Drunkard's Walk Forums

I just realized I hadn't posted this yet. Sorry about that.

As with the story, discussion elsewhere, please...

Legend of Galactic Girls: Concordance


References about Fenspace itself are not detailed here. Please consult the Fenspace Wiki for obscure details about the setting.

Knowledgable readers may have noticed the chapter naming convention I've used for this story: all of the titles are variations of anime titles. The overall
title, Legend of Galactic Girls, plays off of the old series
Legend of Galactic Heroes
.

Prologue

Sangnoir of the Universe

A play off of Stellvia of
the Universe, the translated full name of the anime Stellvia.

"Don't tell me you've heard of me?"

"We've heard of you."

"I asked you not to tell me that."

This is a variation of one of the stock exchanges from the 1960s-era spy spoof Get Smart.

"... when one of our universe's authors combined the concept with quantum mechanics' lack of a privileged frame of reference, he realized that
everyone is fictional in some other reality somewhere."

Specifically Robert A. Heinlein, in his novel The Number of the Beast. (Or, at least,
that's where I first saw the concept.)

Oh, wonderful - not again

See Drunkard's Walk X for the first instance of Doug learning he's a character in a
story.

the International Strike Teams

According to Bob's website, this is the
original name of the International Super Teams from GURPS I.S.T. (You learned it here first:
Noah's a gamer geek.) Noah's checking to make sure Doug really is Doug, and not some other cross-world traveler pretending to be The Loon -- or, worse
yet, the evil-reflection "Prateorian Doug", metahuman enforcer for his homeworld's Music And Film Industry Associations, that may or may not
exist somewhere out there.

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said, "Huh?"

"Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing."

- attributed to Robert Benchley

When I regained consciousness,

This is a recurring bit from Dave Broadfoot's stories of his character Sgt. Renfrew of the RCMP,
as told irregularly on the Royal Canadian Air Farce radio show in Canada in
the 1980s.

Mr. Broadfoot told the Renfrew stories as first-person-viewpoint tales. Often, but no more than once per story, "Renfrew" would recount doing
something unbelievably stupid and completely avoidable (like jumping out a window in order to land on his horse without checking that the horse was still
there, or reading a waitress' nametag and asking what the other one's called.) The very next line of the story always began "When I regained
consciousness, ..."

As for how Doug learned about Sgt. Renfrew, perhaps one of his quiet untold stops was in an analogue of 1980s Canada?

That's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question

A pulp-culture reference that's become mainstream, The $64,000 Question was a television
quiz show in the 1950s.

I thought of Maggie for a moment, and smiled. "When I'm away, I write home every day."

"And the next line," added Noah.

"... And when I'm away, I'll write home every day,

And I'll send all my loving to you."

- From All My Loving, by The
Beatles, written by Lennon/McCartney, copyright 1963 Northern Songs.



-Rob Kelk




"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

(Chapter One has gone to the pre-readers, and there's no spoilers in the Concordance, so...)

Chapter One

Fenspace Explorers
A play off of Ruin Explorers
"What's a DQS?"
It's a "Douglas Quincy Sangnoir", or some other trans-dimensional visitor, of course.
a pop-instrumental version of The Girl from Ipanema
Specifically, the version that was playing in the Cook County Assessment Office elevator near the end of The Blues Brothers. Noah went to some expense to get that version just because he wanted that particular cover for Stellvia's "hold" signal.
"Anybody want some watermelon?"
Why did Peggy choose watermelon? She's been traveling with a number of Japanese people, and has at least noticed one of their habits -- when you visit somebody, you bring food, and watermelon is one of the more expensive (and thus impressive) gifts you can bring.
Why did the BBIs roll their eyes? To quote Buckaroo Banzai, I'll tell you later...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Chapter Two
Senshi's Moving Castle
A play off of Howl's Moving Castle.
"I bet no other avatars of my overself have problems with self-aware robots."
Sorry, Skuld, you lose that bet the canonical Skuld has even worse problems with Banpei and Sigel, two robots she built herself. They don't appear in the Oh My Brother universe because Paradox and his ... "bookends" ... fill their places in the storyline.
"Oh, my apologies, Ms. Vanette. You and Ms. Skuld sound remarkably alike."
And Kaolla thinks they both sound something like her big sister, Amalla... It's because they share the same voice actress, Aya Hisakawa. (Just be glad Sailor Mercury didn't join the Girls when they passed through the Sailor Moon Step.)
Naoko Sato
A conflation of the names of two people heavily involved in Sailor Moon story creator Naoko Takeuchi and first season director Junichi Sato. Rob thinks it seems like an appropriate name for an important Senshi.
Maico Tange
A homage to Android Announcer Maico 2010 Maico (who has no family name) was played by Sakura Tange (best-known in North America as Sakura in Card Captor Sakura and Kozue in Infinite Ryvius).
Rob recommends this 24-episode series to anyone who enjoys workplace comedy/drama anime, assuming it's ever licenced and professionally translated.
"Allez inventer!"
Rob already knows that that's fractured French, thank you. So is "Allez cuisine!", the line from Iron Chef that this references.
Miyu had jostled Ryoko's arm just as she was serving a special bowl of soup to the Professor, which made her drop the bowl, but that was the only mishap during the meal.
According to their writeups, Miyu and Ryoko both want to see the Professor dead, but always interfere with each other's plans. Anyone care to guess what was in the "special bowl of soup"?
Interlude
"Bloody hell! You're turning me into a Woollie?"
Most Borribles have a distinctly unfriendly relationship with police officers, which is why Chalotte objects to becoming one even temporarily.
-Rob Kelk
"Actually, my goal is to write neat stories. The money just makes it possible for me to write them faster and then buy neat toys."
Ryk E. Spoor, 7 November 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Quote:

---

"Allez inventer!"
Rob already knows that that's fractured French, thank you. So is "Allez cuisine!", the line from Iron Chef that this references.

---

Actually, that's perfect french if you want to say "Go invent!"