So don't try to figure out a plan

Okay, so I missed Monday for chapter notes. Therefore I will be making two posts tonight (Tuesday). Chapters 2 and 3 in this one...

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Chapter two:

References:

- Bernie Wrightson, the previous owner of the house, is named for the acclaimed comic book artist of the same name. I named him that as a gag in TWC4, but it really fits here; he has a strong background in horror comics. :D
-Friends: Beth's attempts to be "breezy" are a direct reference to an ep of this series when Monica leaves a message on her ex-boyfriend's machine. She tells the others that she was "breezy", but it turns out that she ended the message by awkwardly saying "I'm breezy!"
- A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday The 13th, two giants of the slasher genre, got blended together for Nightmare on 13th Street. Obvious, but a fun nod anyway.

Beth's fear of spiders was established in "The Bride Wore Black". Of course it's just one of many creepy-crawlies she has a problem with...

Additions to this chapter from the original version mainly include details about the shrink Beth is seeing in St. Canard - naming her and linking her to the previous story (referral from Dr. Mortimer). Dr. Mortimer's office is about two hours away; too much of a commute. *G*

Beth's awkwardness about hugging LP is actually more a holdover from the first version of the fic, when she was clueless about how he felt about her. I probably should rewrite it now but I'm not sure how to, and it's not all that important anyway.

Re: Beth's inability to find anything on TV that is not horror... Back in the early 90s, when this fic takes place, it seemed like all through the second half of October you would only find slasher movies on TV, especially on "local" stations like the now-defunct UPN and on cable movie channels. Nowadays no one really cares, but I distinctly remember the old days when if you wanted to watch a slasher flick in late October, you could just pick a channel at random.

The Casablanca bit is another reference to something with Kim McFarland, this one an RP series in a forum waaay back in, like, 1994 or something. I have injokes no one gets anymore! It's okay, though, because Beth likes old movies and LP is a Bogart fan, so it works. ^_~

For the record, Drake insisted on coming over because he felt bad about how his conversation with Beth went and he's too awkward about it to just apologize. This is his effort at making it up to her by showing her that he still likes her; Beth totally does not pick up on this.

I'm never sure it's appropriate to have LP come off so cowardly when it comes to supernatural stuff. I get the impression from DWD episodes that he doesn't really like gorey movies, he was pretty uneasy in "The Haunting of Mr. Banana Brain", and Morgana and her family seem to make him nervous; I may be playing it up a bit much though. I can't decide. I think there's a precedent in the series that I'm following... I hope so anyway.

One may wonder why Darkwing is put off when Beth asks him to come over and catch burglars... The answer is because it's not something he's likely to get a TV special out of, essentially. ;) He does think she's probably overreacting to a noise or a shadow, but even if it turned out to be a burglar, it's a small fry and Darkwing is more interested in catching someone really big and getting national media coverage for it.

On a personal note, in every ghost movie I've ever seen, unseen running footsteps scare the living bejesus out of me like almost nothing else. There was this part in The Grudge where - um.... that's neither here nor there, forget about it. (I spent half of that movie with my hands over my eyes. LITERALLY. HALF.)

Chapter three

References:

- Stella D'Oro cookies - the inspiration for Stella's last name. I named Stella and Richie in the prologue well before I realized I needed last names for them. D'Oro was a cute gag and also the first name that came into my head.
- Toronto Sun - where I got the name for the St. Canard Sun. The Toronto Sun is, heh, a bit of a rag publication (IMHO). Consider the St. Canard edition to be much the same.
- Stephen King's "IT"; Casper the Friendly Ghost - the two inspirations for Richie's last name. Kaspar/Casper is obvious; it's also similar to Kasprak, the last name of a second character in "IT".
-Quackenbos - I will continue to take any opportunity I can find to work this name into one of my fics.

I just realized that I've got two consecutive chapters in which Beth wanders into the Mallard household and convinces someone there to hang out with her. Heh.

Yay for Beth-Is-A-Geek jokes! I wrote the stuff about Beth at the library loooong before I thought up her childhood love affair with libraries (detailed in AAE), but it only makes sense,don't you think? Incidentally, Gosalyn shares my study habits.

I am pretty certain I stole the gag about Beth's delight over periodicals from The Simpsons. You know, since I steal everything else from that show. ;D

Who remembers card catalogs anymore?

If you cue it right around the point where Beth says "This is a Halloween edition from 1971", more or less anyway, track 6 on the Beetlejuice soundtrack ("Lydia Discovers?") goes right around here.

Incidentally, I shouldn't even point this out on the chance that people might not notice it if I don't, but I'm aware there's a plot hole here: how could anyone know that Stella disappeared from her home that day exactly? Well, we could always assume that she had family or something coming over the next day and she wasn't there... But even THEN how would they know about Richie? Let's just assume there's some unlikely but possible explanation and go with that, huh?

Notes for next two chapters follow immediately! To the point where you will actually see this particular entry after them, because yay for loading backwards. ^_~