User blog:StoryGirl83/Everything's Connected - The World of Choices

One thing that has fascinated me since the beginning is how everything, absolutely everything is connected. I've compiled lists before and who knows where they are. I am starting this off by posting something I wrote on twitter a while back. I will be going through and pulling things out later, but for now, here's what I have to start with.

Most Wanted

 * The Freshman, et al: Alyssa Griffin cameos in TF and is mentioned in TJ. Rebecca McKenzie cameos in TF. Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh cameo in TF. Hayley Rose's song outlaw is mentioned.
 * The Crown & The Flame: Reza Fassihi is one of the moderator of the official site for the TV show, The Crown & The Flame. Obviously this does not prove the connection, since he sees it as a TV show.
 * Rules of Engagement: Reza Fassihi, Nikhil Mantha, Mirasol Bautista, Alyssa Griffin, Ryan Summers,Cassandra Leigh, Ana De Luca, Chad, Todd, and Jamal Grady cameo. Hayley Rose's song outlaw is mentioned.
 * Endless Summer: Rebecca McKenzie is the sister of Jake McKenzie from ES. John Tull kind of cameos, but it's in a broken reality, so it's unclear exactly how much you should trust it. Hayley Rose's song, Ain't Gonna Fall, can be sung by the MC and Sean.
 * #LoveHacks: Nikhil Mantha, Todd, and Jessica Greene cameo in LH. Hayley Rose's song, Outlaw, is mentioned. Otis Khouri guest stars.
 * The Royal Romance/The Royal Heir: Cassandra Leigh cameos. Donnie Brine and Ana De Luca guest star. Although not identified as such, Reza Fassihi makes a cameo appearance in book 2 when the group goes to his home town of LA.
 * Red Carpet Diaries: Rebecca McKenzie, Todd, Joshua Neely, and Ryan Summers cameo. Cassandra Leigh and Jessica Greene can cameo. Ana De Luca's twin sister makes an appearance and Ana is mentioned. Hayley Rose's song outlaw is mentioned. Donnie Brine guest stars. Although not seen or mentioned, Gavin Routh's blog, is mentioned and revealed to now be owned by Viktor Montmartre.
 * Perfect Match: Ana De Luca cameos. Ryan Summers, Cassandra Leigh, and Alyssa Griffin can cameo.
 * Ride-or-Die: A Bad Boy Romance: Rebecca McKenzie might be an unidentified cameo. It's the right place.
 * Wishful Thinking: Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh cameo.
 * Platinum: Ryan Summers cameos.
 * Sunkissed: One of Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh's movies is mentioned.

The Freshman, et al

 * Most Wanted: Alyssa Griffin cameos in TF and is mentioned in TJ. Rebecca McKenzie cameos in TF. Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh cameo in TF. Hayley Rose's song, Outlaw, is mentioned.
 * The Crown & The Flame: The roommates and their friends are all fans of the The Crown & The Flame TV show.
 * Rules of Engagement: Madison Eckhart, Edgar Lucas, and Edgar Tripp guest star
 * #LoveHacks: Zack Zilberg, Brandon, and Enrique Vasquez cameo.
 * The Haunting of Braidwood Manor: Kaitlyn Liao, Tyler Alan, and Zack Zilberg cameo. Victor says that he works with Brandon
 * Hero: Sebastian Delacroix mentions being a fan of Hero: The Animated Series when he was younger.
 * Veil of Secrets: Your character can mention Enrique Vasquez when discussing a memory about Kate with Flynn.

The Crown & The Flame

 * Most Wanted: Reza Fassihi is one of the moderator of the official site for the TV show, The Crown & The Flame. Obviously this does not prove the connection, since he sees it as a TV show.
 * The Royal Romance/The Royal Heir: Out of universe, Pixelberry confirmed that Zenobia Nevrakis's descendant, Olivia Nevrakis, would be in The Royal Romance. In universe, Olivia has refered to her ancestry in vague terms many times and specifically to Luther Nevrakis in one instance. One of the vague reference was when they went to the opera house she said was designed after the Nevrakis's castle minus the pit where battles to the death were fought. Madeleine does refer to it as a tv show, but that does not prove that it wasn't real, only that the tv show does get aired in Cordonia.

Rules of Engagement

 * Most Wanted: Reza Fassihi, Nikhil Mantha, Mirasol Bautista, Alyssa Griffin, Ryan Summers,Cassandra Leigh, Ana De Luca, Chad, Todd, and Jamal Grady cameo. Hayley Rose's song outlaw is mentioned.
 * Endless Summer: Grace Hall's mother, Blaire Hall talks to Grace on the phone about Grace's upcoming trip. In addition, a younger Grace can cameo in a premium flashback In Rules of Engagement. Blaire can cameo in a premuim flashforward in Endless Summer.
 * #LoveHacks: Blaire Hall makes multiple appearances in #LoveHacks.

Endless Summer

 * Most Wanted: Rebecca McKenzie is the sister of Jake McKenzie from ES. John Tull kind of cameos, but it's in a broken reality, so it's unclear exactly how much you should trust it. Hayley Rose's song, Ain't Gonna Fall, can be sung by the MC and Sean.
 * Rules of Engagement: Grace Hall's mother, Blaire Hall talks to Grace on the phone about Grace's upcoming trip. In addition, a younger Grace can cameo in a premium flashback In Rules of Engagement. Blaire can cameo in a premuim flashforward in Endless Summer.

#LoveHacks

 * Most Wanted: Nikhil Mantha, Todd, and Jessica Greene cameo in LH. Hayley Rose's song Outlaw is mentioned. Otis Khouri guest stars.
 * Rules of Engagement: Blaire Hall makes multiple appearances in #LoveHacks.

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor

 * The Freshman, et al: Kaitlyn Liao, Tyler Alan, and Zack Zilberg cameo. Victor says that he works with Brandon

The Royal Romance / The Royal Holiday / The Royal Heir

 * Most Wanted: Cassandra Leigh cameos. Donnie Brine and Ana De Luca guest star. Although not identified as such, Reza Fassihi makes a cameo appearance in book 2 when the group goes to his home town of LA.
 * The Crown & The Flame: Out of universe, Pixelberry confirmed that Zenobia Nevrakis's descendant, Olivia Nevrakis, would be in The Royal Romance. In universe, Olivia has refered to her ancestry in vague terms many times and specifically to Luther Nevrakis in one instance. One of the vague reference was when they went to the opera house she said was designed after the Nevrakis's castle minus the pit where battles to the death were fought. Madeleine does refer to it as a tv show, but that does not prove that it wasn't real, only that the tv show does get aired in Cordonia.

Red Carpet Diaries

 * Most Wanted: Rebecca McKenzie, Todd, Joshua Neely, and Ryan Summers cameo. Cassandra Leigh and Jessica Greene can cameo. Ana De Luca's twin sister makes an appearance and Ana is mentioned. Hayley Rose's song outlaw is mentioned. Donnie Brine guest stars. Although not seen or mentioned, Gavin Routh's blog, is mentioned and revealed to now be owned by Viktor Montmartre.

Perfect Match

 * Most Wanted: Ana De Luca cameos. Ryan Summers, Cassandra Leigh, and Alyssa Griffin can cameo.

Bloodbound

 * Veil of Secrets: The MC, a reporter from NYC, is talking to Grant Emerson and he asks him/her about the most interesting person s/he's ever interviewed and the answer is Marlon Barrister who has, and I quote, "dedicated his life to this wild conspiracy theory. He's convinced New York is secretly ruled by a cabal of vampires." Sounds a lot like Bloodbound to me.

Veil of Secrets

 * Bloodbound: The MC, a reporter from NYC, is talking to Grant Emerson and he asks him/her about the most interesting person s/he's ever interviewed and the answer is Marlon Barrister who has, and I quote, "dedicated his life to this wild conspiracy theory. He's convinced New York is secretly ruled by a cabal of vampires." Sounds a lot like Bloodbound to me.

Ride-or-Die: A Bad Boy Romance

 * Most Wanted: Rebecca McKenzie might be an unidentified cameo. It's the right place.

Wishful Thinking

 * Most Wanted: Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh cameo.

Platinum

 * Most Wanted: Ryan Summers cameos.

Sunkissed

 * Most Wanted: One of Ryan Summers and Cassandra Leigh's movies is mentioned.

Distant Shores
Characters from TF cameo in THoBM, RoE, AME, and LH at the very least.

TRR is a spin off of both TC&TF and RoE. It is mentioned as factual in HSS. In addition to that characters from LH cameo in HSS.

IL, BB, and NB are acknowledged to be in the same universe. Characters from IL cameo in NB and back and forth between NB and BB. VoS references Vampires in NYC, although the two talking don't think it's real, they are talking about someone who does.

There is a theory (unproven) that one of the characters in LH is the nephew one of the characters in HftH mentions getting a gift for.

A character in D&D had the title later held by a character in TRR, although that character no longer has the title, so it may go to someone else. This would connect that back to the main batch.

AtV has the origins of the crystals seen in Hero and ES. The ending of Hero appears to have the MC crossing into the world of AtV prior to the explosion that caused all the different types of aliens. As ES is connected to the large batch of them at the top, this makes things complicated, but a character in ES is definitely the daughter of a character in RoE/LH and a character in ES is definitely the brother of a character in MW.

TE references things that are real in IL and LH as existing in their world, especially the reference to IL as being on the west coast, which is where IL takes place.

TH:M connects back to all sorts of things including: LH, AME, RCD, RoD:ABBR, RoE and PM.

A character from Platinum is mentioned in The Senior if you take the right path in it. At least one other character is from AME. A character from RCD is mentioned in Platimum.

The HSS and Hollywood U apps are acknowledged in the same universe as well as having some crossover in certain story lines. HSS and RCD appear to be in the same universes as their app counterparts.

Characters from LH are either cameoing from or have cameos in MW, TF, PM, TH:M, RoE, TRR.

A character from BB is the counsin of a character from ACoR, although since this is only mentioned in BB, it's possible they aren't in the same universe. It's also possible it was relevant to the story, so who knows.

Open Heart Passport to Romance

- I went through it somewhere and I've seen others go through it elsewhere, but the thing is, that are in universe real. There's only maybe three that can't be directly connected to the rest of the universe.

Let's start with The Crown & The Flame's connection to The Royal Romance. My guess is that in Cordonia it's not mentioned as a show, because unlike the rest of the world, they know it's not fiction, or at least part of it's not fiction. If nothing else, if they brought it up around Olivia, they would probably get some annoyed comments from her because it's not just the same last name. Olivia is Zenobia Nevrakis's descendant. This was stated straight out in an interview before the series even started. Also, in universe Olivia has referred to her Nevrakis ancestors on more than one occasion, describing the family quite well in personality, though never name, and even talking about the pit in the castle.

Yes, The Crown & The Flame is a TV show, but it's a TV show based in myth and legend. At it's core, there are "real" events that happened. I think it like legends about King Arthur or Robyn Hood. No one knows whether they are true or not. Most people believe they aren't, but they might be. (Side note: I have no idea if they are true or not, but I have seen compelling arguments that they might be.)

Next, I'll go with Bloodbound, because @Fearless Diva shared a video with me that connects it to the larger world. Unlike some of the more supernatural stories, it doesn't have a corresponding fiction. . . not yet anyway. Just wait. It probably will get one. So it connects back to Veil of Secrets. The MC, a reporter from NYC, is talking to Grant and he asks him/her about the most interesting person s/he's ever interviewed and the answer is Marlon Barrister who has, and I quote, "dedicated his life to this wild conspiracy theory. He's convinced New York is secretly ruled by a cabal of vampires." Sounds a lot like Bloodbound to me. And Veil of Secrets connects back to everything through the MC and Kate both attending Hartfeld.

And honestly a lot can be connected via Hartfeld, but seeing as that's kind of weak, fiction can totally take a "real" university and use it as a setting in a fictional story, I will only make that connection as a sidenote when connecting Endless Summer (which also doesn't have a fictional counterpart that I know of) back to the rest of the universe. Endless Summer has connections to way too many other events thanks to Grace's mom and Jake's sister. Grace is mentioned either by name or otherwise in at least two series. You actually see Blaire's side of the beginning of all that in Rules of Engagement. It is covered over multiple chapters in book 2 as Blaire tries and fails to contact her daughter and mentions the trip she is going on. Blaire also mentions her in #LoveHacks, Book 2 is I remember correctly. It's been a while, so I don't remember the context or if she uses her name or just refers to her daughter. On top of that, Rebecca McKenzie is Jake's sister and she's shown up in both Most Wanted and Red Carpet Diaries by name and her appearance has been used in both The Freshman (in an LA area, fitting with where she is from, so almost definitely her just as several other Most Wanted characters have shown up without their names being specified, because the people talking to didn't know them) and High School Story. And just in case connecting High School Story through this isn't strong enough, they meet characters from #LoveHacks and yes, reference The Royal Romance as "royal gossip" rather than fiction.

So that brings us to the hard one, Hero. The series that Hero connects to the most is Endless Summer which, other than a bit of time travel, takes place in present day. The main antagonists in both know each other. The MCs of both books appear to be from the same place, more or less. The big problems come in two form, because of course we've never heard anything about Northbridge, where James and Gabriella from The Freshman, et al live, being destroyed like it was in the end of Hero, Volume 1 anywhere outside of that book. Multiple characters claim to have had a crush on Minuet growing up, meaning at least five years or more prior to that claim in The Junior, Book 1. Not sure how you resolve the first problem unless it is limited to an area away from where James and Gabriella's apartment is and they just didn't talk about it or somehow it is erased from people's memories or else people are actually forbidden to talk about it and those two characters actually listen. There are ways around that, but it's tricky. The other is harder, because unless someone traveled back in time and wrote those comics (it was comics, right?) there is no way a comic that came out when Tyler, Zig, and Sebastian were kids could have told of events in Hero, more specifically of a character who didn't come into her name until present day. So while Hero does appear to be real, we have a continuity error that they would have to actively work at to fix and I don't see them doing that. They might. I hope they do. I just don't think they will.

Perfect Match is one of the few stories that can't (yet) be connected to the rest of the stories, so it either doesn't or they haven't found a place to fit in references, yet. It Lives In the Woods is another, so that is two supernatural series that don't. Neither of them has (as far as I know) been referenced in anyway by other series either as fact or fiction.

Oh, one final on the list of "fiction" that isn't fiction. . . Most Wanted, Book 2 was made into a video game. Yeah. The characters in Endless Summer get to know that story when we don't. Considering Jake's sister is in Most Wanted, Book 1 (and probably Book 2 when/if it ever comes out), it's real, but they also say that it's based off cult killings in LA, so I guess it's not fiction so much as made into a game.