No! Back off, Mom! Back off! Because of her, I got to live. Briefly. It was very briefly. And you know, can I just say something? Uh, life? That is a goddamn roller coaster. I don’t know how you people do that. It's like one minute you’re on top of the world, and the next, you feel like no one will ever love you.
I was rewatching Bojack Horseman and I realized this audio fit Beej really well
I imagine after the events of the musical and after the BFFFFs make up, Beetlejuice partly regrets getting his mother eaten by a sandworm, even though Juno was terrible person. He doesn’t regret saving Lydia though.
For plots sake, I’m going to say Juno is dead-dead here. I headcanon that all 100% demons are just normal ghosts who made a deal with Netherworld higher ups (kind of like applying for a manager position) so they can’t revive themselves if eaten by a sandworm. The only things truly born from the Netherworld are eldritch gods. (That’s where Beej gets the Shoggoth last name from.) Juno thought that by marrying and having a child with an eldritch god, she could have that kind of power under her finger tips. Unfortunately, BJ took more after her in appearances, the only outwardly noticeable trait from his father being the color changing hair which Juno despises. Thus, Juno has always seen BJ as a failure because he’s not eldritch god enough, even though he does have powers from his father that he just doesn’t use often or doesn’t know he has
Hedonic treadmill - the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative life changes.
Chapter two of Catabasis, my Beetlejuice Severance AU!
- The title for this chapter is “Hedonic treadmill”, defined above! It’s referring to how Barbara just has to kinda just… live like this now. Also, other things!
- “As usual, his own lunch is a plain turkey, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise sandwich…” - fun fact! I had to google what’s usually on a turkey sandwich for this because I only eat fuckass weird ones
- Adam’s lunch - autism meal to the max. Sounds fucking delectable. Now I’m hungry
- “One of him, and Adam, and Betel, and… He feels a strange melancholy pull in his chest at the sight of it. He decides, then and there, to discard of them. He plucks them from his, Adam, and Betel’s desks.” - Outie Charles got severed to avoid having to face his emotions towards his dead wife. It makes sense his innie would react the same way to missing someone.
- “He is wearing what he always wears, with the exception of his tie, which is a lighter shade of green than the day previous.” - he’s not wearing the exact same outfit, he just owns a ton of the same shirts and pants. He only changes up the tie color a little.
- “His cheeks, nose, and fingers are tinted red. He’s lightly shivering. “The heating must be broken upstairs,” ” - they have an idea of what winter is, kinda. But they don’t understand it. They rationalize the cold as “the heat being broken upstairs” and not “the world itself is chilly as shit”. Because they’ve never been outside!
- “ “So, like… is it tomorrow?” She said, before either man could speak again. “From yesterday’s perspective,” Charles softly quips…” - Charles’ response is a reference to a line in “Midsommar”, because it always cracks me up.
- Ackerman file - based on the name of the original movie’s cinematographer, Thomas E. Ackerman!
- “He’s rather close, his body only a few inches from hers. She could tilt her head ever-so-slightly one way and end up resting it on his shoulder. She can smell something sharp, but not unpleasant on him. It’s… something familiar, she thinks. Something that whispers in the dark of her new mind, something that cannot be traced back to any specific memory or idea. Just the ghost of one.” - one’s sense of smell has the strongest connection to memories of any of the senses.
- “Charles and Adam’s shoulders both relax, and Barbara even hears the latter sigh in relief.” - they are a bit traumatized by how many coworkers were fired overnight, and were worried it happened to Betel.
- “Just like how I blame your outie for the red eyes. He must be allergic to somethin’ outside.” - Charles’ eyes are often red due to him frequently crying in his car before going in to work.
- Elfman file - based on the name of the original movie’s composer, Danny Elfman! That guy fuckin’ rules.
- “You fit into this team like a chip of painted glass in a splendid moo-saic!” - yeah she mispronounced mosaic.
- “And one thing to know about me is that my favorite color is red.” - hmm. I wonder if any characters have red strongly associated with them, aside from fuckass Juno… hmmmmmm….
- “… she grows herbs in her spare time, and she has a sensitivity to gluten.” - based on Kerry Butler’s own herb growing habits, and then a line from the musical about “over glutinous food”!
- “… she is the third tallest person in your office.” - Betel is the shortest! And Adam is maybe half an inch taller than Barbara.
- “The melon bar doesn’t even have watermelon.” … “… as she goes to take a little bite of one of the melon balls. (An orange-ish one. It’s.. fine.)” - based on my own opinions on the melon bar from the show. I know there’s no watermelon for color coding purposes, and because it would be out of season in winter, when the show takes place, but STILL! The other melons fucking suck. Also, catch how Betel knows what watermelon is?
- “ “Has he tried this?” She chuckles when Betel shakes his head…” - in all their years working together, Betel has yet to convince Adam to try the apple slices. Until now!
- “Betel turns a little from where he’s sat on Adam’s desk…” - just wanted to highlight that he’s sitting on Adam’s desk lol
- “He doesn’t hear Barbara teasing Adam about how many incentive rewards he’s accrued on his desk.” - Adam is very, very good at his job. Yay autism!
- “He jolts when Ms. Schlimmer places a hand on his shoulder.” … “Charles stutters a little, face hot. He looks down at his keyboard.” - the innies don’t get a lot of touch. It’s taboo in workplaces, like in the real world. So they usually get very flustered when someone does touch them, especially without warning.
- “ “… still thinking about what Betel said?” “… sure, yes. I am.” ” - he’s not. He’s worried about him.
- “You’ve earned it, with all the changes and, um… y'know!" - the “y’know” is “dealing with Betel”.
- “Were those supposed to be… trees? Charles didn’t know they could be so pointy.” - my guy has never seen a pine tree before
- Wellness office - listen. I know it’s funky. It’s based on how it looks in the show, okay?
- “A photo of your outie was once in the newspaper.” - she didn’t say it was for… fun reasons!
- Bird song - outie Charles does birdwatching, as the movie version of him does!
- Mrs. Abramovitz - yeah it’s Juno, or Mrs. Sidney. This name comes from her original Broadway actor, Jill Abramovitz! No she’s not severed, she’s just lying and using a fake name.
- “I didn’t spend a single red dime of your supply, Mr. Deetz.” - this is a reference to a line in “Knives Out”, because Juno would talk like that.
- “He’d never admit it, but part of him had grown fond of Betel.” - heheh. Get it? Because his innie is secretly fond of Betel? And his innie is a part of him?
- “Just a touch of consumption.” … “‘Touch of consumption’. What year is it, 1836? Who even-… what even is that?” - this is all a reference to a scene from “Weapons”. I will not elaborate for spoiler reasons.
- “His heart stutters as she stares him down with her amber eyes.” - “Her” being her mom.
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