Moar Stuff You May Have Missed
Prologue:
-The anonymous fellow responsible for that gem of a quote is a friend of mine.
-In my initial outline of this story, it was Pikachu that always bugged Sly for rides because he and Ash hole ended up returning to help. I changed my mind and had Bianca be the hero instead, obviously.
-"Life's been good to me so far" is a reference to Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good."
-"Call me a dreamer" is a reference to John Lennon's "Imagine."
Chapter 1:
-Mr. Frost and the road less travelled are both references to "The Road Not Taken" by, Robert Frost, and An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by, Brock Clarke.
-The name "Sue Denim" is a play off the phrase pseudonym, which basically means "fake name." (Ex: Mark Twain). I am now aware that Dav Pilkey used it as a pen name once, but at the time of considering Sue's name, I was not aware of that fact.
-The Carlito is a real cafe in Miami.
Chapter 2:
-Sly's mother is actually my mother. She's not capable of being punctual.
-Crazy eyes are real. If you suspect the person you're considering dating of having them, proceed with caution. I learned the hard way.
-The thought of a drunk Latios is kind of amusing if you're me.
-That's Sly's way of saying Joy was gay. Or she knew someone that was gay. I don't know. Something about gay being okay. Which, you know, it is.
-The car tires being popped sounds like something I was reminiscient of. My buddy got a bumper sticker a few years ago for the holidays that read, "Keep Satan in Christmas." One day he went out to his car and someone had scraped it off and popped one of his tires.
Chapter 3
-That he found himself wandering his memories as a Latios as time progressed is basically his way of saying he was a Latios in heart and soul eventually.
-Sly's memory is a reference to one of my favorite memories. I was 8, playing my N64 (RIP), specifically Kirby 64, then we got a buddy of mine and went to a party. Good time. However, I wasn't a Latios when that happened and a guy in a three piece suit wasn't there.
-The man that visited Sly is the same as seen in several of my stories. He's got no concrete roots. He's just there, and is always open to interpretation.
-When asked who sent him and he responds, "A deathclaw and a wanderer," he's referencing Cord, the narrator of one of my previous stories, and Milly, the Lone Wanderer from the Fallout series I used.
-The girl the man claims to know that was betrayed is Milly.
-Jack is the friend Sly knew and narrator of another story I wrote a while back.
-"A dragoness of prey" was the original name for this chapter, but I didn't like it.
Chapter 4
-Plausible deniability is a tactic sometimes employed by government factions that give a person or agency the ability to say they had no knowledge of something that was going on. So, if a spy is made in a foreign country but is part of an organization that the president has limited or no knowledge of, he can say that he didn't know what was going on.
-Critics of plausible deniability cite the lack of power or authority the figure employing it adopts. In other words, "Why don't you know?"
RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!
-Water does take the form of a bubble when in zero gravity.
-If I were in Sly's place; that is, if I were the guardian stopping bullies from doing their thing, I wouldn't be so nice about it. I'd either make sure I come across as criminally insane so as to scare them, or I'd find another way to make life hell.
What? I'm really, really good at making life hell.
-"That Tac's a real B-word" is a reference to the Stephen Lynch song, D&D. You can find it on The People's Republic of YouTube. A.K.A GoogleTube.
-The "Don't make fun of nerds" line is a reference to a quote by Bill Gates: "Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one."
-An open marriage, if you didn't know, is a marriage in which both the husband and wife (or wife and wife, or husband and husband, or husband and kangaroo, or Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) agree that each may have sexual relations outside of each other.
-I played catch with Latias once. She throws a wicked fast ball. I woke up in the hospital and still can't remember fractions.
-The Central Security Service is a branch of the NSA, or National Security Agency. It's mostly responsible for capturing of enemy intel. Because they answer to the NSA, CSS Agents are often unheard of.
-The RICK-ter scale is based on a real story.
-The bumblers and College of Me are both references to An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England.
Chapter 5
-Who doesn't love off days? How often do you wake up, and it's one of those days where you don't want to do anything productive?
-Chuck Norris is a martial artist and the founder of the martial arts school of Chun Kuk Do. He's an opponent of gay marriage, to which I say, "Take a seat, son." If gays can't get married because it goes against your religion, you can't have cookies because I'm on a diet.
From a Christian to a Christian.
-"Leaves of grass" is a reference to the Walt Whitman poetry collection of the same name, "Leaves of Grass."
-I'm not sure whether the plural should be "Pidgey" or "Pidgeys."
-God, I love swimming. How come nobody else I know does?
-If you didn't know or are totally oblivious, Nidoqueen is a female only pokémon, so Mew turning Sly into one is, in my opinion, kind of hilarious.
-The Celestial Plain is a reference to Okami.
-Don't mess with the Coast Guard. Seriously. They may not always see a bunch of action, but they are always heavily armed. They tend to have 40mm canons and mounted machine guns on their patrols.
-POI stands for "Person of Interest." Police often use it to identify people involved in a criminal investigation, though not necessarily charged.
-Big Friday is another name for Black Friday. It's seen in the Christmas story I wrote for The Angels Rejoiced Last Night.
-I've always wondered about what would happen if you said, "Nah bro, I'm good," to a trainer that challenged you. As I recall, you never get that option. What would happen? Would the trainer disappear in a puff of smoke? Would he burst into flames? Pull out a tantō and go ahead with seppuku?
Great, that's going to keep me up.
-Sue's parents sound like my mother. She's in my phone as "Satan" right now.
-If you saw How To Train Your Dragon, then you know what the pests are. I can't tell you how many times I've had to shoo dragons out of my cupboards. Thank God for burn heal.
BA DUM PISH!
-The Seven Sisters are another name for an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus the Bull called Pleiades.
-"My life got flipped turned upside down" is a reference to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as was how she got into one little fight and her mom got scared. Will Smith stars in it.
-Sly being so comfortable with Sue is due to the dragon nip.
-The hammer is a reference to one of the weapons in Mario's arsenal, seen extensively in the Paper Mario series. His throwing turtles into bombs is a reference to Super Mario 64.
Chapter 6
-Phil Collins is amazing.
-Okami has two meanings, depending on how it is used, I think. It can mean "Great God" or "Wolf." Mew is supposedly extremely powerful, so I feel it fits her.
-"Pick yourself up by the bootstraps" is a reference to how President Hoover believed in combating the Great Depression. He thought it would be better for people to help themselves, and it probably would have been, except nobody could help themselves at the time.
-The thing Sly feels reminiscient of after hearing the Umbreon called Espeon is my butchering of Espeon in the previous story. I called him Umbreon several times, if you missed it.
-Stars maintain stability on the main sequence part of their lives by fusing Hydrogen into Helium in their cores. When they run out of Hydrogen to fuse, they fuse the Helium into Carbon. From there, it depends on the mass of the star. If it's like our Sun, it expands into a Red Giant and then dies in a planetary nebula. More massive stars fuse heavier elements until they reach iron, and finally explode.
-Sue's line after shooting Sly up with the sedative is a reference to the game 007: Nightfire.
-I know in game the Master Ball always succeeds, but assume that creatures like Mew can still escape anyway. I think it sounds interesting.
Chapter 7
-I apparently get poetic when I have a bit too much to drink. The DMA rant in one of the first lines went on a while longer. I obviously cut it.
-"North Street Butchers" is a reference to the mockumentary, The Poughkeepsie Tapes.
-In Christianity, the fallen angel Satan is powerless to enter your home unless you invite him in. That is, if he's at your door he can't cross the threshold unless you invite him. It's a similar concept to the old idea that ghosts can't cross rivers.
-There's a light reference in the description of the Dragon Nip to Resident Evil's disasterous English translation. Upon examining herbs, the player is greeted in the English dub with the glorious description, "An herb that's grow wild in this region."
-This might be mean of me, but I think I see parts of my ex in Sue's psychosis.
-I thought it was a lot of fun typing about Sue's fascination with televisions.
Chapter 8
-Seriously, crazy eyes are a real thing. I can't stress that enough. Pay attention when you're on your first dates. You'll know.
-RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. It's a tracking device seen sometimes in clothing at department stores before purchases.
-The electric thing is the Pokédex.
-Sly's predicament left him with severe claustrophobia and PTSD. This is the first instance his condition following the story is mentioned, I think.
-I may have forgotten to mention this, but Johnny Bravo is a reference to a cartoon of the same name. That I forgot to use it as Brock's nickname last story hurt me. I had to make up for it.
Now, do the monkey with me.
-The "I belong to that group forever" thing regarding the ball is a reference to an old story on this site that, unfortunately, seems to have been removed. It was called Kill Bill. It's a shame- the story, though never finished, was excellent.
-In Burn Notice, there is a minor character named Jason Bly, who works for the CSS. He has worked both with and against the main protagonist of the show, Michael Weston.
Chapter 9
-Let's be real here: I'd imagine even in a world like Pokémon, the police would be packing.
-In the US Marines, the name "PIG" is given to a scout that graduated sniper school. It stands for "Professionally Instructed Gunman."
-Not knowing Bianca's last name is a nod to Hey, Arnold!
-Bianca's mother's album, Date, Marry, and Mate is a reference to the song, Lipstick, Powder and Paint.
-"Triple aluminum" is a reference to a Larry the Cable Guy joke.
-I like the thought of Latias as a mother figure towards Bianca. It was interesting to write about.
-1313 Prospect Street is a real address, but not mine. It's a reference to Burn Notice.
-"Muffy, because I thought he looked like a carpet sample" is a reference to You Don't Know Jack.
-I've been asking myself why I ended up using Sly Stevens as a name for a long time. Having said that, the drunk, sad, and angry person he mentions is me.
-Mario not saving kidnap victims enough is an obvious reference to the Mario series. So obvious, in fact, that I'm not sure why I brought it up.
Chapter 10
-Clark Gable is the male lead in the film this story derives its name from, It Happened One Night. His character is where inspiration for Bugs Bunny was drawn from.
-Lyin' Ryan is a reference to the Psych episode, "Truer Lies."
-"...tell the truth, though she told it slant" is a reference to Emily Dickinson's poem, "1263."
Chapter 11
-The bullet Bly wore as a necklace is his own "Hog's tooth."
-As already mentioned, a P. I. G. is a "Professionally Instructed Gunman." Bly's tattoo simply means he's a trained sniper.
-A "H. O. G." is the name given to a P. I. G. that has killed an enemy target in combat. It stands for "Hunter Of Gunman." Traditionally, the P. I. G. wears a bullet out of one of the guns on his or her side as the Hog's tooth, or the bullet "with your name on it." The idea is, if you're wearing the bullet that has your name on it around your neck, it can't be fired, therefore you are invincible. A H. O. G. will often find the body of his or her first fallen enemy, and take the first bullet chambered from the enemy gun, and use that as the Hog's tooth, for that was the bullet with his or her name on it. Jason having this tattoo and bullet means he has seen combat, and has killed another human being.
-Jason's mentioned in the previous story once as Bianca's husband, meaning that sometime after this story they got romantically involved.
-"He looks like a tramp, if that's any help" is a reference to Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character.
-"Jill the Shredder" is a reference to "Jack the Ripper."
-An APB is an "All Points Bulletin." It's used by police in identifying suspects in various crimes.
-Someone thought I was serious about Sue and Sly having tea and phone sex. I have no faith in this new generation.
Chapter 12
-"That Ugly Yellow Wallpaper" is a reference to the popular short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's a story exploring the idea of the rest cure, as well as criticizing it.
-The very special book of which Nurse Joy's nickname was derived is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by, Ken Kesey.
-"Just ask Darl" is a direct reference to the ultimate fate of Darl Bundren in William Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying.
-Towards the end of "The Yellow Wallpaper," the main character breaks down, and becomes convinced there is a woman living underneath the ugly yellow wallpaper of the room she's been "recovering" in.
-"Come again for big fudge" is a reference to How I Met Your Mother.
-The Dean's Honor List is the college equivalent to the Honor Roll. It's excellent on a resume.
-Latias' quote is actually very true. It's no more useful to hate on someone for being intolerant than it is to be, well, intolerant.
Chapter 13
-The chapter name is a reference to Everybody Loves Raymond.
-Krav Maga is a self defense sport developed for the Israeli military forces. It's well known not only for its status in Israel, but for the brutal counter-attacks used in its name.
-Jiu Jitsu is a Japanese martial art focused primarily on disarming opponents and then promptly defeating them in lieu of weapon play.
The point is, Bianca's scary.
-The Celestial Brush is a light reference to Okami. Think of it simply as the tool in which powerful beings like Mew exert influence.
-My knowledge of Sketch as a move in pokémon is, well, sketchy at best. No pun intended. Having said that, I'm quite confident there are some continuity errors herein.
-Candace the Smeargle is a reference to a character in another fic on this site, A New Chance At Adventure. In it, Bianca catches a Smeargle she names Candace.
-Buddhists are a reference to, well, Buddhists.
-The Buddha is the sage on which the teachings of Buddhism were founded. Contrary to popular belief, he (Siddhartha Gautama) was not fat. He was actually very skinny. The fat man people often mistakenly associate with him is Hotei, a monk that lived during the Liang Dynasty.
-"I've heard it both ways" is a reference to a recurring joke in Psych.
-Ninetales is my favorite pokémon.
-The certain diety that can make giant cherry bombs appear out of thin air is Amaterasu.
-"I had some 'splaining to do" is a reference to I Love Lucy.
Chapter 14
-The tough love thing is a reference to a Dane Cook joke.
-So, Sly basically described the entire plot of the first How To Train Your Dragon movie by saying, "The Night Fury was downed by an exceptionally scrawny human and tamed."
Chapter 15
-Beethoven was deaf in his later years, though I seem to recall hearing that he was worse off with his left ear.
Oh, no pun intended.
-The clean up song is a reference to the song from Barney.
I love you, you love me, I love Barney's family, when a shot rings out, and Barney hits the floor; no more purple dinosaur.
-Chocolate Bhutlah peppers are some of the hottest peppers on the planet. They don't seem to have been rated on the Scoville scale, from what I can tell, but they may be a little less than 2 million scoville units. For a layman, that's roughly 7 times hotter than the Blazin' wings at "Buffalo Wild Wings."
-The reversal of fortune is a reference to Mario Party's "Chance Time."
-Eels terrify dragons in HTTYD. Obviously Sky Stephens didn't get the memo.
-Civil disobedience is the method in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted black people to fight for rights. That is, peaceful protesting and no violence.
Chapter 16
-The thing about insurance and its coverage is a reference to the whole basement fiasco of mine last year.
-I'm still not quite sure where the thing with the magnet and the thing came from here. I may have just been really bored.
-Sue juggling while humming a show tune is a reference to The Five People You Meet in Heaven by, Mitch Albom.
-Sly's theory of Mew being on vacation is a reference to Bruce Almighty.
-An afterimage is the phenomenon that occurs after you stare at something for a long time, and then you look away and see what appears to be that object with reversed colors.
-In Chinese culture, "chi" is your life energy. It can also constitute your soul.
-"Forever-sleep" is a reference to I Hear Him Scream, which is another fic on this site.
-Eternal oblivion is the belief that you fail to survive death. By which I mean, there is no afterlife and your consciousness ends permanently. This as a fate makes death the worst imaginable tragedy. It is seen in part for some religions, as well, though it's not eternal. In some religions, when you die, you are gone, but after a few weeks or so, God (or the Gods, or Goddesses) bring you back. Then judge you. Then you go to Hawaii. Or the Bahamas, depending on your religion.
I really want to go to Hawaii.
Chapter 17
-I could NOT come up with a working chapter name for this one.
-The boy Mew told Sly about that could heal souls with a magic ocarina is Link in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The song he would use is the "Song of Healing."
-Again, someone did not understand the joke about how something was definitely going to happen next chapter. Again, I have no faith in this generation.
Chapter 18
-Bruce Lee... what can I say about him? The man was more than capable of fighting Chuck Norris to a standstill (they were good friends), and when he was driving, he would keep a wooden block in the passenger seat, which he would punch while at a stop light to keep his skin calloused. He is believed to have died of severe brain swelling caused by an allergic reaction to a painkiller in 1973, though there are some opponents to the cause of death ruling he received.
-Sambo, or Samozashchita Bez Oruzhiya, meaning "Self-defense without weapons" is a Russian martial art. It traces its origins to the Red Army in the 1920's.
-I personally like the idea of Sue making up her own names for moves. It gave the story a little something that would not have been achieved otherwise.
-The statement about flames having no weight is not necessarily true. Flames are a plasma. Stars are balls of gas under very strange conditions, which make them plasma, and obviously stars have weight, so...
-Think of stars when you think of flames. A star that is red is, at the surface, approximately 3,200 kelvin. A star that is white hot at the surface, however, is around 50,000 kelvin. The BLUER the object, the hotter it is.
-SWAT stands for "Special Weapons and Tactics." They are the police unit you call when the normal men in blue won't do the trick.
-Sly's statement about people being rescued from certain situations dying shortly after is true. The will to live goes a surprisingly long way.
Chapter 19
-The shooting the sheriff and not the deputy thing is a reference to the Eric Clapton song, "I Shot the Sheriff."
-A hung jury is a jury that can not come to an agreement on the verdict, and a change in vote can not be achieved.
-"Phrasing" is a reference to Archer.
-I should have been more clear. Mew saying that Sly succumbing to forever-sleep would have been his fault just means that, if he used it to the extent where he lost himself, that's an avoidable mistake. Mew was intent on intervening when her scheme went south, but she decided to wait at the ready when she saw everybody else spring into action.
-Anti-suicide blankets can not be torn to create nooses.
-Sue's apparent date of birth is a "circa" date, which means it may be inaccurate, and the proper date is unknown.
-A family friend of mine owned a bear of a dog at one time named "Sailor." There is a story behind the "Tucker" tombstone, but I will go ahead and keep that one to myself.
-The "must I tie a bell to your neck" line is a reference to another fic I wrote, Blessed Little Bell.
-Why did I bother hinting at a sex scene and then not write it? Because if, on the off chance some people read this hoping for a pokémon lemon, they'll have just wasted their time, and I find that to be really, really funny.
-The "okay, it's a little of that" thing is a reference to Pain and Gain.
Okay, so that wraps the plot. I will try to come back around to add the bonus chapter at a later date, but in the meantime, I desperately need to chill out for a while.
I would greatly appreciate it if you, the reader, went to my profile quickly and voted on the poll. I'm curious which of the names I have listed you like best for the next story, which will be the Skyrim one. I do hope you'll look me up. Thank you, and goodnight.