General Information

What is A.U.N.T.I.E?

Just before the cold war, a number of high ranking officials world wide sensed that trouble was brewing. Technology was reaching new heights and new powers were starting to creep up from the old. It was decided between them that there needed to be something to take care of these potential threats to the world as we know it, and banded together to form a group that would later be called A.U.N.T.I.E. They decided from the start not to make the organization's existence common knowledge, even to the world leaders; however, they made sure that they were well aware of everything that was going on by well placed agents within each government, friend and foe alike. It was also decided that this organization would only act in the most dire or unusual of circumstances; circumstances beyond the reach of normal channels. At first, information was plentiful, but money was not. It wasn't until it looked as if A.U.N.T.I.E. security would be compromised by an information leak that an opportunity presented itself. Instead of trying to deny the organization's existence, a bright individual managed to orchestrate a television series called "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and claimed that "A.U.N.T.I.E." was one of the original working titles and someone had just mistaken the name for a real organization. Not only did the ploy work, but it provided A.U.N.T.I.E with funding. A.U.N.T.I.E. continued to invest quietly in similar ventures, including a little film called "Star Wars", reaping the benefits and channeling the money into research, development, training, and recruitment of the best (and sometimes, most eccentric) people available to become agents. With the coming of the new millennium, new and more bizarre threats await, with only the agents of A.U.N.T.I.E. standing between them and global peril.

No, really. What is A.U.N.T.I.E?

Okay, the truth. A.U.N.T.I.E. was an accident. It all started because I was playing the part of a mech pilot in a board room RPG and I needed an organization. I remembered an old G.I. Joe cartoon, where there was a secret agent that the Joes were supposed to escort. Every time he did something involving a gadget, he'd say "My auntie gave it to me", and later we see a truck with "AUNTIE" on the side, a la "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." Don't ask me why I remember it after all this time, but I did, and so, boom! there's my organization.

It should have ended there, but it didn't. Before long, the story took a turn, and I needed some kind of external support. As a joke, I had her talking to a character from Sluggy Freelance as if he worked for A.U.N.T.I.E.as well. Suddenly, A.U.N.T.I.E. started taking on a life of it's own, and I started thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if I came up with some way to illustrate this." That's how this web site came into being - part story idea, part web designing exercise (IE: a chance for me to learn a whole lot about Javascript and Shockwave, though I ended up ditching the Shockwave in this version).

What happened to the tech section?

Yes there was going to be a tech section. No there isn't one at the moment. The reason was that during development, I decided to go with all original artwork instead of borrowing images (believe me, I had a ton of Macross and Robotech mech drawings I had borrowed off the web. the decision changed that, and posed a new problem: my skills at drawing tech are less than stellar, and the number of things I'd need... well this thing would never go online, so for now, I decided to axe it.

Who are all these people?

I needed to populate A.U.N.T.I.E, so I decided to draw from a lot of different sources, mostly old projects and drawings (some going back almost 10 years, YIKES!). Here's a quick rundown:
Agent Mea: Started off as me, turned into a new character.
Agent Cid: A very veiled homage to FF7 and one of my favorite characters from it. Also appeared in a story I wrote.
Agent Black: Not based on anyone. Also appeared in aforementioned story.
Agent Foxboy: Starred out as a character in the aforementioned story, but as I was writing his email messages, he turned into someone I used to know in college.
Agent Deathbunny: Based on Riff from Sluggy Freelance. The first agent besides Mea.
Agent Cat's Paw: A character from a very cyber-punkish round robin I did in college.
Agent Alien: One of my favorite characters from the aforementioned round robin. The look isn't quite right, but it's close.
Agent Athena: A third character from that round robin. I liked her too.
Agent Shade: Based on a character for a series I never really wrote except in outline form. The original character was loosely based on my best friend from college.
Agent Snake: Based on Snakeeyes from G.I.Joe. It's not like he's doing much now.
Agent J.R.: Based on someone who I know quite well in the real world who also posted on the board that started all this. I'll let you figure out who.
Agent Nightingale: Wow! The only character created specifically for this project!
T.W.: Okay, this is kind of a character too. As id you couldn't guess, this is the all-seeing, all-knowing boss. I'll let you figure out what T.W. stands for.
There are a few more that may be added later.

What's next for A.U.N.T.I.E?

Good question. I haven't decided if I'm going to elaborate on this or just chalk it up to a successful exercise in web design. I guess we'll see the response to the challenge I set up to find this place and see what people say. Trust me, if it does evolve any more, you won't need a password to get in.

Is A.U.N.T.I.E. recruiting?

Uh... you do realize that this is fiction, right?

Just kidding. I haven't decided on that either. Again, it will depend on response and what I decide to do with it. I might be persuaded to add a few new agents.

Are you insane, doing all this for nothing?

Probably. next question.

What's the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

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