I know the people in the Slayers world do not worship Ceiphied directly, but rather worship the four Dragon Gods that were created by Ceiphied when he defeated Shabranigdu. However, that is…a bit awkward to explain and there *was* a Temple to Ceiphied in Seyruun (Kanzel/Mazenda story arc in NEXT, the episode where Mazenda seals away Lina’s powers), so just to make things simple, I decided to have Ceiphied be the main “god” in my version of Slayers. Not exactly kosher, but it simplifies some things.
I like songfics, though I like to be different. Therefore this is a triple songfic. Two songs were used to create the framework of the story I wanted to tell, and another was actually worked into the narrative. Those songs are: Desperado by The Eagles, Shape Of My Heart, by Sting, and I Was Made For You by Martin Page.
As usual, there are a lot of references to pop culture in this fic. Those include Terry Pratchett, the CGI series ReBoot, one of the best British SF series of all time, The Prisoner, Alice in Wonderland, the movie Labrynth and again, more things than I can remember.
The character of Coyote was inspired in parts by Christopher Moore’s character in the book Coyote Blue, the traveling hunchback of the Anazasi, Kokopelli, who traveled around trading songs, and my own demented imagination.
This fic wouldn’t be complete without thanking the following people:
Silvestris for always being supportive of everything I do no matter how much it makes her shake her head.
Stacy and Kamui in equal parts, for reading it as I was writing it, providing wonderful commentary and feedback and all around just being there when I simply needed a boost or a kick in the pants to get over the rough spots. Fortunately, they didn’t kick me as hard as I kicked Zelgadis. Plus they’re just such darn good friends!!
Astra, for being a guinea pig and reading it not knowing what she was getting into just so that I could tell whether or not the ideas were working or if I was way out of line or not. Fortunately, she didn’t hit me when I sent her a section that ended in a very…awkward place, shall we say?
Everyone else who put up with all the hints I dropped while writing it.
That's all.
-- Pairaka