Author's Notes and Teaser
Dec. 17th, 2011 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackofknavesTitle: 'Tis the Season for Murder: A Christmas Caper
Author's Notes
IMPORTANT: This contains the ENDING OF THE STORY. If you want to be surprised or guess it yourself, read this AFTER you read the story.
Normally I don’t write these, but this went from being a somewhat cracky one-shot (I was originally planning on having Eddie make snide jokes about Dr. Seuss and refer to Nick as “Cindy Mim Grimm” while Nick threatened to shoot him if he kept it up) into a serious casefic. I already had another serious casefic planned, though they weren’t meant to coincide, until suddenly Mrs. Spicer dropped that bombshell and I realized they would dovetail nicely. Then that somehow turned into another story… and basically I have an entire trilogy set out in my mind.
I have to remind myself occasionally that I’m the same author who has written two bakery AU’s and a plethora of fluff, and somehow have ended up with this semi-epic storyline.
Oh well.
I hope you enjoyed the story, I hope you stick around for the sequels, and in case you were curious, I compiled a list of some of the in-jokes/references for this one:
1. Stan A. Alcuse is an anagram of Santa Clause.
2. Lisa Gingrich is the Grinch.
3. The cinomolgus was documented by Herodotus. I just tweaked the source information for my own purposes.
4. "You know how everyone asks, ‘But how can one guy deliver presents to the entire globe in one night!’, or if they’re smart, ‘How can one guy deliver presents to half the globe in one night!’?” - Yeah, I know, but as a kid it always bugged me. I’m not sure why it was so much more plausible to me if you realized that it’s only night for half the world, but there you go.
5. "Corbin" means "crow"; "Ava" comes from avis, meaning "bird". "Spicer", of course, is just a reference to cinnamon.
6. Kirk Lingers is an anagram for Kris Kringle.
7. Mr. Hu’s name is a pun on “Who”, as in “all the who’s down in Whoville”.
8. The hems of the sleeves were roughly stitched, like she had sewn them herself. is a reference to the Grinch sewing his own costume in the animated film.
9. She sighed in frustration and leaned down to search through her purse, pulling out a package of toothpicks. This is a tiny little thing, but I’m inordinately pleased with it. I had originally intended it just as a random throw-away joke to the scene where the Grinch is chewing on his toothpick, but it worked well with the fact she supposedly used to be a smoker.
10. Karl Tineas is an anagram from Sinterklaas.
11. "Crumpit Hills" is a reference to the Grinch's home on Mt. Crumpit in Whoville.
12. "910 Euchariah Lane" is a reference to the 1977 prequel to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" called "Halloween is Grinch Night". Euchariah was the name of the main character.
13. Mt. Cumpit was also 3,000 feet high--which translates to 910 meters.
14. I really wanted Ms. Gingrich to have a dog named Max which Nick or Eddie adopts, but it just didn’t fit into the story at all so I had to drop it.
15. Yes, those are the lyrics to the Who song in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. If you go back, I added a bit to the fifth chapter in the “Christmas memories” scene where they’re talking about their family’s Christmas traditions about his mom making up songs and singing them to baby!Nick.
Nick cocked his gun, sighting it on the man standing eight feet away, a gun held professionally by calloused hands pointed at the woman.
“Drop it,” he shouted. In the night air, with only the cold and dim glow from the streetlights, his voice echoed against the concrete and seemed to freeze. The woman was on the verge of tears, heavy, fast breaths and wide panicky eyes darting frantically between Nick and the man standing in front of her. Her stockings were ripped and one shoe was missing a heel. The red coat hitched up around her waist and she had one hand thrust behind her, supporting her as she tried to crawl backward.
“I have to do this,” the man insisted. “I have to. You know.”
Nick took a step closer, stopping when the man flinched at his movement, though the hand holding the weapon stood steady.
“You don’t,” he said, his hand still bracing the butt of his gun, the other wrapped around the handle in a tight grip, finger poised on the trigger. “You don’t have to do this.”
The man smiled. His blue eyes were soft and warm, blonde hair falling forward in a floppy mess. He looked almost angelic in the halo created by the streetlight behind him. “Of course I do. It’s my duty.” He stared straight at Nick and his face was pale and strangely sincere, imparting a desperate truth that he needed Nick to understand. “It’s yours, too. Grimms cannot ignore who they are.”
“You don’t understand. I can help you,” Nick pleaded with him. His gun never wavered.
The man stared at him and Nick held his breath, hoping.
“I’m sorry,” he said, pained, and brought the gun up at the woman, who began crying harder, begging for her life between sobs.
The scream of a gun broke the night.
| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |
| Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
| Chapter 7 | Author’s Notes | Teaser |
IMPORTANT: This contains the ENDING OF THE STORY. If you want to be surprised or guess it yourself, read this AFTER you read the story.
Normally I don’t write these, but this went from being a somewhat cracky one-shot (I was originally planning on having Eddie make snide jokes about Dr. Seuss and refer to Nick as “Cindy Mim Grimm” while Nick threatened to shoot him if he kept it up) into a serious casefic. I already had another serious casefic planned, though they weren’t meant to coincide, until suddenly Mrs. Spicer dropped that bombshell and I realized they would dovetail nicely. Then that somehow turned into another story… and basically I have an entire trilogy set out in my mind.
I have to remind myself occasionally that I’m the same author who has written two bakery AU’s and a plethora of fluff, and somehow have ended up with this semi-epic storyline.
Oh well.
I hope you enjoyed the story, I hope you stick around for the sequels, and in case you were curious, I compiled a list of some of the in-jokes/references for this one:
1. Stan A. Alcuse is an anagram of Santa Clause.
2. Lisa Gingrich is the Grinch.
3. The cinomolgus was documented by Herodotus. I just tweaked the source information for my own purposes.
4. "You know how everyone asks, ‘But how can one guy deliver presents to the entire globe in one night!’, or if they’re smart, ‘How can one guy deliver presents to half the globe in one night!’?” - Yeah, I know, but as a kid it always bugged me. I’m not sure why it was so much more plausible to me if you realized that it’s only night for half the world, but there you go.
5. "Corbin" means "crow"; "Ava" comes from avis, meaning "bird". "Spicer", of course, is just a reference to cinnamon.
6. Kirk Lingers is an anagram for Kris Kringle.
7. Mr. Hu’s name is a pun on “Who”, as in “all the who’s down in Whoville”.
8. The hems of the sleeves were roughly stitched, like she had sewn them herself. is a reference to the Grinch sewing his own costume in the animated film.
9. She sighed in frustration and leaned down to search through her purse, pulling out a package of toothpicks. This is a tiny little thing, but I’m inordinately pleased with it. I had originally intended it just as a random throw-away joke to the scene where the Grinch is chewing on his toothpick, but it worked well with the fact she supposedly used to be a smoker.
10. Karl Tineas is an anagram from Sinterklaas.
11. "Crumpit Hills" is a reference to the Grinch's home on Mt. Crumpit in Whoville.
12. "910 Euchariah Lane" is a reference to the 1977 prequel to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" called "Halloween is Grinch Night". Euchariah was the name of the main character.
13. Mt. Cumpit was also 3,000 feet high--which translates to 910 meters.
14. I really wanted Ms. Gingrich to have a dog named Max which Nick or Eddie adopts, but it just didn’t fit into the story at all so I had to drop it.
15. Yes, those are the lyrics to the Who song in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. If you go back, I added a bit to the fifth chapter in the “Christmas memories” scene where they’re talking about their family’s Christmas traditions about his mom making up songs and singing them to baby!Nick.
Nick cocked his gun, sighting it on the man standing eight feet away, a gun held professionally by calloused hands pointed at the woman.
“Drop it,” he shouted. In the night air, with only the cold and dim glow from the streetlights, his voice echoed against the concrete and seemed to freeze. The woman was on the verge of tears, heavy, fast breaths and wide panicky eyes darting frantically between Nick and the man standing in front of her. Her stockings were ripped and one shoe was missing a heel. The red coat hitched up around her waist and she had one hand thrust behind her, supporting her as she tried to crawl backward.
“I have to do this,” the man insisted. “I have to. You know.”
Nick took a step closer, stopping when the man flinched at his movement, though the hand holding the weapon stood steady.
“You don’t,” he said, his hand still bracing the butt of his gun, the other wrapped around the handle in a tight grip, finger poised on the trigger. “You don’t have to do this.”
The man smiled. His blue eyes were soft and warm, blonde hair falling forward in a floppy mess. He looked almost angelic in the halo created by the streetlight behind him. “Of course I do. It’s my duty.” He stared straight at Nick and his face was pale and strangely sincere, imparting a desperate truth that he needed Nick to understand. “It’s yours, too. Grimms cannot ignore who they are.”
“You don’t understand. I can help you,” Nick pleaded with him. His gun never wavered.
The man stared at him and Nick held his breath, hoping.
“I’m sorry,” he said, pained, and brought the gun up at the woman, who began crying harder, begging for her life between sobs.
The scream of a gun broke the night.
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Date: 2011-12-18 03:37 am (UTC)afsdkljaf My beta reader suggested I do it because I kept emailing her with, "Okay, so here it is, NO WAIT, I'm going to do this, NO WAIT!". I tried to sneak in as many references as I could just for fun.
Story-stalking is awesome. ♥ I'm glad you liked the fic!