Hello! Here are some notes/background info/etc on my Harpy Beetlejuice AU, Birds of a Feather! Here’s chapter two.
“It was hard to tell in the low light, but it appeared to be a translucent green color. After a few moments, her brain connected the dots. It was drool.”
Fun fact- all of Beej’s bodily fluids are some shade of green. His blood also glows in the dark, so he’s sorta like a glow stick!! A feather and flesh covered glow stick.
“You’re gettin’ all this stuff for me?” He was confused. Wasn’t he just some lab project to her? Why was she being so nice to him?”
Poor Beet has never had someone go out of their way to get things for him. My guy does NOT know how to handle care and acts of service being thrown his way.
“Then his hand met the light switch. Perfect. He played with the lights for a bit, until his attention flitted to an open door. He dove to the floor and batted the door between his hands, eyes wide and pupils large. That kept him entertained for a good five minutes, before he got bored once again.”
Cat Beetlejuice strikes again. He’s got ADHD in this AU! I might be projecting onto these characters just a bit…
“He unfurled his large wings and jumped up, prepared to fly, but he misjudged how much space was between him and a large stack of loose papers. The force of his wings flapping sent the papers flying in a frenzy around him. The sudden stationery storm made him panic. With a distressed screech, he flew up and clung to the bookshelf. To his dismay, the shelf creaked and leaned forward, bringing him down with it.”
While his hand-eye coordination is pretty good, he has pretty poor impulse control and doesn’t really take a minute to think: “Will the force of flapping my wings send everything around me flying?” He also loses a lot of skills when he’s in a panic. Like basic reasoning. Also shoutout to alliteration. I fucking love using alliteration.
“Dammit. Now Shilo’s definitely gonna kill me.” He tucked his wings back, slowly approaching the reason he was about to get his ass beaten.”
Shilo would never intentionally hurt him, not that he’s aware of that.
“Ok, ok. Gotta fix this. God, I wish there was something I could use to just glue this thing back together!” It seemed the lightbulb in his head hadn’t clicked on yet. After a worryingly long amount of time, he snapped his fingers and bounced up. “Oh yeah! Glue!”
Inspired by this scene in The Cuphead Show.
“The label read “Glow-In-The-Dark Glitter Glue: Neon Green color! (now with 98% less radium!)”
Just pointing this out because it made me chuckle while writing it.
“After a few seconds, nothing came out, so he bit into the top of the container and ripped it off. He squeezed the bottle harder. With a loud, splattery slop, half the glue bottle dumped onto the pages. Shit. That’s too much, isn’t it? He thought to himself as glue dripped onto his hand. He licked it off.”
Probably not a great idea to put the radioactive glitter glue in your mouth.
“She stumbled over a pair of shattered glasses. Oh. That’s what that crunching sound from earlier was. Beetlejuice realized.”
Thankfully, those glasses were old and not the right prescription!
“Shilo’s shoulders and jaw tensed. She held her face in her hands and sighed. Counted to ten in her head. Did everything she could to not scream in the face of the harpy.”
When your new science experiment breaks one of the only rules you’ve set for him in a three hour span.
“Beetlejuice tilted his head and furrowed his brow. What’s wrong? Why isn’t she happy? He wondered. He decided he’d point her in the right direction. He swooped past her and grabbed the sticky, glittery journal. He thrust it into her face with a smile. “Beetlejuice,” her voice was scarily quiet, “I’m going to ask you this again. What did you do?” Beetlejuice stepped back. “What’re you so pissed about? I fixed it!” He beamed.”
He has lots of trouble reading social cues!! He thinks he did something really great, he doesn’t know why Shilo seems upset at him :(
“Beetlejuice flinched at the loud noise and scampered away like a little rodent into the closest room with a door, which happened to be a dark bathroom. Shilo cringed at her outburst. She sighed and hung her head.”
Beetlejuice really hates it when he’s being yelled at due to a mix of trauma and sensory issues. Both Shilo and Beetlejuice struggle with occasional outbursts of anger. Shilo especially hates them. She doesn’t like feeling that she doesn’t have control over herself. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a support system or someone to help her with her mental health.
“and dug through the couch cushions until she found a pen.”
She keeps writing utensils everywhere. Couch cushions, empty flower vases, drawers, lying down on the floor waiting for an unsuspecting victim to step on it and become great friends with the wooden floor…
“Maybe it was just the lighting, but Shilo swore she saw his hair and now ruffled feathers tinted crimson red.”
His hair changes color based off his mood, as do some of the feathers on the underside of his wings (primary converts, primaries, and secondaries).
“Shilo made them both sandwiches, as Beetlejuice kept trying to plunge his fist in the jars and smear condiments on the bread with his hand. They ate in silence, both feeling a bit better. Beetlejuice once again wolfed down his sandwich. Then the next one. Then the next one. Then he tried to lap at the grape jelly, which Shilo had to shut down.”
Beetlejuice isn’t used to utensils, and prefers to grab/dig through stuff with his hands. He’s also a pretty messy eater overall.
“Shilo only hearing a chorus of happy chirps when Beetlejuice saw his dessert – a bag of live beetles, worms, and a scorpion lollipop.”
He loves his bugs!! Beetlejuice also makes lots of bird sounds.
“Stay with me again?” He asked. Shilo settled down next to him, and they took a similar position to the previous night, with his head resting on her chest.”
He likes this position because it means he can listen to her heart beating. He also likes to sniff her. But the first reason is less creepy.
