#loopjuice

[possum-quesadilla]

LoopJuice anniversary!! Happy two years to the fic that changed my life for the better!!! I’m getting back into the groove of writing, and I’m very excited to get back to writing Beetlejuice. Hopefully all my BJ fics will be getting updates in the near future!! Here’s a drawing of Blucifer and the LoopJuice himself.

The drawing I used as a base is below the cut

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter twenty-one of “Living” in the Present Tense, “And is there a moment where it all makes sense?, When saying goodbye doesn’t feel like the end?”, is here! Woof. More pain.

Extras below!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “Amen” by Amber Run! Such a good song about grief. Mostly meant to reflect how lost Beej feels, and how he’s in denial that the Maitlands are actually gone. (Are they? Who knows!)

- “He wakes, rises.” - this is a lowkey reference to The Lady of the Lake from “The Haunting of Bly Manor”. The narration repeats something along the lines of, “She would wake, she would walk, she would forget.” The character’s grief and unwillingness to let go of her life before was a huge inspiration for his behavior in this chapter and onwards. Here’s a link to a scene with her that makes me cry!

- “Beetlejuice was thrilled when some of his favorite books were added to all of their curriculums.” - imagine you’re like “ugh gotta read this fuckass book” and you bring it home and your dad is like “GREAT GATSBY YAAAAYYYY”

- “Laika loves hikes.” - she always has! Ever since she was tiny :)) throwback to when she ate a leaf the first time they took her outside lol

- “Comet has rehearsal every week day evening.” - Comet is a thespian!!! They have an unnatural charm more than most demons, their voice and performances are enthralling to humans. They just like to be on stage hehe

- Wes - the first introduction to a character that is very important to Sawyer. You guys don’t even know how much I daydream about their interactions. It’s insane.

- “He had questions about human society, about their healthcare.” - fun little secret for the people reading this. Sawyer will eventually become a doctor!

- “On the outside, he was fuckin’ nailing it.” - wanted to emphasize that, despite how unraveled he appears in his narration, on the outside everyone (except Lydia) thinks he’s taking this shockingly well.

- “He sat at the kitchen table and stared, unseeing, at the wall.” - lowkey reference to a Mitski song because I love her, and I’m listening to that song a lot for one of my other fics. It’s from “Last Words of a Shooting Star”, and it goes, “They’ll never know how I’d stared at the dark in that room, With no thoughts like a blood-sniffing shark”.

- “We watched some fun, strange movie from the 1980’s.” - it was “Ghostbusters”! What a bad choice for this situation lol

- “Their horns… their horns were cut? Beetlejuice squinted hard. Their expression was weighed down by sorrow. Almost all of their jewelry was missing, including the crown. When had their horns been cut?” - the taking of their jewelry, and especially the cutting of their horns, indicates a significant loss of status or a severe attack from another demon. As we know from Beej, cutting off a demon’s horns is painful and, as he doesn’t know, is quite demoralizing. Perhaps one day we’ll know what happened to them.

- “How long had they been missing their glasses? Did they have them the last time he saw them?” - they don’t need their glasses, as previously stated. They wore them for the aesthetic. But still. Where’d they go?

- “Yes, he’d met Larry’s mother and twin brother before they were extinguished, of course.” - LORE DROP LOL. I was honestly not going to include anything else about them until Larry’s POV chapter, but they are just so important to who Larry is as a character that I couldn’t not have a little section briefly discussing them. So, yes, Larry had an identical twin brother and a mother whom they loved dearly.

- “He did remember that both of the little bear demons were nearly identical. But one had brown fur, while the other had white fur.” - as I just mentioned, Larry and their twin were identical. You can imagine just how devastating it was for them to lose him. I’ve mentioned in DMs to friends, and will in Larry’s POV, that sometimes they stare into mirrors and try to imagine what their brother would’ve looked like if he’d gotten to grow up too.

- “ “When my tail was long.” Larry clenched their fists at their sides. “When I could still… purr. Before I’d even met my other mother. When I was one half of a whole.” ” - the tail thing is a two-pronged thing. First of all, it’s a reference to the myth of the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, to explain why those bears have long tails and real bears don’t. As mentioned in-text, Larry’s mother who passed was feline. A black leopard, to be precise. The only trait they inherited from her was a long, feline tail. They also had the ability to purr, like every other demon. It will be explained more later, but Larry’s other mother cut their tail and clipped their vocal chords after she took them in. Once again, this is all a glimpse into what made Larry the way they are.

- “The dead-eyed, barely moving little thing who had lost all motivation and light. The one he had to drag along with him as they scavenged.” - after the loss of their mother and brother, Larry’s other mom took them in. She tried to fix them up to be the perfect little child to show off, but they were too caught up in their grief and too imperfect in her eyes. So she tossed them out to fend for themself, where they met Beej again and became proper friends.

- “They had gored him with their horns the last time he tried to bring it up.” - mind you, this was right after it happened. Beej never tried to bring it up again. That was when they were like 10 years old.

- “They hold on to anything and everything at the end…” - this is a reference to one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite games, “Night in the Woods”. “At the end of everything, hold onto anything.” Larry vehemently rejects this, and any idea of processing or caring. Until recently, that is.

- “Catch me, I’m falling. Part of him is always agonizing. Part of him misses them so much it feels like he’s lost a limb. That part of him is still crying, please, I’m sinking.” - some references to a song from “Next To Normal”, since that musical influenced this Act somewhat, and Act Three VERY HEAVILY. The song is “Make Up Your Mind / Catch Me I’m Falling (Reprise)”. The lyrics are intercut with other lines of dialogue, but the ones I’m referring are “Catch me, I’m falling / Sinking and sprawling / Maybe I’ll let myself fall”.

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]

Chapter twenty of “Living” in the Present Tense, “Shadows settle on the place that you left, Our minds are troubled by the emptiness”, is here!

I’m baaaaack! Capitalism cannot keep this guy down!! (Sorry it’s short…)

Extras below! Make sure to read the warning attached to the chapter!

- This chapter’s title is from “Youth” by Daughter! One of my favorite songs in middle school. The lyrics are pretty self explanatory! Did anyone else see that “Gravity Falls” pmv of that song way back when? It rules.

- Charles and Delia - FOR CLARITY! They are not super old!!! Just in their mid to late 50s. They are aging naturally and are fine, just showing signs of it. It’s just freaking Beetlejuice out. Also, Delia only resisted being called “Grandma D” because she worried it aged her, she definitely views herself as the Beetlandlings grandma!

- Ash - it was never explicitly stated in this fic, but Larry didn’t fully revive Ash. They couldn’t put all of them back together. They will only last about 40 years after the accident, and they will never fully be back to themself. But they’re making the most of it!

- “The love they shared often seemed to be what made the world go ‘round.” - this is a reference to a line in “Epic I” from “Hadestown”, because I can’t help myself! The original line is, “Hades and Persephone, Remember how it used to be, Their love that made the world go ‘round?”

- “… purring to soothe themselves and each other…” - cats purr not just when they’re happy, but also to self-soothe when they’re nervous! So do the Beetlandlings!

- “… about where the blood on his hands had come from.” - it’s all his own! He broke quite a few of his nails off clawing at the wall.

- “They’d just… they’d lost their most important people, too.” - a little sad hint that Beetlejuice views himself as somewhat of a lesser parent compared to Barbara and Adam.

- “They could barely handle losing their beloved pet possum, how could they manage without any of their parents?” - it’s not directly going to be fully discussed, but Ragamuffin’s death hit the Beetlandlings hard. Death is a foreign concept to creatures like them, and seeing it first hand is very different and way more heavy-hitting than having it explained to them.

- “Funcle Ash” - being nonbinary makes it hard to refer to someone when the relationship term is usually gendered, so they call them “funcle” as a silly compromise.

- “He grimaces, and her demeanor becomes just a smidge more stern rather than gentle and concerned.” - Lydia was so ready for him to be up to his old bullshit, and knew her being a bit stern could help. But he was too far gone for any sort of method to help, unfortunately.

- “Ash had put on a fun comedy slasher for the kids, and given them each devices to play… was that Tetris?” - the movie is “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”, because it’s fun and lighthearted while still gorey and silly enough to keep the young demons’ attention! Also, it’s been proven that playing Tetris after a traumatic event can reduce the occurrence of intrusive memories / flashbacks! Ash was really hoping they could somewhat soften the blow of what happened that way.

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

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

[opossummaster]

This Loopjuice animatic is gonna take so much more effort than I originally thought but I'm in too deep now chat

Here some frames I like from what I've been working on since the last update

And a little snippet...

@possum-quesadilla sorry for so many tags but I gotta keep you fed 🙏💕

[opossummaster]

Rough WIP of the Loopjuice animatic ! Doing it in ibis paint frame by frame then gonna transfer to procreate to better animate and such (that's if I don't get burnt out)

@possum-quesadilla peeks at you (please notice the numbers thing I felt super smart doing that)

[opossummaster]

Hi I'm back on my Loopjuice fixation

Enjoy these magma doodles of my favorite he/they/it demon based off chapter 5 from Time Is A Flat Circle by BlueBoogalo on ao3, by @possum-quesadilla (hi) go read it if you haven't it's so fuckin good

Also... I may or may not be working on a 2 1/2 minute long animatic of him to Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In by Will Wood and the Tapeworms...perchance...

[possum-quesadilla]

Chapter nineteen of “Living” in the Present Tense, “Make the most of your life, while it is rife, While it is light”, is here! I’m so sorry.

I fear this will be Chapter 9 of Time’s Arrow all over again. Please read the warnings attached to the chapter!

Extras below! Also, Picrews of the beetlandlings!

- The title is from “Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens. I guess Beetlejuice should’ve listened to that advice! The song itself is about the singer of the song speaking to his estranged mother as she dies in the ICU. Fun!

- “Orange you glad it’s Friday?” - I rewatched clips of the musical and decided Adam needed more dad jokes now that he was a dad. Here’s a genuine note I wrote for myself when making this chapter lol

- “Undeterred, Adam pressed a kiss to the top of the thirteen year-old’s head.” - SHE’S THIRTEEN NOW!! SAWYER IS TEN!! COMET IS SEVEN!!! AAAHHH!!! TIME MOVES FAST!!!!

- “Orange juice, toast with jam, bacon, eggs of a variety of preparations for their range of picky palates.” - the kids all are some flavor of neurodivergent. They’re all picky in their own ways for different reasons. Comet, for example, has AFRID like Beej!

- “Comet clacked their teeth, squinting at Adam for a good while as they thought.” - they picked up the clacking from Beej and the squinting from Barbara (and Adam)

- “He then made his way to the closed off back patio where his spouses were waiting.” - where Delia’s art studio used to be!

- “ “She wished she was another species!” “That’s not-” ” - he was gonna say that isn’t so bad, because he used to wish he was a breather.

- “What’s up, Com-Man?” - they’re not a man, but allows him to call them ‘Com-Man’ because it sounds like ‘conman’, and they find that funny.

- The bet - while beetlands educate their kids well and encourage them to be curious and learn, the three of them do not fully understand the bet they’ve made. They’re just basing it off of something they overheard on TV and sorta understand. It’s much funnier when kids talk so confidently about adult stuff they don’t know a thing about than a kid knowing about adult stuff imo

- “They’d lost a few of their baby teeth that week after swan-diving out of a tree during recess.” - Comet is a wild child. Almost as much as Laika was. She calmed down as she got older, but she’s still chaotic. Comet has yet to mellow out as they age. In fact, they were a chill baby, and they’ve become an insane little freak (/affec) as a child

- “Comet clung to Beetlejuice’s arm as he returned them to their usual size and set their siblings down, still wanting to be held.” - guys. Guys. It’s so important to me that you understand just how much Comet loves their Papa.

- “And so were you, Bowie! Jigsaw was the only planned one.” - Bowie is a nickname for Comet. Because of David Bowie’s song, “Starman”. A comet is a shooting star! Jigsaw is a nickname for Sawyer, since ‘saw’ is in his name. Barbara and Adam have stopped trying to discourage it.

- “What’d you bet, Halley?” - as in Halley’s Comet!

- “Comet whooped, hair all a brighter shade of yellow as they turned to bound inside. “‘The Mummy’ time!” ” - “The Mummy” is one of my favorite movies ever, so of course it’s one of Comet’s special interests. So are constellations and musical theater!

- Comet and Sawyer share what used to be Charles and Delia’s master bedroom! It’s not mentioned in the chapter because I couldn’t really find a way to organically make it come up.

- “ “Sounds like a Sawyer problem.” Comet sat down on the ceiling, smiling at their father in a familiar, crooked way.” - hmmm. Wonder who they got all this from!

- “He pondered this, briefly, his face screwed up with what seemed to be a mixture of annoyance and frustration like always.” - Sawyer isn’t really pissed off all the time, he just has extreme RBF, sets boundaries pretty firmly, and speaks very straightforwardly. His family can tell when he’s genuinely angry and when he is just being Sawyer

- “Even Comet and Sawyer were still and uneasy, obviously not understanding what this torrid energy meant, but knowing instinctually that it wasn’t good.” - young demons are hardwired with a mistrust of adult demons that aren’t their family, mostly because of the way demons used to be. (Feral animals) And also because of the dog-eat-dog way the Depths operates.

- “(They knew they wanted to say that they were weaker than they used to be. Slowed down by injury and everything else. That they couldn’t be relied on to fight for their family.)” - LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER! Barbara and Adam don’t think that. That’s the mental illness speaking

- “There were hoofsteps in the hallway, rapid but hesitant. Laika’s.” - SHE GOT SCARED AND WANTED HER PARENTS… MY SHAYLA…

Picrews of the kiddos!

Laika and Comet’s horns are supposed to be black and white stripes, and Comet’s horns aren’t as grown as hers. I also tried to make it obvious that Comet’s hair is a different color at it’s roots but it’s hard to portray with the limits of picrew. Sigh. Anyways. The babies! (Also Laika and Comet’s noses are supposed to have a bit of fur but. Again. Limits of the medium…)

I did not mean to give Laika and Comet the exact same smiles. And Sawyer’s RBF isn’t strong enough fr

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]

Chapter eighteen of “Living” in the Present Tense, “Not a lot, just forever, Intertwined, sewn together”, is here!

Extras below!!

- The lyrics for this chapter’s title are from “not a lot, just forever” by Adrianne Lenker! This song is so LITPT. It makes me cry actually.

- Say hello to Comet!!! I actually thought them up after I settled on Laika and Sawyer. I thought the sibling dynamics were missing something, so.. them! Thank you @c0zmo-writes for convincing me to add them

- “Comet was the only one to inherit Beetlejuice’s “mood ring hair”, as everyone else called it. With fairly light brown roots, their “base mood color” (as Lydia coined) was a yellow-ish, golden color, able to pass as a bright blonde.” - yaaaaayyyy a beetlandling has mood ring hair!!! They were partially inspired by the character Daisuke from “Mouthwashing” personality-wise, so their hair’s a little similar too! Like Bela, Comet’s colors are different from Beetlejuice’s for the most part, but there are a few that are similar! You’ll see what I mean eventually.

- Eyes - THEIR EYES CHANGING HOW HE VIEWS HIS OWN EYES IS ACTUALLY SO IMPORTANT AND PERSONAL TO ME….

- “… Sawyer firmly asserted that their baby sibling was “sticky”.” - based on my relationship with my older sister and my younger brother! We’re both in our 20s, and she still views me as “sticky”. Same with my little teenage brother. It’s an interesting phenomenon! Once a baby, always a baby in your mind, I guess!

- “Comet was… not the brightest bulb in the pack of bulbs.” - this is a saying in my family! Usually directed at me lol

- Comet and learning - they aren’t intellectually disabled, nor do they have any specific learning disorder I’d like to try to name. I know too little about those to try to diagnose. (Except auDHD.) They do learn these things, it just takes them longer than the average bear. They’ve definitely got a form of auDHD like Beetlejuice, but they’ve got the proper support system to be able to work with it. It just takes them more time! They’re also. Just kinda dumb. A thembo, eventually.

- “Surely whenever his momma sweetly asked him to come give her a hug, flea medication in one hand, she wouldn’t apply the awful stuff to the back of his neck?” - yes, Barbara and Adam use the exact same method they’ve been using on Beetlejuice for years to trick Comet. Remember when it happened in Time’s Arrow? It STILL WORKS ON HIM. Also, this is based on my sister’s idiot cat whom I love.

- “(He certainly couldn’t even think of the other option. It simply wasn’t an option.)” - he means having her live in / visit the Netherworld. I’m sure that won’t give the kids any sort of complex!

- “… picking out school supplies with her aunts…” - that includes Janet! Oh, imagining Laika being taken school supply shopping with Lydia, Ash, Janet, Bela, and Deb is so funny.

- “That’s what Barbara and Adam reassured him, and what he reassured them of as well, when they expressed their worries to each other.” - LET’S FUCKING GOOOO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! HE’S CONFIDING IN THEM ABOUT HIS WORRIES!!!!

- “Laika crossed her arms firmly as she stomped over to her mother, her own little deer tail swishing in anger.” - I don’t mention it in text, but they have to cut holes in their clothing for their tails. And I think that’s super cute.

- “‘Chase me.’” - why do little kids love being chased??? I don’t get it. Every time I see my nephew he wants me to chase him. I hate being chased, it’s so scary.

- “Sawyer turned and scampered towards the living room with a thrilled giggle, and he gave chase.” - guysssss he’s not afraid to play with them anymore I’m gonna CRY AT MY OWN STUPID WRITING!! Also the way he plays with Sawyer is based on things my own dad used to do… I’m having a feeling and I don’t like it >:((

- “Laika, holding her mother’s hand and tugging her along, in her full human disguise, flashed a bright, flat-toothed smile at him.” - I gotta say, this must be so uncanny for Beej and the Maitlands??? Like. Your kid is suddenly. A human kid.

- “‘Can we play restaurant?’” - this is based off “Bluey” because uh. After my dad left I have no concept of parents who actually play with their kids!

You’ll get Picrews of the kids with the next chapter, but for now, voice claims!!

Laika:

- Kid: Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai in “Lilo & Stitch”, example:

https://youtu.be/3okU50_eqpQ?feature=shared

- Teen and up: Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope on “Parks and Rec”, example:

https://youtu.be/NgD-h3uHP5A?si=MSV53G5IMgr5jMat

Sawyer:

- Kid: Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McAllister in “Home Alone”, Example:

- Teen and up: Josh Hutcherson as Mike Schmidt in “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, example:

OR, Jeffery Combs as Herbert West in “Re-Animator”, example:

Comet:

- Kid: Isaac Ryan Brown as Gus in “The Owl House” SEASON ONE SPECIFICALLY, example:

- Teen and up: Jack Wolfe!! Examples:

https://youtu.be/T80ySub5CSc?si=EWcdMDQzbu25qo4U

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMTaqC94/

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMTaKSoV/

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMTaXsKm/

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

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