On a more positive note than my last journal...

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE CRAPPY SUCKITUDE FABULOUS WONDERMENTS THAT IS MY SPECIAL FEATURES JOURNAL. This journal contains the Speshul Features, trivia, deleted scenes and suchlike for Chapter 1 of City Traffic Puzzle, Book 1 in the Both Syllables Series.

~~~Songs~~~

First, the one the fic is named for: http://youtube.com/watch?v=iU80D3guRKU

Second, this chapter's quote is from Flawed Design, music video viewable here. http://youtube.com/watch?v=b0lJ_wcAzwo

~~~References~~~

"Make it out to Morocco DePalma," the guy said.

'DePalma' is the name of the fabulous director responsible (well, at least partly) for the masterpiece that is the 1976 movie version of Stphen King's Carrie. (Tell yo' friends)

This will be the first of a long, long line of Stephen King references in this story and every other story I'll probably ever write.

"Mm," XR said. He wished that had been the first time he'd been compared to a dog. That day.

Mutated Strong Sad quote. "I wish I could say this was the first time this has happened to me. Today."

~~~Deleted Scenes~~~

The first scene with XR and DePalma was originally a little different. Namely, there was- why am I explaining this when I have the scene right here?

The next thing he knew his back was to a wall and there was a single, very strong hand pinning him by one shoulder.
He screamed. The man holding him down was huge and beefy with giant, glaring eyes. XR froze, feeling as though he was being fixed with a searchlight. A searchlight of hate, or something.
"Hey there, pipsqueak," the guy growled, and XR realized who he was talking to, a guy he'd played poker with a few nights ago and won tubs of money from, incidentally. Didn't remember the name.
He gulped. "That's me, I'm your squeak," he rambled, repressing his natural urge to scream again. "Hey man, what's up?"
"You carrying around fifty thousand Unibucks of my money," the man snapped, shoving XR hard in the chest with the heel of his palm.
He grunted in pain, then stammered "Who, me?"
"I want that money back," the man said, lifting XR a couple inches away from the wall and slamming him back into it.
He made a sound like a squeaky gate hinge, then held his hands up in front of him with the palms out, blinking. "Whoa now, hey hey, I won that money fair and square!"
His lip curled, exposing sharklike teeth. "And I'm Miss Tradeworld, you cheating bucket of scum."
"Are you now, my my, they're letting any skank enter these days," XR quipped.
The thug growled, a deep, rumbling growl that made XR feel five degrees colder, and pulled back one fist that was clearly aimed at the little robot's face.
"Whoa!" he yelped, shielding his helmet with his hands. "All right, fine!" He fumbled his service panel open and pulled a wad of cash out of it. "Here's fitty bucks!"
The thug ripped it out of his hand with a tremendous scowl that showed XR about... twenty-five nasty yellow teeth. He squirmed.
"And where's the rest of it?" the guy said.
XR swallowed. "Uh, well..."
Where was the rest of it? Well... ten thousand had gone on much-needed repairs that Star Command had deemed unnecessary, five thousand had gone on a handful of upgrades, including a nice gaming system, three hundred had gone to the slots, and the rest was...
"In the bank," he said.
The guy raised one eyebrow at him, grunting.
"If you let me down, I can write you a check," XR said with an ingratiating grin.
"How do I know you won't run away?"
"Well," stupid "I'm pretty much cornered here."
Scowling, the thug carefully set XR down. He rubbed his dented shoulders for a minute, wincing. Geez, that hurt.
"You said you'd write a check," the guy growled.
Golly, strong, mad and stupid. Lovely. "Oh oh, I am," he reassured, pulling a checkbook and pen out of his inner compartments. He bent over the checkbook, quickly jotting down an amount of fifty thousand Unibucks to be paid to-
"And what's your name again, sir?" he asked.
"Morocco DePalma," the guy growled.
"Now, is that M-O-R-O-C-K-O, or M-O-R-R-"
The guy yanked the pen out of XR's hands and wrote the name down himself. XR frowned.
"Well, hey, you can't put your handwriting on one of my checks," he said.
DePalma grunted at him. XR blinked rapidly, then gave him a nervous grin and copied the name and amount down on another check.
"Here you go," he said, holding it out.
DePalma snatched it away, his eyes narrowing.
"No tricks now, right?"
"Trick? Me?" XR said, pressing his hand to his chest. His eyes were wide and hopefully innocent.
"If you do trick me I'll pound you into pulp, got it?" DePalma growled.
"Got it," XR said with a queasy grin.
DePalma grunted, then lumbered off.
XR waited until he was gone, then turned away and doubled over, putting his hands on his knees, waiting for the dizzy feeling to go away.
Well. That had been oh so pleasant. What was he going to do when the check bounced?

As you can see, DePalma was originally neither hired by a third party nor disguised with a hologram- however, my beta observed that thugs like that don't just walk onto Star Command, and changes were made.

That's it for now. Being the first chapter, not a whole bunch is there to talk about. :P

mood: okay tags: both syllables series, city traffic puzzle, fan fiction, story extras