to trust one another. Trust is not immediately established even when people reconcile. To completely trust someone is to love them. Therefore, Sora is aligned on a spectrum, leaned to one extreme, and is being guided to the other side.
    Japanese characters, so Japanese social issues (as you know them).
    Do not force the characters any which way. Let them decide for themselves where their feelings lie. The heart must grow organically.
    Shut up, Cassandra.
    No, I'm doing this for posterity.
    Screw posterity. No one's even gonna read this.
    Oh, can it.
 
 
 
 

And so in closing...
 
 

Well, last year at this time I was just starting production on my last big project. I should try not to make a yearly event out of this. I'll go mad. At least the only physical effects I'm suffering from this so far are in the form of hurting wrists. Carpal tunnel sounds like a lovely excuse to lay off strenuous typing (and such) for a while.

Again, thanks to everyone who has read this far. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me. This includes questions you would like added to the FAQ section.

Now, I'm gonna go back to //QUARANTINE and finish that stupid Item Completion Quest, if you don't mind. What monsters THOUGHT of this thing?

~K.A. Rose
 

<<Stage 17: Me and You
 

>>And now there is nothing else
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

except for the stuff that is, of course

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101101100011011010110111001101111011100000111000101110010011100110111010001110101011101
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