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[mysteroads]

Chapter 3: The Party Assembles! And Screams.

Summary: Barbara and Delia step through their mirror for their first foray into the Neitherworld proper. Lydia's happy to meet up with some old friends, but there's a bit of a learning curve for the newbies.

Excerpt:

Seeing the usually bustling store empty was odd, and set off warning bells in Lydia’s head— right up until she heard a familiar Brooklyn accent:

“LYDIA!” 

She grinned as a pink jumping spider about the size of a german shepherd came skittering towards her from between the shelves.

Behind her, Barbara and Delia screamed. A blast of energy Lydia whizzed past Lydia, so close it ruffled her hair and numbed her ear. The blast slammed into the shelving next to the spider, who squealed and got tangled in its own legs trying to run away. Lydia spun, eyes wide. Beetlejuice had his hand around both of Barbara's wrists, having shoved her hands up and to one side, deflecting the ball of ghost energy that had been aimed at the incoming monster.

The shelf wobbled, tipping back… then forward… then back… then forward again… it hesitated, then crashed to the floor. The contents (a mix of snow globes, ancient power tools, a selection of novelty pens, and a crystal punch bowl filled with bouncy balls) spilled out across the floor in a wave. The bouncy balls, apparently overjoyed at this chance for freedom, rocketed away to the far, dim corners of the store. The snow globes and punch bowl didn't fare nearly as well, adding the cringe-causing sound of breaking glass to the cacophony.

A lion’s roar drowned everything else out as a trap door behind the counter opened with a bang and a monster the size of a VW bug surged out. 

Beetlejuice and Lydia had repeatedly warned the Neitherworld newbies about what to expect, but verbal descriptions rarely do the supernatural justice. Especially when the supernatural in question is a roaring chimera — complete with two heads (lioness and goat) and a snake tail—wearing pearls and a bright red peplum. 

The screaming got louder.

[mysteroads]

hello! I am a huge fan of your fics, I got into the beetlejuice fandom recently and your current ao3 series is so much fun to read, I binged it all in a day while sick haha, the combination of angst and humor is so perfect, I was giggling like a twelve year old all the way through the unicorn fiasco; safe to say I will be checking my emails very frequently in hopes of a new chapter :D

my question is; when compared side by side, how different does non-glamour-fully-demon-looking Beej look like compared to his usual “i either just crawled out of a rat-ridden sunbaked dumpster or centuries old rotting grave, you’ll never know” self?

Hi ya!

First, thank you for reading my fics! Makes me super happy! I hope you're feeling better now! And thank you also for giving me a chance to nerd out about my worldbuilding! (I'm so sorry...)

To answer your question, it's kind of like a 'before-and-after' pet adoption photo.😅 A lot of the whole look of "dragged behind a New York dump truck through the sketchiest part of town before being thrown into a cesspit then crawling out to live among the possums" managed to ~mostly~ get scrubbed off once he came around to the whole 'shower' concept. Still got a weird skin-tone, but the mold's gone at least!

In the fic's universe, BJ uses his glamor to effect his actual physical appearance, ie: getting rid of his more demonic traits (big fangs, claws, Legolas ears), adding a decade, and hiding his scars. Outside influences will still show up unless he hides it. Example, if he were to get paint dumped on him while wearing glamor, he'd have to add another layer to hide the paint. That's why injuries show up no matter if he's got glamor or not, and why he was rocking the 'fun-loving-corpse' look after 500 years of homelessness.

Hope that answers your question!

[mysteroads]

Guys hear me out

[mysteroads]

Been feeling very normal about these two shitheads

[mysteroads]

[mysteroads]

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

[mysteroads]

Me pushing past my life struggles to get some writing done:

[mysteroads]

when the objectively bad person has traumatic and honestly reasonable reasons for why theyre like that but it doesnt excuse their actions and only serves to make them more tragic as a character

[mysteroads]

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the prettiest crier

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midoriya-sensei art dump

[mysteroads]

Drabble-A-Thon Prompt #10

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: Mature

Prompt: Tomura being so utterly in love with Dabi and Dabi struggling with why because Tomura is the first person who's really loved him.

Contents: Mentioned BDSM dynamic and sexual content, canon-typical suicidal idolization. 

Dabi lets Tomura hold him after they’ve fucked. He doesn’t normally spend the night with the people he sleeps with, but he doesn’t normally ‘play’ the way that Duster wants to. He’s never been in a ‘dynamic’ before. Never had someone who insisted on ‘aftercare’ that consisted of holding him close, hands stroking over his skin, and soft kisses pressed against his hair and wherever else he can reach. It feels good, especially if his pride or flesh is hurting from their rougher play. But this has been going on for two months now, and Dabi doesn’t think that Shigaraki still just considers this a hookup. 

No. He’s pretty sure that Duster thinks they’re dating. He’s never dated anyone either. Why would he have? He knows that he’s not long for this world in the first place. Knows that he’s barely worth looking at. Knows that no one should give him the time of day if he’s not actively making whoever he’s with feel good. But Tomura wants to be around him whenever he can be. He wraps his arms around him, cuddles in close, he catches him between meetings to give him soft kisses, he pulls him into his side when they’re watching movies with the others. But the worst of it, the thing that is making Dabi feel like he needs to abandon every useful thing he’s found with the League, is the fact that Shigaraki has gotten into the horrible habit of pressing his lips to his temple in an achingly gentle kiss and then murmuring, 

“I love you,” against his skin. And every time he does it, Dabi can’t help tensing against him. When it happens tonight though, it’s the last straw. Dabi scoffs and he pushes against his chest. Tomura hesitates for a second, but then lets go. Dabi sits up, reaching for some tissues, and wipes away the mess of their fluids clinging to his skin as best as he can before he shifts to the edge of the bed, reaching for his boxer briefs that ended up at the foot. 

“I’m done with this.” There’s an achingly long pause as he stands, starting to dress. 

“What?” 

“I’m done with this. Your dick is good, but I don’t need you deluding yourself into thinking you’re in love with me.” 

“‘Deluding’? Dabi, I’m not delusional.” Duster throws the covers back and gets up too, mindless of his nudity, and Dabi really is going to miss how good it feels to be fucked by him. “I love you– if three months of dating was still too soon to tell you, then I’m sorry, but I’m not going to lie about my feelings for you.” 

“See this is exactly the kind of shit I’m talking about,” he’s almost glad that Duster worded it like that, because it means that he gets to be angry instead of despondent. “We aren’t dating. We were fucking, you got too attached, and now we’re not going to be fucking any more.” 

Shigaraki stares at him. He doesn’t know if he’s ever left the other man speechless before. Dabi pulls on his pants and shoves his feet into his boots, snatching up his coat and shirt from the floor. It’s just lucky that he manages to make a swift exit after that, luckier still that Shigaraki doesn’t come after him to try and convince him otherwise. He still doesn’t want to take too many chances. He goes down to the gym to shower instead of back to his bedroom, and then heads out. He has to meet with a spy soon anyway, and the longer he’s out of base, the longer this will have to blow over. 

///

He manages to stay away from the PLF for two weeks, and when he comes back, he goes straight to his room. He showers, has food sent up, and types up an entire report of everything he discussed with Hawks, all of the other information gathering he got up to, and even an expense report for the number pushers in their finance department. That is all of his actual responsibilities that he needs to get done, finished. Technically, Shigaraki shouldn’t have any reason to come see him. Dabi doesn’t want him to come see him. 

But he leaves his door unlocked anyway. 

///

When he goes back to meetings on Monday, Shigaraki doesn’t say anything about his absence or about their… break-up or whatever if he’s been thinking that they were dating. He’s tersely professional with him just like he was when they first started working together. Fine. Good. That’s what he wanted anyway. 

But he feels himself getting more and more snippy. Feels his temperature creeping higher and his aggravation getting to a boiling point. He’s pretty damn sure that he’s going to light Duster on fire, and he can’t pin down why. He’s been pretty insufferable for this entire meeting, and he knows it because Twice has actually been smoking while they’ve been talking and Toga is the first one out of her chair to leave when they’re done. 

“Dabi, stay.” Shigaraki snaps at him, and the rest of the lieutenants all but sprint for the door as he stands and turns to Duster to growl, 

“I’m not a fucking dog, you piece of shit!” 

“No you’re not, because a dog can be better trained than you!” Shigaraki is on his feet too, and Dabi flinches involuntarily. Duster never yells at any of them. Even when they first met and tried to kill each other, he hadn’t really raised his voice like that. The last of the lieutenants gets out from the room, and the door shuts with a loud, final thud, leaving them in a deafening silence. It takes a long time before Shig takes a slow breath and manages to speak again, his voice still clipped with his frustration, but not raised anymore. “If you don’t feel the same way, then that’s fine, Dabi. But I expect you to be able to be mature about this as we work together from here on out.” 

“You don’t feel anything about me. You’re not in love with me.” 

“You’re a pain in my ass, but why do you keep assuming that you know my feelings better than I do?” 

“Because no one can love me!” Dabi snaps. The words come out, but he’s not sure he meant for them too. He’s sure he didn’t expect for them to get met with a horrible stretch of silence and the dim realization that there is an aching pressure that’s building up behind his seams that tells him he’s way, way too close to tears. Tomura moves around the edge of the table slowly, getting into Dabi’s space, and he really should go right now. He needs to get out of here. He can’t have this, he can’t even stand to have someone pretending that he can. 

But Shig gets his hands against one of his cheeks and the side of his neck and he makes Dabi meet his eyes. He hopes that the fact he’s not seeing any blood clouding his vision means that he doesn’t look like he’s about to burst into tears. “Firefly,” 

He tries to pull away, “Let go–” 

“No.” Tomura pulls him closer, resting their foreheads together. “Dabi, I don’t know who you were before you found me,” He hasn’t asked since that first night either. Dabi has always been grateful about that. He doesn’t want to tell him. Doesn’t want him to look at him differently. “But if I find out who made you think that no one could fall in love with you, I’m going to kill them. Precious,” Dabi’s insides feel like they’re going to tighten to the point of bursting. “I love you. You’re clever, hard-working, determined, resourceful, gorgeous, and vicious. I love spending time with you. I love that you let me take control and know that I’m not going to hurt you when I have it. If you don’t feel the same way now, or ever, then that’s alright. I just want you to know how I feel, even if we don’t go back to what we were doing before. Are you sure that you want to stop that?” 

Dabi can’t trust his voice. His throat is too tight, his eyes are aching so badly that he’s sure that he’ll have bruises under the scars from trying to hold back the bloody tears. But he manages to shake his head weakly, not able to meet Shigaraki’s eyes. 

Tomura sighs softly, and presses a kiss to his forehead before he pulls him close, letting Dabi hide his face against his shoulder as a hand shifts to stroke through his hair. “Okay, firefly. We can figure this out. I’m going to be right here until you believe me.” 

Dabi doesn’t know if he’ll live long enough for Tomura to keep his promise, but he does know that he’s never let anyone else in the world hold him like this. He knows that he likes it. 

Thank you so much for your support! If you would like to participate, consider checking out my Ko-fi here!

[mysteroads]

hey so we put your morally grey character in a fandom. yeah half the fanbase makes them into a perfect angel who did nothing wrong and the other half depicts them as a cartoonishly evil villain who hurts people for fun. no we dont know how to explain that people can do bad things for good reasons or good things for bad reasons. sorry man

[mysteroads]

The whole point of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that the film doesn't want you to take it seriously. 

I'd argue the most significant thing the whole film is Betelgeuse still pining for Lydia after all this time. And even then, the wedding only takes itself seriously when they waltz in the air. Go back and watch how Rory and BJ both call it a dream and nightmare, and we cut to Lydia waking up right at the end. 

"I love a good dream sequence." "You're that thing from my dream." "Really more nightmare material, but thanks." "I just had the strangest dream."

Everything is up to interpretation. Everything is possible. Lydia becomes undependable as a narrator once Rory throws the pills away. We don't know if we can trust with our own eyes if what we're seeing is real or not. 

This whole movie could be Beej having a "strange dream" where their marriage didn't work out. It could also be them having the same dream, as to quote BJ's "psychic connection" line where they both get revenge on their exes. Astrid might not even exist.

As @xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx put it, Lydia could've become this spinster in the attic. She's driving herself to madness.

Beej and Lydia could've been married this whole time and him disappearing from the bed was just to screw around with her for shits and giggles.

If you're looking at it from a linear narrative standpoint, you can't really place pieces together. Take it at face value or make it your own. Tim Burton is a fucking genius. 

[mysteroads]

Lov, we are Lov - the league of villains - we are Lov 🎶

[mysteroads]

Lydia Deetz, Lydia Deetz, Lydia Deetz!