Riddles {a Death Note MelloXOC and NearXOC story}

Extra: References to other media in "Riddles"

This is a list of all the instances in "Riddles" where I make references to other media, including some of my own fanfictions and oneshots. Be aware that some things are vague in order to avoid spoilers.

These first five are just facts that I felt like sharing.

- Every single character in this story (the ones that we see, at least) is older than me. Even Birdie; she's closest to my age, and I knew I was going to have her born the same year as me. I just picked a date, and later on, I realized that I had picked a date that was before I was born.

- I got the idea for Patience's alias from the book Bad Girls Don't Die, in which one of the characters from a flashback/vision is named Patience. I immediately fell in love with the name. She was originally going to be named Paige.

- Allison yelling at the woman in the horror movie, telling her not to open the door, was based on a time my dad and I were watching a horror movie. There was clearly something in a trash can, and we kept repeating to the character in front of it, "Don't open the trash can." Of course, they did, and we were like, "Aw! We told you not to open it!"

- I got the idea for Harrowing's alias from the game Dragon Age: Origins, in which mages are required to undergo a ritual known as the Harrowing or submit to the Rite of Tranquility. I really liked the sound of it, and the meaning fit well.

- I was gonna have the Johnny Cash version of "We'll Meet Again" in the final chapter, but my love of the Fallout series would not let me.

Now for the actual references.

- In chapter one, there is a reference to Patience's theme, "Taking Over Me" by Evanescence, during Patience's dream when she's upset that her "mother" was going to leave her. "As she says this, she touches my hand, ever so softly. I know she loves me now." This is a reference to the lines in the song, "You saw me mourning my love for you | And touched my hand | I knew you loved me then."

- In chapter one, Patience mentions the song "Tomorrow," which is from the musical Annie.

- The title of chapter two, "On the Second Day at Wammy's," is a reference to "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

- Throughout the story, many lyrics of Allison's theme, "I Don't Care" by Apocalyptica, are dropped or otherwise referenced by characters.

- The title of chapter 12, "Thanks For the Memories," is a reference to the song "Thnks fr th Mmrs" by Fall Out Boy.

- Story saying that "the good things will live in our hearts," while perhaps not quite a reference, was taken from a line in the song "Down And Out" by The Academy Is...

- In chapter 16, when Birdie starts listing the square roots of numbers, this is a reference to Mass Effect 2, specifically the Overlord DLC. David Archer is autistic and very talented when it comes to math. He often says the square roots of whatever equals 30.1, 30.2, etc. (he only ever goes up to 30.4, if I recall correctly). "Square root of 906.01 is 30.1," is the one he's best known for saying.

- Perhaps too subtle to be thought of as an easter egg, but in chapter 16, it is briefly mentioned that Birdie used to have a roommate named Isabela, who knew how to pick locks. This is a nod to Dragon Age II, which has a character named Isabela, who is a rogue and thus able to pick locks.

- The play An Enemy of the People (En folkefiende) is mentioned several times throughout chapter 17.

- In chapter 18, when someone asks Allison how she can possibly understand what they are going through, Allison replies, "I am you." This idea was taken from Dragon Age II, when Feynriel asks Hawke how s/he could possibly understand anything about him, and a mage Hawke can reply, "I am you."

- Mello's notebook mentioned in chapters eighteen and twenty-two contains the contents of Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases, which is narrated by Mello. Mello states that he met L in-person before L died, and L told him the story of the BB Murder Cases, which he solved with the help of Naomi Misora. The quotes I included are at the beginning of the book, when Mello is explaining all of this. Mello acts as though he has written it all down, so I figured I'd include it in the form of a notebook Mello owns since I love the book.

- The title of chapter 19, "Old World's Runner-Up," is another reference to the aforementioned book. It's an exact quote from the book, which I use in the chapter.

- The title of chapter 21, "What's In a Name," is a famous line from Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

- The title of chapter 24, "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow," is a reference to the song, "Tomorrow" from Annie, which is mentioned in this chapter, and as stated earlier, mentioned in chapter one. I made the line from the song the chapter title instead of the title of the song because the reference is clearer this way, and it fits the chapter better.

- Some of the things Patience says in chapter twenty-three are greatly reminiscent of her theme, "Taking Over Me" by Evanescence. She says, "when I look in the mirror, I sometimes see her face," and mentions similarities between her and the person in question. This refers to the lines, "I look in the mirror and see your face | If I look deep enough | So many things inside that are just like you are taking over."

- A scene in the main epilogue is based on a scene in the Japanese animated film 5 Centimeters Per Second.

- The title of Birdie's epilogue, "B Is For Birdie," is a reference to the song "C is for Cookie" by Joe Raposo, sung by Cookie Monster on Sesame Street.

- The title of Joy's epilogue, "I Went to Look for Joy," is a reference to the song "Joy" by Langston Hughes and Ricky Ian Gordon. The line, "I found her," is also a reference to one of the lines in the song.

- The wardens of the kids in the "Archive Excerpt" portions of "Extra: Character Information" (including Marius) have a mix of first and last names of characters from different shows, movies, books, video games, etc. that I enjoyed over the years (they have been updated over the years because I hate some of those series now lol).