Chapter 114: House Brooken
Art by Crash X Fusion: House Brooken was typed before a live Studio Audience.
During a session with Ms. Traveler, Nina recalls her week listing every encounter and heartfelt moment with friends and family.Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Abusive Parents: Grista and Scanfur Woodemon regularly punished their daughters for not living up to their bigoted standards to the point said punishments left the girls Covered in Scars. It's no wonder Calypso and Scandalyn disowned them.
- Advertised Extra: Dusty is seen in the intro but doesn't appear in the chapter itself, while Willow and Skara are Out of Focus since they're spending time together or hanging out with their friends.
- Affectionate Nickname: Once Nina learns about Scabrina's issues with her birth mother, Nina starts calling her "Lil' Brina" as a sign of their bonding.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Slasher plays with this as Nina's surrogate father. After Scabrina voices how romantic Nina saving Donna in Wonderland sounds, he compares it to an old-fashioned fairy tale, further embarrassing the girls.
- And Starring: The Title Sequence parody gives Donna, Lambi, Dusty, and Willow "With" credits and throws in "And Andrea Pinkjoy".
- Bait-and-Switch: It looks like Hardy Boils isn't bothering to confront Eustace and Serpentina over what they know about Casey. When Nina prepares to fight the pirates, they pass out since he drugged their drinks.
- Big Damn Reunion: Nina has hers with Tito, who's been bailed out of the Conformatorium.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Hardy Boils returns since his reappearance in "Understanding Hunter", still working on finding Bria but now being recruited to find Casey since their disappearances could be connected.
- Aries Hornston, the nurse from "Brawl Night, Part 2", appears as the supervisor of the temple youth group when Lambi brings Nina there for the first part of their second date.
- Naila, the constructionist first seen during the Glandus War in "Masks Off", returns and is shown to be a member of the Banshees cheer squad.
- Call-Back:
- Tyler brings up his time in detention for helping Boscha humiliate Luz and Amity, Tamme calling him lucky he wasn't kicked off the cheer squad for it.
- Tamme mentions Eve recovering from her encounter with the Grim Goblin, causing her to miss practice.
- Tito's walking free since Hunter came through on pardoning him per Emily's request.
- Nina mentions how Glinda slammed the door on her when she tried to talk to her.
- After Gavin brings up how Nina took part in ganging up on Boscha, the werecat remembers hunting her when she tried to skip school, and impaling her during the Glandus War.
- Nina reminds everyone present during the meeting with LOWTH that Bo was kidnapped by the Tarot Guild in "Understanding Hunter". She also reveals to Riley that Emily caused their palisman's destruction.
- Casey, Eustace, and Serpentina worked for the same potions lab distributing drugs, Casey having been the one to tip Eda off about it.
- Skara recalls Amelia mentioning her cousin from Glandus High way back in "Double, Double, Tutor and Trouble".
- Faust defending Nina from Jeremy's bigotry puts her statement about being tame compared to Acne and McScream to a new light.
- The Cameo:
- Luz, Eda, Zee, and Minerva appear in Stock Footage from Donna asking Cross out in "So IFWOT?" Excluding this scene, Cross only shows up in the ending on his date with Donna, along with King and Laura.
- Regarding the above scene, the ninja working with the Tarot Guild is seen on a rooftop observing everyone.
- Emira and Viney show up at the Brooke home to babysit Scabrina while Nina's on her third date with Lambi and Slasher & Calypso are at an art gallery for the night.
- Continuity Nod:
- Tamme has some lingering anger over Emira leaving the cheer squad.
- Andrea notes how out of all her friends, Nina already met Lindsay and saw Tracy compete in the Bonesborough Brawl.
- Donna's taxidermy statues are seen as Nina finds all the dead animals she left for Donna as such in her room.
- Eustace and Serpentina are shown walking free and spending their snails from selling Blazer following their escape from LOWTH's custody.
- Donna lists all three occasions where Eda saved her life from Lupe.
- When Nina comes home from her second date with Lambi, she finds Skara in her Grom suit, having come home from Lumity's mock wedding.
- Nina brings up Emira and Viney having sex and warns them not to do so while babysitting Scabrina.
- Commonality Connection: Scabrina tells Nina they're in the same boat since both of their parents had no regrets in pawning them off on Calypso and Slasher, which helps Nina become more at ease around and bond with her.
- Contrived Coincidence: By sheer luck, Nina and Lambi are having dinner at the same restaurant as Cross and Donna, and King and Laura enter just as the chapter ends.
- Covered in Scars: It turns out Calypso has several scars all over her body as a result of her disowned parents' method of punishment whenever she messed up in her lycan training or they just got angry; they're extensive to the point that she uses a concealment stone to hide them. It's also said that Scandalyn has such scars.
- Crush Blush: Nina blushes when Donna approaches her during her visit to the Masterskull home and later shares many of these with Lambi while assuring her she's seeing their relationship through for the long haul.
- A Day in the Limelight: Nina's the star this time as what she did in the past week is shown in full detail.
- Disowned Parent: Calypso disowned the Woodemons the moment she graduated over their abusive and dismissive behavior. It's also unsaid but made clear that Scabrina has disowned Scandalyn as family.
- Double Standard: Bo refuses to forgive Gavin and Angmar for hurting Mattholomule when she's no longer angry at Bria for doing so, and she doesn't hate Nina for her own actions at Glandus; she soon acknowledges this hatred as such.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Principal Faust may see all children as evil, but he judges them based on their past actions, not their species. As such, he looks down on bigotry.
- Everyone Can See It: Calypso, Slasher, Scabrina, Diana, Gladys, and Auggie all admit they can see how much Nina and Donna like each other.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: Nina and the Brookes minus Skara meet Donna's parents and Auggie, and the Brookes meet the girl herself.
- Expy: Several are introduced in this chapter;
- Werecats Lynxa and Jemma Milk are based off of the Sisters Emma and Kitty from Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.
- Chelsea the cheetah werecat and Anthony "Tony" Stripes are inspired by Cheetara and Tigra from ThunderCats with Anthony being named after Tony the Tiger, the mascot of "Frosted Flakes" cereal.
- Banjo Scorpincher is based off of Scorpia from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
- Rosie and the Dirty Rats are inspired by Josie and the Pussycats.
- The Pinkjoy family, like Andrea, are inspired by that of Pinkie Pie's own family. Furthermore, Andrea's alligator palisman, Gumball, is based off of Gummy.
- From the Banshees cheer squad, Gina Festivo, a flamingo biped who is a homage to the Yo Yo Flamingo from the Fantasia 2000 short "Carnival of the Animals", Matricia Hobbs is an expy of Perona in appearance, and Roger Kidneystone is based off of James from Pokémon: The Series.
- Hardy Boils' werecat secretary Tally Snowpaws is one of Callie Briggs from SWAT Kats. His co-workers, Pierre, Marlin Maniac, and Chompers the three-eyed dog, take inspiration from Frenchie, Mother's Milk, and Terror.
- Henry and Raw Frewell as well as Grista and Scanfur Woodemon are modeled after Huey and Riley Freeman, Uncle Ruckus, and Stinkmeaner from The Boondocks.
- Familiar: Andrea is shown to have an alligator palisman named Gumball.
- Family of Choice: The Brookes all accept Nina as a member of their family and she herself wishes to have a permanent place in it.
- Forgiveness: Nina has long stopped hating Calypso after she's put up with her crap for so long and forgives her for her lycan-hunting past now that she sees why Calypso had those views in the first place.
- The Gadfly
- The Ghost: Napoli is mentioned by Tito since he made him his aide after Tito was paroled.
- Goal in Life: Lambi reveals her life's dream: to open her own spa treatment center where people can relax. Nina admits it's fitting given how Lambi has a calming air about her.
- Hate Sink:
- Grista and Scanfur Woodemon are bigoted, senile old asshats who punished their daughters for failing to succeed in carrying on their racist traditions.
- To a downplayed extent, Scandalyn is one of these herself since she pretty much abandoned Scabrina, her daughter, with little explanation. It's at least zigzagged as Scandalyn turns around after leaving the mansion and there's the implication that she appears to thank Calypso for taking care of Scabrina.
- Jeremy is a former Glandee who hates werecats and claims he's speaking in his cousin's defense against Nina when he's really trying to justify his hatred and doesn't care about what Amelia really thinks of Nina.
- Hidden Depths:
- Andrea used to be a constructionist, so odds are she can use earth magic.
- Tyler used to be a member of an extreme group of teenage skaters only to be kicked out for not being extreme enough. Heck, he only joined the cheer squad because his parents wanted him to stay out of trouble.
- Hypocrite:
- The werecats who tell off Nina for her actions are in turn called out by her for using Casey as an excuse to protest against Belos.
- Gavin's still giving Nina a hard time for not apologizing to Boscha. When the idea of asking Bo if she met Bria during her kidnapping comes up and Gavin says they're not on good terms, Nina correctly guesses he's having the same problems.
- Bo comes to realize her Double Standard against Gavin and Angmar attacking Mattholomule makes her this, considering she's not angry at Bria anymore and hasn't even asked Matt how he feels about them.
- Internal Reveal:
- Nina lets Tyler, Andrea, and Tamme know that she knew Amity was half Fae all along.
- Nina tells Lambi about her history with Donna.
- Tito finds out that Emily lied to him about her and Nina.
- Gladys and Diana inform Calypso and Slasher about Donna's past as a drug addict.
- Nina visits LOWTH's headquarters and gets them updated on everything Emily did, including attacking Riley and accidentally destroying Buster.
- Donna tells Nina about Lupe, and Eda saving her from him three times.
- Nina finds out that Tito was the last person who saw Bria on the night she disappeared.
- Bo tells Nina about what the Inner Demon showed her, causing the werecat to realize why Gavin is having a hard time talking to her.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Just as Nina is about to talk about making peace with Luz at the IFWOT, Ms Traveler asks if that was already covered a few chapters ago.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter:
- Diana had fallen into a bad crowd in her youth not unlike how Donna had with Eustace and Serpentina. As such, she recognizes Nina's struggles and sympathizes with her.
- After seeing Calypso get so emotional over how her parents acted, Nina remarks that she finally sees who Skara got her over-dramatic nature from.
- Locked Out of the Loop: When Nina watches Tyler and Tamme talk about Tyler's involvement with helping Boscha cause Lumity's breakup without detailing it, she decides against asking them what they're talking about.
- Luminescent Blush: Donna has one from Nina saying she's having "performance issues" with her key.
- Mythology Gag: To help Nina with her anger towards Emily, Ms Traveler teaches her a breathing exercise where she counts up to a high number.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Chelsea and Banjo are both hybrid lycans, Chelsea's mother being a witch and her father a werecat who left Chelsea's mother when he brought their daughter to Torso Villa.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Nina makes it clear to Emira and Viney that she has not forgotten about the two of them having sex with each other and warns them about engaging in it while babysitting Scabrina.
- Once More, with Clarity: In "So IFWOT?", Nina told Skara that things were still awkward between her and Donna. A few days earlier, Nina ended up getting flustered from Donna's advances and kept pushing her away as a result.
- Out of Focus: While Skara plays a supporting role, Willow scarcely appears along with the rest of the main cast since they're doing their own things over the course of the week; it's mainly due to visiting Amity in the Human Realm, attending her and Luz's mock wedding, and the Clawthornes visiting the Longs.
- Permissive Parents: Grista and Scanfur had no problems making their daughters take part in brutal training when they were kids, nor did they care how they were scarred from it in more ways than one.
- Pun-Based Title: The chapter name is one of "housebroken", the act of teaching a pet how to use the bathroom.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Irked by all the werecats in the Litter Box calling her out for making their kind look bad, Nina fires back by chewing them out for pretending they care about Casey and using him to protest against Belos. For good measure, she insults all of them and embarrasses Chelsea, the acting ringleader, by telling Anthony she has a crush on him.
- The Reveal:
- Emira was the captain of the Banshees cheer squad before Tamme, who claims she abandoned the job.
- Tamme's granddad was in the scouts before he retired and became a healer, her mother is a building designer in the Construction Coven, and her brother's a dance coordinator in the Dance Coven.
- Andrea used to be in the Construction track but switched to Bard. Her sisters Maude, Blisteria, and Amanda were all constructionists who went to Glandus and the Pinkjoy family are rock farmers.
- Hunter got Tito his pardon, and Napoli made Tito his aide.
- Glandus High had a perfect cheer record garnered from stealing other squads' cheer routines.
- Back in her St. Epiderm days, Diana fell into a bad crowd.
- Andrew has been recruited to join LOWTH.
- Nina knew that Emily went after Riley and caused Buster's demise.
- Donna hasn't been able to shift her key into blade form since she got it back.
- Casey had been dealing in drug distribution in order to get enough cash to leave the Isles.
- Lambi, Puffer, Eileen, and Andrea are in the same youth group at the Titan Temple and Aries is one of their volunteer supervisors.
- Scandalyn found the Isles where the werecats originated, the Moggie Reefs.
- Scandalyn is actually Scabrina's birth mother, meaning Skabrina is Skara's cousin and Calypso and Slasher's niece. Scabrina's other parent is unknown, and Scandalyn left her in her sister's care while visiting yearly and leaving just as quickly to avoid their parents.
- Bria is confirmed to be the girl that Bo met while imprisoned in the Scal-Mart, and it's implied that she's been taken by Sonya.
- The azure gemstone Calypso wears is a concealment stone which she uses to hide the scars on her body inflicted by her former parents.
- Jeremy, Amelia's cousin, was expelled from Glandus High before the Glandus War, hence why he didn't participate in it.
- It's been a month since the events of "After the War", when Nina first started living with the Brooke family.
- Secret-Keeper: Nina and Donna mutually agree to never let Donna's moms know about the "butt smack" Nina performed in Wonderland. Nina later becomes one for Scabrina after hearing her out about Scandalyn.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Scabrina knows that Scandalyn's her mother but doesn't mention it to the rest of the Brookes because she considers them her real family.
- Sequel Hook:
- Nina expresses a desire to visit the Moggie Reefs after she graduates so she can meet werecats like her.
- Nina has Bo consider talking to Matt about Gavin and Angmar.
- Will Nina join the Brooke family, and if so how will she break the news to her siblings?
- Nina and Amelia decide to figure out some kind of compromise that'll allow Amelia to spend time with Skara again without having to be near Nina.
- How will things unfold for Lambina, Cronna, and Ling since their dates have been linked up?
- Shout-Out:
- Tamme and the cheerleading squad sing I'll Make a Man Out of You, with altered lyrics.
- Tito and the Glandus cheer captains before him stealing other teams' cheers is a reference to Bring It On.
- Signature Scent: Nina recognized Tito when he was following her and her squad mates because he uses skilweed-scented hair gel.
- Sitcom Homage Episode: The chapter works as one revolving around Nina's life in the last week with
Word of God crediting sitcoms like Family Matters as inspiration. - Slipping a Mickey: To avoid a fight with Eustace and Serpentina, Boils slips something into their drinks to knock them out so he and Nina can drag their unconscious bodies out of the bar.
- Synchronous Episodes: The chapter occurs throughout the entire week every previous chapter since the arc began in "The Errands in the Willows".
- This Is Gonna Suck: Eustace and Serpentina are once again left at somebody's mercy with the promise of future beatings: in this case, Hardy Boils.
- Title Sequence: One inspired by that of Family Matters if featured.
- True Companions: Having been worried that her friendship with Tito wasn't real after what Emily did to her and Glinda cutting ties with them, Nina gets assurance that Tito sees her as his friend and vice-versa. She also doesn't judge him for inadvertently causing Bria's disappearance.
- Undying Loyalty: Nina admits to Lambi that she still has feelings for Donna, but makes it clear she doesn't think of dating Donna and she wants to see where she and Lambi go together, to Lambi's happiness.
- The Un-Reveal: Who is the Alchemist? And what did the Tarot Guild Ninja mean when he said he found what they're looking for?
- Wham Shot: The Woodemons pop by for a visit and in the midst of arguing with them, Calypso throws off her concealment stone, showing everyone what the Woodemons did to her when she didn't live up to their expectations.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Tito may have been pardoned, but he still can't go back home, due to his family disowning him.
- "You!" Exclamation: Tamme shouts a very loud one when she sees Tito since they recognize him as the thief who ripped off all their cheer techniques.
