#ash swallows

[possum-quesadilla]

The final chapter of Time’s Arrow, chapter seventeen, “You Can Always Come Home”, is here! Woof. I cried a lot. Please make sure to read the warnings and proceed with caution!

Here are the extras, along with an afterword!

- This is the first and probably only LoopJuice chapter to not have lyrics for the title! Instead, it’s from a song title. “You Can Always Come Home” by Toby Fox. It’s meant to be Beetlejuice to Lydia, as well as myself to the reader. You can always return to this fic, if it brings you comfort. It will always be here for you. I highly recommend listening to this song while reading.

- “Beetlejuice was unlike the majority of the demons inhabiting the Netherworld, in a multitude of ways.” - Did you catch that this whole introduction is a reworking of the opening of Time is a Flat Circle?

- “The once-brown roots of his hair was now peppered with grey, and a white streak grew in stark contrast with his constantly fluorescent pink and green tips in a spot at the front.” - his hair is somewhat permanently switching between pink and green, aside from the white and grey, since he is mostly always feeling loved and happy.

- “(And himself, somewhat. It was a slow process, and some days all he wanted to do was give up on the bastard, but he was learning. Learning to care about himself, more and more, bit by bit.)” - it’s a tough road, but it’s one that’s certainly worth it.

- “Their paws were hot, and the fur on them was patchy.” - Larry was rubbing their hands together due to anxiety, and rubbed some of their fur off.

- “But he was fading.” - this is closely based on my own personal experience, with memory issues and other chronic health issues. Perhaps the very end of my life will be sad, and so will Beej’s, but that doesn’t mean he can’t “live” in the present, and enjoy what it has to offer.

- “Now you two get to marry this creepy old guy!” - thank you @raineisinkless for the joke idea <33

- “After all, time’s arrow marches on.” - roll credits! /ref. I actually got this fic’s title from the episode of the same name from “BoJack Horseman”, if you hadn’t picked up on it by now.

- “( And so do you. )” - It can be hard to believe sometimes, but you do. You really do.

Afterword (sorry, I get pretty personal here)

Hello!

I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for making it here, to an end of my ridiculously self indulgent and long winded Beetlejuice fanfic. It’s quite funny, when you think about it. Just how much watching one musical spiraled into… this! For myself, for you.

This fic series and it’s reception reignited a passion for writing I had let fade out as I marched on into adulthood and all the dreadful responsibilities and horrors it entails. Writing this, reading the comments, seeing the fanart, and the reactions, my goodness. It was invigorating, it was draining, it was wonderful and agonizing and spectacular. I thought I’d have to leave it behind in my adolescence, but now I can’t wait to continue writing.

This is not the end of Loopjuice! Far from it. However, this will be the end for the majority of you, I expect. I did my best to leave it open ended for part 3, while also being a satisfying conclusion if anyone wants to hop off here. I completely understand if you do. Hell, I wasn’t sure about even posting part 3 until a month or so ago! It will be mostly a slice of life, with the usual angst and agony sprinkled in. I understand if that is not for you.

This story was a labor of love. Also, I’m fairly certain anyone can tell, even without looking at the extras or chapter notes, that it is very personal to me. LoopJuice very much became a mirror as time went on (heheh). As an audhd (autism and adhd) nonbinary polyamorous person with sensory issues, severe mommy issues (thank you mom for being my own personal Juno and inspiring scenes in this fic /sarc), hearing loss, separation anxiety, etc etc etc, it was really an outlet of sorts. Hell, LoopJuice and I have the same scar from the same cause! (Kinda. His is on his ear, mine’s on the back of my head.) I’ve been hit by more cars than him, though.

I was touched to see others connecting with some of his struggles. And I was honestly very moved to see people sympathizing with him. At first, I intended him to be morally reprehensible. I thought I was. But seeing readers understanding and still caring, it… woof, that was crazy for me! To be completely honest? LoopJuice is ahead of me in terms of character development. He’s already on the ‘accepting help’, ‘accepting you are loved and cared for without an exchange’, and ‘learning to love yourself’ phases, but I’m not quite there yet. (Here’s to hoping I will be, someday.)

This story, in the end, I wanted to be about love and hope, and found family.

And, well, of course, a stupid green-haired demon.

I tried to make the ending to be unambiguously happy, but it came out bittersweet. For that, I apologize, but that is how it must be. I have very similar memory issues to LoopJuice. I often forget my own birthday, or a conversation that was had not long ago, or a family member’s face. It’s scary. And I am chronically ill. One day, long before most of my loved ones, I will ‘fade away’. And I have made peace with that. And so, LoopJuice, in a similar situation, has too. It’s in the distant future for myself and for him, so why fret about what you can’t change in the future? You have to enjoy the present, and all it has to offer.

This story is important to me, and I’m happy it’s touched a few people’s hearts. It feels like it took a part of me with it when I made it, but not quite in the bad way. Like a piece of me is out there, causing laughter and tears and fuzzy feelings.

I guess all of this is to say; thank you, and farewell to those who won’t continue on with this story and other, and I love you. You deserve love and warmth, and you will get there one day. If this fucked up demon can, so can you.

Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed.

Time for me to get some rest, before I’m back to it with Part Three: “Living” in the Present Tense!

(As well as my summer camp AU, and my book, eventually!)

Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox

(Want to be tagged in updates to LoopJuice / other fics? Let me know!)

Songs for this chapter:

“Army Dreamers in 29edo” by Deister Orchestra ; “L’amore dice Ciao (Main Titles) - Remastered” by Armando Trovajoli ; “Love Story” by The Newton Brothers ; “You Can Always Come Home” by Toby Fox ; “In Our Bedroom After The War” by Stars ; “Will You Remember?” by The Cranberries ; “It’s You, It’s Me, It’s Us” by Reinaeiry ; “Remember Me (Lullaby)” from Coco ; “Pilvet liikkuu, minä en” by Yona ; “Love Like You (feat. Rebecca Sugar)” from Steven Universe ; “Everything Stays (feat. Olivia Olson)” from Adventure Time ; “That Distant Shore (feat. Jennifer Paz)” from Steven Universe ; “Strawberry Blond” by Mitski ; “Pink in the Night” by Mitski ; “Ready Now” by dodie ; “Samson” by Regina Spektor

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter fifteen of “Living” in the Present Tense, “I’m dedicating every day to you, Domestic life was never quite my style”, is here!! I’m baaaaack! (audience booing)

Extras below!!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Dear Theodosia” from “Hamilton”! Bitch I straight up could not help myself. ITS SO LOOPJUICE ITS CRAZY….

- “Adam and Barbara both paused in their cooing and fawning…” - heheheh

- “ “I just wanna make a good first impression on her. I really fumbled it with everyone else.” “That’s not…” Barbara hesitated and trailed off, pursing her lips. “.. entirely true!” ” - he really did fumble first impressions with every single character in canon and in this fic.

- “… holding a fresh-smelling book open in front of them both as she read aloud.” - Lydia had the book made specifically so she could read it and gift it to Laika. Because she’s insane

- “My Immortal” - this is what Lydia was reading to Laika. If you don’t know what “My Immortal” is, congratulations! You’re missing out on high art and have also made me feel extremely old. Here’s a video about it. And another.

- “She could sleep through ear-piercing screaming and splattering gore, or awkward pauses and loud theme songs, or faux-futuristic gunfire and crashing cars, or any other sort of noises from what her family put on TV.” - horror movies from Beetlejuice, workplace comedies from Barbara, and futuristic movies like “The Terminator” from Adam!

- “exquisitely stupid” … “perfectly splendid” - callbacks to these phrases being used in previous chapters! References to “Nope” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor”, respectively.

- “(Worrying was the Maitland-Deetz-Shoggoths’ specialty.)” - between time skips, Beetlejuice changed his last name and added “Deetz”, at Charles’ insistence!

- “It wasn’t until Barbara paused to take a picture of the four of them that they noticed she was heartily chomping down on it.” - based on this tiktok I saw. It makes me laugh so fucking hard. Also I used to do that. I had to go to urgent care so many times

- “… observing her play with the block toys Adam had made for her.” - WOODWORKING FOR HIS DAUGHTER…

- “(Like poor Pluto’s tail, for example. The little tyke learned how to hiss from the older cat before she even began to babble. She seemed to have misunderstood it as a friendly noise.)” - Pluto is not grumpy!! She’s very patient with Laika. She has only hissed a few times to establish boundaries, and Laika is a baby and doesn’t get that it’s an angry noise. She’s just like “oh I should make that noise instead of grabbing you? Sick!” Also, based on something my friend’s niece did.

- “And the poor dear loved to be spoken to. To engage in mock conversations.” - heheheh. “Dear”.

- “- with a bite force of over 1,100 psi! Can you believe it?” - he’s yapping about hyenas! He’s educating her on her own teeth

- “A place where the family usually participated in silent parallel play.” - Barbara gardening while her two autistic husbands do their own things near her is a funny mental image to me. Added points when the rest of the family members are added in. Barbara, Adam, Beetlejuice, Charles, Delia, Ash, and Laika doing their own thing in the same space lol

- “They seemed to be enjoying the chilly, quiet afternoon together.” - he’s mostly recovered from his trauma surrounding cold :)))

- “He smiled softly when she giggled at his cold touch.” - his fingers are still cold from the ritual years ago, but Laika doesn’t mind! She associates it with her dad, and she loves her dad

- “Try… try saying the opposite of what your mother used to say to you.” - advice I’ve received from my own therapist! Not about kids, though, I don’t got any of those. Barbara’s words were based on things her father said to her, Beetlejuice’s from his mother. Both are based on things my own mother said to me!

- “… Beetlejuice accidentally bonked the top of Laika’s head with his elbow. It was a gentle, harmless little accident.” - based on something that happened to me. I am so super freaked about the idea of hurting others like my mom did lol

- “He’d been reaching up to grab the peanut butter jar for an afternoon snack…” - I do this! With a spoon. Beetlejuice uses his tongue. It drives his spouses crazy.

- “The demon’s stomach was a black hole nowadays.” - HE’S HEALING!!!

- “Just a little “ghuh”, quickly shaking her head.” - based on my own reaction to hitting my head lol

- “It took months of convincing for him to engage in any sort of play with Laika, even though she yearned for it. Barbara and Adam themselves could only handle so much biting and rabbit-kicking to their arms from her themselves.” - she gets zoomies and loves to roughhouse!! She learned it partially from the cats, hence the arm biting and rabbit-kicking.

- “Larry had said most demon children were fairly self-sufficient by an extremely young age…” - that’s because most of them are dumped by the time they’re three

- “Beetlejuice received quite the intense chewing-out when her first actual word had been “shit”.” - based (yet again) on a story from my own childhood! My first word was “fuck”. I’m not joking.

- “ “Hope you like i- where’d you go.” Beetlejuice returned to find the nine month-old had vanished.” - both a reference to an iconic line from the movie and a hilarous tiktok I saw using that audio.

- “… over to the stairs leading to the second floor to gnaw on the spindles of the rail.” - based both on Sunny Baudelaire from “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” and something I did in my childhood. I was a biter! I got kicked out of twelve daycares.

- “Laika, with her golden curls and crooked smile, her fawn spots and little hooves, her honey brown eyes and the mischievous glint within them, filled their un-lives with so much light and warmth.” - wanted to highlight a few of the traits she got from each of her parents! Beetlejuice’s crooked smile and mischievous nature, brown eyes and deer features from Adam, and the hair and bright demeanor osmosis-ed from Barbara.

Tag list: @rainybeetles @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox @canada-dryeyes

(Want to be tagged in updates to LoopJuice / other fics? Let me know!)

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter 9 of Time’s Arrow, “I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel, I am all the things they might have said to you” is here! Woof. Sorry everyone. Happy Beetlejuice 2 premiere! :,)

THIS CHAPTER IS PARTICULARLY ROUGH. PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING.

Extras below!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title is from “Never Love An Anchor” by The Crane Wives.

- “The next ten months moved at the speed of a dream.” - A call back to a line from Time is a Flat Circle, which itself is a reference to “Asteroid City”! Gotcha again!

- “They read ‘Flowers for Algernon’, ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’, and… some sort of Jane Austen novels.” - I wonder if those stories are thematically relevant to this chapter?

- “He had no idea what to do about his fur anyhow. It had never grown in that long and thick before, how was he supposed to know it would do that?” - It was growing properly because he was finally happy and healthy enough for it to do so!

- “She was tall. Well, at least taller than him. Damnit.” - Bela is 5’9”! She is on the shorter side for demons. Beej is just especially small, since he was malnourished.

- “Her roots were black, the rest of her hair cascaded down to her shoulders in similar curls to his own, colored with a gentle lavender hue.” - Bela’s resting hair color is purple instead of green like Beej!

- “She had an orange-jeweled nose ring.” - Bela and Deb have matching nose rings, since exchanging jewelry is how demons court each other!

- “Shades of a gentle maroon red flickered through Bela’s hair.” - Bela has different colors for her emotions than Beej does!

- “Most were “whales”, stolen away in malevolent Deals to forever be a supply for the demon they were tied to. Slowly withering away to nothing.” - this is inspired by “Doctor Sleep”, because I’m a huge Mike Flanagan fiend.

- “They were all strange, all lacked the innate ability to socially adapt that the other demons thrived off of.” - Autism can run in a family, and it sure does run in the Shoggoth family!

- “He didn’t know why she was upset, but he knew it was up to him to make it better. (Why else was he here?)” - Still partially believes his only purpose is to make others happy, or they wouldn’t want him around.

- “… she hesitated, still firmly grasping the bright green fleece blanket he’d summoned from his room around her shoulders.” - The same blanket Charles got Beej for his room!

- “ “I watched this movie last night, since I couldn’t fall asleep. It was..” their voice caught in their throat, and their breath hitched. Beetlejuice slowly rose from his chair, setting the ice pack on the counter. “… lotta.. big feelings about it, huh?” They rapidly nodded, wrapping their arms around themself. “I don’t… I can’t keep living the way I do.” ” - Ash watched “I Saw The TV Glow”, which is a horror movie about being trans. It gutted me the first time I saw it. Ash had a similar visceral reaction, and it made her rethink how she is living. It also informs a lot of this chapter’s theming, but it is not required viewing for this fic. It is very, very difficult to watch for neurodivergent queers.

- “The living need attention too, Ash. It’s okay.” - This line is partially taken from “Dead Girls” by Penelope Scott, which is a very important song on Ash’s playlist.

- “You feel like you’ll die if you stay there. Or… worse.” - An “I Saw The TV Glow” reference. There’s quite a few in here.

- “Thank you, Beetlejuice.” - the first time they’ve called him by his actual name!

- Anyone spot more Time is a Flat Circle parallels?

- “It was then that Beetlejuice got hit by his first car.” - This is mostly a joke about how I, the author, have been hit by 4 cars. I feel like Beej would be similarly unlucky.

- “… it’s like being a wolf dog.” - This is based on how I’ve explained what it was like to grow up in my household.

- “Memories washed away like chalk on the sidewalk.” - Another “I Saw The TV Glow” reference.

- “Adam and Barbara celebrated their birthdays, which landed a couple days apart from each other, by smelling wine and watching ‘Lord of the Rings’ together. Beetlejuice was invited to join them.” - Based on something Adam made Beej he would promise to do in an earlier chapter!

- “June was full of beautiful sunsets he watched with his family.” - This was, like the previous thing, also listed among the reasons Beej should keep “living” in a previous chapter.

- “At the end of the month, walking to school and the store with Lydia, Beetlejuice realized with horror that Lydia was taller than him. Like, at least half a foot taller.” - Lydia is 5’7” now, he’s just being dramatic.

- “(How could no one see it? He felt so happy, but still he felt pieces of him slowly dying and rotting away. How could no one see that he was rotten? That he was dying?)” - This is partially another “I Saw The TV Glow” reference, and a reference to the ending of the song “you smell of dead flowers” by vslush and cliesel

- “August came like a thief in the night.” - A callback to Time is a Flat Circle! Which is itself an Edgar Allen Poe reference.

- “… they say old man Hirsch signed up for it right before he went missing.” - Yes he is named after Alex Hirsch, creator of “Gravity Falls”. Love ya Alex!

- “ “I managed to talk him down from another viewing of ‘Pride and Prejudice’!” (Another? What was that? They’d seen it before?)” - This is meant to alert the reader that something is very wrong, as “Pride and Prejudice” was brought up before by Beetlejuice himself.

- “Beetlejuice scratched at their left arm. The scars had started to fade.” - He was resorting to self-regulating self harm less enough that his arm was healing before this point.

- “I… I couldn’t.. I didn’t have enough energy to resist the Seal w-.. without a cult.” - Beetlejuice was tricking people to sign up for his cult under the guise of a “Loyalty Program”.

- “Why have they been going missing, then?” … “They swore they were choking on the taste of blood, bile rising in their throat as they felt their flesh between their teeth.” - Beetlejuice ate a few members of his cult. That’s why there’s missing persons in the town.

- “Someone’s hand gripped the back of their shirt, trying to pull them out of the kitchen. Panic spiked within them. Beetlejuice felt the blow to the back of their head, the horrible stabbing agony in their chest. That familiar, terrifying sensation they’d felt over and over and over and- ”- Beetlejuice had flashbacks to being killed during the loop over and over because Charles touched his old wound and it scared him, hence why he lashed out.

- “There’s still time. There has to be.” - Yet another “I Saw The TV Glow” reference.

- “ “Hello, pet.” Time’s up.” - Meant to envoke a terrifying line in “Yo, Girl” from Heathers the musical.

- “I’ll make you wish you could die!” - This line was originally going to be a more blatant reference to a line that Circus Baby from the FNAF series says often, “You won’t die, but you’ll wish you could.”

- “You always bounce ba- ” - Meant to be a reference to this scene from “Adventure Time” which I’ve… never seen…

- “Beetlejuice was distantly aware that Cyrus brought his claws up to his mouth to lick some of the blood off of them. “Choke on it,” they sputtered, although they weren’t sure if Cyrus could understand them through all of the blood that bubbled out of their mouth.” - Meant to be a reference to the horrific death of Captain Rhodes from “Day of the Dead”!

- “Beetlejuice wheezed out a last croak as Cyrus once again gripped their hoof and continued dragging them towards the portal.” - This is meant to evoke the gut-wrenching opening scene of “Scream”. Specifically, the part where Ghostface is dragging Casey away, and she is wheezing out her last breaths, which her parents can hear over the phone. The music in that scene never fails to make me cry. (I cried my eyes out rewatching that scene and imagining it playing when the Maitlands see the basement, but that’s not how things will happen…)

- “I’m sorry I was the one you loved.” - From “I’m Your Man” by Mitski.

[possum-quesadilla]

Heyyy. I couldn’t wait any longer!!! The next chapter of Time’s Arrow, “Flowers, I remember fields of flowers”, is here. We’re back to a Beetlejuice POV!! Yay!! (Kinda..)

Please read the warnings carefully before proceeding.

Here are the extras! Not too many of them, surprisingly.

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Flowers” from Hadestown. Now we’re seeing our Eurydice’s perspective! Very literal. At one point, all Beetlejuice can remember is flowers.

- Songs for this chapter: “Flowers” from Hadestown, “Goodbye” by Bo Burnham, “The Moon Will Sing” by The Crane Wives, “Francis Forever” by Mitski, “Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus” by Nicole Dollanganger, “Our Word” from 36 Questions (again), “Doubt Comes In” from Hadestown.

- “Turns out seven thousand years of whatever the hell he found himself in now was a lot worse.” - Haha, surprise Ezri and Raine! This is what number you/Barbara picked for :)

- “He was not a participant, like in the last time loop he was stuck in. He was an invisible observer, unable to be heard or seen or to touch anything. But he felt it all.” - The worst of all worlds! Time loop, trauma, invisible. All of the things Beej hates. Also, the inability to be seen is inspired by a scene in “The Haunting of Hill House” where Nell is ‘missing’, but she was right there. They just couldn’t see her.

- “Had he really looked that bad during the fight? No wonder they were scared of him now.” - Yeah he looked pretty insane, as mentioned in Lydia’s POV in chapter 10.

- “What did they think of him, now that he was gone? What were they saying?” - This line, along with a few later, are inspired by the songs “Who Was She” and “Who Is She (Reprise)” from “Centaurworld”.

- “(The words ‘I love you’ don’t leave his lips. He didn't know them yet.)” - Yeah he didn't really hear the words “I love you” for a long, long time.

- “The demon-… They-…. Beetlejuice knew there was more, but try as they might, they couldn’t remember it.” - This was Beetlejuice starting to forget his own name/identity.

- “Panic coursed through the demon as they wheezed out unsteady breaths.” - Him unable to breathe and wheezing the whole time is meant to emulate the ending of “I Saw The TV Glow”.

- “They… remembered… flowers. Purple, yellow, green, red, orange, and blue.” - This, of course, calls back to the first chapter of Time’s Arrow, as well as the title lyrics for this chapter. Also the new blue is for Ash :)

- “Oh well. You made this bed. Now lay in it.” - This is meant to be a reference to the ending of the title song for this chapter.

Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox

(Want to be tagged in updates to LoopJuice / CorpseJuice? Let me know!)

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter 10 of Time’s Arrow, “Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that, Now you're all gone, got your make-up on, and you're not coming back”, is here! Lydia POV time! Sorry it is short… that is for literary purposes.

As always, here are the extras!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl” by Yeule! Haha, get it? Because this chapter’s from the POV of a 17 year-old demigirl? Also, it is meant to reflect their relationship and her mental space throughout it. The dream-like quality of the song is meant to mirror how confused and adrift Lydia feels here.

- The chapter is much shorter because less happens, and adding the next chapter on to this would make the pacing off, and because Lydia’s POV is very different from Beej’s! Also different from how it used to be. She’s older and more put together, and her thoughts are more concise. She takes less time to ponder than Beej does.

- “And she felt like she couldn’t breathe. … Lydia’s throat burned, which she’d assumed at first was from crying. But now it still ached horribly, and it felt like it was constricting.” … “Lydia’s hand drifted up to her throat. So red. Her hand flinched away as she swore she felt something warm and wet, but there was nothing there.” - Lydia’s connection with Beej is making her feel an echo of what he is currently feeling. It only really happens when something major happens to him, so she didn’t feel every car accident and shin-banging. Just the catastrophic things.

- “Normally, she’d go to Beetlejuice on nights she was plagued with nightmares and insomnia. Either he would curl up at the foot of her bed, or she would join him in his own bed in the basement. His presence somehow always chased the nightmares away.” - Because Beetlejuice always uses his demonic powers to will the nightmares away. Bc he’s a good big brother sometimes.

- “The image of her brother, trembling and snarling, just about frothing at the mouth, hunched over with stark-white hair, growling wildly as he turned and lashed out at- ” - A bit of the physical description we missed out on from Beej’s POV! He looked just as wild as he felt.

- “It was surely one of their… ‘episodes’. They’d been having them less and less as time went on, as they grew and healed and adapted to their own traumas and triggers. (Afterwards, she’d realized it was the yelling and touching of his old back wound that had set him off. It was understandable, she supposed, but still… scary. He’d never lashed out like that before.) She and Adam had theorized it was PTSD, but they couldn’t be sure. The idiot wouldn’t see a therapist.” - Beej was learning and healing and growing, but only so much can be done without professional help.

- “… promising she’d whip him up a healing spell as soon as she could gather the ingredients. (Healing wasn’t her sort of spell. She was more interested in scrying, curses, and hexes, but she was certainly willing to try it out for her father.)” - A peep into Lydia’s studies as a witch! One of the things that is regretfully lost in the last few chapters due to Beej’s spiraling POV. He was having trouble holding on to all the details in his mind.

- “She huffed out a laugh, halting to turn her head and cough.” - Lydia is much more polite than Beej. He would just cough in people’s faces.

- “ “Oh dear.” Delia placed a hand on her chest. “I still have my old inhaler. Do you think that would help?” ” - Delia lore! She had childhood asthma.

- “The morning came at a snail’s pace, but in just a breath at the same time. It was staggering.” - Lydia experiencing a little bit of what Beetlejuice usually did. It is rather upsetting, especially since she’s not used to it.

- “Her girlfriend readily offered a sympathetic listening ear, offering to put up signs for the store and then come to the house to be a sort of moral support. (That’s why she l- liked her so much.)” - Another thing that was regretfully lost with Beetlejuice’s POV is the full development of Lydia and Ash’s relationship. I hope to do an extra side chapter on them in the future! Also she almost slipped up and admitted she loves them here.

- “Pluto and Percy were sat staring at the door, their legs tucked under themselves.” - They could tell something was wrong, and were waiting to be let in to go check.

- “ “H-he left a note,” they eventually managed. ” - This is one of two key differences that sets this version aside from the bad ending: Ash found Beej’s note left for them.

- “If you’re reading this, I have to go away for a while. I don’t know if I’ll be able to bounce back this time. Be nice to Chuck and Delia. Give Adam and Barbara a hug. (I know you hate those, but just one for me, alright?)” - Oops! This accidentally referenced Eda’s speech in “Agony of a Witch” from season one of “The Owl House”.

- “ - Beebleboose’ ” - The curse’s lingering effects still won’t let him say or write his own name.

- “ ‘Go away’? What the hell did that mean? If anything, it read like- Lydia gasped, gripping Ash’s arms as she stood up straight.” - Lydia realized it reads like a suicide note here.

- “ “.. she woke up screaming, calling his name.” Her expression softened with concern, brows creased together. “She was clawing at her throat and begging to come see him, but I was worried it was just… one of her fits. Made her wait it out, see if it would pass. But-” “Wait, ‘clawing at her throat’?” She nodded, some sort of dark fear clouding her eyes. “.. yeah. Saying she couldn’t breathe, that.. something was wrong, that she needed to…” she swallowed hard. “That she needed to see Goose, and she… she couldn’t stand to lose another sibling.” ” - Bela watched a lot of the Shoggoth spawn fall prey to other demons. She is similarly connected to Beetlejuice, but she chose to be since she can tell he’s not very smart and she wanted to keep an eye on him. She felt a more extreme version of what Lydia did, and had an anxiety attack thinking he was dead-dead. She is devastated to think she lost the little brother she just gained.

- “Lydia was startled by the sound of Pluto growling. She’d stopped at the base of the stairs and was now frozen there, back arched and fur standing, her one golden eye round and wild.” - Pluto could sense Cyrus’ lingering vibes, and she decided they were rancid.

- “There. A gentler, hazier voice pulled their awareness to the far wall, where a piece of paper was taped to it.” - This is the insight from her scrying pulling her in the right direction.

- “She lifted the hefty cat up, draping him over her shoulders. Fuck, he’s getting huge.” - No longer a runt, he’s a giant boy now!! He has long fur too.

- “She closed her eyes, speaking the ancient words she’d rehearsed over and over again. She pressed her forehead to Percy’s, feeling the boost in power her familiar granted her flowing through her, buzzing and melodic.” - A peep into a scrying ritual! No blood required, thanks to Percy’s help.

- “She was standing in a pool of blood. It nearly covered the entire basement floor.” Cyrus cleaned up after himself. (Aside from one thing, which we will see in the next chapter)

- “ “B-” Lydia dug deep within herself, finding the rooted connection within her. She tugged hard at the thread that connected them, but found it went slack. Like there was nothing on the other end.” - This thread was referenced in the second chapter of Time’s Arrow, where she used it to find Beetlejuice in the woods. It can’t help her now.

[possum-quesadilla]

WE ARE SO BACK! Chapter fifteen of Time’s Arrow, “But my heart is like a claw machine, It’s only function is to reach, It can't hold on to anything”, is here! Make sure to read the content warnings before proceeding!

Here are the extras!

- The lyrics for this chapter are from “Claw Machine” by Sloppy Jane, from the “I Saw The TV Glow” soundtrack! This song works well for both LoopJuice and Corpsejuice. I wanted to tie the ‘TV Glow themes back in again, and to reflect how Beej still holds a negative image of himself and his ability to hold onto relationships. Hopefully, that image changes soon, wink wink! Also this song fucks. It goes so hard. The whole soundtrack for that movie does.

- “Beetlejuice just laid there, mostly paralyzed, staring up at the strange glowing shapes dotting his ceiling.” - the ‘laying there, mostly paralyzed’ phrasing was inspired by a similar line in “The Bed Song” by Amanda Palmer (who I don’t condone the actions of, of course). Mostly meant to parallel how Beej is stuck in a place where he could easily get out with help. Like the ending of the song, “I would have told you, if you’d only asked me”.

- “He let out a little “grrk” of surprise as he was squeezed.” - inspired by Crowley from “Good Omens” and his weird noises, but also a comic panel of Toonjuice making this same sound that I am having trouble locating.

- “He was still in his sleepwear, which was quite unusual for him. He usually changed as soon as he woke up, even before his coffee.” - Charles rushed to check on Beetlejuice as soon as he woke up. Also, as evidenced by chapter 13, his whole sleep routine has been thrown off due to his worry over his adopted son.

- “The bottle of turpentine tasted horrendous. It fought it’s way down, causing the demon to shiver and grimace. It burned their throat like crazy. But it did it’s job.” - last bit of unhealthy coping mechanisms before deep healing!! Also, inspired by that scene in “The Lighthouse” where they drink turpentine mixed with honey, because I wanted to sprinkle in a bunch of references to other Willem Dafoe works.

- “Hello, pet.” - SORRY I LIED BEFORE. I PROMISE THIS IS THE LAST TIME FOR SURE HE SHOWS UP IN THIS PARTICULAR FIC.

- “ “You defile beautiful things, Betelgeuse.” They let out an involuntary whimper as cold, clawed hands gripped their chin. “You will ruin this one, too. Like you ruin everything you touch. And once it’s soiled by your rot and filth, you will come crawling back to me.” ” - This dialogue and Beetlejuice’s whole thing about “rot” was inspired very heavily by the character Stede Bonnet in “Our Flag Means Death”. “You defile beautiful things” is a direct quote a villain says to him at some point. As Loopjuice has become something I use as a mirror, I wanted to include this because I have also had something extremely similar said to me. It goes along with the whole theme of “rot” and whether or not one is “too broken”, or even “broken” to begin with. (It pains me that Stede never got an end to his character arc. I would’ve loved to see a character I related to so deeply get closure.)

- “That is when they woke up. Rather violently so. All of the struggle and panic being trapped inside their useless body exploded out, and they threw themself backwards with a loud, pathetic, fearful cry. They had been laying their head on the front counter of the store. They fell backwards out of the chair and landed square on their ass.” - this was heavily inspired by the scene in “Hereditary” where Peter snaps out of the control of a demon after it made him slam his head on his desk. It really stuck with me!

- “You can’t get away that easy, pet. I will shadow you forever.” - I didn’t realize until after I’d written and then re-read it, but this line is accidentally taken from “Fear Street Part Three: 1666”. However, the line is said to a villain, and is about how he will never escape the truth. I also wanted to highlight that Cyrus is not gone. He has hurt Beej, and left him with mental and physical scars. He will still try to hurt him, and his presence will continue to haunt Beej for a good while. This was meant to reflect the unfortunate reality most abuse victims face.

- “Bela had a ridiculous and… familiar white cowboy hat sitting suspiciously high above her head, no doubt held up by her striped horns.” - She borrowed the hat from Lydia! It’s the hat Beej wears the end of the musical. She meant to give it back to her, but keeps forgetting.

- “The black dress she seemed to wear nearly every day…” - Bela has dozens of the same articles of clothing, due to her only liking a limited number of fabrics and fits. Autism, yay!

- “Her usually lavender hair was now tinted a strange, sickly shade of green.” - again, Bela’s mood ring hair has different meanings for different colors than Beej’s does!

- “Yeah! I can’t wait to get elbow-deep in some real ribcages, man.” - inspired by something I said when I was in school for forensic science, right before an autopsy. I got in trouble for it lol

- “(They gently reminded him they were waiting for Lydia to walk home with them when he asked why they were lingering.)” - Beej will, unfortunately, likely always need some gentle reminders about a few things. His memory is forever altered. But, thankfully, his loved ones are patient and understanding.

- “Lydia came in shortly after, face red as she panted.” - she ran to see them!

- “Ash filled the stagnant air of the walk home with excited jabbering about their harebrained ‘Adam is definitely alive and totally an apprentice’ theories. (Beetlejuice couldn’t quite remember what they were talking about, but they faintly knew it was probably bullshit.)” - Ash still has ‘Sawtism’, like yours truly! She's talking about, of course, the theory / AU of Adam from the first movie being alive and well. Beej can’t remember what they’re talking about, but he has instinctual sibling urges to contradict them.

- “ “No more bombshell secrets, right?” He shrugged, then swiftly nodded when she narrowed her eyes. “Yeah! Yeah. None that I’m, like, aware of.” ” - ;)

- “He sat slouched next to Beetlejuice, not yet used to the new height the disguise had added on. Truly, it wasn’t that much different from original Adam, at a glance. Just another nerdy white guy with brown hair, glasses, and a horrible, plaid-clad fashion sense.” … “Slowly but surely, a disguise melted on. Her hair became dark and even curlier, and her horns and deer-like ears vanished, along with her other demonic attributes. Her features became sharper. By the time she opened her eyes, Barbara looked like an entirely different human person.” - Their disguises are based off of how they looked in the 1988 movie!

- Kerry Davis - a mixture of the names of her Broadway actor, Kerry Butler, and her original movie actor, Geena Davis.

- Beej’s advice - Based heavily off of something I read from the actor Michael Sheen, when he was asked for acting advice. It really stuck with me. I think of it often and usually use this method in my writing.

- “Beetlejuice was afraid what he’d dig up. What ugly truths, what raw, still-bleeding painful memories? What hideous realities about himself? What if it really was all his fault? What if he couldn’t be helped? What if he was broken beyond repair?” - Meant to reflect common fears a lot of traumatized people have when thinking about therapy. I had pretty similar thoughts. None of them are true, of course!

- “(The old owner, of course. He’d dug up the man’s bones from where they were buried out back, out of curiosity long ago, only to find a second, much older body buried alongside him. Beetlejuice had covered them back up shortly after. The smell of the man’s sick and impending death stuck around for years after his passing.)” - this is meant to be a reference to Bill and Frank from “The Last of Us”, because. Y’know. ;)

- “A voice, low and drawling and twinged with delight, large teeth glinting in the darkness.” - Heyyyy Wolf!! He, of course, is based on Wolf Jackson from “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”. His voice and face is Willem Dafoe’s, who I ADORE. Ask any of my friends, I am obsessed with this man. I tried my best to portray the way he talks, laughs, and his mannerisms from a few different roles, but I’m worried it doesn’t come through properly! I originally was going to make an OC for the therapist character, which I’ve had planned for a while, but once I saw the new movie I JUMPED at the chance to write my best friend Willem.

- “I’ve heard so much about you from many a demon.” - yeah, several demons were either traumatized by Beej or holds a grudge against him, lol

- “His laugh was sudden and jarring, barked out with some sort of manic humor.” - based on the way Willem laughs, but also Wolf Jackson himself. Very jarring!

- “Mr. Juice” - I didn’t really want him to call Beej the same nickname as Charles did, but the use of it in the movie was just too funny and tempting. Also, Charles has mostly moved on from that nickname, so Wolf can have it, lol.

- “You gotta build it, slow and steady, like domesticating a wild animal.” - this is advice one receives when working with wild animals, but especially wolves and wolf dogs. Once you lose their trust, it’s gone forever. This is a lowkey call back to Beej comparing his experience as a demon to being a wolf dog.

- “You were definitely a human, weren’t you? Born-demons know better than to compare us to animals.” - Beej has a bit of societal prejudice towards demons who were born human that he hasn’t really addressed within himself.

- Wolf’s whole deal - demons are volatile creatures. They are not used to therapy, it’s a brand new idea for them. Wolf hides his name and appearance for his own safety, and to avoid other demons seeking him out to gain information on his patients. He genuinely cares for his patients, and most of demon-kind, but he understands that they are not suited for full emotional honesty and the like.

- “Still is, poor thing.” - a lowkey reference to “Poor Things”, another movie Willem Dafoe is in! Don’t look it up, minors.

- “He heard a pen click, somewhere. “Care to tell me about it?” ” - I was originally going to have a few of their therapy sessions be shown within the fic, being long and wordy and all that. But I realized I’m not a therapist, and I don’t really know what would be said, aside from what I’ve been told in similar sessions. I don’t want to pretend to be an expert, and honestly? Having all of Beej’s extensive healing be “on screen” would be exhausting and a slog to read.

Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox

(Want to be tagged in updates to LoopJuice / other fics? Let me know!)

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter sixteen of “Living” in the Present Tense, “Something new, something strange, Ten feet taller, I had changed”, is here!

Very sorry it’s short and mostly fluff. That will change in the next few chapters….

Extras below!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Ready Now” by dodie! The song itself is very LoopJuice and/or Beetlands coded to me. That line specifically is meant to reflect on how much Beej himself and the story have changed!

- “Beetlejuice lifted her up with a grunt, going to pinch her cheek. “You were pretty squishy too.” ” - he’s more or less completely gotten over his hangups with talking to Laika and roughhousing with her!

- “… Barbara adamantly insisted it was her turn, like she’d promised.” - she made this promise in chapter nine of LITPT!

- “… since Shoggoth demons created their own source of power other demons could feed off of.” - I’m not sure if this lore has been officially stated anywhere? If anyone wants a lore breakdown of how demons work, or their history, I’d be happy to share! I’ve been sitting on it for a while.

- Sawyer - the name was picked by Adam! It’s mentioned all the way back in chapter six of Time’s Arrow that he wanted the name for a kid. I told y’all to store it in your heads!

- “Most every one of them could count on one hand how many times Sawyer let them hold him in his first two years of life. When he did allow them to hold him, he’d spend the entire time leaning away and staring at his parents with wide, watery eyes.” - based on me as a kid, partially! Only person who was allowed to ever hold me was my dad. I had an absolute fit anytime anyone else even tried. Sawyer gives them a chance, at least! He just doesn’t hide that he hates it. He’s very much on the spectrum, like both his dads. And his sister.

- “It seemed to come so naturally to them.” - I wonder why? Hmmm.

- “… some inane show about cartoon dogs…” - yeah it’s “Bluey”. That show is fuckin’ transcendent.

- “… trying to catch some shut-eye while they were occupied.” - he’s entirely healed up by now, but my mans still suffers from chronic fatigue like I do

- “Sawyer stepped closer, staring up at him intensely with his mother’s wonderful eyes.” - a nice contrast to Beetlejuice having his own mother’s eyes and hating them

- “He did the sign for “what?” with his free hand…” - they taught both Laika and Sawyer sign along with English! It comes in handy for the whole family. Especially since Sawyer is nonverbal half the time.

- “He then reached up and tugged at Beetlejuice’s sleeve, a habit he’d picked up from his other father. He immediately gave up on the tie for the time being, reaching down to grip his son’s tiny hand.” - just wanted to highlight this. A habit previously mentioned repeatedly Adam has!

- “The little demon shook his head vigorously, squeezing Beetlejuice’s hand. “Do I gotta?” ” - Sawyer is on the aroace spectrum! Some people really do figure it out super young.

- “Life moved on steady, and all too quick, and lovely.” - meant to reflect how life moves quickly when you’re happy. Especially for demons, unfortunately.

Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox @canada-dryeyes

(Want to be tagged in updates to LoopJuice / other fics? Let me know!)

[possum-quesadilla]

For the ask game, I wanna know about LoopJuice! Though I noticed that the story is so well written that most of those questions are already awnsered. lol. So!: 8 (specifically, want to know one nickname for BJ that is unique by each main character), 13 and 21

<3

Awww, you flatter me!

Thanks for the ask! The answers are kinda long, hehe.

8. do they have a nickname? who gave it to them? if it's not derived from their real name, what's the story behind it?

Hehehe! This one is kinda outright stated throughout the fics, but I do appreciate the opportunity to put it all in one place.

Lydia - “Beej”, primarily! Full name when she’s mad, other nicknames for funzies. “Dude”, “doofus”, “goober”, etc. “Dumbass” when it’s deserved.

Barbara - “Bug” and “Lovebug” primarily! Also “scoundrel”, “mister”, or “Mx. Maitland” and others like that when he’s being rascal. Also sprinkles in some more common endearment terms like “sweetheart”, “honey”, “darling”!

Adam - “Bee” and “Lovebug”, and that’s about it! He also goes for the sweet terms like “honey” and “sweetie” and such like Barbara, but less so than her.

Charles - it’s either “Beetlejuice”, “Mr. Juice”, or “son”. No in between. Either super formal or super familiar. He still struggles with his emotions, but he’s doing his best!

Delia - primarily “Junebug”! Started on a whim and she saw just how much he enjoyed it, so she kept using it. She calls him “my sweet little Junebug” pretty frequently, mostly to embarrass him.

Ash - “Big Dog”, “B Town”, “B Money”, “Bud”, “Sport”, etc. Mostly “atta boy” type nicknames a sport coach would call his team. They aren’t good with expressing how much they care, and feel some discomfort even now expressing that someone means more to them than just a pal. Hence the dude-bro / stepdad approach to Beej’s nicknames!

Deb - “Goose”, “silly Goose”. Came from her messing up pronouncing his name when they were first introduced as kids, and it stuck. That’s her silly Goose and she loves him very much :))

Bela - Just “Betel”, really. Bela is a demon of few words, and even fewer nicknames. Either she calls you by your full name or a shortened version, and that’s about it. The only person who really gets nicknamed by her is Deb.

Larry - Primarily used to call him by his proper demonic name, but now goes for “Beetlejuice” most of the time. They’ll call him “little prince” when they’re pissed at him and want to piss him off. “Betel”, “Beetle”, or “old friend” when they’re feeling particularly familiar, which is more often after the time skip. When Beetlejuice is owning their ass in Mario Kart or Monopoly, it’s “armpit boy” (a reference to the star Betelgeuse’s location in the Orion constellation), “horrid bastard”, “son of a whore”, “rotten miscreant”. All in good fun! Probably.

Cyrus - “Pet”, because he viewed him as little more than a plaything, and passed off the common British term of endearment as a way to demean him. “Little lamb” for similar reasons, because of Beej’s sheep features.

13. what languages do they speak? how fluently?

English very well (mostly), lots of ASL recently to accommodate his (and Adam and Lydia’s) shutdowns, and lots of bits and pieces of various languages throughout the ages! French, Spanish, Russian, etc. He learned mostly through people watching the newly deads when he was little, as well as the living when he was invisible. Demons have their own language, but it has become less and less used to the point that a majority of demons don’t know it. He doesn’t have a lot of space in his noggin for stuff like language, so any that he doesn’t frequently use he forgets fairly quickly.

21. their favorite place to be?

Honestly, either in the attic taking a nice nap cuddled up with the Maitlands, or up on the roof during cool summer nights with the entire Maitland-Deetz household, and some guests. It’s less about the place to him, more the beings he’s with. Whenever they are, he’s Home, and he’s happy!