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Chapter 10 of Lonely Remnants, “Wildfires have been eating you inside my head, Trying to smoke you out or burn you alive in it”, is here! Strap in, folks. I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this one with you all.
PLEASE READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS ATTACHED TO THIS CHAPTER AND PROCEED WITH CAUTION. THIS CHAPTER IS PARTICULARLY ROUGH. I KNOW I SAW THAT A LOT, BUT IT IS VERY TRUE HERE.
Extras! :)
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Please Just Stay Dead” by Nichole Dollanganger! They are meant to reflect how Lydia’s image of her bold, strong brother is being irreparably altered, maybe even ruined.
- “Like a doomed man trudging towards the gallows, sure but unsteady. Like a dead girl walking.” - Heheh, foreshadowing.
- “The trail led into the road. It ended on the other side, next to the memorial. Not before it was… smeared on the road. Splattered all about, like the cause of it had been… impacted. Her fears were confirmed when she found one of those strange paw / feet among the large, dark smudge of blood and goop in the road.” - Yep, they got hit by a car! Karma, I guess.
- “It was… feasting on some festering roadkill with a terribly feral and manic fervor.” - That was Lawrence’s last ditch effort to try and regain control and heal their body.
- “The side of his face the ear had fallen off of seemed to be following suit. It was starting to turn to the goop and slough off, part of the flesh hanging limply off the cheek and exposing his blackened, cracked jawbone.” - While the whole rejection idea is based on the ending of “Bride of Re-Animator”, this particularly horrific mental image is based on an effect from “Smile 2” that really stuck with me!
- “His dad and twin loved him, but it… it weren’t enough to counter the hatred of his mother.” - Lawrence’s accent fades away as the Shoggoth talks more and gains more control as he gets weaker.
- “Lousy bum’s been drinkin’ since he were ten years old.” - Not by choice! But the Shoggoth is being really judgy regardless.
- “Joined a band, saw the country, got his wrist broken by a boyfriend.” - Band mention! There’s a whole bunch of fun lore surrounding them that lives in my head. Also, the rotten boyfriend who broke his wrist was Cyrus! Can’t escape that fella.
- “It suddenly reached up, placing a hand over the left side of it’s face, covering up the exposed bone and one of it’s eyes.” - This was it trying to stop it’s face from falling apart more. It didn’t work.
- “Mrs. D helped him fix himself. Clean up all the broken pieces ‘n make somethin’ outta them.” - A reference to “Dead Mom”!
- “Of all of the moments in his long drive, of all of the cars he passed, he had to hit the one containing two of the people he loved most.” - This bit was inspired by a similar moment in the movie “Signs”.
- “She remained still as the grave.” - heheh, more foreshadowing.
- “No, Scarecrow. You died too.” - Woof. There’s been hints throughout. Hell, even in the start of the first chapter! - “She was the lucky one. By some miracle, she made it out with only some minor head trauma and the loss of a substantial amount of her hearing.” - I even put “Living Dead Girl” on the Lonely Remnants playlist for this purpose, lol.
- “ “I haven’t been very truthful at all.” It’s fingers brushed over the scales dotting it’s nose.” - Every time it lied, it gained a snake scale, since snakes represent deceit.
- “We are… human suffering, given form. Anguish and agony, writhing deep below the earth. I am of Lawrence’s. Of all the pain and hurt he felt.” - Yeah sorry it was a metaphor for trauma and self repression this whole time. Mostly. Also, this is what Otho meant when he said “… always were the most… potent out of all of us, little brother.”
- “No more watchin’, no more peepin’, and…” - This is a reference to “Bigtop Burger”. I couldn’t help myself. Cesare was my main inspiration for the Shoggoth.
- “… I could always feel him, faintly, in the back of my mind. Breathing in the dark.” - GOTCHA WITH ANOTHER “Asteroid City” REFERENCE!
- “I… I am just a beast of the stony soil.” - This is inspired by a famous line from “Pet Sematary”, which inspired Lonely Remnants! It’s the first horror story I read at eight years old, lol.
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
Chapter 3 of Lonely Remnants, “I'll save you from that fate, If I have to kill every angel in Heaven, I will snatch you back from the grave, And you will live to see my bed another day”, is here!
Here are the extras. Make sure to read the warnings before proceeding!
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Over the Moon” by Penelope Scott! (Thanks Cosmo <3) It’s meant to reflect the mindset Lydia has from the start, and the pivot to being all in Barbara and Adam experience.
- “They corralled it into a bathroom to change on it’s own, but it struggled to even get the trench coat off.” - It’s hard to do things with one arm!
- “She heard both of her adopted parents shriek after a minute or so, and the Shoggoth let out a startled yelp. Before she could go to assist them, Barbara and Adam were both scrambling out of the bathroom, looking rather green in the gills. Adam dry heaved in the kitchen sink while Barbara returned to the bathroom, having retrieved a first aid kit from under said kitchen sink. Lydia gently patted the man’s back, brows furrowed in concern. “… what happened?” Adam managed to say “his arm” between gags.” - His arm is suuuper gross. Lydia was shielded from it by her oh so brave guardians. (Also, the yelp was because Barbara and Adam freaking out startled the Shoggoth hehe)
- “.. the Shoggoth was finally dressed in an old band hoodie (Lawrence still had an MCR hoodie?) and basketball shorts.” - Of course. Once an MCR fan, always an MCR fan.
- “It was then that the three living humans realized his feet were now replaced with… some sort of paws. The Shoggoth seemed to catch them staring, as it titled his head and looked down to follow their gaze. “Oh!” It chuckled, once it had caught on. “Don’t worry about that. Ate one too many raccoons.” ” - Hmm. Weird! Perhaps this will come up later. Also it’s feet are a weird mashup of raccoon paw hand things and human feet
- Nails - Lawrence used to use sharpies to “paint” his nails instead of actually painting them.
- Dog - his childhood dog’s name was Kevin, a reference to Alex Brightman’s dog, but unfortunately I don’t think he’ll be brought up again.
- “Lydia saw her hesitate before she reached out to wrap her arms around the Shoggoth, using one hand to gently pet the top of his head. It melted into her arms, eyes slipping shut.” - This is something Barbara used to do to comfort Lawrence. The Shoggoth sort of remembers and is comforted by it.
- “Barbara lightly patted his back. “… we’ll figure it out.” ” - This is the moment Barbara and Adam decided they were all in with this strange zombie demon stuff.
- “The Shoggoth called a ‘see ya later!’ from the kitchen, mouth obviously full. Lydia heard Adam shouting for it to spit something out as the door shut behind her.” - The Shoggoth took a bite of the plate.
- “Lydia absolutely flunked the math test, despite how hard Adam had helped her study for it.” … “ “I think I failed the math test.” “Oh, honey, I’m sorry! After you two studied so hard for it and everything.” ” - this is a reference to the end scene in the original movie!
- “Lydia called out a loud “I’m home!” once she came into the townhouse, as per usual. Barbara called a quick little “in here!” in response from the living room.” … “It was then that the front door unlocked again, and Adam called out an “I’m home!” as he stepped inside. … Adam stepped into the living room shortly after Barbara called “in here!”.” - This tradition was started by Lawrence, because he was always paranoid his loved ones wouldn’t be there when he got home. Yay trauma!
- “Barbara and the Shoggoth were sat on the couch, both staring aptly at the TV screen. Her eyes were tinged with red. Lydia recognized the chaotic sounds of ‘Zombieland’ in an instant.” - Barbara cried and hugged the Shoggoth for a while before she showed it the movie. Adam did something similar.
- “The Shoggoth perked up, head whipping around in that direction. It flexed and unflexed his fingers over and over, eyes wide and a weird little smile tugging at his lips.” - It’s like a happy little puppy… it’s already so attached to the three of them!
- “ “There’s a chemical in brains that helps keep the body from decomposing,” the Shoggoth explained, and Lydia could swear it looked a little.. proud.” - It wanted to show off it’s knowledge to Adam.
- “ “And, um… just.. Lydia, dear, could you grab the Reese’s in the freezer?” Adam removed his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Those are probably expired by now.” ” … “The Shoggoth really, really liked chocolate, apparently. (So did he.)” - Lawrence LOVED chocolate, especially Reese’s. Barbara and Adam didn’t have the heart to throw away the bag of them he left in the freezer after the accident, so it’s been there for about a year.
- “ “Like I said, we have an old cage from when I had Daniel-” “Your hamster,” the Shoggoth murmured, eyes still fixed on the container.” - ‘Daniel’ is a reference to the main character’s name in “Mrs. Doubtfire”, one of my favorite films ever but also the musical Adam’s original broadway actor is in now!
- “(They named the four of them, although Barbara told them not to get attached. Tallahassee, Columbus, Little Rock, Wichita.)” - After the main four characters in “Zombieland”.
- “The Shoggoth paused in it’s struggle with it’s fork to give her a perplexed look.” - It’s hard doing things with one hand!!! Help it please
- “Barbara and Adam exchanged a Look. The Shoggoth glanced between the two of them with furrowed brows.” … “Another Look. The Shoggoth seemed a little irritated.” - Lawrence used to be included in the Looks. Some part of the Shoggoth recognizes that, and it frustrates it that it can’t understand them now.
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend
(Want to be tagged in future CorpseJuice and/or LoopJuice updates? Let me know!)
The bonus chapter for Lonely Remnants, “Forever Lost Together”, is here! Yippee!!!
Please read the warnings before proceeding. This chapter is also very rough.
Here come the extras! There’s a lot of them.
- The lyrics for this bonus chapter are from “Howl” by The Family Crest! This song is what gave me the idea for this chapter, and I like to imagine the Shoggoth singing it as it tosses Lawrence around and dances with him, lol. And after this, they are literally ‘forever lost together’! They are now one being.
- The cover art for this chapter was done by the lovely @katslitterbox ! Thanks again, Kat!!! I attached it to the bottom of this post also hehe
- “That’s when Barbara reaches up to ruffle his hair, as he absently chews on a french fry. (Why was is so flavorless?) “You’re so silly, Bugaboo!” ” - This action and the nickname is what triggered Lawrence to resurface back in chapter eight!
- “This isn’t real. The realization rocks him to his core. The air is sucked out of his lungs. His loved ones have all frozen, slumped like marionettes with cut strings.” - This is a reference / inspired by the ending scene in “I Saw The TV Glow”. I cannot stop.
- The band - the band Lawrence played with has only been briefly referenced in passing, but in my head they have a lot of lore and such lol. The members are taken from the LoopJuice AU and repurposed for this AU.
- Kai - Kai is this universe’s version of Larry. They were the drummer of the band. They hoped the extra income would help them pay for med school.
- Merrill - funny story. Merrill exists in LoopJuice, but he will likely never ever show up. He is Larry’s tragic dead human boyfriend. He has a whole fun backstory and plot line with Larry that won’t really ever be touched on. He is inspired heavily by Eddie Munson from that show I never watched.
- Cyrus - you know who this is. If you don’t, don’t look into him. He sucks. Beej cannot escape him in any universe of mine.
- “(Why was Kai’s face so red? Weren’t they already together? He supposed not.)” - Kai and Merrill got together a week after this memory.
- “(Why was he letting the bastard anywhere near him? His wrist still ached.)” - It was briefly mentioned, although not directly, that Cyrus broke Lawrence’s wrist. This led to the band breaking up and Lawrence moving on to a different state. That was after this memory.
- “He was startled by a body plopping down by his side, choked by the overpowering smell of body spray and… something sickly sweet, underneath it all.” - the “sickly sweet” smell is actually the Shoggoth’s goop!
- “Our next show would’ve been great.” - this was inspired by a scene in “BoJack Horseman”, where a character says she’s “just thinking about how great it would’ve been if you had chosen this life”.
- “God, he missed his dad. His heart clenched as he yearned for the faint whiff of a memory, of his favorite cologne and his starched shirts. He wants nothing more than to hug him tightly and never let go.” - Inspired by my own feelings. I miss my dad and I miss the smell of his cologne. He’s not dead, he travels for work, and I only see him a couple of times a year.
- “He’d known exactly how much of their mother’s whiskey would redden his complexion and warm up his skin.” - I don’t know if it’s ever been directly stated anywhere, but Juno made Lawrence drink since he was very small so she would have a “drinking buddy”. Hence why he knows so much about alcohol and how it affects him so young.
- “She grins at him, crooked and conspiratorial in a way that’s so painfully familiar.” - They both smile the same.
- “It’s then that she pauses, one hand on the doorframe. “… ain’t it so strange how that was our last conversation?” ” - This was inspired by a scene from the podcast “The Adventure Zone”, where the narrator talks about a character’s last conversation with a sibling. I’m being vague for spoiler reasons.
- “Memory returns.” - This is a reference to “Slay the Princess”.
- “I know we weren’t made equal. I know… I know there was somethin’ wrong with you. We all did. I musta… took somethin’ from ya in the womb. That’s why Ma always looked at you that way. The way she… she never looked at me.” - This is all Lawrence’s own thoughts. He thinks he must lack something Bella has, and that’s why their mother treated him so differently, and why he struggles so much while she thrived.
- “He felt his heart, his own personal heart, breaking all over again.” - A reference to “Asteroid City”. :))
- “She’d normally used the cigarette she was now pressing to her lips.” - She used to burn him with her cigarettes.
- “He gripped at his throat, allowing himself to slip into that old nervous tick.” - Based on a weird tick I have.
- “ “You… you killed yer own son.” Juno sighed. The water had reached her shoulders, but she didn’t care. “Lauren, I ain’t even really your Ma. She don’t even know you’re dead.” ” - this was inspired by a scene with similar dialogue from “The Haunting of Bly Manor”, which I reblogged here. A whole lot of this bonus chapter was inspired by that show.
- “ “… what are you doing?” He was standing on the couch.” - Heheh, this was inspired by a scene in “The Owl House”. Specifically “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door”.
- “Emily released his face with a gentle, heartbroken sigh, once again wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. “Oh, my poor baby,” she whispered, one hand cupping the back of his head.” - Listen to “I Bet on Losing Dogs” by Mitski or “Danny” by Nichole Dollanganger and think about Emily and Lawrence and you will maybe cry. I do.
- “ “You’ve been letting yourself… bleed all this time. You wouldn’t show anyone that you were still hurting, still bleeding, still-…” the next word catches on her tongue. She seems to think better of it.” - she almost said “still dying”, but, uh… yeah.
- The water - The water rising was inspired by several scenes in “The Haunting of Bly Manor” I cannot discuss without spoiling it. I’ll just say the scenes with Miss Jessel in her room, the ones with Hannah Grose talking to Owen Sharma, and the ending. The phrase “it’s you, it’s me, it’s us” heavily impacted me emotionally and inspired this whole AU.
- “ “You know why?” “.. wh-why?” “Because you’re a fuckin’ Deetz. And Deetzes never give up.” ” - this is a reference to a line from “Gravity Falls”.
- “Not even ten feet away, a familiar figure was sat, arms outstretched. Like it was embracing someone who wasn’t there.” - They thought they were still hugging Lydia.
- Arms outstretched - the repeated phrase is both to point out the importance of physical contact in this chapter and another reference to “The Adventure Zone”. Listen to that song for this chapter! If you want.
- “ “You ain’t in control!” He shakily made his way towards the sitting demon, angrily jabbing a finger in it’s direction. “I am!” ” - This is a reference to a scene with similar themes in the movie “Upgrade”. It ends… very differently for the main character in that movie.
- “It brushed itself off, briefly halting to stare at it’s left clawed hand with a hum.” - It’s never had a left arm before! It was admiring it for a sec.
- “ “… fuckin’ hell, you really are rotten, aren’t you?” It’s golden eyes suddenly snapped to him, and it’s lips curled back in a snarl.” - It’s a bit tired of Lawrence and itself being called that word.
- “Lawrence didn’t have time to ready himself for the creature rushing forward and shoulder-checking him, knocking him backwards right onto his ass.” - He’s very lucky it didn’t use it’s horns.
- “ “What did you say?!” The demon growled, large canines inches from his face.” - inspired by the title song from “Nerdy Prudes Must Die”.
- “Days in here are seconds out there.” - inspired by the concept of the Midnight Realm in “I Saw The TV Glow”.
- “It reached up to grip at it’s neck, anxiously.” - the Shoggoth mirroring Lawrence’s tick(s)!
- “It grinned at him a stupid, big, lopsided grin, holding one hand out.” - “The demon threw it’s head back in a relieved laugh that swiftly evolved into a ridiculous cackle. (Did he really laugh like that?)” - This is Lawrence being critical of his own smile and laugh.
- “… it’s all going to be okay, isn’t it?” …. “… I appreciate it.” - accidentally inspired by The Bathroom Cowboy from “Tales from the Gas Station”.
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
The first chapter of Lonely Remnants, the fic about my CorpseJuice AU, is up! It’s called “Your body may be gone, I'm gonna carry you in, In my head, in my heart, in my soul”.
CorpseJuice is an AU where Lydia’s mother dies in a car accident, and her adopted brother, Lawrence, goes missing and is presumed dead. A year later, she stumbles upon a demon puppeteering his corpse! She and the demon work together to find out what happened the night of the wreck, and who her brother really was.
Please read the warnings attached to the start of the chapter before continuing, this fic is a doozy!
Here are the extras for chapter one!
- The lyrics for this first chapter are from “Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse! It is very literal for Lydia and her lost family members. I wonder if it’ll come back later?
- “Lawrence Graham” - Since his last name can’t be Shoggoth, I decided to pick a last name that has relevance to the plot! But I can’t tell you what sort of relevance yet. Because spoilers.
- “He could look at someone and know in an instant just what to do to scare the absolute shit out of them.” - This is a sort of joking reference to Beetlejuice’s line in “That Beautiful Sound”, about “clean white shorts turning brown”!
- “Talking Heads and MCR” - I listen to one of these. The other my best friend listens to and says he thinks Beetlejuice would be really into.
- “the ‘TinyTimes Hardware store’” - Thank you @jessicawesker83 for this whimsical suggestion. I love it!
- “Barbara Butterfield” - thank you @bjfinn and @ten-chocolate-sundaes for helping me figure out a good maiden name for Barbara!
- “Lydia remembered her mother cheering for Lawrence when he’d finally asked them to “hang out” with him, seeing some sort of cheesy horror comedy flick with them.” - IT’S MY FIC AND I GET TO PICK THE ANACHRONISTIC MOVIE THEY SEE IN THEATERS!! They saw “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” because I said so
- “One moment, Lydia and her mother were laughing and singing along to ‘Jump in the line’ by Harry Belafonte.” - This is, of course, a reference to the line in the musical where Lydia says that this was one of Emily’s favorite songs.
- “Only a portion of his left arm, and six liters of his blood were found in his stupid, beat-up old green 2001 Volkswagen Beetle.” - the most blood a human can lose and still survive is two liters. Also, get it? A Volkswagen Beetle? A green buggy?
- “Charles refused to pay for a cemetery plot, and certainly not one next to Emily.” - What an ass! I wonder why this is.
- “Jumping off the old bridge at the edge of town, into frigid waters, letting them carry her to wherever her home was now.” - This is a reference to Barbara and Adam’s death, and how Lydia planned to kill herself in the original film. It is also a reference to how she often called her mom “home” in the musical.
- “They sat huddled together and watched his favorite movies. ‘Zombieland’, ‘Groundhog Day’, ‘The Mask’.” - Haha, “Zombieland”. ‘Cause he’s a zombie now. Also yeah “Groundhog Day” is a sort of reference to LoopJuice, sue me. Notice how Lawrence only really likes comedies! He was actually pretty squeamish with blood and gore that wasn’t for the haunted house.
- “Barbara and Adam helped Lydia find a counselor that same day. Her name was Kerry, and although she was resistant at first, she’d helped Lydia tremendously.” - The name ‘Kerry’ is, of course, a reference to Barbara’s actor in the musical, Kerry Butler! I just think she’d have such a calming presence, and that she’d listen to you so well.
- “They both wore a necklace each; a simple chain with a ring attached. They got them shortly after the accident. Lydia had never gotten a good look at them, but she could take a guess as to what they were. (In June, she got her hands on the police report. A box with identical engagement rings had been found in Lawrence’s glovebox, and were handed off to “next of kin”.) Barbara and Adam never took the necklaces off.” - Ouchie. Are we connecting the dots here? Because I don’t like the image they’re makin’.
- Bellflowers mean everlasting love, forget-me-nots are pretty self explanatory. Also, bellflowers are purple! Lawrence loved purple and green.
- Sunflowers obviously represent happiness, which is a little ironic, but Lydia chose them more because they were her mother’s favorite.
- “A dirty, stained, shredded grey trench coat, the arms caked in dark splotches she could only hope was just mud. (They were black and russet brown, so probably not.) The left sleeve of his trench coat was tied off, most of that arm obviously missing. His hair was wild, stained green from what seemed to be moss growing on what little she could see of his face, as well as on his clothing and down his neck. A… somewhat familiar red button-up underneath, patterned with beetles, and tattered black slacks- ” - Yeah, he is dressed like Beetlejuice’s cemetery appearance in the movie! But he is not a KeatonJuice. The button-up and pants were what Lawrence was wearing when the crash happened, and the trench coat… let’s say the demon stole it.
- “C’mon, Scarecrow, don’t be so glum. I’ll be back before you know it.” - This was the last thing Lawrence ever said to Lydia before leaving for his “family emergency”.
- “Lars!” - Lydia’s own nickname for Lawrence.
- “Like he’d gargled a bowl of nails every day for the past century without any milk.” - Sorry not sorry for the SpongeBob reference.
- “His skin was a sickly sort of green, with moss patches growing on his face, and various sickly bruises dotting all of his visible skin.” … “His movements were stiff and robotic..” - Sorry, I studied forensic science for a few years, so there is a lot of gross dead body stuff in this fic that I will do my best to tone down. The “bruising” is livor mortis, or discoloration of the skin after death. The weird, stiff movements is from the demon being a freak as well as rigor mortis, or the stiffening of the joints/limbs after death.
- “Number 88, to be specific. We’re part of a big collective, see? A big ol’… mishmash of primordial goop.” - The demon’s true form is goo. The black stains on Lawrence’s face is it leaking out. This Beetlejuice is more Lovecraft than Dante’s Inferno. Also, #88 is a reference to the year the original film came out!
- “Let me take the driver’s seat!” - This is a reference to the song Alex Brightman sings in “Dead End: Paranormal Park” as his characters Pugsley and Temeluchus. The similarities were an accident.
- “Shuddering twitches wracked through it’s body, moving up from it’s legs, to it’s torso, to it’s shoulders, then it’s head, but it didn’t seem to care.” - The twitches and shakes are from both the demon being a weirdo (and AuDHD but we don’t have time to unpack that) and from algor mortis, or the body cooling after death.
- “Whatever-the-fuck. The.. it’s a chemical only found in brains. Gotta eat it or risk total rejection from the host.” - Yeah I kinda stole the idea from “Venom”. Yes there will be more things I stole from “Venom”. Let a creature (me) have fun and borrow things from their favorite rom-com!
Chapter 9 of Lonely Remnants, “But in the end if I lose my voice, Will you forget about your love for me? But I still hold out hope that someday, I’ll be worth more than all the silence left in my way”, is here!
PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS ATTACHED TO THIS CHAPTER BEFORE PROCEEDING. THIS CHAPTER IS PARTICULARLY ROUGH.
:)
Extras below!
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Canary in a Coal Mine” by The Crane Wives! It’s meant to be from mostly Lawrence’s perspective. (Also just a little bit of the Shoggoth.)
- “I weren’t even gone too long.” - I love Lawrence’s stupid accent!! Partially inspired by family members from the south, but also HEAVILY inspired by Benoit Blanc. He hid it most of the time, hence why it wasn’t too present in any flashbacks, but he is too confused and such to hide it here.
- “As per usual, the man tried to lift her and twirl her around.” - As mentioned many times previously, he did this often. Just wanted to highlight this :)
- Religious exclamations - Lawrence is not religious himself, but he was raised in a very religious home. He still uses a lot of the “lord have mercy” type exclamations anyways.
- “ “This… this weren’t how I wanted it to go…” “I know, I know.” “I-I wanted..” “Shh, we know. It’s okay.” ” - this dialogue was inspired by “Stay Alive (Reprise)” from Hamilton, because why not? More ouch!
- “… sniffling and wiping at his eyes with his shoulder.” - A skill I gained from years in food service, and Lawrence from various similar odd-jobs, is to use your shoulder to itch/wipe at your face when your hands aren’t available.
- “It seemed to hit him like a pistol in the eye.” - Taken from the lyrics of the song “Dear Arkansas Daughter” by Lady Lamb! Because OW.
- “M-m-” - you might think he was about to say “Mrs. D” here, but nope! He was about to say “mom”. Because he saw her as his mom. :)
- “… Barbara put the pedal to the metal, causing the dinky old car’s engine to groan and growl like it’s demonic inhabitant as it struggled to reach the higher speeds.” - Based on my own dinky little car. But mine’s not even that old!
- “There were no hazelnut-spread sandwiches left. As Lydia dug, she found all of the back-up chocolate they had packed was gone. No chocolate bars, no little Hershey's kisses, nothing.” - the Shoggoth got peckish.
- “The preteen swiftly went to dig through her bag, pulling out the motel towel the Shoggoth had squirreled away in there.” - They couldn’t resist stealing a few things.
- “She crossed her arms firmly over her chest, distantly aware that she was mirroring her father’s own mannerisms.” - See if you can catch all the similar mannerisms between them!
- “ “Lydia, these people-” “‘These people’ are my family!” ” - Realized after writing this that I’m accidentally quoting a very painful scene from “Dear Evan Hansen”.
- “You have a whole lot of nerve to show your face, Mr. Graham!” - Notice how he switched from calling him by his first name to calling him “Mr. Graham”.
- “ “Mmm.” The demon grunted, spitting out another mouthful of black and red, as well as a few teeth. His jaw seemed… crooked, almost loose. “Right as rain.” ” - Charles didn’t punch them that hard, the demon is already falling apart. But yes, he dislocated their jaw.
- “You couldn’t have just done us all a favor and driven your drunk ass head-first into a tree!” - We all sort of knew, didn’t we? Deep down. Still hurts to hear it.
- “The Shoggoth stared Charles down with some sort of resigned sorrow as he continued to yell, face beet-red.” - Hm. The Shoggoth makes a lot of this type of expression throughout the chapter. I wonder why?
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
New Lonely Remnants chapter, “But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family”, is here! Please read the warnings before proceeding!
Here are the extras!
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Zombie” by The Cranberries! Heheh, zombie. It is meant to be from the Shoggoth’s perspective as it sees all of these memories and is disoriented by them.
- “There were other various items as well; a few faded colorful thread friendship bracelets, a raggedy old plush cat, a few colorful rocks, and many more buried under the photos.” - The friendship bracelets were mostly from his twin sister, but one of them was one Lydia made for him when they first met. The plush cat is his favorite childhood stuffed animal (his name is Binx!), and the rocks are from all of the various national parks he’s visited.
- “That stack seemed to be a bunch of family get-togethers. Dozens of kids and adults having cookouts, dressed in similar formal outfits. Photos inside and just outside churches, many people smiling brightly at the camera. Lydia found herself softly frowning as she and Barbara both leaned in close on either side of Adam to get a good look. “… is that… his family?” ” - Lawrence was part of a large extended family that met up often, and went to church together every Sunday.
- “The one on top seemed to be someone taking a picture with.. Lydia thought maybe an old Sony Cyber-shot in a mirror, their face primarily obscured by the camera. They seemed to be wearing dark baggy clothes, posing awkwardly with a peace sign from their free hand.” - Lawrence got that camera for his 13th birthday, most of the photos in the box from that point on were taken by him! It stopped working, but Emily insisted on keeping it for the memories. It’s in her office at Lydia’s house.
- “Bella. Her name is Bella.” - Readers of both my fics, yes his twin is this universe’s version of Bela! She is very fundamentally different in this fic. She and Lawrence were inseparable before he left. They never fought or anything, he just left without a word. She never really found out what happened to him.
- “It was a very young Lawrence, posing in front of a roadside sign that read “Now leaving Louisiana”. It was obvious he was the one holding the camera. His hair was cut horribly choppy and short, with random longer patches and a horrible purple dye job. His eyes were glassy, and he had deep bags and dark circles prominently under them. He had one small tattoo on his arm as opposed to the many he later had, his nails were painted black as per usual as he held up his free hand in the universal ‘rock on’ sign, and he was sticking his tongue out, revealing a tongue piercing.” - He is 16 here, the day of him running away! He cut and dyed his own hair, did his own stick-n-poke tattoo, and even pierced his own tongue. Don’t do all that, folks.
- “ “… Juno got loud. Belligerent. More so than usual.” It reached out to fidget with the end of it’s tail, wringing it in it’s hand. “I-.. he-… Lawrence always had a smart mouth. Knew it would get him in trouble, but I-… he did it anyways.” Lydia saw his shoulders begin to lightly shake. “She grabbed the clothes iron. It hurt… so bad.” ” - It won’t really be specified in story what happened, so I will say it here: Juno was drunk as per usual, but so was Lawrence. Juno was saying rude things and Lawrence kept talking back. Juno got angry and decided to burn him with a clothes iron. He immediately packed his bags and left.
- “… couldn’t stay another second after that. He knew he’d die if he did.” - GOTCHA WITH ANOTHER “I Saw The TV Glow” REFERENCE!
- “There were many of what seemed to be Lawrence on the road for a few years. Pictures of random roadside attractions, at the signs of various towns, of him at bars and concerts and even camping in national parks. His hair varied in style and color, and dark circles were always present under his eyes. A concerning number of the photos had him with a bottle of half-drunk cheap vodka in his free hand. His clothes were always raggedy, and he always looked at least a little bit grungy.” - He didn’t have very much money, but what he did spend was on hair dye, tattoos, and alcohol. Hence why he was always dirty and in old clothing. He briefly joined a band and toured with them, but ditched them after a year or so to keep drifting.
- “One photo had him proudly showing off a bright green binder in the middle of a crowd of colorfully dressed people, his smile more genuine than it had been in any of the previous photos.” - Baby’s first Pride!!! He was 20.
- “Someone who sounded rather… sassy, let’s say.” - It’s Otho. I don’t know how to politely describe the way that man talks. It’s movie Otho, btw, not musical Otho!
- “… always were the most… potent out of all of us, little brother.” - I wonder what this means? Hmmm. Also misgendering wtf Otho
- “With that, the man turned on his heel, clacking away in his pristine black dress shoes until he rounded a distant corner. The sounds of his footsteps suddenly halted then.” - Otho teleported away once out of sight. Our Shoggoth can do that too! If it had enough energy and harmony with it’s host, which it does not.
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
Whoop. Oops. I got too excited to write the next chapter…
Chapter 5 of Lonely Remnants, “Now you remember where you came from, Now you remember where you’re going, You’ve got to keep it flowing” is here!
I promise I’ll work on the next chapter of Time’s Arrow after this besties.
PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS BEFORE PROCEEDING. THIS CHAPTER IS PARTICULARLY ROUGH.
Here are the extras!
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Spiral of Ants” by Lemon Demon! I’m sure the meaning is obvious, especially by the end of the chapter. :)
- “The lights were off within, and she could hear a faint, familiar humming resounding throughout.” - The Shoggoth doesn’t need to turn the lights on because it can see in the dark better than in the light.
- “It had changed into some sort of D.A.R.E. hoodie that used to be Lawrence’s, the left sleeve having yet to be tied off.” - I wonder why Lawrence has a D.A.R.E. hoodie?
- “She jolted in surprise when a tail swished anxiously behind the Shoggoth. It was long and thin, reaching down to his ankles, covered in black fur with a large tuft at the end.” - based on a medieval unicorn’s tail! Mostly for funsies with the design. And, y’know, thematic reasons. Like all the other features. ;)
- Car games - thank you to my mutuals in the discord server for the help picking them this time!! <33
- “ “What type of name would you like?” Barbara asked, glancing back at the demon. “Masculine? Feminine? Something ambiguous?” The demon blinked at her, furrowing his brows. “… huh?” ” - the Shoggoth has no concept of gender, hence why it uses it/its pronouns right now! (Eventually, it will shift to it/they.)
- “It seemed them pulling in past the sign that welcomed them to the town of ‘Hatchet Springs’ made something click in it’s mind.” - The name of the town is a mixture of two of my favorite fictional towns, both of which are thematically relevant! Hatchetfield from the Hatchetfield trilogy and Possum Springs from “Night in the Woods”.
- “ “… it looks so dorky.” The Shoggoth shrinked in on itself a bit, and the preteen held her hands up. “In a good way! I would totally not suspect you’re a demon. You fly under the radar.” ” - the Shoggoth really, really cares what Lydia things.
- “It kept insisting in a hissed whisper that someone was following them, but every time Lydia looked where the demon had indicated, there was nobody there.” - It wasn’t Juno! :)
- Collette - The last name has a specific thematic purpose beyond being a reference to Justin Collette!
- Thank you again to my homies for helping with the math on the poster!! Math is hard!!
- “Hair long and wild, unstyled and dyed with streaks of purple.” - Juno never taught him how to brush his hair or care for it, hence why it was wild here and when he first came to the haunted house. Emily and Charles taught him how to properly care for it!
- “Hhh- th-that explains the bits.” - The Shoggoth noticed a difference between the body and the way people referred to Lawrence, but just went along with it. It’s starting to understand what it all means here. (Imagine discovering transphobia for the first time…)
- “Lydia caught sight of dark green scales on his nose, glistening in the sunlight.” - Hmm! Weird. Perhaps thematic. (Definitely.)
- “Barbara and Adam exchanged a Look, and the Shoggoth let out a soft whimper.” - The Shoggoth understood the Look this time.
- “He ha-… has a heart condition.” - Adam was trying not to give away that Lawrence was dead, since it seemed like Juno didn’t know. Also, I will probably make a post about Lawrence’s first date with the Maitlands where he first brought up his heart condition!
- “Lydia strained to hear them, reaching up to adjust her hearing aid- ” - Hearing aids don’t actually work like that. You can’t just turn it up to hear better at a distance. Lydia was just a wee bit desperate and confused.
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
Chapter Eleven of Lonely Remnants, “Villain and violent, infant and innocent, Baby, both arms cradle you now”, is here! Just the epilogue left now!
Extras below!
- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “forwards beckon rebound” by Adrianne Lenker! I’m sure you can decipher what it means. It’s from Lydia’s perspective (and also Emily’s kinda, hehe). (I’ve had this part of this song in my mind for this fic since its conception. I even drew art for it, although I am not proud enough of it to share it)
- “Lydia thought they were gone. Gone for good. That she was alone, that she finally had something of her brother to put to rest. That’s when the shambling mass began to move, to collect together.” - The whole of Forever Lost Together was only a matter of seconds to Lydia, but it was probably still very harrowing!
- “She heard them both as they spoke.” - Beetlejuice has the Shoggoth’s weird gruff, gritty gravel, and Lawrence’s accent. It’s an even mix between their tones, which makes it kinda jarring.
- “Her brother gave her a wary look, narrowing their dark eyes at Charles before raising an eyebrow at her. Adam similarly gave her a brief frown as he pressed his phone to his ear with his free hand, no doubt calling Barbara.” - They were both ready to man-handle Charles if Lydia wanted them to.
- “The Chrysler came tearing into the parking lot before Lydia was able to talk her father into releasing her, barely pulling into a parking spot properly before Barbara leapt from it’s driver’s seat and bolted towards her gathered family.” - Barbara drove both as cautiously but quickly as she could. She was gonna get there safely but very quickly no matter what!
- “‘M more beat than a housewife in the Dust Bowl.” - Normally neither I nor Beetlejuice would condone such a joke, but we both get passes. /hj
- “He unlocked the stupid giant Subaru, causing it to chirp.” - Based on my own stepdad’s stupid giant bus of a car. Charles got it because it’s more likely to protect the passengers in the event of a crash.
- “ “Fuck,” her brother said once Charles had pulled out of the parking lot, yawning wide and loud as he stretched out his arm.” - He still has the blackened gums and tongue and the sharp teeth, and also has the weird wide yawns that animals do, so it’s a very off-putting sight.
- “His smile widened, showing off his strange, sharpened teeth. “Beetlejuice.” ” - Wow! It took me 39K words to say the title character’s name, lol. Also, yes, say hello to Beetlejuice! He uses he/they/it pronouns.
- “She had a good feeling about what the future held for them.” - this is a throwback to the last line of the first chapter!
Tag list: @raineisinkless @c0zmo-writes @musical-fiend @katslitterbox
(Want to be tagged in future updates for CorpseJuice / LoopJuice? Let me know!)
