@jannycats:

Thanks! The journey that Vincent makes on the Rabbit reminded me of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where the journey-like Vincent's--is not so nice. The major lack of color was inspired by Gustave Doré's artwork for the poem, as seen here.

I should also add that the "or" in the sentence is an archaic way of saying "before", thus: "But [before] ever a prayer had gushed . . . ."

Yay, good to see another Ergo Proxy fan! The wallie fits neatly with the whole post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the anime