As some of you might recall, Oliver Xanthos, or "Mr. X" as he is more popularly known in Mega Man vernacular, is a prominent character in my story "Guiding Rainbow's Light". Oliver Xanthos is a Greek expatriate whose family was in the wine business. As the family's youngest son, and therefore entitled to the smallest part of the inheritance, Oliver branched out into arms dealership on the black market.
He soon became very good at his job, gaining enough money to qualify as a Billionaire several times over through dishonest means...And he is in a very large respect, responsible for the Wars of 2040 that followed, even though he'll never admit it to anyone. In the years of Reconstruction that have followed, Xanthos has poured his fortune into the Second Rainbow's efforts. But he still has his own toys that he plays with from time to time.
One example that we've seen is his ship, his pride and joy of the waves, the Socrates. I've described the ship as a hydrofoil equipped Tri-Catamaran (Or Trimaran) vessel that he calls his yacht (As any vessel built for pleasure purposes is considered a yacht). I've also written that it can reach speeds of up to 350 mph, though likely with the assistance of jet engines or high-speed underwater impellers that blow away today's nautical technology.
The fine line I walk in GRL is trying to make things PLAUSIBLE. Yes, it will forever have that element of fanciful whimsy and make-believe, because, hey, I'm writing a prequel about Mega Man. But that doesn't stop me from trying to be as accurate as possible. And today I learned two things in the course of my further research.
One is, there is a precedent in our own age for high speed catamarans of exceptional length, and it recently saw action in the middle east.
The second thing is, and I kid you not, boys and girls...
A catamaran vessel that is 100 feet or longer (And I've marked the Socrates as being around 150 feet long) has a special name.
It is called...
A MEGA-Catamaran.
I'm taking this as a sign that Keiji Inafune is pleased.
-Erico
