Greetings! As the sign says, this is a guide to all the allusions and references made throughout the story. So whether you want to figure out a comment that confused you, confirm something you suspected, or just want to see if you’ve caught everything, here we go. The references are organized chronologically, by chapter.

The Triplicate Goddess on the Mountain is an entity I created, a meshing of the Three Fates of Greco-Roman myth and the Triple Goddess (Maiden, Mother, and Crone) of ancient Celtic/modern pagan lore. The wheel of the universe references the wheel on which the Three Fates are said to spin out the lives of everyone in the world.

None.

Chapter Two:

“Things just keep getting stranger and stranger.”: This is a variation of the immortal “curiouser and curiouser” line in Alice in Wonderland.

“If you think I’m going to run around calling myself ‘Sailor’ anything, you’ve got another think coming.”: Reiko’s comment here is fairly obvious, but I’ll post it for completeness’ sake anyway. She is alluding to the very famous Anime series “Sailor Moon,” which stars- you guessed it- a team of teenage girls suddenly finding themselves gifted with strange powers with which to save the world. As it’s known as a very “girlie” series, Reiko, the tough girl, would hate it and wish to make it plain that she would have no part in this were she forced to wear a miniskirt and wave a glittery wand.

“There aren’t a couple of kids who met at a party, decided they were in love and ended up dying involved, are there?”: This is another fairly obvious joke, but just in case it went over anyone’s head, Reiko is taking a zing at Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet,” a tragedy set around just such an occurrence.

Hisuke: This name isn’t a direct reference, but given what I’ve learned in my research of Japanese names and language, the configuration means “fire friend.”

The Gateway room is “bigger on the inside than the outside”: This is a nod to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, where the house of Death (resident anthropomorphic personification) operates on a similar principle.

The “girlie blonde in pink” asking after Sir Allen: Okay, this one’s pretty obscure. It’s a reference to the Anime series “Vision of Escaflowne,” wherein a young noblewoman named Millerna- a blonde who happens to wear pink frequently- is hopelessly in love with a knight, Allen, who is really not interested back.

The cat in the village: Anyone who knows the Anime series “Trigun” ought to have caught this one. Said show features a small, funny-looking black cat known as Kurineko (Kurineko Sama to his loyal fans) with a very large head and enormous yellow eyes who appears somewhere randomly in every episode. “Nyaaoo” is the closest I can come to a text version of his rather strange meow.

“You feeling lucky?” and “Go ahead- make my day.”: I don’t know if she realized it, but Ayame has just quoted Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry.”

“Exit, pursued by a guard.”: This one’s obscure. Kagami is paraphrasing the infamous stage direction from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, “Exit, pursued by a bear.”

“Oh, how ignominious.”: This is one of the semi-immortal phrases uttered by the character Mrs. Slocombe on the British comedy “Are You Being Served?”

“Yo, Zippo....”: Just in case anyone doesn’t know this, a Zippo is a brand of lighter; in this case, it’s a derogatory derivative of “Blaze.”

“Bring On the Men”: This is a song from the musical “Jekyll & Hyde.” It was later replaced with another song, although in recent years it’s been making a comeback. In short, it’s a decidedly bawdy tune sung by a dancer/prostitute, Lucy, in a low-class tavern. It’s very fun, but also on the risqu頳ide. That means it’s right up Ayame’s street, (not to mention why she’d want a feather boa), but it also gives a clue as to how it could have caused a big enough stir that her friends would forbid her to perform it again.

“I look like a stupid little navy girl”: Yup, this is a reference. It’s an allusion to the Anime series “Yu Yu Hakusho,” in which the hero, Yusuke, derisively refers to the sailor suit uniforms worn by the girls at his school as “that little navy girl look.”

The Seven Swans: I based this story around an existing Celtic legend wherein a group of seven brothers were transformed into swans by an evil sorceress for her own nefarious ends. I’ve seen it alluded to more than once, but it’s currently best known as the basis for the first book of Juliet Marillier’s “Sevenwaters” trilogy, Daughter of the Forest. A trilogy which, as a side note, I highly recommend reading.

Morchades: That name is a variation of Morgause, a sorceress of Arthurian legend- in fact, the actual mother of Mordred, rather than the normally presumed Morgan le Fay. She has a reputation for evil, so the name resonance felt appropriate.

None.

“You were about as subtle as an elephant trying to sit on a bird’s nest!”: This is precisely the set-up in Dr. Seuss’s book Horton Hatches the Egg.

“Definitely not the only way to travel.” - “The only way to travel” was, for a time, the primary slogan for an airline. (If anyone can tell me which one it was, please let me know so I can post it here.)

”...a shirt, two sets of trousers, and a mysterious garment that was probably underwear stuck out from under the flap like the half-eaten dinner of a luggage beast...” - This description refers to the Luggage, an entity native to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels and entirely deserving of the capital letter distinction. More specifically, the Luggage is a magical trunk that runs around on hundreds of little legs and possesses both a voracious appetite and a fearsome temper (except towards its owner, the “wizzard” Rincewind) that has included consigning foes to its unplumbed depths.

“Everyone knows something bad happens when you push the shiny red button!” - I don’t know where this first started, but it’s long been a mainstay of popular culture, especially cartoons, that a big shiny red button, when pressed, immediately results in something disastrous and more often then not dramatically destructive.

“Temple of Gloom.” - This, of course, is a variation on the “Temple of Doom” of Indiana Jones fame; an appropriate correlation, given circumstances.

“I’ll probably regret asking, but is there a lever anywhere around here?...” - Another popular culture reference; pulling the big lever often leads to results similar to those of the big shiny red button.