CG HB HH CG HB HH CG HB HH CG HB HH CG HB HH
And... that's it. For now anyway. As I said at the beginning, while I've plenty to cull from and to reinvigorate my understanding of Lelouch vi Britannia and company, the Hazbin-verse as some call it is another matter, with only a single canon episode of HH, a few comic strips that are considered canon by the staff, etc. HB has quite a few episodes under its belt, but I want to include the whole shebang. And so we wait for, oh, a full season at least of HH before I start again. So sorry...
I'd like to take right now to thank some other fanfic writers who've provided inspiration for me to do this. There's Adonisus, author of "The Chay Ong Casefiles", a series of private detective stories set in the Hazbin-verse and guest starring their casts. And then there's DWAR, who's written both another HELLUVA BOSS crossover fic, but also a CG fanfic, "Down with Britannia, Heil Europa", which will hopefully continue in the future.
Anyway, a (not so) quick rundown of what we've seen and read thus far.
The title is a variation of "as above, so below", a popular paraphrase of the second verse from THE EMERALD TABLET, a cryptic Hermetic text from the eighth or ninth century. It has been interpreted widely by both scholarly and occult interests, although most modern people would recognize it as the title for a horror movie set in Paris's widespread (and dangerous) web of ancient underground crypts and tunnels, which also interprets Dante's circles of Hell. Bet you'll never see that in an episode of MIRACULOUS, huh?
Section 1 (a.k.a. Pride Ring, part 1 – out in the street):
As you can likely guess, a lot of the external elements of I.M.P.'s office building are culled from multiple episodes of HELLUVA BOSS, including what I believe is the location of I.M.P. in the building.
The car park and the condition of the cars within are from "Spring Broken" and yes, that is a reference to Hanna-Barbera's WACKY RACES.
"Pagoda" is the word that the private is searching for in regards to the multi-tiered temple buildings seen in many Asian cultures, and the plant house on top of the building – at least in "Murder Family" – does look like an Ivo Shandor-designed version of one. While we're on the matter of half-remembered words, the one Ohgi tries to use later is persona non grata.
The presence of the massive pentagram in the sky over the Pride Ring and how that reality is spread out is pretty much just my current take on how it all works. As Moxxie's internal dialogue later shows, I've taken some liberties with how Hell (and Heaven) works and goes off in a tangent from what I'm sure VivziePop and company have established – or are planning to – due to also having to share a reality with CODE GEASS elements, so it's just as well.
Section 2 (a.k.a. Kallen's welcome party):
The back-on-Earth segment takes place during the events of CODE GEASS's episode 3, "The False Classmate". As the title card indicates, there's a time difference between this and the previous segment, as it's been barely a week since the Shinjuku Massacre when that episode occurred. I feel that much more time would have had to occur between the Britannian soldiers' deaths and their ability to assemble themselves and develop some kind of plan vis-à-vis I.M.P. Several weeks to a month or more, I'd say... Cornelia and Euphemia will have moved into and assumed command of Area 11 by the time Blitzo and co. are hired in Section 3, at the very least.
The Stadtfelds' peerage ranking has never been specified to my knowledge, but popular choices are a baron or a count, so I went with the former. I am open to arguments to rise them up a tad, though.
I'm sure others have done better world-building via Kallen's interaction with Lelouch and her internal reactions during these early episodes, but I wanted to include my own spin. I have other CG fanfics running around in my head, but this is the first one I've written that recreated this scene from canon, so I decided to include my interpretation of what would be going through her head at this point.
Given Nunnally's disabilities, there would have to be an elevator in the clubhouse. But I've checked and one was never shown during the series. So I am retconning one in as being near but out of sight of where the grand stairway is located, at least until there's a better option.
As you should have guessed no more than a sentence or two into her description, that is Mrs. Mayberry from HB episode 1, "Murder Family". Inspired by her shirt pattern, I have given her the first name Cerise, which is a girl's name of French origin that means "cherry". As part of the whole sherry thing, I am leaning towards her maiden name being "Pye" or "Bruster". Any thoughts?
Incidentally, the spelling of her husband's name as Jarold is kind of new to me. I'm more familiar with "Gerald", but this is how the HB wiki puts it, so I'm leaving it as is. Besides, this is partly the reality of CODE GEASS, where odd first names – Rivalz, anyone? – is par for the course.
Speaking of him, the fact that he keeps either going unnoticed or forgotten about by Kallen and Milly is a mean joke – and possibly a running one – on my part, I admit. Rivalz is kind of a forgettable character; in fact, I had to go back and rewrite the kitchen scene when I remembered I needed him to be around getting the not-champagne for the party, and away from Lelouch's computer. I also gave him an undefined "Noodle Incident" to give him some back story.
Kallen reveals that her stepmother came close to buying something not unlike the wheelchair Nunnally was gifted with during Season 2 when she was reestablished as a princess. Her description is my take – and that of many others – of it, exactly like the needlessly expensive model that Britannian royalty would consider would consider worthy of them.
I picked West Virginia as it's the setting for the WRONG TURN movies, which makes it feel like the perfect place for Martha, Ralph, and their brood. Incidentally, I've moved the earthly locale of "Murder Family" to Morgantown, WV, or the CG-verse version of same, as descriptions I've found on Google and elsewhere paints it as your basic moderate-sized city that's a good place to raise your kids and whatnot, which again makes it perfect for a secret family of murderous devil worshippers.
The whole thing with the International Date Line is real, but the time difference between Japan and West Virginia is thirteen hours. For Jarold to receive a video-call at 9 a.m. in real life would mean the call from Tokyo would have to be made at 10 at night, when obviously it occurred not long after classes ended for the day (approximately 4 p.m.). So I've enacted the rule of comic book logic and am officially hand-waving all of this. Just continue to enjoy the ride, okay?
One little thing about "Murder Family" was that it indicated Mrs. Mayberry had emotional issues but for no given reason, as she got all sweaty and twitchy when she realized her husband's birthday had snuck up on her, and she overreacted just a bit. I wanted to explain this, as well as possibly "embiggen" the basis for her breakdown later, and her line during her rampage about how she and Jarold could have had a family gave me an idea. I dumped the situation on Jarold being the infertile one because, well, I don't like him (I'm part of the crowd that sympathizes with Mrs. Mayberry... sue me). Incidentally, I know people who've wrestled with fertility problems, having to jump through hoops and go into debt just to produce one child; it's not fun and I do not wish to sound like I am denigrating the issue.
Macular degeneration is no picnic, either.
I don't imagine I need to explain the classic TV references I use to describe Jarold's hometown. That being said...
Since they weren't named in canon, I decided to come up with names for Martha and Ralphie's kids. For the longest time, I named them Davey and Tina after David Faustino and Christina Applegate from MARRIED... WITH CHILDREN, as Martha's design looked like it may have been inspired by Katey Sagal's look on the show. Now that didn't entirely sit right with me but I left things as is while I was getting this story written (and rewritten... and rewritten...). Then, in the few weeks before I test-posted it on the Space Battles website, I stumbled across an online presentation of Eclipse Comics' horror anthology TALES OF TERROR, whose sixth issue included a story – "Good Neighbors" – with a family very much like Martha and Ralphie's: a seemingly idyllic suburban family that the illustrations quickly reveal are cannibalistic murderers who decorate their home with their victims' remains. Inversely from "Murder Family", the parents in this story go unnamed while the kids are called Jerry and Suzie. And there you go.
(Another temporary mark of influence by MWC: I considered naming their family Bundy, as that was a real serial killer's name, but decided that was too grim. Right now I'm aiming for something that sounds like "Sawyer" from the TEXAS CHAINSAW franchise... Cutler, maybe? While we're on the topic of their family, I'm sure we can all guess who Martha's influential but crazy cousin "Lucy" is.)
Incidentally, you don't want to know how many online reprints of LI'L ABNER comic strips that I had to go through to compile a vocabulary list with which to emulate Martha's accent. And I'm still not entirely satisfied with it :(
We next see the immediate aftermath of Mrs. Mayberry's truncated fit of blind rage, with Kallen on her cellphone with Ohgi. It starts off as an "after action report" about what was done immediately after Mrs. Mayberry's rampage, then it became more getting-inside-Kallen's-head stuff. It's also partly to make up for eliminating the shower room scene with Lelouch, but now a verbal comedy of errors with Ohgi.
Yes, Lipton/Guitierrez is my version of Lipton and Goopty, with Loopty Goopty's name reworked as something more realistic. I have more on who they are and what they do as part of CODE GEASS's mortal realm, but that can wait...
There are two more serious matters I used this portion to address, some critiques of CG canon on my part. First are Tamaki's actions during Shinjuku: in the series, he was reckless and endangered everyone, and looked ready to shoot his fellow countrymen right before the army crashed into the shelter. This was never addressed in the series, and I admit I give him a way out here too, as the counterattack went even better without the Lancelot making much of an impact. So, he gets away with just a scolding that, of course, won't sink it.
Secondly, as you can probably guess, was Kallen's reasoning to kill Lelouch, or rather the lack of it. As Ohgi points out here, it just makes no sense to go after someone she suspects of being an ally, rather than someone who knows about Shinjuku but likely *isn't* the voice on the radio. I wanted to create a scene that expounded on that, and in the process not-quite-retconned Kallen as just going into a kind of paranoia-fueled panic mode, something she shares with Lelouch, which she realizes after Ohgi calls her out. I will likely cover this brain fart of hers in other CG fanfics in the future, so get used to this kind of scene.
And yes, that is a guest appearance by C.C. – not one of HH/HB's demons, so I included a description of her to make sure everyone got that – already having conversations with Marianne's "ghost".
We time-skip again to later after nightfall, getting Lelouch's POV and more information on how things with Mrs. Mayberry were handled. He seems like the type who would routinely record a video-call just in case, so we've a happy accident where Mrs. Mayberry has the evidence to prove her husband's infidelity, although it's unnecessary by now.
I added in Mrs. Mayberry's line about timetables not just for continuity's sake as you'd think. My mother's an economics professor, my paternal grandmother was an English teacher, and so-on and so-forth with my great-grandparents too, so believe you me that most professional educators would have their last words somehow revolve around the class syllabus being kept to. It's a condition that needs to be researched, people!
I intended for Lelouch to reminisce about the massacre too, to show his knowledge of how things went down differently, but I felt this part was taking too long, plus I already had Moxxie do some of that. So it became dedicated to some world building as well as some screen time for him and Nunnally, who will be more active and not just a background moe character.
This of course leads to the situation in Nunnally's literature class, mostly invented as I realized I would have to have a reason for her being able to provide the "that's a real thing?" line, one that doesn't paint Milly in a bad light. Hence this rather unfortunate incident, which I imagine closely mirrors a real life tale of school bullying that's happened somewhere in the world. Hope it didn't get too cringe-worthy for everyone; while the HB/HH attitude of looser rules for TV-MA topics will carry over, I've no intention of this becoming some indecent lemon story. BTW, Nunnally's comeback to Vince and Greg is based on something an aunt of mine remembered saying to some jerk in high school who wouldn't take the hint ("eat my maxi!").
Ekaterina Sforza is a character from the spin-off, NIGHTMARE OF NUNNALLY, and is pretty much just how she's presented here. The two bullies, meanwhile, are an amalgamation of two pairs of school bully characters. First are Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle from the HARRY POTTER series. The other two, Krupp and White, were two bully characters who got about two scenes in an unfinished CG fanfic, "Children of the Revolution" by Keith Fraser, before it went on permanent hiatus. Their shtick seemed to be suggesting, er, impure thoughts and scandalous behavior by their classmates, so having Vince and Greg here creeping their classmates out with talk of sex acts way outside of their mental safe zone sounds like them.
All of the artwork and novels I mention here are real and pretty much match up to Lelouch's bare bones description:
* Hokusai Katsushika was an early 19th century artist of the ukiyo-e and shunga genres, and is responsible for both the famous rendering of a tsunami wave but also perhaps the earliest depiction of tentacle porn. I know, right?
* You should know about H.G. Wells, whose name format was "Britannianed-up", and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS; if not, shame on you and/or the educational system.
* Jules Verne, of course, is also real, as is his novel (an underrated little gem) mentioned here, which IRL was translated into English as THE BEGUM'S FORTUNE, although I again "Brit'ed-up".
The Japanese tradition Lelouch is recalling is known as yobai locally, which you can look up for yourself. Makes me wonder what Kurt Wagner's codename is translated to in Japan, though.
If you can't guess what fetish Mutt and Jeff spouted about, I won't risk ruining your day for you. In the meantime, as to what Nunnally was visualizing as a result, most would recommend looking up various MONTY PYTHON skits. For simplicity's sake, however, I suggest searching "Conan O'Brien" and "Cloppy" on Youtube.
Incidentally, her attitude is kind of a counterpoint to Blitzo's low grade equine-philia. Took me a while to realize that, too; I wanted her to go over some stuff she'd been exposed to and deconstruct it through the eyes so to speak of an innocent. I latched onto that one particular kink although I wasn't conscious why for the longest time. Then I rewatched the "Harvest Moon Festival" episode and it just struck me. Funny what your unconscious can do, huh?
And we finally get the first glimmer of Lelouch's Geass, which apparently is his one-time-use-only hypnotic command power as is in canon. This despite some changes or reimaginings of the Code and Geass power itself that may occur in this crossover.
Section 3 (a.k.a. Pride Ring, part 2 – in the office):
Continuing with my adaptation of "Murder Family", we begin halfway through MM's "conversation" with Loona during what would otherwise have been Blitzo's interview with Mrs. Mayberry. Instead, we have an adaptation of the ghost family from THE GRUDGE movie series. Inversely, the wife Kayako remains relatively normal (aside from being, you know, dead and stuff) while the husband Takeo has been changed by their death, taking on the appearance of an onryō ("wrathful spirit"). I originally wrote him as being cursed with the "angry demon" look of Mrs. Mayberry, but decided a cultural equivalent worked better.
I expanded the lives as well as the reason for the aquarium full of eels in I.M.P.'s reception area. While the original sequence was funny, in retrospect it seemed they were just there for an improbable fire to break out so Blitzo could then yell at Moxxie abusively. Incidentally, unagi has nothing to do with the martial arts and everything to do with sea food.
While we don't entirely go over this story's version of the death of Clovis, I do go over some of the main points between Moxxie's and Kallen's memories. What we do know is, while things were heating up with Lelouch and the resistance, I.M.P. arrived only to get separated by bombardment. Millie gets stabbed by a Britannian soldier (recalling her frantic phone call to Loona in the pilot), who is indeed the dead infantryman who landed on the major at the beginning. Moxxie attacks Clovis's G-1 base in retaliation with a rocket launcher he'd found and modified (presumably the same one Tamaki was seen shooting off during the massacre before the KMFs were found). The bridge (or command center, if you will) is blown up, thus causing the G-1 to lurch into drive without anyone in control. He climbed aboard in the confusion and then... well, for now I'm leaving it open if Moxxie shot Clovis himself or stumbled across him after Lelouch, who'd snuck aboard but wasn't on the bridge, did it. It really could go either way. In any event, the attack causes Suzaku to turn around with the Lancelot before he can do much damage to the rebels, only to get rammed by the G-1 (not lethally though, so he's still alive). The resistance's counterattack is therefore even more successful than in canon, although what this means for Gottwald and Villetta is still being plotted. I'm open to suggestions.
As you can see from the Imps' awareness of the World of C, which they view as something akin to the concept of Purgatory, I am going off on a tangent from established Hazbin-verse lore, taking into consideration what ramifications C's World might have. As such, Hell is, or for a time was, comparatively underpopulated to the canon Pride Ring. Only the worst humans wound up there, while those who fell more into the ne'er-do-well category or better stayed in C's World, where their options have already been mentioned. As such, there have never been any Extermination Days, although agents from Heaven coming down to Hell armed for the visit aren't entirely unknown, so demons are aware of the existence of exorcist weapons.
For reasons that CODE GEASS readers can guess, however, this has changed drastically and now pretty much everyone who dies, with a few exceptions, is sent to Hell. This began fifty years ago, so if you're worried he won't appear in this, rest assured that Angel Dust did come in under the wire on that score. (Depending on how bad HAZBIN HOTEL eventually establishes him as being in life, this is probably a given anyway.)
Speaking of HH cast members who will appear, you see that Vaggie is one of them, and that I've made her into one of the "Shaders" or presumably midway-point-in-morality souls that have been screwed over by C's World's closure. Now, her design has been described as being inspired by a moth at one point, which some have taken to mean she's another moth demon. Well, I don't really see it that way, as she shows no wings, multiple arms, antenna, compound eyes, or anything else that really says "insect" to me. That and her relationship and behavior around Charlie bespeaks of her not having been a wanton criminal or scoundrel in life, or at least a repentant one if she ever was. So I've not only made her a grey demon, but actually used her as the model for them to an extent.
(In addition, there's the figure that Moxxie calls up when he equates the World of C with Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. This is Dr. Eugalp, a physician or psychiatrist in the Hazbin reality; I'm not entirely certain whether he's a fan's OC who's popular, or a planned character who's yet to appear as with Baxter or Crymini, so I left him unnamed and gave a general description of him.)
And I introduce the vaguely-named-so-I-don't-get-hit-with-a-thunderbolt-but-you-know-what-I'm-talking-about Triumvirate, and give a possibility as to why the afterlife's system is broken. This part used to be longer as I went into further detail into this theoretical convention, but eventually realized it was unnecessary. Plus, I was going into nerd overload with cosmic beings from both religion, myth, and modern fiction all popping up.
While the nature of Heaven is another thing we're waiting for the HH series to go into, I decided to use the very Bill Lumbergh-esque character of Deerie from the HB episode "C.H.E.R.U.B." as inspiration. Well, that and the Quorum, a small band of out of touch, curmudgeony elder Angels (two of them even look like they're based on Mrs. Grundy and Principal Weatherbee) that made a brief appearance in the webcomic DANGEROUSLY CHLOE. As theorized above, the Almighty is essentially absent for reasons and a committee of ineffectual middle-managers have been "Peter principled" into control. Imagine the usually unseen board room overlords from the working place comedy of your choice for further explanation.
(BTW, if you're a masochist who enjoys reading an entire series in the hope that the ostensible two lead characters will be put on a bus eventually and the supporting cast take over, only for that to never happen and their little side arcs go unresolved instead, than DC was tailor-made for you!)
I engage in a nice little bit of character expansion with modern animation's most unlikely enviable couple, Moxxie and Millie. I give a little on each other's backgrounds both in the Wrath Ring (the side effects of the World of C on the geography) and the Pride Ring (Moxxie's inferred past in musical theater). I also take Moxxie's stated position as providing weapons maintenance for I.M.P., effectively a mechanician, and expand his usefulness in the story a bit. You know Millie would be able to run circles around most in a Knightmare, so it carries that Moxxie can build and maintain one. Any thoughts on that? Bueller?
The inventor and the scientist mentioned are of course Sir Pentious from the HH pilot episode, and the as yet to appear mad scientist Baxter. While it's up in the air whether the two series will ever cross over, I am being a bit more fluid at least in regards to their back stories.
While everything I've written so far revolves around the cast and events of HELLUVA BOSS, I do plan to inject HAZBIN HOTEL into the mix, and have done some little reminders that they do exist and Blitzo and company are aware of them. Despite my changes to history in the Pride Ring (both shown here and what's taking up space in my mind for now), Charlie is still Charlie and, albeit under slightly different circumstances, is still trying to put the Happy Hotel into operation. I don't suppose I have to call attention to the parallels with Euphemia and the S.A.Z., now do I?
In addition to Blitzo's "dolls" from "Loo Loo Land" as well as Alastor from HH, the memories that Moxxie's summons up to... calm himself down also calls back to the kid from HB's pilot episode. Or rather this story's substitute for him. A creepy kid whose body keeps moving a bit even after being dismembered... now who could that be? Before you ask, not even I know the circumstances for this (failed) assassination of V.V., at least for now. I pretty much put that in there not just to give something for Moxxie to work on, but also the murder of Eddie, even if he back talked to them, was kind of a moral event horizon thing to me that I'm giving I.M.P. a way out of.
This also includes a flashback to Moxxie's insinuated time in the theater, and mentions shoggoths. A creation of the eccentric horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, these are monstrous, slug-like amoeboid creatures bred as a slave race by the unfathomable Elder Things, only to be abandoned and left to inbreed and devolve in their ancient hidden cities. They star in HPL's "At the Mountains of Madness", and make cameos in other stories by him and his imitators. As Rule 34 is not the exception but the rule in Hell, Sinners whose forms imitate shoggoths having a shot as chorus girls and pinup models isn't impossible.
Hope my description of Moxxie and Millie's "nooner" didn't offend anyone. I didn't use explicit language in my description and insinuated more than gave specifics of what was happening. It was my intention that if anyone found it dirty, than it was because their mind was filling in the blanks. Sort of like the chainsaw scene from SCARFACE. (Whoa, that was a weird comparison.)
I nearly went with "braaaap braaaap" as the onomatopoeia for a machine gun being fired, but decided it looked too much like a pair of extended burps, so I went with a variation of the traditional "rat-a-tat-tat".
As many of you no doubt guessed, Blitzo's new client is my version of the commanding officer for the royal guardsmen in the introductory episode of CODE GEASS. Since he's never named in either canon or apocryphal materials, I decided to come up with one, as well as a rank. A major seemed like just about the right rank to be personally leading a company of infantry into Shinjuku so, boom, he's a major until someone says different. As for the rest... the officer is essentially forced to play Russian roulette by Lelouch, and many historians find that the first ever display of such an act – either real or fictional – was in Mikhail Lermontov's novel A HERO FOR OUR TIME. This act was provoked by the novel's Byronic protagonist, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, and so I've named the Britannian officer in his "honor".
Incidentally, while his description may read like an underfed "Shader" with a cartoonish gunshot-affected face, Pechorin is actually quite gaunt looking underneath his uniform. I originally imagined him as being composed rather like ghost-world Peter Venkman from the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS episode "Flip Side" but with better posture, but took it down a notch after awhile. He's still rather cadaverous looking, though, like Erik from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
The thought occurs that I may also have taken inspiration for the major's facial appearance (or lack thereof) from depictions of the nameless mystery villain from Laz Briar's ASMR series starring Angel Dust on Youtube.
As for his underlings, I don't intend to stop and bother to intricately describe them or any other Sinners that appear unless the story requires it. Hence the references to the cantina scene with all the weird aliens from the first STAR WARS film, as well as the "deranged Muppet" line, which covers most of the Sinners in HH and HB. Really, look at Husker and Angel Dust and tell me they don't look like something Jim Henson might have come up with while high.
Some more world-building with descriptions of intolerant Sinners from throughout time being a source of continued tension across a mega-city where random crime and violence is already a way of life. I'd like to say dystopian action films like the opening sequence from DEMOLITION MAN were my sole inspiration, but the armed urban encampments described here aren't too far from what street gangs, militia groups, and even some cults have done around the world. Incidentally, that wasn't an intentional PRIDE AND PREJUDICE reference, it just happened.
That's ATT's old "Reach out and touch summon" slogan that Blitz parodies, for you whippersnappers out there.
Just as I'm not bothering to really describe him, I'm not naming Pechorin's bodyguard either, hence Blitzo's nickname for him... which he gets wrong. He meant to say "Lejaune", after Sergeant Major Lejaune from BEAU GESTE by P.C. Wren, a consummate example of the Drill Sergeant Nasty trope. Originally, I wrote Blitzo as calling him Sgt. Snorkel after the semi-antagonist from Mort Walker's long-running comic strip BEETLE BAILEY, but then I realized such a thing might not be allowed in Britannian newspapers.
The XM556 microgun is a real-life weapon and pretty much as it's described, a smaller version of the minigun, which if you've seen TERMINATOR 2 and the original PREDATOR then you know what kind of gun I'm talking about. We also get our first mention of Valentino in this shared reality, and under circumstances that would exist with someone like him in charge of most of Pentagram City's sex work and related businesses. As for what happened to the rhino demon, whatever you imagine I.M.P. wound up doing to Val's debt collector, that's what happened.
And we see one of the royal guard's bugs being planted. I also planned to do the same with Pechorin while he was in Blitzo's office, but decided it broke up the pacing. Trust me, it's in there... somewhere.
Blitzo describes Takeo and Kayako as "regenerating" from where Pechorin and his man shot them. (Just so you know, what happened was they bumped into one another in the hallway, where the Saekis recognize their uniforms, with Takeo rashly starting a fuss, of course.) We're told no Sinner can die unless it's by angelic weaponry, although I imagine Overlords and other powerful figures know a way around that, but we've yet to be given information on how they recuperate from lethal damage. I use "regenerate" as kind of an umbrella term, as for all I know they drop out of the sky in a brand new body like in JUMANJI.
Incidentally, for now, I'm keeping to my headcanon that only the Sinners and really high figures like the Sins are effectively immortal, while Hellborn have finite lives, with Imps, Hellhounds, and likely Succubi all having human-length life spans. They are also not invulnerable to damage, hence the danger of being shot in "Murder Family" or eaten by the fish monster in "Spring Broken", but likely highly durable, such as shown at the end of "Loo Loo Land".
And we have another reference to a famous work of sci-fi here. Can you tell what it is?
It's been suggested by fans that I.M.P.'s commercial jingle, at least the music anyway, was written by Moxxie, and he's ashamed of himself for doing so, which is why he's so dismissive of it. I decided to not only go with that but suggest Blitzo slipped him a mickey in order to make him write it.
And now the major gives a bare bones description of his run-in with Lelouch during the Shinjuku Massacre, which pretty much follows canon. During this, references are made to Area 51 (which I'd just as soon think is just a secret testing ground for crap and not the Men In Black's Batcave, but whatever), which you think would be more of a running gag in CG fanfic.
The major of course leaves out the part about being "super-hypnotized" in the end. Why? I doubt he knew about Clovis's Code R project, neither here nor in canon, and wouldn't have made a connection to C's World or anything else he'd learned of while in Hell even if he did. So the likely reason is he just doesn't care to warn I.M.P. that their target has some kind of supernatural power himself.
Also, as you can probably guess, the amnesia that often follows being Geassed by Lelouch, and likely others' Geasses, clears away after awhile once you're in the afterlife. The why's and wherefore's I leave up in the air for now. In any event, they now know their killer is the lost and supposedly dead prince from years ago, and that he evidently attends Ashford Academy in secret. They don't know his alias, of course, as Lelouch used his full name when he executed them.
The Monopoly mascot is of course Rich Uncle Pennybags from the famed board game, whom a middle-aged Britannian fat cat would kind of replicate in appearance. This portion of the story gives a bit of preexisting connection between Lelouch and I.M.P. as I continue world-building. However, I admit I don't know why I did this otherwise. Perhaps it's a karmic counterweight to the cancer victim from earlier. Maybe it's just a set-up for the surprise when Blitzo realizes they're hunting the chess hustler they were nearly hired to kill before. In any event, I thought of it and have included it here, so I'll get some mileage out of it.
I can't be the only one who's noticed Blitzo has Popeye-style anatomy with the pipe cleaner arms and the huge hands and forearms, right?
I know that this kind of Japanese uniform is called a gakuran, but a quick search looking for this term leads one to the German Waffenrock which was its basis, and finally the broader term, military tunic, which I have the expression preferred by the professional soldier here.
And finally, not only do we get a nice Dick Dastardly-esque bad guy rant about making your enemy suffer, we also get some more call backs. First, Stella's instructions to Striker at the end of "Harvest Moon Festival", and then what was Lelouch's final lines – to the major and his men anyway – from the end of the first CG episode.
Foreign word dictionary:
Damare, fudōtokuna yarō = (Jp.) "Shut up, immoral bastard" (more or less)
Entrée = (Fr.) a dish served before the main course of a meal as part of table service. Not to be confused with entrer ("enter")
Faux pas = (Fr.) a false step; an embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation
Film noir = (Fr.) a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations
Joie de vivre = (Fr.) exuberant enjoyment of life
Kuso = (Jp.) "Shit"
Kami-sama = (Jp.) God (more or less)
Moh = (Jp.) an expression of feeling frustrated or annoyed ("Ughh!" or "Yeesh!")
Onryō = (Jp.) a harmful, vengeance-seeking ghost in Japanese traditional beliefs and literature which has become popularized in modern J-horror fiction
Persona non grata = (Lat.) an unacceptable or unwelcome person
Tout de suite = (Fr.) immediately; at once
Unagi = (Jp.) freshwater eel used as a common ingredient in Japanese cooking, particularly quartered and grilled seafood; totally unrelated to the concept of relaxed alertness known as zanshin