introduction . technical . cast . background . setting . annotations . naming . music . quotes . trivia . resources . special thanks . conclusion
Warning: Spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.
As I write this, I'm faintly aware I haven't had
more than a handful of hours' sleep in the past... I don't even know how
many days.
Moderation isn't a word that you could ever apply
to my writing. Really it isn't.
I seem to have a running theme of counting my injuries
gained from a story (to date, I've gone temporarily blind, suffered a slight
loss of color perception, been unable to type or hold a pencil for days,
and suffered dehydration and malnutrition-- I should have scorecards drawn
up) but I must unfortunately confess there's nothing new here, even if
my eyes are informing me of an all new style of pain, and my wrists are
hating me quite a bit right now. I daresay the damage to my brain has been
worse. I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do when I wake up tomorrow.
I'm not sure where this leaves me now. A lot of my friends these days haven't
even known a time when I wasn't working on this albatross of a fanfiction.
When I first started this project, I remember announcing
quite confidently that the story would be about the inevitability of fate.
All my stories up to this point have had easily-defined themes, so I just
figured I wouldn't care how pretentious I'd look and just state this one's
early. Except, as things would have it, that's not the theme at all now.
Something I'm quite glad of now.
What's it mean? Well, I'm not too subtle. I also
throw a lot of different things at you, especially toward the end. I'm
sure there's something for everyone.
I did know, as soon as I realized how massive
this project was going to be, that I wanted the story to say something
about fandom. About online writing, fanauthors, the people that I've met
over the years. About why there comes a point where fighting over canon
is stupid because interpretation can vary. Why sticklers for "correct characterization"
piss me off and that stories where the characters don't leave different
from what they'd started as are bad, awful stories. And that I've resented
being made to feel like a reject for years just for writing what I felt.
At some point I even wanted it to be a big Fuck You to any purist that
had ever come my way claiming to have more authority on the characters
than I did, because you don't own them, honey. No one owns them.
There's even a point where the original author doesn't own them. That's
what fanfiction is. It's taking something out of the hands of the creator
and making it a mythology, with variation and filters and intentions, and
no two are going to be exactly alike, and if they are then someone had
better apologize.
...But that's not what it's about. It's certainly
not an allegory for anything, or a social commentary, or an attack on either
individuals or groups. The feeling's there, sure, but there's feelings
for a lot of things. Nothing's simple. E's just as much about gender issues,
age conflicts, or social pressures. It's also about record versus reality.
It's passive versus aggressive. Creative versus destructive. I probably
don't handle any of these things too well, which is why, in the
end, the story is about a girl, who's probably a lot like you, even though
she isn't really.
Whatever you get out of it, I'm very glad that you
read it. I'm very glad that you're here. I'm happy that after everything
that went into this, something came back out. Whatever that would happen
to be.
Thanks for going on this journey with me. It wasn't
quite as epic as the big one west, but it's certainly worn me out. Let's
all get some nice shut-eye now, huh? Whewww.
~K.A. Rose
Craptor Productions
karose.com
00:44, 20 August 2005
What follows hereafter are my usual brand of post-story
notes and supplemental material. Ideally it can all contribute to better
understanding the story or at least the depth of my madness. Some was written
as I went along, other parts were drawn up after, and it's either too much
or too little, but it's here anyway.
Technical
(story stat information)
Start date: 21 November, 2004
End date: 19 August, 2005
Days of production: 271
Final file size (minus this page): 1,356Kb
Wordcount: 202,855
Written in Notepad (v5.0), the Livejournal For Windows update client (v1.4.7), Netscape Composer (v4.79), and my poor abused school notebooks.
Made for karose.com. Link free, but do not redistribute without express permission.
Single-page masterfile available by request.
Cast
(hey kids! spot the canon!)
Kanzeon Bosatsu ............ Kanzeon Bosatsu
Koumyou Sanzo .............. Xiao Ke Jiawen
Ukoku Sanzo ................ Xiao Yun
Genjo Sanzo ................ Xiao Shujuan
Son Goku ................... Song Guonan
Cho Hakkai ................. Cao Wenlong
Sha Gojyo .................. Shu Jianmin
Prince Kougaiji ............ King Kougaiji
Dokugakuji ................. Dokugakuji
Princess Lirin ............. Ruli Vijaya
Yaone ...................... Sushma Sakthi
Hakuryuu ................... Cao Meizhu
Hazel Glosse ............... Zhao Ming Yue
Jin (Kim Sung Young) ....... Himself
Shen Ying Jr. .............. Himself
Liang Dawei ................ Himself
Ch'ien Jiawen .............. Herself
Princess Zari .............. Herself
Toushin Shuyin Taishi ...... Fan Shuyin
Elvaron .................... Mrs. Lan
Permetaform ................ Mrs. Chen
K.A. Rose .................. Green Eyes, Deus ex Machina, Poor
Explanations, Typo Demon
Minekura Kazuya ............ in here somewhere
Background
(how the hell did this thing come about?)
I discovered the Saiyuki manga in the summer
of 2004. I didn't put too much stock in my infatuation at first, because
I expected it, like everything else I'd found, would eventually fade. I
wasn't expecting to find companionship in other fans. I didn't expect anyone
to care about anything I would write for it.
I wrote anyway, of course. The first entries were
nothing too extraordinary: basically a set of bad mini-comics (still available
on my website) and a Pratchetty comedy-fic called "24 Candles" (not available
anywhere anymore, thank gods), but posting the latter on FFN got the attention
of one of Saiyuki fandom's universally-identifiable BNF-reccers, Permetaform.
By some means now lost to the sands of time, she found her way to my livejournal.
Mutual friending occurred. Nothing was expected to come of it, because
I was sure it was a fluke and I would be just another hermit on the fringes
of a fandom, everyone would carry on as they were, and I would get bored
after the third or fourth book and go find something shinier.
But something happened. Namely, the interest that
I'd taken in Kougaiji starting with "24 Candles" was refusing to go away.
And like most fans of the series do at some time or other, I had started
to wonder what the outcome of the story would be. So I started writing
something strange. And because it was still eating at my brain, I kept
writing it. This is the story that would become In My Father's House.
It had all of three readers, I think, starting out.
The only one that really stood out was K. Koumori, so I eventually started
writing the story specifically for her entertainment. But around the 9th
chapter or so, Permetaform seemed to randomly take notice of it, and ended
up reading through the entire back-log of chapters on my journal (this
back before I had discovered what memories were for, and they didn't have
tags yet). And she liked it. A lot. Even openly admitted that it wasn't
to her usual tastes, but that wasn't stopping her at all. She had an interest.
Suddenly it was like I was one of those Renaissance-era
painters coming under the wing and support of a devoted patron. I was recced.
I was encouraged. I had the elements of the story discussed, which
had never happened to me before. In My Father's House went on to
be incredibly popular, thanks to Permetaform's support and a lot of subsequent
rec/word of mouth. Its run in the first-annual Sanzies at Echoes from the
West, where it won awards for Best Multi-Part and Best Fanfiction (and
probably lent a lot to my Best Author award as well), spread the thing
further. It's my understanding that, where fandom is concerned, it's a
pretty well-known story by this point. Surprising, seeing as I expected
it broke too many rules for anyone to ever give it a second glance.
But the main start of this whole backstory is the
night I was walking home from a day of classes. I was carting my bike home
on foot --not trusting the area enough to ride helmetless-- and trying
to block out the next whatever-section-it-was for Father's House, when
something else hit me. Kougaiji becoming an immortal king and going through
the centuries only to find a reincarnate of Sanzo. A girl Sanzo. An androgynous
girl Sanzo. Working as a bicycle courier.
I'm sorry that I'm not clever.
Anyway, I wrote up some tiny thing for it, throwing
in impromptu reinc-names for Sanzo and Gojyo (the same ones here), and
threw it out as a random gag-moment for people reading the journal.
But Permetaform.
Her exact words were "This wants writing, yo." Which
basically sums up everything about the project even from its contrived
little conception.
Because it did. Want to get written, I mean. It
was clear from how much information I was able to come up with on the spot
for it, when people asked questions. Who are they, where are they, what
happens to them? The muse was having a field day with it. I had a narrative
arc before I'd even figured out what most of the characters' names were.
There was workshopping. There was pathetically begging
my friends to help me with research --because I've never been to Beijing,
haven't even been outside my state in years-- and scraping a lot out of
nothing. There was fighting with the format, taking a lot of trial and
error before settling on the "page" format that doubtless this thing will
become known for (if it isn't already). There was blocking and reblocking,
beta hunting, wheedling for opinions on the struggling early material.
And then there was just... an awful lot to write.
There's the thing. This story? Was anticipated to
be over by mid-January at the absolute latest.
JANUARY. It's nearly September now. SEP - TEM -
BER.
271 days in production. 75% of a year, right there.
Three whole seasons put into this thing. Father's House was written in
one month!
And there was drama. There was angst. There was
'oh gods why isn't anyone giving me feedback when I need it most?' even
though there were plenty of people willing to say things if I'd just asked.
There was an exhausting cycle of depression and angry determination and
hating everything from my muse to the annoying kid in front of me in Film
class. There were moments of bright shiny sunlight when I thought, wow,
I'm really doing something here, I can really say what I want to say, it's
worth it in the end. But those were a bit harder to come by.
I wish there were more development for some of the
characters. I wish there were more consistency. I wish my memory from page
to page were better that I didn't forget what I'd written ten scenes ago.
I wish I hadn't worked my betas and spoiler children so hard.
...I wish there was more sex.
...I'm shameless, you know.
Setting
(on placement and time)
E = mc² takes place in 1994.
No, it really does.
This was done very deliberately, in order to match
up with a particular real-world event (refer to page 12-14 and the epilogue).
At one point it was going to be set in 1996, but had to be moved back to
stay consistent with this event. It admittedly makes little sense that
the events of Saiyuki-proper occur in the fifteenth century, but I'm going
to have to ask you bear with me. It'd be virtually impossible to go back
and change every reference of "five hundred years" to, say, "thirteen hundred,"
and anyway, very few people have yet contested the point.
Why? Because everyone acknowledges how anachronistic
the manga is. But that's the entire point-- E is anachronistic too. Consider
it a story written about the mid-nineties from a writer in the 25th century.
That's the reason for the vidscreens and aircars, and even the small niggling
things, like the prevalence of cell phones and games like Dance Dance
Revolution, that really shouldn't be there, even though the general
design of the world is 90s.
Further, the Beijing presented here is largely fictional.
Again, I've never been to Beijing, and due to time constraints I was never
able to research quite as much as I should have. I did work off of maps
quite frequently, and photo references and informational websites when
I could, but a lot is made up. Particularly about the atmosphere
and behavior of people there. And I even threw in the wrong mafia gang,
although that was more than a little intentional.
I can claim artistic license for a lot of it, but
not everything. Even with respect to seasonal weather patterns, I fudged
where I should have researched. I could apologize for that, but I'm not
sure of the extent to which anyone would care.
But the story really does take place in '94. I'm
serious.
Annotations
(points of interest, reference, and further explanation)
"Genjo Sanzo had a pagoda erected in his honor in Xi'an."
This is the Dayanta, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (photograph here). It was dedicated to Xuan Zhang, the real-life Buddhist monk on which Tripitaka of the Xi You Ji pilgrimage, and later Genjo Sanzo, is based. Xi'an is what was formerly Chang'an, where Sanzo was handed his mission by the Sanbutsushin.
"'Forty yuan,' Zheng was informed, after he'd stopped screaming."
It is around 8.3 yuan to the U.S. dollar, so around $5. Not much to start an argument over, you would think.
"Kougaiji could see actual auras without trying, of course, and this boy's was bluish-green browning to a sort of sulfur yellow, but that was beside the point."
Blue-green or turquoise is the color of the charismatic leader individual, typically, with sulfur indicating unease and anger. Appropriate to the situation, hopefully. (My source here; also listed under Resources.)
"He stopped, realizing the Emphatic Look had been upgraded to a Glare. Plus one."
+1 is a tabletop RPG designation for a weapon offering a bonus damage point per attack, either generally or versus specific creatures.
"What was it people said about gaining a demon's true name?"
This deals far more with Judeo-Christian mythos, so largely inapplicable in this context, but the saying goes generally that to gain a demon's true name is to hold power over him.
"'Heck, Ol King Kou even got asked ta play a vampire, din't he?'"
An old marching cadence, Ol' King Cole: "Ol' King Cole was a merry old soul / A merry old soul was he / He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl and he called for his Privates three..." Full lyrics here.
"'He's... on the IMDb,' Jianmin spoke up beside them."
AKA the Internet Movie Database.
"She paused a moment. 'Did we ever find out what oh-tee-pee meant?'"
Verbalization of OTP, a fangirl acronym for One True Pairing, or a pairing that a girl supports and believes in above all others either in a particular fandom or overall. In some cases it can mean the pairing generally regarded all around as the closest to canon. 585 (Gojyo/Hakkai) is the most frequently named OTP in Saiyuki.
"On the Richter Scale of magic, Kougaiji probably just barely passed a 3.0."
IE, just barely on the edge of a physically felt tremor.
"'Concerning incidents in the Baozong Middle School Girl's locker room on 3 March, 1992.'"
3 March is Girl's Day in Japan.
"Someone had probably written a song about this."
There are probably a good number, but the one kept particularly in mind here is Green Day's "Longview".
"'She claims you had high testosterone as a baby.' 'Gee. And look, my ring finger's longer'n my pointer; that's telling, isn't it?'"
There was a report, whose location I couldn't produce now but I recall finding it through SexNewsDaily, that claimed a connection between the length ratio of a female's index and ring fingers and her likelihood of being gay or bisexual. Additionally, it's frequently been touted that high testosterone in females can explain the masculinity or male-association generating the same result.
"'In Hong Kong I went to the ICS and that was so interesting...'"
IE, the Hong Kong International Christian School, a K-12 boarding school. Meaning this is the same school that Jeanine (an original character from an unwritten Good Omens fanfiction of mine) would later attend.
"With his arms crossed over his chest, his sleeves were pulled back a little, such that a person could catch a glimpse of a trailing black line of a tattoo on his forearm. She didn't have to guess there'd be a counterpart one on the other arm."
Hong Kong Triads tend to be distinguished as having a tattoo on each arm; a black dragon on one, and a white tiger on the other. Though, this isn't a surefire marker by any means, and I'm very likely exaggerating it here.
"It had been 1983."
The two secretaries, Sushma and Ruli, are both cameos of Rulinian, a young friend of mine in Chennai. Who, in addition to being a massive Oingo Boingo fan, has devoted a good bit of energy to shipping the RPS pairing Danny Elfman/Tim Burton and very nearly leads its fandom.
And if you have any doubt about the activities of the DoKou Club, I invite you to remember all the stories of what fangirls have done just about every time an LotR cast member gets mobbed for autographs. I swear Dom Monaghan and Billy Boyd must be scarred for life by now...
"'Transfer things to Jude? Eleanor? I won't do it, you know, I won't.'"
Jin's computer consoles Sadie, Jude, and Eleanor all derive themselves from Beatles songs. His fish, Lucy, likewise.
"It didn't all have to do with the acid white skin and hair, or even the violent red eyes. When you grew up around an albino, it tended to take the edge off of things like that."
Except human albino do not have red eyes, they have blue eyes. But we all know that Meizhu is of special circumstances here.
"Once upon a time, she'd been born on a Tuesday night."
Shujuan tells Liang that there's no significance to the Xiaolong Delivery Service taking off Tuesdays, but that's not really true. Tuesday is named for Tiu, a Norse messenger god related to Hermes/Mercury. So, by a slight stretch, the patron god of couriers.
[This annotations file is incomplete due to the GINORMOUS SIZE of this
story. Please send in any lines/references you feel need special explanation.]
Naming
(notes and brief discussion)
The surnames for the kids were chosen mostly for resonance, while their given names dealt more with either personality (or contradictions thereof) or their Saiyuki-proper backgrounds.
Xiao Shujuan - Xiao means "filial piety." Shujuan means "feminine grace."
Song Guonan - Song as in the dynasty. Guonan means "man of the country."
Shu Jianmin - Shu can mean "to resurrect" or is a transliteration of
the word "soviet" (think red). Jianmin means "establishes the people."
Cao Wenlong - Cao is a word for a ministry official, and links to the
Japanese word/surname "tsukasa" (think the .hack character).Wenlong
means "literate dragon."
Though Guonan's nickname "monkey" should be obvious, and the nickname Jian should hold obvious connotation with Jien, Dokugakuji's name in childhood, Shu-rin and Wensley are a bit more to talk about. In furthering the image of Shujuan as part stylistically Japanese, suffixes like -chi, -chin, -rin, -ru and so on are frequently tacked on to the names of schoolgirls by their female friends, not something that would lend itself to an overtly masculine presence like Shujuan. Wensley is a homage to Good Omens, which harbors a gang of four very similar in dynamic to some aspects of our gang, and one of the members is named Wensleydale, or Wensley for short.
Xiaolong is explained in-story as a portmanteau of Shujuan's surname and Wenlong's personal name, but the character Xiao in Xiaolong isn't the same as in Shujuan's name. "Xiaolong" here translates as "little dragon." It was used as a Jeep reference before Meizhu was a confirmed character.
Other characters-
Zhao Ming Yue - Zhao means "shine on;" Ming Yue means "bright moon."
Jin (Kim Sung Young) - Jin means "money." Also consider connotations
as the Arabian magical creature, the djinn.
Xiao Jiawen - Jiawen means "pleasant clouds."
Liang Dawei - Liang means "bridge." Dawei means "greatly accomplished."
Shen Ying Jr. - Shen means "to submerge" or "to be addicted to." Ying
means "eagle."
Cao Meizhu - Meizhu means "beautiful pearl."
Zari - Means "golden."
Kougaiji's full name is given as Gyuu Kougaimaoh no Tenjiku, meaning
little more than "King Gyuu Kougaiji of India."
Music
(themes, bgm, and inspirational)
This is, as far as it can be forwarded, the unofficially official playlist for E. Most of this was used early in production not for its lyrical relevance so much as the feel the music was able to inspire. These songs are arranged to follow a vague sort of arc of story progression. (Or at least, on an earlier draft of the story's progression. And clearly some of these come into use more than once.)
01. "Wish I Had An Angel" - Nightwish
02. "Before Dawn" from .hack//SIGN
03. "Wish" from Lola rennt
04. "A Favor House Atlantic" - Coheed and Cambria
05. "Swing Life Away" - Rise Against
06. "Eyes Like Yours" - Shakira
07. "Dreamer's Ball" - Queen
08. "Secret Project" from .hack//SIGN
09. "To the End" - My Chemical Romance
10. "In the House - In a Heartbeat" from 28 Days Later
11. "Gravity" - Vienna Teng
12. "Ocean Avenue" - Yellowcard
13. "Vanishing Memories" from Cardcaptor Sakura
14. "Whatsername" - Green Day
15. "Arc of Time" - Bright Eyes
Other music, not on the actual playlist, but certainly valid:
"In the Rough" - Anna Nalick
"Swallowed in the Sea" - Coldplay
"Somebody Told Me" - The Killers
"You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" - My Chemical Romance
"Another Side" from Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix
Quotes to Consider
(words of others, food for thought)
"Peking does not yield itself readily to the new
observer. Its subtle beauty and character are unobtrusive, and the city
unfolds itself by way of a confusion of hazy and totally strange images
that slowly merge to shape something less than a clearly defined picture."
--David Bonavia, The Great Cities: Peking
(1978)
"It is no accident that the concepts of 'true
love' and 'undying friendship' are popularly associated with the family
of stories that often include elves, unicorns, or fairyland, for they are
approximately as real or achievable."
--Dave Bryant, "Glimpses: Aphorisms"
"Remember whatever. It seems like forever ago."
--Green Day, "Whatshername", American Idiot (2004)
"In the beginning of the period known as the T'ang, Hsüan-tsang*
quietly joined
a body of itinerant bicycle merchants and set off on that pilgrimage
to learn for certain whether all or part of humanity can attain
Buddhahood."
--Peter Streckfus, "The Journey to the West" (2002) (full
poem here)
* = Genjo Sanzo
"Let's unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words."
--Rise Against, "Swing Life Away", Punk Goes Acoustic (2003)
"Sex --no, fucking-- is not just something, it's the whole
thing. And if you're not careful, it will cut you wide open."
--Clyde Martin, Kinsey (2004)
"Right now getting killed would be redundant."
--an icon by greekhoop on f_w (2005?)
Trivia
(odd facts and elements, strange things to note)
Fun Facts:
-It rained on the day I began writing.
-Actually, it frequently rained on the same days I was writing (preplanned)
rain scenes.
-There was a running theme of coincidentally finishing scenes to particular
times of the clock (9:39, 8:58, et cetera).
-Shujuan's birthday was set (29 November [same as Sanzo's] 1977) and
correctly guessed as a Tuesday before I checked the calendar.
-Production was forced through in spite of a planned break, when it
was discovered the filesize at the time was 666Kb. And I never, ever stopped
writing if my last page was the 13th of any part or batch. Not that I'm
at all superstitious or anything.
-The meanings of the characters' surnames was not known at the time
of early writing.
-My house experienced a growing problem with water since the start
of fic production. A leak in a pipe over my room worsened, the toilet in
the nearest bathroom had to be recaulked three times and the bathtub twice,
leaks sprung up under the kitchen sink and in the laundry room, and our
dishwasher had to be completely replaced... and the new one still leaked.
-Including the prologue, epilogue, and two addenda, there are 219 story
pages. All included in one master file, the story spans 402 sheets of 8.5"x11"
paper. (So please think before you try to print it out!)
-There are only 11 canon characters/reincarnations in the active narrative.
An additional two appear only in flashbacks.
-The blank page in Part 11 was originally a scene with Kanzeon and
Jiroshin in Heaven. It was omitted for concerns with characterization and
flow, not --surprisingly-- because of my arbitrary rule to keep things
restricted to the mortal plane. The page was inserted just to pad the two
flanking Shujuan scenes anyway.
-Also, the blank page isn't really blank.
-The last stretch of the story --25,000 or so words-- was written in
three days.
Deliberate References:
-Run Lola Run (Lola rennt; 1999; directed by Tom Tykwer).
-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long; 2000;
directed by Ang Lee).
-Good Omens (1990; written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman).
-The Fountainhead (1943; written by Ayn Rand).
-Citizen Kane (1941; directed by Orson Welles).
-Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain;
2001; directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet).
-Clerks. (1994; directed by Kevin Smith).
-Star Wars (1977; directed by George Lucas).
-Bus Gamer, Wild Adapter, Executive Committee (1997-present;
by Kazuya Minekura).
-Weiß Kreuz (1998; Project Weiß).
-Battle Royale (2000; directed by Kinji Fukasaku).
-Carrie (1977; written by Stephen King).
-The Lion King (1994; directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff).
-Rebel Without a Cause (1955; directed by Nicholas Ray).
-Contact (1997; directed by Robert Zemeckis).
-What Dreams May Come (1978; written by Richard Matheson).
-Red Dragon (2002; directed by Brett Ratner).
-Goodfellas (1990; directed by Michael Scorsese).
-A Clockwork Orange (1971; directed by Stanley Kubrick).
-The Last Unicorn (1982; directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin
Jr.).
-Final Fantasy IX (2000; directed by Hiroyuki Ito).
-The 25th Hour (2000; written by David Benioff).
-The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003; directed by
Peter Jackson).
-The Godfather (1972; directed by Francis Ford Coppola).
-Serial Experiments Lain (1998; directed by Ryutaro Nakamura).
-House of Leaves
(2000; written by Mark Z. Danielewski).
Bonus! For reading replay value,
find the references!
*shot*
...Or not.
Resources
(websites and books from which some material was gathered)
Observing Aura Color - Meaning of Aura Color. Thiaoouba Prophecy.
George and Jean's Visit to China 2001. George Coulouris and Jean Dollimore. (Note especially the sections Around Beijing and Xi'an and the Terracotta Army.)
Chinese Names. Rachel Kronick (Ni Jiawen).
The Great Cities: Peking. David Bonavia. Time-Life Books. (Amazon link.)
Wikipedia articles
on China, Beijing,
Bicycling,
Rollerblading,
Triads,
and San Francisco.
Special Thanks
(And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...)
It's impossible for me to convey thanks to everyone that helped to support this project. No, really-- I'd run out of space. So let me say in advance, to everyone out there reading this: for what you've done, large or small, you have my gratitude forever.
There are some, though, that need a special mention, for their particular prominence during production (alliteration much?), and it would not do to go without hailing a few of them by name:
-Permetaform, for getting the ball rolling. If it weren't for her, there
would be no E. Period.
-My two spoiler children, K. Koumori (retired) and Tochira. It was
a massive sacrifice for both of these girls to have the story spoiled in
advance, just so they could help me work out what I otherwise could not.
-Delphine, my girlfriend during some of the months of production, providing
a muse both inside and outside our relationship. My best to you wherever
you go, Del.
-Rulinian, the basis for Sushma and Ruli. A great friend, objective
storyteller, and primary resource for Indian language and culture. At least
her own culture.
-Bitstream, one of my oldest friends, whose unconditional support is
unparalleled anywhere.
-My little brother and sister. For being teenagers.
-Hane, Elvaron and Hojo, for story help during 11th hour hells and
beta'ing pages when Tochira was unavailable.
-Hibem, New Kate, Mistress Renet and 'dog, for cutting me a hard edge
when I really needed it.
-Snowy, for saving my soul in icons when the world seemed so dark.
-My ever-patient and far too generous friends in Livejournal's Saiyuki
fandom.
-The lurkers and unsollicited subscribers, like Doire and Whiskers.
There was always something particularly enjoyable in hearing from people
I didn't expect to hear from.
-George Coulouris and Jean Dollimore, for their photographic references
of Beijing (and being patient with me getting back to them).
-Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk and David Benioff, for
helping to find the beat in the words-- no matter how often I lost it.
-Kazuya Minekura. For being a goddess incarnate. What more can you
say?
And NO thanks to:
-My muse Cassandra. For making the story as long as it is, without letting
me know just what the hell I was getting into.
Conclusion
(in the end, only kindness matters...)
Several edits and betas later, I'm still cognizant
that what I'm looking at is, at best, a first draft.
The problem with doing a story as a serial akin
to a radio drama is that while you may know your structure from the first
time, it's always an edge you're running on. And if you trip, you have
to live with the mark of that skid for the rest of the race. There are
plenty of things I might take back now, seeing the structure of it all.
Things I'd've condensed, or said better, or stayed consistent on. Because
for as much as this is the same story I set out to write, it's also absolutely
nothing like I'd imagined it'd turned out.
And like some other stories, there's gaps and ambiguities,
and I leave those to you to sort out. Strange to say it, but I believe
ultimately E is your tale-- I just wrote it, you guys are the ones that
made it live.
So, again, thanks to all of you for going down this
road with me. Thanks for making what will be (I hope) the longest fanwork
I've ever done a good one. At the very least, I'm hoping it was worth everyone's
time.
Extras and additional information to follow.
Someone please buy me dinner now.
~K.A. Rose
16:44, 20 August 2005
signing off.
