#pawbry

- “One grand staircase that halts at a landing then splits into two separate directions, many pathways and entrances to the vast number of rooms. The painting of his family, years ago, in the center of it.” - the main inspiration for this foyer visual is the one in “The Haunting of Hill House”! Just instead of that beautiful stained glass window, it’s a big painting. Mike Flanagan inspiration is aaaalll over all my works, but especially this one.

- “ “‘Servant’s kitchen’?” Wilde echoed with a little laugh of disbelief. “You have a whole separate kitchen for the servants?” ” - yeah this is a real thing super rich people have. Isn’t that insane?

- “The funny tricks of time had blurred the details.” - this is a reference to the song “Slipping Through My Fingers” by ABBA. The line goes, “Sometimes, I wish that I could freeze the picture, / And save it from the funny tricks of time” Funnily enough, this song is on Purrsephone’s playlist.

- “It was gentle and beautiful, with a hint of a rasp from her “wild youth”, as she put it.” - it’ll come up in her backstory if I end up making the post about her, but Purrsephone had a pretty wild time in college! She was a sorority girl. The rasp comes from the “sorority vocal fry” she once had. (Although not as annoying as the usual type, it just adds a nice texture to her voice) From partying and drinking, getting sick often due to said partying, and hooting and hollering at those same parties. She really mellowed out with age, but she had her fun first.

- “ Kitty and Cattrick let out twin gasps. “Oooooh!” “The Gary?” Pawbert grimaced, his face and ears flushing. “Don’t be weird, guys. Please.” ” - he may be in a horror story, but nothing will let him escape siblings teasing about crushes. Even if he’s not aware it’s a crush yet.

- Like I say in the end note on the chapter, I’m not entirely certain I’ve written Judy and Nick in character. Buuuut I don’t really care! This ain’t about them, and I don’t like copaganda characters that aren’t Jake Peralta.

- “He’d never had that sort of security before as he slept. So he supposed his lack of vigilance could be excused.” - cats are anxious, hyper-vigilant creatures. They’re both predators and prey, so they are always on alert. A cat sleeping soundly in your presence means you’ve earned their trust and it a huuuuuge milestone in bonding with one.

- “And I sure as shallots didn’t start with an arrest as important as his!” - figured Judy wouldn’t say “sure as shit”, so I replaced it with “shallots”. Y’know, like onions? Farming? I tried.

- “Whispers of her memory danced in his muddled mind for a brief moment. A gentle smile, a paw holding his own. A flowing dress. The scent of perfume. Her finest pearls, scattered across the- ” - hm! Wonder if some of that imagery has to do with her death.

- “What? You’re only animal! You can make mistakes like the rest of us!” - tried to make the phrase “you’re only human” fit them, but it sounds a bit odd. Oh well!

- “… you doin’ alright there, Pawzuzu?” - a paw pun of Pazuzu, a demon in real Mesopotamian mythology that was used as the antagonist of “The Exorcist”.

- “ “‘S aight.” He furrowed his brows at just how hard it was to get his mouth to form proper words. Yoikes.” - “Aight” and “yoikes” are both things taken from other Andy Samberg characters.

- “-pass out on us, alright, Jigpaw?” - a paw pun of “Jigsaw”, the killer in the “Saw” franchise.

- “… his Modest Mouser shirt.” - an animal twist on “Modest Mouse”. But, like, that’s already an animal thing, so I made it a cat pun! Love that band. I get the vibe Pawbert would too.

- “But one twinge of his bad leg had made him nearly drop a scratching post, caught just in the nick (literally) of time by Wilde, and he was metaphorically benched.” - the “nick (literally)” is. Because his name is Nick. I think this is very funny.

- “Pawbert hated his father’s study. He was never allowed in there, except for… discipline.” - by “discipline”, he means.. well, if you’ve seen “Moral Orel”, imagine what went down in his father’s study.

- “He was never allowed in there, not since he and Cattrick (mostly Cattrick) knocked over an obscenely expensive little ship in a bottle when they were very young.” - this is a reference to a section in a song that’s a part of the official FTHL playlist, “Our Word” from “36 Questions”. Basically the same events as here, but with one kid.

- “… as he laughed at his own horrible impression.” - we all have that terrible, completely inaccurate impression of our folks. Amiright?

- “Cool. Cool, cool, cool, no doubt.” - another Jake Peralta reference. I’ve been properly rewatching “Brooklyn-99”.

- “She was also doing her best to sound casual, but her analytical gaze was far too intense and pointed for it to succeed.” - they both just need to say what they’re thinking. They’re both bad at this

- “The ZPD should hire me as a consulting genius detective.” - again, another Jake Peralta reference. I love the Halloween episodes dearly.

- “Buuut we gotta be careful snooping around too much, or Chief Beef will catch on to where we’re sticking our noses.” - when he says “Chief Beef”, he’s referring to Chief Bogo. I can’t recall if this is in the movies or if I came up with it on my own.

- “Victpurr, maybe?” - I figured that since Ebenezer was named after a classical literature villain, some other family members should too. “Victpurr” is the catified version of Victor, in reference to “Frankenstein”.

- “There were little claw marks, too. He held his paws out in front of him, trembling fingers soaked in blood and grasping at air.” - okaaayyy so this visual was inspired by something in “Doki Doki Literature Club”. If you know, you know. If not, don’t look it up.

- Not-Pawbert - I know I said to listen to this song for this chapter, but honestly it belongs to him. Listen to “Virtual Mima” from the “Perfect Blue” OST whenever he shows up for the full effect.

- “The moment he stepped out of his room, the tortured visions went silent.” - this was inspired by that horrific moment in “Get Out”.

- “Bug-Burga’s Cicada Slammers” - based on an in-universe restaurant. I made up “Cicada Slammers” to be like, this restaurant’s version of Whoppers or whatever.

- “He then licked his paws. Swiped them over his face, got any remaining crumbs or grease from his chops or whiskers.” - for those of you that don’t know, this is how cats clean their faces. It’s the best thing ever.

- “One that had an absurd amount of plastic houseplants. (Nothing real could survive the cold.)” - I wonder if that last line is thematically relevant… hmmm… something something everything in this manor is fake for appearances and nothing could actually thrive there…

- Morana - her voice claim is Carla Gugino :))

- “Sometimes, she’d play hide-and-seek with him, when no one else could find the time.” - notice how both Morana and Purrsephone used to play hide-and-seek with Pawbert :)) those are his moms

- “Twist you into something other than your mother’s strange, troubled little creation.” - this is a reference to the song “Dead Mom” from the musical “Beetlejuice”, since I can't help myself. All my other fics are from that musical. The original lyrics go, “You’re my home / My destination / And I’m your clone / Your strange creation”.