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.
The narrator: wait, it’s weird that these policemen aren’t looking at my walls! Why are they not looking at the walls, this sturdy wall in particular? This sturdy, very specific wall behind which my wife is buried? What are they plotting? Are they insulting the quality of the walls of the house where I buried my wife? Are they insulting my ability to create a crime scene? I must show them how sturdy this wall is! My house did not burn down in extremely dubious circumstances for others to look at it and not notice its creepiness!
