When someone makes a music record, one thinks of the music to put on it first. He or she would make a melody, some lyrics and a few arrangements --- voila! --- the album is done. After finishing the last mixes do they sit down and put in ink who they were influenced by, what songs they sampled, who helped them...

I swear I was going to do this after I get to finish the timeline because I haven't even decided on what songs to use as platforms for each planned part, and what articles in the memory bank to quote. But the announcement from the Plagiarism Police Patrol concerning two near-identical YYH fics freaked me out.

No, don't get me wrong. The announcement was a good, if jarring, reminder of our responsibilities as both writer and reader. It rightfully and rudely awakened me that intellectual property rights are just as valued in every fandom as it is in the real world. I intentionally put this at the end because of the spoilers, though I already sent drafts of this to Morgan D. and the others who read it first.

So my greatest thanks for the inspiration provided by such original-fiction writers like Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade... I know you are all dead and incapable of reading this now. Besides, I'll bet you will think this is crappy drivel.

Thanks as well to pros like Joyce Carol Oates, Tim Robbins, George MacDonald, Alice Hoffman, some good porn writers, and great fanfic writers like Morgan D. (who features this shit on her website), Windlily (for the hentai-scene ideas) and Sandy Youko (whose Makai Files inspired the rise of the Porneapolis) to name a few. I know I didn't even approach you about these things, so you can now prepare your fire squad for me.

I was also inspired by the music of the people whose songs appear in the fics without their permission. Not that they'd care --- this isn't a business venture after all.

The rest I'll quote this way:

So Precious. What else can be said about a rape fic like almost every other rape fic out there?

The Wrong Child. The rhyme used for the game is some dumb ditty I thought up for lack of an appropriate example out there. The idea is as fresh as yesterday's Caesar salad left on the counter. Hoshi, Maryam and Eros are NOT mine and I'll explain later. Agni is the Hindu god of fire.

What Not to Pry Open. I don't know any particular medicine for this kind of mental disorder, let alone if such a disorder exists and has been studied in detail (Help, Psych majors). Some mushrooms are indeed hallucinogenic, and one active ingredient is called psylocibin (right spelling?). Ma huang extracts contain ephedra, a very strong stimulant and weight-loss aid with side effects like heart damage and insomnia. Perhaps revealing chain-link dresses are S&M staples but I first saw it on Rose McGowan on a vaguely-remembered issue of Allure, American edition. Kurama's costume was inspired by communion dresses, and the dreamscape featuring him and Majin Hiei was ispired by the videos for Madonna's Frozen and Nine Inch Nails' The Perfect Drug.

Welcome to the Jungle. I haven't tried Revlon eyeliners yet, so Hiei's accusation may not be true (it's the first make-up brand that came to mind --- if you've tried it, tell me if it's good or not). Hiei and Satsujin's position appeared on a vaguely-remembered issue of FHM Philippines, where it was given a difficulty rating of 10/10. You already know centaurs and elves from fairy tales and I doubt the existence of a story depicting both races at war. The customer's fantasy was a rip-off from Sade's Juliette: The Triumph of Vice. Narcissus was a gorgoeous boy from Greek myth who looked at his reflection so much that he was condemned to look at the water forever as a flower.

Closer. I saw a Travel Channel feature on a giant greenhouse dome somewhere on the British islands and this was the seed for the idea of the building. T421, H417, M405, and H427 are Tamago, Hajime, Maryam and Hiei. (Please don't ask me how the whores built it.) The table thing was a mutation of Sandy Youko's Homework III: Silence Please, while the shower thing was a mutation of Mina Lightstar's Randy Rodeo. Pulsars are what stars (those in the sky) end up as when they don't have enough mass to become a black hole upon "death". The broadcast thing was the best equivalent I can think of to one's not paying the bill, resulting in dishwashing.

He Knows Me, He Knows Me Not. That's why I don't own Hoshi.

Two Fools on Ice. If you think that they're inside a sequoia or something --- no. I was thinking of a balete tree, scientific name Ficus benjamina, a relative of the fig tree if I remember right, all contorted knots of adventitious (aerial) roots and, at least in the Philippines, a favorite refuge of demons and/or fairies. And what's with the Thermos? I mean, the Makai does have TV sets, right?

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MERISTE D'ANGE
*official supplier of Tool concert VIP passes to the Reikai Tantei