Rylan Hilman wrote:
Quick update from me: yes, I AM still working on stuff over here.
It's just going slowly since I'm trying to write something that's a
bit more fulfilling to read than my usual off-the-top-of-my-head
stream of consciousness style that I've used for almost everything
I've released here thus far. :)
Well, an established style is something to be proud of, I think. And I happened to enjoy your past forrays into fanfiction. ;)
The trouble of it all was, as she continued her internal debate,
that her routine was less so today than other days. There was this
occasional thought that she ought to go to school, and that many
other people ought to as well, but somehow there didn't seem to be
a need. Nor much of a want, for that matter. Moreover, for some
bizarre reason, there didn't seem to be a school. Yet these
occasional thoughts persisted, and this only served to make Nabiki
even more tired, as well as even more alert.
Around this point I was trying to borrow the look-and-feel of the
second Urusei Yatsura movie; all seems well, but there's a growing
sense that it isn't. One of my favorite anime movies, that it is.
I seem to recall you mentioning this from the original C&C.
Genma stopped eating, withdrew his head from the fridge, looked Nabiki
in the eyes, and paused. A couple seconds later, he sucked his tongue up
into his head and blew a raspberry at her out of both ears in stereo.
This...I dunno where this came from. Interesting mental image,
nonetheless.
If somewhat disturbing, yes.
"IF YOU WANT to help us, hear the words. Check your room. One."
Capitalized words: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. One == first sentence of great
significance, given as clues to Nabiki (without alerting anyone who would
happen to be monitoring).
Except savvy readers.
Not that I was savvy enough. ;)
Sliding down the street was a colossal black cube, polished and shiny,
plowing up the ground as it went.
I know I've seen sci-fi perfectly smooth black cubes somewhere, but
offhand I can't remember if I was referencing any one in particular. It's
not a Borg cube, though the ominous effect's somewhat the same. Could be
some sort of Myst-like bizarre alien object.
Made me think of Time Bandits.
Nabiki looked around in confusion to see where that last line had come
from, and saw a unfamiliar figure standing upon her house. He wore a
judo gi, and as soon as she recognized him, his heroic theme song
started.
This is the legendary Segata Sanshiro, spokesman and hero of the
Sega Saturn in Japan. Dude's got skillz.
Segata Sanshiro is my personal hero.
As for the other events of Segata Sanshiro's reign, all he did, and
his military achievements, are they not written in the book of the
annals of the kings of Sega? Sanshiro rested with his fathers, the kings
of Sega. And Gorokuro his son succeeded him as king.
Adapted almost directly from 2 Kings 14:28-29, NIV. San(3) and Shi(4)
boosted by two each to reach Go(5) and Roku(60.
AH! That explains it.
"Yo, little sister," Cologne greeted Nabiki, remaining on her stool
with eyes closed and hands folded, "Perhaps you should go and consult
YOUR FACULTY ADVISOR and learn about the matrix."
Capitalized words: 10th, 11th, and 12th. Fourth sentence of great
significance. The faculty advisor line is picked up from a the Lucasarts
game of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and also from a demo version
of one of the Monkey Island games. Guybrush Threepwood had to come up
with a phrase or something, but the faclty advisor segment was only
half of it. I don't remember for sure, though; it was about a decade
ago.
"Ask me about LOOM."
Also of interest: if you take all the letters in the Chocolate Oranges
trilogy, discard most of them and rearrange the rest, you get, "Emmitt
Nervend." Eerie. o_O
Amazing.
As they adjusted to the brightness, she
saw a dark-suited and helmet-clad figure standing on the far side of the
room, smoky fog billowing around it.
Darth Vader! 'Cause it's not the east or the west side! (NO IT'S NOT!)
It's not the north or the south side! (NO IT'S NOT!) It's the dark side!
(YOU ARE CORRECT!)
Oh, yeah... I remember that now.
"I am Pereshte." it stated matter-of-factly, still using the higher-
toned version of Akane's voice. "Perhaps you've heard of me?"
Catchphrase of Talespin's Colonel Spigot.
Yes, now I remember.
It's like that episode where Crusher's drinking out of Riker's head
with a straw and the cellular peptide cake has mint frosting...except
not.
Damn. Now you've gotten that imagery stuck in my head again. >_<
"Egnaro Eht Saw Okkay, Egnaro Eht T'nsaw Luap."
Skcals sih ni yenolab s'ereht.
Ah, takes me back to the good old days of my youth, it does.
"Cool," thought a nearby parakeet, secretly very amused by this turn
of events.
Well, I picked this up from the Mystery Octagon Theater's riffing done
on Curse of the Nightmare, a spectacularly wacky megacrossover SI fic.
The original line went something like this:
<quote>
> The team put their heads down,
MMK <narrator>: Secretly, the parakeet was very amused when their heads
made a sound much like coconuts banging together.
SVEN <parakeet>: Cool.
</quote>
This fic can be found at http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/mot.html
It is also from a Far Side comic, created by Gary Larson. If memory serves.
"Is okay, sirs!" the guide said, bringing out a teakettle from his
emergency hut nearby, "You can, like, return old form with hot water!"
He poured the steaming tea on top of the panda, which immediately
transformed back into the confused-looking human form of Genma, wearing
his classic white gi. Oddly enough, the tea had stained the gi in such a
way that it was now colored a somewhat pastel pink.
Surfer dude Jusenkyo guide. Sorta-kinda. o_O
Ah yes, and the pastel pink gi, a tribute to Dan "The Man" Hibiki.
THOUGHT so. "OYAJI!"
"Very interesting indeed..." he murmured, reading a news article which
was continually updating itself through its own mysterious devices, and
finally stabilized in the one form he much preferred it didn't stabilize
in.
Back to the Future 2, where the shifting timelines cause newspaper
headlines to fade in and out on-screen.
Ah. That one, I hadn't caught, sadly.
Well, I've never plucked a rooster, and I'm not too good at ping-pong,
and I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall, and I've
never kissed a chipmunk, and I've never gotten head lice, and I've never
been to Boston in the fall!
As mentioned in the Disclaimer, these are lyrics sung by Larry the
Cucumber in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.
I have a video to that song.
"Well, my son, we're in luck!" Genma jumped back to his feet,
completely re-energized by roast chicken.
The complete reenergizing by chicken could be a videogame reference,
but I didn't have any particular one in mind.
Castlevania, I think.
His name was Idaten, and he was no mere mortal.
While writing this chapter, I was wondering how to get Segata Sanshiro
fighting side-by-side with Mr. Yotsuya. Brian Randall suggested that I
have Idaten tell him. Seems to have worked.
What can I say?
And now, to steal a cue from Mr. Sommer: I'm working on another fic that features the same character.
Boggle. ;)
Initially, Segata Sanshiro merely tossed Idaten into some trees, but,
seeing as he was not quite convinced of the benefits of playing Sega's
fine quality video games, he kicked him towards Mt. Fuji, bounced him
off of it, then kicked him into the mountain again.
He does that. Appease him by playing Sega games, because you wouldn't
like him when he's angry.
Like at the disco.
Nabiki, however, was momentarily distracted by something. "Wait a
minute, Mr. Yotsuya...why is your coat all wet?"
The smile disappeared, and his usual neutral face returned. "I've
been training. For the time being, that's all that needs to be said
about that."
I had an idea of Yotsuya doing some DBZ-style training, which would
enable his trenchcoat and fedora, in battle, to glow yellow while he
himself remained unchanged...it didn't make the cut.
Probably for the best.
Several of the Royal Guard, their powered staffs at the ready,
I briefly considered using "staves", but feared this might be construed
as an attempt to bewilder people and make them jump out of windows.
You should have gone with it: 'DannyCat the Defenestrator' isn't as cool as 'DannyCat the Remote Defenestrator'.
And that's about it for Chocolate Oranges, for now. Still got another
chapter to write, but it's inordinately complex and takes a while to
think up...that and it's going to be peculiarly odd. Heheh. :)
I also want to try doing something more dramatic and quality with this
next part, too. Mind Stew's about the closest I've come so far, but I've
got to learn how to craft a story with some actual emotional POWAH behind
it, de gozaru. Something of that sort, anyway. Harder than it looks.
Looking for it -- yout annotations were quie interesting. Be sure to take notes for the next one! ;)